The Baptism Was Awesome!

It's the Beeeesssst daayyyy eeeevvveeeerrrrrr!! - SpongeBob 

Well this week was great!! Super duper good! We had a BAPTISM!! Donna is awesome and she was so excited for her baptism! She was so ready for this step- what a great blessing to witness someone change their life! Especially in a change to Eternal Life!

Even though Donna's husband is not a member, he was supportive of her learning about the Church of Jesus Christ and her eventual decision to get baptized!   He is really cool! He actually came to her baptism on Saturday!!  Friday night we had a dinner at Felice's house(who is the recent convert we also baptized).  There were a ton of members were there and both Donna and her husband came!! It was amazing! He fit right in with everyone!  He was sharing stories and the members were sharing stories! It was great for him to see that members of the Church aren't actually super weird nor do they have horns hidden on the top of their heads! 😂 People say weird things about the Church.  But he had a great time and we had a lot of fun! The Baptismal service was truly a great, spiritual experience with the Holy Ghost present!  A lot of ward members came to support her and we had to move the service to the chapel because of all the people that showed up! How wonderful that was to see all the support!!  Have I said how much I LOVE this ward and the members here??  I don't want to be transferred. hahaha   

Also this week we found some great people also had some amazing miracles!! Back story:  the ward has been praying for missionary opportunities and they have been praying for us as missionaries!!  Well, since they have been praying, we have had lots of miracles! We were able to get into into 3 different people's homes this week just on contact!!! That usually does not happen!  We found some cool people that want to know more and some really solid people that want to come to church! We are pretty excited to move them along toward Baptism!! 

Well, last night I watched Johnny Lingo for the first time! 😂 Man that movie is good but weird. I thought because it was produced by the Church it would have a more spiritual lesson but it was still good! In case you aren't familiar with the movie, Johnny Lingo, here is an overview:  Johnny Lingo was a wealthy islander that takes a boy that feels like his life is worthless under his wing and makes him feel good about himself  The boy grows in confidence and begins to believe in himself and see the good in himself and becomes a "hot pick."  There is a lesson in that but I was expecting something different.  Since my mission experience and the Lord has helped me increase in confidence and know that I can do all things with Christ, I decided that when I get back from my mission I'm going to be like the boy in Johnny Lingo!  This return missionary is going to be a hot pick! 😂 Alright I'm just joking. 

We also had Zone Conference this week and it was great! I did a training with my companion and the Sister Training Leaders on the missionary weekly planing calendar.  We did a good job, in my opinion, but I liked the training we did on the topic of Diligence better.  The theme for the Conference this time was mainly about solving problems the Saviors way. I loved this training topic! Solving problems is a big part of life and missionary work so if I can get really good at that and work toward solving my problems in the Savior's way, then how much better will my life be!?! We read from Ether chapter 2 as an illustration of how to do this and discussed how the Brother of Jared solved his problems with Christ! 

On Sunday we went to a couple's house and had dinner with them.  The lady is the sister of one of the Apostles from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Elder Neil Anderson.  The dinner was delicious and she made Key Lime pie for dessert.  I love Key Lime pie!  Have I mentioned that?  Well, we didn't eat it all so she sent it home with us to finish this week. Heck yes!  I will be working on it all week because I can't eat too many sweets at one time.  

Well I want to let all of you know I love you and I am so grateful for you support and prayers! I am so grateful to serve here in Florida and do the Lord's work!! Have a great rest of your week and "God Bless y'all!" (that's a Florida thing to say). 

Elder Cahoon 

More Baptisms! They Keep Coming- like the rain!

"Hello! From the other side." -Adele 

It's Elder Cahoon here and it's been an amazing week!! What a blessing it is to serve! Kinda weird how you help others yet at the same time you receive blessings! It's a pretty sweet deal! Thank you family and friends that read these letters I hope all of you are doing great!! 

Yay for nice people giving us things! 

This week has been raining like crazy! It's been an absolute blast! We biked one day this week and it rained all day on us! We got soaked! It's been better than all the sun and humidly though!  It is hurricane season but we haven't had any come through.  There has been flooding in some areas but not in mine.  The cloudy skies and rain have been great blessings though! It's so funny when we knock on someone's door when we are out in the rain because I love their different reactions! Well, this is the South and also the Bible belt so people are pretty nice usually.  This week we had a really nice lady give us some ponchos! She wasn't interested but she was very nice to us! God bless those nice, giving people out here in the world! 

We had some great lessons this week!! Donna is so, so excited for her Baptism this Saturday!!! She is awesome! I'm so grateful to have met Donna! She loves learning and reading the Book of Mormon! She has been asking a lot of questions and she loves the teachings of the modern-day Prophets! I want you guys to meet her when he come out for my mission trip.  She has the funniest little sayings! 

Maddie also got her Baptismal interview and she is pumped to be baptized soon!! She has been pondering about going on a mission so that's pretty cool! 

We also are going to have a family of 5 attend the baptism on Saturday and church!! I'm so excited! They are awesome! We had a super spiritual lesson with them this week!  The Dad said, "I can just feel this is right.  We need to go to church."  They are so excited to come to church! We are also going to do a church tour with them after the baptism and then have a lesson!   Saturday is gonna be amazing!!! 

Awesome miracles happening in Lecanto area!! I'm so excited to be here and serve the Lord here! I love the Ward here and their support!

Elder Hatch is awesome and we love being together!  We might go hiking today.  Definitely gonna play some basketball.  Right ow we are just hanging out at the church writing emails.  Thank you to all those who help support me and continue to inspire me!! Love you all!! Have a great week!! 

Elder Cahoon 

Preparing People For Baptism!

Dear Friends and Family!

"I'm ready Baptism, I'm ready Baptism, I'm ready Baptism!" That was from Spongebob! Although for obvious reasons, he doesn't say baptism- but it's what I say!!! Baptism is sweet-especially to see others baptized! And we have a baptism coming up soon!!! So I'm hyped! 

We received an awesome text message yesterday from Donna! She is the one that is being baptized soon!! She sent us this amazing testimony video of her!! She is going to post it to Facebook and wanted us to see it! She is super great!! She is so fun to talk to and teach! She has such a great spirit about her and she reads from the Book of Mormon everyday and has been enjoying it so much! 

We had some awesome potential investigators that came up! I'm pretty excited about that! So we stopped by the house of this inactive member of the church and while we were talking to her we got to meet her roommate! He is a non-member and he is super cool!! The inactive lady doesn't attended church because she works on Sunday but she has a testimony of the Book of Mormon and of Joseph Smith! So when she heard her roommate say some incorrect things about Joseph Smith (he had heard it on TV), she decided to teach her roommate about Joseph Smith and about the Book of Mormon.   Since she taught him, he has been super interested and has been reading the Book of Mormon!! So I'm excited to see what happens there and to teach him more about the Gospel of Jesus Christ!! 

We also met an Inactive young man this week! He is from Uath and he is married! He is pretty cool and his wife is interested in the Church! They have a child and they want to raise him in the Gospel!  The mom learned about the Church before but kinda fell away due to some concerns. We talked to both the mom and dad for a bit and got to know them more!  As we talked, we resolved some of those concerns and the mom desires to learn more about the Church and is happy that we are going to come and teach them! They are both pretty cool! 

Maddie, the other person we are preparing for baptism, brought her Mom to church yesterday!! It was her first time to our church service! She is pretty cool and is really accepting of Maddie being baptized!! We are going to meet with her and will be going over the baptism questions with her this week and will be preparing her for baptism!! 

We had a great week and my new companion in the area is named Elder Hatch! He and I have been having some fun! He is a pretty cool guy and is from Utah, of course😂 "The Factory" is what we call Utah!!

Well, it's been great over here in Florida- nice and hot!! It's a great pleasure to serve here in Florida and help out God's Children!! I absolutely love being a servant of the Lord!! I am working really hard.  The Lord promises to bless those that are obedient so I am sure my obedience will pay off after my mission when I find an awesome wife!   I love you all and thank you all for sending me packages and emails!! I really appreciate all of you!! Have a great week!! 

Elder Cahoon 

I'm Getting Another New Companion!

"Hello there!" 

Hi to all those reading this!! Hope you all had a great week and are having a good time wherever you are!! This week was BEAST!!! We had some sweet lessons and some fun times! 

So today was pretty sweet- we just got done fishing!!🎣  Sadly, we caught nothing.  It got me kinda bumbed BUT..... we did talk to some Filipino old ladies that were super nice! They were catching crab (which looked sooo good)!  We got their number and they are going to get some friends together and they want us to go over and teach them! So I'm excited to see if something happens from that! 

Well we had a great lesson with Ozzy this week!! He is super cool! He showed us some of his guns- don't worry we didn't hold any, we just looked.  But they were pretty sweet! Reminded me of when I would go shooting with Dad and the family! I'm going to have a good ole arsenal when I get back! But anyways, we had a good lesson and a church tour with him!! The church tour went great and he was taking some pictures of the paintings and and photographs around the building! He loved it! He is excited to come to church this next week! We also did a cool cup lesson with him to show how Christ's church was lost after the apostles. He thought the cup lesson was great!! 

Donna is awesome and is so ready to he baptized!! We set a temple date with her this week! She is excited to attend and we are going to set up a time to do family history! She doesn't know anything about her family really. So we are excited to see what we cool things she finds! 

All has been great over here!! Loving the members over here and it's been great to have the support!! 

It is transfer week and I got some sad news.  Elder Dye is leaving me!!! 😭😤 He is going to a different Zone down in Tampa.  I'm super sad but I'm excited for my new companion! I actually know him so that is nice.  However, I have not had a companion longer than 1 transfer! That's insane! I receive Elder Hatch tomorrow. He seems pretty cool so I'm excited!  He is from Utah.  With this companion change, I will have had 9 companions so far- in only 6 transfers!  Kinda funny how that works out. I will continue to be the Zone Leader here so that is good!  

I sent a few pictures.  The one snake is sort of like a rattlesnake.  We don't have any in NM but they are super poisonous.  I walked right by it and didn't see it. It bit my shoe.  Heavenly Father protected me! There were 2 of them and they were pretty scary!  

Love you all!! Have a great week!! 

Elder Cahoon

No Amount Of Rain Or Lightning Can Stop Me!

Hello Family and Friends!! 

Hope you all have been great!! It's been great to hear from some of you!! Thank you for the letters and emails!! I really appreciate them a lot! Well, here in good ole Florida it's been raining and lightning a ton!! It is kinda nice because it hasn't been super hot lately because of the dark clouds! 

Lecanto when sun is shining! 

Yesterday, we biked and got soaked!! It was a pretty crazy lightning storm!! We were talking to a guy outside and it started to pour on us and it was lightning all over the place!! It was cracking really close to us and it about burst my ear drums! Nah it wasn't that loud but it was loud! We biked home so that was sketchy because our bikes are metal. So we said a prayer that we would be safe and we biked home with no problem. It was super rainy and we got soaked but that was actually pretty fun! I love biking in the rain here! It feels SOOOOOooooo GOOD!! It's nice and chilly in the wind so that's a huge blessing when its happens! 

Well besides the rain and stuff, this week was AMAZING!!! GOD IS GOOD!!! He is great to his children and blesses them when they are Obedient!! So last week we met that one lady Donna! Well last year she was going to be baptized but didn't end up doing it. BUT she came back to church and she is READY!! She is awesome! She is so excited to be baptized so she can enter the Temple! She already loves the Temple and is way excited to enter It! We didn't want to push a date for baptism on her (because we didn't want her to get cold feet like last time) so we had her pray about a date to be baptized and told her we would be visiting her again to get her answer.  She is going to be baptized on Aug. 24th!!!! We are so excited for her!! Remember the  two recent converts we just baptized?  We they are coming to the lessons and are fellowshipping her.  They fellowship each other and they get along so great! It is pretty awesome to see them talk and get along so well!! 

We also taught Maddie this week and it went great! She is doing fantastic! She had an experience this week where her friends wanted to go see a 'R' rated movie. She explained to them that if it was 'R' rated she would not go!! So her friends changed the movie and they all went and had a great time!!!  Maddie is awesome!  In our lesson this past week we taught more in-depth about God's Plan of Happiness (aka The Plan of Salvation) and what happens after death! So it went great!! 

We did some service for Karin this week as well!! She is awesome and it's great being able to be her friend and teach her!! She is super kind!! 

We weren't able to meet with Ozzy this week so that was a little sad. He got sick and had some things happen so we felt bad for him. But we are excited to see him this week!! 

For Family Home Evening (FHE) with the Young Single Adult group here, we had a super fun activity with silly string!  A mission is great for mixing it up with members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, people you don't know, spiritual lessons, personal growth and fun times!  You get the best of everything on a mission! 

 

I have been thinking a lot about obedience and serving the Lord in the mission! I was pondering about how I can help others enjoy the mission as much as I enjoy it. I have this scripture on my study desk:

Mathew 16:25 

For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.

I love this scripture and it helped me at the very beginning of my mission when I first came out! I shared some concerns I had with my trainer Elder Cox and he read this scripture to me! I absolutely love this scripture and Elder Cox! Well he is "Rio" now since he has gone home and is no longer a full-time missionary. Oh! I don't know if you know mom and Dad but Rio got engaged!!! That's crazy! He is going to have a great marriage! What a great man! 

On my mission plaque at home I have my favorite scripture of all time! (FYI, the plaque has my picture, the following scripture and the name of my mission on it. It is hanging up in the church building on College Blvd because that is my church ward I left from.  It will be presented to me in church when I return from my mission).  Anyways, this is the scripture on my plaque: 

Doctrine and Covenants 4:2 

Therefore, O ye that embark in the service of God, see that ye serve him with all your heart, might, mind and strength, that ye may stand blameless before God at the last day.

At the End of my mission I will stand blameless before God!! And just so each of you know, I have been serving (and will continue to serve throughout my mission) with all my heart, might, mind and strength!!! I love my Savoir Jesus Christ and my Heavenly Father!! I am so grateful for the opportunity I have to be here on this earth and serve him!! Thank you all for the prayers and support!! I do appreciate it! 

Love you all have a great week!! 

Elder Cahoon

Boy that sun is bright!