We have a saying that there are qualifying blessings on a mission. Thursday was the qualifying part of the blessing. It was a long and hard day but we talked to everyone we met about the Gospel. Friday was incredible. We saw so many people. We passed out 5 copies of the Book of Mormon (we can do more :) and everyone who accepted one was excited to read. I can't even really explain how some of these things come about other than that the Lord puts people into our path who are willing to hear the message of the Restored Gospel. I have never seen this many miracles. Some are small and could be put to chance, but there are so many that you know it is the Spirit directing you to these people.
The Dick family (the family that came to church last week) came again this week! We called them in the morning to make sure that they were up and ready to come to church :) Brother and Sister Dick want to go back to the temple! We will go see them again this week and follow up on how their family prayer is going-they have been doing great!!!
That's all for this week, Sister White and I are a bit sick right now but we're working through it.
-Love you heaps!

-Sister Edmunds

This last week has been wonderful! One experience in particular stands out.
For the last few weeks we have been meeting with a less-active family, the Dick Family. They are American, they had us over for Thanksgiving and they are never at a loss for words. They have a story about absolutely everything and they have lived some very interesting lives :)

On Friday we met with them again and talked for a while. We shared a message on prayer. We asked them if they would pray together as a family everyday and they said they would :)
Then Sister Dick said, quietly and humbly, "I know we need to go back to church."

The next day we had arranged to go to the Ward Relief Society Christmas Party with Nancy and Patty. We caught a ride with them to the RS Party and it seemed like they had a fun time. They got to know quite a few of the sisters in the ward. One of the sisters (sister Togai) got along great with Patty. Sister Togai asked if they were going to come to church the next day and Patty said to give them a call in the morning to make sure they got up :) They also told us to give them a call so they could get up on time.
When we arrived back at Nancy and Patty's house we thanked them for the ride (it saved us heaps of k's) and Sister Dick said, "you brought us."

We called them Sunday morning and made sure they were up :) I was so excited to see them at church! It was fast and testimony meeting and Nancy got up to bear her testimony. She told the ward that she and Patty had the most wonderful time at the Relief Society Christmas Party the day before and that she had never in her life felt so welcomed by a ward. She thanked us for bringing her and her daughter Patty to the Relief Society Party and that she has been an ungrateful child of God because she has seen the blessings he has given her in her life and yet had not been going to church.
After sacrament she thanked Sister White and I and said that "even if you don't save and souls, you have brought a few back." and told us how much we meant to her that "she has never before had sister missionaries that have affected her life as much as we had."
Yeah, I pretty much just cried and gave her a hug. :)

I think it is interesting because I feel that she has done so much for us and yet she feels that way about us as well. It is amazing that when we serve others in the Gospel and wear out our lives in the service of God, we feel that so much has been done for us, when in reality it is us who have simply allowed Him to shape who we are.

There is a quote by CS Lewis from Mere Christianity that Alexa sent me in one of her letters:

“Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on: you knew those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently he starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of—throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were going to be made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace, He intends to come and live in it Himself”

When we allow the Lord to shape who we are He makes us into so much more than we ever thought we could be. It is truly incredible that the only way to find ourselves completely is to lose ourselves entirely in His work.

-Sister Edmunds

As a fun side note. We had a Mission President's Christmas Fireside Sunday evening at the Maroondah Stake Centre next to the Melbourne Temple. We had to sing-which was interesting because we really didn't have time to practice. But it was very nice. We met some really wonderful people afterwards. Some members, some new members and some investigators. It was nice. There were so many people who were Chinese there. I can't wait until the Gospel can be brought to the people there! We met a man named Austin (his Anglicised name) who was from Northern China and had only been a member for 2 months! Apparently I look like his English teacher from China. (Strangest thing I've found here is that I remind people of someone else. I've never had so many people tell me I look like someone they knew. Seriously, strangers on the street have walked up to me and asked me if they knew me-I say no, and start teaching them the Gospel :) We also met brother Cheng, a members who brought his father who was Chinese but spoke no English and is not a member. Brother Cheng translated for us and we practised what little Chinese we know :)
Wonderful, wonderful week

This last week has been very busy. We had a Zone Conference on Wednesday and after lunch all the missionaries sang "Called to Serve" to the sisters who had prepared our lunch. Sister Lifferth (my mission presidents wife) told us later that 2 of the ladies were not members. I wonder what kind of experience that was for them. The Spirit was really strong :)
I also asked President Lifferth when I would be able to start driving. He said that now was a good time and I asked if I needed to have his approval in writing. He grabbed a clean serviette (napkin) and wrote out my approval on that :)
So I've been able to start driving a little this week. It's not that different but it is a little weird having a lot of space to my left instead of my right and the gear shift is on the left. Also, the turn signal is on the right-so I end up turning on the windshield wipers a lot :)
On Zone Conference days they also inspect our cars so we have to clean and vaccumm them really well-our car got balloons and TimTams because it was the cleanest-yay!!

People do not celebrate Thanksgiving in Australia but we have an American family in our ward who are not very active but they are super nice and have incredible testimonies. They invited us for Thanksgiving and it was so fun! They have lived in Ohio as well (the other side of Cleveland from where we lived) and they always have a good story to share.

We have also been focusing on finding more people to teach. We met a lady named Jess who had recently lost her son. We taught on her doorstep about the Plan of Salvation, that God loves us as his children and provides a way for us to be together as families again. We connected the message of the Plan of Salvation to the Restoration of the Gospel and when we were reading from the introduction to the Book of Mormon the Spirit was so strong. I knew she could feel it, you could see it in her eyes.

I know that as we improve our ability to teach by the Spirit and recognize that it is only by the Spirit that we can teach, we will truely be able to find those who are ready to hear the Gospel.

-Sister Edmunds

This past week has been crazy busy. Missionary work is always the best when you are really, really busy :) This week we met a really sweet girl from the Sudan. She is an incredibly humble person and has a deep love of Jesus Christ. You can see it in her whole face. She has an incredible desire to follow Christ in everything she does and was really excited when we gave her the Book of Mormon. We are really excited to see her again soon!
We also had transfers at the beginning of this week but me and my companion are here in Geelong for at least another 5 weeks :) I really love this area and the people here. As a missionary you meet so many people from all over and it's fun to see people that you have met before running around town.
We actually had a really interesting experience with that (seeing people around town). We were in Geelong city centre a few weeks ago visiting a sister in the hospital. On our way we met a man who is a first time father of a little baby girl. We talked with him briefly and found out that his little girl was a bit premature and had to stay in hospital. He didn't really seem to want to talk with us so we left it at that. The 2 weeks we were without our car we walked and took buses. We got on a bus at the end of the day and there he was! Same guy we met outside the hospital! It was actually very awkward because he still didn't want to talk to us, but I said "hi" and asked him how his little girl was doing. He responded briefly then ignored us......awkward..... But thankfully the Lord gives us more than one opportunity if we need it :) A few days ago we were following up with a potential investigator but they weren't home so we decided to tract the street. As we were near the end of our tracting we saw him, same guy, walking down the street. His name is Trevor, his little girl is fine and he does ninjitsu-basically he's a ninja :) He was super friendly and a lot more open, and said "there must be some reason I keep running into you."
This sounds like a crazy random incident but these things happen to us everyday on a mission. I know that it is true, that there are more miracles today, in our time, than there ever were before in the world. And that miracles only cease, when our belief ceases. These little things, they really are miracles. It is through small and simple things that great things are brought to pass.
I know as we continue to work hard, we will continue to see these miracles and bring the message of the restored gospel to these people so that they can make the saving covenants with their Father in Heaven that will bring them back to him.

-Sister Edmunds

These pictures were taken at Geelong Bay.

Christine currently lives in Geelong.

Pier at Geelong Bay

Jellyfish














Storm

They call these cars Utes in Australia. I believe we used to call them el camino's....

Kangaroos!

Elder Sa

And Lastly...Picture at Geelong Bay

This week I tried to get out a lot of pictures :)

This week has gone really well and we are super tired! we finally got our car back on Wednesday which was fortunate becuase we also had a mission fireside with Elder Pearson in Melbourne. Basically-we didn't have to take the train to Melbourne and caught a ride with Elder Guymon and Elder Sa.

The fireside with Elder Pearson was incredible. It was really what I needed at this time and I'm glad that I got to hear it at the begning of my mission and not at the end.

Wedenesday evening we met with a less active sister. The spirit was so strong and she said she would start coming back to church on sundays. We are going to meet with her again this week.

We have also worked harder on having members with us when we go to teach-one of the brothers in our ward-Brother Fields, was super excited to come and in a way, I feel like it was more for him than our investigator. It really does help strengthen the members when we have them help with missionary work and allows investigators to feel more comfortable at church becuase they already know someone.

On Saturday we had a ward picnic and our old investigators from Dandenong were coming to Geelong for the weekend and wanted to see us :) They came out to the picnic way out in the bush and had fun getting to know the members. Our ward made sure they were well fed and kept giving them food. Jas is always trying to watch what he eats but Neet tried everything-they are such a sweet family and I'm glad that we got to see them. They are stil being taught in Dandenong by Elder Putnam and Elder Bartle and the little boy Sam is really good about saying his prayers every night!

On another note-we saw kangaroos this week!!! yay!!! And hopefully my mom will be able to get the pics up so you can all see them. They were pretty cool.

-Sister Edmunds

A garden in Geelong.... just someones yard. Christine says they have the most beautiful gardens at the homes in Geelong. :)

Christine's current companion, Sister White.

















Christine's MTC companion.

Just arrived.... at the temple in Melbourne

MTC group going to Melbourne

Elders in the MTC

Christine's MTC district

This last week has been awesome. We got to meet so many of
the members and are continuing to teach. We met a family in our ward who are
from the States. The dad is from North Carolina and he served in the US
military. He knows where Ft. Campbell is and told us that he almost ended up in
TN but decided to stop serving in the military so he could be with his family
more. It's odd, but it was kind of nice to meet people from the States :)
We were also out of a car as of Tuesday so we have been
walking a lot :) We had to drop our car in Melbourne to get fixed because there
is a dent in the side-(not us...the last Elders who had it dented it). and we
had to take the train and buses back. 3 1/2 hours later we got home-wow.
We also got the opportunity to do service this week for a
man in our ward. We were (and still are) working on helping him clear out his
backyard. It was pretty messy but really great to be able to serve. Fortunately
the Elders had plans to help him too so we were able to catch a ride with them.
So there are a few things that are said quite frequently
here that I might end up saying when I get home and I thought might be fun to
mention :)
-"heaps" .....as in "there were heaps of them
-"She'll be right".......means "it's
alright"
-"rubbish"......trash
-"bench".......as in "clear off the
bench" (bench means counter)
-"the tip".....the dump
-"trolley"......as in "grab a trolley
(shopping cart)"
and of course "no worries" and "g'day"
oh yes, and my companion always says "crikeys"
Oh yeah, my brother Dallin asked me about any poisonous
spiders and or snakes or wallabies that I have seen.
Well, I haven't seen any snakes, and if I do it is probably
poisonous......because pretty much every snake here is poisonous. And I have
not yet seen a wallabies or koalas (but they do live here, so maybe I will) .
As for spiders, um yeah....they are everywehere and I have seen some pretty
dangerous ones. They have this one called a whitetail and I have found two of
them in our flat and lots more in the yard of the man we are doing service for.
Their bite is similar to that of a brown recluse.

The backyard that we are doing service in is crazy full of
spiders. I have now seen a TON of red-back spiders and they will put you in
hospital if you get bit. So we squish them. Also the member we are doing
service for has a ton of sheds in his backyard and Elder Guymon found a
huntsman spider in one of them. They are HUGE. They aren't poisonous but they
have really big fangs and thier bite is supposed to hurt like mad. Also, they
are FAST. Elder Guymon poked it and it was on his glove in less than a second-I've
never seen a spider move that fast. Needless to say, I've also never seen Elder
Guymon move that fast either-he flicked the spider off his hand towards
us......we still don't know where that spider ended up.

This last week has been spent following up on investigators and meeting the members. We now know quite a few people in our ward. I want to get to know everyone!! I'm usually terrible with names but I've been working at it and I only forgot one person's name from last week. Pretty good considering we met something like 40 people.

We headed up to Melbourne this last week for a mission president meeting. On the way there Elder Rawnsley directed us to get there in a way that took us right through the center of Melbourne. It's a really pretty city, but the driving is crazy. Most roads here have 4 lanes (2 right, 2 left). However, people can park in the left lane-and it's totally fine except for when you have to quickly get over to the right lane because there is a car parked in your lane. The city was like that, but if people don't want to wait they just go around you-doesn't matter what you are doing. Other than that the driving is good-no one speeds because they have cameras that mail you a ticket. Even if you go 3k's over the limit you could get a ticket, and they start at around 130$. Very expensive.

The meeting in Melbourne was nice, I got to see part of my MTC district, (except for an Elder who is serving in Tasmania-it's too far to travel). It was nice to see everyone again and learn more about how to be effective missionaries.

This week we also followed up with a lady named Anaka and her husband Frank. They are in their 80's and she is from Croatia and he is from Hungary. We shared a little about the gospel but mostly listened to her. She has had a tough time and does not get on well with her children. We talked with her and cried with her. She is so sweet and we asked if there was any service we could do, she said that she just wants us to come back and see her again :)

Meeting people from all over the world, some of them do not speak English well and some of them have very strong accents. I find that when I listen very hard, even if their English is not very good, I can understand them enough to know what they are saying. Anaka said the prayer before we left and even though it was in Croatian I knew what she was talking about. Not in the sense that I understood what she was saying, but that I knew what her prayer was about. There is an understanding of peoples that comes with the Spirit. :)

Speaking of languages. We met a lady the other day and set a return appointment to see her with her husband so he could translate. They are from the Congo and she speaks Swahili and a little French. Her husband's main language was French but he also speaks Swahili and pretty good English. When we first got there for our appointment her husband was not home so we taught the children and then taught her a little. Her English is not very good and my companion asked a question that she didn't understand. I was able to translate it into French-and thankfully she can understand my French. Whew. When her husband was there he didn't understand the name of our church so I explained it to him in French and he understood better. It was pretty cool, but my French definitely needs some work :)

To end: My mom asked what languages I have encountered and I thought I would list the ones that I have come across thus far:

Arabic (lots of Arabic)

Sudanese

French

Croatian

Hungarian

Samoan

Swahili

(a couple African dialects that I can't remember the names of)

Mandarin-Chinese

German

Cambodian-Tamil

Yeah, there's a pretty good mix of people here. Some of them speak English perfectly and others barely speak it at all. It's really difficult when you initially try to talk to someone and then realize that they have no clue what you are saying because they don't speak English.

Also, a side note about the weather. Everywhere I have lived people always say that the weather changes quickly. Like "If you don't like the weather just wait til tomorrow." Okay, never again can anyone say that in any place I have ever lived. The weather here is crazy. If it's sunny all day you just got super duper lucky. Because it will seriously be super sunny and warm and 5 min later be pouring rain for 10 min then back to sunny for an hour then grey, then rainy and cold, then sunny and warm again. All in one day but like 3 times a day. I've never had weather like this......Oh,. it will also be super calm and then you will get a roaring wind that lasts for days. It's lovely here but the weather is very sporadic. It sounds bad but it's really not :) I really like it here you just have to be prepared for literally any kind of weather when you go out :)

Until next week -Sister Edmunds

This last week has been so busy! Tuesday was very interesting, we went to contact people in Dandenong Plaza and talked with a man named Glenn who was sitting in his car. He is an Aussie and is Lutheran but he has worked with missionaries from the Church before and has actually been to Utah before-random :) We gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon and he said he would read and pray. As soon as we were done taking with him my companion saw a lady named Shadia that we were going to go visit, just standing in the Plaza with her 2 children. So cool! If we had gone to her house at that time and had not been in the Plaza we would have missed her. While my companion was taking to her I had 2 different people walk up to me, one of them was a young man who asked for 2 dollars for the bus, I gave him 2 dollars and talked to him about the gospel. He said he was looking to get his life in order and thanked me. We walked along the plaza and met another man named Luke. He was very interested in our message and told us that he had just overcome a Heroine addiction and was looking for direction in his life. (He is currently being taught by the Elders). This experience made me realize that by being where we should be we will placed in the path of those who need the Gospel. Meeting Luke made me think too, that the Gospel is not for perfect people, it's for everyone. For people looking for direction, for families, everyone :) I love that!

On Wednesday we went to our District meeting in Narre Warren, while we were there I felt like we should visit a girl that we had taught named Ragina. The last time we met with her she had said that she would not be around much the next few days so we were not really sure if we would see her again before they moved us to Geelong. We decided to stop by later that evening and tracted around our flat in the meantime. Almost right across the street from us we met a man named Reese. He had grown up Catholic but doesn't really practice. He was very interested in the restored gospel and how the Spirit testifies of truth to us. We asked him to read Helaman 5:30 and Moroni's promise and he really liked it. When I say he really liked it it sounds kind of lame to me-his eyes lit up and he could feel the Spirit. He said that he has felt it at times but that it never stays for long. We told him about the Gift of the Holy Ghost and how we can always have that to be wtih us. You can see it in their eyes when they understand and want to learn more :)

Later that evening we dropped by Ragnia's and she was home!! We talked with her about concerns she had. It was really nice.

On Thursday we met with Jess and Naite and their children Sama and Jaemin-the family we started teaching. Jess asked us when we first met him what the next step was, what was that link. We talked with him about covenants and how they bring us closer to God. We talked with him about prophets because they came to General Conference last Sunday and Jess said that right now it was easier for him to believe on our words that there are prophets until he comes to that knowledge for himself. He has placed a lot of trust in us. We had the Elders with us for this lesson and it was interesting that Jess said, if we had been young men he would have never let us into his home. He has gotten to know the Elders and knows that they are good and trustworthy. But I really thought about what he said, it is true that there are homes that are more open to Sisters than to Elders. We also talked with Jess's wife Naite while the Elders talked with Jess and talked to her more about the BofM. She understands Moroni's promise and is very excited to pray and know for herself if it is true. When we talked about covenants with them and baptism and the Gift of the Holy Ghost Naite's eyes lit up. She is always telling us that she sees light in us and through us and we told her that it is the Holy Ghost and it is something that we are blessed with when we live according to our covenants. She wants that light :)

This last Saturday we moved to Geelong. We were sad to go but we will be here for a while. The office told us that we would not have electricity until Tuesday but we really wanted to be down here for Sunday so that we could meet the members in the ward. Because it is a new flat for missionaries we had to move everything out of our old flat. The AP's brought the mission van and trailer and loaded our stuff up. We went to the zone leaders flat and dropped off the GPS............and headed to Geelong just using our map. Ummm, what should have taken 1 1/2 hours took about 2 1/2. We got lost in Koala country.......no, I did not see a Koala. Thankfully we were not as far out as we originally thought we were, but we had to stop in the middle of nowhere at a winery to get directions and figure out where on earth we were.

Geelong is right along the bay and we can see it from the chapel which is a 10min walk from our flat. We don't have electricity but a member from our last area let us borrow some emergency flashlights and a candle so we've been okay. We have running water and thankfully gas becuase that means we also have hot water-something that would really be difficult to live without. Also, I love Australia, I really do, but I have never seen more spiders in my life! Never. We squished like 20 around our flat yesterday and one of them fell off my bed.......I keep all my sheets tucked in very, very well now. The members told us that there is really only one kind that you don't want to get bit by here-the whitetail. They told us what it looks like and if I ever seen one, it's dead.

Well that's all for this week, the ward here is awesome and they are very excited to have sister missionaries. I really like Geelong. It's close to the country and supposedly there are Koalas around here-I will keep my eyes open.....

-Sister Edmunds

Hello from Melbourne!

We left the MTC Monday October 3rd at 12:30 in the afternoon and arrived in Melbourne, Australia at 11am on Wednesday. Our longest flight was 14.5 hours and it felt like forever!!!

A little story about our trip at the airport.....On our flight out of Salt Lake we were on a teeny tiny plane to LAX. Before we got on we met a really nice couple from Brisbane Area (the Young's). They were actually on the same flight to Sydeny with us and turned out to be a real blessing. The airport at LAX was huge and we had no clue where to go to catch our next flight but we saw brother and sister Young and they just told us to follow them and they would get us there. So 5 missionaries followed brother and sister Young and they led us right to our next flight (which seemed impossible to find on our own). They were so sweet and kind and we talked with them a lot both before our flight and during our flight because they were sitting near us. It was really cool :)

We got to Melbourne and met our mission president and his wife. We also met up with 3 other missionaries who had just arrived from the New Zealand MTC. Went and had lunch at the mission home and took pictures by the temple. After 2 days on planes the last thing we wanted to do was take pictures looking the way we did but it was fun, and the temple here is really beautiful. We went back to the mission home and had dinner and a meeting and then went to our flats around 9pm. I don't think I've ever been so tired.

So I've been here for a few days but we've had some really interesting experiences in that time. We met a man from Ethiopia who told us he and his wife had had missionaries over to teach before. We set an appointment to meet back with him at 7pm on Saturday but he wasn't home (we found our they had a family emergency). My companion (Sister White-she's an Aussie from Brisbane) went up to a man who was walking with his daughter and began to talk to him. He is from India and his wife is Indian but I think she's an Aussie. we talked with him for about 20min and he told us to come to his house, that his wife would like to hear from us as well. We talked with them for a while, and they had a lot of questions for us. I remember his wife telling me that they were looking for that light and that they see that light through us. I told her that we wanted them to have that light for themselves. We invited them to read the Book of Mormon and they seemed very interested and willing. We also talked to them about living prophets and because General Conference was broad casted here this weekend (because of the time difference) we invited them to come with us. They came to the Sunday afternoon session of General Conference and said they felt that peace and we asked if we could come and continue to teach them and they were very happy about that. There is not enough space or time here to tell everything they asked us, but they are a wonderful family and are very close to each other-there is the mother father and a daughter and son. Please keep them in your prayers, they are incredible people.

Also, the other day we went to an inactive members house and shared a message with her and her children and we decided to track a little in her area we met a very nice Aussie man who was in his 50's and he was very welcoming, we stood outside his door and taught him a little about the Plan of Salvation and gave him our contact info. Last night we taught a young man in his 20's and his sister (at separate times because she got home late). initially we went to teach the sister because she had met with missionaries before but only her brother was at home. We had just knocked on the door and the brother answered and we wouldn't have been able to go in except the mother and her other son arrived and invited us in. They are from the Sudan, the son is Catholic but doesn't really practice and the mother is Muslim. We shared a message with them, but mainly towards the son and asked him to read the Book of Mormon, he accepted and asked how he would feel to know if it was true-I love it when people ask good questions. We talked to the mother a little bit-she doesn't really seem interested in our message so she told us a little about the Arabic language. It was interesting, I learned something new about a different language :)

Her daughter came home and we were able to teach her. Previously she had accepted a Book of Mormon but wouldn't read, after talking with her we asked her to read and pray and she said she would. The Spirit was really strong, I could feel it. i just always hope our investigators can feel it as well. Please keep her in your prayers as well :)

So that's where we are. It's p-day, we're at the library in Dandenong (we are moving to Geelong in a few weeks) Google it if you want to, it's right on the coast (but it's not tropical-it's cold :)

Have fun, and pray for the missionaries, you have no idea how much we need and appreciate it :)

This week has been amazing!!! We have been able to teach so much and I love our investigators! We were lucky enough to get our travel plans last Friday and we will be leaving on October 3rd (this Monday) at 12:30 in the afternoon. We will get in to Melbourne at 11:05 am (their time) on October 5th, and we are nowhere on October 4th-we lose a day. All the people going to Melbourne will fly together to LA and all the Perth people will fly together to LA but we are not taking the same flights to LA, however we are on the same flight to Sydney! I love my district and I am really going to miss them when we all have to leave each other. The other district in our zone just left this morning really, really early, and my companion is the coordinating sister so we checked them out at 4:45 this morning-I’m tired! They are going to Columbus Ohio!!, and we are going to miss them so much. Sister Weedon who left, is from Sydney so she is really excited that we are going to Australia!!! We miss them but we are getting to know our new district better. We also got a new district today, we won't really see them until later because it is p-day, but we are excited, and they have 4 sisters!! We really like having districts with sisters :)

Everyone keeps telling me about the General Relief Society broadcast but believe it or not, we haven't seen it yet :) We get to watch it Saturday or Sunday while the Elders watch Priesthood.

I only have 2 min left so I will make this quick! I get to call home!!! Yay!!! Before I leave the States!! I will call my mom and dad from LA at 7pm, so it will be 8pm my mom's time and 9pm my dad's time!! I'm really happy they let us do that and if you want you can put me on speaker!!! I can't wait, and remember that if I get snail mail from you I will write back-so write me!!!!!

-Sister Edmunds

Hello Family!

I only have 26 min to write to you guys, so I will have to make this quick! we can use email, but only on p-days, and Wednesday is my p-day. i will actually only have one more p-day in the MTC before I leave for Australia!!! After that I will have a little more time to email-they limit us here so that everyone can write home.

The week has gone by really really fast even though days can seem really long. We are already teaching 4 different people, some in the TRC and 2 of them are our teachers pretending to be investigators. Even though most of the people we are teaching are just pretending you can still feel the Spirit really strong. We don't know enough yet to be great teachers but our lessons go so much better when we have the Spirit :)

So a little about our district: we have 12 missionaries, 4 sisters and 8 elders. All of us are going to either Melbourne Australia, Perth Australia or Aukland New Zealand. No, I have not seen Elder Donnovan-he's probably in a different district. Me and my companion Sister Tovar are both going to Melbourne along with 2 Elders: Elder Mcniel and Elder Bellon. Our estimated departure date is set for October 3-which feels really, really, really close-I hope we are ready! In our zone we actually have a sister (Sister Weedon) from Sydney Australia, so she is super excited about where we are all going :) Her and her companions even left us Tim Tams which is a really yummy Australian biscuit (cookie). Their district is going to Columbus Ohio :) We are also super excited to be getting new missionaries in today (new missionaries on Wednesday!!) There aren't any sisters and I think they are going somewhere in California?? We're not sure yet, but we will get to welcome them today!!

We work really hard, litteraly from 6:30am to 9:30 at night, with almost no breaks. The first day I wasn't sure what to study and felt like I had too much time to study. I definitely do NOT feel like that now! 3 weeks doesn't seem like nearly enough time to learn everything I need to!!

On another cool note, Elder Russel m. Nelson came to speak at our devotional last night (devotionals on Sunday and Tuesdays). It was a pretty wonderful lesson on the Book of Mormom-which has been pretty much our main focus :) Me and my companion and the other sisters in out district (Sister Myers and Sister Haney) along with 2 of our elders (Elder Lee and Elder NcNiel) sang in the devotional choir-"Consider the Lillies" and what do you know, my BYU Stake President (Pres. Brenchley) was our conductor :) I almost said 'hi' but we have like 20 min to grab dinner and run back to our seats so, I will have to do that if I see him again.

I always have songs stuck in my head now-I actually woke up the other day, before the alarm (i think) and was singing a hymn subconciously in my head, and as soon as I was done the alarm went off. Kind of a nice way to wake up :)

I'm sure there's more I want to say but I don't have much time. Don't worry, I'm writting letters later today so I'm sure I will think of more to say :)

Also, tell the boys that I'm only going to be snail mailing those who write me by mail or Dear Elder, so if they want a letter they better write (otherwise they will get mass emails until I get to Australia-and maybe beyond :)

Tell everyone I love them and say hi to Rachael for me!!!

-Christine

So this is my first blog for my mission blog. I am hoping to update this every 2 weeks or so but for now I will just give some basic information about my mission so far.

I received my mission call at the end of April, the 2oth I think (for those of you who know me well, the fact that I cannot remember the exact day is not surprising), and was called to report to the MTC on September 14th, 2011. I will be serving in the Melbourne, Australia Mission for the next year and a half and, if all goes well, will be in the MTC for approximately 3 weeks as I am English speaking.

It's been a long and crazy summer and I am excited to be leaving in exactly 1 week :) I only have a few more small things left to do, but I cannot believe how fast the time has gone.

On another note, I am excited to see many of my friends who are currently in the MTC, including my former roommate DaNae, who apparently may be one of my hosts when I enter, which would be super cool :)

Goodbye to all for now, I will write on this blog as often as I can and will try to put pictures on here once in a while. I am told Melbourne is very pretty :)