Be That Friend

Area: Warin

Companion: Elder Gilley

Helooooooo!!!

Hey guys another solid week has gone by in Warin; worked hard, had fun, served others and were greatly blessed by the Lord! And we found out that none of that is going to change! I am staying in Warin for another transfer!! And even better Elder Gilley is staying with me! Man I love that guy! I don’t have to go to Bangkok for my visa so it is business as usual around here.

Now with that out of the way we move onto the next most important and anticipated item of business namely: the Christmas Skype! First off thank you ever so much for setting me up, secondly we will be calling on our Christmas day the 25th your Christmas eve the 24th! The earliest any internet place open over here is 11:00am so about 9:00pm Christmas eve! Its kinda late especially for the little kids but that’s the earliest we can get in Warin. According to the white handbook we have 30 to 40 mins and every second of it is going to be straight up awesome sauce!

Next thing I need to report on is Chrissy I got the letters from your seminary class and as promised I recorded myself reading them and they were absolutely hilarious! The one with the lions mouth was way funny and the scriptures. Your scripture in Proverbs I had marked in my scriptures I love that one! The one with the pickup lines was hilarious though and the rhyme inside tooo funny! You can tell sweet Sis Spirit I checked yes twice actually haha it was my only option! 

It sounds like everyone is getting ready and gearing up for Christmas the lodge is going to be way sweet! We are gearing up over here too! Last week Elder Gilley and I went and helped build the nativity set and in our branches rendition I am going to be the angel Gabriel, beautiful imagery; I am an angel announcing good news to the world in the nativity and in real life nbd haha I will stop before I get a big head. Our Christmas activity is going to be on the 22nd and we are also going to have a little bit of a talent show and Elder Redd is going to be Santa our district is also been asked to do something too only problem is we don’t know what yet, haha.

This past week we have been doing a ton of work on less-actives finding them and helping them come back to church and we got one back! A Brother Amphon who hasn’t been to church in 4 years! That’s as big as a baptism we were way excited and he was really happy to be back and the members really treated him well also. There was another Brother Somphian who we went and found and he lives way out in the country like 10+ km (we went and visited him on Saturday and when we looked at our day that night we realized that we had biked around 40 km! (in one day!) But we got to visit him and he is a way nice guy and hard-working too just a little too much cause its stopping him from going to church on Sunday! But yesterday he came to church too!!! 

So all of this LA work mixed with the Christmas season has got me to thinking. And this is what I have come up with: Is there a less-active in our ward that our family can help return to enjoy the blessings of the gospel in their life again? I have found that a lot of these people just need a visit, they need a genuine friend not someone on an assignment and they need love, both ours and the love of their Savior! Will you be that person in their life that helps them back into the fold? Will you take the time out of a ridiculously busy hectic schedule to find and care for one family or even one person? This is my Christmas wish for my family, for you all to find someone to love them to care about them and to help them come back. I really want you all to be happy and have joy this Christmas season. This joy is unlike any other. The Lord promised us that our joy will be great when we bring one soul unto Christ. He didn’t specify that they had to be a non-member there are many people that have lost their way that merely need a friend to take them by the hand and walk beside them and help them find their way again. Will you be that friend?

I love you all sooooo much see you in a week!!!

Elder Cahoon

Floating Restaurant

Tangled Tower

Mmmmmmm Yummy!

Birthday, Zone Conference, District Conference

Area: Warin
Companion: Elder Gilley

Heloo Everybody!

Haha that sounds like a wonderful birthday party/tribute haha with an excellent song choice I’m actually working on that song on the ukulele. Elder Staten, my district leader taught me! As far as the kings birthday here it’s pretty big and it’s also father’s day; everyone is wearing yellow and got flags we didn’t have any fireworks but Warin really is a pretty small town but I heard that there were big celebrations across the river with like candlelight vigils and stuff like that. It’s also a day where everyone goes and visits their dad and gives him flowers and stuff. We didn’t really do too much to celebrate we are still missionaries after all and there is work to do but we went and ate at pizza company which was really nice it was the first time I have had pizza in like 3 months. It was sooo good but we were so full we couldn’t even eat all of it, we got like some garlic bread a small plate of pasta and one pizza between the 2 of us, that was it and we could only eat half the pizza haha it was ridiculous we are way to used to eating rice that the pizza was like to rich. We just couldn’t do it; funny cause back home I could have eaten all of that in one go by myself!

The real birthday celebration came on Friday cause we had zone conference: Christmas Edition. Meaning it was all day 9am to 9pm and it was a blast! At like 10 we went to an all you can eat buffet for brunch at the mall as a zone so fun and then our entire zone hopped into a tiny songtaw and went to the church it was a hoot 16 missionaries packed into the back of a tiny pick-up truck it was hilarious and it was in Thailand so it was totally legal ha I’m pretty sure we are the only zone that could do that! We went to church and had the zone conference which was way boss felt the spirit so strong and then we went back to the mall and went bowling! It was a riot so fun playing and hanging out with the zone I love the elders in my zone they are way sweet. After that we went and ate dinner as a zone at a farang restaurant called Peppers (its where we got those huge burgers in the picture I sent) then to cap it all off we went back to the church and set off more lanterns (the kind from Tangled). Pres Senior also gave us a cd of approved Christmas music to listen too which was way nice to have too (currently the rules for music are if it’s in general conference you can listen to it so basically mo tab and all those awesome talks you put on my iPod) so ya pretty stellar zone conference right. On Sunday we had district conference which was fantastic the Seniors came back up and the meeting was amazing so good and such a strong spirit and the leaders basically made a call to arms a call for greater dedication and sacrifice from everyone, way good!

I don’t think I ever told you guys but one of the families we are teaching has a daughter her name is Foon (pronounced like phone) which means rain, who was born on Aug 9 and she is 8 days younger than Olivia and she is soooo darn cute. Kinda funny story too when we first met the family she was terrified of us! She would start crying and running away when we showed up it was way sad but as we kept coming by and tried to be less scary huge white guys haha she started warming up to us and last time we saw them she was playing with me and resting her head on my shoulder ahh so cute but it makes me way sad we can’t hold kids! 

Ya the sunburn thing was something different kinda weird but the doctor said it was allergies and gave me some stuff that made it go away so not to worry everything here is fine and dandy! Well that’s all the time I got today ahh it’s never enough to say everything but just another couple weeks and you will get the full download! Love you guys. 

Love ,

Elder Cahoon

P.S. Teddy congrats on making the basketball team!

Those pictures of the ridge are gorgeous wayy sweet!

straight out of Tangled it’s the festival of the lanterns and the boats

Area: Warin

Companion: Elder Gilley

Hey Guys!

Starting off, ahh really sorry we have like no time to email today, so this is going to be kinda short. But, let me tell you this week might have just been the best one I have had in Thailand! We had so much fun and were so blessed by the Lord! First off, how the Lord blessed us! We are still praying, looking for men, families and especially men to teach. We have been blessed so much, we have found 6+ men who are smart, hard-working, and responsible, are really interested, have some free time and beautiful little families! You might not realize but in Thailand this particular combo is an extremely rare breed; pushed to the edge of extinction and are truly a pearl of great price and value! It’s a miracle not just one or two but lots, the Lord is pouring out blessings! It’s a miracle just in time for Christmas!

We had a really busy pday we conquered the jungle in our front yard and did it with a machete!! Whoo! We bought it today for this purpose, anyway to the important stuff: For a memory about the temple I really loved the going there on Sundays and standing out on that ridge and seeing the mountains to the west and city skyline to the east! Also when we went to the angel Moroni capstone thing and hearing the huge cheer that went up when it was on completely. Man I wish I was there for the rest of it but I have the Redds here to tell me all about it!

Speaking of the Redds I love them so much, they are so awesome! And Sis Redd made some of the best food that I have had in Thailand! They had cheese! I haven’t had cheese in soo long it was amazing! Thanksgiving dinner that they put on was amazing so tasty! and then after that we went to a festival called Roy Gaton (something like that) it was straight out of Tangled it’s the festival of the lanterns and the boats and we got to go ahh it was prbly the coolest thing I have ever seen and I lit a lantern and a boat too it was soooo cool! After we jagged to everyone!

Last night we went to a sister in the ward Sis Nida and she made food for all the missionaries and it was amazing; she is a saint. This week was really fun we got to do a lot of activities together as a district, we saw each other almost every day between meetings, branch activities, cleaning the church, teaching English and eating together it was a blast! And next week is zone conference, on Friday, and apparently we are going bowling as a zone! It’s going to be way fun! Lately our district has been getting way sick like everybody except me and Elder Gilley, in fact the two farang sisters moved today to Bangkapi so that they can go to the doctors and figure what’s going on and our DL has fungus all over his body and a fever! ahh its ridiculous! We are the Job district but we are pressing forward!

Oh ya so for the plaque, actually I’m thinking of switching to 3 Nephi 5:13 that should be able to fit and I have really become to love that one even better than Alma 26.

Sorry I still don’t have a picture of zombie I didn’t see him all week he’s kinda old!

I will work on those name tag pics, I got quite a few pics this week and some videos of Roy Gaton.

YES, I pray for all of you guys daily individually and as a whole and I fast for you too and I feel your love and support and I couldn’t thank you enough!

Ahh, I know 20! That’s crazy! But hey, I learned how to ride a bike with no hands while I was still a teenager haha making my childhood complete!

Love,

Elder Cahoon

P.S. This is thanksgiving dinner and Roy Gaton it’s all made out of plants mostly banana leaf!

btw Teddy - congrats on the play, you are the perfect queen of hearts, you’re already the queen of mine! Good luck with tryouts, you too Kenny!