Hello family and friends!
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
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