3 Elders = 3 To Church!

Pennsylvania

Hello family!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Wow what an exciting time to be out serving a mission- the weather is sunny and has been great!!!!!!!!! Thanks for the advice about keeping a journal mom.  I actually never write in my journal.  I'll try doing a journal but I feel like with all the mail I you get I can just compose it into a journal (but there are a lot of things I don't mention in my letters). Well this past week
I've actually been struggling with getting up on time in the mornings.  I feel like I have struggled with this my whole life.  I've also realized that I have had someone else wake me up.  When someone tells me to wake up I can get up but getting up on my own is a huge struggle. I have been praying for help in the area.  Some other things I am going to try are turning on a light, getting to bed early (when I can).  If you guys have any advice I would love it.  Austin, dude, I could use any advice you have for me. Seriously how do you get up at 5:15!?!?!?!?!?!?!? That boggles my mind!!  Do you just have pure self motivation or is your alarm just super loud?  What do you do!?!?!?!?!?! 

Hey mom would it be alright if you could forward me Collin's letters? I would love to read how he's doing in his mission life!!!  I love how the all family has a good time when you/we are all together!  Austin, good for you for beating Ty in ping pong dude!!!!! School's almost out!?!?!? How crazy is that you will be a Junior!?!?!?!? I can't believe it. You have grown up wayyyyy too fast kid!!!!! You're also bigger than I am.  Your gonna have to whip me back into shape when I get back!!!  Mom, thank you for sharing that insight with me.  I love the talk from Jospeh B. Wirthlin "Come What May and Love It."  He talks about how we can find the joy in the smallest things and even through trials. One of the talks I listen to out here is by Hank Smith (he's a youth speaker for the church) and one talk he gives is entitled "Being Happy In An Unhappy World."  He talks about noticing the positive and to have a positive attitude.  I love the quote in the FHS  locker room "Attitude Is Everything" because it is sooooo true!!!!!! 

Well without further ado let me tell you how this week went.  So of course I'm in a trio with Elder Coburn and Elder Schofield and it's going really well.  I love it a lot.  I have absolutely loved all my trios and it's like you have so much more fun than in a companionship.  So first and foremost I must apologize because there is a less active that we see like twice a week that I haven't even told you about!  His name is J.  He is in his late 30's early 40's and we do service for him every Tuesday and Thursday after our service at Old Economy.  He is such a funny guy. He's done a lot of different kinds of work in his life and he is really a jack of all trades.  He has such a strong testimony of the doctrine of the church but he doesn't come to church or anything. We've really been trying to get him to ARP (Addiction Recovery Program).  When we atught him this week, we had such an amazing lesson.  We gave him a blessing and the Spirit was really strong.  He said he was coming to ARP and we were so excited.  We got his ride set up but he didn't show up.  I  was pretty disappointed.  When we asked him why he wasn't there he said he fell asleep!!  We will definitely still work with him though! We also talked to our investigator J and our recent convert M.  Elder Schofield hasn't seen them come to church since he's been here in Ambridge and he has been here for 5 months.  Well of course we invite them and they said they said they would come (but they always say they are going to come but never do) but this week they came!!!!!!!!!!  Our other investigator B came too!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Lately it has been hard to get into contact with B because she got a new job and has been working like 50 hours a week.  She hasn't had any time to meet with us.  This last week we finally got ahold of her and invited her to church.  She said that she needed it and would love to come out to church. So we got a ride set up for her and she came on out!!!!!!!!!!!!!  She loved all of the meetings and by the end of Church she was telling us that she has to try to make some time for us to come over and teach her because she needs to get back to the lessons! 

Well, I love you soooooo much.  Take care.  Bye!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Elder Cahoon the Baboon

Triple Threat! Again!!!

Hello!!!!!!!! family and friends!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Wow this week blew by!!!!!!! Sorry I didn't write last week. I talked to you guys and I figured you got to see me so I don't need to send a letter home (and to be honest it's a pain in the butt, however I do it 'cause I love you guys!!!!!!!!). Well we picked up Elder Coburn this week.  It was an adjustment at first but now we are like the best of friends.  I feel like we are the best tripanionship  ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Our district is doing great. We have 2 new trainees and they are sooo cool!!!!!! We talked about no gossiping in the district and everyone is on board and so far it's been good.  I hate gossip whether it be in a companionship, in your marriage or at your job.  If you gossip about another person I think that kills trust more than anything!!!!!  No we haven't seen Corkey since last we saw him.  We tried to contact him but the houses in Pennsylvania are really weird- I'm talking weird... Like one in McKeesport whre you climbed up on the roof to get to the other building.  That's how weird it was!!!!!!!!!!!! Well our teaching pool is actually pretty small we only have like 3 investigators.  It's not lack of trying, it's just difficult to find but hey I'm not complaining.  I LOOOOOVE talking to everyone. Street contacting is like my favorite thing.  We have a lot of potentials but we are focusing a lot of our efforts on the less actives in our area. 

So FANTASTIC news I got an email from Mindy Yocolano (remember the one that I found and she was praying for a miracle)?  Well anyways she said that this past Sunday she offered to give the opening prayer in sacrament meeting!!!!!!!!!!!! That's amazing because she gets very nervous in front of other people and actually tends to laugh.  She was afraid that she was gonna laugh through it but she didn't.  I'm sooooo proud of her.  She's still strong in the gospel.  She also sent me a letter sharing her feelings about when we stopped by and how she felt as we continued to teach her!!!!  The email actually made my highlight this week and possibly for the rest of my mission .  I miss her and Dominic sooooooo much!!!!!!!!!!!!! We are definitely seeing them after the mission!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

So for our District meeting my commitment was for the Elders and Sisters to be "Action" missionaries which means that if they receive a prompting (ex. to call someone or knock on someone's door or to talk to somebody on the street) they need to act on it immediately.  That is why I am writing so late.  Elder Schofield had an impression that we needed to stop by and see the Fs (less actives in the ward).  At first we were like "nah let's just drive home."  Then we missed our turn and we were actually driving in the direction to the F's home.  So we bounced on down to their house and when we got there, Elder Steinhafel there and their home teacher was there.  We had heard on Sunday that their breaker box had caught on fire.  We actually gave a B.O.M.  to them as well as taught a lesson.  I know that God made that happen.  If we hadn't followed that prompting we nor they wouldn't have had that experience.  So you see, the gospel is true.  Follow your promptings and act upon them!!!!!! 

Funny story at church on Sunday- for choir practice our choir Director told Schofield and I that we needed to sing Bass during Sacrament for practice.  We said we would and yesterday we are singing and I kinda switch between Tenor and Bass.  Elder Schofield stopped singing and looked over and said what are you doing right now?  I said I'm singing and then Sister Stewart, who was in front of us, turned around and laughed at us.  It was sooooooo funny!!!!!!!!! Hahaha Elder Schofield and I still laugh at it!!!!!!!!!! Well I love you all.  Take care.  Bye!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!❤️❤️❤️❤️

Elder Cahoon the Baboon

Get Ready! Get Stoked!!! May 2, 2016 letter

Hello family and friends!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This week again flew by and it indeed was a good week!!!!!! I am so grateful to be a missionary.  It is a privilege and a great blessing and a lot of fun too!!!!!!!! Well to begin on the sad note:  Sister Wayman isn't feeling any better so she's actually getting sent home today.  This is sad and frustrating because she was an awesome missionary and she was a HUGE help to our District.  She showed us what it meant to be a true, hardworking missionary.  She was an amazing missionary.  Even while she was sick she still woke up on time and did her studies.  Even though she could only stay in bed she would still do all she could and she would even go out in a wheelchair to find and teach! How amazing is that!?!? She has really helped me understand what a hard working missionary looks like and has really influenced me to be better! The new missionary coming into our area is actually from McKeesport District- Sister Johnson.  I only knew her for a little bit.  She will try and replace Sister Wayman but no one can replace her!!! 

Now moving along.  This week we had a good topic for District meeting.  We talked about how to study effectively.  There were a lot of good ideas shared which helped me understand how to have better studies which was cool! We did a role play at the end with teaching an investigator or someone on the spot and then taking time to study for them and then teaching  them.  We gave them 2 opportunities to practice.  Of course I liked the second one better.  Truly, that was the purpose- to see the difference in their teaching and their understanding.  Another exciting thing that happened this week was that I got to go on exchanges with Elder Mink which is always a blast!!!!!! We had soooo much fun!!!!!!! We worked hard of course but I love that guy soooo much!!!!!!!!! I'm so glad we are serving around one another! We actually found a new investigator.  His name is Corkey. Elder Mink and I were street contacting and said hi to him and then struck up a conversation with him.  We talked a lot about the Bible and we even shared a few scriptures in the Book of Mormon.  We talked about what the BOM is and the interesting thing is that he knew about Joseph Smith and that JS translated the BOM.  I thought he had heard a lot of anti-Mormon stuff because we get that a lot in Pennsylvania; however, he didn't know anything else besides his initial knowledge of the B.O.M. That was a huge surprise.  We set up a return appointment and I will let you know how that goes!!!!!!!!  That street contact was important in another way as well.  So some background info: Elder Mink has served in Zelie for like 6 months where he has tracted many, many hours in Zelie.  He saw no success come out of it so at that moment when we made the appointment, it made Elder Mink's week!!!  Well we exchanged back at the Addiction Recovery Program (ARP).  At that meeting we talked about hope and we watched "The 12 Steps To Change" the church put out.  There was such a strong spirit in that meeting-there always is! Our Ward Mission Leader, Brother K, shared a great story of hope!!  He goes because we meet with him for a correlation meeting afterwards.  

This week we also went out to eat with Brother L, Brother K and Brother D.  The whole time we did role plays and discussed the gospel.  It was really neat!!!  Brother L has been on fire with role plays and so we did role plays all dinner and they were helpful.  Of course there were many things we needed to improve on.  One question that I didn't know the answer to is why can't women hold the priesthood.  To be honest I didn't know how to answer that.  I found an article where Joseph Smith talks about the role of women in the church and it was really insightful.  So if someone asks me that question I'd just pull up that article.  I love role plays and don't beat myself up if I don't say things perfectly.  I just learn from it and that's the whole purpose behind them anyway!!!! My commitment for District meeting this past week to was to do a role play every day!!!!!!!! I've been taking that seriously and it has been good for both Elder Schofield and I!!!!  

A highlight for me this week would have to be on Saturday.  We helped out the community by planting trees.  It was good, hard, physical labor and fun!!! The Lubins were there and they were ready to work.  We were digging holes to plant trees.  I just love service sooooo much!!!!!!! We do quite a lot here and let me tell you it is such a great feeling!!!!!!!  It helps put our church's name out there for the good and I am helping others.  It's the best!!!!!!!! SPIRITUAL MEDICINE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I'm very excited to call home on Mother's Day.  I'm actually going to call at 7:00am your time so be ready!!!!!!!  I think I'm going to call at 6:40am so we can figure out Skype!!!!! We don't want to ruin any precious time that we have.  I'm so excited.  I can't wait to see everyone.  I'm so excited I can hardly wait!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love you all.  Take care. Bye!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Elder Cahoon the Baboon