December 22, 2014

 hello!!!!!!!! today is not pday but they gave us permision to write
 the family and tell you guys that we will be skyping on thursday!!!! I
 want to skype here at like 3 or 4 and we have a bout an hour to skype!
 wowowow i cannot wait you dont know how excited i am right now! i am
trying to set up skype right now on the computer so hopefully it
 works!!! Be ready because I may get ancy and it may be earlier!!!

Pictures for the week! Merry Christmas everyone!!

Looks like he got his Christmas package!! Yeah!! I got this pic from his good friend Elder Nielsens blog!!!

December 15, 2014

Hello!!!!!!!! I loved your emails thank you sooo much for the love and
I really cannot wait to see you guys in a week and a half!!!!!! It
will be the best day ever for me!!! We will see how you think my
English is!!! I don’t think it is bad but we will see!! hahaha this
week was a great week!!! We worked sooooooo hard this week trying to
find other people to teach and inviting and getting better known
here!! We had 30 other lessons this week!! Kyle and scot should know
that that is a ton!!! We found 16 new people and have 5 baptismal
dates!!! It was a great week!!! I am trying to take control and really
show the people here who we are! I am also showing my companion how to
be nice and very happy with the people and be very excited to talk to
them! There is no greater work than that which we are doing right now
so we should be happy! I always think of Jesus when we leave and how
happy he was and nice he was with the people! He was the best example
for us and if we try to be like him we will progress! We have been
preparing Rumi and her boyfriend for their marriage and she will have
her document to be able to be married in about 13 days so we are
preparing her and her family for marriage and baptism! We are also
teaching the Brazilian and he has been to church 3 times now! He
smokes a lot but he really likes the church and I think within time he
will be baptized! This week I was working on how to be friendlier
and how to have animo always with the people because we get tired and
sometimes it is hard to always be animated and work at a high level.
Another thing that happened this week was one of our future
missionaries is going to Chile Antofagasta!!! I was sooo pumped! I
told him about Kyle and how he loved it there and how much of a beast
he was there and how he will meet people that Kyle taught and
baptized! The other future missionary is going to Peru! I was so happy
for them and their decisions! My comp and I gave a talk in church on
Sunday and I congratulated them again and I talked about baptism! I
linked a lot of scriptures into my talk and how baptism is important
if Jesus told his disciples "go ye therefore to all nations, baptizing
them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of The Holy Ghost"
so it must be pretty important! Also when Peter talked to the people
about how baptism is for the remission of our sins, so that means when
people have sins they need to be baptized to be cleansed by the
atonement of Jesus Christ!! So that means children do not need to be
baptized because Jesus himself said come to me children and said they
are like the Kingdom my Father! They are innocent! Sorry I am going
off right now about baptism haha but it is important! Also this
Christmas we should be spending time with the family and remember the
birth of our Savior and remember everything he did for us! I love
everyone and I really can’t tell you how excited i am to see you guys
it has been super long I really haven’t seen you in over half of a
year! That is crazy!!!!!!! I LOVE YOU MORE THAN ANYTHING!!!! Have an
amazing week!!

It is SUPER HOT here!! But we have a nice air conditioner that keeps us cool in the night! We have a Christmas devotional thing this week and I am going  to sing with other missionaries in front of like 50 missionaries!!

Pictures from last week - December 9, 2014

These pictures came late last week from Dallen, :)

December 9, 2014 (Holiday yesterday in Paraguay, so P-day today))

Hello everybody!!!!! I am always happy to hear how everyone is
doing!!! It is the holiday season and Christmas is around the
corner!!!! You really don’t know how excited I am to finally see your
faces and to be able to talk to everyone!!!! Families are the most
important thing in life!! I think I forgot to tell everyone that we
had transfers and my comp and I will stay for 6 more weeks here!!!
That is exciting!! We have a new sister missionary here and she is
from Guatemala and now we have 2 sister missionaries who are super
super small lol!! This week was a good week for us! I gotta say this
week we had a lot of the same questions asked to us! A lot of people
asked if we believed in Jesus Christ or if we believe in God! First i
told them that the church is called the Church of JESUS CHRIST and
they were like ohh.. And then they said that we only believe in Joseph
Smith as our God and we told them no he was only a prophet who was an
instrument in the hands of God. We had those questions asked to us I
think in every lesson! It is amazing how many people talk bad about
the church and say things and believe things that they don’t really
even know. This week we worked with a future missionary in our ward
and he helped a ton! We studied with him to help him know what the
mission is like and we were studying Preach My Gospel and helping him
with any questions. We are working now to get the documents of Rumi our
investigator so that she can be married so now we need to wait like 20
more days. We had 5 investigators at church and the Brazilian guy came
again and he loves the church!! It is soo amazing here, the people
will be having a conversation in Spanish, then the Brazilian will talk
in Portuguese and then everyone talks to him in Portuguese, and then
someone will talk in Guaraní and then the people will start talking
all in Guaraní! That is how church is here lol there are a lot of
languages! It is weird that it is almost Christmas I have been
thinking about ways that I can serve others and make others have a
great holiday season! We talked this week about the greatest gift we
can receive on Christmas. When we read John 3:16 it says, “God sent his
only begotten son”, and that is true! God sent his son to earth and he
died for us and atoned for our sins. Now as we are in the holiday
season we should enjoy time with the family and think about our
redeemer Jesus Christ. We also should share this message with others
so that they can remember Jesus. I really cannot wait to see you
guys!!!! You really don’t know how much I love you and my love grows
everyday!!! I hope that everyone has a spectacular week and please be
safe!!!!!

 

December 1, 2014

Hello everybody!!! This week was a good week for us here!!! It was a
little crazy!! We set up a marriage date for our investigator! 

They will be married on Wednesday!!!!! Also we will be baptizing 

 her after the wedding!!! Then the next week we should be 

baptizing her sons and then we will hopefully get her husband too when he stops
smoking and drinking! There are a lot of people who drink here and
this one guy called us over to his house and was amazed that I am from
the United States and was telling his family that I am from the US and
he was so drunk, he kissed our hands before we left haha! Sometimes it
is a little scary when they follow you around but it is all good!
Things are very chill here! Church was amazing yesterday!!! We had
been teaching a Brazilian guy, he only speaks Portuguese and he
came to church and so did our investigating family AND a less active!
Some came from the sister missionaries too! We also had the
assistant with us because his companion finishes his mission tomorrow
so things were a little crazy! We have a new assistant and he is from
San Diego! He looks Latino but he is from there! It was cool being
with the assistant for a day and to see how he works! We are now trying
to work on little things in the ward like how they pass the sacrament and
also home teaching and some activities for the youth! We had a talent
show this week and I dribbled my basketball!! I was trying to send my
video but it wouldn’t let me send it! :( I still got some moves!!! It is
really fun here and we are trying to make the ward more unified and
also we are trying to be more unified as companions! Little by
little!!! I love you guys sooo much and I hope everyone will be
safe!!! I cannot wait to hear from you next week!!!! I LOVE YOU!!

I am staying here with my companion for the next 6 weeks!

Christmas is coming, be getting the skype ready!! I hope to find a big 

computer to see you guys!! Its weird that the year

 is almost over!! I will have 8 months in the mission soon!! 

I really like it, it is not easy, but I like it!! Also, I have found some new 

ways to lift weights, I am going to get very fit again!

This is funny cause nobody understands English hahahahha!!!!

November 24, 2014

Hello everybody!!!!!!! This week was a good week for us here in
Paraguay! We have been working hard here and trying to find more and
more people to teach! We talked to this one investigator who is very
spiritual and she told us this week that she had fasted for 40
days!!!..... hahaha I was very surprised when she just told us that
lol! We have been working well with the less actives and had some at
church yesterday!!! They told us they felt very good to be back in
church and feel the spirit!! My companion and I gave a class on Sunday
to all the investigators and it went really well!! We talked about the
church and how it was restored and how it is still the same today, as
to when Jesus came to earth and established his church! There are
still a bunch of less actives who say they will come to church but
haven't come yet. but it is all good cause if we keep exciting them to
come they will have a change of heart and come again!! We were going
to have a baptism this week but we had to change the date cause of a
few problems but next week we could have it!! My comp and I are doing
well and are trying really hard to keep things moving forward here in
the ward! The primary program was yesterday and it was sooo cute!!! I
gotta say though the ones back home are better! hhaha! One thing I
have been working on this week is trying to develop more Christ like
attributes because Jesus was the perfect example for us and we should
be trying everyday to be better as people! Once we do this, we will
progress everyday and we will see a change within ourselves! One thing
I have been loving while reading the scriptures is how much of a boss
Jesus was and how He was with the people! Also if we are doing little
things everyday, other people will see our light and will want to have
a change too!!  love you guys soooo much and I hope everyone has a
safe week!!! I am starting today to learn a lot of Portuguese! I have
already learned a good amount in guarani! it is soooo hard to speak it
though!!!! I love you guys!!!!! Please be safe!!!! Happy
Thanksgiving!!!!!!!!! I couldn't be more grateful for you and for
everything you have done for me! The family is the most important
thing in life! I love you more than anything!

November 17, 2014

Hello everyone!!!! This was another good week for us here in

Paraguay!!! I gotta say that Paraguay is the best place ever!!! the

people here are sooo nice and they really just don't have worries about

anything hahaha! We still have been working hard here and trying to

get the less actives to come back to church! We have the one

investigating family who really really want to get baptized and they

keep asking us when it is going to happen hahaha! They are super nice

and have been inviting their neighbors to come to church too! My comp

and I are doing well! Sometimes it is a little hard, but we are

getting through things and trying to do the best we can! I have been

trying to learn a bunch of guarani from him cause he speaks it

fluently! I have learned a bunch of phrases and little by little I

will be able to speak it! We met this one lady this week who is very

religious and as we taught her she knew a lot about the church and had

never talked to the missionaries but after talking to us she is super

interested in the church and wants us to come by more and teach her

some more things! She said we have a lot of knowledge and wants to

learn everything lol! The biggest thing this week for us was keeping

the one family prepared for their baptism and making them feel

comfortable with the people in the church! This week my comp and I

gave talks and I talked about the importance of the members and how

every member has a special place in the work of the Lord! I got them

all excited to do missionary work and to share the gospel with their

friends and with their families! I love you guys soooo much and thank

you sooo much for your support!! I am sooo shocked i have another

nephew and congratulations to Scott and Krystal!!!!!!!!!!!!!I I want to

see a ton of pictures this week!!!!! I love you guys soooo much and

please be safe this week!!!!!

November 11, 2014

Hello everybody!!!! I am glad to hear everyone is doing well! It is
always a treat to be able to read your emails and see how you are
doing! This week was a great week for us!!!! We worked hard this week
with the less actives and with the investigators that we have! We got
a new investigator named Francisco and he was at the house of another
investigator. He said that he drinks all the time and he cant stop and
how he smokes like 3 packs of cigarettes a day. He told us that he
wants to stop and he asked his family to help him. Lucky for him, he
has 2 missionaries that can help him! I told him ohhhh we can help you
in my high pitched voice haha! We made some goals so that he could
slowly stop his addiction and better his health! Sadly he didn't come
to church but he is super interested and wants to change his life! we
did an activity on Wednesday with the little kids in the ward and had
a little obstacle course! Every thing they had to do, there was a
missionary or sister there to teach something about prayer. I was
playing as Jesus and how we finish the prayer in his name because
through him, we get the father! Then they take my hand and jump over
some buckets haha! it was super fun! Something crazy that happened
also was a cow tried to ram us! We were walking past a cow eating, and
I made a noise and it lifted its head up and tried to ram us! hahaha
be careful with cows!!!! We have another investigator named Rumi who
is awesome and she wants to be baptized with her family! The best part
of this week was Sunday when we had 3 less actives in church and 3
investigators! the sisters asked me what did we do!? I told them we
got the midas touch!!! hahaha the 3 less actives were 19 year olds
all from different families, but they just need some animo, "i forgot
how to say that in english!" hahaha but now their families want to
start coming back so we are super excited!!!! we have some baptism
dates for the 6th of December so hopefully we will have another
transfer here to baptize them! I have been studying a ton on trying to
better my scripture skills, and remember important scriptures that
apply to the investigators! My comp and i are doing well!! We are
starting to find the rhythm here! I love everybody!!!!!! Thank you so
much for your support and love!!!! Please be safe this week and i hope
you have the best week ever!!!!!!!!
Love, Elder Eddenfield


P-day at the center!! (Mall) Dad would be in heaven here with all the watches for sale cheap!!! And a great family that I love!!! The dad is funny like you dad!!!Teaching the children!

November 3, 2014

Hello everybody!!!!! Thank you so much for the love and I hope
everyone had an amazing week and an amazing Halloween!!!! This week
was good for us!!! We had some amazing lessons and found some new
investigators to teach! We also have been focusing on the less actives and working on getting them back into church! This week we were leaving the apartment and a car stopped us and said that they need us to give their daughter a blessing because she is sick. So we hopped in their car and they drove us to their house and my comp put the oil on her head and I gave the blessing and it was so awesome! Turns out that the sister is a member and their whole family wanted to get baptized but they moved and now they are here and want us to continue to teach them and have them be baptized! It was amazing! The only problem is that they only speak Guaraní really. They only understand bits and pieces of Spanish so you can get a hint of how hard it is for me to teach them hahah! Good thing my comp speaks Guaraní! The lord is preparing people for us! We got stopped on the side of the street and some guy said he almost hung himself and was showing us the rope he was going to use. In the middle of the street I pull out the book of mormon and shared a scripture with him. He was telling us about the difficulties in his life so I read 2 Nephi 2; 11 and said that we need things to be difficult in this life so we can demonstrate our faith to God! We have taught some good lessons to the less actives and some of them are wayyyy inactive. I feel bad sometimes because I am a little harsh about some things, but they need to know that there is only one way to go and one church to go to! The ward is strong, they have 2 boys that just put their mission papers in and they are helping us out! We have lunch like everyday and the food is amazing! They make some juice thing and it is really good! The members are super nice and the people are nice but have a hard time understanding what we are teaching sometimes. I feel bad sometimes because I walk pretty fast now and I am always telling my comp to hurry hurry!!!! We need to move
move move!!!! I am weird now haha I always need to be talking, I love talking to people!!! For the first time in my mission someone flipped us off lol as we were walking! I did what dad would do, and smiled and gave a thumbs up! We are working super hard in the area and are trying the best we can to learn and learn the way that we can help the ward be more united! That is about all that happened this week, but thank you soo much for all of your support and I hope everyone has an amazing week!!! And Bert hope you have the best birthday ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love you guys soooooo
much!!!!!!!!! LOVE YOUU

A trip to the mall on P-day!! NIKE store and Protein powder YES!!!!