Last email I talked about getting bed bugs. Well the rash kept spreading and getting worse so I called the mission doctor and he found a doctor in Ayr that could see me. So I went there and they had never seen this before. It look 3 doctors about 2 hours to figure out what was going on. It was not bed bugs but I did get bite by a bug. I had an allergic reaction to it. They could not figure out which bug it was, if it was poisonous or not. Just little things like that. So I had to go in for a blood and urine test. Well for those of you who don't know me too well, I HATE NEEDLES! I hate flue shoots, vaccines, and anything that pokes me. I thought crap I have to be responsible and force myself to go since I did not have my parents to force me to go through with it. I was so scared. So we walked in and the nurse took me back and sat me down. I asked the typical questions, “Does it hurt? How long?” The nurse told me not to look but with her accent I thought she said look. Oh boy!!! Bad Idea. The needle was huge, the good part though was it was in and sucking away. So it did not hurt but I could see my blood being sucked out by a mini vampire. I about passed out. I went pale and limp. So the nurse picked me up and laid me on the ground for a good 15 minutes to get it back together. The results come in a week so I got put on some medication and I have a cream for the rash. It is doing a lot better and not itchy or spreading. I am gonna be just fine. It was quiet the experience though. I have to thank everyone that warned me about all the things that live in Australia that try to kill you. I had my first run in and it was not fun.
Anyway the mission work side of things went really good! The first day we got back to Ayr we were on the deadly treadlies biking to a less actives house. I noticed a big scary man standing on the side of the road and felt like I should talk to him. I did not want to talk to him. He was a scary looking guy but I trusted the spirit and walked up and started talking. He was the best!! We taught him a quick lesson. He invited himself to church and to be baptized so we did not have to do any of the hard stuff. Sadly, he did not come to church but we have his number and all his info so we are gonna work with him a lot when we come back to Ayr. After our lesson with the less active family we were riding home and another prompting came to us to talk to a man on the road. Turns out the same experience. He invited himself to church, did not come but we have all his info to follow up so we have some really promising people. It is just amazing how much the Lord blesses us and prepares people to receive this full knowledge of the gospel.
The wonderful Yip family had us over for dinner and they planned for us to go Christmas caroling. We recruited a few of the other branch members and had a good number of people to go around and sing. Not your typical caroling experience. No sleigh or hay bale to sit on. No snow falling down. No hot coco. Same music about the snow and Christ’s birth. We went around to all the less actives with a plate of cookies and sang a couple of songs. It really helped them feel loved and bring the spirit into everyone's home. It was so fun!!
During our district meeting the zone leader came on and told us we are gonna start implementing the invitations to be baptized into our key indicators. BOOM look at that. My idea made it all the way up to him and then out to everybody. He gave us our credit and it was just so awesome to have our little idea become a big one.
Since we have the car we go to all our surrounding areas to follow up with less actives. This week we spent time in Alva. It is right on the beach and quite the little beach town. Everyone has a fishing boat or sail boat or something for the water. So after our visits with everybody we had lunch on the beach. Nobody swims or plays on the sand because of sharks and jelly fish. So it was an empty beach and not to impressive. It was still pretty cool to see the ocean and the reef.
Charters Towers had their Christmas party for the branch. We drove over a day early to attend it. The only bummer about it was that we have a very strict 2nd counselor and the branch president is too mellow and shy so the 2nd counselor takes over. So the party was at his house and not the chapel. This meant we could not invite anyone that we were teaching to the party. We did invite Angus and he came with his family but we could have had so many other people come and see the church and the members but the 2nd counselor had to have it at his house. It was fun don’t get me wrong. There was just no room and no investigators to show around. In the end it turned out good and we had a fun time. Lots of laughs and love.
We had some really good lessons with some people that we have been teaching. We took more time in these lessons to open up and talk as friends and this made them open up to us and we got down to what is holding some people back. It was really good.
We visited Jose and his wife. We showed them the Christmas video and started to talk about my life before the mission. Juliette, the wife, found my YouTube channel and we ended up watching all my videos. The way they see me totally changed. Juliette wants to show her school this and have me come in and give a motivational speech and all this stuff. I talked with them about my dad’s saying. You have to have your main course before you can have your spice. They loved it. I also talked about trails in life and how we can overcome them. I used my bad back as the analogy. This caused them to really open up to us and it turned into the best lesson we have ever had with them. Usually Jose is always changing the subject or talking about something else but today when we were teaching he was backing us up. ( Jose is a member, his wife is investigating) Jose was bearing his testimony and the spirit was so strong in this lesson. I was praying so hard that we would get through to her but she does not see why she needs to change, she is good where she is. I got really emotional and teared up when asking questions and bearing my testimony. She is gonna think about it and wants some time. We understood. She still wants us over all the time because she likes how she feels when we are there. If only she could understand. In time she will come around.
I am getting so excited for Christmas and to Skype my family. I want to wish you all a very MERRY CHRISTMAS. Enjoy the cold snow and be safe. I love you all.
LOVE,
Elder Cahoon
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