New Area and New Responsibilities As A Zone Leader

Hello Family and Friends!

Goodbye for now Elder Lewis

I hope you all have had a good week! Thank you for all the letters and emails!! I love them! This week has been great!! Also a little scattered!! So we had transfers this week and I got transferred to Lecanto! It's far north and it's part of a new stake that is being formed! Part of the new Stake was in the Orlando Mission but now it is in the Tampa Mission so I was called up here to serve.  It's called the Ocala Stake. I got transferred over here on Saturday!  I am also serving as the Zone Leader here.  So Elder Dye is my new companion and we will be serving in the Lecanto area. He is a really good guy and I love him already.  This area is not like Tampa at all!!! There's actual hills here and there are not as many people! We have a large area that is full of big trees and dirt roads!! This new area is my kind of area!!  I will miss being able to contact so many people though! 

So far I have seen 2 turtles out here and a ton of rabbits!! Elder Dye and I were welcomed by the ward members here and they are super kind! We have been able to have great member meals and lessons with some friends! We have been here 2 days and have 4 member meals.  It's been great!  The members here are very missionary oriented so that's great!  The area has 2 friends on baptism date and we are very excited to work with them and help them reach that baptism. 

One lady's name is Karin! She is a very nice lady! She has a baptism date for July 6 and she has been doing great! We are going to be seeing her tomorrow! We also have another lady on date for July 13! Her name is Felice and she is also great! We taught her yesterday the Plan of Salvation and helped her understand the big picture of God's plan for us before this life while on earth and after this life! We also met another lady who has been reading a ton of the Book of Mormon and has been coming to church so we hope to set a date with her soon!! I am so excited to work with the members of this ward and help others come unto Christ! 

In my last area, South Tampa, we had some great miracles happen as well!!  We set 2 baptism dates with Quamale and Kandie!! They are awesome! And they are very excited for their baptism on July 20! I don't know how the other people are doing exactly but they were all doing well when I left!! I am super excited to hear about David and Heather and Joe!! Also, we had a lesson with Heather and Joe this week and it went great!! And after the lesson we asked if we could bring members over for the next lesson (which they said when we first met them and began teaching them that they didn't want people over).  But when we asked, they were super excited to have other people come over and told us to bring some!! I'm excited for them and I am excited to hear about them as well!!  My last companion, Elder Lewis, and my companion before him, Elder Hall are both Zone Leaders as well.  The great thing is that I will get to see both of these good men and friends at the monthly Missionary Leadership Council (MLC) meeting!  All Zone Leaders will be attending that meeting so I will get to know a lot of other wonderful missionaries.  My Zone Leader companion is serving in the Spanish speaking part of the mission.  He has been a Zone Leader for a bit so he can help teach me what I need to do since I am new at this. 

Overall,l it's has been amazing and a great week!! I have seen the Lord's hand more and more!! I know He lives and I know He loves us!! I love being able to see the work of the Lord move forward!! Have a great week love you all!! 

 

Elder Cahoon

Elder Lewis and I trading ties

Serving A Mission To Bless The People Of the Tampa Florida Mission!

Hello Friends and Friends!!!

Hope you all have been doing well! I love reading your letters and thank you for all the support!! I have been doing great and all is well!! This week went by pretty quick! We have good things happening here in Tampa!  

As you know, my mission president and wife, President and Sister Cooper, are leaving soon.  I am very bummed because they are such great people.  I am sure my new mission president will be great as well but I truly love President Cooper and will miss him.  Well, since he is leaving, he has made an appointment to go to appointments with me and Elder Lewis!  I was so looking forward to spending this time with him!  When it came time, Elder Lewis and I had exchanges with another missionary companionship (Elder Lewis and I were split up and I went with another Elder to teach people and Elder Lewis also went with another Elder to teach lessons to people).  So, President Cooper went with Elder Lewis and his companion.  I was so heartbroken!  I was really looking forward to talking with President Cooper.  I was glad Elder Lewis got to spend time with him but was a little jealous. Elder Lewis and I have been praying and working really hard to move the work forward here in South Tampa. 

First and Last Picture with President and Sister Cooper

Elder Lewis and I have been getting pretty tight with the members here in South Tampa! They are super cool and we had some great member meals this week!!! We have been trying to get to know the members better! The Ward here is pretty missionary-minded.  On Thursdays we have a member and missionary meet-up where we, as missionaries, go on exchanges with the members and go to lessons and visit people!  There is a standing time each Thursday and any and all members that can be there, show up.  I love it!  Many members do show up weekly.  We had an awesome miracle this last Thursday with a member! We stopped by a house of a guy that was being taught a few months back. The member and him hit it off and they talked most of the time! It was sweet! The guy became pretty interested and decided he wanted to learn more. We will be teaching him today and we are pretty excited about that! 

We also had a great lesson with our friend David! We helped him understand that baptism needs to be by proper Priesthood authority! He has some stuff going on and is busy but we are really trying to set a baptismal date with him! We are going to have a dinner at members house and bring him!! So that should he good!! 

We had a cool miracle happen this week!! A couple weeks ago we were knocking on some apartment buildings and a lady answered andh asked who we were and we explained. She said she was busy and she couldn't talk. We weren't really able to talk too her long. But a week ago we were in the same complex and she saw us and asked for our information!! She said she would call us when she could meet. That usually means the person will never call you. So, we kinda forgot about her but this week we got a call from her and she wanted us to come by!!  We were stoked!  She is awesome and loves the Book of Mormon!! She has read the introduction and the testimonies of Joseph Smith and the Three Witnesses! She loves the story and she feels really good when she reads The Book of Mormo! So she is progressing pretty well! We are going to invite her to church soon! 

We have been having a ton of fun and loving every second of it!! We knocked on this guy's door yesterday (it was Father's Day) so he told us to go spend time with our dad's and not bother him and his family! We looked at him and told him we couldn't because "the message we share blesses families so we left our families to share it with others!" He actually changed his attitude towards us after that. He didn't invite us back but we did soften his heart! I love being able to serve the Lord and take 2 years from my life to do it! I didn't serve a mission for me- I am serving a mission for the people of the Tampa Florida Mission!  I will work hard everyday to find those that can be blessed by the knowledge that I have of my Savior!! 

Thank you all for all you do and I love you all!! I hope you have a great week!! 

Elder Cahoon

Spiritual Week- One For The Books!

Hello family and friends!

Super spiritual week here for the Florida Tampa Mission!! We had some amazing opportunities!! THE PROHPET OF GOD CAME!!!! Russell Nelson, one of the 12 apostles (Elder Uchtdorf) and their wives came to Florida and spoke to us! Super amazing!!!

They are truly called of God!! We also were able to visit the Temple!! It is Beautiful!  The Prophet spoke in and the Temple is in Orlando so we had to drive there on Saturday and Sunday because Orlando is not in my mission.  



 



We also had a Zone Conference this week.  This is where a lot of missionaries met together and learned how to better ourselves as missionaries of the Lord.  We discussed how we can better help God's children grow their faith in Him and lead them to change so they can experience blessings in their lives! We also had trainings about why/how we should be inviting more people to be baptized.  This was the last Conference for my current Mission President, President Cooper, and his wife, Sister Cooper.  They were sad and I was sad. They are truly great people!!

The Temple was an amazing experience!! I reflected on God's creations and how all these things on earth are made for us! How God truly loves us and wants us to be happy!! I know this life is meant to prepare ourselves and our families to meet God one day. As we prepare, we will experience a joy in our lives that is not temporary! It is everlasting!  In his speech, the Prophet told us, "If you want to be miserable don't follow the commandments."  It is a simple doctrine but hard for us! That is why we must seek for the Goodness of God so we can experience more joy in our lives! 

 

As a missionary, I am called of God to serve others! How great is my calling??!! Are we not all called to do the same? We are! We are all called to serve one another!! HOW GREAT IS OUR CALLING!! I am so grateful for the experience I have everyday to serve God's beloved children! God needs us to help each other!! The Prophet shared some amazing ways to help others have those same blessings that we are able to experience!  One way was by INVITING!!  Invite those around you to Come and See!! Come and help! And Come and Stay!! People want to be invited and included!  So do that!!  Invite them to come and see-see the fruits of the Restored Church of Jesus Christ and of His gospel!! Invite them to help us in our work!! And invite them to stay!! People have their own choice to accept your invite or not. The success is in the invitation! Think of your own lives and how an invitation changed you for the better!! I know that I wouldn't be here unless some people invited me to do better and be better!! 

I am so grateful for the joy that the teachings of Christ bring me everyday! Recently I have been pondering on how Christ has changed me throughout these past 2 years! The Lord worked very hard on me! I couldn't see the blessings that came from following the commandments but God could! God saw the blessings that were in store for me and sent those righteous servants to help me realize the blessings and they invited me to have these blessings! I then worked very hard to have them! God gives us joy and blessings in our lives as we are obedient to Him! I know this to be true! Those who are reading this today, I invite you all to Come and See!!! You may "know" about the church from friends or online resources. But I promise you that there are things God has in store for you- happiness and joy!  So Come and See what The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is all about! You can only know true knowledge through experience and prayer. Those invitations are from a Prophet of God! Everyone one should know what he said so this is why I am telling you these things.

President and Sister Cooper

The rest of the letter may seem anti-climatic when compared to a Prophet of God. hahaha  But truly this week has been amazing with the lessons and people we taught!! We had an amazing lesson with a new family! Elder Lewis and I have been praying for a baptism and we have been acting in faith by working super hard (I will talk more about my baptism revelations and Heavenly Father knocking me over the head next letter as this one may be too long otherwise)!  Well, God answered our prayer!!  We didn't knock on their door and they didn't just show up to church but they did want missionaries to come by!!  The wife's name his Sylvia and she went online and asked for the missionaries to come by her house and bring her a Book of Mormon and to teach her!!  This is what we call a self-referral.  We had an amazing lesson with her and she is excited to know if the Book of Mormon is true! She was super happy after the lesson and she willingly accepted when we asked her to pray to God and ask Him if the Book of Mormon is true! We invited her to pray for the closing prayer and she afterwards, she said she felt "something" because she got goosebumps!! We explained that it was the Holy Ghost.  She was very happy to feel the Spirit! We will be having another lesson with her this week and we will be trying to set a baptismal date for her and her husband! 

We also got to have a lesson with Joe! Heather wasn't home but Joe was willing to have us come and read with him!  Joe had hard a hard week and wasn't sure what he was supposed to be doing with his life. He is trying to change bad habits and make better choices with his life but it is hard (as well all can attest to).  He loves it when we come over because he says, "It always feels good when you guys are here."  But when we are not there, Joe doesn't read much from the scriptures and can let the worldly stuff distract him.  So, all day Elder Lewis and I tried to figure out which chapter of the Book of Mormon we should read with him! As we discussed various chapters, we felt none of the chapters we had thought about were the right ones! And why? They were awesome chapters- they have helped others before and they had great messages.  But as the day went on, it was the same thing- more chapters discussed and more stupors of thought.  We prayed fervently for help from God but nothing came to us! We entered Joe's house not knowing at all which chapter we were going to read but we had some in our minds that we could read.  As we began to talk with him, we felt like we needed to ask Joe where he was reading in the Book of Mormon. He told us he was in 1 Nephi Chapter 3.  So we told him we would read with him where he was.  Holy Moly it was the exact chapter he needed!! He understood it super well and began to open up with discussion!! He was answering his own questions and light bulbs were going off like crazy!! It was cool to see him get so excited about it!!  The Spirit just filled up that house!  The Lord knew what Joe needed and we were prepared to hear the promptings of the Holy Ghost when the time was right.  I love when the Spirit hits you like that!  The Lord knew we were willing to hear what He needed to tell us because we had prepared and prayed.  This is the pattern for all of us to receive revelation- preparation by reading with prayer and a willing and open heart.  Joe and his wife are good missionaries even though they aren't members because one thing they do is leave the pamphlets we give them out on their coffee table so when other people visit they can see them and read them.  Pretty cool.  

This week was amazing and I loved every second!! Thank you all for the prayers and everything you all do for me!! I really appreciate it!! Thank you Bishop Nygren for the talk on baptism!  I really appreciate it!  It was exactly what I needed and it was another way the Lord let me know what I am to currently focus on.  I love you Bishop!  Have a great week y'all!! Love you all!! 

 

Elder Cahoon

 

 

Great Desires For This Transfer+Fervent Prayer=Specific Answers!

Hello Family and Friends!!

Missionary Work is Awesome!

 

 

 

Thank you all for the letters!! I love receiving those letter and emails!! Well this week was super good!!! As usual it's always good! (GOD IS GOOD) Well, Elder Lewis and I have been doing some great pondering about this Transfer! We have great desires to get some people baptized and to find those that God has prepared so we have done some great pondering and prayer. We came up with some solutions to what we can do!! 

I love the ability to pray and talk to my Heavenly Father. I love being able to have a two-way conversation with Him. Prayer has been something I have come to greater appreciate since being out on my mission!! Also I know that He is listening and is answering my prayers!!  His answering my prayers was just relived as we fervently asked what we could do to baptize and find!  The following experiences will give you some idea of the answers we were given.      

We had a another lesson with our awesome man named David!! I love him! He is super excited to meet with us and loves learning and growing! We read Moroni chapter 10 with him and we invited him to pray about the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith. He said he had already received an answer to these questions! Elder Lewis and I got super excited and we asked what God told him. David said, "Well he said to keep moving forward. And I know Joseph Smith is a Prophet!" That was music to my ears!!  He has been growing his faith so much! It has been really cool to see him grow. We are meeting with him tomorrow!! We are going to teach him about prophets and then we plan to have a lesson at a member's home on the life of Joseph Smith and then set a date for baptism!  Have any of you watched that video?  It is called Joseph Smith- Prophet of the Restoration.  It is on the media library.  It is a little over an hour.  It is such a good video! 

During our finding, we knocked on a door and a young man that is a Senior in high school answered.  As we talked with him he told us he liked to draw.  I asked him what he liked to draw and you know what he said??? Dragonball Z!! Can you believe it?  I told him I also loved drawing Dragonball Z!  I asked him to go get a few pictures he had just drawn. They were pretty good.  He is much better at coloring the pictures than I am.  It is always good to find a common interest and this was perfect!  We are meeting with him again this week.    

We have had some pretty funny experiences down here in Florida! So this one day we just ran into some crazy people- they literally had mental issues but we didn't realize it at first!  So we met one guy and he just roasted up Elder Lewis!! It had me dead! I was laughing so hard! This guy was trying to trip up our words and things and at one point in our conversation the man asked me a question and Elder Lewis began to answer and the man yelled, "You stay out of this!" I laughed so hard after that!  For whatever reason he thought Elder Lewis was dumb and only wanted to talk to me! 😂  After him, we continued on our way and talked to his neighbor who had formerly been taught by missionaries.  He said he was an artist.  That made me curious since I also like to draw and am kind of an artist.  I was like, "Hey show me some of your art."  So he allowed us in his apartment and this man does art by PUNCHING HOLES IN HIS WALLS AND MAKING PICTURES OUT OF IT!!  Not the kind of art I was expecting for sure.  So after those two experiences, we realized we were in a mental care apartment complex!!  So we quickly made an exit after that! 😂  Florida is full of the most interesting people I have ever met in my entire life!! I love it here! 

Sunday, I attended a devotional at church that was very different than any I have ever attended.  We had a "Why I Believe" Devotional at the church this Sunday and it was amazing!  Basically, all the recent converts to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that are in the Ward tell about their experiences of how they came to know the Gospel is true.  Then they share their testimonies! It was amazing!! It got me thinking why I believe.  I remembered back to my high school experience and how Christ changed me! It was a tender moment to be able to reflect upon.  I almost started to cry but I can't have people catching me with those tears so I wiped those real quick! But it was a super cool time to hear their experiences! 

And the PROPHET IS COMING TO FLORIDA!!! I'm so happy!! That's going to be an amazing experience to see a prophet of God in person! I/we desire to be as prepared as possible to hear the Prophet;s words and hear what the Lord wants from me specifically as a missionary.  So another thing we are doing to prepare for the occasion is going to the Temple.  We get to go this week!  This week is going to be one for the Books for sure!

I know that Christ's suffering in the Garden of Gethsemane and on the cross (it is also called the Atonement) can help us in our everyday lives- not just when we need to be forgiven but when we need to be strengthened!! Always remember Him and always follow Him- especially when it's he hardest.  You will be blessed immensely for it! I know this because it has happened with me! 

Love you all and have a great week!!! 

It's Hot In Tampa

Shout out to my Boys- Elder Cox, Elder Roylance! 

 

Elder Cahoon!

Appreciating Art

In the Car in Hot Tampa