The Walking Hills

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

I'm glad Austi won his football game.  Good for you buddy!!!!! Keep pushing and working hard. I love you buddy!!!!!!!!!!! I'm glad you guys are enjoying Farmington and life is good.  I love you guys sooo much!!!!!!! I hope that you guys just keep loving life and doing your absolute best!!!!!

Wow this week was, how do I put this, incredibly packed and filled with a ton of different things!!!!!!! I have a lot to cover and I want to hit it all but it will be difficult to do.  Monday we talked to S who has a twin and they are attending church more so that's great! We saw her and had a great talk with her she mentioned to us hat she didn't know if she has ever received a spiritual witness if the church was true.  We told her that she could know and how she could find out.  We were glad she brought that up and told her we would talk more about it next time we have a lesson with her.  Bro. D suggested that we mention Pres. Ucthdorf's talk. "Fourth Floor, Last Door.  So that is a good talk for anyone to read that might feel the same as S.  Tuesday we made a ton of phone calls to people regarding appointments as well as investigators.  The investigators didn't want to continue meeting with us which was sad because they showed sincere interest.  No worries because we had great things happen that day and this week!!!!!!!!  After the phone calls we headed to Lemoyne, which never is a bad ride; however, Elder Butikofer actually hates bikes and has had a lot of complications with his bike.  We did a ton of bike work on it before we left and we got it fixed, for the time being anyways.  Well we rode but he HATES bikes and  unfortunately for him we have to bike to a lot of our places.  He's still adjusting.  We get to Lemoyne and we're able to pass out 2 B.O.M.s and picked up 1 investigator.  We left him with a B.O.M. and our number and we told him we'd stop by next week around the same time.  He doesn't have a phone so that is hard for contacting.  He made our day and we made his. Then we stopped by another investigator's house.  C's mom answered the door.  We have never met her but she knew exactly who we were.  She is so glad we teaching her son.  She was so kind to us.  We could tell she was a mother because she was asking if we were okay or if we got yelled at by any rude people. hahaha  We talked with her while we brought her groceries in and told her about the B.O.M.  We invited her to read from it with C.  So we picked her up as a new investigator!  We will be meeting with them this Tuesday!!!!!  So we will keep you updated on that!!! 

After talking with her we got to have a sit down lesson with a member from the ward who hasn't made it out in a little while. His name is Brother G.  We have never have gotten to teach him.  We talked about how he can grow closer to God. It was a great lesson and he was interested in talking with us again. We set up another time so that was great!  We challenged him to read the Book of Mormon and to pray regularly.  I'm glad he let us inside to talk.  It was a good time over there!!!! We then rode back to New Cumberland (just a 2 mile trip) and we were able to plan a little more.  We went contacting on the street. We talked to a guy and we asked him how he saw God's hand in his life.  He then tells us this incredible story of a time he was fishing on a river in Africa and how he fell out of his boat into a whirlpool!!!!😱😱 He said he had not seen anyone all day.  But after he fell into the whirlpool, a fisherman passed by and helped him out of the water and saved his life. How amazing is that!?!?!? We then shared with him the scripture from the B.O.M. about Alma and Amulek when they were thrown into a furnace because they were preaching to people that didn't want to hear what they had to say.  We told this guy how God protected Alma and Amulek and likened it to how God protected him.  We testified how God can protect and help each one of us.  We left him with a B.O.M. and he gave us his number.

Then the next day was a crazy adventure!!!!! Some members in our ward needed their lawn mowed and we offered our help.  The husband wasn't home so we couldn't get a ride to their house so we had to bike there.  It was AWFUL!!!!!!!!!!! 😡😤😫 We had to bike up these hills that were sooooo steep!!!!!!! It was just awful.  I biked up- facing the challenge- and I got up all the hills without having to walk.  The hills had such a steep incline.  Pennsylvania hills are just the worst to bike up!!!!!!  It was basically all uphill and we just kept climbing and climbing!!!!!!! So after about 2 hours of biking we finally made it to the house.  We were ready to mow the lawn.  As we go to barn, the lady realizes that her husband took the barn door key with him on his trip to California!!!!!!!!!!😱😭😢😫😱  Sooo we biked all that way all those HILLS!!!!!!!! What it felt like for nothing!!!!!!!!!! We weren't mad at her or him but just at the situation.  Their house is at the bottom of an enourmous hill!!  We were dead beat so we walked up the hill!!  When we got to the top of the hill we looked at each other and we both were like we are not going to get upset! After our change of attitude, we cruised down the hill and it felt soooooo good!!!!!!!!!!!! We were going soooooo fast down that hill and we were like let's go as fast as we can.  We gained so much speed!!!!!!!!!!  

Elder Butikofer and I learned a very important lesson that day!!!!!!!  We learned life is like Pennsylvania hills- trials are hard at times and the there will be hills to climb.  Some will be very steep.  To overcome the trials, it will take effort, hard work, dedication and determination.  Eventually you will conquer the trial and you will be on top of the hill!!!!!!!! Then you can enjoy the wonderful blessing of going down the hill!!!!!!!!!!!!! The downhill is God's mercy and it will feel exhilarating! Another lesson we learned was:  we wouldn't know the wonderful feeling of going downhill (high speed and wind in your hair) if we didn't experience that dreadful, exhausting uphills. So when you feel like life's an uphill battle, just keep pedaling because at the top of that hill you are going to be greeted by a merciful, gracious downhill!!!!!!!!!!!!

So I made up a new quote.  I think it sounds great.  It is "Endure the uphill, so you can enjoy the downhill."  For all those out there going up uphill, just keep pedaling!!!!

 On Thursdayvwe got to see President and Sister Johnson!!!!!!!!!!!  It was wonderful to see them!!!!!!! We got to have interviews with him.  He asked me how I was doing and how you guys were doing. I alwaysvshow him pics of Ty and Hannah and the family.  We had a great training by Sister Johnson on how the natural
man may seem like someone normal and just a part of human nature but that we need to live the higher law of God and do as He asks. She tied it into the parable of the sower and how we are still gaining testimonies and how they take a lifetime to grow.  We just need to continue growing upward and become the beautiful flowers that God created us to be!!!

That night we went on splits with 3 priests- 1 went with Butikofer and the other 2 went with me. So we had a plan to see someone and a back up plan it that didn't work out.  I hate taking tea- ups out if we don't have a set lesson. So we had the plan then last second BOTH plans fell through.  I wasn't very excited about that but we continued to try to contact people.  We saw an open door and talked to this kid and gave him a B.O.M.   AND we picked him up as a new investigator!!!!! So that's 3 investigators this week!  It was fantastic!!!!!!!!!!!!!!🤗👌🏻👍🏻

 We then go to visit E.  She answers the door and she has a gun in her hand!!!!!!!!!!!! The kind of gun she had was the same revolver that Rick Grimes carries in the Walking Dead. 💀 She felt horrible after she realized she just pulled a gun on the missionaries!  I told her she made my week because I can now say that "I GOT A GUN PULLED ON ME ON MY MISSION!!!!!!!"  The priests didn't even realize she was holding a gun so that was pretty funny!!  We then made an appointment to go mow her lawn the next week!!!!!! So service and a gun!!!!!

We were able to see Sister N and had another great lesson with S.  We invited her to read Elder Ucthdorf's talk and have that witness for herself.  Yesterday (Sunday) both Sister N and Janet came to church and stayed the entire 3 hours!  In Priesthood we had a wonderful lesson on charity.  There was some good discussion (probably the best we have had yet).  Sunday night we were able to see SD, his wife and his two kids!!  It was soooo good to see them again!   She made us a delicious cake!  We even were able to talk to SD about religious things.  At first he didn't want to talk about religious things but then he told us it would be okay.  We suggested he watch the conference address of Thomas S. Monson.  He mentioned how he wanted to meet with us again.  I will keep you guys updated on that! 

I love you all.  Have a great week.  Take care.  Bye!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!❤️❤️❤️❤️

Elder Cahoon the Baboon