Introducing the new Udine District Leader!

Email: May 1, 2013

Well, transfer calls on monday were a shock to say the least! We were expecting one as I have never even heard of a trainee being with thir trainer for more than two trasfers. Well even though I was really hoping to get out of Udine, even though I really love it, I wanted to see the rest of Italy, and Anziano Tanner is getting trasfered out and I am staying. He is getting Anziano Hymas, who will be starting his 16 trasfer(aka his last) so Anziano Tanner is getting one of the best (I did a scambio(exchange) with Hymas my first trasfer) missionaries. They will be opening up a second companionship in Torino! They are starting at gound zero, neither Hymas or Tanner have even set foot near Torino. They are living in an apartment with Anziano Olson(my group) and an Itlaian. they will have so much fun!

As for me...I will me getting a new companion, when I say new, I mean new, I am training! And to top it all off, I will be district leader! And to add some more exitment, my district will be Udine(obviously!) and Porenone. Pordenone has one companionship of Anziani and they are both leaving and 4 sorelle are comming, and both companionships are training! So I am over 4 sisters, each companionship will be training, WHOO!!!! >Bring it on! I am so scared, nervious but mostly excited and ready to go! I am really excited to stay in Udine as I have become really close to the branch, I love them all and they all love me,amazing success and miracles always-what more can I ask for!? Nothing! Its perfect. THis next trasfer, we should have amazing success! Genova has a man with a date for baptim the 4th of may and he is moving to udine that weekend so we just need to teach him tithing and fasting, get him to church then plan the baptism! We dont really have to do anything, he is a recently retired man who comes to church always and has read nearly the entire Libro di Mormon, accepts everything and loves it all! He has the strongest testimony they say and was just ready for the gosple. Plus he is all Italain!  Also, DaMarisa, the lady from Ruwanda who just walked into church is loving the lessons and best of all the members just take over and do all the work! Our last lesson last week, we invited her to church again and she looked at us like we were stupid and basically said "duh, why wouldnt I !?" Mircale! She came and I all we did for jer at church was at the end ask her what she liked, and set up another appointment with her, the members were always with her the rest of church, The members are amazing!!! member work is key! Also, at the end of chruch, a member, Sorella Trevisan came up to us and said I will see you at 6 on tuesday, we said we cant as that is when we have a lesson with DaMarisa, and she said exactly, that is why I will see you, I am coming to your lesson. Wow, well I dont think there is any easier way to get a member present lesson! She is so cool! Both the member and DaMarisa! Plus, who knows what other success will becoming in the next few weeks during this trasfer. The lord has his hand in this work, it is his work, and I am just his silly little 20 yearold servent doing so little, but with his help, so much comes to pass. La Chiesa di Gesù Cristo dei Santi degli Ultimi Giorni è vero! io lo so!

The pituers are when we went to lunch with William our new convert and he taught us how to make "fufu" and then we all ate together and had one othe the most spiritual lessons I have ever had. The lesson was reteaching him the restoration and a testimony meeting as it was the last time he will see Anz. Tanner. The reason it was so great and spiritua was because of the love I and also anziano tanner have for him. If you love the person, like truly care and love them, the spirit has no choice to be there and to fill the room. I liteally felt another presence in his house. It was the coolest thing ever. I am lucky enough to be with William another 6 or 12 weeks. He will be getting the preisthood this week or next week! So cool!

The fufu was amazing. I have had it before in Vicenza but this was so yummy! It is just like a ball of playdough (potao flakes and flour) and a pepper/tomato soup with chicken, super simple and great tasting. It is so filling, we are so much and we both almost puked! Such a great time.

Picturues got mixed up. the pictue on the stairs is us with Branch President Bressan, the other with our newly released and was amzing branch mission leader(he is hungarian but lived in Itay for like 30 years) Our new branch  mission leader is David, who gets mad if you call him Davide, he was named after the misisonary that baptized his parents so thus his name is americanized, anways he is like 25 and went to London England on his mission and honestly probably was the best missionary ever. We are so lucky to have him as our new mission leader.

Well dont have any time today as we have to go catch a train to Torino, spend the night there, then wake up and get to Milano by 9:30am for my trainer meeting.

Anz. Tanner getting full

Fufu

Anz. Tanner, Anz. Edwards, Pres. Bressan

Anz. Edwards before "getting full"

Baptism!!!, Bridges, and Bikes

Email: April 24, 2013

Part 1:

William from Ghana is a member of la Chiesa di Gesù Cristo dei Santi degli Ultimi Giorni in Udine, Italia!

The baptism was perfect!  No problems of any sort! He was a referal from the Rome, Italy mission. He was baptized before and stoped going to church and recognized it is a sin and when he came to Italy about 1.5 yeras ago, he knew he needed to find the true church and go every week to please God. He was elect, not more to say then the man with the best intentions and biggest desires.

To fill up the "font" basically a small swimming pool, we used a hose and attached it to the bathroon sink upstairs and then threw it out the window and back inside through the bottom window. It took a few hours to fill up so we just hard a party in the church from 1 until the baptism at 6. We ordered pizza, made browines(Italians love brownies), taught a lesson in the church and I tried learning the piano. All was great except me trying to learn the piano...

Mircale after the baptism! At about 8:00 after the baptism and everything was cleaned up and we were there and so was just a few members, this lady just walks into the church, the member looks at us with the face of "what are you doing just standing there! I have been in this city my whole life and I know all the membrs and who has been baptized and she isnt one of them" So we said hello and we gave her a tour, well this member took over and was super helpfull and did it all and was a super good friend to her. She is from Africa and has lived in Italy for like 30 years and has a daughter. She attends the catholic church because she doesnt know where else to go and all the churches she has tried are weird she says. She thinks the catholics are crazy and weird that they pray to Mother Mary and loves the idea of how we view Mary and dont pray to her. We invited her to church and sure enough, the next day she arrived and stayed for all three hours! The members just attack her in a good way and they love her. We basically dont do anything, the members do all the work! I love the members here! We set up an apointment to see here this week on friday! She is looking very promising!

Cool thing about it, is she lives close to the church and drives past everyday and the reason why she came in is because she saw a "colored man in a white shirt and a tie" walk out of th church (That man was William) so she turned around to take another look and saw a sign on the church and all she could read was Gesù (Jesus) and she didnt think it was really a churhc (infact the chaple in Udine was a business building that was converted into a church), she then turned around again after she decided that even though she had to go grocery shopping, she could wait and take a bit of time to go see what this place was. If she drove past any sooner or later, she would not have seen William walk out of the church and any later, we would have locked up the church and have gone home for the evening. Miracle!

Part 2:

Today for Pday we just wandering around random things in the city and helped a girl out of a tree that she climbed and got stuck. The first picture (after the baptism pictures) is of us doing casa in a rural part, the more beautiful part of Italy, and the second picture is of Ponte del diavolo (Devils point) a gigantic bridge. The city is so cool, quite small and is where Willaim lives and where Fratello and Sorella Toth live, our brach mission leader. The story behind the bridge is that a bajillin million years ago when they built it, the people of cividale didnt have enough money so the devil helped them and provided the means for it to be built but in return the devil was going to take the life of the first one who crossed. Ended up a dog ran across first and the devil took the dog and was never seen again, and thus all the humans crossed in saftey.

I am hoping I get trasfered out...only because I want to see the rest of Italy and I am sick of the Mestre Zone. I love the brach here though and nezt trasfer will be successful as we have alot of good people and potentials to work with.

Part 3:

Yeah we have many bike experiances...this past week, we were riding to an apoitment and I got sick of carying my umbrella so I slipped it onto my handelbars and about half a second later I was on th ground and my bike was on by back and I hurt and my companion was laughing at me...So the umbrella imediatly got stuck in the spokes and stoppedmy front tire completly and thus I fliped and my bike flipped....it hurt but I have to agree, it was funny. And I am fairly sure the member saw us as it was on his street and he was waiting outside for us....yeah it was great. But I got back at Anz. Tanner when he crashed this afternoon riding to the internet point. He had his two letters in his hand and only riding with one hand and when he crossed the street he wasnt paying too much attention and thus ran strait into the curb  and the two Italian girls just laughed at him. He scraped up his arm and leg and I honestly couldnt stop laughing as I was following him and saw it all! It is a misison rule to always wear our helmets and everyone in the city knows us as the two boys who always wear helmets. I have only seen another person with a hemet once before, which doesnt make sence because the streets are crazy! I have crashed I think three maybe four times...and have been hit by a car only once. Good record thus far! haha

Ciao! love you tons and tons!

Anziano Edwards!

Baptismal Font

Anziani & William

Ponte del Diavolo (Devils Point)

 

Keep Smiling!

Email: April 17, 2013

May 1st I will know If I get transferred, I hope so! I love Udine and all but want to leave the north east of Italy!

Well branch president, Presidente Bressan, met with Wiliam on sunday and then he can to us and said we are really good teachers and he is impressed on william knowledge, testimony and everything! We love William. We are setting up the font, its a temporary one saturday at 1:30, and staying for 4 ours while we watch it fill up and monitor the temperature. We run a garden hose from upstairs in the kitchen out the window and through a bottom window to fill it up, it takes 4 hours to fill up I guess. While we wait, we will have  a lesson with Marta in chruch, order some pizza and make some brownies for the baptism at 6.

There is this old Italian man who rides around in his electric chair thingy and last week, the first time we saw him he said without an Italian accent, "keep smiling!", well the other day, we saw him again and he yelled "Hello boys! Remember to keep smiling!" He says it in perfect english, he is so awesome! Makes my day!

Best week ever! Set a baptismal date for the 8th of June with Marta, Willaim is getting baptized at 6pm on Saturday! Its warm! high of 18! New investigator Benedetto, really smart medical school student, he speaks really good englsih and is always correcting our Italain. He is super awesome!

Going to Cividale for Pday, next week you will have some super cool pictures.

um...i love you all and this Church is true!

Ciao

Anziano Edwards!

Pictures are: doing finding work,(casa) in Cividale, the coolest little city in Italy, its where William and our mission leader lives. My new ties from Firenze! The great thing about sr couples are you give them $ when they go on vacation and they buy you a buch of Italian ties! Mi piace tanto! The third picture is on some "pocet Coffee" On of our investigators, Marta, saw us on the street and asked if I wanted it, I said no but she insisted and stuck it in my shirt pocket...I think I am going to give it to one of the homeless guys on the street.

Conference and Broken Bikes

Email: April 10, 2013

I cant wait to come home but yet I want to stay here for ever! Dont worry, you all will recieve a super bug hug and kisses from my glowing face in Aug '14, that date is a scary one but yet exciting too. I cant want to come home then knowing I gave it my all!

Well confrence was fantastic! Watched it in Italian as we had investigators come! That was super awesome. Marta, the one who spent 300 buck on a fancy dinner came and also our baptimal date, william came. I understood most of it, got a little lost when they would tell a story or something but got the idea. It helps some times as you can hear the english in the backround, as the traslation is over played the english so it helps with understanding, but usualy you only will hear a few words in english when the traslator takes a breath or a pause. Anyways, we were not able to watch the sunday afternoon session as it ended at midnight. We were 10 late to the first session so we missed the temple anouncements and the first half of Monson's talk. We heard the 58 new missions being created and how we need to donate tot the genreral misison fund generously to grow the lords kingdom world wide. We did have the opprotunity to watch parts in englis between sessions as we were in the church all sunday from 10 30am to 8 30pm, so that is when I heard the temple acnouced in Cedar City. Lets just say I was a little to excited and my companion called my a girl and said, "what is the big deal, yeah its a temple but you dont have to jump up and down and freak out" haha yeah that is kinda what happend...good thing it was just us two in the church, otherwise the members would think I am crazier than I already am. hahaha. 

Miracle and the best news! Went on scambio with Anz. Jonhson, district leader, and we went and did Willaim's baptisimal iterview and he is set for the 20th of April! BAPTIMS!!!  We are super excited for him. He is the most humble man I know. He cant wait to be clean. He loves the idea and knowledge that he can be 100% clean of all mistakes he has made. He wants to be born again! 8africans love the idea of 'being born again') I love william! Now I just have to figure out how to do a baptimal program and plan for a baptim in Italian....uh oh...haha we are super blessed with an amazing branch president and mission leader. They are always helping and are great. Last week after confrence, it was the first time Presidente Bressan called us "bravi missionari" he loves us now! :)

Anz. Tanner broke his pedel of his bike, copletly snaped the metal, we borrowed a members bike and that same day in the evening, Anz. tanner broke that bike too! The pictures are of the membe's bike 1. broken de reailer thingy that changes the gears, it 100% just folded up into ist self reandomly while he was riding it and it broke a few of the wheels spokes. The next day we bought a new bike, mission reimburesed it, and the second picture is of him taking the broken member's bike to get it fixed out of Anz. Tanners pocket. The bike shop will tell us how much it cost tommorrow, im guessing like £40. and the bike is worth maybe £50 or £60. :/ Bho! Anyways crazy day of two broken bikes! The new bike is super super nice though, so fast! 

Well continue to be awesome and I am always praying for you!

Ciao!

Anziano Edwards!

8 Month Mark!!!

Email: April 3, 2013

8th month mark!!?!?!?! Dont tell me that! That is super scary to think my mission is that far along! I dont want to come home!" I love this work too much! True, its the hardest thing Ive ever done, but I LOVE it!  Ps, I dont belevie that I am at my 8th month mark.

The pictues are of the chaple in Udine and then of the city streets. Attached are also me doing what I do best with my trusty Il Libro di Mormon!

:)

All the members are talking about the crazy spring and weather. Its usualy unpredictable here but I guess its more crazy that usual.

I love you all and good luck with everything!

Ciao!

Anziano Edwards!

Meeting the Melting Pot -Italy!

Email: March 27, 2013

Ciao tutti! Questa settimana era fantastico ma abbastanza difficile.. Mi piace Udine tanto, especialmente i membri della chiesa. Lora hanno un grande aiuta in tanti modi. Questa è il mio quinto trasferimento! Mama mia! Dovè il tempo!

Sono molto grato per l'opportunità di essere una missionario a qui in Italia. Ho recevuto tanti benedizioni durante la mia missione. Il mio collega è bravissimo è una grande aiuto in questo lavoro. Secondo me, Io parlo la lingua Italiana abastanza bene. Tante persone hanno deto che Io parlo benissimo. Il lavoro del Signore è deficile ma, quano ho lo spirito del Signore, Lo Spirito Santo, Ho la forza di fare qualsiasi cosa che è necessario. 

Mi manca la mia famiglia ma, lascio la mia famiglia per due anni in modo che altri mi possono con il loro per l'eternità.

Questa chiesa è la chiesa che Gesù Cristo ha stabilito con l'autorità. Joseph Smith era la prima profeta in questa dispensazione è il Libro di Mormon è la prova che queste cose e vera. Questo è la mia testimonianza, è lascio nel nome del mio fratello maggiore, Salvatore, con sede lascio, è redentore, Gesù Cristo, Amen.  

The other day I talked with someone from Chad, Africa. It was the 60th country I have talked with! I thought I was going to encounter Italians, Americans, maybe a french or German...who would have guessed Italy is a melting pot too! There are a bunch of Italians but there are at least 60 other natonalities here! Its so cool! I keep a list in my planner of places from where people are from whom I talk with.  

William has a date for the 20th of April, but he said in our last lesson, that he wants to move his date sooner. Reason being partly honestly is excited and also that he may move at any time to another part of Italy or somewhere else in Europe to get work. He really is attached to Anziano Tanner and myself and wants to get baptized with us. Good thing is that he said he knows the chruch is everywhere and he will be able to find it if he moves. We are so excited for William! 

 Ousman, the 12 year old son of a new convert, Florence, is still out of town for sports camp so we havent been able to even hear from him. His mom says he is doing well though.

Our distric got split, now is just us and Pordenone. Anziano Johnson is our District leader and just hit his half way mark. We got slip as Udine and or Pordenone will get a second set of missionaries at trasfers, May 2nd. we both have a big appartment that can fit 4 Anziani. The appartmemt in Mestre became a Sorelle appartment and Padova has four Anziani, next trasfer Mestre will get another copia so there will be four sorelle in Mestre and 4 anziani in Padova, with one copia from each city working a half day and changing cities in the afternoon. The mission has EXPLODED! New cities are opening and a buch of cittie are preparing for 4, 6, or even 8 missionaries! We have and will be getting a buch of sisters! Super awesome, the sorelle have such a strong spirit and are always the best missionaries.

Anziano Tanner are loving life and get along super duper great. We have such a good time always and are laughing constantly, usualy at something stupid I do...examples include me doing casa with my helmet on, using our house key and trying to open the neighbors door, ect I have lost my mind! I am constantly doing stupid things, but its good, just makes us laugh and lighten our mood.

I AM STARTING MY 5TH TRASFER! It's so crazy! I cant beleive it! I have been on my mission for nearly 8 months! Seems like I left maybe two months ago! I am so happy even though the work is stressful and hard with two investigatores, which neither are Italian, and we havent seen the one for a month. Italy is such a cool place to serve the Lord and the people dont really listen at all but I love them still.

With all the love I can type on this dirty keyboard and slowest computer ever,

love,

Anziano Edwards!

Ciao!

This is the picture of when the Traveling Assistants came and blitzed us a few weeks back. Both Anziano Herrington (taller one) and Sciarretta are finished with their missions.

New Email Policy for Missionaries

"The church has adjusted the email policy for missionaries worldwide.  They have re-emphasized the need for missionaries to write to families and the Mission President each week.  In addition you may communicate by email with friends, priesthood leaders and new converts..."

Basically this means that A.J. can email more than just his immediate family each week. He would love to hear from all of his friends and other family as well! This is simply another way to write to him. It is asked that you respect that he is only allotted a short amount of time to check and send emails each week, thus it may still take a few weeks (or knowing A.J. and how busy he is, more than a few weeks) to hear back from him. His priority for P-Days and emails remain the same: contact the mission president and his family! The blog will be updated the same as it has been in the past (hopefully more regularly). The email address you can contact him at is: andrew.edwards@myldsmail.net  
The contact page has been updated as well :)