Baptizing Brisbane: Week 19 Six foot python

I start to lose track of the weeks. I think it is week 19.

I feel like it is a common thing to stay, but this week was crazy in a lot of awesome ways.

It started out saying goodbye to Elder Cadiang. Goodbye... My new comp was not coming until 4:00 that day so Elder Paulino, one of the Townsville elders, and I were together until 4:00. Well we thought. We showed up at the airport at 3:55 and saw that a plane from Brisbane landed. All the people came through the arrivals but no missionaries. We called the AP and they looked and their flight had been canceled. So after some rushing around they told us to come back to the airport at 7:00. Same thing. We came and no missionaries. We decided to wait in the airport. I got smart and parked outside the airport. I was sick of paying for parking. Lucky the mission office paid me back. Ok anyways off topic. It was 8:00 at night and no missionaries. This was bad. We have no way to get a hold of them and they have no way to get a hold of us or even the mission office. So we talked with President McSwain and after sorting a lot of mess out, we got a call that said they would land in 20 minutes. Finally they made it safely. We got to meet the two new missionaries for up north. They are both great!! Our DL is from North Salt Lake and went to the Murrays high school and knows Parker. His name is Elder Pugsley. I can pronounce that. I however am still working on my comps name.

Elder Bodeeletkasaem. We get to find out who our new comp will be two days before we get transferred. I was terrified. What if he is lazy, or not good, or we don't get along. Well none of that is a problem. He is hardworking, smart, healthy, and the best. He is from Thailand. He has been out a year and a half and is still learning English. He is mostly learning how to pronounce it. So at times he can be hard to understand. Mostly because he is always laughing. I have to say though, we get along so good. I wish you all could have seen his face when he got to Charters Towers. What a shock it must be to come up here. I guess down south is way different. I don't know though, this is normal to me. Oh by the way, everyone calls Elder Bodeeletkasaem Elder Bo. It is a bit easier for me and everyone else.

Once we got all settled and figured out the week began. Heaps of driving. We had another funeral in Ayr that we had to go too. It was sad but we did not know the man too well. He was too sick to come to church and a bit stubborn. We did sit down with him 2 or 3 times. It is hard to see people dying in these small branches. We need people. Not lose people.

On the bright side we gained back a wonderful youth in Charter Towers. When we drove back we met with Sister Dempsters. She is the wife of the other man that died. She has started coming to church and is the best for giving us friends to teach. She is the best. We met her grandson, Zepplin, about 4 months ago. He was 16 and drunk and smoking pot secretly. Well he came out and told his grandma. She got him in a program to come back and he has been coming to church. He wants to come to lessons with us and come finding. He also has heaps of friends that he gives us to teach.

Up until this week we had nothing to do with them. They never wanted us over or showed any interest. So I am kinda freaking out. What a miracle to have them both come to church and all of a sudden be so active. She has been having family home evening with Angus and his family and getting all her sons and grandson over at 6:00 every morning to read the Book of Mormon. This whole time I am thinking what the heck, who is this (new) person.

Zepplin has even said he wants to serve a mission. So we are doing everything we can to keep that desire in him and helping him stay away from drugs. Man he is quite the kid - from nothing to an awesome member. The church is true people. I testify of it. Miracles happen every day!!

Back to driving. Again we had to drive to Townsville. Our mission president came to give us a training and announced that there will be a world wide missionary conference that we get to watch. He is the best man ever. You know those talks when it is exactly what you need to hear. Man every word out of his mouth was like he has spent his whole life with me. I had been praying so hard for an answer and then he said everything I needed to hear. It was amazing!! He also interviewed us and we got to talk one on one. I loved it. He gave me advice, helped, etc. I feel so much love from him.

I am getting really good at losing keys and breaking into our flat. I don’t know how, but with all the traveling they seem to vanish. On the bright side we got a key to our chapel in Ayr. On the sad side we don’t know where the Charters Towers flat key is. So we bought a screwdriver and undid some screws and got a window open to crawl through to open our flat. The senior couple in Townsville has our spare hopefully so we are going there to make a few more copies. haha

We had an awesome lesson with Angus. He has read everything - Book Of Mormon, D&C, Pearl of Great Price, Joseph Smith history. He is out of stuff to read. So instead of teaching a lesson we filled out baptism papers. That was cool. He was so excited. So was Shonna and Jake, but I focus on Angus.

After a great lesson with Angus, we went to our next appointment with William. He is a new investigator that we found finding a week ago. He is... how do I say, a grown man who still plays video games 24/7. So it was interesting to see his social skills. There is not much. He also is very good at talking forever. He went on and on and on about a video game and then went on and on about Dungeons and Dragons. After an hour I blurted in, “Did your get a chance to read the pamphlet we left?” Again he went on and on about the pamphlet. It was good that he read and talked about it but I only got in two sentences and Elder Bo got in one. So he will take some time just because he talks so much but things could go well with him and his sister who was not there when we visited.

We got a call from our mission doctor Elder and Sister Calihan. They are from American Fork on the big hill by the Timpanogos temple. Just off the subject, they know Lenard Brunsdale. So I thought that was cool. Anyway we got a call from them and they said they would be near our area(s) and were wondering where we were so they could meet us and get us dinner. Well we had started to drive back to Charters Towers from the funeral. We quickly turned around and got to meet them for the first time. I love the senior couples. They are just the best. They help so much and just make you feel so good. It was so fun to have them come up to say hello.

While doing another driving trip from Charters Towers to Ayr it was dark and I had the high beams on. We were driving down a small old outback road. There was lots of high grass on the sides. We were going about 110 km when we saw the biggest snake I have ever seen on the side of the road. At least 2 meters. Which is about 6 ft. It was huge. So I slammed on the brakes and we backed up to see it. Ok now mom and dad, I love you and don’t you worry the videos of it seems close but I was zooming in on it. I was being really really safe. We parked the car and I got out and walked toward it to take pictures and get a good look at it. It was a carpet python but we did not know until later. SO I WAS VERY CAUTIOUS. I threw a couple of rocks at it to see if or how fast it could more. The whole time Elder Bo was dying of laughter and telling me to get back in the car. Haha by the way Elder Bo was on the roof of the car. He was so scared. If any of you think I am crazy you can blame my dad. Every time we saw a rattlesnake driving down on dirt road we would always stop and he would poke it with a stick.

We are back in Ayr and when we meet with President McSwain he said we should try staying one week in an area and then one week in our other area. That way we can progress our investigators and see them more often. It will be hard on our part to pack and unpack so basically I will be living out of my suitcase.

Anyway gotta run. I love you all so much. I wish I could respond more to all the emails but P days are always busy. I will keep trying though.

Love you all,

ELDER CAHOON