WEEK 17

Hola mi familia preciosa!

Things are going well here. Transfers are on June 7^th.  On the 4^th, we will find out whether or not we get transferred. My companion thinks she is leaving. I think I'll be staying here, but who knows, we'll see! I hope I do stay here. I love Culpeper so much. I already know it's going to be so hard when I eventually do get transferred, especially if I'm going somewhere in the suburbs or city. I will miss country life!

We had zone p-day this past Monday, and it was pretty much the Elders playing sports and the sisters hanging out together, haha. I brought my watercolors, and my sister training leader and I painted- she loves it!

On Tuesday we had "Sisters' Meeting". It was all the sisters in our zone and a few of the surrounding zones. President and Sister Wilson came, and they and their daughter who just got home from her mission taught us. It was really awesome! All of the instruction was wonderful. After, we had lunch and a clothing exchange! I was so excited for that.

Wednesday we had district meeting, and I gave a training. Later that day we went tracting. We did quite a bit of tracting this week. It used to not be my favorite thing to do, and it still isn't, but it's actually not that bad! I'm becoming more and more bold, and I'm starting to be less scared about certain things. I'm also starting to care less what people think (in a good way).

Speaking of that, we found a woman from Guatemala while we were tracting, and she let us in to teach her. Also, on Friday we met this really cool woman named Carolina. She's so sweet and nice, and I can tell she's really interested! When we came over, she called all of her kids to come out to the family room and listen to the lesson- no one ever does that! It was so cool. She was listening very intently to us. I know she'll be baptized, she's serious about this. That was such a miracle that we were able to find her and meet with her, because she is ready for this!

Evelia was on date to be baptized this coming Saturday, but today we're going to see if we can keep her on date and push it back to the 4th. She hasn't come to church again since fast Sunday :(. We still teach her and everything, but getting her to church is the hard part. She believes everything we teach, and she knows it's true. She's been praying about baptism and she said that she feels good about it, and she feels peace, but she's not fully committed to a date.

Jacky and Leonardo: Jacky is perfect, amazing, and awesome. She believes everything we teach, she believes The Book of Mormon is true, and she just intuitively knows everything, and it makes sense to her. When we're teaching her and her esposo she'll explain things to him and I always think, "How does she know all of this so well??" If she could come to church, she'd be baptized. But there's the problem. Only her esposo can drive, so she doesn't have a way to come without him. We've even offered to get her a ride, but she says that she needs Leonardo to help with the baby when he cries and stuff. Leonardo isn't super into all of this. He's super nice, and he listens to us, but he gets really bored during the lessons, so he's not super into it. Jacky is so ready, so it's just hard because the only thing that's holding her back is her esposo! But we'll get there. She is just so ready and I know that Heavenly Father will provide a way.

Well, that's about all I have time for today! I love you all so very much and I love hearing from you!  I know the Gospel is true and I know that Heavenly Father is in the details of our lives, every minute of our lives! He is so aware of us and loves us so much. I'm so grateful to be a missionary!

Con amor,

Hermana Eddington

Zone P-day.
The older couple in the middle is Elder and Sister Elieson.
They're a senior missionary couple that are assigned to the same ward as us. They are SO cute
and they are my inspiration!! They make me so excited to serve a senior mission one day.

Tracting in the rain.

One of the many reasons I love it here!
It's so nice to see things like this everywhere.

WEEK 16

Hola,

Highlights of this week:

-We were tracting and as we were walking by a house, through the window we heard someone inside say, "Here they come..." Hahahaha. Yeah that's right, here we come!!!

-We went on exchanges with the Sister Training leaders- and this time one of the Sisters came to our area with me, which meant I was left all on my own to speak Spanish with people!!! I was a little nervous about that, but it actually turned out really well! It was really cool, the gift of tongues is so real! It was a really fun exchange and we met some funny people.

- *Miracle* We've been trying forever to visit with a woman who is less active, and out of the many, many times we've tried to see her, she's only opened the door once, and that was when I was on exchanges a while ago so I didn't even get to meet her! So we went by again the other day, and she opened the door!!! It was a true miracle.

- Our investigators, Jacky and Leonardo almost came to soccer but then they didn't :( Oh, and I don't play soccer anymore because it has almost tripled in size and it's too intense now!! But it's fun to watch! :)

-Our investigator Evelia has been progressing pretty well. We've taught her everything, we just need her to come to church again and feel confident about making the decision to get baptized.

- So during zone meetings, we do this thing called "spiritual creation." We think of someone that we would like to find to teach, and we picture what they are like. It sounds really weird, but it's so cool! A while ago, we had decided that we were going to find a single mom. It was kind of in the back of my mind, but the other day, we found this girl tracting, and during the lesson with her, it came to my mind that we had found who we were looking for! She is so sweet. We haven't seen her since last time, but we will soon!

Well, that's about all I have time for. I know the Gospel is true and I know that Heavenly Father answers our prayers specifically!! I know this because I have seen it! I am so grateful for my Savior, and for His infinite Atonement!

Thank you all for your support and love! It helps me more than you know.

Until next week,

Hermana Eddington

One of my Sister Training Leaders painted this
lovely portrait of me. :)

???

Beautiful Virgina

WEEK 15

Hi family, 

It was so good to talk to you yesterday! It went by way, way too fast though. I wish I had been more organized so that I could have told you more and I could have heard more from you.

I'm learning so, so much about people on my mission. I'm learning how to be compassionate and how to discern what the real cause for peoples' struggles or behavior may be. Although it's been a little painful to gain this knowledge I wouldn't trade it. I'm so glad for what I am learning and find it fascinating. The more I think about it, the more I think I want to be involved with psychology and counseling and all that. I find it so fascinating and I just keep having experiences that are pointing me in this direction. I've met some people who have had unimaginably difficult and horrible lives. There are so many people who need so much help, and I really feel like I'm starting to find my "calling".

I'm so grateful to be here because I never would have had these experiences otherwise. Yes, it's been hard, one of the hardest things I've ever done, but it has been so completely and totally worth it!

Heavenly Father continues to bless me SO much. What they say about how you learn things on your mission that would take much longer to learn at home is SO true. I can't even begin to describe how much I have learned. I love it. It's amazing. The Gospel is just so true. It just is. I'm so grateful to be a part of this work.

It's been so cool to see my family involved in missionary work too! What you have done with the Sousa family is just amazing. I hope they adjust well to the Cardiff ward. Tell them hi for me and that I love them even though I don't know them!

I'm so sad the Orrs are moving :( It will be so weird that they won't be there when I get back. I'm going to miss them a lot. Tell them hi for me too and that I love them!

I’ve been missing Grandma Fae a lot since I've been out here. There's this cute little old lady in one of our wards that actually reminds me a little of grandma. It's not that she looks like her or anything, but her sweet spirit and the way she loves reminds me of grandma, so that's been really comforting. She is an angel, like grandma, so that's a tender mercy. Heavenly Father is so good to me.

Happy late Mother's Day, mom. I love you so much. I was thinking about you yesterday, and I am so completely grateful for you. Elder Holland's talk from last conference describes you, and what you have done for me in a very parallel way. Thank you so, so much. I am so grateful for all that you have sacrificed for me, and for the comfort that you have given me that I always need so much. And dad, thank you for being so supportive of mom. I was thinking about you as well yesterday, and I thought about the phrase, "the best thing a father can do for his children is to love their mother." This phrase describes you perfectly. I've never really known the significance of this statement until now. The way that you have treated mom and the way you have treated us has affected me so deeply and profoundly. What you have taught me has become part of my nature and it's engrained in me. I'm so grateful for the way that you have sacrificed to protect and love our family. I love you so much and I am so grateful for your example.

To my sissies, I love you all more than you can even imagine! Seeing you all yesterday just made me cry because I am so blessed and so lucky to have the family that I do. I love you and I miss you all so much. One of the things I have learned on my mission is how vitally important and beautiful righteous families are. I see more and more how important family is and I am SO grateful to have the family that I do. Girls, please love each other. Please try to get along and listen, and be respectful, and obey mom and dad. One day, when you go out into the world, you will see so many families that are broken and sad, and you will feel like the luckiest and most blessed person to have the family that you do. You girls don't even know how lucky you are. Sadly, there are so many people that don't have families like we do. Please try to remember that. I never knew how blessed I was until I saw the other side of things. Please, please remember that family is the most important thing after Heavenly Father and our Savior. Well, I love you all so much! Have an awesome week!

Les quiero mucho!!
Hermana Eddington

People are obsessed with these kind of lawn mowers here.
This guy is riding his down the street.

Us with Jesus. As you can see, I'm really tall.

WEEK 14

Hola!

Highlights from this week:

- One of our investigators, Evelia, came to church this week with her husband!!!!

- We were having a lesson with Jesus (the recent convert), and we were talking about fútbol that we play on Thursdays, and he said that last week I seemed "descompuesto". I didn't know that word and neither did my companion, so we looked it up:

Descompuesto: "broken, disorganized, distorted, angry"

We had a good laugh! I couldn't even be offended because it's the truth! I'm just not meant to play sports.

- This happened last week, but we were with one of our investigators, Jacky, and she said that her esposo makes fun of me, because apparently I say "interesante" a lot. She said it's not a word they really use, so I guess that's why it's funny. She says that they say it to each other now and laugh about it, so it's an inside joke between them now. Ay ay ay. I'm just getting used to Hispanics making fun of me now.

- We've found some new people to teach, which is exciting because we've been having kind of a lull lately. We've started teaching this boy named Andy and he's really cool. We've gone by a lot to try to teach his sister, but she's always working. He's been really nice to us, but made it clear that church isn't his thing. So the other day, we went by again and his sister wasn't home again, but he invited us in. And we just started talking to him and got to know him a little better. It was really neat because he opened up to us more about his beliefs, and he's just stuck right now. He believes in God, but he really doesn't know much more about what he believes. We asked him if he thought that the truth was out there, and he said "Yeah, maybe." We asked him how he thought he was going to find it and he said something like, "I don't know, I think I'll find it eventually, maybe when I'm older." So we talked about how our faith grows when we are actively seeking. We're going back to see him this week and I really hope we can help him find the happiness he is looking for!

My experience as a missionary has strengthened my testimony of faith so, so much. So many people we talk to believe in God and are wonderful people, and they have so much faith. But what so many people don't understand is that faith is a principle of action, no matter how small that action may be. It's not enough to just say that we believe, we have to live it! I have been trying to learn to exercise faith, not just to have it. It's really hard sometimes and it's not comfortable, but I've learned so much that I never would have otherwise. Faith is amazing! It is a real power, not just something we say or believe. Faith is something that we choose! And we have to keep choosing it every single day. I love this quote from Elder Andersen:

"Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is not something ethereal, floating loosely in the air. Faith does not fall upon us by chance or stay with us by birthright. It is, as the scriptures say, “substance … , the evidence of things not seen.” Faith emits a spiritual light, and that light is discernible. Faith in Jesus Christ is a gift from heaven that comes as we choose to believe and as we seek it and hold on to it. Your faith is either growing stronger or becoming weaker. Faith is a principle of power, important not only in this life but also in our progression beyond the veil. By the grace of Christ, we will one day be saved through faith on His name. The future of your faith is not by chance, but by choice."

I know that when we choose to show our faith by actions, we can be transformed into something greater than we ever could have become by ourselves. Even if our personal steps of faith may seem small to others, they are important in Heavenly Father's eyes. Every small step counts. The faith to move mountains starts with a tiny mustard seed. I know because I have seen the effects of acting on faith. I am so grateful for my Savior and Heavenly Father, who help me every day. I know they are there and I feel so blessed to have this knowledge and to share it with others who don't know! Being a missionary is the best.

Have a wonderful week.

Hermana Eddington