#MIRACLES

Area: Udon
Companion: Elder Hunsaker

Heyya

Niw got bapped! It was kind of stressful but we got him in the water! He was really cool actually we contacted him at Central with all of his friends who were just thuggin it and kinda looked like the way hard rocker druggies from high school. He was the only one that was like yeah I do want to be clean from my sin and we got his number he met with us and the first time he came he was wearing a toque with the Fword on it he has a bunch of piercings and a kinda emo haircut. but he wanted to change and we taught him the word of wisdom and he was determined to quit smoking and drinking 2 days later went to church but then he got busy for like 5 days and we couldn't see him but when he came back on Thursday he had quit and he told us that from the very first time we met him and invitted to be baptized he realized a lot of bad things in his life and he wanted to be clean! so Saturday we interviewed he passed but needed 2nd one from Pres Khanakham but he was in Roi Et for their District conference and was going to be in meetings all day. It turns out he had an opening at 3 so we scheduled him but when it came to the time he was in a meeting and couldn't go out and the baptism was supposed to be at 4! So we stalled everyone and the other baptism and had them eat food after church like they always do and then finally at 4:30 an hour and a half after we had planned Elder Khanakham was finally ready so we got Niw in an interview and at 5:00 he was baptized along with Elder Wilko and Osborn's investigator Bro O who is a somewhat famous Thai author he has written several series and has a couple best sellers that are featured in like every big bookstore!

I have started doing video journals each night instead of writing in my journal its fun and a lot easier than writing! I am also keeping a daily miracle journal #MIRACLES 

Probably the coolest story was ห้า from the miracle story he is Vietnamese and he's way cool and really sincere! 

Also we found a little rat in our house right at bedtime! and so we spent the next 20-30 mins tearing the house apart trying to catch it in a little trash can it was in the room where we have all our clothes and dressers and we were trying to get it out in the open by spraying it with cockroach killer! At point it was behind the dressers so Elder Wilko started shaking it then suddenly the rat leapt off the top of the dresser to attack Elder Wilko and bounced off of his shoulder and on to the ground eventually we caught it drugged it with bug killer and acid and flushed it down the toilet! 

This week we will be going down for another MLC and then it will be another round of trainings throughout the zone! 

Love you!

Elder Cahoon

Blessed with Baptisms.

Area: Udon

Companion: Elder Hunsaker

January 19, 2014

Hey

We had 9 baptisms in our district! 11 in our zone! We had 11 baptisms all last month and we had 11 just this week! and next week we have a goal for another 15! In the out of 11 people baptized 8 of them were men that get the priesthood! This week we are at 102 baptisms in the mission with a goal for 110 this week to finish the month and its our last shot getting 200 in January. We are being blessed so much right now I have never taught so much in my mission as I have here and we found another 11 new investigators this past week which is starting to turn into a really regular occurrence. I in the past 2 or 3 months have finally got really good at contacting everyone everywhere I talk to hundreds of people everyday and invite them to be baptized and I absolutely love it its way fun even though 90% reject you. We have had 6 baptisms this month and we are going for a total of 10! I am so grateful that I was sent here and that I get to work with Elder Hunsaker and with all the members here!
Last week I got 20 ties cut in by a sister in the ward and now they are way sweet skinny ties! My pants are all way too big now so Elder Hunsaker and I are going to go get some new ones cut today. It s only a little bit more expensive but its custom made. If I'm still in Udon (I sure hope so) next transfer I can get a suit cut up here Elder Osborn and Elder Gilley both have and they look way good. In other news Saturday night after the sports activity I dunked a volleyball on a 10 ft rim while in church clothes and shoes, that was cool! I want to try with a basketball but the only one we have is way slippery I can barely palm it. We are inviting at Central a ton this week like a ton all week I have only gone to 3 places the church, Central, and home haha its great its the mall here and its way nice and we are getting tons of investigators from it but all the security guards are starting to get antsy that we are inviting there and they keep coming up to us and telling us we can't hand stuff out so we are like ok and keep going its kinda funny and I'm pretty sure all of the guards have been invited multiple times cause I've invited several of them at least twice! haha 

Elder Cahoon

I Love Miracles!

Area: Udon

Companion: Elder Hunsaker

January 12, 2014

Hey!!!

This week Bik got baptized he was another new investigator from my first day here he is a way cool 17 year-old and one of his friends should be baptized next week he's learning with the sisters. We got Super Duper Balanced Key Indicators this week! Which means that we got balanced a baptism and an LA rescued all in one week! I love miracles! The zone has a goal this week for 15 baptisms in one weekend its going to be big! We should have at least 3 more but we are really gunning for 5 this week! 

This week I got to go on switchoffs in Sagon Nakon and Gumpawapi which was way fun We didn't eat any dog but we did get to stay in a hotel and I shared Nanny's conversion story with their investigator whose family is threatening to cut her off if she gets baptized it was really cool. Also that night after English instead of going to eat dinner (I hadn't eaten since 7 that morning) we went and invited so we could be obedient and they managed to find some great people but I still hadn't got anybody which was unusual but as we were biking back to the hotel like right before 9 we stopped at a red light and there was a lady on a motorcycle who pulled up with like 20 seconds left on the light but I turned and invited her to be baptized and she said yes so I set a time for her to meet the next day she said yes then I asked for her number but then the light turned but she didn't drive off instead she sat there and the two of us blocked traffic while I got her number the next day she went to the church she was taught and has a date for this Sunday! In Gumpawapi I finally saw some monkeys they have this park that just has a bunch of monkeys chillin around and climbing trees and sitting on the roofs of houses and stuff way funny! We went down to Gumps to help them find another dater to get baptized this month and we did. Elder Wilko and I went for the day and invited like crazy with the 2 elders down there we set up tons of appointments for the same day that night and we one lady came and was way golden and wanted to be baptized it was wonderful! Gumps is tiny its the smallest area in the mission just this little town but there are still plenty of people if you will just go out and find them!

Good luck with diplomas Chrissy I cant wait to hear you play the guitar I'm sure your way dece! Happy Birthday! your old now! Love you guys!

Elder Cahoon

Incredible teaching at Mission Leadership Council

Area: Udon

Companion: Elder Hunsaker

January 5, 2014

Hey Guys!

Wiw and Ping Pong got baptized this week! Saturday morning at 11! It was so awesome! I had met them at the park only 16 days before that on my first day in Udon and yesterday they were confirmed! They are so solid! It was cool the first time we taught them it was after the Christmas Devotional and Sis Senior helped us teach them and so we got to call her before the baptism and she talked to them and congratulated them it was really cool! Also Ping Pong said the prayer in the first lesson and it was the best first prayer I have ever heard! So sincere and she just told God everything that was on her mind it was so pure and beautiful. Also we had forgot to ask Ping Pong her age before she was interviewed turns out she is only 17 all of us were like what?? She is way mature and doesn't even look 17 so finally this week she went to Young Women's and she loved and the teachers came out and were like wow she's good! 

We have another 3 people lined up to be baptized this weekend one has already passed and then we have 2 more for the 19th! Miracles!! I can't believe the outpouring we are seeing right now!

We had Mission Leadership Council this week on New Years Day and it was unforgettable! I got to see Elder Wilson, Sis Painter and Sis  Packard that was way sweet I miss those guys! Also at the beginning of the meeting President was talking about his shoes and but some of us couldn't see them so he footed the whole council way funny although one of the Thai sisters was so shocked but then after she laughed so Sister Senior made president apologize haha! Pres Senior trained us about baptism and just dove into the scriptures. He is an incredibly knowledgeable man it blows me away! The highlight though was President asked Elder Saunders (one of the Zone Leaders) to train on finding the elect. Now Elder Saunders is an incredible missionary everywhere he goes he baptizes many many people and even before all this inviting on baptism and really focusing on baptism he was doing all of it and some people really did not like him for it, but recently the mission has changed a lot and he has got even better and finally we are all realizing just how great a missionary he is! He taught us for a half hour and by the end the room was in tears it was so powerful! At the end Pres Senior got up still in tears and said "that was the greatest discourse from a missionary I have ever heard." It was wow. I can't really put it into words. But it motivated us so much! 

Lately I have just been studying baptism and there is so much to learn about it I have been marking the word baptism every time it pops up in the scriptures or PMG its way cool! I want to just baptize everybody and help them all become clean help them all return to heaven! It is such a privilege to have that be my entire purpose and focus to go out and help others be baptized all day long! 

The members here in Udon are way boss they just live at the church we refer to them lovingly as Jack and the Gang! Jack is our branch counselor/branch mission leader extraordinaire! He is 25 and single and every day after work comes and helps us. Then there is Sam who is a dance instructor and RC of like 2 months he loves farang music and wearing flat brimmed hats he's in his mid 20's up next Sis Nam who is Sis Carter's RC she's like 20 in university and helps us all the time ad seems to be the butt of all Jacks jokes. Sis Bi is way nice and is Sis Nam's friend and confidant and teammate when they gang up on Bro Jack, and lastly Sis Tey who is the baby of the group only 15 but still holds her own around them and is just way solid! I love these guys so much here they are so faithful and funny and kind and just all round awesome!

Love you lots and bunches!

Elder Cahoon

New area, New Companion, New Miracles

Area: Udon

Companion: Elder Hunsaker

December 29, 2013

Hey Family and Friends!

Hey I got the Christmas package the very next day after I skyped with y'all it was awesome! I felt honored to get the missionary stocking!  Burts Beeswax!!! oh my I was way excited to get that! Sis Packard had some and I was kinda jealous haha but for real I love it! You know me too good! My favourite part however was the gifts scripture study! I took a full personal study to look them up and enjoy them they were way good! I have also been using the lists of scriptures that Grandma and Grandpa sent for my birthday its way good going through and studying each topic with a question in mind to search for the answer summarize each scripture in a sentence and then summarize the whole topic at the end its been really uplifting! 

The past week and a half here in Udon has been the craziest time! this week I have had the most lessons in my entire mission and in the past 2 weeks we have 18 new investigators all of which accepted dates to be baptized in January, basically we don't count them as investigators unless they accept a date on the first time. Its unreal the blessings are being poured out on us right now! We will be having 3 of our investigators baptized this weekend and if all goes to plan another 6 next week! Its absolutely incredible and they have all been found since I got here! Its absurd! I have never ever seen anything like this before. We just laugh and praise God and then go teach some more! I am so excited! I love working with Elder Hunsaker we have been tight since the MTC and lived together in Chiang Rai and then now we are companions so sickk! I really want to help lots of people to be baptized I really want to all 18 people to be baptized that we have just found and the cool thing is so do they that's why I love just going and asking people all day if they want to be baptized sure there's lots of rejection but you find people every day who genuinely want to change their lives and be baptized!

We had a Christmas Miracle after P-Day ended on Christmas we taught a new investigator with Brother Jack and then were waiting for the next one to come after 20 mins it looked like they weren't coming and then a car drives up and 2 young women get out and they ask us about the Christmas Party; we told them it was the day before and invited them in to talk. So we find out that one was a former that learned like 2 years ago and only stopped learning cause she moved and lost contact but then she just moved back. She has been praying daily for the past 2 years without missing and you can tell when she prays in lessons. They both accepted dates and they will be getting baptized next week on the 12th!

Its kinda of crazy right now because of new year everybody goes home to be with their families and so a lot of our investigators are out of town but when we get home from MLC on the 2nd they will be back and then we are going to be hitting it way hard and helping them get baptized! 

Hey Dad to answer some of your questions about the zone it will be a lot less travel in the zone there are only 3 district instead of 5 and half the zone is in our district we have 12 missionaries in the Udon district! We also have Elders in Gumpawapi, Nong kai and Sagon Nakon(where they eat dog)!

The members here in Udon are so awesome! There are tons of youth here and they are so solid! I swear they live at the church and they are way good fellowshippers they are all so fun and such great members!

Love,

Elder Cahoon