Christmas!!!

Area: Roi Et
Companion: Elder Wilson
December 16, 2013

Hey Guys!

I am way sorry about last week’s letter that was way short but golfing was fun the course was so pretty and it was 10 bucks for 18 holes and that included a caddy! That was fun the caddies were way funny and as usual were shocked that we were white guys speaking Thai! Our golfing was absolutely atrocious without a doubt the worst game I have ever played but it was so fun just to be out playing again! but man I have got a wicked slice great distance just wrong fairway! 555 

I really want to share with you all some of the miracles we saw lately. Last night after church we met with a 16 year-old whose name is Ben and he is so prepared. I met him at the park on Saturday night after we were finished our 2 hours of inviting and were walking back to our bikes I stopped him and invited him to be baptized and he said yes. Then yesterday we showed him the church, the sacrament room and the baptismal font, gave him a date for Jan 18 and taught him to pray. He ate it all up and in his prayer he asked to be forgiven of his sins and asked for strength to overcome temptations in his life. The first time he had prayed to God in his life and that is what he asked for forgiveness and strength to overcome temptation, I was floored! 

On Friday night we went to go eat at the market (eating is kind of hit and miss lately we don’t plan it in, but it’s our plan c and when everything goes through we just grab something at 7 on the way home but this day it was plan c) We weren’t really sure what to do cause it was 8 and our investigator was drunk so we couldn’t teach him and the LA that was our back-up wasn’t free either. So we decided to go help Sis Guy (that just how you pronounce it really means chicken 55) take down her clothing shop at the market and while we were there she introduces us to some of the ladies that she sells with and one of them said oh yeah I’m going to send my daughter to church this Sunday in fact I might go too! And she did and stayed all 3 hours and totally loved it! She is from the deep south where it is way Muslim which is pretty cool and she is going to teach me Southern Thai which is even cooler! Speaking of cool it is getting cold again here. Today is arguably one of the coldest days on my mission it is pretty chilly but I imagine still around 20 I know I know but that’s cold ok!  I have learned so much about faith and patience in overcoming this trial and just really trusting the Lord being able to say "Lord I’m doing everything I can and so I trust that you will carry me the rest of the way there!"

It’s fun to hear about all the basketball going on I cheered about the wins and I’m sorry for the losses some of them were way close too! 

Christmas for the branch is coming into full swing the Christmas party here in Roi Et is going to be 5 days long Tuesday to Saturday with the last day being the big finale. My convert Bro Bo is the activities President and so right now he is kinda way stressed out! But it’s alright after this week it will all be fine! Sis Guy's daughters name is Gift she is 18 and speaks English way good her and one of her guy cousins have started to come out and play basketball with us at 6 in the morning its way fun and I’ve got huge respect for any kid who will get up that early just to go play basketball with a bunch of out of shape farangs. Her cousins’ name is Pug (with an "uu"sound) and we met him at the market when we went to help Sis Guy on Friday. 

I got to go on switch-offs with Elder Chelson this week which was waayy fun he is so funny and so smart. It was cool to work with him for the day and learn from each other. I have never really served with anybody in my group before so it was way cool to have an opportunity to do so. 

Sunday was such a good day! The past couple weeks we have really struggled to get investigators to church and Sunday has just been really disappointing cause they don’t show and we end the week on a sour note but this week everything went right and at the end Sis Dograg made us a huge thing of real mashed potatoes  and spaghetti for dinner it was the greatest!

I love you guys a ton!

Elder Cahoon

Mission Leadership Council activity

We have two missionaries in our family!!

Area: Roi Et
Companion: Elder Wilson
December 9, 2013

Hey Guys!

Oh My Gosh!! Mikaela is in the MTC She’s Sister Cahoon! We have two missionaries in our family!! What a glorious day. I tottally daydreamed about this back when the announcement came from Pres Monson, I remember it was the next day and I was in the house back in Warin ironing my shirt before studies and I just thought how cool would it be if Mikaela choose to serve a mission! I am sooo glad that she did this is going to change her life and so many lives in Virginia! I can’t wait to hear all about what Virginia is like and how missionary work goes and what the church is like in Virginia!

Have any of you ever heard O Come Emmanuel by the Piano Guys? It is on LDS.org and it is amazing!! My district tells me that the rest of the songs by the Piano Guys is just as good too you should check it out! It’s what I’m listening too right now as I’m typing your letter it’s so uplifting!

This week we went down to MLC in Bangkok it was so great right now is such an exciting time to be a missionary! We had 110 baptisms this past month highest ever and for January we set a goal for 200 which nobody in the Asia area has ever done before for my birthday we slept in a hotel and switched off and trained in Korat! It was great !@ Sorry I gotta go. We are golfing with Sis Waruni's nephew who she referred to us and we got to go right now love you!

Elder Cahoon

Happy Birthday Elder Cahoon

Trials - A wonderful tender mercy!

Area: Roi Et

Companion: Elder Wilso
December 2, 2013

Hello!

We had mission conference and it was way awesome some of the highlights were that the member of the Asia area presidency was Elder Larry Wilson yep you guessed it Elder Wilson's uncle. It was so inspiring all about using the Book of Mormon and reading it with everybody and helping our investigators and converts have like reading mentors that get together and read the Book of Mormon together. Sis Wilson taught really powerfully on the atonement it was so good I gained some way good new perspective. Our district did a special musical number One Voice like the one off Moroni's Quest at Abinadi. I soloed the first line which was a bit nerve racking and Elder Vandenberghe played the cello to accompany us it sounded amazing it turns out he is cello protégé! Also for lunch we had a real Thanksgiving dinner complete with mashed potatoes, gravy, turkey, stuffing and cranberry sauce! I could have cried! It was so good! I haven’t eaten any of those things since I left and they tasted so amazing! We also got some great presents including neon safety vests that we get to wear at night! I totally look like some special ops cop! and best of all a cd from the BYU men’s chorus it’s like all accapella hymns including my favourites Savior Redeemer of my Soul and that Joy to the World song off of the Christmas Liken the Scriptures movie. 

Also we had a Turkey Bowl on P-Day with half our zone it was way fun the sprinklers on the field turned on like 15 mins in but we kept on playing it was waaayyy fun we just played two hand touch except there was one time I forgot and football instinct took control and I sacked my companion like knocked his tag off brought him to the ground hit my companion oops! We have also started getting up early and playing basketball every morning for like 45 minutes! Way fun! I’m losing weight pretty steady I really want to get back down to the 185 I was back in the day.

Right now in our area and our zone we are going through quite the trial and testing period. I feel like I am honestly working harder and smarter than I ever have on my mission I am guided by the spirit and obedient and it seems that no matter what Elder Wilson and I do it doesn’t work out. Our area is kind of in a crisis stage where we find amazingly prepared people who want to be baptized that we might once and then we never see them again. Another weird bit is with each one of those people as soon as they meet with us their lives just get slammed by way hard trials and opposition, we have learned that we need to use the How to Begin Teaching bullet 9 and warn them that as they meet with us it’s going to be hard. Cause its crazy I have never seen it like this with one woman the week after we met twice and then after that her aunt was struck gravely ill she was robbed and had to harvest like 10 acres of rice by herself cause her cousins peaced. We were just like whoah, what is going on? and it’s like that for like all of our investigators right now. Across the zone everybody is having similar struggles and we are all really struggling finding daters and getting people to attend church. I had a really comforting moment this morning as I prayed for beginning personal study. I was just filled with a sense of gratitude for these trials and hard times of the past couple weeks. I realized that it was the answer to my prayers that God would change me and change my countenance and make me into the man that He would have me be. I am so glad that God loves me and trusts me enough to test me and make me better. That right now he is my pointing out all my weaknesses and shortcomings so that I can fix them with his help. It was a wonderful tender mercy. I had been really looking down deep and trying to figure out what I was doing wrong and how I could fix it. In the past month I feel like I have learned and grown so much as I have cut out the dross in my life. I feel like now what the Lord expects of me is to endure well through continuing to improve and overcome my imperfections while trusting that the Lord will see me through and at the end of the day He will change me into the man and the missionary that He sees in me. I know that on my own I will make of me only a smudge but He will make of me a masterpiece.

I love you all so much! Thank you for your love and prayers it means the world to me!

Elder Cahoon

P-Day Turkey Bowl

Passwords and the Rice Harvest

Area: Roi Et
Companion: Elder Wilson

สวัสดีครับครอบครัวที่รักของพม!

Hey I feel so bad about the emails that I have sent home the past couple weeks so much has happened but I haven’t been able to tell you anything yet! However I am sooo relieved that I don’t have to fill out the application anymore! Funny story for the ecclesiastical endorsement I had to send my info to the Assistants for them to give to President and my first thought was oh no President is going to see my way goofy password! but elder wilson is like oh don’t worry President spends all day with Elder Davies I’m sure he is used to it by now not 30 seconds later Elder Davies texts back "nice password! Elder Cahoon goes HAM!" haha so funny!

Anyways it was another way exciting week! This weekend there were two baptisms here in Roi-Et and Bro Bo (it is so hard to Romanize his name Bo is not anywhere close but it’s the best I can do) he baptized one of them! Bless his heart he had to do it 3 times the first time he rushed it and messed up the words but then the lady just went dead weight and she was kind of hefty and he is way lean so he struggled to get her back up the second time her foot popped up but the 3rd time was golden! Then yesterday he received the Melchizedek priesthood! We taught him after church gave him an oil vial and helped him to consecrate some oil! It is so cool to see him grow and progress in the gospel! He is such a stud this week he is going to be covering for the Gospel Principles teacher even though that is the class he is still learning in.

This week we got to go harvest rice twice! It is so much fun! We went with the whole district on Monday and biked out 16 kilos and went and harvested for like 2 hours we did like 2 and 1/2 acres me and Elder Thomas made our phakhawmaa's into turbans because we gave the sisters our hats, it was way fun! After we checked out a crocodile farm there was just this random dude out there who raised crocs cool right! The other time Elder Wilson and I went out with the first counselor in the district presidency he helps us all the time and so we really wanted to help him out he is 70 and such a boss he can still work in the fields! Their field that we went too though still had a bunch of water like almost up to your knees and the rice was all fallen over it was soo hard to harvest and we got stuck in the mud with like every step we took but it was fun and that time we got sick cone rice field hats like the ones in the movies!

We are still really working hard and praying harder for a miracle to happen so we can get a baptism this month. I fell like this month is the hardest I have worked on my mission, and as a result of our faith and prayers and work we have seen so many miracles and I want to share a couple today.

Sis Waan: We found her at the park she is mid 30's and single but we taught for the first time and she was so prepared she wants to get baptized and it floored her when she learned of all the Christ had done for her. Since then she has received an answer that the Book of Mormon is true after just one lesson! She has great faith! But also great opposition. Her aunt has diabetes and is dying from it and she just finished harvesting like 10 acres of rice by herself and now she has had people stealing her rice from her field.

We are continually finding very prepared people through Bovembering we were blessed with a big night market all week which we capitalized on the big numbers of people. We got a new dater from it last night a man named Joe whose sincerity just floors me. I love that we just talk about baptism and the miracle of forgiveness. These people need it so bad and when we find those who want they are so prepared.

We also had a wonderful experience with a former who fell through the cracks I called her and asked if we could continue to help her prepare to be baptized she said yes and I asked if she still wanted to be baptized and she said yes very much! We saw her the next day and I have never met a more prepared woman. She had had so many experiences that have brought her to this point and the coolest part is that she recognizes that all those things have been preparing her for this moment.

That’s so crazy that Braeden and Esther got married! Esther is beautiful and Braeden is such a stud!! Thanks for getting the gift that’s way classy! Mikaela is going to the MTC next week!! aaahhhhh!!! Try to look up and find the talk the Fourth Missionary if you can print it out study it and do it! I did that this week and it has helped me change so much! Sounds like a sweet weekend in Raymond that’s so cool that you girls can do that now! Teddy YAAAAYYYY!!!!!!! atata girl I’m so proud of you I threw out a cheer and some fist pumps and scared the khon thai next to me haha I love you guys so much!!!

Love

Elder Cahoon

On the Road Again!

Area: Roi Et
Companion: Elder Wilson

Nov 18, 2013

Hi Guys! 

(I was going to write something cool in Thai but then I remembered you can’t read it and then I thought I could Romanize it but then I realized I don’t remember how to do that so I stuck with the regular Hi Guys)

We had a crazy week! We were on the road Tuesday in Mahasarakham training then Wednesday morning we went to Khonkaen and trained and then switched off for the day with the district leader. The next morning we continued on to Korat and trained and then took the 5 hour bus ride back and got home at 9 finally the next day we went to Galasin to work with them and help them to find a person that could get baptized this month!

I finished the BYU application!

Elder Cahoon