Wow we are back to seeing good things in this work. It was a fun week full of fun and spiritual experiences.
One family that has never shown any interest in the church since they were baptized 4 years ago just showed up to church last week. They also came this week. We got in contact with them and now have weekly visits set up with them. They have felt the spirit and the need to endure to the end the right way. So they are having the lessons again and becoming active members again. In there inactivity their son hit the age of accountability and is now 11. He sat in the first lesson we had with them. We have high hopes that as they become active they will want their son to join the church also. It is really looking up. Their name is the Gonzales family.
Oh I guess some really big news too is that I did not get transferred and will be staying in Gold Coast with Elder Sharma. The fun part is we are getting 3 new missionaries in the zone. Elder Martin that just baptized Angus is coming down from Charters and Ayr and will be moving to our flat. So we will have a 4 man flat for the next few weeks while they try and find a house for them. We are going to have heaps of fun!! Having new missionary's in the zone will be really good. They always bring such a strong helpful spirit. The lord blesses them so well. We will be seeing miracles this transfer. It is going to be great!!
Last week we got a call from our assistant. They asked if I would be willing to participate in teaching the English class that our mission has for new missionaries who need the extra help. It was so hard but really fun. Elder Choi was in the class, so I got to spend the day with him. I miss him heaps!! Teaching English is really, really hard. We mostly read from PMG and then asked what words or phases they did not understand. From there we simply defined all the words so they could understand them. They did so well. It was a really neat thing to do. I would have died if I learned another language on my mission. I am so glad I got called English speaking. It is so hard to learn another language.
Upon door knocking last week a girl, Taylor, age 19 answered and invited us back a few days later. She did not seem overly interested or "the one" but we kept to our word and came back. Her father was working in the yard and kindly yelled at us that he did not want what we were selling. We asked if we could see his daughter Taylor. He looked confused for a sec and then went and got her. He is not interest but said it would be ok if we taught his daughter. So he went in and we sat on a bench outside and started to teach the Restoration to Taylor. She is pretty cool. She believes in a "higher" power but has no clue. So as we shared you could see her really thinking about it and having a Heavenly Father and Savior. She had to go to work and the lesson ended with out a prayer but we got her number and got a day to come back. I hope she felt the spirit and will continue to meet with us. It was really cool.
On Saturday we had to go back to the flat for a sec to grab a visual aid for our dinner and as we left the flat the door closed and we realized we left the keys on the table. It has the car key, flat key, and FOB to get into our building. The building manager is gone and so we were on our own. The member who we had dinner with gladly picked us up and dropped us off after dinner at the Tallai Elders flat. Since it is the weekend of transfers it was a nightmare in the mission office where our spare key is for our car. We have a spare key for the flat in the car.
Bear with me in this story. Since most of our zone is getting transferred, we had all the Elders meet at Nandos for another dinner to say our goodbyes. This was all planned before we got locked out. So when the member dropped us off at the Tallai flat we had 4 elders no car and 2 bikes. The restaurant was about 5 ks away and we thought we would walk it. Instead I said lets ride the bikes together. haha yes it was crazy. I sat on the seat and peddled and Elder Laspinas sat on the metal bar between the seat and hand bars and while I peddled he steered and did brakes and gears.
Now I have to say. If you want to bond with you zone members ride a bike with them. It took so much concentration and communication to successfully ride a one man bike with 2 people. We made it safely to Nandos and right as we were about to walk in with the other Elders our AP called and said they were too busy at the office. Call Elder Johnson and use his car to drive to us to grab the spar key.
All in all I missed Nandos and we finally got into our flat. It is like fort knox at our flat. It was so easy to break into the flat up in Charters Towers and Ayr. So fun though.
Church was great and we had the Gonzales family come. We were super excited for them.
After church we got our transfer deliberations and notified the zone. We had to be to Brisbane really early and had to pick up the Tallai Elders so instead of waking up even earlier to go pick them up we had them pack and come to our flat for a sleep over. Since we only have 2 beds we all went out onto our veranda and one slept on the couch and the other on pillows. It was fun to sleep outside and it almost, almost felt like camping.
What a week we had. I am so excited to meet all the new Elders on Wednesday when they come. Hope everyone back home has a good week!
Love,
Elder Cahoon
Monday, September 25, 2017
Monday, September 18, 2017
Week 55 Exciting News!!!
I had the best day yesterday!! I don’t have too much to report on today since it was only 4 days ago that I emailed. I have some really good news though!!
ANGUS and SHANNA GOT BAPTIZED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!! Holy heck it was so amazing!!!
I was in a big church meeting with President McSwain and our Stake President and all the Bishops of the Stake. It was crazy! President was up giving his training and during the meeting shared a miracle that had just taken place. He said, "We had a miracle take place up in Charters Towers. (He paused, looked at me and said...) Oh Elder Cahoon you know that place very well. That is where we banished you...oh wait sent you. haha"
President has a good sense of humor. He let me tell everybody about it up there and then asked me if I remembered anyone named Angus and Shanna. I said yes of course I remember them. President said well Elder Cahoon they got married yesterday and baptized today. After this meeting will you give them a call to congratulate them.
Oh my goodness I lost it in this meeting. It felt like I was there baptizing them. When one baptizes we all baptize. The cool part is I found them and if I had not done all the work up there it never would have happened. The Elders did a great job with them. It was almost a year to this day that we invited them to be baptized. I was reading through my journal and Elder Cadiang and I invited him on October 28 to enter the water of baptism. It only took about a year but boy what a feeling.
I got their number and had the funnest conversation with Angus. He has grown so much and I could feel his spirit and happiness so strongly over the phone. It was so weird when talking to him it did not feel like any time has passed. I was talking like I had just seen him yesterday. He named a few streets and I still remember them ( I only knocked all of them twice though) Oh it was just such a great thing. He talked about going to the temple and coming to Utah!!
I miss that place so much. Beenleigh was a fun area but geez I will never forget up north in Ayr and Charters Towers. I don't know if it was because it was my first area or because I opened it. But boy do I miss it so much. Elder Paulino and I had a good talk reminiscing in the good ol'days up north. Wow I hope this makes senses and you can feel the excitement.
As for what has happened this week, not much...
One fun thing that happened that is really good was on Friday we got word that at the chapel there is a pick up basketball game that happens and most people that go are non-members. So we got permission to regularly attend and try to get some people into the chapel part of the church and not just the gym. There are some really good people that come and they love the Mormons. It will be really fun to start working with them and playing basketball.
We were at a dinner with some really fun members that we have and they made heaps of cooked chicken and raw salmon. I was so glad they made the chicken I was eating the chicken and they asked why are you not eating the salmon? I was just not up to try it. They kept asking so jokingly I say I am allergic to it. haha they took it so serious. I felt really bad. I am not allergic to it. I feel bad now because they told everyone in the ward that I am allergic to salmon. So if any one asks this is the story of how I found out I was allergic to salmon. haha
Well next week I will have more to say. Things are just slowly pushing along. Until next week.
Love,
ANGUS and SHANNA GOT BAPTIZED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!! Holy heck it was so amazing!!!
I was in a big church meeting with President McSwain and our Stake President and all the Bishops of the Stake. It was crazy! President was up giving his training and during the meeting shared a miracle that had just taken place. He said, "We had a miracle take place up in Charters Towers. (He paused, looked at me and said...) Oh Elder Cahoon you know that place very well. That is where we banished you...oh wait sent you. haha"
President has a good sense of humor. He let me tell everybody about it up there and then asked me if I remembered anyone named Angus and Shanna. I said yes of course I remember them. President said well Elder Cahoon they got married yesterday and baptized today. After this meeting will you give them a call to congratulate them.
Oh my goodness I lost it in this meeting. It felt like I was there baptizing them. When one baptizes we all baptize. The cool part is I found them and if I had not done all the work up there it never would have happened. The Elders did a great job with them. It was almost a year to this day that we invited them to be baptized. I was reading through my journal and Elder Cadiang and I invited him on October 28 to enter the water of baptism. It only took about a year but boy what a feeling.
I got their number and had the funnest conversation with Angus. He has grown so much and I could feel his spirit and happiness so strongly over the phone. It was so weird when talking to him it did not feel like any time has passed. I was talking like I had just seen him yesterday. He named a few streets and I still remember them ( I only knocked all of them twice though) Oh it was just such a great thing. He talked about going to the temple and coming to Utah!!
I miss that place so much. Beenleigh was a fun area but geez I will never forget up north in Ayr and Charters Towers. I don't know if it was because it was my first area or because I opened it. But boy do I miss it so much. Elder Paulino and I had a good talk reminiscing in the good ol'days up north. Wow I hope this makes senses and you can feel the excitement.
As for what has happened this week, not much...
One fun thing that happened that is really good was on Friday we got word that at the chapel there is a pick up basketball game that happens and most people that go are non-members. So we got permission to regularly attend and try to get some people into the chapel part of the church and not just the gym. There are some really good people that come and they love the Mormons. It will be really fun to start working with them and playing basketball.
We were at a dinner with some really fun members that we have and they made heaps of cooked chicken and raw salmon. I was so glad they made the chicken I was eating the chicken and they asked why are you not eating the salmon? I was just not up to try it. They kept asking so jokingly I say I am allergic to it. haha they took it so serious. I felt really bad. I am not allergic to it. I feel bad now because they told everyone in the ward that I am allergic to salmon. So if any one asks this is the story of how I found out I was allergic to salmon. haha
Well next week I will have more to say. Things are just slowly pushing along. Until next week.
Love,
Elder Cahoon
Zone T-shirt
Angus and Shanna
Angus and Shanna's baptism
Thursday, September 14, 2017
Week 54 I look forward to the day I can sleep in
Ohhh what a week. I feel like sleeping all P-day but I’m doing the opposite. Long story short, and it will make sense as you read the rest of the email, I did not sleep the whole night ( Thanks Fukafuka;)) Plus to not sleeping I "woke" up at 4:30 to drive to the temple for temple P-day. That is why this email is so late.
Ok lets get started. I don’t know where I left off last week. We had our fight and then all good and I think then the investigators.
I guess I will start with all of our investigators on date. Jessie and Damion have been dropped as well as Astrid. The only people we have on date now are Celia and Shelia but Celia moved over the weekend. AHHHH some times you just say, “Stuff it. I am done!!”
We just have not been able to catch any of them. It gets frustrating but I learned a really good lesson. It is the Lord’s will. Ah that is the hardest part. If he wants people to join his church he will make it happen. I hope you get what I am saying. I am here to do work but if his will is to shape me instead of having me go for a swim then that is why I am here. The Lord will get them baptized if they need to get baptized. He knows I am here ready to go but it has to be his will. Oh it is hard.
Shelia is still on coffee and had a really close friend pass away. It caused a bit of a set back and a hard time for her but it also opened up a more real sense of the Plan of Salvation.
Even though we have dropped people we have also found people. Now get ready for the story of all stories. We were GQing along this path in our area when a lady came up to us and it sounded like she wanted to bash. (I hate when people do that) but she was just testing our testimonies and knowledge of the savior. She is not Mormon but loves them. Long story short after talking with her on the path. Elder Sharma did a stretch for his back. He hurt it a bit and was just loosening up. She noticed and asked if we would like to pray. Sure why not. She asked if she could put her hand on his back. It was a bit awkward but he said, “No...” She ended up holding our hands and saying the prayer for us on the lines of giving thanks but ending with,"We command you in the name of Jesus Christ to be healed from your troubles and trials. Amen..." I was trying so hard not to just bust out laughing. Haha it was so funny!! We got her address and number and saw her again. She is a new investigator now.
Another crack up as Elder Sharma and I finished up our day. We found ourselves walking down the path that Maria was on a few days before. As typical Elders do, we talked about girls for a bit as the night finished and I popped the question, “If the opportunity to kiss a girl came about on your mission, would you?” It is a fair question to have some fun with. But LITERALLY 5 seconds after, we walked in to Gracealia. She is from Brazil. We found her a few days ago and she became a new investigator. I also have learned heaps of Portuguese. I can say, “Hello I speak Portuguese” and then “Just kidding I am lying” and then “How are you?” It gets people. They get a crack up out of it. Anyways right after asking the question she showed up and shakes our hand but then says, “Kiss?” We were so confused. But then I got it. They do the kiss the cheek thing over there to say hello. Well now that we are friends she wanted to do it for us. Hahaha it was so funny, so right after asking the question, I kissed a lady from Brazil. Well not really but it was still funny how it happened. Oh boy the mission is so fun.
We had a day that we were so tired when we woke up. I got on my knees to pray and 30 minutes later finished my prayer. I fell asleep on the floor. When we awoke we realized we missed our exercise time and had to go straight to showering.
Upon doing that I got the thought, “Boy I am so excited for the day when I get home and don’t have to feel the biggest amount of guilty when I sleep in.” haha
The day before our temple pday we had trade off with our AP Elder Fukafuka. What a man. It was so fun. We did some really good things and tried to visit some part member families. Not much came from any of our work but I really got to see and learn from him. It was all fun right up until it was time for bed. This is where the beginning of the email will make sense. Right as his head hit the pillow he started a lawn mower. Now Elder Sharma snores like a monster truck but Elder Fukafuka is like 2 monster trucks!! Geez I have slept on the cough to get away from Elder Sharmas snoring and it works but there was no escape from Elder Fuka. He is so loud!! Goodness. What a night. I am so tired right now and about fell asleep in the temple.
Well this was a lot in one go and I missed about 90% of what happened but you got the good stuff.
With much love,
Elder Cahoon
PS Fuka when you read this I still love you but geez you snore so loud. Love you though.
Oh man I forgot to put this in the big email. Well this transfer we have been with everyone in the zone once and some elders 2 times. This week we had 2 trade offs and boy are they so fun. I love being a zone leader. Trading off is hard but fun. You get to switch things up, work hard, help others and see miracles. It is so great!!
Well now I am good. Until next week.
Love,
Elder Cahoon
Ok lets get started. I don’t know where I left off last week. We had our fight and then all good and I think then the investigators.
I guess I will start with all of our investigators on date. Jessie and Damion have been dropped as well as Astrid. The only people we have on date now are Celia and Shelia but Celia moved over the weekend. AHHHH some times you just say, “Stuff it. I am done!!”
We just have not been able to catch any of them. It gets frustrating but I learned a really good lesson. It is the Lord’s will. Ah that is the hardest part. If he wants people to join his church he will make it happen. I hope you get what I am saying. I am here to do work but if his will is to shape me instead of having me go for a swim then that is why I am here. The Lord will get them baptized if they need to get baptized. He knows I am here ready to go but it has to be his will. Oh it is hard.
Shelia is still on coffee and had a really close friend pass away. It caused a bit of a set back and a hard time for her but it also opened up a more real sense of the Plan of Salvation.
Even though we have dropped people we have also found people. Now get ready for the story of all stories. We were GQing along this path in our area when a lady came up to us and it sounded like she wanted to bash. (I hate when people do that) but she was just testing our testimonies and knowledge of the savior. She is not Mormon but loves them. Long story short after talking with her on the path. Elder Sharma did a stretch for his back. He hurt it a bit and was just loosening up. She noticed and asked if we would like to pray. Sure why not. She asked if she could put her hand on his back. It was a bit awkward but he said, “No...” She ended up holding our hands and saying the prayer for us on the lines of giving thanks but ending with,"We command you in the name of Jesus Christ to be healed from your troubles and trials. Amen..." I was trying so hard not to just bust out laughing. Haha it was so funny!! We got her address and number and saw her again. She is a new investigator now.
Another crack up as Elder Sharma and I finished up our day. We found ourselves walking down the path that Maria was on a few days before. As typical Elders do, we talked about girls for a bit as the night finished and I popped the question, “If the opportunity to kiss a girl came about on your mission, would you?” It is a fair question to have some fun with. But LITERALLY 5 seconds after, we walked in to Gracealia. She is from Brazil. We found her a few days ago and she became a new investigator. I also have learned heaps of Portuguese. I can say, “Hello I speak Portuguese” and then “Just kidding I am lying” and then “How are you?” It gets people. They get a crack up out of it. Anyways right after asking the question she showed up and shakes our hand but then says, “Kiss?” We were so confused. But then I got it. They do the kiss the cheek thing over there to say hello. Well now that we are friends she wanted to do it for us. Hahaha it was so funny, so right after asking the question, I kissed a lady from Brazil. Well not really but it was still funny how it happened. Oh boy the mission is so fun.
We had a day that we were so tired when we woke up. I got on my knees to pray and 30 minutes later finished my prayer. I fell asleep on the floor. When we awoke we realized we missed our exercise time and had to go straight to showering.
Upon doing that I got the thought, “Boy I am so excited for the day when I get home and don’t have to feel the biggest amount of guilty when I sleep in.” haha
The day before our temple pday we had trade off with our AP Elder Fukafuka. What a man. It was so fun. We did some really good things and tried to visit some part member families. Not much came from any of our work but I really got to see and learn from him. It was all fun right up until it was time for bed. This is where the beginning of the email will make sense. Right as his head hit the pillow he started a lawn mower. Now Elder Sharma snores like a monster truck but Elder Fukafuka is like 2 monster trucks!! Geez I have slept on the cough to get away from Elder Sharmas snoring and it works but there was no escape from Elder Fuka. He is so loud!! Goodness. What a night. I am so tired right now and about fell asleep in the temple.
Well this was a lot in one go and I missed about 90% of what happened but you got the good stuff.
With much love,
Elder Cahoon
PS Fuka when you read this I still love you but geez you snore so loud. Love you though.
Oh man I forgot to put this in the big email. Well this transfer we have been with everyone in the zone once and some elders 2 times. This week we had 2 trade offs and boy are they so fun. I love being a zone leader. Trading off is hard but fun. You get to switch things up, work hard, help others and see miracles. It is so great!!
Well now I am good. Until next week.
Love,
Elder Cahoon
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.
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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