Elder Trevor Cahoon's Mission: Trunky Treat!!

New York in the Fall

(Evil laugh) hahaha Happy Halloween!!!!

Hello family!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wow! Let me just start off by saying thank you soooo much for the wonderful package. It was great!!!!!!!!!! So many hoodies and sweaters! And ties!!!!!!!!!! I love ties!!!!! Thank you so much mom!!!!!!!! You even sent my long coat. That was so nice of you!!!!!

Nice, the whole family is giving a talk on doubts and how to overcome them. Wow, that's a great topic. Let me tell you, in the mission field you run into people that have a lot of doubts. The quote I love is from Dieter F. Uchtdorf that says "Doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith." I love that one. It's so simple and it can range from the tiny things to the huge things. I love that one! I just want to include that If you ever feel doubt that is always Satan. He wants us to doubt ourselves so that we will not try but the Lord is the opposite- He will help lift us up and tell us to try. We are Latter-day sinners who keep on trying no matter how many times we stumble or fall. Another idea for your talks would be the story in the New Testament of Peter when he walked on the water. When he was focused on the Savior, he was was able to walk on the water with confidence but as soon as he worried about the storms, his focus turned from the Savior to the storms and he became fearful. As he did so, he sank because of his doubt. The Savior is always there and will reach His hand out to save us from falling into temptation and darkness every time. Jesus' response to Peter was... " O thou of little faith wherefore didst thou doubt?" He was informing Peter it was because of his doubt that he sank. Christ was telling him that if he had faith and trusted in Him, He would have given him strength to stand and walk on the water. These same teachings apply to us. Then my final thought is share the talk from this recent conference, "Choose the Light" by Elder Vern P. Stanfill. Elder Stanfill was also the one who came and visited our mission!!!!!!!!! Remember his talk? He was the one who went on a bike trip through a dark tunnel and even though he was an experienced cyclist, he doubted the lights and himself and became fearful. Another one that just popped into mind was our experience in the Ape Caves- how the darkness engulfed us all. How we were confused which way to go without our lights. How we doubted we could get out of the caves without the help of our lights. But we put our trust in the lights and they gave the light we need to be able to make it back outside.

I can't believe that Tyler has a girlfriend. Anyways, it seems like he just got back from his mission. Tell Tyler I miss him and say hi. Send me pictures when he and his GF come to visit for Thanksgiving. Austin, I'm so excited to hear that you are making plays and doing well as a Sophomore. I wish I could see you play- I would love to see how much you've improved since last time I saw you. That's great that JV won and I'm glad they actually have a JV program 'cause we didn't have one when I was a Sophomore. It was only C team and Varsity.

Well this year for Halloween guess what I dressed up as... A trunky missionary. hahahahaha Well first I gotta give you a little back story. So in the PPM we have a term called "trunks" which basically means you want to go back home, you want to pack up your suitcase or trunk and get back home. So if you ever hear me say, "I'm trunky" that's what it means. So when Halloween rolled around I got super trunky because I wanted to go and dress up for Halloween!!!!!! On Halloween night one whole year ago do you remember what happened? I was playing football for FHS against Miyamura and tore the rest of my ACL and was done with football forever... Wow, that was a year ago- just crazy!!!!! What did Austin do for Halloween? Did he dress up? Did he go to a party? Whatever he did I hope it was fun!!!!!!

So Mom to answer your question about what I teach my investigators: I teach them that faith in Jesus Christ is an action. You have to put forth your effort and do your part if you want to receive that spiritual light. I love the Mormon message "The Hope Of God's Light." Take the opportunity to watch it if you haven't already. He talks about receiving spiritual light and getting out of the darkness takes an act of faith. If we have faith and are willing to work for it. God will reveal himself to you but spiritual light is never given to those who sit in darkness waiting for someone to flip a switch. With faith, you will want to change and repent and become better and progress. I actually came up with this neat way to teach faith:

Analogy: cliff step- explain you are on a cliff. God asks you to step off the cliff. He tells you that an invisible path is there but you just can't see it. Do you have faith in Jesus Christ and take that step or do you believe that it's not there and not take the step?

I often tell them this: I think anyone can believe in Jesus Christ but I don't know if anyone can have faith in him. For faith is action and not everyone wants to take action and follow the Lord and his commandments.

Well that's it for my thoughts and I think that wraps up this email. Thank you so much for all that you do. Hope that all goes well this week. I love you guys. Bye!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Elder Cahoon the Baboon