Week 61 Not Much Happened

What a week. Not much happened. It was one of my quieter weeks.

To end it off we had Stake Conference and it was amazing. Our Stake President is the greatest guy ever. He knows everyone in the stake by name and calling.

It has been fun to be a zone leader because we get to work really close with him. The meetings that he runs are always so inspiring and full of great help and insight. 

It was a fun experience to have conference but we had to move Adrian’s date. So next week we will be having his baptism. It was fun to meet with him this week and get ready for it. The program is all done and read and now we just have to have the interview. It has been so fun to work with him. I am really excited that it is happening next week. It is the last day of the transfer and if I leave it will be a good send off.

Our work this week was hard. We only had a few lessons planned so it meant the rest of the day was going finding.

In one of our training we were told to look for people age 9-25 or temporally poor. They are the people who have been joining the church.

To try and do this we have set out to search for units instead of knocking 15 million dollar houses. The hard part with units is lots of them have codes to get in. Sometimes we wait until someone come out and then we sneak in and get heaps of contacts. Most of the buildings have 4 to 5 floors with 10 or so doors. Lets just say it has been fun and different.

I wish I could write more. Really we only went finding. 

Ohhh I just remembered something else that happened. We got three referrals from SLC and we were able to contact one of them. The others left on a holiday. Her name is Claudia from Brazil. Dad I am getting pretty good at speaking Portuguese. The other two are married and were in SLC a few weeks ago and went to Temple Square.

The other really awesome thing that happened was on Sunday. We went to follow up with Richardo from Brazil. He was not home but as we were walking out of the units he came in. We asked how he was doing. He had just lost his brand new iPhone and had to go do uber eats. So he was mad. We asked if we could help in anyway. He did not know how. I asked if he knew what Find my iPhone was. He did not. So we got his friend’s laptop and he logged on and we were able to locate his phone. It was in the middle of the road about 5 ks away. So we set off and started to look for it. It was a main road and really busy but after a few minutes I found it in the median in a bush. It was not broken and fine. It was the best “how to begin teaching” we could ever do. There is no more awkwardness and we are really good friends now. He was so excited for us to come back and it was amazing to see how the Lord works in amazing ways.

I hope next week goes well for everyone. Sorry for no photos. Not much happened. I will try to make next week a bit more interesting.

Love,
Elder Cahoon

Week 60 Word of Wisdom and The Law of Chasity

Another week has gone by and more things have continued to happen. Where to start is always the question.

Our week started with a trade off with an area that is the farthest away. It is so far away that it is in a different state. They are in a little town called Lismore, NSW. They are about 3 hours away from us and the town is tiny.

I felt like I was in a big version of Charters Tower's. I was with an elder who served in Charters Towers after I left. He hated it there. So that was a bit sad. The best part about our trade off was we found a new investigator for them. They have not had a new investigator for a few weeks. So it was really great!!

The next trade off was with Elder Top from England. He came to my area and we got around. It was our busiest day of the week. Shelia wanted us over at 10. Jessie wanted us over at 12:30 and we had to run around to all the areas and do some zone stuff. It was crazy!!

Our lesson went so great with Shelia. She is really coming along. We call her the dry Mormon now. She knows everything and loves everything. We even calculated how many times she has come to church. Over 20. She is so ready but not ready at the same time. She is still on 2 to 3 cups a day. If you have any ideas for help that would be great!! Our Bishop suggested we go when she has the first one in the morning. So Elder Top and I asked when she wakes up and drinks it. 5 in the morning is when she is up and going. So starting tomorrow we are going to wake up at 4:30 and go over and watch the sunrise with her and bring a fruit salad. It is going to be so hard to get up but it is going to help her so much.

President McSwain said get her off coffee for a week and baptize her and the Holy Ghost will give a go at her. So that is the plan. So there is not date set yet but it will come quick. Get ready!!

Jessie is going so much better than ever before and also worse than before. He meet a girl who was homeless and she moved in with him at his house. The good news is that when we have lessons now he really pays attention because of her. She became a new investigator and they are really growing together. The hard part will be when we get to the Law of Chastity. At our last lesson Jessie was shirtless and covered in hickies. haha They are coming along.

This week I had my ASL knowledge come in handy. A man came up to me gesturing for help but not speaking. I pulled out a paper and said are you deaf. He wrote yes. I wrote I know ASL. He looked at me and said Hi my name is (I forgot) I know ASL too. We got into a very basic conversation. I was able to help him with what he needed and we got to sign for a bit. I was so frustrated because I could not sign perfectly and I forgot most of it. He helped me out and I made a good friend. He also signed Aussie and taught me a bit of that. Boy is their alphabet hard.

The highlight of the week was Celia's BAPTISM!! Everything went perfect. It was a really good baptism. Satan will always try and do the littlest thing to stop it from happening. When Celia got to the chapel she realized she forgot to bring a change of clothes. She was panicking but her great husband drove home and got her a dress. The elder that found her a year ago was in an area just outside of our zone. He goes home in a few weeks and we thought it would be great to get him there. Celia picked him to baptize her and it worked out perfect. He got to come a year later and see her get baptized. How cool is that!! When she came up out of the water the first thing she said was " Did it work?" I loved it so much. She had so much faith that her sins were going to be forgiven her. How wonderful!!

Our Friday was spent with the wonderful senior couple in our area. Elder and Sister Bale. They got put in charge of getting everything ready to move the elders that are living in our flat. The cool part is they just live down the road from us. We went around with a big trailer and we were their heavy lifters. Haha it is so fun spending the day with senior missionaries. They are just so funny and lovable. We almost died in 3 car crashes but eventually we got everything with out a scratch.

It has continued to rain but it still has not stopped us. Adrian is still going strong and keeps coming to church with his family. We have stake conference next week so we moved his date to the next one. It will be the last week of the transfer. But it is solid and will be great!!

Things are just great and keep going. I love this work and being a part of it. Seeing people change their lives is a great thing. Celia and Adrian are so amazing.

Hope you are all well. It would be good to hear from you by the way;)

Love,

Elder Cahoon

Week 59 We Don't Stop For Anything

Why were the Laminites knees sore?......Because of the Nephites hahahaha

Oh boy I just loved that joke. I have had a hay day telling it to all of our investigators. Shelia got the biggest laugh out of it and so did Celia. Haha oh the fun on the mission.

This week was pretty good as far as the work goes. The best thing that happened was with Celia. We meet her again this week to go over the interview questions. She is so excited and got a pretty dress and picked the program. It is going to be great!! After we had a little lesson we had dinner with her and the members. It was vegan but still really good. She is just so great and excited to get baptized.

We also went and saw Adrian. He too is so excited to get baptized. We started to make the program with him and as we did he wanted me to baptize him. So next week is going to be really fun too. Things are just picking up and it is so exciting.

I had a pretty scary experience this week while on trade off. I went to an area in our zone that is in the city. We were having a really good day until we went to see the man that they have on baptismal date. We pulled up to his unit and to get to him you have to walk past three units. They have never had a problem but this time there was a man who was just going crazy!! He was in his flat just yelling and screaming and making heaps of noise. We did not think much of it until we walked by his unit and he jumped out at us.

Long story short he hates Mormons and was so angry that we were walking by. So when he jumped out he yelled a heap of nasty stuff at us. The funniest was to me. "You skinny &^%%. I will *^(& snap your (*&^# neck you little *&%$#." I was laughing so hard and did not think much of it until we saw Edward, their investigator. Edward was on the phone with the cops. The man that was yelling has a house full of swords and is very hostile. We were trapped in his house while the crazy man was pacing back and forth in front of the door. To make it worse I had to poop and the until did not have a toilet. You had to go out of the front door to get to it. Finally he left and we said bye and ran to the car safe and sound. CRAZY!!

We had another fun trade off with the Tallai Elders. I took the new Golden and Elder Sharma went to their area. The morning started out really good and then it started to rain. Hard rain. Drenching rain. Luckily we had a spare rain jacket for him. We put them on and went to work. We had so much fun in the rain and just got drenched. It was amazing. This work is so great and it was fun to show him we don’t stop for anything. We’ve got to work even if it rains. The bad news is that it has been raining since that day. It has not stopped us though.

The worst thing that happened this week was at church. We showed up early to choir practice and when we got there the whole side of the chapel was covered in graffiti. Someone had come in the night and wrote very mean bad words in grey paint all over the bricks, windows and doors.

Immediately people went to work spraying it off. They got power washers there and it is back to normal now. Crazy though.

It taught me a really good lesson. I was so full of hate and bad feelings for whoever had done it. In the opening pray the man prayed that the people who defaced our chapel would be blessed. He prayed that the people would be able to feel God's love and be forgiven. It was a really humbling prayer. I had to repent for all the hate that I had for it.

It also reminded me that the church is still true. Joseph Smith had to go through 10 times more persecution. It does not stop though. I love this quote that Joseph said...

“The Standard of Truth has been erected; no unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing; persecutions may rage, mobs may combine, armies may assemble, calumny may defame, but the truth of God will go forth boldly, nobly, and independent, till it has penetrated every continent, visited every clime, swept every country, and sounded in every ear, till the purposes of God shall be accomplished, and the Great Jehovah shall say the work is done.”

It grows my testimony that this church is true. That it will never change. People will still persecute the church. But it will not stop this great work!!

I know this church is true. I love it. This is my testimony.

Hope you all have a good week.

Love,
Elder Cahoon

Week 58 You can just feel something happening in the air right now.

This work is so great!! I had another amazing week. It was a fun crazy filled week as always.

We had zone conference to start out the week. As always it was really good. We all loved it. It was full of faith growing experiences and lots of learning. The fun part of the story comes at the end. We had a massive feed. One of the wards made us a massive lunch. They had every food possible. It was more of a buffet really. We all loved the food and had a great time eating. That night it hit us it the butt. For reals the BUTT!! Everyone at zone conference got food poisoning. I was so glad we had 2 toilets in out flat. It was good too that the day before was p-day. We loaded up on toilet paper and used all of it by the next day. It was crazy!!

Before I get to a spiritual moment I have one more fun story that falls under both. Oh side note, at zone conference we learned how to give blessing and all the ins and outs of the details and power behind it.

While we were driving this week we saw a bird fly right into the side of the car driving in front of us. This bird broke its neck and was lying on the road. It was one of those moments when you just feel so bad for the thing. So we turned around and went to see if we could help it. It was on a part of the road that was a one way and when we pulled over a car came and we had to move. So we sorta broke mission rules. I stayed with the bird while Elder Sharma drove the car a few blocks trying to find a spot to turn around.

While I was alone with the bird I said a silent prayer. "Heavenly Father please help this bird." It was simple but fervent. Right after I said the prayer I went to touch the bird. I touched its head which was behind the back due to its break. Right as I touched it, it snapped its head back and flew off. BOOM!! Not to boast or anything but I healed this bird. Power in prayer. It was so funny.

As the week went on we set up a few appointments with everyone. We had a dinner with the Gonzales family. A lesson with our investigators and everyone is doing great and progressing.

We meet with Celia this week and had a great lesson. We meet her at a member’s house. They are really good friends with her and have so much love for her. The opening prayer was said and then the members took over. We had a big lesson prepared but the members had so much love for her that they just jumped it. So for the first time on my mission I set a date without doing anything. Celia is now preparing for Baptism on the 20th next week. It was amazing. We did do some talking but for the most part the members addressed all her concerns.

My highlight though this week was going to a stake mission correlation meeting. We have the coolest stake president who cares so much about mission work. The fun part was that we were prepared for it. We brought all the things we are implementing with the missionaries in the zone and how they are doing with it. The stake president was so blow away with how much we did. The meeting turned into a “we have great things happening how can we get the members to feel the spark.” Boy did our council come up with some great ideas. I love this church. The council that we had was not from us but from the spirit. It was amazing.

I say this always but this week shows it. The work is hastening. This week we only had 3 full working days due to zone conference and general conference. I thought we were going to have terrible numbers for our area and the zone. Guess again. The numbers for this week have never been higher. All the missionaries had high numbers. You can just feel something happening in the air right now. I think the second coming is coming quicker than we think. Things are happening right now in mission work that have never happened before. The Lord is leading his work and we are in the full swing of it!!

Everyday is just so great right now. I can’t wait to write about next week. Half our zone with be out for 3 days due to meeting for the new missionaries but we are still going to go strong.

Until next week.

Love,
Elder Cahoon

Week 57 This work is just so damn great!!

Oh my goodness things are back on track. This was the best week of my life so far. It was also one of the craziest!! So here we go. Fun and very spiritual!!

So the greatest thing that happened to this zone was we got 3 new missionaries with us. They are so excited for the work and we saw a massive jump in numbers and work this week. It is going to be amazing!!

While calling in for numbers I was just blow away!! The whole zone tripled their numbers from last week. Last month we had 9 new investigators. Elder Sharma and I had 4 of those. Well this week almost everyone in the zone got 3. We had 9 new ones just for this week. I have said it before but now I really know it. The Lord is hastening his work. It depends on our obedience. Oh heck this work is just so damn great!! Damn is a normal word over here. Really fun to have picked up on it. Now I should start to try and lose it. I sound like an Aussie now.

I don’t know if I have mentioned a man named Steve. We found him on trade off a few weeks ago. He is 47 and loves mountain biking. Right now he just wants to know the truth. So when we have lessons with him he really listens and has good questions. Elder Sharma and I prepared a really powerful lessons on the restoration but more on the living prophet. Well the spirit pricked his heart and he agreed to be baptized on October 20. I love teaching him. Whenever we share anything he always listens so well and is actively involved. He is just the best!! We still don’t know what his big set back will be. We have only seen him 3 times. Things might just go well with this one. Let’s all pray for that!!

Oh one of the most humbling hardest but greatest thing we did this week was while we were GQing at the local mall. Oh it was sad to see. We were sitting at the bus stop when a big group of the "druggy" kids came walking by. We both look at them and they looked at us and then some how we started talking. There were about 10 of them who all were smoking and drinking. They sat down with us and we started to chat. They were wondering what the heck we were doing. So we started to share. One of them knew Mormons and knew that we don’t drink or smoke. Boy did that sounds like the end of the world to them. They were picking on us and probably thinking we were so weird. We had a fun time chatting and it was so funny. There comments were so great!! " You don’t have sex until your married?? Boy are you missing out!! Just come with us tonight, we will show you a good time" Haha we were cracking up. We got offered to smoke, drink and break all sorts of commandments.

I felt so bad for these kids. They are miserable. They are 15-17 and all homeless. Oh I felt so bad for them. After they picked on us and stopped smoking we got the opportunity to teach them the P.O.S but more on how much Heavenly Father loves them more than anything and wants them to be happy. Out of the 10 kids, 7 left and 3 stayed. Pat, Jess, and Sophie. They too were pricked by the spirit. They were sick of what they were doing and wanted to have what we had. It was so hard to see them in the state that they were in. Homeless and lost.

I had to run to the car to get more Book of Mormons and pamphlets and as I did I prayed so hard for these kids!

At the end of our little lesson I asked how they felt. Peace. Something they had never felt before. Oh I hope and pray so hard that we can help these kids. They are the ones that need it the most!!

Elder Sharma and I are on a roll right now. I love him so much and have been able to find that click that we needed to yoke up and see success in this work. This week was just full of miracles. We tried to spend heaps of time finding. It was the hottest it has been yet this summer. So we had some fun sweating!! The funnest part came when we came to an open door. We knocked on the wall and for a good while no body answered. We gave it a bigger knock and then it came. Elder Sharma said he felt prompted to close the door but did not. So when IT came it went right to him. A massive dog. I don’t know what type but it was massive. It came right up to me and then turned to Elder Sharma. Sniffed him and bit his leg!!! I stepped back and knocked down all the pots on the stairs and they all shattered. The man who owned the dog came out and started to yell so loud at us. But as soon as he found out the dog bit us he turned into the nicest man who was willing to do anything to help. What a crazy day it was.

We were blessed for our hard work though. We said sometime you have to go through hard times before the good ones come. Well that night we were meeting with the Gonzales family. Again we prepared a really powerful lesson. It was only a 4 minute one due to the little boys Adrian's lack of attention but it still brought in a powerful spirit and we set him on date for the 28 of October. We also committed his father to prepare to be worthy to baptize him.

I love this work so much!!!!!!!!!!!! This week was so fun to see things picking back up again. I wish I could write more but I could go on forever. The Lord has blessed me and my companion so much and I am so grateful that I was able to come to Australia and serve the people here. They need it too!!

Another great thing that happened was Celia, the one who was on date but moved. Well she got married. I will include her picks. Well we got permission even though she lives out of our area to baptize her. She did not want other missionaries to teach her. She also has so many friends in this ward so it works out better to just have her drive the 15 more minutes to come to church. So this Friday we are going to meet her and set a date for next week or maybe the next one. Either way she is solid and so is Adrian. This is just so GREAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Right now as I have said before we are living in a 4 man flat. Oh it is so fun. We hardly get any sleep though. We are obedient and go to bed at 10:30 but sleeping seems to not happen. We talk about our day and what happened and then about home or our areas. Elder Martin has told me all about Charters Towers and Ayr. Boy do I miss it. So fun!!

Well I hope you all enjoy this email. It was so fun to write, but now I want to write my family. Love you all and have a good week.

Love,
Elder Cahoon