My zone really struggles with getting new investigators to teach so as a zone we had a 24 hour fast that we would be able to each find a new investigator. We have the coolest story from it.
It happened to be the hottest day when we decided to do this fast. So it was hard to stay away from water. We decided to knock a street called Honeyeater. It was 2 k's long and we did both sides. From the whole street we got nothing. It was the craziest street we have knocked. A whole bunch of crazies. Things were just not looking up. We were so tired from being in the sun for 4 hours with no water but we pushed on. We taught some lessons and it was rolling about to that time of the night when there is nothing to do because it is too late. We felt prompted to go street contacting and when we parked at the place we both crashed. It was 8:30 and we had 30 minutes left of our dying state. I got the prompting so clearly to talk to this lady who was walking past our car but my body did could not do it. The spirit was willing but the body was weak. I thought nah it was just my head, well she walked by again coming from the other way. Talk to her!!! Ugh I am too tired.
Upon her walking by the 3rd time she just stopped in front of our car. We mustered up enough strength to get out of the car finally and right as we did she talked to us. How are you she asked? Good you? We struck up a conversation and she is just amazing. Her name is Titania from Brazil. We talked on the side of the road for 10 minutes and then she invited us into a mall area with a bench. We asked if she believed in God and she did so we shared how much he loves us and wants to show us the way. He does it through prophets. It was amazing after I had shared that little statement she just broke out into tears, not crying hysterical tears but like the spirit touched her heart. She was on call for work for a delivery company and right as we shared that she had to go. We got her number and have made more contact throughout the week. We got her Portuguese pamphlets and a Book Of Mormon in Portuguese. The saddest part about this whole thing is that she is so awesome and even is sharing the gospel with her friends from her building but she lives one block outside of our area. Still in our zone but not our area!! NOOOO we have not given the referral yet but have taught a lesson. We are waiting for our district leader to go home next week so we can hit it off with the new D.L Fasting really works and even though in Australia it is hot and you want to die it is worth it!!
Funny story time, mom this is the one I was talking about. As we door knocked Honeyeater there was a house with a massive gate and fence, the gate was open so we walked in and knocked on the door. An old lady in PJs told us to go away so as we left she ran back out and said, "Wait how did you get in?? My gate is always locked!!" We said, “No it was open, we walked in.” She said “That’s weird” and walked back in. When we got to the gate to get out it was locked. Now the problem was not getting in but getting out. There was no dog so we were good there but there was no way we were going to tell this lady that the gate locked itself. There was no way out and we did not know what to do. It would look bad if we try and jump it. We told her we did not jump it. So we walked around the yard like ninjas trying not to get caught. Finally we gave up and decided we needed to jump it. It was so funny I made it up and over and then fell right on my face on the other side. My leg got caught on the top when I jumped over. It was like when you try and jump over a tennis net and your foot gets caught. It was so funny. No injuries but I bet whoever was watching almost died of laughter. It was so weird.
Oh some big news that I want to share is we have a new Ward Mission Leader who is the best!! Every body in the ward just loves him and this month for August we are doing member mission month. He got the ball rolling on Sunday since it was a 5th Sunday we got up with him and talked about what we as a ward are going to do for mission work. I am so excited and hope I stay in this area for a long time. The members are so great!! My only complaint about this area is the food. It is so good but they give so much!! I get sick at every dinner. I have never ate so much food. Almost every night we have a roast or pork or some kind of fancy dinner with heaps of food. Aussies don’t let you dish your own food. Boy they give me heaps. I love it but hate it. By the end i am so full. The other night I was praying saying Help me finish this food. There is just way too much! haha It was so funny!!
We have done heaps of finding and finding is great but you don’t really get anything from it. The zone does heaps of finding but never follows up. So they never have new investigators. This week we had a miracle follow up. We found Shae last week door knocking and got her number. When we followed up (that is the key) Follow up. She invited us in and we had the first lesson with her while her father listened from the side room. She took so much comfort in a living prophet. It was amazing to see the spark in her eyes go when it clicked for her. She still needs to learn more and get a strong witness but it was so cool. Usually when the dad walks in a lesson he tells us off but Mark, her father, wanted to learn more too. We just roll in the new investigators. That night we went to a dinner with some members and we were getting to know them. They have a daughter in college. We asked what she studies and she said education. Shae also studies that so we asked on the off chance that she would know her and to our surprise they are in the same class!! I testify that the Lord has a plan for all of his children. Holy cow what are the chances?!! Shea now has great fellowship and we have a friend to come to lessons with us to fellowship!!
On the fourth week of every transfer all the Zone Leaders gather together at the chapel across from the temple and discuss each zone, strengthens, weakness, and help needed. The APs give a few training and then President McSwain talks to us for a bit. It was so much fun!! We have the best mission. Everyone is doing so good right now and I just love being a missionary. It was so cool to see how much the Elders really care about the zone, I did not know how much planning went into each area and elder. Everything is recorded, noted, and saved. Diligence is key and it is so fun!! We got to see the numbers for the mission and discuss why some months were better than August and why March was miserable March for us. It was just a really good learning experience for me and inspired me to me the best I can be!!
That activity is called MLC which stands for Mission Leadership Counsel. Anyway it took up all day and we had to leave straight away to go interview people for baptism. Elder Paulino from up north is smashing it down here with the baptisms. So I got to interview one of the girls and the mom had to get interviewed by President McSwain. He came down behind us with his family but his family left him to go to the city and explore. They were visiting from Utah. Anyway after the interview he was stranded at the chapel and asked if he could catch a ride with us. Elder Westbrook threw me the keys and said, "You drive."Since he is half Chinese he is not very good at driving. I don’t want to scare you mom but he is bad. We almost crashed into a garage door that was down yesterday. So I do more driving now that he has almost crashed. Back to President McSwain though. I was petrified to drive with my mission president in the car. We had to drive pretty far with him to the city in our area. His wife was on the phone saying we don’t know where we are, there is a big round building by us. haha We were in a city. What big tall round building?? It got stressful navigating a city with no clue where we are and the mission President in the front seat. To make it worse we were low on petrol and the car said we had 10 k's. It was so fun but scary but fun!! haha We found our way around and got him back with his family!! What a day and night!!
It is so fun to hear from back home so email me!! It is fun to hear from everybody!! I hope you all have a good week.
Love,
Elder Cahoon
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