Elder Austin Cahoon's Mission: 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!!