Tuesday, September 5, 2017

Week 53 I just gotta say I love being on a mission

Haha things went really good this week in a very funny way. As you all know Elder Sharma and I have had some problems and this week on Tuesday we just both exploded!! Yelling and arguing. It is so funny to look back. But from it we both found out what we can work on and do for each other. It is funny how that works. Even though it does not sound good that we were yelling and screaming at each other it opened up our relationship.

For all the people getting ready to go on a mission this advice is for you. Talk to your companion. As fun as it is to point out something that they do it sure beats waited 2 weeks in hell and then yelling at each other to figure it out. Be open but also humble. You will find you will love all of your companions and be able to work with them a lot easier.

I think that was what was holding us back. This week we saw the Lord’s hand in this work so much!! It was amazing to see all the miracles.

The biggest one was just the amount of work we were able to do. It was nothing huge but it was diligent and full of tender mercies. Upon while door knocking we found 7 people that accepted a return apt and we got there phone numbers. That is unheard of in Gold Coast. It was amazing. While following up we caught 2 and 1 became a new investigator. The others were not home but still wanting to meet with us.

Christopher is the man’s name. He is a 7th day Adventist but also goes to church on Sunday. He is a bit confused right now. He is also writing a novel on the life of Jesus Christ and his teaching. That takes up most of his time. Haha when we followed up he has a few questions.

1. Is the book of Mosiah a combination of Moses and Isaiah?

2. I heard that Joseph Smith got all his teaching from the devil.

He had about 10 other easy ones but these 2 got me. #2 is just a crack up. We asked if he read any of the Book of Mormon. He said no. So we began to read from it. We testified that it was written by prophets of God who wrote it down and Joseph Smith translated it. Haha it is so fun to testify of the BoM. It did not come from the devil. We said you can find out too by taking Moroni's promise at the end. He really took to that and wants us to come back. The only problem we foresee with him is he wants to know everything at once. So he has doctrinal question one after another. So we will have to go in with a really good lesson plan and help him understand we will answer all questions when the time comes. What a guy though. He is about 70.

The next best part of our week was going to MLC. Mission leadership council. Oh the inspiration we get there and the vision we see. Right now my mission baptizes 50 people on average every month. President McSwain foresees us reaching 100 a month by next year and the last year that he is here he wants this mission baptizing 300 a month. That seems like heaps when you think about it but with the things we are implementing it is going to happen. Not by us alone but with the members and the Lord. What a great work we are apart of.

Shelia is quiet the character. She is still on coffee but is slowly doing better. It is the most painful thing to see her. We never teach big lessons like the restoration with her. Usually we go over coffee and then deep doctrine. She is going to know everything by the time she gets baptized. Right now she wants to do it on the Lords time. So she is waiting until she gets an answer from the Lord on when to be baptized. It is just so great but frustrating.

One of the funnest parts of this week was a stake family fun day. We spent the morning on Saturday inviting ALL of our investigators to this. There was food, fire, jumpy castles, and my favorite Bull Riding. Haha what a day. We had Shelia come and she brought all her grand kids. We are teaching a few of her grandkids by the way. The bull riding was so fun. I figured out a good technique and stayed on for one of the longest. Ben is the name of one of the youth. He was really good too. We would take turns him then me and so on. Haha he loved my camera and took so many random pics. So sorry for all the random ones.

This has been such a good area and there is so much potential that is coming from it. I really hope that I will still be here for all of the investigators baptisms. I keep getting moved right before they go into the water. I got word of Angus and Shanna. They are married and getting ready for baptism in a few weeks. I was so excited when I got word of it. It took a year but it was so worth it!! What a miracle. I am going to call up there in a few days to get more info.

I just gotta say I love being on a mission. It is crazy to think that I only have so long left. You sorta switch when you hit a year. Before I kept saying I am 3 months 7 months 11 months out. Now it is I only have 11 months left. How weird is that?? Only a few months left. I got to call Sister Day from the MTC. She told me how many transfers she has left. 2. Soon she will be home. When that happens I will only have 6 months left. What a growing adventure this has been.

We had a couple move into the units across from us. They are members but they are from Switzerland. The poor wife has a massive infection on her leg so the dad was in charge of moving and watching over the 3 boys younger than 4. The parents both speak English but the kids don’t. I really felt for them as I know what it is like to move to a new country and have a curse follow you. Everything seems to go wrong. So we went over to their home for the day and spent 4 hours setting up IKEA furniture. Oh I hate that stuff. It was so frustrating. We got it done though and it was so good to be able to help them. We got in touch with the Relief Society and they now have meals for the next 2 weeks. It is amazing to see how much love we can have for others who are in need. Everybody helping them has no clue who they are but since we are Mormon we don’t see each other as strangers. Rather brothers and sisters of this great eternal family. It is so cool. I love it.

Well this week should be another good one. Love you all and have a good week.

- Elder Cahoon


Sorry I forgot the funniest part of the week. We meet a man from China in our parking garage. He just talked and talked to us and we thought he was interested in the gospel. We never got a number or contact info but a few days after we got a note on our car that read. "I would like to have you for tea and biscuits. My number is ... and I live in unit... Please come at 3 on Sunday." My first thought was that Russian movie when they get kidnapped. But that was not the case you see. As the day went on and we were trying to figure out why he wanted to have us visit I jokingly said he wants to use us for money...

The day of the apt came and it started out nice. Do you want tea or coffee? Sorry we don’t drink it. Water please. Ok simple enough. As our visit went on we started to see that he was trying to get us to buy a product. He played us really smooth. We could see through it though. He asked how many people we talk to everyday and his mind exploded when told him. He started to crunch numbers for us and we found out that if we work with him and sell this product we each could make 1 million dollars. Oh boy what a deal. Hahahahahahaha we were trying not to crack up but what a meeting. It was a huge pyramid scheme thing. We started to have some fun with him and play along. Oh we had too much fun. He was so easy to mess with. He got so excited and thought we were going to sign. Hahaha what a crack up. I loved it. What a mission memory.

Ok now I am done. Love you.

 Elder Hanson MTC companion on the right


 Stake Family Fun Day



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