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