From today on we are only speaking Thai!

Area: Warin, Ubon

Companion: Elder Gilley

Hey Guys!

Well of course it’s another wonderful week in the mission field! Wow that’s crazy that Uncle Shaun and crew really moved to New Zealand what an adventure and it sounds like Uncle Trents visit was way good too! Pretty crazy right the Redd's come and serve in Ubon of all places. Sis Redd had a question for you, Mum, do you remember an ice cream place in Bowness where you lived called Licks? They were telling me about it and wondered if you remembered it. I got your wonderful piece of lamination it is awesome thank you so much Mum! My area doesn't have a nickname to my knowledge there’s only like a third that do. Sorry to hear that everyone is sick that stinks! That’s cool about the new families in the ward! There seems to be a few people moving there from Utah these days!

Dad - That’s sweet about the bass amp! It seems like your teams have troubles getting gold but you are very consistent with the bronzes sounds way fun other than that you sound way crazy busy! You’re soo good at keeping your head on straight with all that stuff going on that’s one of the nice things about missionary work there is only one thing to worry about and you get to put your energy and efforts into that one thing and you get so much joy out of it!

Mikaela - Agh I do remember that ref! That’s way rough haha sounds like a good game having a regular ole block party! Congrats on the bronze!

Chrissy - Dang it I’m so sorry about tryouts that’s a hard blow! haha the knife thingies are way fun to use to harvest the rice. Oh btw I have defs heard of Gungnam style it is huge over here and I was really hoping that it was just an Asian thing! its kinda catchy but it’s terrible it doesn’t even sound good agh and its a worldwide hit it makes me worried about what music is going to be like by the time I get home! Haha I will work on that Chrissy and if that doesn’t get them the ukulele will melt them for sure! haha jk jk gosh Chrissy stop trying to distract me jk rest assured I am ACTUALLY having a blast!

Teddy - you are doing so much stuff at school playing all those sports, doing way good in seminary, trying out for the play, going to the open house, flirting with high school guys haha wow you are definitely keeping yourself busy keep it up! (but you could prbly slow down on the flirting haha jk)

Kendra - sounds like a tough game congrats on the win the U of C games sound way fun too, you’re doing so good at reading the BofM keep it up.

Ben - Nope I haven’t ridden on an elephant yet and argh I keep forgetting to take a picture of that dog sorry man next week for sure! Keep working on basketball buddy! Sounds like a way fun sleepover! For a scripture to memorize I would go with 3 Nephi 5:13 or 2 Nephi 1:15 they are two scriptures that I have found lately that I really love! 

Jeana - You made a beautiful picture! You should definitely try some of that stone soup it’s my favourite I hope your chin feels better I love you.

This week for me was really good continuing to progress in all ways and so are our investigators. We have been praying a lot for males to teach and the Lord has lead us to a lot of stellar guys lately which is an amazing blessing! And we got 3 more people with a date this week! Lately we have started teaching English at a university in Ubon, all 10 of us missionaries, it’s pretty sweet. They have a gorgeous campus waaay nicer than Mount Royal it’s pretty fun too the only problem is it’s like pretty much an all girl campus cause they have a huge nursing program haha that gets a little awkward but it’s still good and the zone leaders started teaching one of the administrators at the school whose name is Niran which means eternity cool name right! Speaking of cool names we taught a family this week and the dads name is Honda his daughter is Doraemon (which is a Thai cartoon) and his sons name is Reggae awesome!! A couple weeks ago we met a 9 year old kid whose name was Jedi and our neighbour is Bomb! Thai names are so fun their real names are ridiculously long and hard to say but their nicknames are sweet! This week in long planning Elder Gilley and I decided to quit English. From today on we are only speaking Thai! (Except for when we teach English obvi) We figured how can we serve the Lord and the Thai people with all our heart mind and strength if we are still speaking English all the time! So we decided to stop to and to quit English, we compared it to quitting smoking since we are helping people with that. The first couple weeks are going to be way hard and we are going to have a headache but after that we will be so much better off. Another factor was Carlos' example in speaking Russian all the time in his mission and if he knew how much I was speaking English he would smack me around. Well, already I feel like my Thai is getting better a lot quicker and I can’t wait to see what it’s like in a couple weeks! This week the Redd's are putting on an American thanksgiving dinner for us cause they’re just so awesome like that I can’t wait it’s going to taste so good it’s been so long since I’ve had food like that!

I love you guys and hope you get feeling better! Thanks for all the support and prayers!

Love,

เอ็ลดอร์คาฮูน

The Redds are here in Ubon Ratchathani!!!

Area: Warin, Ubon
Companion: Elder Gilley

Hey guys!

Happy Nomas! haha that’s hilarious and it sounds like it was a blast! This week was way sweet and a ton of stuff happened! Most exciting is that Elder and Sister Redd have been assigned to serve here in Ubon! They came up Thursday with Pres&Sis Watson and Pres&Sis Senior for the Mission Tour and they will be serving here for the next year! Way stoked to see them, really what are the chances that they are called to serve in the same branch. They are way awesome and Elder Redd remembers Thai crazy good he speaks so good and Sis Redd already speaks Thai better than I did in my first week in fact she knew a couple of words that Elder Gilley and I didn’t know. We were just looking at each other like what does that mean? and how does she know that? They are way sweet and they bought bikes, they are going to be biking it same as the rest of us, they are so sweet. Oh ya one more thing Elder Redd is basically a pioneer here he served here only like 3 years after the mission began! He was a one of the early branch presidents for many of the branches here in the Essan and while he was a zone leader he served with an Elder Dodge who became Pres Dodge who was the mission president here before Pres Smith. Haha well now that you are caught up on a little Thailand missionary history we will continue on with this email.

Wednesday this week we went with the zone leaders and harvested rice for a member. It was way cool and fun too we did like 2 fields in like an hour and a half (mind you rice fields are like the size of our yard) it was really peaceful, kinda made me want to be a rice farmer. haha Harvesting is such a great analogy for missionary work and I noticed so many more parallels when I was actually doing it. Christ is such a master teacher because he taught farmers in the way that farmers would understand perfectly and we don’t quite fully understand till we go out and do some farm work and then our eyes are opened! We got to do a lot of service this week! We started teaching English at this way nice university, we went and helped a part-member family do some renos and sweep up their community, we gave some priesthood blessings pretty much everywhere we went the Lord opened up an opportunity to serve people and I loved it it’s a lot of fun but it really made the week fly by!

We had the mission tour as alluded to earlier and it was phenomenal! I learned a ton and it was way fun to see all the missionaries in the zone a couple of my phiis and noongs that I hadn’t seen forever. Elder Christensen is back in my zone (he is the one that influenced me to get a ukulele so you can thank or blame him jk) he is such a hoot! In our district right now we might be the biggest in the mission if not we are tied with Pakkret (my last district weird right) There is Gilley and I and the Zone leaders Elders Kunz and Elder Siperly our district leader Elder Staten and His son Elder Marshall Sis Itri (my phii) Sis Skalla and Sis Malin (who was in Pakkret with me) and next week Sis Malin will be joined by her daughter and begin training. Then we have our newest edition with Elder & Sis Redd! For part of the meeting every missionary gave a 2 minute talk on a Book of Mormon character and I gave a talk on Jacob. Pres Watson told us that he had talked to the all the branch presidents and told them that if they had extra time in church he could call on as many missionaries as he wanted to give their talk again. It was a lot like what you always told me Mum to have a talk prepared in my scriptures and to be the Bishops minuteman, you are so on the ball Mum and right as always. I am sorry that it took a general authority to convince me but I have repented and am following both his and your advice. The mission Tour was really focused on the Book of Mormon and teaching from it, because it is the tool that the Lord has given us to gather scattered Israel! Wow way cool and so true, this subject is way important and it sounds like Elders Wood and Blomfield had a similar tour in Chile it sounds like the Bretheren are really trying to get this point across to the missionaries. I learned a lot and my studies have got so much better this week and I have already started to notice a change in every aspect of my mission.

The Redds gave me the package from you guys and I got the package from grandma and grandpa too! You guys are so awesome! I love you so much! But I must say that the best part of anything i get is the letters!! So better than anything I could get in a package is a letter! I am so grateful for the packages you guys are spoiling me but I really don’t want you to spend a bunch of money on packages and getting them here. The best thing I could get is letters! I love you guys soo much and i really love hearing about what’s going on in life back home so much more delicious than Hershey Kisses (even though they were my favourite cookies and cream) Please don’t read in between the lines here those packages were way sweet but I will feel may sabaaycay if you guys spend money on packages and stuff Love, prayer and letters are the only thing I could want from such a wonderful beautiful family as mine! 

We got 4 people back at church this week Sis Gah came back again with her whole family and we got the daughter of our recent convert Sis Jansii to come back too so stoked! 

Thanks for the family updates that’s way sweet that Jodi moved there and its way good to hear from you Jodi; love ya!

Ok, sending packages with other people is perfectly fine just don’t you dare start paying big bucks and shipping stuff. Haha I just got those pictures they are great the creepy wisemen and the one where Tedora has all the food is hilarious! Looks like a way sweet Nomas!

I Love you guys!!!

Elder Cahoon

Rice Field

Harvesting

Book of Mormon Mission Tour

Gorgeous Reservoir by our house

And Then the Miracles Came

Area: Warin
Companion: Elder Gilley

Hi Guys!

That is way awesome that Uncle Trent is there! Tell him I love him and thank him again for the iPod; that man has a heart of gold! Wow, that was crazy awesome news about Caroline! It’s kinda funny; last week I wrote her a letter (finally) and I was like you should really go on a mission that’s so awesome that she is! I love Christmas music the branch has been singing Christmas hymns in sacrament meeting since the first week of November and I am going to be an angel in the ward nativity pageant if I’m still here (next transfers is Dec 20) Oh ya which reminds me I am still in Warin and so is Elder Gilley! whoot whoot! We are going to be together for both of our birthdays! I get to have a companion for more than one transfer. We also got 2 more sisters in Ubon which means we’ve got 8 missionaries in one branch! That’s soo many but it’s because next transfer they are looking at splitting the branch. Exciting stuff right!

Mikaela - Read PMG and BofM like crazy but also do it like your investigating the church; study from those books like you have never heard these things before and ask Heavenly Father if they are true. In PMG do every commitment. I am working on doing this stuff, every commitment I give my investigators I do it too. It helps tons and is a great thing I learned from the MTC it really helps build your testimony.

Chrissy - GO LCI GO! haha that’s sweet hopefully they make it to provincials! I hope you make the basketball team that would be stellar sounds like you are partying it up make sure you do your homework na kup haha jk ok I promise I will video tape it!

Teddy - You go girl! You sound like quite the volleyball star! That game sounds way exciting; let me know how playoffs go? A day at work is way long isn’t it? Our dad is pretty awesome to do that every day for us! I love you teddy bear!

Kendra - Sounds like you had a way crazy week I’m so happy that you are on Alma 50 I just finished the BofM again this week and in the Thai BofM I am in 2 Nephi 8! Make sure you pray and ask Heavenly Father if the Book of Mormon is true, you don’t have to wait until you finish, ask Him after every time you read and I know he will answer you.

Ben - oh I have seen lots of cool bugs, big ones too! I have seen some way big long millipedes and cockroaches I even saw a killer centipede. The members that were with us said that people have died from being bit by it! A couple weeks ago I ate a grasshopper at the market! Tastes like chicken haha not really! That is way sweet that you went to the museum of the regiment it’s so cool our DL is Elder Staten he serves in the US army and he loves telling us about cool stories that happened to him and about his training. That was a crazy flip you did dude! Righteous!

Jeana and Olivia are absolutely adorable I love their paragraph soo cute Jeana what is your favourite part of school? I am so happy your learning great stuff at church!

Becky – Hi, so good to hear from you! I am loving the food! And the weather is sweet but way hot Thanks for whipping my family into shape Thailand is whipping me into shape I already lost all my MTC weight and I’m lighter than when I left on my mission! Do you like the chili sauce that is yellow, red, or green? My fav is yellow if you get it at a good place it’s the best plate in Thailand but they don’t have anyone who does it right in the Esaan. I defs want to learn how to do this stuff it’s so good and the more I see people cook it looks pretty easy!

Well our week was hard not gonna lie. Almost everything we tried got frustrated loads of canceled appointments and so we did a lot of inviting in the heat which made for lots of funny stuff happening but no new investigators which was tough. But then Sunday rolled around and we saw the miracles! The first miracle is that the less active family Sis Gah came back to church! for the first time in more than 4 years! We were so excited! The other miracle was that Tuk the blind man. We taught him the word of wisdom on Wednesday and committed him to quit smoking! He only smokes 4 a day but he has been doing it for 20+ years! So we started him on Wed and he said he was going to quit by the 14th. On Sunday when we went to teach him he said he quit, he hadn’t smoked all day and we threw away his last cigarette. With the help of the Lord he quit his 20 year addiction in 4 days! Such a miracle we were so amazed truly we saw the Lords hand at work and it was so incredible to witness these miracles occur in the lives of these wonderful people that we care so much about!

As I was writing my email to Pres Senior today it dawned on me that this week was just like Ether 12:27. We had 6 days that really tried our faith determination and grit and then on Sunday we were privileged to witness these miracles! Looking back now I’m really grateful for the trials and frustrating stuff that brought us to Sunday and then the miracles came.

In other news I am the new English leader; which means I am in charge of the English Program here in Ubon. I have got some way big shoes to fill Sis Guildner was the last English leader and she is an English major and was teaching grade 12 English before she came on her mission. This coming week we have a member of the area presidency coming to tour the mission; that is going to be way cool. The other thing I am way excited for is the service we are doing this week. Wednesday we are going to help a member harvest her rice and then that night we are going to help another member renovate her house! I can’t wait it’s going to be a hoot!

Well that about all I have time for this week I love you all soo much I can’t wait till we get to talk on Christmas it’s going to be so fun!

Love,

Elder Cahoon

Chicken in the Yard

Palm trees in Warin

The Peacock Palm haha

Another Stellar Week on Both Sides of the World!

 Area: Warin

Companion: Elder Gilley

Hey Family

Well, it was another stellar week on both sides of the world! That’s kinda funny to think about eh? I’m on the other side of the world wow, never ceases to amaze! Halloween looks like it was a blast btw thanks for all the pictures I love it’s so awesome those panorama pics are way gorgeous although they make a wee bit trunky, haha jk. Can I just say that Jeana’s bit of email was adorable and Kendra and Teddy you guys emails are so exciting you guys are living the life! So fun, of course hearing from everyone is so fun. Speaking of which, I got a letter that was a dear elder from grandpa the other day. It has been chasing me forever it was stamped by Provo and Pakkret and finally got to me and it was all bout them thar Normans. Grandpa that was great you’re so funny, thanks so much! And Grandma your letter with the pictures was wonderful too you will be getting a letter here in a bit don’t you fret! Ben - I am so excited for your baptism dude I will try my hardest to get a baptism on that day we have got a blind guy who has a date for the 15th so we are going to help him out!

Well this week for us was pretty good. It was a roller coaster as always and there are lots of highlights and lowlights but we will start with a highlight. Halloween! They don't celebrate it here (thank goodness that would be scary, I can only imagine!) but we did have an activity at the church where we had candy and played games like bobbing for apples, eating donuts off a string and colouring  jack o'lanterns. It was sweet because we got a ton of people from Warin to go and it was a less-active family that we have been working with, Sis Gah ( her name is like impossible to make English cause we don’t have that vowel but gah is the closest I could get in Thai it looks like เเก๋ ) and her 2 kids came and there was their niece and some neighbour kids and the kids of an LA that lives across the street. They had a great time and really enjoyed it! haha and they made me go bobbing for apples it was pretty funny so I made Gah go eat donuts off a string! 

On a downturn we had a lot of people cancel on us which stinks but especially cause they didn’t tell us so we show up at their house and they’re gone so we end up wasting a lot of time! Also, Elder Gilley got food poisoning and spent a night throwing up and then the next day recovering but he was such a trooper that that night he got up and we went to work! 

Last Monday after going sending emails I went and bought a ... ukulele! Its way sweet and it’s made out of mahogany and sounds gorgeous! I love playing it at the end of a long day once planning and journal writing is over. I don’t know how to play anything yet but I know a bunch of chords and so I just mess around on it. It’s pretty sweet not gonna lie.

It’s a lot of fun learning Thai. Getting new words every day and talking to all these people I’m even learning some Lao which has got a lot of things really similar. It’s kinda funny most people are like wow you’re so good but then there are other people that are just like wow you’re terrible! Those moments kinda hurt but they keep you humble and keep you working hard! It seems this last transfer that my vocab has exploded again I know soo much more than I did in Pakkret but with just about everything else in life the more you know the more you realize you know nothing. There is still so much to learn and I’m still in a lot of conversations where i only catch like every couple words but doing 3 words a day has helped a lot. 

Well, know that you are loved and I am loving it here! You wouldn't believe it but it’s actually getting cooler around here the mornings and evenings sometimes dip to the low 20's haha which is summer back home but everyone hear pulls out their sweaters! 

Love you tons,

Elder Cahoon

Crew from Warin

Sister Gah

My ukulele, isn't she a beauty (you gotta say it with an australian accent)