It's All Good In The Hood!!

The palm trees I walk by everyday!

What is up family and friends!!! 

This week has been super good!! I love the Tampa Mission! BTW, every week of the mission is going to start out that way in my emails haha! But it's been great to be in Brandon! I guess I didn't explain last week but the Tripanionship is no more! The Three Nephites split up. It's just me and Elder Cox in Brandon! The other Elder went to his area. Elder Cox is a beast!!! He has been teaching me so much!! He has been out a while and is a great leader so he has been giving me some good ole knowledge!! 

That's cool Mom that you found some things out for yourself in your New Testament studies!! I have actually been studying and learning more about the resurrection and it is pretty cool!! But hey, also, I never received my package!! 

We don't ride bikes in our area! We have a huge area!!! It's a giant rectangle!! So we're in a car right now! Some of Tampa is in our area so we have the city in our area! Our area is like so diverse! We have rich and middle and poor classes and we also have a hood!!!! I love the hood!!! I have only been there once but I meet some pretty hilarious dudes!! The weather is pretty chilly at night and in the morning! I like the weather and it's only supposed to be cool for a little longer- I'm trying to enjoy it because everyone says the summer is brutal!! It rained yesterday so that was fun.  We got pretty wet but don't worry we brought umbrellas!!  And I LOVE THE PALM TREES!!!  It makes me happy every time I see one!! We live right by some and walk by them everyday! (see pictures).  

The Mission Zone is really cool!! It's been cool to meet everyone!! I love the missionaries out here- they are super cool!! We had an awesome Zone Conference and it was super inspiring!! I learned a lot about following up with commitments and getting people to church and committing to baptism!! Elder Cox and I have been trying to apply it to our lessons and things and it's been going great!!

We have been teaching some great lessons to people!! Gregory is doing ok but he has been going through some really hard things lately so please pray for him!! I hope he continues to pray and read and come to church because I know it will help but he hasn't been doing those things! Something that I hate is Anti-Mormon things on the internet!! HOW CAN PEOPLE ACTUALLY BELIEVE THAT STUFF??!!  At this point, I know almost all of the dumb anti stuff.  Some people actually have good questions and or their doubts are understandable but all they/you/we have to do is pray and ask God- not the internet!!  Anti stuff has been kinda affecting some people out here and it really makes me sad because they won't even give us a chance to actually explain or anything.  I'm just so sad that people become hardhearted and turn to other sources for help and knowledge. 

But enough about that! I have been working on noticing and using the Spirit more as I teach and in almost everything else during my day. I love having that companion everywhere I go!! 

I also love the power of Scripture!! Elder Cox is amazing at finding scriptures and using them!! He has a lot of scriptural knowledge!! And I have been trying to learn and memorize good scriptures that apply to the lessons!! 

Hey Pops I just wanted to let you know how much I love you!! Thank you for the amazing example you have been to me!! You may also never know how much I appreciate you and love you so much!!! Thank you for being a righteous father and helping me and always loving me!! You, being so loving, helped me through the toughest times in my life!! I hope to be a good father like you one day!! I love you!!!  And that's good that you are getting paid!! That stinks that it went on for so long!! When anyone talked about it I always chuckled because I thought of how mad you probably were for working without pay! 😂😂 

Where I live.  This is off my apartment balcony

This is where I live! I love all of you and thank you all for everything!! I am excited to see how this next week goes and I hope you all have a good week!!! 

Love, Elder Cahoon