Baptizing Brisbane

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

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 22 Aug 2018 22:00:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 16 Aug 2018 22:49:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 08 Aug 2018 19:55:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 01 Aug 2018 22:02:00 +0000

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!!

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 25 Jul 2018 19:36:00 +0000

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

Week 97 I Got to Carry Moroni

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 18 Jul 2018 19:45:00 +0000

Geez it is amazing how you can have a great week and then in your eyes the worst week in the world!! I hate the feeling that I am not accomplishing anything...

Last week we got to see some great people and work heaps with the ward. This week we got to door knock for ages with no success. It is not the way to do mission work but when you have to fill up the whole day with things to do you have to do it.

Door after door, rejection after rejection. I think we had 3 people say we could come back. Ok wait there were some good people. One of them was Jaco. He is from South Africa and brought his family over for safety. He grew up Christian but has a hard time believing that God is real because of how the world is and how bad South Africa is.

Long story short he invited us back. If you never follow up you might as well never have met them. We followed up and he was home. Question after question. So we told him about the 5 lessons we teach and how they will answer all his questions in an orderly way. At the end he can make the decision for himself. He really liked that. So we taught the restoration to him. It was great and answered a lot of his questions. The Spirit was really strong and he agreed with all that was said. The only hard part will be to get him to believe in God. Because of his Christian upbringing he said the message made sense. The key will just to get him to read the Book of Mormon. He is great!! I love when people open up and talk to us about what they think and believe. It is amazing how the Light of Christ works with the Holy Ghost to testify of all the truth!

Knocking and knocking and knocking. One day you get blessed. For as we say here for every door you knock a person gets baptized in South America. haha

Despite it being a rough week we still had great things happen for us. I was just feeling a bit alone. I have been worn out. It is tough leading an area that you don’t really know. Things are getting there though.

Like I said last week we really started getting to know the members and work with them. The YSA leaders for our ward area super keen to help so we met with them and talked about our activity night. BTW we are doing it again tonight because it was so good last week. Anyway the YSA leaders (the Greens) were having a pot luck dinner with all the YSA at their house. We were invited and really got to know more of the YSA. The better part was there were heaps of less active YSA that we really hit it off with! I was ecstatic.

On Sunday we had a lot of those YSA there!! Plus some ones that come but are struggling. The even better part was we got asked to teach the YSA class on faith. Geez I really love to teach and while teaching the class I had the thought, hey maybe you should be a teacher. It was pretty fun. It was not the only teaching I was doing on Sunday. I got to give a talk and teach sharing time.

Over time on my mission I have really grown to love to talk and teach. I hated it back home and was always so scared. It has been so fun to do on my mission though.

We had transfers this last week. I got to see Elder Winter & Pugsley. They have now gone home. I looked up to them for so long. It is crazy!! While we were saying our goodbyes a member from my last ward was at the temple too. He was fixing some stuff up. His job is to keep the temple going. Well a few months ago I sent home a picture of Moroni and me. Well at transfers Moroni was getting transferred too. So Bro. Odwyer called me over and asked if I could gather a few of my mates and help him. I got all my comps still on the mission. Elder Winter, Choi, Beranibwebwe, and then Elder Top, Tenny, and Olson. We had to put on some special white gloves and then carefully pick up Moroni and put him into his shipping box!! It was the coolest thing ever!! I got to carry Moroni! It was such a unique opportunity.

I am so excited for my last transfer. Things are going strong. I am going to give it my all. It is crazy that it is coming to an end. There is so much to do. I love my mission so much!!

Have a great week.

Love,

Elder Cahoon

Week 96 I Am Like Abanidi

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 11 Jul 2018 17:32:00 +0000

Haha I love my mission so much right now! Sorry for all the spelling mistakes in this email. The spell check is not working and I am typing fast!!

A few weeks ago when Chad Hymas visited our mission he spoke to the leaders and said, “Here is how you will "Make a Movement."” Those words really hit me and I have been trying to do that ever since.

The crazy part is I only have so long left so I am trying to do all I can to make it happen. In one of my studies this week I just loved what I found. Everywhere I go I say we are going to make a movement. We are still trying to figure out exactly how but we have the ball rolling. I found in the scriptures King Noah said "But behold, it came to pass that the king, having discovered a movement among the people, sent his servant to watch them..." I found that scripture and just loved it. How did Alma make that movement? He baptized 450 souls and people took notice. How did he do it?

It starts out way before him with Abanidi. Abanidi stood up all by himself and taught the wicked king and priest. Abanidi was different, he was not afraid to stand alone. He was doing something grand. The best part comes when Alma stands up for him. That is what made the movement. Abanidi was great but Alma was just as great to stand up. He did it different. He went and did the opposite of what every one else was doing.

That is the key for us. I am like Abanidi. (hopefully I do not get burned at the end of my mission) but I am standing up for what is right and true. Now I have to find my Alma to stand up with me. His name is Hayden. He is a 17 year old young man in the ward. We really hit it off with him. One day he took us out to lunch and that is where we yoked.

We now have him and he is eager to work with us. He texts us when he can come out to help. With one keen follower more will come. It is never easy to join a lone nut who is doing something but if there is two or even three it gets a lot easier and less risky to join and help. I hope everyone gets what I am saying.

This week we told Hayden we would be playing basketball at the chapel at 2:00 to 3:00. He was welcome to come and bring any friends. Well he brought two less active friends who we have been struggling to meet with. After a fun game with them we just talked like normal guys. We played at the chapel but it was nothing grand. That was our hour of missionary work with them. It was way better than knocking on doors for one hour.

The key is to work effectively. You can work all day to cut grass with scissors but you can also work hard all day and cut with a law mower. I am super excited for where things are going in our ward. Hadyen is now texting us saying we should go visit this friend and see this person. We are hoping tonight we get more youth and YSA involved. After institute we will be having a classic Cahoon games night with the name game and fun like that!! We will have all the YSA and Hayden is bringing his friends again.

Our Bishop and WML also told us in our correlation meeting that the key to get work done here by being in the members home. We need to visit them and get to know them. So this week would visit members and talk with them but we would also find through our own efforts door knocking. We are slowly starting to see the success come. It may take a few weeks to get it rolling but once it does it will roll forever. The next elder after me is going to love this area!!

We have a man named Kane who has autism but is very functional. He is very slow but very fun. He got baptized about 3 months ago and got called to be a ward missionary. He has been begging us to take him door knocking. The only problem is he does not function super well. We thought ok we can door knock his street with him and he will last a few minutes. Two hours later we finished three to four streets and he got two potentials. I was so shocked and it made it so so fun!!

It is crazy how great it is to really work with the members. My mission president told me in these last few week to really refine my missionary skills. Now I am not perfect, far from it. But it has been amazing to see so many missionaries go through the motion and never grow. I have struggled with it. You get caught up in other things and never reach your full potential or never fully yoke with the members. We have a great bishop who is really helping us see that!!

One funny dinner appointment we had this week was a FHE with the Davidsons. They were holding a newly wed dinner. So when we got there there were three new weds. Boy we were out of place. We could not follow any of the conversations because we were not married. It was really funny. We had a great time and had lots of laughs but just felt so out of place. It was awesome!!

I had a great week and saw so much success. Life is so great and I hope everyone has a great week.

Love,
Elder Cahoon

Week 95 Karol's Baptisim

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 05 Jul 2018 17:30:00 +0000

Wow I say it week after week, "What an amazing week!!"

I want to start off by saying it is such a blessing to be on a mission. This week was a great reminder of that!!

If you remember from my last area there was a lady named Karol. She was working through some things that she needed to overcome but with the help of a good mission president and a helpful bishop, I got a call a few weeks ago from Karol. She said she has set a date and would like me to come and baptize her if possible. It was amazing!! Elder Tewes really worked with her but when some one is really ready they do things for themselves. Since the first day we met her she strives to keep what we taught her!!

As we were taking the photos you could tell that she was really really nervous. She really wanted to be there and be doing what she was about to do but she was scared. We got down into the water together and everything went smoothly. She went under and when she came out she was beaming!! We both just stood there for a good while just taking in the Spirit. She looked over at me and said I feel so much peace!! She was just smiling so big. I love baptisms because it is the perfect Spirit for the convert!! They get a strong witness that what they are doing is right. Karol recognized that and loved it!!

It was great to see Elder Tewes, Elder Biranibwebwe got transferred though. Oh well.

Chad Hymas was still here for last half of the week and taught us so much!! I was so grateful for all he shared with us. He taught about how to be powerful leaders and how to make movements that will last a life time. I really took that to heart and want to apply it for the last little bit.

From our inspiring moment with Chad our Mission President challenged us to set 44+ people of baptismal date on Saturday. We ended the day with 55. It was a really big miracle that the Lord blessed us with. President McSwain then had a big conference call that night and said some remarkable words. He said, “You may get the impression that dodgy missionaries have more baptisms. Let me tell you that their baptisms were only baptized because the Lord needed them, not because they received light and knowledge from you. You fail at the thing you were called to do. The obedient missionaries baptize converts who receive light and knowledge from you because you were fulfilling your calling.”

Those words really made an impact on me.

There is one other story I would like to share. We were with a young man who is preparing to go on a mission. We did not know what we were going to do with him for that hour. He felt impressed to call Ulania and see if she was free. Long story short she ditched her friends to meet us at MacDonalds. I testify that it was an inspired visit from the Lord!! She was so amazing. We had a great chat but it ended with her asking for a blessing and expressing desire to come back to church. She is going to institute tonight. (the teacher is real trash) (I am teaching) haha. Words cannot describe how amazing it was to visit with her. It is why I came on a mission. Tonight at institute I am sharing about becoming an instrument in the hands of God!! That is what happened while we visited her.

While we were there we didn’t know who shouted us food. It was such a surprise and we talked to everyone in the store trying to find the person to thank them.

I want to quickly testify that it is such a blessing to serve a mission. It is not a sacrifice. Everything we have, we have because of Him. It is not a sacrifice to bring his children back. I testily that He lives and it is His work!!

Love, Elder Cahoon

Week 94 I Got to Ride a Boat

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 27 Jun 2018 20:11:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 22 Jun 2018 20:08:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 14 Jun 2018 23:29:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 06 Jun 2018 20:57:00 +0000

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

Week 90 We're Getting Smart Phones

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 30 May 2018 19:02:00 +0000

Haha I wanted to start out with one of the funniest things that we did this week. Since we have Elder Biranibwebwe we have to do a lot of studies. One of them is called 12 week. We go over pretty much missionary 101 and practice it in out flat. For one of our role plays we had Elder Biranibwebwe knock on our door. We were in the study room and he knocked on that door. When he knocked on the door we yelled out just a minute. From there we opened up the window and jumped out and closed the window. We ran around the house and peeked through the window. He was so patient and finally after a minute he knocked on the door again and again and again...no answer. It was so funny. Finally he opened the door and was so shocked. He looked in the closet but we were nowhere to be found. Haha he lost his companions. It was pretty funny. Sometimes we have to spice it up and have some fun. It made for a great day!!

Last week out of the blue Sam called us and wanted to meet. He was a former investigator. We stopped by on Saturday and caught back up. He wants to turn back to the church for a second chance. It is amazing when you drop someone. It can be a really good thing. When you stop visiting they stop feeling the Spirit and recognize that something is missing. That happened to Sam. We invited him to come to church and arranged for a member to pick him up from work. Oh my goodness it was so funny when he showed up to church. I was surprised that he came but more surprised by what he wore. Since he came from work he was in short shorts and a T-shirt. What made it worse was there was a picture of a girl in a bikini on the shirt. It was not a good picture. So when members came up to greet him they were so surprised. The good new is that he has been to church before and all the members remembered him. So once they got over the inappropriate t-shirt they loved him!! Haha it was a crack up.

We have seen Sam a lot this past week. Almost every day. He is doing really good and wants to get baptized!! I hate smoking. It is the only things holding him back. Rob also and a million other Aussies!!

It was just such an amazing week. Last week we really tried to set up as many teaching apt so Elder Biranibwebwe can see what to do. We had a day when we did not even plan for the day because it planned itself. Every house was full. We had apt after apt. All of them were amazing. One was with Sam, Rob, Karol. Etc.... It just went on and on and on!!

Karol was a great lesson. We had Bishop come with us and start to go over what it is going to take. Karol was just so excited and can’t wait. She was been living the commandments for 8 days now. No smoking and now the law of chastity. She says she is keeping it because she says it feels good. She feels the Spirit. We finished the lesson and Bishop said, “Elders she is amazing.” During the lesson we told her that. I even told her that when we get into the car we always shout for joy because she is so good. I told her I took a video of it so when I feel down I can watch it and get myself excited to see miracles. Well now she wants to see the video. Haha I just love her so much!!!

During the week we had our Mission Leadership Conference and to start it out President McSwain said, “I was woken up at 4:30 this morning and have a message that the Lord wants you to hear today!!” Oh my goodness we got spoken right to the soul. The spirit was so strong and the meeting was amazing for so many reasons!! The general theme was why would the Lord send me to you today?

Well during our lessons we would ask that. Guess what it works. Miracles happen. We did not know why we felt prompted to see this one family that we have not seem in 5 months. So we stopped by and shared a scripture but it just felt awkward. So before we left I bore testimony that I knew we were supposed to be there. They then said we prayed that we could get a blessing. Can you give us one? Boy I grew in testimony that we are sent to people for a reason!! We are the Lord’s hands right now!!

At the end of our MLC President McSwain said, “Now I have just spoken with Salt Lake and they are sending over a million smart phones to our mission.” We are going to be getting Samsung smart phones next month. So for the two years that I will serve I will be able to use a smartphone for the last month.

Haha what a blessing. We will not have tablets but the smartphone is going to make a huge difference. We have been using the small Nokia brick phones. Geez they are a pain to use. So what a blessing it will be.

Last week we got a new investigator named Joanne. She is living with a member right now but will be moving out into her own house in a few weeks. We went over to see her. The lesson went so amazing. We taught the Restoration and at the end I nudged him to invite her to be baptized. Oh it is so fun remembering the first time you teach lessons and are so scared. He was shaking so bad but we just knew she was going to say yes. June 16. He did a great job inviting her and the lesson ended with her, her friend, and the fellowship crying. Miracles do happen. The best part is she is already living all the commandments. No smoking!!! YES!!!

Life is just so great and we are so blessed to have the gospel in our lives!! I could keep going on for hours writing about all the fun we had but what I have written sufficeth me. I have written it by my own hand and I know that it is true. I have read too much of the Book of Mormon lately that is has become part of my language.

That is one of the funnest things about the mission is you find so much joy in quoting talks or Mormon movies. We have memorized every funny line from all of Brad Wilcox talks and Ephraims Rescue. When we fall asleep at night our conversations get pretty funny.

Have a great week everyone, I love you all so much!!

Week 89 I'm a Father

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 23 May 2018 23:07:00 +0000

Wow where to start??? I have not had a busy week like this in awhile!! Well, first things first, I am a father now!! We got a call from our mission president that we would be picking up a brand new missionary. He stayed at the New Zealand MTC for 3 more weeks to learn English so he came in mid-transfers.

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

Week 88 No Email, Just Pictures Because of Mother's Day Call

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 23 May 2018 22:55:00 +0000

Week 87 Sick of Door Knocking, Let's Use Members Instead

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 09 May 2018 23:06:00 +0000

This week was pretty great for some of our Investigators.

I don’t know if you remember for not John and Karol. He is a member and she is from Brazil. Well we had not seen them for the last few weeks because John was in the hospital. Well he is out now and we have set up to see them every Monday night and Wednesday night.

On Monday this week we went and planned on teaching The Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is a fairly easy lesson to learn. Most Christians already have that knowledge. So when we taught it to Karol it really made sense to her. We have been dreading the next lesson which is the Word of Wisdom. We always smell a very heavy smoke smell and have seen both of them smoking before we come.

At the end of our lesson about the Gospel, John looks over and says today we gave up smoking. Elder Tewes and I looked at each other in shock!! We did not see it coming!! They decided that morning that they would both give it up together. It is going to make our lesson with them tonight so great!! Karol is going to love it. She wants to give it up because it is unhealthy but once she learns it’s also because God does not want us smoking she will really love giving it up!!

Rob on the other hand is still really struggling to give it up. He is down to 6 a day but can’t go past that. Boy drugs and smoking can really mess up someone’s life. I think 9 out of 10 Aussies smoke. We see everybody smoking. In the car, the house, walking. They do it everywhere. It is so sad that they are all addicted to it!! Rob has decided that it is the fear of stopping that is preventing him. At our last lesson he said it is just going to happen one day. I don’t know how I feel about it just happening because it never just happens but he is trying so we have faith in him.

Last P-day we went with out the AP's and Office Elders to a outdoor laser tag place. They dressed us up in camo and gave us some pretty cool guns. For 4 hours we ran around completing different missions and shooting each other. It was a pretty fun P day activity.

Right now we are like I said last week really trying to figure out how to work with the members so we don’t have to knock on doors. It is useless to knock on a door. It takes 1 in 1000 to get a solid person to teach. I am done wasting time doing that. It is so great working with the members but so frustrating. This week our Bishop met with our Elder Quorum and Relief Society President to go over personal ministering and who to visit. We were invited and in the meeting all three of them talked about this family. The husband is a less active member. His wife is not a member and 4 of the 6 kids are not members. The other ones are still too young. WHY has nobody told us about this family??? We stopped by and it turns out he loves the church, his father is a mission president. After our visit we got invited back and hopefully we will start teaching the family. It was so great!! But what drives me crazy is I have been here for 6 months and nobody thought to tell me to go see this person. Everybody knows him but never told us. Instead I just go knock doors for hours at a time. There is such a better way to do missionary work. The members have all the knowledge of the ward. The missionaries are sent there by the Lord to teach and preach the gospel. The only way they can do both is if they have your help.

Sorry for the rant. I am just really passionate about this subject and we are trying to help both the missionaries in the zone and the members see this. The good news is our Stake President sees it and is on board!!

To get contacts this week we decided to do some GQing. It stands for Golden Question. You walk down a busy street and just start talking to people. It is something that I never have done because it is a bit worse then door knocking. We still have to report good numbers for our area but with all the time we have spent teaching we don’t go finding. We got rebuked for having low contacts even though all of are other numbers were really good. GQing is really fun because you can talk to 10 people in 1 min. So this week we planned our time really wise and we went for 30 mins every other day and got pretty high contacts. Nobody came from it but we got people from the members so it works out.

Missionary work is just so amazing. I love it so much right now!! It is a bit crazy to think it is going to end. I feel like I have been doing this for as long as I can remember now. It is a weird thought to think it ends one day. I am not looking forward to it. I am really interested to see if I get transferred or not. Elder Tewes and I are doing a great job and doing really well so I sorta hope I don’t get transferred but I also am getting tried of the area. Either way I will do what the Lord needs.

Have a great week!!

Love,

Elder Cahoon

Week 86 10 Baptismal Dates

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 02 May 2018 22:24:00 +0000

WOW!!!! This last week we had a really good week!! Two weeks ago I got the idea to only hold the elders and sisters accountable for four numbers in district meeting!! Baptized, on date, sacrament meeting, and new investigators. These are the only numbers the church tracks so I figured we should give it a go for our zone. Some of the missionaries have not had a new investigator or anymore on date for two or three transfers. They justify their week to be good because they had a lot of contacts but nothing else...We figured if we held them accountable for what really counts they will try to get those numbers.

I spoke to my mission president about it and he gave us the go ahead and we started it.

The day that we introduced it we got three texts during the day saying that they set baptismal dates!! Two of them were in areas that have not had a date in ages!! We were so excited. We were back at the flat at 8:30 and I was writing in my journal about it!! Three dates set!! That was pretty cool. At 9 we were going to text the zone thank you for the good job. After we sent the text out we got a text from some elders and they said make it four. haha Then we got a text from the sisters that said, “We just set one.” Then!!!! the other sisters called and said they set five. Within one day our zone set 10 baptismal dates.

It was all just so amazing!! They are working so hard and just smashing it. We also set a date. Rob. He is a great investigator who just needs to give up smoking. We see him everyday and read the Book of Mormon with him. He will happen soon. It was just amazing to see that the day we decided to focus on only four numbers is the day that everyone sets 10 dates!! How cool is that!! Inspired!!!

That is pretty much how exciting our week was the whole week. We keep seeing Karol and John They are doing really well. We were having dinner with a family and they just had their sister-in-law move in and she wants to investigate the church. We have people coming out of nowhere to teach. It keeps us busy all the time. I have not gone door knocking for more that 30 mins at a time now. We just have so many people to visit and see. It gets hard trying to progress everyone but we are coming along pretty well!!

I had a pretty fun trade off with Elder Burnett this week. He is an elder from California. We smashed the work for the day!! There are days when everyone is home and some days when nobody is home. Today was the day when everybody was home. We were able to see some really good people and really yoke with the members. I just love doing missionary work!! Elder Burnett taught me some really good principles and we had a deep conversation before going to bed!! It is so fun being on the mission.

In the morning we have been meeting at a park to play touch rugby. We have really gotten into it. It is a really fast pace game. You never really stop to hike the ball. It just keeps going. It has been a really good way for us to get up and exercise really well. I forgot my camera today while emailing but I will send some videos and photos next time.

Things are just going great right now!! I have really enjoyed my mission. I never thought I would be the one that everyone jokes about going home. They have finally started and now the jokes are never ending. Are you excited for Mother’s Day call? hahah It will be your last one. hahah It is pretty fun!!

I know and have learned so much about the gospel but the biggest thing I have learned is that it is true. We are all human and make mistakes but this gospel is here to help us. We should never turn away from it!!

Have a great week.

Love,

Elder Cahoon

Week 85 Elder Cardon

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 23 Apr 2018 22:41:00 +0000

Well this week went by so quick. Everyday was full of an eventful thing!!

We started with Mission Leadership Conference on Tuesday. Elder Cardon from the Seventy was there. He really wanted to get a feel for our mission so he had us do things as we always do but often we would say something and he would ask a question or give insight. When we stood accountable for our zone we were super glad the sisters baptized a family. Our zone goal was six but with this family we reported nine. Elder Cardon asked, “Elder what did you do? You got more than your goal...” It was pretty cool!!

One thing Elder Cardon taught us was five words that Elder Holland HATES!! "I'm sorry to disturb you." He gave some remarks on how a servant is one who serves others. A king is one who you don’t bother, but in the church we are all servants. As missionaries or even as a General Authority you must never get to busy with things that we think are important. We must make sure we never forget that we are here to serve. It really hit me hard. I find that I get "too busy" with non important things and could spend more time helping out the elders around me or serving people. It opened my mind to simplify my life.

The next day we went back to a Zone Conference where he was presiding. Right before the conference started Elder Cardon pulled me aside for an interview. He wanted to talk and get to know me. It was a pretty cool moment to be able to talk and ask a Seventy questions. I could really tell that he is very humble and is great at listening to the spirit. He shared a cool experience where he was with one of the 12 Apostle learning how they assign missions to people. He shared that this Apostle (I cant remember who) would sit at a screen with a picture of the future elder or sister with information on them and then look at a screen with all the missions. He was able to get through a lot of people quicker than you would think but on one occasion he could not figure out where this elder should go.. So they skipped him. Later when they were doing other people he said, “Australia Brisbane mission.” He said, “That is where the elder needs to go that I could not figure out.” After telling this story he said the Apostle said, “Let me take a moment to explain that I only speak when the Lord needs me to speak.” I have really tried to listen to the spirit and speak what he is saying.

The next day after this we had some time after our deep clean to knock some doors. That morning I prayed that the Lord would loose my tongue so I could teach and testify to people. Well be careful what you pray for. I testify that He listens and answers prayers. As we were knocking a man started to try and tell us what we believe. It was a load of crap what he was saying. It had truth in all of it but it was out of context and wrong. He already knew about Joseph Smith but thought there was no way he was a good man. He read all this bad on him. Bottom line yeah we all make mistakes but look at the good.

The whole time it was not bashful or contentious in anyway but his heart was not open. I really was listening for the spirit because I had no clue how to help this man. I started to bare my testimony and he stopped me and said, “How?” "Well by the Holy Spirit... You said yourself that the Holy Spirit touched our heart and now you have hardened it to the truth." I don’t remember everything else I said but I was pretty bold in what I said. I felt it coming from the spirit though. I was not upset or dismayed. I loved when we got into the car Elder Tewes leaned over and said, “Wow your tongue was loosed.” haha We both felt a strong spirit testify to us that the church is true. This man was not open to find out for himself. We really wanted to share D&C 3:4 with him because it would have just been so bold, but we did not want to be mean. The whole thing was all really nice with the spirit. We were not there to contend but to testify.

I am always really excited for the future. Elder Tewes and I are staying another transfer together and we are getting some really good missionaries in the zone. One of them is Elder Top from Gold Coast. I am super excited to work with him!! He is a great elder!!

I will end with my testimony that God knows us by name. I know that he listens to our prayers and wants to reach out to him. I challenge all of you to grow a deeper relationship with our Heavenly Father through prayer. He wants to hear us. He wants to help us. We just need to ask and thank Him!!

I love you all and have a great week!!

Week 84 It was all fun and games until the next day.

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 17 Apr 2018 22:04:00 +0000

“Ahhhhh!” Sometimes I feel like shouting that really loud. We had a good and hard week. Every week is like that though. The tender mercies are always there. It is what you choose to focus on that makes the difference.

I will start with the fun before I get into the tough mission stuff. Last P-day we got all the elders in the district and we went to a trampoline park. We paid to jump for one hour. Before we went there we played two hours of basketball to tire us out so one hour would feel like a long time jumping. It worked really well. We all got super tired by the end of the hour. Everyone had a really good time. Elder Tewes and Huang learned how to back flip and everyone else had a great time trying it in the airbag.

We thought it was all fun and games until the next day. When we woke up I could hardly move. We were all so so sore. My back was really hurting. I forgot how bad of a back I have since I have not done much beside walking for almost two years. I was fine but really sore. To make it really interesting we were doing a zone fast for someone getting baptized over the weekend. I wish some one videoed that day. Elder Tewes and I looked like old men getting into and out of our car. It would take a sec to get up. It made for a really interesting day.

For the rest of the week we felt great and worked hard and saw some pretty cool tender mercies. Things are pushing along. Like I said last week we are trying to get the ball rolling. It started a bit yesterday and we are hoping that it will take off in the next two weeks.

We had two really big things happen. A few weeks ago I spoke of a Samoan family. Well the member of the family came to church. Maria. She is a member who is less active but now really wants her family to join the church so they can be sealed. She came to church and everyone just loved her. We got a text that night that said I spoke to my brother who is less active too and he wants to bring his family to church so they can be baptized and then sealed also. So we could possible have two really great families who want to be taught. I am really hopefully for them.

The other great miracle we had was the baptism of Monaria Hunt. Bishop saw that her records had been lost and she needed to get re baptized. Pretty crazy right, so this week we set up an interview. She has been coming to church since her family got baptized in 2008. She was baptized back then but the paper work was lost for her. So on Sunday after church we filled the font and thought it was going to be really quick. We really did not prepare anything for the baptism. Our Bishop said it would be a small quick one. Well so many people turned up that they filled the whole sacrament room. They had prepared a program and had everything planned out!! When you are Samoan you are related to everyone who is Samoan. Most of the people that came to the baptism were less active family members. We got their numbers and they want to come play basketball with us on Wednesdays. I can see a good future for everyone.

The last little tender mercy is Robert Leulua. He is from New Zealand and his ex-wife and kids are all members. He is getting remarried to his ex-wife. He has been coming to church for the last two months. We thought he was a member. But it turns out he is not. So we have been visiting him. On our first visit he pulled out a teaching record and said, “Elders this is what I have been taught.” GOLDEN!! How many investigators do you know that carry around their own teaching record?? I think he is the only one!! He has been taught everything. The only thing he is caught up on is smoking. But we are doing daily visits with him and he has cut back a massive amount this week. Yesterday he only had six. That is good for him. 20 was about the daily average for him. He is not on a baptismal date but in the next two weeks he will be baptized. He wants to so so bad. Smoking is so addictive and really gross.

We are really going to struggle to see him this week everyday!! Our week is already full. Every hour is accounted for!! We are calling it a vacation week. Today is P-day so we will be preparing for our week. Tomorrow we have MLC with Elder Cardon from the Seventy. That will be an all day thing ending with a dinner. Then Wednesday will be a zone conference with Elder Cardon. Again all day. Thursday is our deep cleaning day because it is the last week of the transfer and Friday will be our weekly planning. Saturday we have three baptisms in the zone and will be attending those and then Sunday is six hours of church plus two ward counsels.

It is going to be a very interesting week. I am really excited to meet Elder Cardon. It will be really fun to hear from him and be inspired. Our mission has prepared a lot for him to come so we are hoping we will be blessed for that effort.

I hope everyone is going to have a good week too.

Love,

Elder Cahoon

Week 83 Getting the Snowball Rolling

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 11 Apr 2018 22:51:00 +0000

Even though we watch conference a week after everyone I was so excited to stand in the Solemn Assembly. Oh the Spirit that was felt in our little chapel as we sustained the Prophet and Apostles!! I loved raising my arm to the square and giving my vote or witness that I know he is a true Prophet.

I had to study on why we raise are arm to sustain and it comes from the Old Testament. The prophet Moses was in a battle and when he lifted his arms up his people started to win the battle, as he grew tired and his arms lowered his people started to loses the battle. So his 2 I guess you could say counselors stood next to him and raised his arms up!! So when we raise our arms up with the prophet we literally gain spiritual power!! Some think that the world is getting pretty out of hand and crazy that that good is losing the battle. Well we just all lifted our arms to support and sustain the Prophet. Now lets follow his guidance and we can win the battle!!

The best way to describe General Conference when you are a missionary is like watching the Super Bowl with field side tickets!! haha It was just so powerful!! All the talks stand out with great power and glory!! Each speaker was truly inspired!! One of my favorites was in the priesthood session. The Prophet gave a talk on our priesthood and the power we have to give blessings. That really stood out to me. I have given so many blessing on the mission and want to improve on giving them. I prayed for the opportunity too and the Lord provided this week.

After the conference a lady in our ward asked for a blessing and asked if I would give it. One of the coolest things in the world is listening to the Spirit and giving a blessing. I was also called upon by a family on our list that says DO NOT VISIT! They called and needed a blessing to cast out a devil. (yes mom again) This woman was not a member but her husband is. He is not active and needed us. You could tell that she was very uncomfortable. It was a very cool experience to give her a blessing. They went from a DON'T VISIT family to a new investigator and ones who wants us to come around all the time!!

What an amazing week though. We are just pushing through. Elder Tewes and I are going hard all the time. One things we have started doing is following up with all the people we don’t know on our list. It has been really fun and now we have lots of new less actives to visit and most of them are now part member families.

When we get held accountable for our week we really get to look at how we are doing. I would say right now we are getting the snowball rolling. It is starting to build up and roll down the hill. In the next few weeks it is just going to take off and gather more and more and go down the hill on its own. We are really enjoying the building it up right now!! Still lots of Sorry Elders texts but we are pushing on!!

I am really excited for this up coming week. We are having Elder Cardon come visit our mission. For the last month we have been preparing for him. He has asked our mission to devour chapter 4 of PMG. Recognizing the Spirit!! It has been amazing to read and learn new things. All of our training for District Meeting has been from that chapter. A whole new world has opened up!!

Yesterday we trained on Praying with Faith. During the meeting the North Pine Sister got a text from the family that they will be baptizing this week. Well they wanted to cancel their baptism. At the end of our meeting we talked about one of the talks at General Conference about pleading with the Lord. One of my favorite elders in the zone said to plead is like when someone is holding a gun at you and you are telling them not to shoot. Do we pray like that when we talk to the Father or are going through a trial?? The Spirit was so strong during that last part of the meeting and for my final remarks committed everyone to plead with the Lord for this family to get baptized this weekend. They are ready. I have met them heaps of times. So we could use your prayers of faith to for the Stubbs family!!

I love you all so much!! I know the Church is so true!! It is not a part of our lives but it is our life. We either fully embrace it or we don’t. The Lord is always there wanting to bless us. I know he loves us and we need to open our heart and receive him as President Erying said.

Have a great week. Love you all!!!

Here is a link to the photos of this week.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/OJ3zmfnSDvTAStVp2

Week 82 168 Bucks

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 09 Apr 2018 17:55:00 +0000

NOOOOO!!! This week was a bit of a struggle but it did have its amazing moments!! There is this road that we live on and it goes from 70 ks to 50 ks really quick!! It was late at night around 8:59 and we were on our way back to the flat!! I guess I was going 58kph and the hidden speeding camera got me!! I went almost my whole mission without a speeding ticket and now right at the end it got me!! Australia has hundreds everywhere. They are so frustrating. So now I have to pay 168 bucks for this darn ticket! Haha at least we were back by 9. haha

The sad news does not stop there. This is not a pity party for me but just the struggles of the everyday missionary! We had so many lessons set up with really good potentials, investigators, dinners... this week I don’t think any set lessons we had went through!!

We got so use to the texts starting out with "SORRY Elder..." oh far out do you know how frustrating that is!! Man you said it was going to work and we made our whole scheduled around it and now we have nothing!! We got to knock so many doors this week... It was not all in vain, we did find some that we think are really good people to teach and got their phone numbers so we are praying we don’t get that same text from them...

I am really struggling for things to think of to write about! I just looked through my planner and yup every day this week everything fell through. It was a tough week!! It did not end how we thought it would!!

About a week ago I got a call from a man named John. He said he was a member and would be coming to church this week!! He requested a Portuguese Book of Mormon. On Sunday we found out why. His partner is from Brazil and wants to read the Book of Mormon. Sadly they left church really quickly before we could set up a lesson. We also were unable to get a book from our mission office. They ordered one but it was going to be awhile. Out of desperation we asked everyone in our zone if they had one.

Luckily some elders had one. So we got it from them and called John and asked if we could bring it over. He told us to come at 5:00. We were a bit early so we knocked the houses around his street. Double miracle!! Two people on the street accepted a Book of Mormon and a return visit! Just at the door we taught a really good lesson on the restoration and got their phone numbers!! I think they could be really good!!

At 5:00 we came to the lesson and they were ready for us!! (Thank you Heavenly Father) John served a mission and still reads the Book of Mormon every day!! He is going though a divorce so he can’t marry Karol right now. So they are not living the gospel but are working towards it. Any way... we got to know Karol. She has been over here for 2 years and has been looking for a church. She said she never feels anything when she goes to everyone else but when John brought her on Sunday she said, “I felt something and want to learn about it!!” We jumped right into the restoration and I really got into it!! She reminded me of Alessandra Barbarossa from Gold Coast!! As we kept teaching the lesson I felt really prompted to just talk about the Spirit. I think we had just talked about apostles and prophets before Jesus Christ. As I started to speak about the Holy Ghost she said, “I feel something.” I said, “That is the Holy Ghost.” As I spoke of it, I don’t even know what I said but I know how I felt. It was the strongest Spirit I have ever felt in a lesson! It testified right from my heart that the church was true and I know that Karol felt it!! She was in tears as she listened!! The whole lesson was full of the strongest spirit I have ever felt.

For everyone that does not know, PMG is set up so we can teach people and not lessons. We still taught about the restoration but the way we did yesterday brought a whole new meaning on how to teach people!! John got right into it also!! He was like a little kid in a candy shop explaining about the principle and doctrines!! If you are struggling with your testimony at the moment or are wanted to feel a stronger spirit in your life, share your testimony with a non member!! Do missionary work!! So many people don’t have solid testimony because they don’t share the gospel!! I testify that the more you share the Gospel the stronger your testimony will be!! I have seen it my whole mission and I witnessed it with John!! He is so excited to start living the commandments and get married!!

Karol does smoke and they are working on marriage. I know though that as soon as we share with her those lessons she will follow it. I know that John is going to do all he can too!!

Right after she started crying I knew she was ready for baptism. There was no doubt that she would say no. She already has a spiritual witness that it is true!! She is the next Alessandra and Bia!! Boy do I love the Brazilian people!! They are so in tune with the spirit and are ready to hear it!! Dad you must have loved you mission!! They are an amazing people!!

So despite such a hard week in the beginning I know it was God preparing and testing me. He was helping me grow. Sometimes we have to go through hard things so we really appreciate the good things when they happen!!

The other thing I want to talk about is how amazing the Richins are. They are my new Grandma and Grandpa for right now!! Elder Richins invited us over for breakfast this morning!! Haha they just want us over all the time. We had a feast of waffles and fruit!! We had such a fun morning with them and a great conversation. I really love working with them. We found out that Sister Richins drove a race car back home. She told me, “Hey sometimes it is worth it to pay the 168 dollar ticket.” We both just started laughing so hard!! It though she was going to give me a hard time for speeding. I guess I’ll leave that one up to you Dad. haha just kidding.

I really love my mission so much right now!! Even though there are hard days and even weeks there are tender mercies all over the place if we are willing to look for them!! I so testify that this is true and that the Gospel is true!! It is not just a church, it is Jesus Christ Standard for us for our happiness!! I love this gospel so much. It is hard to live because it is worth it!!

I love you all and hope you have a great week with set appointments!! Oh I found out that it was Alessandra birthday on April 2. How cool is that!!

Love,

Elder Cahoon

Week 81 With the right comp and mindset nothing can be more powerful!!

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 28 Mar 2018 21:53:00 +0000

Wow another week has gone by!! Elder Tewes and I were talking about it this week and how fast it has gone!! We are already half way through the transfer!! That is really crazy to think about!!

We had a great week again!! It started off with a big mission leadership conference!! Boy that was just so great!! Our mission president is great at explaining things and helping us see his vision!!
He shared some really good thoughts on what it means to be a leader and how we need to be hero's for the missionaries. An elder told him that he does not feel like the leaders are hero's right now!! So we got a really good training on how we can improve and be "better".

Since Elder Tewes has gotten here we have been struggling to get the work to progress. With my last comp we had stuff going for us but not a lot of it was great!! We still have people to teach like Dontay but they are struggling to progress!! So we have to sorta started fresh and really working hard to build it up!! It has been so tiring. We work diligently all day. Sometimes it is so frustrating but other times it is so rewarding.

On Saturday nobody we tried to follow up with was home. Nobody was home!! It was so frustrating. We were praying to do good and help people but we could not even meet anyone.
But then we had days this week when everyone was home and we had no time for door knocking. So getting the balance of teaching and finding is hard.
I don't know if I said it last week but the sister training leaders challenged us for the next three weeks to a contacting challenge. Whoever gets the most in the next 3 weeks wins and the loser will get the winner a t-shirt!! haha We are up by 80 people right now but they are persistent!! So time will tell.

With all the finding we have done we have not been blessed with immediate people to teach but the blessings will come with time.

We had ward councils on Sunday and sometimes we get frustrated. It is not a party planning committee. Luckily we had a training on it and this week they were a bit better!!
One of our Bishops is from Tonga and has really broken English but big goals!! In this ward council nothing changed until the end. Bishop announced that the ward conference was coming up on the 21st of April. To celebrate he wants the ward to baptize 21 people. Hahah I was cracking up!! I have been in this area for 4 months and have been working hard but nothing is happening!! I thought 21 was just a crack up goal. As the ward council talked, Bishop said, "Ok we will have 10 on the 21st of April."

I left the meeting thinking it was impossible. There were no names of people for us to work with but our bishop and everyone in the meeting has no doubts that we would get them!
Well I have cause to repent for my unbelief!! While we were at church Bishop set a baptismal date. A family has been coming to church and everyone are members except for the youngest daughter. So we have one for nine right now!! The next day after this meeting we got a referral from SLC. As we followed up with this referral it turned out to be a returned missionary and her family is all Methodist but want to learn more!! She has aunts and uncles and cousins living with her!! Over ten people that want to learn!!
The only problem we have is they have really bad english. The good news is that our ward has heaps of Samoans. So we already have all the Samoan members excited and ready to help!!

I really grew in testimony of priesthood keys and goals. Nothing is set in stone yet or even close but I have faith that it is possible with hard work. I know it was no coincidence that this family referred themselves on the day that Bishop set this goal!! Well who knows but with a little faith all things are possible!!

I am really excited right now to work!! Things are really picking up and I only have so much longer left!! The months seem to go quicker and quicker!! Soon it will be 4 months left!! Today we had a temple trip and after had interviews with the Mission President!! He challenged me to set 5 big goals for the last bit of my mission. Ones to make me stretch!! I got really excited about that!! I want to go out with a bang and not slack off. It does get really hard at times but with the right comp and mindset nothing can be more powerful!!

Last p-day we had a District Trivia Challenge. It was companionship verse companionship. Over the last few weeks we have been planning this with Elder and Sister Richins. Quick side note. On Sunday we were back at the flat at 6 for dinner and then call ins for the rest of the night. At 7 Elder Richins texted and asked if we could stop by!! We got so excited and described the feeling like going to our own grandparents home on Sunday evening. They are just so fun to work with and have right down the road!!

Ok so at the activity for Trivia we got really into it. It came down to Elder Tewes and I and the STL's Sister Wengert and Watene. We were neck and neck the whole game. The questions were random but it made it so fun!! We got to the last question and won it. As we counted up we had 15 1/2 and the Sister had 16. So they beat us by .5 of a point!!
Sister Richins said there was a grand prize and had the sister stand up!! After getting really emotional she announced that they would be having Nigerian pygmy goats named after them. It was so funny!! We had such a great time and grew to love everyone so much!! This is truly the best zone in the mission and we are all so close!! I love them!!

I love you all and hope you are having just as much fun as me right now!! Life is too good not to enjoy it and be smiling all the time!!! Have a great week!! Love, Elder Cahoon

Week 80 Baptisms for the Dead With Shelia

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 24 Mar 2018 17:57:00 +0000

There are two types of missionaries. There are ones who are proactive and work hard and ones who follow their companion when they work hard. The best is when you have two proactive hard working elders who want to get stuff done!! That is Elder Tewes and myself right now! We never want to waste a minute!! Our planning is so detailed and full of things to do!! We are smashing it.

I would say this was one of the happiest weeks of my whole mission. I did not baptize anyone or set a date but I did see miracles and did one better than baptizing someone. Sheila invited me to come with her to do baptisms for the dead for the first time. Elder Winter worked with all of the recent converts down in Gold Coast to come with her. So it turned into a big ward activity. Bishop was there, the elders quorum president, all the great people I knew, but more importantly Sheila, Ceila, Marty and Alex. All people that I either set on date or baptized or worked with!!

Wow, the spirit that you feel when you are in the temple with all those loved ones is just so strong!! I have not done baptisms for the dead in a few years!! I will never forget the happiness that I felt. Celia went first and did 10 or so baptisms! She was so scared. She did not know it was her that was getting baptized, so she had on so much makeup but in the end knew it was more important to get it messed up. She just loved it and had the biggest smile!!

Sheila was up next and I could not be the one that baptized her so Bishop Nawaka was the one doing it. There was the strongest spirit!! She was being baptized for her mother!!. Sheila, as the prayer was being said, took in the deepest breath and you could practically see the spirit that filled her!! She went under the water and came up and just kept her eyes closes and stood there. It is so hard to describe the spirit that was felt and seen!! It was powerful. I was up next and asked to stand in place for her father.

Boy I can’t say it enough, the spirit was so strong. Bishop said as I walked into the font, “You don’t get baptized to much on your mission.” It was a touching moment!! I felt so peaceful!! It was the happiest I have ever been on my mission. I kept looking at her and thinking look at how far she had come. This gospel is the best thing that ever happened to me!! How blessed are we to have it in our lives!! I challenge you to share it with everyone you know!!

From there our week only got better!! Elder Tewes is such a hard worker and great missionary. We used every hour we had to find, teach, and follow up!!

I am really struggling planning for two wards and what to do, but Elder Tewes is so supportive and helpful as we go!! It has made it such a pleasure to work with him. We have both talked about the companionship and how we can make it grow!! Boy do I love him and he loves me. We are just smashing it!! He is a very serious guy!! German made!! But deep down he has a funny bone and we are really loving it. In lessons he can clearly teach with love and the spirit. The best part is we teach together. Just naturally we both teach together. One never does it all by himself. One will talk for just a bit and then pause and the other will jump right it. It comes from a good comp unity and knowing the lessons. We have great studies and really grow in teaching together!!

At the door we have seen so many tender mercies. We taught 20 lessons just at the door. Not quick little ones but 5 to 10 minutes going to the whole lesson. Out of those 20 lessons about 10 invited us back and I would say 7 could become solid investigators as we come back. We are really growing our teaching pool and doing what the Lord would have us do!!

One Sunday we were invited to attend a bishop’s training meeting. The stake president had us come and hour early and he spoke with us on how he wanted us to help in the meeting. He wanted us to talk and train. That was scary. We were going to train bishops on how to have good productive ward councils. President McSwain gave us a power point to go through with the stake president and the meeting was such a huge success!!

We were also able to have another trade off with Elder Pugsley. He is one of the APs. Boy we just love working with him. He was sharing with us the whole time how great we are and he just made us feel really good. I love him!! He also shared how we can work with such a big zone now!! I am not going to lie, it is so hard. We never have a spare moment. Always on the phone, always getting texts for permission or questions. It is so fun but draining... On Sunday night our calls ins got pushed back so we turned on the movie Ephraim's Rescue. I was in tears. If you have not seen it go see it. It is like 17 Miracles but with such a great main character. At the end of the movie I prayed and told God I wanted to be just like Ephraim and do whatever it takes. He took me up on that this week. We were able to give so many blessing and also just be on the rescue. It changed how I see people at the door and those in need. We have the blessing of being God’s hands and feet here on the earth. How cool is that!! Let’s use it!!

I just want to bare my testimony that I know that this is Jesus Christ’s church. He is in charge and fully knows what is going on. He has provided everything we need. I know that the Book of Mormon is true and that it is the evidence of Him!!

I love my mission, I love my family!! Bring on the next week!!

I love you all and hope all is well!!

Week 79 New Companion

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 18 Mar 2018 23:36:00 +0000

I got a new companion. He is from Germany and is one of the best missionary in this mission!! He works hard and is very wise!! He knew English before the mission so his accent is not that strong!! We both knew each other and had talked at a few of the meetings when we saw each other!

We are still getting used to the new companionship but my favorite part is how well, we are working together!! The yoke between us is very strong already. On our first day we were together we saw Dontay!! Sam happened to be there too. (Sam was on date) We began to teach them and the power we had as a companionship was perfect. We knew where to speak and how to teach a lesson together. He testified of me so many times. That was one thing I did not have with my last companion.

Even just in our simple prayers before a lesson we thank the Lord for each other. It is so simple but it makes such a difference. I have loved it and do it too.

Our dinner canceled on our first night together so we stopped by our senior couple’s home to joke with them. I died laughing when they invited us in. Elder Richins answered the door and as we stepped into the home he stumbled back and said, “Sister Richins can you feel the power from these too!!” It just made us feel so good!! We are off to a great start as a companionship. I know it won’t be perfect all the time but boy right now I am so excited to serve him and love him!!

Along with getting a new companion I got a new zone. I did not get transferred but rather got merged. My zone went from having 10 missionaries to 22. We are now covering what we had plus the Sunshine Coast zone. Well it is a district now. Brisbane North is a district also and together we make up the biggest zone in the mission.

As we did transfers we had to drop an Elder off at the airport and we noticed that we could catch a flight to the furthest area in our zone. Bundaburg. It is an 8 or 9 hour car drive away!! We are only allowed to do trade offs up there if we get a ride up or go when we need to be up there for our stake correlation meetings once a month. Either way it is going to make it hard!! We are going up on Sunday to see a baptism. The senior couple is going to give us a ride.

Our To-Do list is getting very long. Today we are going to plan and prepared how to work and help such a big zone!! It is going to be so fun but very interesting. Just since Wednesday we have had no spare time to do anything for ourselves when we get back to the flat. We go straight to calling people, reporting, and preparing... it has been a struggle but I love being busy and engaged in a good cause!!

The one fun thing we did this week while I had Elder Aspacio was getting permission to watch a movie. The Spirit of the Game. It is about the Mormon Missionary's in Melbourne. I highly recommend it.

Dad, tell Bishop Millar about it. He would just love it!! Our ward was having a ward activity and watching that was part of it. We got permission and just died of laughter from the movie. I will warn you it is not the best acting or sport action or filming but the story is amazing and the church side of it is very funny!!

From the day that I got Elder Tewes, (you say it Teves) I bet my grandpa Cahoon can say it the best!! Anyway since day one it has been go go go!! We had to wake up a 5:30 our first day and have brekkie with our Stake President. While we had brekkie we discussed the new zone and how we can help but more importantly the people that are on baptismal date in his stake. He knows and has been to lessons with a lot of them but wanted an update on how everyone is going.

During this meeting we also discussed the things we want to talk about in a Bishops Training next week. He has invited us to come and train and participate to help the bishops catch the vision of mission work. In our meeting we found where things are struggling. The mission trains the missionaries so well on what they need to do and also the stake but from the stake it is hard to get it to bishops and past them to the ward council. The driving force is the ward council in missionary work but none of them in the stake are functioning properly... We called it the trickle effect. Primary leaders do see how they can help and never get trained on what the stake and mission vision is for the work.

I am really getting excited to help the bishops figure out how to help there ward councils see the vision and feel the hastening of this work!!

After a great breakfast with President Zeisel he came with us to our district meeting. We had all of the Brisbane North district there and we heard from our Stake President about realizing our true identity. We pretty much went over the Plan of Salvation. I am so glad my Dad put that into perspective with our quorums as we grew up. Every lesson we would start out by drawing the Plan of Salvation. What a help it is to always remember whose we really are and the plan he has for us.

I followed after President Zeisel and spoke on the spirit. We had some cool things happen when preparing for the meeting that only came from listening to the spirit. It was such a blessing.

I am just so excited for this work to take off here in this area and now what we are calling the XL zone. (extra large) Haha it is so great!

I love you so much and hope all is well back home. Mom, don’t worry a bit about me. I could not be happier right now!!! What a blessing it is to have such an amazing comp right now!! This will be one for the history books!!

Love, Elder Cahoon

Week 78 Eight Investigators Showed Up to Church!!

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 07 Mar 2018 23:43:00 +0000

Whew this week was one to look back in the journal and laugh and wonder how I made it through. We struggled this week but still went on working and trying. Lets just say I can’t wait for a new companion. haha

I wish I had something great and fun to write about. This week was pretty normal. We knocked on doors for a few hours a day, we followed up with some great people, and we taught our investigators.

I guess a big miracle that happened was we had 8 investigators show up to church. Janna and her 2 girls and partner all came for the second time. We were super excited just for that. Then right as we started singing for the sacrament the WHOLE Blake family walked in the very back. Joelie and Shayde are really progressing. We went over the interview questions for them and asked if baptism is something they really want to do. We said you passed the questions. So this week they are going to pray and talk with their Mom and Dad to see if it is something that they really want to do. There baptism will be soon. Same with Janna and her 2 girls. We set them on date and both girls are really really excited to follow Jesus Christ’s example.

We got put into the most awkward situation this week. About a month ago our Stake President told Elder Aspacio that he was thinking of making a Philippines branch our in a city named Kilcoy. It is an hour from the chapel and about 14 active members live out there. They are all Filipinos. Well in this meeting he told us not to tell anyone. The first thing Elder Aspacio does is call his branch president who lives out there. He moved over right after Elder Aspacio got here. Well he told him and said don’t tell anyone. Well word got around within a minute and every Filipino knew about it. Well the catch is that it is not approved yet but Elder Aspacio said it was... So a month passed and no one talked about it or heard anything from it.

This week they were having a big get together for a Family Home Evening and were wondering if we would like to join. They had all the Filipinos there and the sister missionaries. The only purpose of it was the be FHE. We let the stake president know we were going to meet all of them and he asked if he could join to come check it out.

This is where it gets awkward and why I struggle with my comp. After we talked to the Stake President Aspacio called the Filipinos and told them the Stake President was coming. They all took it the wrong way and thought from how Aspacio told them he was coming to open a branch... Awkward!!!! When we got there President was right behind us. To open the FHE they had us give a message and then they all started to thank President for coming out to make a branch. He looked at us really confused and oh it was so awkward. He had no intentions to open a branch but everyone thought that was the only reason he was coming out. Far out I am going to kill Aspacio for this. They turned the time over to President to make a few announcements and he got up and just thanked them for their love and dedication to church even though they all live an hour away. Everyone started to joke about who would be the next branch president or bishop. I laughed at President reply. Oh is Bishop Kerr. Boy it was just super awkward the whole time.... The worst part about having a comp is you both take the bad rap for everything. So it made me look bad. I told him to stop telling people. It will still be a long time before anything happens out there and these poor people got so excited over NOTHING!! Ahh I hope you can feel my frustration!!

Our visits with Dontay are going really well. The clothes fit him but he was not able to come to church. His mom won’t let him. We went over to figure out why.... Dun dun dunnn..... Dontay's mom is the daughter of a devout JW. His mom is not a member or believes in it but won’t let her son join the Mormons because of what her mom tells about us. It was a really hard thing to sit with Dontay and his mom and have his mom yell at us an say all these nasty things about the Mormons. We apologies that she felt that way and said we would love to share what we really believe. It is hard when people try and tell you what you believe and it is totally wrong. One thing she said that I don’t know how anyone could believe is that if you were to ask any old person in the Mormon church they would tell you there is no Jesus. She said once you go home you never talk about him again or share it with anyone. There is a slight truth in all of the things that she said but the whole thing is just wrong!! It was so sad. Luckily Dontay has really felt the spirit in our lessons. So once Mom left we taught the WoW. He loved it. Smoking will be hard to give up but he wants to change his life around and be like "me" We testified in the end that he is free to choose what to believe. We talked about how he needs to pray to God and really rely on the feelings that he gets. People will say everything to get you to not believe but you have to ask yourself what were those feelings... He totally understood and is a solid guy!! He will come around and this week we are meeting with the mom and going to bring an old guy with us so they can talk.

Beyond that the week was so great!! Haha man sometimes I want to strangle my companion. When he answers the phone and the member says are we still good for tonight. He will look at me funny and say we were wondering if you are still good for tonight. I just face palm myself. He is so clueless. Haha it can be fun but frustrating to watch. But hey I do love him or am trying to love him... I should take out the beam in my eye before saying too much.....ok now that it is out, hahah nah just kidding I don’t need to go on and talk about that stuff.

Aahhhhh hahahah I just got a text from SHELIA!! She is going to the temple soon. She is planning the trip right now. Oh what a pick me up from this week. She wants me to participate in baptizing her mother and father!! Oh what joy this brings to my heart!! AHHHH I am so happy right now I don’t even know what to say!! I love her so much!! I saw firsthand how much joy the gospel brought into her life. It was so worth every set back and heartache to get her baptized, now look what is coming from it! I just know her family is on the other side of the veil cheering with all their heart!!

Oh this gospel is so true!!

I forgot some of the craziest stuff this week. Last night at 10:30 the sisters in North Pine called us. They were having departing interviews with President McSwain. They got back to their flat and realized they were locked out. So we had to drive to their flat way late and let them in. Haha it was fun.

We were also called upon for 3 days in a row to give blessings to the Centenary Lake sisters. Along with giving them 3 blessings in a row we had to cast a devil out of their flat. They had been having a really hard week and keep seeing a black figure in their flat. The night before we cast it out they recalled that it grabbed them and held them down on their bed. They could not talk or move. So President McSwain had us go over and bless the home and also cast it out. Freaky stuff. At one point in their flat as we looked around we did not feel or see anything weird but out of nowhere we both got chills and goosebumps up our arms. All of my hairs were standing up. The good news is all is good now and they are safe. It was pretty scary stuff though.

I just kept singing this week, “Fear not I am with thee oh be not dismayed, for I am thy God and will give thee strength...” It worked miracles for me!!

Sorry this email was all over the place. I love this work and find so much joy and happiness in learning and growing more!!

Love,
Elder Cahoon