Transfers and Baptisms!

Area: Pak Kret
Companion: Elder Richardson

Hey there Everybody!

I have quite the e-mail for this week! Thursday was transfers and as of yesterday I am one transfer old and half way finished my training! (that was quick!) Transfers was a gong show! Honestly ridiculous! It is held at our church building since it is the nicest, biggest and most convenient. Half of the mission was there and Pres Senior made some big changes! First off there were 10 missionaries going home and 15 coming in (my noongs + 1 khonthai) (noong is JR and khon is native ) which in and of itself is huge but also he made a new district, a new zone and opened/reopened 3 or 4 new areas! The biggest news however is (i know, right now your thinking how could it get bigger) I have a new companion/trainer!!! and I am leading our area! So Elder Siperly went zone leader in Ubon in the Essan and my new companion is Elder Richardson who just moved from Bang Kapi. In our district of 9, 5 people moved and all of them were Phiis leaving the Noongs to lead their areas 3 of the 4 remaining are 2 transfers and younger (Me). And in the Pakkret Branch we got 2 brand new elders who are whitewashing an area! They are Elder Clark and my Noong Elder Tirrell!! Way sweet! It is so fun seeing him and remembering what it was like 6 weeks ago. So much has happened since then and I have made soooooo much progress in just 6 short weeks! 

So going to transfers was way fun! Elders Terry, Slaughter and Trabing were also there. It was soo great seeing them again! Elder Slaughter was also getting ting-ed (ting means to throw away it also applies when you when your father (trainer) leaves you as in the case of Elder Slaughter and myself) So fun talking to them and swapping stories and we also got to see our Phiis who were all there to renew their visas, and we got to see our Noongs come in sooo sweet! I love transfer meetings they are soo much fun! Elder Murray (from Magrath) is in my zone! He is being trained by Elder Siperly's companion that he had just before me! (Elder Crawley)

Elder Richardson is awesome! We are getting along great right off the bat! He is from Heber City, UT and he is the oldest of 4 and he has 3 younger sisters! So we feel each others pain. We have a ton in common. We both love sports especially basketball and we are way into music and we are both hopelessly in love with Jack Johnson's music! We listen to a ton of the same music. He is varied as I am and we know like all of the same obscure bands and we both LOVE Owl City and he listens to Chiddy Bang!  It is saweet! He also likes English football. He likes Arsenal but his favourite team, it pains me to report, is Liverpool and on top of that he despises Man U. I informed him of his grave error, and despite that mar on his character we are getting along swimmingly and this transfer is going to be a blast! (It also really helps that he has a guitar and knows how to play hymns and an occasional JJ song!)

The other highlight of the week was that on Saturday 3 of Elder Cox's investigators got baptized and I knew them all super well and taught them before and gone to FHE's (Family Home Evening) together! It was so awesome and Br. Art ( I dont think i have told you about him, He is an RM (returned missionary). Served in Cali! Speaks English like a boss, is a music major from BYU and sings and plays the piano like no other. He is the branch pianist and every Sunday is like a piano concert! So good! He loves helping the missionaries and he is so much fun. Well he roped me and Elder Richardson into singing a rendition of Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing for the baptism. It sounded way good (probably cause Art is a champ) and out investigator Tuun was there and when we sang she just started bawling! It honestly was like waterworks! She felt the Spirit so strong! Man you gotta love hymns! and then we went and saw the baptisms and then I felt the Spirit so strong and just so much joy I couldn't stop smiling. I was just beaming and my chest hurt. I was just unbelievably, blissfully happy! It was great! The best feeling and the best thing to see people baptized take that first step. It is so beautiful!! I LOVE it!! That is really what it is all about, helping people get there and focused on the temple in their future!

So it was a wonderful week. The district is completely different. I have a new companion and I LOVE! baptisms! I truly love you all and I think of you often but this is the best thing I have ever done and I LOVE it!

Elder Cahoon

PS Mum I loved your email so glad you could go to Scotland that's way sweet! But I agree with you. Even better is the temple. That is the best place on earth. I am so excited that Calgary is getting a temple and I cannot wait until Thailand receives one.

Joy in Others' Joy

Area: Pak Kret
Companion: Elder Siperly

Hello One and All!

It is soo great to hear from you all! I LOVE the fact that you are spending so much time down south playing with cousins and spending time at the farm and making amazing memories! It sounds like an absolute blast! Chrissy-that looks like a way sweet truck! Do you have your license yet? By the way I forgot to say last time but Kendra-that sounds like quite the fall flipping right over the horse but your built tonka tough! I think one of the best parts of being on a mission is seeing others happiness! You become really like unselfish and when you hear about other people having fun or making memories or going to England or going on missions or changing their lives or having kids or accepting the gospel or coming to church or getting an answer to a prayer; you feel so inexpressibly happy! Mii yindii cing cing! And it is honestly just brings me so much joy to hear that those I love are happy and that those that I have the opportunity to love in Thailand are becoming even happier by accepting the Gospel and changing their lives, So keep the good times rolling and keep me informed because I love it! I love seeing the joy in others’ lives! 

Here in Thailand we have been able to have a lot of people in our shared area (with Mueang Thong Cox and Christensen) prepare for baptism 3 people are getting baptized this week! Although they are not our investigators I have got to teach them on switch offs and talk with them and they are soo awesome! Our investigator Tuun is doing well too but her baptism is being moved to Sept 1 to give her time to build her testimony and get an answer herself and confirm what she already knows, but she is awesome and we love her so much. Yesterday we had District Conference (like stake conference) and it was way sweet! There were so many members and missionaries all in one place! It was fantastic! Totally warmed my heart to see the strength of the church here! But there is still so much work to be done. Definitely the highlight of the day was that Deed and Em and their daughter Nadia and their newborn baby came to church!!! Deed and Nadia are our investigators and they are so awesome and they have learned everything and Deed has made huge major changes in his life. Our only struggle has been getting them to church and they came!! They said they are coming next week too! Soo good! An investigator at church is defs a wonderful sight to behold.

On an entirely different subject this week on switch offs with Elder Christensen I started learning to play the ukulele. He has a way nice one and he taught himself how to play. He has got a knack for hearing songs and then tinkering around and teaching himself how to play them. Anyway he taught me the 4 chords that you use to play pretty much every song under the sun including Jack Johnson and hymns. So fun and waay easier than playing a guitar and it sounds so sweet! And it is all good under mission rules for p-day and free time! So today I am going uke shopping! Haha! We will see how it goes by the time I get home I will be fluent in Thai and uke! Haha!

Thank you very much for the info on the football teams over here. Man U is massive in the malls. They have stores full of Man U stuff! It’s pretty legit. I talked with a member here who confirmed that Singha is the massive sponsor for a bunch of the English teams as well as like all of the Thai teams.  But honestly, so funny to see a bus in Thailand drive by decked out in Man U red or Chelsea blue and posters of the players and advertisements everywhere!

Mom, This trip sounds soo amazing! So great to see all of the family and the sights and to do it all with Nannie and Becky! Incredible! That would be fantastic if you got to go to the lake district and/or Scotland. Wow way cool! Keep having great adventures!

Thank you once again for the pictures. I love them! Mikaela-you look so different in blond but it is gorgeous! Olivias hair is getting long and that picture of her on the trike is priceless. You could probably win a prize for that! Chrissy-that truck is sweet! You should get one! Your adventures at the farm sound like a dream come true! Kendra-it looks like you are getting way good at horseback riding! You look like a champ up there!

Love you all sooooo much!

Elder Cahoon

"I must obey, Amen"

Area: Pak Kret
Companion: Elder Siperly

Hey Everybody!

WHAAATTT???!!! Thats crazy!! I guess your right though I shouldn’t be too surprised I mean it is Dad after all! (I sent Michelle to England with 40 hours notice) But honestly that is soo sweet! I’m so excited and happy for you! Especially ‘cause like you've been dreaming about this trip forever you, Becky and Nanny! Awesome! Well have a ton of fun that sounds like a phenomenol trip and for 3 weeks too! I am just so happy for you Mum! (Notice the "u" in Mum haha) Don't even worry about the kids at home! They will be good and continue to have a ton of fun and this is like a trip of a lifetime. Enjoy everything! Don’t stress out and try a ton of new things. This is weird! It feels like a total role reversal. I swear I heard this advice somewhere a little while ago haha!  Hey while you are over there you can find out about the English football teams and tell me where our allegiances lie.

So, to you crew at home now falls the responsibility of the ward update and the crane info I expect a full and proper report next week.

As for this past week we had greenie switch-offs! It was Elder Cox and I in his area while Elders Siperly and Christensen were in Pakkret. What fun! Elder Cox is my Phii from the mtc so he has been here all of 6 weeks longer than me! It went really good though! We taught some good lessons and did a search and rescue and found some wonderful less-actives and we only got lost once! Haha! It was really good! No problems we couldn't handle with the help of the Lord and some of our awesome members.

This week we have had some really good success finding new investigators. We found 4 and they are pretty promising! One of the people we found was like right on the river’s edge. Basically his house is in the river built on stilts with wooden boards for walkways its soo legit! It is a lot of fun to find too! I mean it is long and hard and you get rejected and all the rest but on the other hand you see some really cool stuff, talk to all these cool people and sometimes you even find people who want to listen to you! How cool is that! 

One of the cool things we saw was this Chinese wat. Which is really different and kinda rare in Thailand. But the best part was that in the complex there was this place that you go to pray and stuff and it is this huge tower that is like at least 2-3 stories high with steps leading up to the top! Elder Siperly and I had the same thought: Chinese Rameumptum! Haha too funny! It was honestly like straight out of Alma!

We also had some KFC this week which was pretty tasty but the real reason that this made it into the email is that while we were eating there was music playing in the background (like pretty much everywhere else you go in Thailand) and lo and behold to my great astonishment and surprise on comes ‘Call Me Maybe’ by Carly Rae Jepsen! So crazy! So I just thought I would let you know that Carly is famous all the way on the other side of the world here in Thailand.

In other news today I will be getting my first thai haircut. But some much more interesting news is that our investigators had their baby and he is way cute! Although, he is pretty jaundiced so that was kind of a concern at first. But ugh being around a new born baby is killing me! It’s like everything I can to do to keep from holding him! I want to soo bad but it is against the white bible! So as nephi says "I must obey amen"

You guys will definitely have to keep me posted on your adventures in England and buy a ton of chocolate and other jolly good nosh! 

Love You All!!

Elder Cahoon

P.S. My district is as follows Elders: Siperly, Cox, Christensen, Gibbons, Osbourne, Oakeson. Sisters Roper and Wiganda (she is a khonthai so sweet) and we also have a Senior couple Elder and Sister Taber who are from charleston, virginia but were converted by two missionaries from Canada one of which was from you guessed it Taber, AB

P.P.S. Christina I weighed in last Monday and I have lost 11 of the pounds i gained in the MTC so not to worry progress is being made.

Hey Fam!

So I just sent my email and then I got all the pictures and the email from the fam. I was wondering where they were but I got a tiny bit of time left so I’m gonna reply really quick! Sounds like NBC (basketball camp) was a riot and ‘We Bought a Zoo’ was sweet too. I’m tons jealous of all the cousin time! Sounds like a blast. Speaking of being in the mall for 3 hours I haven’t done that but you girls would die if you could shop here. There is sooooo much cool stuff and it is soooo cheap! Our saying is “Everything in thailand is 100 baht” which is like 3 bucks. Bethany good to hear from you congrats on the license woot woot! Haailey thats nuts! Thats the first time i have heard about that!(Moving to New Zealand) What an amazing adventure! That will be like honestly amazing I’m so happy for you but I am going to miss you guys a ton! 

Do Chrissy and Mikaela have their licenses yet? Keep partying it up and look after each other! Go outside! My arms have got a sick tan!  Write Mum emails! Great to hear about things. I love you all so much!! 

Elder Cahoon

Tools of the trade

Sports Day Thai Style

 

The question we are asking, WHY?

 The answer is they were locked out of the sports equipment cupboard so they found a safe way to get back in. Everything was left the way it had been found, locked up tight.