Week 64 Full of Ups and Downs

Wow where to start? This week again was just so crazy and full of ups and downs.

As I mentioned last week Elder Watson was put with us because of depression. That was really hard. He was really struggling. We tried our hardest to keep him happy and not anxious but nothing worked, so for 2 days we just stayed at the flat and read scriptures and played our golf simulator and went to the sauna. Because of the state he was in we took him to the mission home. It was pretty sad to see him go home. He was a strong elder who was so great!! He is going to try and get better so he came come back.

Since he is gone now we have yet again a new companion, Elder Lim. He is from Korea and while Elder Watson was with us Elder Lim was in Mudgee. He is so great and has made us breakfast every morning.

Elder Watson’s experience was the low for the week and it only got better from there. Ok actual wait, there is one last bit of sad news. Steven was doing so great. He was reading the Book of Mormon and keeping all commitments. He was so excited to come to church but on Saturday while we were in a meeting with 3 General Authorities we got a text from Steve. He had a big prayer and pondered all morning and texted us he would not like to further meet with us. He feels the dark angles are blocking our eyes.

It was pretty sad to get a text like that while in such a inspiring meeting. For a long time I could not help but wonder what I did wrong. After heaps of prayer and reminding myself it is the Lord’s will. I can’t wonder what went wrong. I just have to trust that it was the Lord’s will. Hopefully one day he can join back with us.

To get my happy self back I will write about the Lovelock family. They are doing so good!! They are a part member family who are letting us meet with them and teach their daughter. The mom is the only member in the family but she has been less active for her whole life. It has been fun to bring that spirit and joy back into her life. Minique is her 13 year old daughter who is preparing herself for baptism on the 15 of December.

On one of our many visits to their home we discovered that the mother (Beck) is a beauty therapist. She has the whole set up with everything. While she was giving us the tour of her "work" place some how I ended up in the hot chair. I got my eyebrows waxed. First off dang I look good. All the members and sisters have complemented me on them. I was not the only elder that got it done. Elder Winter and Lim did it. It was one of those ways to have fun and really get the family to like us.

As I sorta mentioned above, at the beginning of the week we found out that our mission would be getting a visit from Juan A Uceada from the Presidency of the Seventy. He would also have the Area Pacific President, Elder Hallock and Elder Walker. So on Friday we got to meet 3 general authorities. What an experience that was. It was amazing to hear from all three of them and gain revelation and insight on what they thought and saw.

When it was President Ucedas turn to talk he went on for 1 1/2 hours. The whole thing was whole every second. The end was the best part. He made a promise to us. The spirit was so strong when he said it.

"I promise that if you learn to get referrals from less active and new converts and properly work with the ward council you will double your baptism next year.” As a mission right now we are at 422 and our goal was 500. We will make it to 500 but to double that would be amazing. He gave us some really good insight and our mission is getting to work on it right now. It is just so amazing to hear what the Lord’s servants had to say to us and to let us know that it really is God’s work and He is full steam ahead.

Since the week did not get off to a great start we thought it was going to be rough on Sunday. We did not see the majority of our investigators or invite any one besides Steve to church. As we were welcoming everybody in we started to lose count on how many people were coming.

By the time everyone sat down we had 12 investigators come to church. It was the biggest number I have ever seen. To put it into the funnest perspective the most members we got to come to Ayr and Charters Towers branch sacrament meeting was between 10-15. So down here we could have started a branch with all the non members that came this Sunday.

We have seen a huge success in working with part member family's and yoking with the members. We have a Brazilian family that brought their cousins last week and this week they came again and became new investigators. Bia and Alexandra. They are so great. Bia is the daughter and she loves to come to all the youth activities. The members just love her and we are going to try and set a date this week for her and her mother.

Marty came again this week and we set up a date on Friday to play basketball and then have a lesson after. He is really comfortable around us and loves us. He has had lessons before but sorta fell away and is coming back!

Lots of the other people that came were part member family's and people we are slowly working with.

It was just amazing to see so many people.

To top it off we finally did not postpone Adrian's baptism. Despite the ciaos of the last 3 weeks we finally got it to happen. The family was so excited and the ward was so supportive. The only stressful thing was filling the font. It has a leaky drain so while the program was going we went to top it off just a bit more since it had emptied itself while the speakers were speaking.

When I pulled Adrian up out of the water he had the biggest smile and said, “I feel so clean.” He is a very hyper child but in this moment there was so much peace. It was quite amazing. He asked if the new elder, Elder Lim would give him the Holy Ghost. So that night we got to work and helping him do it in English. He has very good English but was struggling. It was his first time. He did amazing.

I have a bit more time left. We had the craziest P-day today. It was our zone temple trip and interview on the same day. We were swamped. By the time we got back to our area all the shops were closed and so was the library. So we got permission to email at the chapel tonight for 30 min and then tomorrow go to the library so we can all email.

It has been a crazy day. Oh I need sleep.

Again so much craziness in one week. I hope it makes sense and was good. It is 8:30 pm so I am a bit tired and hungry.

Love you heaps,
Elder Cahoon