We picked him up on Wednesday last week. That alone was a crazy day! We had temple P-day that morning so we woke up at 4 am to get all ready to drive there through the traffic for the 8 am session. Oh how I love the temple. The only down side was they played the really really old video. Oh it was so hard to pay attention when there was no emotion. I still took a lot out of it but boy was I tired!!
From there we had to make our timing just right. Our Golden was landing at 1:00 but we had to meet at the mission office at 3:00. We had a few hours to spare so we toured Brisbane city and ended at the Ferrari store. Since we were dressed up in suits we fit right in and the sales people talked to us. It was pretty funny to look at all the nice cars and have people think we were really interested in buying one.
Well that does not matter. At 3:00 we went to our mission office and met Elder Biranibwebwe. He is a great elder!! He is from Kiribati and is doing really good so far. His English is far better than we thought. We have a few elders from Kiribati and they have been out for awhile and are still struggling. Elder Biranibwebwe struggles with grammar but he knows the words and sounds. Language study has been pretty fun. We do a lot of role plays and reading.
His first day was one like never before. We picked him up at 3:00 and hung out with all the senior couples in the mission office until 7:00. A few weeks ago we were invited to attend the BYU wind symphony in Brisbane Hall. They are touring Australia and had a guest singer with them from Australia. It worked out perfect that we were in downtown Brisbane on the day that they were here. So we drove with everyone from the office to the Hall and got to listen to the concert. What a great way to start the mission. My welcome to the mission was getting back onto an airplane and flying alone to a place I did not know. Having a Golden has brought back so many fun memories of first starting the mission and not knowing what to do!!
It has been really fun to learn again the basics of missionary work and help someone figure it all out. Boy it is hard to adjust to mission life. God truly does bless his new missionaries though. We have had things happen this week that just don’t ever happen. Out of the blue this week we got a call from a former investigator that said he wants us to come back tomorrow. It was crazy!!!
We also had a woman named Joanne come to church. She is related to a member in one of our wards and wants to get baptized. We stopped by this week and just got to know her and talked about the Holy Ghost and Jesus Christ. She is Golden because of our Golden. The miracles don’t stop there.
Karol and John have really been progressing. They both have come to church 2 weeks in a row and then on other multiple occasions. We have really been enjoying teaching her but we know that getting baptized is something that will be hard because of marriage issues. Even though we see her regularly baptism has never been one that we set a date for or talk about. It is really hard to get divorced over here and then it takes 30 days to get married so if she were to get baptized it would be long term. So we thought... She sent us a text that said, “I want to keep all the commandments. I have given up smoking and moved into a different room than John and have my own part of the house. Can I be baptized?" Oh how do you reply to a text like that!! The qualifications of baptism are if they have a desire and are living the commandments. We gave our mission president a call about it. The only problem is the temptation is still there and the appearance of evil. What will John’s wife think of him and the church if she gets baptized but is not married to John...But then he said if she is living the commandments and wants to get baptized we cannot deny her that. It a tough one. So then we spoke to our bishop. The conclusion is going to be in order for her to get baptized she has to fully know and understand the consequences of sinning and meet with bishop every so often until she gets married to him and John has to either give permission or talk to his soon to be ex wife about how the living situation will be so she does not get a bad idea of the church or John. The good news is the wife is still active just in a different ward in the stake.
So that is that!! I love her desire but I am on the fence about it. But we cannot deny her the blessings. So it will be fun to work all out and help her get going. She gave up smoking pretty easy!! Her testimony is so strong that the church is true!! Boy do I love Brazilians!! First Bia and Alessandra and now Karol!!
Our week was just so crazy and full of amazing moments. One of my favorite parts of training right now is door knocking. The only way to learn it is to do it. With 3 people it can get easy for Elder Biranibwebwe to sit back and not get involved. So we are really trying to help him to participate. When we door knock we have two people go to the door and the other one hides up the road a bit, then we switch. We told him ok this time I will not say anything it is all you. He agreed and as soon as the person answered the door he froze. I remember doing it and then turning to Elder Cadiang for help. He did not give me help so we did not give Elder Biranibwebwe help. We had knocked about 25 doors and showed him how but now it was his turn. Geez the awkward silence is so painful!! After about a minute he finally got some words out. He is doing a lot better now and we do help him when he struggles but it is so fun to see them learn it for themselves!! Haha it has been a fun week!!
It was also really amazing to call my family last week. It was weird to think that it was the last call before I come home. I have felt like the time will never come that it is time to come home but every week I get reminded either by the members of the ward here or by my wonderful Mom. Haha I am excited to come home but look at this wonderful week. It is going to be sad leaving it. I love my mission so much. It has been so crazy to think of all the things that have happened and all the things I have learned!!
I love you all so much and hope you have a good week in the summertime sun!!I It has been really really cold over here right now. I always wear long selves and a jacket. We do not have a heater but have figured out a quick way to get warm in the morning while cooking breakfast!! You can look though the photos and see what I mean. haha.
Love, Elder Cahoon
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