Why Serve a mission?

When I was 15 years old I listened to the mother of a close friend talk about serving a mission. For the first time I remember really wanting to serve a mission when I turned 21. I just had to hear hundreds of missionaries sing "Called to Serve" in the MTC! Time went on, and I prepared for the different eventualities of life. When the age sister missionaries could serve dropped to 19, I was super stoked! I was 19, almost 20! I could go early! Well, it turned out that wasn't the time for me. November of 2013, I felt strongly like I should reconsider the mission idea. I did, and the pieces of the puzzle fell into place :) This is all really nice, but it's not really the WHY, it's more of the HOW.

So WHY am I choosing to dedicate 18 months of my life away from my family, friends, school, and a closet full of clothes to talk to people in Missouri? Well, 33 years ago, 2 male missionaries started talking to my dear sweet Momma. The message they shared with her changed the course of her existence, and our family. I'm so grateful for my Savior Jesus Christ and the knowledge I have of who He is, and what His plan for His children is. I can't help feeling like if I choose not to share this message with others that I'll be ungrateful for the amazing gift that I've been given. I've also been blessed with some talents that I'd like to give back to the Lord. As much as I love my family and the other things listed above, I love my Heavenly Father and Savior more. They have called, so I'm answering.

Monday, August 3, 2015

The worlds largest spider

Hello Everyone!

Today is a beautiful day! I hope you would agree :) Things are going pretty well here in Webster. The heat is really not that bad (Vegas has really conditioned me I guess!) The work rolls forward! It's great!

So this week we were helping a single Mom in our ward clean and organize her house. All of a sudden Sister Bishop stops dead in her tracks and says, "It's real. The spider [the 5 year old girl] was talking about earlier is real!" We all stopped what we were doing, and sure enough, there is a HUGE spider, about 3 inches wide hiding behind this box. Me being the brave one, I grab the broom, and after mustering all my courage, I start beating the spider and hard and as quickly as I can! To our dismay, the spider escaped to under the bench. Deciding the broom wasn't enough, we go grab the vacuum and try vacuuming the spider. The spider wasn't going to have it! It fought back and refused to go into the hose. That's when we discovered it was actually a plastic spider.... and we all had thought it was real. hahaha

This week we met a lot of really neat people! We met a few women tracting who actually let us in to talk with them and asked us questions. They weren't ready to accept any commitments and change their lives, but it was neat to see how we were lead to different places at the right times.

One of my miracles of the week was getting better from a cold quickly. I got this little cold on Tuesday. Without thinking much about it, we planned a day of walking outside for like 5 hours for the next day. Holy toledo that was a bad idea. I could hardly think straight after and walk. I was exhausted! I decided to ask for a blessing. I don't really want to share all that happened, but after the blessing, I felt much better. The exhaustion left and in it's place was a determination to keep working. It didn't even slow our work for the week. What a wonderful blessing!

So last Monday we got a call from our Bishop telling us that a recent convert in the ward's husband wanted to start taking the lessons! We were super excited. We went by to talk to him, and he wants to start having meetings! He's been coming to church for a while now. We asked him why he did, and he said, "It just feels good. It feels better." It's amazing to see the difference that living the gospel makes in our lives even when we don't understand it completely.

We had another cool experience with a different recent convert family. The Mom and son joined, but the Dad has still not really opened up to missionaries. We've slowly been working on him though. This past week, we invited some members to come and talk about family history with them. The son was given the job to talk to his Dad and find out what he could. On Sunday, the son came up to us and told us that when he 1st got the assignment, he was apprehensive. He thought he'd have to break his Dad's video game to get him to help. To his surprise, his Dad had been willing to help. Even better, when his Mom hadn't been able to go to church that day because she was sick, her husband gave her a lecture and told her she should go! So cool! It's amazing to see the spirit work on people :)

The church is true! God loves us, even in our weakness. His strength is the true source of our strength. Keep on pushing forward with faith! You're awesome! You are loved!

Lots of love and support,
Sister Edgel

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