So great to hear from you again. What a lovely week in Olean we had. Before I start the letter mom I will answer all of your questions that thou desires from me. First off, transfers are in 5 weeks but I'm sure I'll be here in Olean!!!! Alright I will tell you what we do on p-days. We wake up and study and we really do nothing! The closest missionaries to us are an hour away so we can't together with anyone to do anything. Sure me and Elder Tengberg can go play frisbee or basketball but that will last about an hour and then we have nothing else to do!!!!! We go to Walmart to pick up a few things here and there but besides that we go to the church for wifi, check out some amazing videos on Mormon channel and we listen to some talks but there really isn't that much to do even if we wanted to so its pretty boring. But we make it fun!!!!!!!! We straightened up the garage last week so we can actually put things in there hahaha!!!!!!!!!! We do laundry, get our apartment all cleaned (we do that more than physical activities) so mom you trained me well!!!!! hahahah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Bishop "D" is soooooo funny. He is the coolest Bishop ever!!!!!!! He makes me laugh and he's such a jokester!!!!!!!! He's the funniest old man you'll ever meet. He's like my grandpa!!!!!!!!!! He has a shirt with an old squirrel on it that says "I'm so old I can't even remember where my nuts are!" Hahahahahahaha!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I couldn't stop laughing and He tells us of all the funny stories he's had back before dinosaurs roamed the earth!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He really makes my mission fun and he is always checking in on us to see how we are doing. He is really so sweet! This week we didn't have very many lessons. We maybe had 5 at the most because there were many people not at home but we saw A LOT of less actives. That was good to finally see who they were, what they've been up to and why they haven't been coming to church. Elder Tengberg was also giving a lesson in 3rd hour on Sunday where everyone except primary was combined and he had to prepare for that so we spent a lot of time preparing for that.
"B" actually wants to takes us out to lunch with him again this Tuesday and I am soooo pumped!!!!!!!!!!!!! My memorization with scriptures is going great. They are now something that I use to help me get my point across and I'm doing a good job at that. I just have to keep working hard!!!!!!! The weather up here is nice but it is getting colder I can tell. It still has warm days. The winters up here are AWFUL!!!!!!!!!!! I've seen pictures when Elder Lee (who Elder Tengberg replaced) was here it was a foot high from the ground!!!!!!!!!! NO BUENO!!! So that's super unfortunate for me and I'll probably still be here during the
winter. So we have had a lot of ward parties lately and a lot of members have invited us missionaries to go. One party was a whole youth activity and there were many kids just below me at age 17 starting up their senior year. I finally had a peer group my age because in Olean it's a lotta old people!!! So we had a lotta fun- played volleyball- and everyone was surprised to see me playing (ya know being a missionary). I schooled them all. ;) I was able to gain a relationship and a trust with this kid named "M" (he plays golf). I talked with him about the gospel. He was listening and very polite. I was able to teach him about missionary work and the LDS church. He's an atheist but he was open about talking about it and we left him with a card with a video on LDS.org about Jesus Christ. He said he would watch that so that was awesome!!!!!!!!!
Then we spent all day with Brother "R" cutting wood. This is where the emergency room comes into play. So we were cutting wood- I was using the wood splinter, Brother "R" was using the chainsaw, his wife (who's not a member) was stacking the wood in the truck and Elder Tengberg was using the wood mull!!!! We had been there for many hours and as we were nearing the end I hear Elder Tengberg say "That's not good." I turn around and his whole arm was covered and dripping with blood!!! He was completely calm and Brother "R" was cracking jokes and "J" (Brother "R"'s wife) was being just like a mom. Her mother instincts kicked in and she and I ran straight to the car for the medical kit (which we didn't have) but instead grabbed some paper towels and a cloth and bandaged him up in the most ridiculous way I've ever seen!!!!! Hahahaha A few minuets later we got back to work like nothing ever happened. So what happened? He was cutting with the wood mull and splitting wood but he got hit. The tool got stuck and he grabbed another one to knock it out and it was stuck pretty good so he swings and hits and a piece of shrapnel came up and got him right in the forearm. It went DEEP!!! After we bandaged his arm and finished working, we ate dinner. He was perfectly fine- it didn't phase him at all!!!!! Mrs. "J" said to go to the ER and we did. We got there around 8 and didn't leave until around midnight!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We waited FOR-EV-ER!!!! We had a LNP come in and actually get it out- we never even saw an actual doctor! She was searching for the shrapnel but couldn't find it so she and actually had to open the cut more. After about 15 min. of endless digging, she finally got the thing out and the shrapnel was bigger than the cut that Elder T had!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
winter. So we have had a lot of ward parties lately and a lot of members have invited us missionaries to go. One party was a whole youth activity and there were many kids just below me at age 17 starting up their senior year. I finally had a peer group my age because in Olean it's a lotta old people!!! So we had a lotta fun- played volleyball- and everyone was surprised to see me playing (ya know being a missionary). I schooled them all. ;) I was able to gain a relationship and a trust with this kid named "M" (he plays golf). I talked with him about the gospel. He was listening and very polite. I was able to teach him about missionary work and the LDS church. He's an atheist but he was open about talking about it and we left him with a card with a video on LDS.org about Jesus Christ. He said he would watch that so that was awesome!!!!!!!!!
Then we spent all day with Brother "R" cutting wood. This is where the emergency room comes into play. So we were cutting wood- I was using the wood splinter, Brother "R" was using the chainsaw, his wife (who's not a member) was stacking the wood in the truck and Elder Tengberg was using the wood mull!!!! We had been there for many hours and as we were nearing the end I hear Elder Tengberg say "That's not good." I turn around and his whole arm was covered and dripping with blood!!! He was completely calm and Brother "R" was cracking jokes and "J" (Brother "R"'s wife) was being just like a mom. Her mother instincts kicked in and she and I ran straight to the car for the medical kit (which we didn't have) but instead grabbed some paper towels and a cloth and bandaged him up in the most ridiculous way I've ever seen!!!!! Hahahaha A few minuets later we got back to work like nothing ever happened. So what happened? He was cutting with the wood mull and splitting wood but he got hit. The tool got stuck and he grabbed another one to knock it out and it was stuck pretty good so he swings and hits and a piece of shrapnel came up and got him right in the forearm. It went DEEP!!! After we bandaged his arm and finished working, we ate dinner. He was perfectly fine- it didn't phase him at all!!!!! Mrs. "J" said to go to the ER and we did. We got there around 8 and didn't leave until around midnight!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We waited FOR-EV-ER!!!! We had a LNP come in and actually get it out- we never even saw an actual doctor! She was searching for the shrapnel but couldn't find it so she and actually had to open the cut more. After about 15 min. of endless digging, she finally got the thing out and the shrapnel was bigger than the cut that Elder T had!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Then the next day we woke up to attend one of our investigator's wedding. And mom guess what!?!?!?!? They asked me to play the prelude for them at their wedding!!!!!!! It was soooo cool!!!! I did really well. Many people didn't know I played and were very impressed and complimented me. So now the ward loves me that much more!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then that night we had the reception and the ward picnic at Bishop "D"'s house. So we have just had a week of straight partying. Again I ate, drank and was merry!!!!!!!!!! hahaha But we had a lot of less actives that we had invited and visited this past week show up. At the corn roast even "J", Brother "R's" wife, who never has attended anything church-related for the past 33 years (since Bro. R has been baptized) attended. This was her first church-related event she has ever been to!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I thought that was sooo cool. I talked to some people at the corn roast on my own and out of those conversations, I was able to achieve 3 potential investigators. Even talking and inviting at a party I was able to get potentials!!!!!! So I gained a lot of confidence from that. At a church party, I was still able to do missionary work and that was soooooo amazing!!!!!!! I was so blessed with that opportunity and I was able to have fun and do missionary work at the same time. So Austi (or anyone that wants to go on a mission), don't be a white-handbook-robot that has no fun. If you are a robot your mission is going to be awful!!!! Be obedient and hard working but be yourself all at the same time. The Lord called Elder Cahoon to serve in the PPM not a white-handbook- robot. Be yourself but have fun (but not too much!!!) That has helped me make my mission more enjoyable. This week we have an event at the church. We are going to watch the movie Meet the Mormons!!!!!!!!!!! I'm sooooooo excited for that and can't wait to see it again!!!! It's gonna be great. I love you all so much and hope your week goes well. I miss you but I don't at the same time! hahaha Anyways, love you all!!!!!!!!!! Bye!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Elder Cahoon the Baboon
No comments:
Post a Comment