Week 94 I Got to Ride a Boat

Dang time is really starting to fly!! The best part about serving is when you really work hard and do all you can, that is when the time feels the best!! Yes you are tired and ready to fall asleep on the spot but when you don’t work and you are lazy you feel like crap.

We had so much this week that there was no time to feel like crap. One thing after another. I loved it!!

There were some fun highlight for me. One of them being I got to ride in a boat this week. In my ward we have hundreds of islands off the coast from us. About 4 or 5 are heavily populated. Among the people that live on the island are all the less actives that are trying to hide from us. I thought living on an island would be expensive but because you have to take a ferry to get to the main land it makes the cost of living there very cheap!!

While we were planning in the morning we had a very strong impression to go to Russell Island. It is no easy task getting there. It takes up a big chuck of our day. The ferry is about 30 minutes and we have no car so we have to walk up and down the 8 k long island. We began our journey out there and had a map with all the less actives that we wanted to visit.

We got 100 meters from where there ferry docks and a man stopped us and asked if we were Mormons. Yes we are. Can we help you? Two hours later we had made a great friend and really helped this man understand all the questions that he had. It was quiet a unique experience. We just loved it. He was asking some really deep questions not to contend with us but just to get answers. His heart was not ready to accept the gospel but he was ready to be served. That is why we are here. Not to convert everyone that we talked to but to serve everyone we meet. We knew we needed to be on that island and we thought it was to visit less actives. Little did we know we needed to be there to find him!!

We never made it to a less actives house due to time and the ferry scheduled with our next appointment but it was amazing!

One of the other great things that happened was on Sunday. We have a family of 8 that we are teaching. The oldest is 9 and she got baptized already and the rest are too young to. In August one of the boys will turn 8 and he is so excited. Mom and Dad are working on getting married first and giving up smoking. During one of your visits with them there uncle Robert sat in and said, “Can I be baptized?” They are just a family of miracles. Dani and Leigh are the parent’s name. The best part was they all came to church as a family this week. Everyone loved them. Both parents have every part of there body tattooed so they stood out like a sore thumb but everyone loved them.

The best part about the wards that I am in is their love for missionary work!! We had a young man bring his girlfriend to church for the second time in a row. We got to teach is Sunday school class while she was there! It is so amazing how much love our Heavenly Father has for us and how much he wants to bless us through others!!

We had a big training about the Smart Phones that we will be getting in 4 to 8 weeks. So I might be able to use one for a week and then go home or I might not even get to see one. It was such a cool training and is really going to hasten the work here!! The part that I just hated was I was getting all excited to think of how I can use it and implement it with my area and investigators and so on. Then I resized that I am going home soon and will not get to be a part of it. Nonetheless I have had a great mission and would not trade it for anything. I challenge you who have smart phones. Help the Lord hasten his work. I have knocked on over a million doors in two years on my mission to talk to people and you can to share the message with them and you can do the same thing in two minutes with the phone in your pocket.

I love this work!! I love the Lord!! I know that he wants his children back into his fold. Help him with it.

I have been very blessed during my mission to hear from general authorities and a lot of really amazing people. This week we had Chad Hymas come to our mission.

So far he has spoken at a fireside that we were able to attend and also spoken at our zone conference. I have heard him speak before at my high school. He flew in on a helicopter. So I have never forgotten who he was.

His story is quiet amazing and makes you want to do something! Hearing from him twice already has been such a blessing and on Friday I will get to hear from him again at our MLC. He wants to train us in public speaking and improve our training qualities. He is ranked number 8 in the world for public speaking. So it is going to be such a blessing to hear from him!!

I hope everyone has a great week!! 

Love, 

Elder Cahoon

Week 93 Australia is Having a Cold Stretch

Well things are going just great right now!! This last week was a really successful week for us. We have really been able to work with the ward. On Sunday we had the best coordination meeting I have ever been too!! The WML and bishop are so helpful and supportive.

I wish I could have served longer here. This area has so much going for it. There are so many YSA who are RM's or preparing. With all their help we are going to see a lot happen. Just yesterday I did not see my comp all day because he went with one YSA to another for splits.

One of my favorite parts about the week was going on trade off with Elder Ahn and Fauai. Since we are in a trio we can split and have one go with both of them. So it was my first trade off with both elders in their area. They white washed this transfer so we were really hoping to build up their teaching pool. Boy miracles happen everyday!!

As we knocked on doors Natalie opened up for us and we taught the POS. She has 3 kids and just loved the idea of being together forever!! I am really excited for the elders to go back and teach! We also did some following up with former investigators and again a wonderful single mum with 3 kids said she wants to come to church and have the lessons. It was so great!!

One crazy thing that is going on right now is a cold stretch. It has not been this cool in awhile. At night it drops down to 35 and during the day it ranges from 60 to 70. That may not seem to cool but when you are now used to being warm all the time it is killer. Getting up in the morning is so cold. I do some push ups then just right into a warm shower. 

It is amazing to see that hand of the Lord in his work. This week we were able to find some really great people. T is doing pretty good. She had work all week but texted us that she will have a day open and can meet then. Irene also was busy but we figured out she lives next to the elder quorum president so he is going to be a big help there. There are little tender mercies ever where we look. We just have to make sure we recognize them.

Sorry for the short email. But hope all is well. Love you!!

Week 92 Getting to Know My New Area

Wow oh wow what a crazy week!!

This was a very good week to get to know the area. The sad part is we do not have much going for us. There are 3 really solid people we have to teach. They are a family. The hard part is they are not married. Their names are Dani, Leigh, and then their uncle Robert. Robert just needs to come to church and then he will be baptized. Once Dani and Leigh get married they will be baptized. It is amazing to see how solid they are. The fellowship is there and they love it!!

It is going to be really interesting to see what we can do in this area. Elder Olson has only been in the area for 6 weeks so he does not know too many people we can see. It makes planning very hard because I don’t know who we can see too... The good news is there are a million part member families who are keen to have us over!!

So for the majority of our week since we had no one to see we spent the time following up on people from our ward list to find out who they are, how we could minister, and so forth. As we did that we would also knock the street that they live on.

From that we have been able to be greatly blessed with people to teach at the door and then follow up with. Things are picking up and slowly we are getting people to teach. From our following up we did service for an older lady from Holland. She is at a real low in her life and is really looking for something. She invited us to clear out a shed in her back yard. I was on trade off with Elder Lal our AP. He came with me to the service and after we taught her about the love God had for her and how prayer can really bring her peace. She loved it and gave us her phone number and we are going back to share more. Little miracles happen when we put in just that little bit of effort.

One big thing that I really enjoyed this week was teaching people not lessons. There is such a big difference when a person is taught and not a lesson.

I was with Elder Lal and we followed up with a less active part member family. Only the wife was home who was not a member. We sat out back with her and started talking. She expressed that she believed in God but had no real understanding of who he was, how he worked, or even what it meant.

We started off by taking about how God was our father.... and how we can pray to him. I love how we did it. We said, ”Before we share this message could we start off by saying a prayer and then at the end you will be saying the closing prayer." We stated directly that she would be doing it. She freaked out and said, “Wait wait no way!!” But then it opened it up for us to really teach about how important prayer is and how God wants to converse with us. She was not too on board but open for it. We started sharing the restoration and it is so hard to describe. We taught the same bullet points but in such a unique way that was just for her. The Spirit was so so strong and she kept asking the greatest questions!! I thought at any moment something was going to happen to disrupt the lesson but it did not. We kept going and got to the end. She just loved it!! When we said are you ready to say the prayer she tried to get around it but we were on to it. We reviewed how to say it again and even got up and stood right next to her to help her. She said she would do it so we both went heads down and arms folded. It was silent for so long. Finally she said, “So all I have to do is ask if it is true?” Yup it is as simple as that. God just wants to hear from you. Then she did it!! She said a beautiful prayer and at the end said, “Wow that is it? That was easy.” She was so sincere and true in the prayer. I can’t wait to go back and follow up. Her name is T by the way...

I am just at the point were I want to do all I can to serve God for these last few months!! There is not much time left and I am really feeling it. I am not really that trunky because I want to work so hard. There is just so much to do and so little time to do it. This is the great work of all time and I am so exited for what is happening in this area!!

The members are so helpful too!! We have a great bishop, ward mission leader, and ward missionaries who are activity involved and helpful. Out of all the wards I have been to, this one actual does what they are supposed to do. We had a great correlation meeting on Sunday with Bishop and our WML with all the ward missionaries.

Great things are going to be happening in this area. I am so grateful to be apart of it!! Love you all. Have a great week.

Love Elder Cahoon

Week 91 Transfered to the Cleveland Zone

Well one more week down. This was quiet the week as they all are. I got a phone call and it said I would be getting transferred.

The last little week in Redcliffe and Mango Hill things went well for us. We were able to see Karol again and teach her more. She is still keeping all the commandments. It has been so long since she had a smoke. She loves it. My favorite part about her is she says, “ I have not gotten an answer yet but what I am doing feels right.” She says she feels the spirit more in her life.

For my last day in the area we had a musical fireside. We all got to sing. The theme was the Restoration. I sang in a group the opening hymn and had a part where I had to read off some paragraphs. Karol was the only Investigator who came. She loved it. It was a good review for her.

Throughout this week Elder Tewes and I really wanted to help Elder Biranibwebwe progress in teaching the Restoration. So for our companionship studies we had him teach us the lesson. Over and over. We also taught it at every dinner appointment. By the end of the week we were all master teachers at teaching this lesson. It was amazing to see his growth.

We got some sad news that Joanne moved to Rockhampton. She was having family struggles down here and needed to get away. So the missionaries there are going to get a referral.

Usually I write down the highlights for my week in my planner but because this is a new transfer I don’t have my old planner.

I did get transferred and my new are is in the Cleveland zone, it covers all the way from Cleveland to Brisbane City. So when I have trade off I will be in the heart of the city. My area is about 30 minutes outside of the city but south of it. I am in two wards again. Redland Bay and Capalaba. They both are pretty big wards and keen for missionary work. I met one of the bishops last night and he is so excited to work with us. Compared to my last area this is a really well off area. People live in really nice houses and have good jobs. It is not like Gold Coast but not as poor as my last area.

I am really excited for my last two transfers!! My comps names are Elder Olson from Idaho and Elder Nicotra from Italy. He goes home in a few weeks and then it will just be Elder Olson and me. Things seem pretty great so far. It has only been two days but I have enjoyed it.

I hope everyone has a great week this week.

Love, Elder Cahoon