The baptism of Edward

Yes! It happened! This week was great. We started out the week with a dinner lesson with Edward at the Fowler's house. The Fowlers have been great in fellowshipping Edward. We had a great lesson with him on Monday night and finished teaching all of the principles necessary for baptism. That's the quickest I have ever taught anyone all of the principles, in fact, that is the first time that I have taught all of the principles needed for baptism. And everything just clicks for him, it makes perfect sense to him. We got a little worried in the middle of the week because we lost contact with him. His phone wasn't working so we were kind of freaking out a little. His baptismal interview was supposed to be Friday, and luckily Thursday night he called us! He got his phone fixed and he told us the first thing he did was call us. We went by the next morning and went over the baptismal interview questions. We also learned some pretty sad news. It turns out he has moved to south Charlotte, which is in a different stake😢. So we talked to President and the bishop, and we decided to go forward with the baptism and the confirmation on Christmas Day then transfer his records to the Sharon Ward. That's pretty super sad news, considering how people have embraced him in this ward, and we won't be able to teach him the new member discussions, but I am sure he'll be totally fine. People will love him in the new ward, too. That night, Brother Potter (another amazing fellowshipper) picked him up, took him shopping for a suit, shirts, socks, and some ties. So great. He had the baptismal interview, Elder Johnson, one of the Zone Leaders interviewed him and said it was one of the most spiritual discussions he's ever had. Needless to say, Edward passed with flying colors. Saturday morning he came to the Ward Christmas party. It went pretty well, except it was so crowded that we had to sit in a different room with the Fowlers and Edward and a bunch of crazy kids. This ward is so big, and the building is average sized. Anyway, Sunday came and he came to church and right after church he got dressed into his outfit, and we had a good baptismal service. We had Brother Fowler baptize him. It was pretty rough since Edward has only one good leg and that one isn't even that strong. Edward had to hold on to Brother Fowler in a weird way for it to work and Brother Fowler had to squat in a weird position to get it done. They had to do it two times because the first time Edward's hand didn't go under. But it got done and Edward was super happy. We had him bear his testimony afterwards and he bore a super amazing testimony, he told us his whole story. 

So he was born in Ghana and he was a popular guy in high school. He even came out with a

couple music albums that got pretty popular. He was also super good at soccer and had scholarships to plenty of schools and was planning on playing soccer for the Ghana soccer team. But all of that changed when he got hit by a wayward car. He lost the strength in his legs and he only is able to hold his weight on one for a short time, hence, crutches. He moved to South Africa with his mom when his mom and dad split because the mom wanted to practice Christianity and his dad wanted to continue worshiping African idols. He wanted to get baptized but no one would baptize him because he was crippled. He worked as an English teacher in South Africa until he uncovered some sort of scam and exposed it and he started getting death threats so he moved to America. The rest is history. He had such a powerful testimony. He started reciting scriptures from the Doctrine & Covenants and the first four Articles of Faith. He is so ready for being confirmed next week. 

This week other than that was good. I had two exchanges, one with Elder Seely and one with Elder Bingham. They were both pretty fun. Now that Edward is baptized, we are back to looking for more people. We got a new referral from someone so we'll see how that goes. Well, honestly, I can't really think of what else happened this week I am just so excited for Edward! Love y'all!

Feliz Navidad

Hello! This week was pretty good. This week was pretty wet and chilly. I had to break out my winter coat this week, it was nice though, the summer was so hot. 

Anyway, Edward is so great! We had three appointments with him this week and he came to church. Two of the lessons we had with him were at members' houses. We taught him most everything this week, and we actually talked with him and moved his baptismal date up to the 18th! So after church next week he'll be baptized! So that's super exciting. He is the most solid person I have met on my mission, it's so great! 

Last night we went caroling with the YM and YW. We had a bunch of fun with them visiting less active or lonely members. We had a really fun group. We had Interviews and district meeting this week, they both went pretty well. That's about all that happened this week. I'm so sorry it's such a short email, but we have an early dinner appointment with Edward, so I got to go. Love ya!

Wow!

So this week was so good! Now that November is over we are going to have an amazing December! So I guess I'll just start off with the most exciting part, and his name is Edward!!! So on Wednesday I was at the mission office and I was about to get going when a senior sister came up to me and asked if I was in the Mountain Island Ward. I said I was and she got super excited. It turns out while I was there, a man named Edward showed up in a taxi cab. He explained to her that he was from Africa, and he had gone to our church in Africa and he really liked it, but he didn't think the church was here in America. He was looking for it one day and he found one in Asheville, which isn't even in our  mission, and he was going to get a cab ride all the way out there to find a church. Luckily his brother corrected him and told him there was one on Hilliard which is the mission office. So he took a taxi there. It's a good thing that out of all the churches around Charlotte he went to the Hilliard one because it would be the only church with people inside of it at the time, and even better, it was full of missionaries! So that afternoon we called him and that night we saw him with a member. We saw him twice this last week and he committed to a baptismal date of the 24th of this month! Christmas Eve! He also came to church yesterday. The member we initially brought with us picked him up and sat with Edward. We were sitting in the back with some other investigators and they were sitting at the front, and before we knew it Edward went up to the pulpit and bore his testimony! He said he already knows the church is true! We are super pumped for him.

We also had the Juarez family at church and a guy named Bol and his girlfriend came too, so that's great.  

It actually rained a bit this week. It hasn't rained much for a while. Tuesday morning we got up and biked over to a Bible referral and gave them a Bible. We were biking back and it started raining, pretty good, by the time we got to the bus stop we were drenched. I had to air out my shoes for a week before I could wear them again. It's been a pretty chilly week. I had to break out my sweaters and ear warmers. We did service a couple times this week and as always, we found some crazy clothes and I just had to try them on. I'll send some pictures. 

We went on  exchanges this week. I went with Elder Fox to Huntersville, we had a pretty good time. I made banana bread this week, it turned out pretty good. Anyway, that's about the week, Christmas is awesome, love y'all!