Sister Rachel Caroline Edwards: Monday May 19, 2014

On Sunday May 11, 2014 Rachel turned 22!!!

Monday May 19, 2014

Dear family,

This week has been wonderful! The mission just gets better and better.

Shirley, who is Buddhist, a little older, and retired, set a baptismal date with us! From our first visit to the second she had read the Plan of Salvation pamphlet and a little bit from the Book of Mormon. She was definitely reluctant to move forward because she has had bad experiences in the past with missionaries, going to church and being "thrown into the water" as it were. I don’t think that they were missionaries from our church. That made her step of faith to try all the more exciting! Especially when I remember her initial reaction to our knock on the door a couple of weeks ago. She said, "I'm Buddhist, I don't need it." But Sister Steed kept talking to her through the intercom, and she let us in. Last time we met she told us that because of her bad experiences, she doesn't let missionaries in. She's not sure why she did this time. But we know. God has prepared her for the gospel!

Another cool miracle was church yesterday! Close to the end of Sacrament meeting, a member tells us that some of our investigators are sitting in the foyer. What? So we went to look. Two super cute girls, whom we had never met, were sitting on the couch. It turns out that they were English class students who had come to church ON THEIR OWN. We took them in for the rest of Sacrament Meeting as well as Sunday school. Then they not only set up an appointment with us, but THEY LIVE IN OUR AREA! What goes around comes around. One of the girls told us that last year a missionary had written down her number, told her they were going to call, and then never did! So she has been waiting.

XXX who is a former investigator, brought herself to church last week. Turns out that she has been gone because she had a stroke, but is back now, and wants to get baptized! She had her baptismal interview after church on Sunday and is getting baptized on Saturday!! I was really nervous about letting her get baptized and really didn't want her to get baptized that fast. After praying about it with Sister Steed I felt a small calm, the Spirit I believe, telling me it was OK.

This morning I was reading from Alma 1, and it made me ponder on the principle of enduring, enduring trials of all kinds. In that chapter it talks about the people of God being afflicted with words. I think this kind of affliction is both the most common and most destructive of all, because it wounds us in ways that can't be fixed by just going to the doctor. I think that is what makes the Atonement that much more precious. Words are powerful. It makes me think as well about the power of the scriptures. That is why I have a testimony which I share with people constantly. It is because of the words written in the Book of Mormon. I know that as we feast upon the words of Christ as found in the Book of Mormon, we will find a power in our lives, just like President Hinckley said.

I love you!

Sister Rachel Caroline Edwards

This is my companion's description of our first lesson with our LA's son, who has some minor mental handicaps, but we think he can still be baptized . . . we think :)

We actually used this picture book that Sister Edwards has and it was dynamite. He LOVED it, and he loved learning about Jesus. He was confused why all the pictures happened in Israel, why Jesus never took the train, and why the people who killed Jesus were not arrested. And he was very confused as to why people from outside Taiwan have such long noses... I about died laughing in the lesson as he is looking at the pictures and sincerely perplexed by the differences of the length of those noses and his.

Is this how missionary work is done?