Preparing Myself For the Prophet's Message and Preparing Others For The Lord's Message!

Hello family and friends!! 

Back at it again doing missionary work!! Always a great time for sure!! I love the Florida Tampa Mission!  It is a very obedient mission.  President Cooper is strict but I love it!  I think it makes the Mission better.  This week was a great week of Finding and Teaching!! We found some good people and taught some great lessons! The area here is doing great!! Sorry about this but this weekly may be a little short! I already talked to Mom and Dad and I promised Mom I would write but my companion and I are going to downtown Tampa to run the Riverwalk and see the shops and restaurants.  I love the city here with the tall buildings, water and many people!  South Tampa is a really awesome area!  My apartment is pretty sweet too!  

So we had some bomb-diggity lessons this week!! I met someone from Aztec, NM- how crazy is that?!  We taught her and her son.  I love to teach- it is my favorite thing to do on my mission! 

Teaching In Tampa

I am just super pumped to be here and serve and preach to God's children! I love being able to be that vessel in the Lord's hand!! I enjoy teaching with Elder Lewis.  It's cool to teach with someone who knows the Gospel.  Our teaching is seamless and the lessons go so smoothly.  We had an amazing church tour with Heather and Joe and we showed them the  short video about the Restoration!!  This was the first time in 10 years Joe has steeped foot into a church. They are doing great!! Joe has had some hard experiences with church in general in the past and he doesn't feel too comfortable just yet with church but he is doing great!!  They have been having family prayers more and reading The Book of Mormon together!! It's awesome to see the teachings of Christ influence their lives!! Following Christ really does bring peace!! That's True! 

We also taught David and invited him to be baptized! He has some things going on in his life right now that are hard on him and he wants to read the Book of Mormon more and have the spiritual confirmation before he makes that step! So I was happy to hear he has that desire but needs to find out if The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints is really Christ's Church restored to the earth!! I'm excited to hear about his reading this week!! We are going to teach him more about Priesthood authority on our next visit.  

We have had some other good lessons but those two are the main ones that went really well!! Elder Lewis and I went to down town Tampa this week and it was a blast!! We talked to quite a few people and taught them! We got to see some awesome buildings and the river!! So it was definitely a fun time!! We also gave talks in Sacrament meeting this week about Authority of the Priesthood and the calling of Ancient and Modern Prophets!! It was really cool to share my testimony of the Prophet of today with the church members here!! 

I don't know if I have mentioned it but the missionaries in my mission get to listen to and see the Prophet, President Russell M. Nelson, next month when he comes to Orlando to speak to the people of the area!  To prepare myself for his wonderful and inspiring message, I have read the last talk the Prophet gave at General Conference.  I also have an unmarked hard copy of the Book of Mormon that I am saving for the challenge the Prophet will most assuredly give to those that will be there.  I am not sure what it is yet but I am ready for it!  I also have another hard copy of the Book of Mormon and a hard copy of the Bible (these are not my regular missionary scriptures that I use to read and teach from).  I have these copies to specifically study topics and cross reference every scripture I find about the topic.  I have begun color coding the various topics and cross referencing the topics in the Book of Mormon to the comparable topics in the Bible.  I plan to continue to do this throughout my mission.  By the end, I will have devoured the scriptures!  I can't believe I have been out for 6 months!  Good thing I have 18 more months!!!

I wanted to tell you about how we begin our days.  My companion and I get up early and we workout.  We also eat healthy.  Sometimes we play basketball.  I am getting close to dunking.  Elder Lewis can dunk and we are about the sane height so I know I can do it.  I have gotten better at basketball since I play often with other missionaries.  I can sink threes too.  

Well I love you all and I'm so grateful for the opportunity we all have to grow our relationship with God and feel of His love in our lives!! Thank you all for the letters and packages!!! 

My email address has changed!  It is austin.cahoon@missionary.org.  Also my address is:

Elder Austin Cahoon

4800 S. Westshore Blvd. #418

Tampa, FL 33611

Have a great week!! 

Elder Cahoon 

Harvesting South Tampa Area!

Hello Family and Friends!!!

I hope all of you all doing good!! Thank you so much for all of you that send me updates! I love hearing how all of you are doing!! 

So this week was pretty sweet! I got my new companion Elder Lewis! He is super cool!! Love him! He is the new Zone Leader. Since my last companion was the Zone Leader and he was transferred to a new area, Elder Lewis was called as the new one.  Well, Elder Lewis kinda looks like

Taylor Lautner, the guy that plays Jacob on Twilight!! He is a pretty good looking guy! lol Me and him are pretty tight! We jam out (as far as missionaries can "jam") to this one song called Harvester!! It's super good!  It is by Brandon Heath, a Christian musician.  Harvesting from "sunrise to sunset" is what we do as missionaries!  We are the harvesters of South Tampa! Elder Lewis is from Canada!!! That's crazy but thankfully he has American Pride! He lived right on the border of Canada and America so he came across a lot!!  I'm happy he is patriotic or I was going to have to whip him into shape!!

Okay so funny story this week we were walking around and met this guy who believed he was actually the arch Angel Gabriel!! He was crazy! 😂 We tried explaining to him that he couldn't be the arch angel and how the Book of Mormon is Gods word. Well let's just say he wasn't changing! Super funny guy though. I know Tyler met several people like this on his mission. 

We have had some fun interactions with people this week! I really like street contacting!  I just love talking to everyone!  We ran into some anti-church people and we were able to soften some of their hearts and share truth with them! That is always good. We found 10 more potential investigators that we will be teaching!  We are so pumped to visit with them! 

We had some super sweet lessons too!! Okay, so you remember we are teaching this couple Heather and Joe?! They are awesome!! So last lesson we invited them to pray as a family- which is super foreign and very different for them. But they did it!!!! They prayed together for the first time ever!! They had such a touching moment and grew so much stronger together.  It's super cool to see them grow closer together!! This next week we are going to be doing a church tour with them hopefully!! 

We had a lesson with David this week as well!!  So we were going to set a date for baptism but we felt like waiting for until this week! We are going to show him the baptismal font and set a date with him at the church! He is doing great and is so excited to meet with us again and continue learning! He is a miracle!! 

We have some pretty cool things going on here. I love it!!  Thank you all for your support! I am so grateful to be the servant of the Lord! I know miracles still happen today! Unbelief is what keeps them from happening! Love you all and hope you have a great rest of your week!!

Elder Cahoon 

 

Working Hard And Doing My Best!

Hello Family and Friends! 

Happy Mothers Day! Hope y'all had a good weekend and Sabbath!! This week was great! We out here moving the Lord's work forward! Monday is the day we find out about transfers- find out if Elder Hall and I will stay together or we will get new companions/go to new areas.  We have literally been praying that we stay together.  We do add in our prayers if it is God's will but we hope it is! I love Elder Hall!  (When Susan (me) was talking with Elder Cahoon on Monday, Elder Hall got on and said, "I am going to tell you this because I know Elder Cahoon won't and I know you want to hear stuff like this as a mom.... But Elder Cahoon IS ONE OF THE BEST missionaries in the mission and he has only been out 5 months!"  Yep, that melted my heart.) 

Elders Cahoon and Hall in South Tampa

We had some sweet things happen this week!! Okay, so if you know Guardians of the Galaxy, you know the guy that plays Drax (I think his name is Dave Batista). Well, he lives in South Tampa!!! And we drove past his house! It's sweet! I didn't see him, but before I came into the area Elder Hall said he saw him and tried talking to him. He was outside getting something from his truck and Elder Hall yelled to him and tried talking with him but he wasn't to interested! 😂 I hope one day when we go by he will be outside!! 

We had the opportunity to learn about the Islam belief a little as well. There was this Muslim guy that we talked to and he let us in and kinda showed us some stuff that had to do with his religion.  He told us a little about his religion- Islam. It was interesting.  We explained a little about our religion- we explained the role of prophets and how we believe there is a prophet on the earth today!  We decided to talk about prophets because it was something that our beliefs had in common and we felt he could relate to prophets.  We got super surprised that we believe that we have a Prophet (President Nelson) on earth leading our church! He was super interested about that and we gave him a Book of Mormon. We explained that the Book of Mormon is the words of God's prophets in ancient America! He was pretty excited to read it! We hope he does!  

We have had some great miracles happen this week too!! Especially this one man named David! Okay David is super solid! We had 2 lessons with him this last week and they went great! We had the first lesson at the church and for the second lesson, we brought a member of the Ward with us. David loves learning more about the Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith and Jesus Christ!  He has a great desire to change to align his life more with Christ and His teachings!  And then to top off this week with him- he came to church!! He loved it! We are seeing him tomorrow (Tuesday) and we will be setting a baptismal date with him! Pray for him for this step in his life!  

We also had a great lesson with Heather and Joe! They are amazing! They read from the first chapter of Nephi in the Book of Mormon! They loved it and Joe wrote a summary of what happened to make sure what he read was right! How amazing is that??!!  They are progressing really well! We taught them the importance of the Sacrament and why church is important! We are going to be showing them around the church soon (taking them on a church tour)! We will be seeing them this week (on Wednesday) and we will be going over scripture study and the importance of it! I can definitely testify to the importance of scripture study because I LOVE reading the scriptures!  They have brought me closer to Christ and my Heavenly Father and I have found answers in them when I have been asking and searching for answers!  The decision to serve a mission came because I studied my scriptures (along with prayer and attending Mission Prep)!  So needless to say, I am pumped to have that lesson with them! 

I'm so excited to see more people grow their faith in Christ and have a desire to know Him! I invite you all to go to church this week! Even if your not a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints- go to church!  Grow your faith!  I know Christ lives and loves us and continually helps us in our lives!  I promise that you will feel of God's love and the healing affect of Christ's sacrifice in your life as you put Him first.

I know I have said it before but it bares repeating- this bay area is pretty sweet! I love being able to see the water and the big city!! And...I love seeing the palm trees!  We walk by them everyday!  I also now have a gym in my building and it's been great being able to work out again!! Elder Hall and I get some good workouts in the morning! 

Tampa, FL 

Tampa Bay and The City! 

Part of the Bay

I love you all! Hope you're all doing good and thank you all for the support and prayers! I am trying my best out here! Hope all of you have a great week! 

 

Elder Cahoon

Lots Of Lessons- lessons we taught and lessons I've learned

Hello Family and Friends!!

Companions Hall and Cahoon

Enjoying The Beauty Of Florida

I have been doing great! I had a super good week this week!! I am definitely a lover of the water and the ocean! I get to see the ocean sometimes but I get to see the bay a lot!! I love it!! It's so cool!! When I pictured Florida, the place I am at right now is exactly how pictured it! It's got the water and a city right next to it! It's pretty sweet! 

The Bay In Tampa

Buildings In Tampa, FL

This week was full of teaching lessons! We had a ton of lessons throughout the week! I had some of the most spiritual lessons I have ever had! Elder Hall and I have been teaching together and we do really good together!! We had a few lessons about the  Restoration this week and they were really good! 

We are teaching some really sincere families! One of them is Joseph and Heather! They were so excited to learn about and receive the Book of Mormon!! They expressed to us that they have been so confused on which Church is right. They have such a love for God and Jesus Christ and they want to follow Them but don't know which Church they should join. Boom!  Sounds just like what Joseph Smith with struggling with!  So we shared the Joseph Smith story- on how he had the same questions and how he pondered and read the scriptures and then prayed for an answer.  We shared, through the Spirit, how he received answers to those questions about which church was true and which he should join! We shared that Christ restored His church through Joseph Smith and that Joseph translated the Book of Mormon.  We told them that they can read it and pray and come to know the truth for themselves! They were so pumped!!!  The Spirit was so strong as we shared the story and bore our testimonies!  We are seeing them this Wednesday and hopefully having a church tour for them soon! 

We are also teaching another family- Caleb and Elyse! They have the same questions and we showed them the Joseph Smith video that shows all the events that Joseph had and went through to get the answer to his prayer.  And after the video, they said they needed to find out if that happened!  They committed to read and pray as a family.  They are very sincere and very willing to learn!!  What an amazing experience we had with them!  

We are also teaching a couple of guys in the Air Force!  It is so cool to go onto the Air Force base!  They have fed us dinner and look forward to our lessons and we look forward to seeing them!   

We met some really good people this week as well! We met this one lady that was going to be baptized in another church but got cold feet and didn't end up doing it. She said she didn't feel 100% good about it. She explained that she was willing to try again and we taught her about the importance of authority and how the person baptizing needs to hold the proper authority given to them from God! She was pretty interested and excited to meet with us again! We will be seeing her this week! 

We are teaching some others that are very sincere and Elder Hall and I are so excited to teach them! I really hope me and Elder Hall stay together (President Cooper told me we would be together 2 transfers when I got transferred here) but he is such an amazing missionary that I wouldn't be surprised if President wants him with another companion so he is able to influence other missionaries before he goes home. I have such great respect and love for him!  I have learned a lot from him!  We teach really well together and it has been fun!   Speaking of President Cooper... I keeping forgetting to answer your question regarding why we wear our name tags on the right side of our shirts.  It's just what President Cooper likes.  And it makes sense, really, because when we go to shake someone's hand, they look to that side of our body and they can immediately see our name tag! 

Tampa is a super fun place! Like I said, I love being able to see the water and the big City is pretty cool to see as well!!  This week we had a crazy lightening storm! We were in our apartment and this super bright light shined through our window and then a few moments later the loudest thunder noise I have ever heard just rumbled through the apartment.  It felt like it shook the building! It was nuts! I have never had lightening strike right next to me before! 

The Amazing Hursts from Brandon!! 

This week we had a couple of visitors from Brandon- the area I served in before coming here.  The Hursts drove here and took us to dinner!  How cool is that?  What a treat!  He is the amazing and cool Ward Mission Leader in Brandon and his wife is awesome too!  They love missionary work and the missionaries!  They are great examples.  I worked closely with Brother Hurst while serving in Brandon and I love him and his family. They are a family I definitely want to see when we come back for my mission trip!    

I am almost finished reading the Book of Mormon. I restarted reading it when I began my mission.  I actually read from all the books of scripture but have seem to concentrate on the Book of Mormon.   I love reading from the scriptures and learning more about Christ and what I need to do to become closer to Him.  I have really grown to understand the Gospel of Jesus Christ a lot!! It's in the scriptures so much it's crazy!! The Book of Mormon has just great doctrine!! I absolutely love Mormon and Moroni!! They have such unwavering testimonies.  They are my favorite Prophets of the Book of Mormon! They basically say that the book is true and that Moroni will be there at the judgment bar at the last days and that everyone will know that he wasn't lying about the truthfulness of the book! I love prophets that just call people to repentance and speak with boldness! I absolutely love it!!  Also, if you read in the Book of Mormon (at least every verse I have read so far- there may be a few that don't)about a prophet going and teaching repentance, these things are always mentioned in the same verse! I think that is cool.  When a prophet teaches, they also call people to repentance!  I think that is so important because it is through our learning more about Christ that we desire to come closer to Him; desire to be better so we repent to become more pure which brings us closer to Him.  We need both of those things and that is one duty of a prophet- to help us come closet to Christ!     

My friend :)

Oh how I love seeing the wonderful parts of Florida and the beautiful things that are over here and the fun animals, BUT the reason I am here and what brings me the most JOY is serving my Savior, Jesus Christ and being His representative!! 

Hanging with Elder Hall

I love you all and I enjoy receiving your letters and things! Thank you all and have a great week!! 

Elder Cahoon