Accentuate The Positive

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

Wow I'm so glad everyone had an exciting time with Ty down in New Mexico and in Texas.  Man you guys are going everywhere!!!!!!!!!! Mom thank you very much for the advice
on waking up in the morning- that helped a ton!!!!!!!!!!  When I get home I would love to see you guys and the Fuller family all together.  I hope that we can all make that happen!!!!!!!!! I really miss Kyle.  I need to write him so I can keep in contact with him. I love that guy
sooooooo much!!!!!!!!!!!!  I got a haircut today.  She messed up so I look funny but whatever; who cares! 

Well let me tell you how my week went this week.  We didn't teach very much but we had a miracle happen!!!!!!!!!! So J, the LA we teach, is an awesome guy.  We went over this past week to do service with him. He's always has a project for the missionaries to do and we love going over to help out!!!!!!!!!! He's been planting a lot in his greenhouse so we've been helping with transplanting and planting plants.  We always have the funniest conversations with J.  Like one of the questions he asked us was if we lived in the woods for 5 years and ate nothing but bugs what would be the first food we would eat. Schofield said "chocolate milk" and J said, "That was probably the gayest answer I've ever heard in my life! Leave my house right now!!!"  I said Wendy's fries and he said, " Alright you are no longer my friend."  Funny huh?  Well we had a lesson with him and we talked about how to find happiness and joy and we referred to the talk by Hank Smith "Being Happy In An Unhappy World."  We referenced many scriptures from the Book Of Mormon on how to be a happier person:

Accentuate the positive
1 Nephi 17:1-3 We read an account where Nephi talks about how God has blessed him and his people even though they were going through a very difficult trial; however, he notices all of the positive things and recognizes his blessings.  However in a few later verses Laman gives his account.  It's the same situation but in verses 20-21 Laman states all the negative things and he feels that God is cursing them.  The exact same situation but 2 totally different perspectives.  I believe if you look for the positive you are gonna find it but on the other hand if you look for the negative you are gonna find it.  Remember attitude is everything!!!!!!! 

How many times have you heard or seen negative people complaining?  We need to affiliate with positive people and show a positive attitude so we can help lift negative people.  A story that is included in the talk is about Thomas Edison.  He actually lost 90% of his hearing at age 12 and he said this to his parents, "I kind of like it.  It allows me to focus more." So what did he do?  He turned a negative event  into a positive.  When he was inventing the light bulb many people said he had failed an it couldn't be done- that it was merely a fantasy.  To these naysayers he said, "I have not failed.  I have found nearly over a thousand ways that it won't work but I have not failed."  Ha Imagine saying that to your teachers on a math assignment:  "I didn't get it wrong, I found a way that it won't work but I didn't fail."  Another story: his factory was burning to the ground and his son, Charles, was frantically looking for him to see if he was okay.  Thomas was calmly watching the fire burn down his life's work.  When Thomas saw Charles he told him to go get his mother because she "would never see a fire like this as long as she lives."  Can you imagine that?  His work going up in flames and he's enjoying it like it's a bonfire hahahahaha!!!!!!!!!! The next morning Thomas calls his employees and says "my friends there is much success to be found here.  All of our mistakes have burned up.  We can start anew and fresh!"  I mean seriously, this man was probably the most positive person EVER!!!!!!!!!! So let's try and be positive like Thomas Edison!!!!!!!

Well anyways, the lesson really affected J and he said he wanted to come to ARP which we've been trying to get him to come to for the past forever!!!!!!!!! He says he will come but he never shows up.  However a miracle happened and he actually CAME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was so cool!!!!!!  He shared some amazing insight at ARP and it was so wonderful to just have him there.  

Another great thing that happened is that we had dinner with the Sisters' investigator and her husband.  She fed us and is awesome and is golden.  She knows soooo much about our church.  Well anyways we had dinner with them and I asked how they met.  I'm not kidding, the story that they told us of how they met was amazing!!!!! The greatest love story ever!!!!!!!!!!!  They were high school sweethearts and they dated but broke up.  She got pregnant at age 16 and had her kid.  Her current husband (exboyfriend at the time) and her were still good friends and so he helped out for a while and tried being there for her.  They eventually decided to marry and he adopted her son.  How amazing is that!?!?!?!? Well it was a great time and they are the most loving, caring people ever!!

Another thing hat happened this week one of the members in our ward had a birthday party for his 3 yr. old and he invited us  because his son has lots of nonmmber friends.  I loved it. I just got to talk with regular people about just regular stuff. They actually asked a lot of
questions to us as missionaries and I realized regular people are much more nervous to talk to missionaries than for missionaries to talk to regular people. It was a really good experience.

I also went on Exchanges this week to Pitt 4th Ward (that's Bishop Hokes ward- remember he was a pro football player).  Anyways that was a pretty great day as we did a lot of contacting on the street.  Guess what!?!??!?!? (pause for dramatic affect).  I got flipped off three different times that day!!!  It was actually really funny because when they did it I would smile even bigger and wave even harder at them.  :)  

This week I prepared for district meeting.  We had just had a zone training on the B.O.M. And I had to give a district training on the B.O.M. as well. I am able to see the improvement in my teaching and Eler Schofield told me that the trainings have been good. :)  As I studied it out in my mind which direction I wanted to go with the training, I decided to teach from the Introduction of the B.O.M.  I studied a ton!!  I knew what I wanted to teach but I didn't know what the role play was gonna be nor what the commitment was going to be so I kept studying.  Distict meeting time came and I abandoned my notes and followed the Spirit.  Great insight was shared by other missionaries and I received revelation about our investigators during the meeting.  I feel the meeting went well because I was first prepared and then I was willing to follow the spirit.   

So follow the spirit and accentuate the positive!!!!!! I love you guys sooooooooo much.  Take care.  Have a great week.  Bye!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ❤️❤️❤️❤️

Elder Cahoon the Baboon