Week 102 I love it, I live it and I testify that it is true

Well this will be my last email I write while in the mission field. Due to when I come home I will have to write about my last week at home.

What an amazing week this has been. I challenged myself to not waste a minute. So as always we have ran from door to door. At one point we were pretty much out of breath and could barely talk at the door.

The realization set in while knocking yesterday. We found a pretty wise man named John. He has studied the Bible for 60 years. We started to have a great conversation. It was not bashing at all but rather talking about doctrine and truth. I loved it. The whole time I was thinking how it is going to be awesome to come back. As we started waking down the driveway I realized that he said come back next week. Well that is when it hit. Far out I won't be there to see him again. That was a hard moment. From then on everybody we saw I keep thinking I will never have the opportunity to follow up with you. That is a sad moment when that sets in. Nevertheless we still ran and knocked and ran some more.

On Monday we had some pretty cool miracles. We really wanted to get out and do as much work as possible. After today we really only have Saturday to work. So again Monday we ran door to door. We set some really high goals to achieve and some of them we did not know how we were going to get them. For instance member presents. We had none planned for the day but still was able to manage to get one. George. He is really less active but is very open to have us come by and teach. While we were there his friend came over and sat in. The friend did not become a potential but was still able to hear a great message. I was just so amazed that the Lord put things in our path to help us achieve what we set!!

This is the Lord’s work. It is going to continue to go even when I leave. On Friday we will have our phones get unlocked. I will have Facebook for 2 days. So it will be of no use for me.

I had one of the most amazing experiences talking to Sheila this week. I was able to talk to her for a good while on the phone. The whole time she was just expressing gratitude and thanks for me. I was in tears. She has not missed a day of church. The love I have for her is amazing!! She changed my life!! Her family is starting to come around. A few of her grandchildren have come to church. This gospel is such a blessing in life.

Well I will end with a sure testimony that I know that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints has the fullness of the truth here on the earth. It alone is led by a living Prophet of God. He has been called of God in these the last days. I know that Joseph Smith really did see Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. He had a simple question to where he could find truth. I know that only he could have done what he did through the power of God. This gospel is the true gospel. It causes us to act and become better. I have learned that Heavenly Father wants us to be happy. I have been able to be apart of helping some of His children to find that!! I KNOW the gospel is true. I KNOW the Book of Mormon is TRUE. I read it 7 or 8 times on my mission. Each time I received a witness that it alone is an inspired book. People may doubt and hate and persecute but no one can disprove it. Only doubt it because they know not. I alone know because I tried. I invite you all to do so!! I love it, I live it and I testify that it is true in the name of Jesus Christ Amen.

 Baby Koala in the wild!!

Week 101 Book of Mormon Musical

Haha this week was pretty awesome. We had a lot of really good things happen for us.

It was announced that the Book of Mormon musical us coming to Brisbane this March 2019. So out of nowhere the adds have popped up. "The Mormons are coming" " the best musical"

We were at a bus stop taking a photos of one of the adds when a lady walked by. I got pretty excited and said, “Hey look. They made a musical about us.” She got a good laugh about it. I thought it was really funny. The Church put a statement that said the Book of Mormon Musical will entertain you for a night but the real Book will entertain you for eternity. So when we door knock we ask if anyone has seen the adds on us all around. It has made it a bit more fun.

While on the note of musicals. In Australia they put on a show called Road Show. Each ward puts on a musical/play type thing. Instead of having the audience move to see the other wards, the actors pack everything up and go to the other chapel and puts on the show there. Hence road show... So we have been inviting all of the people we are seeing to come. I will send some videos! It was the funniest thing ever!! It was really amazing how great they did!! Redland Bay ward by far did the best job. They put in so much practice. We had a fair bit of non members and returning members come. The theme was Life is Beautiful.

This week we tried to solidify Jaco our South African investigator. He always keeps us at the door. The most frustrating part is the questions he asked line up perfect with the lessons we share. He just refused to have us teach them. He only wants us to answer his questions. We tried to bounce back and forth between the questions but finally told him hold up, this would be way better if we taught the full thing. So he invited us back to teach it. The gospel makes sense for him. He just needs a spiritual witness and he would be great!! His biggest question is if God is all powerful why does He let little children get killed and raped. To fully answer that question he has to hear out the whole plan of Salvation. We are slowly getting there with him.

Johannes still has not replied or been home so we are very bummed that we have no clue what he is up to. It could have gone so well. He is in the records though so the next missionary will love meeting him. This is an eternal work. Not just my work.

We have a recent convert who is the only member in his family. We thought it would be good to see him and start a good relationship with the rest of the family. They are not very religious but are very welcoming to us. While we were visiting we saw what looked like air soft guns. Turns out they shoot those little gel balls that you put in water. It stung to get shot but broke on impact. So we had a fun little battle in his back yard. It was pretty fun.

We also became really great friends with a new member that moved from Sydney. His whole life got turned upside down. Everything he owned is gone. He lived a rich life. Ford F-650, super air nautic boat...etc... Now that he has nothing he has everything. His testimony was never very strong but now it is built on a firm foundation. He studies 3-4 hours everyday and has us come over for a lesson or two during the week. He is still looking for a job so he has lots of time. We took him to go see Ben after our lesson with him. They really hit it off. Ben is slowly getting there too. No big steps but now with a friend with the same back ground he should really help.

Just yesterday I started all the departing things. It was pretty sad. I was not looking forward to it. You sign up for two years so I guess I knew the end would come. It just never felt like it would.

Well I am off to the temple today. It should be a great day!!

Love, Elder Cahoon

Week 100 The Weeks Are Flying By

Wow! Far out! The weeks are flying by. I thought that during the last stretch it would be slow going. I think because we have been given phones it has made it so much more interesting.

It was pretty cool, this week we had zone conference and the rest of the mission got their phones. In one of the training's we had a cool prompting come to us. As I said last week we are getting lots of people who are interested but hard to meet with. So we were inspired to have the idea of teaching online. We send a Mormon message video or the Restoration video via text.

It was pretty cool. We came to the chapel so we could download the videos onto our phones and then we prayerfully wrote down a text for each person and sent the video. From all the people we only heard back from one. He was so excited though. His name is Ben. I was really disappointed when we did not hear back from Johannes.

It was fun to hear from Ben though. He was pretty excited to watch the video and said, “Hey come over on Saturday and we can talk about it.” That was pretty cool. I am so pumped. We sent him the talk One more Day. He is a really big thinker. If you ask him who he is he will rely back with who am I really. Deep down. So we thought if we get his mind going on one more day we could swing it over to preparing to meet God!! Saturday is going to be so much fun!!!

It has really been neat to see the Lord hasten his work. It is something I have continually said my whole mission. When he needs something to happen it happens. During our zone conference President McSwain shared with us that Elder Nelson on the mission board emailed him and said he talks about the ABM where ever he goes. I have seen on my mission the Lord’s hand in this work.

On Sunday Izzy came to church but we found out that she leaves to Denmark in one week. That is quick. We brought her up in our ward coordination meeting. This is by far the best ward that has done it on my mission. We all counseled together with the Bishop and thought it could happen. By Tuesday we just did not feel good about it. We don’t want to pressure her or even do something if she is not ready. It has to come from her. We want to respect her family and parents. She has a great family that will take care of her. Who knows maybe in 6 months when she gets back she will want to get baptized. It is just amazing to see though that this is the Lord’s work and he has it covered. We just need to trust in him.

During one of our dinner appointments we had eaten and just started talking. Not about bad things but just talking. We were having a great time and it was not until we stated to share our message that while we were talking the Spirit was not there. About half way through the message of the Restoration the room just went silent. We were trying to teach it in under five minutes. The timer was about to go off but the Mum stopped it. At the end of the lesson we asked why. She did not want the Spirit to leave if we got interrupted. Boy it was a strong Spirit. President McSwain always tells us maybe the most important lesson you will teach that day is our dinner apt lesson. Today that was the case.

We had another fun dinner where after we taught we challenged the two older kids to teach a five minute restoration lesson. That was so fun!! They did a great job and we challenged them to share it with a friend. It really is amazing how great the Spirit is in our lives. God truly does love us to give us His Spirit.

We have the funnest YSA parents in our ward. Bro & Sister Green. Every two weeks they throw a YSA fast breaker and invite us to come. It is so popular and all the YSA active, returning members, and at times non members come. Sister Green is the funnest!! She tells us go and talk and mingle with everyone. That is why we invite you to these. For reals she is like everyone's Mum. While I was talking to one of the YSA he wanted to follow me on Facebook. My front cover is of me wake boarding. I thought it was a pretty good picture but then Sister Green came over and said mine is better. We both thought she was joking but sure enough she was twice as high. It was so funny!!

This is just the best work on the whole earth. It is sad that it is coming to an end but I have done so much and been so blessed. I love the Lord so much.

I hope everyone has a great week.

Love,
Elder Cahoon

Week 99 Try Not to Say I

I really really enjoyed this week. It was a great week of learning and growing!!

To start out I have my new phone. I may have jumped the gun for Facebook. When Australia first got phones for the missions one mission gave everybody there phones and nobody baptized that month.

So when the time came for our mission they released them in stages. The leaders first, with restrictions. So we have a smart dumb phone. Every month we will get more. The last one will be Facebook. So right now we have a really awesome phone to show videos and to text and call. Plus we have all the missionary tools to help us, like the area book, LDS tools, and Gospel Library. I have seen a huge difference just this week using it. I still feel like I should not have one or ever be on it. Two years of not having one does that to you. So it is taking some time to get used to it. It was fun at church pulling it out. Some people were really mad and thought how did these elders get smart phones. My whole mission I have said the Lord is hastening his work. Well this was a big step to that hastening!! It is amazing!! Our area book tells us who the closest investigator is to us. Back ups are so easy now!! All we have to do is look at a map and see who lives around us. We do have to put in all the names but with time we will get it.

This week I also tried not to say the word "I" rather us, we, him...etc. It was really hard and Elder Olson kept a tally for me. Sometimes it just slips out. One of the days I said 22 and Elder Olson had 35. It is a word that is hard not to use but really helps you see the importance of others. There is a youth song that goes "it’s not about you... it’s about those who are searching for the truth... it’s not about you..." We listened to that a lot this week.

When I first got to this area we had one investigator. Well after lots of door knocking and following up we have a teaching pool big enough to swim in!! The last two weeks have been really great for getting people to teach. On that note, Johannes got a new job and could not meet us. So we stopped by his house one day just to catch up and say hi. He is still keen but getting very busy with work and life. It will be interesting to see what happens.

There are so many other people that will be great long term. I am at a point now where I know the work I am doing now I will never see the outcome. It is a tough thought to think that all this work I am doing I will never see it through. Nevertheless I still want to work hard so the next guy has a great time!! This is not my work, it’s the Lords work!! So yeah I may not see it but the Lord will see it. They are His children.

We have one person that I ask you all to keep in your prayers. Izzy. She is Bishop’s daughter’s best friend. Over the last two weeks she has been going to early morning seminary and also came to church twice. After church this Sunday we taught her a lesson on prayer. She knows all the lessons because her Mum joined the church 3 years ago. The father loves the people at church but does not like organized religion. During our lesson on prayer she was in tears. The spirit really hit her hard.

Well the only bummer about this is she is moving to Denmark for 6 months at the end of the month. Bishop’s daughter really wants to see her baptized before she leaves but the big stumbling block will be Dad. Please pray that his heart will be softened. I love this work so so much!!

This email was all over the place. I love being a missionary so much!! It is the great time of life. I hope everyone has missionary opportunities this week.

Love,

Elder Cahoon

Week 98 This is the greatest work in the world!!

Well carrying Moroni was great last week but declaring the Truth of the Everlasting Gospel is a bit better!!

After 23 months a one week Elder Johnson and myself were finally united!! Elder Johnson came on a trade off to my area. He was with me and Elder Hansen in the MTC all those days ago. Well it was our time to shine and really smash the work. I was so excited and started to plan for a perfect day!! I wrote down every person we could possibly see. Well by 2:00 pm we had seen everybody and nothing great had happened.

So we started to knock doors. Now we had 3 hours to knock. We thought if we ran from door to door we could talk to more people. So we ran!! People thought we were crazy but we were full of the Spirit. People could also tell that!! We had great conversations with some great people. I have found that the Lord usually blesses us after we have put in hard work.

Well as we ran to one of the last doors we met Johannes Kaese. Oh my goodness this is the Lords work!! We could not have even accomplished what happened without divine help!! We started off pretty normal at the door. Hello how are you...Etc. He told us he knows a Mormon and I asked who. Well it turns out he knows a young man from my ward who just got back form his mission four weeks ago!! Brody Manler. Johannes spoke about what a great example Brody was and it opened it up for us to sit down and teach with him. The best was to explain the lesson we taught is by saying it was a lesson just for him. It was not very set up where we said God is our Heavenly Father...Joseph Smith is a prophet...We touched all the points but while having the purest conversation with him.

It went along the lines of we said, “If God gave you pure truth what would you do with it?" he gave a great response about acting on it. Then we asked what if you knew God gave you truth but bad things started happening and your friends made fun of you...? Would you still act on it? Boom silence for a long while. But at the end of it he said he would act on it. "Well we are here sent to you from God to say what he wants said and do what he wants done. To do the very thing He would do if He were here. To teach what He would teach. What you are holding in your hand (The Book of Mormon) is truth. God wants you to have it and act on it." I have never said anything like that before. It was 100% from God!! Johannes had the greatest insight and questions and what I would call real intent. It was amazing!! We taught with the authority and power of God and Johannes felt that. He shared with us what he has been going through. Eight weeks ago he took drugs that he has never taken before and when he woke up he told God he was going to change. Well for the last eight weeks God has been preparing him!! He has been sober for eight weeks and has wanted to reach out to God.

He said the closing prayer and it was the most sincere prayer I have ever heard!! He prayed like he has prayed a million times before. At the end of it he said, “It is funny that you showed up today. I was not even planning on being home. I was going out with mates to the Sunshine Coast but then I got a feeling that I should stay home.” We got to testify that it was God preparing him to meet with us today!! I am telling you Johannes is my favorite guy!! If we left at that moment I would have been happy. During his prayer the Spirit said invite him to be baptized!! Far out I love when the spirit speaks to you and you are bold and follow it!! He accepted the date of August 25!!

Elder Johnson and I leaped for joy!!!! We had the best day ever!! We called Brody and told him and he is so excited to help and bring his friend into the fold!! I am telling you this is Gods work!! When you are obedient and work hard he blesses you with things you can’t even think of!! 

When we spoke about him in ward council and our correlation meeting everyone one was so excited and willing to help!! We had so many other great things happen on that trade off! To much to write in here!!

The biggest thing that I want to ask of you is to pray for Johannes. Satan is going to be working really really hard on him so I ask that you pray for him!! Thank you so so much!!

This work is the greatest work to be apart of and tomorrow it is going to take a big jump. My mission is getting smart phones. We have been getting trained on how to use them in this work and how to have them be our servants rather than our master. Boy I am really really excited!! So if you see me on Facebook I am not home yet. I am being an obedient elder!!

Yesterday we had district meeting and I made a whole bunch of cardboard smart phones. I told the district that we got our phones a day early. When I said that everyone was so excited and then I pulled out the cardboard ones and everyone was so mad but started to laugh so hard!! It was so funny!!

Well I love everyone so so much!! This is the greatest work in the world!! I hope you all have a great week!!

Love, 

Elder Cahoon