Temple Times

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

Wow what a crazy week it has been.  It was just absolute fun and change all around!!!!!!! It was weird last Monday cause that was our last P-day as our district. 😰😢 Sister Kwasney and Elder Cuthbert and Elder Wilson were all getting transferred so that was pretty sad; however, we had some sweet people coming.  It's Sister Smith from my last district!!! I was her first District Leader!!! It's so cool to serve in the same area with her again.  Then I got my new companion, Elder Butikofer.  He is from San Diego, California, he's 19 and has been out for 4.5 months.  He came straight outta Pittsburgh!!  He played soccer and did pole vault in high school!  We have fun together.  He's such a chill guy.  We get along great. We bought some shirts today that are matching.  I'll send you a picture!!! He just love to joke around.  He also is my youngest companion I've had on the mission.  It's really weird cause I've only had older companions.  

We had dinner with Bishop H and his family.  We had such a fun time with them!!! Bishop is such a funny guy and is really sarcastic so pretty much 90% of what he says is all sarcastic.  Sister H is 90% serious.  It's really funny how they interact.  They are always sharing with us how much they love each other.  When I get married I just want to joke around with my wife and have fun!!!!!  They are teaching me a little about marriage and how you can admit your faults and mistakes to one another.  Misatakes are going to happen because we aren't perfect but learning from them is how we learn and grow and develop better, more Christ-like attributes.  When we were over at dinner Bishope asked us if we had any concerns. I was telling him how I am pretty forgetful.  I was asking him what to do about that.  He told me what he does and it was such a great idea, I decided to do it as well!  He told me he has a little notebook that he keeps with him so if he has to accomplish a task or needs a reminder or even gets any good thought, he immediately
whips out his little notebook and writes it in!!  That night I got me a small notebook and I used it throughout this week.  It fits perfectly in my pocket protector and whenever I get a thought or I learn about someone needing something, I write it right in immediately.  This week has been great as I was able to remember a lot more!  

I wrote a scripture on the front that I thought fit perfectly.  Isaiah 55:6- it says "Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near:"  Basically that scripture is saying that Heavenly Father has given us his Spirit and when it's near, we need to do all we can to follow it's promptings.  I have loved carrying around my Inspiration Journal (that's what I'm calling it).  It has been a great tool.  I am going to use it for the remainder of my mission but also when I get back home.   

On transfer day and we got assignments that we were either staying for the day doing service or we were teaching people.  We were in 3 groups and only 1 did all service.  So guess which group I was in!?!?!? That's right BABY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!😆😆😆 I was in the group doing service all day!!!!! It's as if God really knows that I love doing service and helping people out.  It's absolutely the best spiritual medicine out there!!!!!! If I could just do service
day and night I would never want to come home I'd be out here for the rest of my life!!!!! We did some cleaning and scrubbed off the stains on the chairs in this other church's basement.  We talked to a lot of workers that were very polite! Then we went and moved mulch for an older lady in the Altoona Ward.  A lot of fun and a lot of hard work!!!! How great it was to help people out- it's truly such a blessing! 

On our way back to our District, Sister Kelly & Sister Smith were able to ride with us.  It was great to reconnect and talk about old times. At Distict Meeting the following day, we all met our new district leader- Elder Lundberg.  I came out with him. So 3 people in our district came out together and it's all Elders!!! We all are pretty tight with each other!!! We talked about how we are going to make this General Conference a spiritual, uplifting experience.   We wrote down a question and goal for ourselves and for our District.  

So shout out to my brother Kyle.  Happy birthday Kyle!!!!!!!!!!! I love you so much man.  You mean a ton to me!!! You were such a good brother growing up.  You always taught me so many life lessons and always took an interest in my life! It was so good to talk and see you on Mother's Day!  I love you man!!!!!!!!! 

Another thing I want to talk about is the Youth Temple Celebration for the dedication of Philadelphia Pennsylvania Temple!  The temple dedication and the youth celebration was really neat.  It reminded me a lot of the Dance Festival that was done in Washington- remember that mom?   It was at Mckenzie Stadium and Kyle performed.  Remember the Quinns were there too?  Anyways the temple celebration was a lot of fun and very patriotic.  The temple dedication was the first one I've ever seen.  It was really great!!!!!! I thought many things were neat but my favorite was when they put the mortar in the cornerstone.  It was pretty spectacular! I'm so glad I went.  If you guys get a chance to go to a temple dedication you should go.  It's pretty cool!

So now for the Q and A.  It's getting a little cooler but it's still pretty warm.  I would like some more mail from peopl.  I understand life's busy but even just a quick, "Hey, glad you're still alive" is just as good!!!!  Yea my toenail is a ton better after the surgery.  Sorry I couldn't hold out the rest of my time out here.  That's crazy that Kyle Reynold is going on a mission!  Good for him.  I hope he enjoys it.  I love you Uncle Scott!!!!! You are such a good friend.  I love the times we went to the movies.  I'm so glad you wanted to go with me! We better go see a ton of movies when I get back!!!!!  Sadly, we got an email from the D family saying he wanted to discontinue meeting with us.  That was sad but we haven't lost faith.  We still email him and keep in contact.  He is still one my best friends!!!! One thing I have learned is that I need to slow things down and help my companion to better understand things in this area.  I was taking it too fast.  I need to help him understand what we are doing, who we are seeing and why we're seeing them. 

I love you all.  Have a great week.  Everyone wants me to play volleyball so I got to cut this short.  Love you all.  Bye!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!❤️❤️❤️❤️

Elder Cahoon the Baboon