Miracles: 11/29/2010

HI!!!!! okay so this week has been awesome!! Kay so before i got to this area, the two companions before (elder wright was one of them) met a lady named Kim who is about 46 years old. they taught her and committed her to baptism and then they haven't been able to get into contact with her at all. so me and elder wright have been trying hard to see her, we go over and knock on the door and call her and stuff, but nothing. so we decided to go and try to see her 28 year old son who lives like 2 miles away, because we were trying anything to get to kim. So we go knock on Stevens door (thats kim's son) and his truck is there but he doesn't answer the door, so we were bummed so we went to go see another investigator which is like 3 mins away. 

So we are about to knock on the investigators door, and then this truck pulls up saying "we shouldn't be here, and that we should leave" so we start talking to this guy and it turns out to be Steven. and we were like WOOHOO!! haha. so we talked to him for about 1 hour and we set up an appointment to teach him the next day. Once he drove off, me and elder wright turned to each other and started yelling "we just witnessed a miracle!!" haha. So tomorrow comes and we go teach him, and it turns out that he has been looking for God after his dad died and trying to change his life. He has been in jail and sold drugs and beaten tons of people up, but he has totally changed, he is the nicest person i have ever met. everything we taught him about the restoration he said the he believed and it made sense. so we gave him a BoM and our number and gave him an assignment to read. 

2 days later we were supposed to have a lesson at the church about the plan of salvation. but he didn't show, and we had a member with us. so the whole time i was praying that he would show up or at least call. so we dropped the member off and no joke, 30 seconds after that he called saying that he was really sorry and that his friends mom was in the hospital. so we talked to him and set a new appt. for the next day, we hung up and started screaming like little girls haha. 

So we go have a lesson at the church and it was AMAZING! the spirit was soooo strong. we explained the big three questions, where we were before life, what we are doing here on earth, and where we are going after we die. During the lesson, he was just saying that he has been thinking about this alot and how it makes perfect sense. the only thing that he never thought of was spirit paradise/prison. So we were super happy, and committed him to church, but he didn't show. ( it was his bday on sunday) so we made him cookies and brought them to him. he let us in, talked to us about how he is missing his dad alot, and we just comforted him. he gave us a hug after we talked to him and his girlfriend loves us too haha. she wants to have us over for dinner and us teach them. they have a 10 year old girl that is interested too. can you say jack pot!? haha. the coolest thing about this experience was how we met him though. He said that he saw us at the door when we knocked but didn't answer bcuz he didnt want to talk to us, but he ended up talking to us 5 mins later outside the investigators house. And he even said that it was really "neat" how we met him. Him and his family are so ready for the gospel.

one more story :)

         

kay so me and elder wright are teaching a guy, get this... his name is King James. NO JOKE! and he is the biggest person i have ever met. he looks just like Shaq... but bigger, not even lying. when i shake his hand, i basically shake his thumb hahaha. he has two sons, and there names are also... king. neat!! he is the "top dog" on his block, no one messes with him. one time we were teaching him on his porch, and a car pulled up, and he said "hold up i have to get something out of my trunk..." i was like. are you kidding me???. then he gave them something and sat back down next to us, and the person in the car said something like "hey wheres the _____" and king said "idk". i was like, we are gunna die, i started to look for places to take cover for in case a shootout starts, bcuz every time we teach King he keeps his Piston next to him... loaded. so yeah its always fun going over there. He wont mess with us though, he calls us family. He is super nice too, he always brings us lunch and picks us up if we are walking and its raining. so don't get me wrong, he is one of the nicest persons too. he is very family based, and "would do anything for his family" he told us. i love him :)

thanksgiving was AMAZING! like 5 families came by and gave us leftovers, so im getting pretty fat haha. we have a very traditional thanksgiving, except we had hashbrown casserole, which is amazing. and fried turkey, and chess cake... which is soooooo good! oh and... fried squirrel! hahahah. i no like it haha. but i ate it.

well time is about up, i hope that everyone is doing good. tell everyone hello and that i love them! i will try to send some pictures in another email. LOVE YA!

love,

Elder Cawley

A Serendipitous Email Conversation: 11/20/2010

So i got to Nashville finally!! I had to get up at 4am on monday morning to report to the travel agency in the MTC. that was no bueno. then we took a huge bus to the airport, and it was packed of missionaries. We were all singing hymns and it was a really cool experience. When we got the the airport and through security, i saw a McDonalds, and i ran to it and got about 5 cheeseburgers. it...was...amazing! After that the 8 of us (there were 8 missionaries going to Nashville) boarded the plane and flew to Atlanta, and we had a hour layover there. While there, Elder Hill and I (he was in my district in the MTC) started talking to everyone we could see and we talked to this one guy, Marcus. He was flying home bcuz his wife went into labor, so we talked about how families can be together forever and we was super intrested, we gave him a passalong card and gave him a book of mormon with a message in it. hopefully he reads it. 

So once we flew into Nashville, we were walking off the plane and down the stairs and i saw President and Sister Hutchings. i ran to them and gave them first a hand shake, then a big hug! (well, not sister hutchings, haha just a handshake for her) We met the APs there too, and we all got into this huge shuttle that took us to the Mission Home. it was so funny, i saw this HUGE hotel, and i was like "what is the name of that hotel?" and then the APs laughed and said that it was a house not a hotel, i was like NO WAY!! it was seriously the biggest house i have ever seen, and there are so many trees everywhere!! it is crazy! President Hutchings reminds me alot of Grandpa, he is tall and very bold too, but in a loving way. 

So when we got the mission home, we each got interviewed by President, and then we had dinner and then after that we went downstairs and had an awesome testimony meeting. After that it was time for bed.

So we woke up at 6:30, got ready, the APs made us animal pancakes (i got a monkey and snake) and then it was off to the Stake Center in Franklin. when we got there, President gave a training on all the general things. one of my favorite things he said was that each morning we have to do the "HULK" haha. the hulk, is right when you get up, you flex your arms like how the hulk does, and you go RAWWRRR!! he said to do this because, then every morning, you are starting the day laughing, and it will make your day always. President said that if you start the day laughing, its going to be a good day, which is wayyy true. 

About an hour later, all of the missionaries arrived that were getting transferred, which was about 60. President handed each of us a letter and in the letter there are 4 words in red that we had to read in front of all the missionaries. those 4 words were the place where you are serving, and your companions name. i got up there and opened the letter and it said... "Hopkinsville Ward, Elder Wright" no joke, a second after i said that i look up, and i see this Elder bolting right to me. it was my companion, and we hugged and did a dance while hugging infront of everyone. then i looked and everyone had there cameras out taking pictures, so i did my "oh yeah" face, and took some pictures. After everyone got there companions, we all said bye and on we went to Hopkinsville, Kentucky (it was about an hour drive from franklin) oh and as we were leaving, TONS of people came up to me saying that i am very lucky, because they said that Elder Wright is the best trainer and that Hopkinsville is the best place to train in. so i feel very blessed. 

Elder Wright is from Riverton, Utah and he is way cool. This is going to be his last transfer, and then he goes home. so that is sad. oh, we also have the nicest apartment in the whole mission. haha. no joke, we have a guest bedroom, and its pretty big, which is neat! we also have a car, but we are over 100 miles on it, so we are biking right now to get back to 0 miles over. i like biking though, its easier to talk to people. 

The people here are awesome, and its way different here then back home. but i love it! we went over to Sister Marshalls house for dinner, and we had Mexican food, and when me and my companion went to go get our food we saw tons of cockroaches on the floor and in the corners. i was just like, oh well and ate my dinner. OH tell dad that we cover a military base, called Fort Cambell. and we go on the base and teach families. i always tell them that dad works for Northrop Grumman, but they dont know who that is haha. i met one person, Adam, who went crazy when i told him that. He said that he wants to be an engineer for them soo bad. so we had a nice little chat, a very nice way to break the ice. 

Story time! kay so we are teaching this mother and her daughter, Susan & Shannon. Susan is about 46 and Shannon is about 21. and we met them and taught the third lesson to them. When we left they said, can you come back tomorrow and teach us some more. I guess they have never said that to any set of missionaries. ( the missionaries have been teaching them for about a year) so that night, i had a dream about how we were teaching them about families and they were crying and how the spirit was so strong, i woke up, and wrote it down. Good thing i keep paper and a pen next to my bed. woohoo! so i told Elder Wright what happened and we decided to teach them about families that day. So we go and teach them about the 2000 stripling warriors and how there faith and there love from there mothers made it able so that they couldn't be slain. and then we tied it into how the gospel blesses families in many ways. After our lesson, Shannon says "mom i need to talk to the missionaries outside" so we go outside and she says " i prayed last night to see what i should do, and i have decided that i want to get baptized" i was speechless and i am pretty sure i was smiling from ear to ear. i was SO EXCITED for her. so we set a date for her to work towards and in our mission if you set a date for baptism, you call President and when he picks up the phone you just scream like crazy and then hang up. that is how he knows that you set a date haha. so we did that (it felt weird at first haha, but it was fun) 

We are also teaching Vinny and Ashley. Vinny is 20, Ashly is 17 and they have a 1 year old girl..... yeah. but they seem really interested so that is good.

Well look up Hopkinsville, Kentucky and you will see where i am running around.

just to give you a taste of how ppl talk here, say this

"M R DUCKS!"

"M R NOT DUCKS!"

"C M WINGS!?"

"L I B, M R DUCKS"

hope you get that, hahahha

talk to yall later!

-Elder Cawley

p.s. my address to my apartment is.....

322 Cool Water Court

Hopkinsville,Kentucky

                  42240

oh yeah...

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

love ya.

-Elder Cawley

My mom and dad happened to be on the computer when the email from Spencer came! It was definitely a tender mercy to chat and talk to Spencer briefly and ask a couple of questions. 

m&d:  are you there?

elder:  yes

m&d:  is this your pday?

elder:  no my pday is on monday, but next week they are putting it as thursday for thanksgiving. but we are email today. 

m&d:  Happy Thanksgiving Son (this is Dad) - r u eating somewhere?

elder:  happy thanksgiving padre! yeah we are eating at 2 different members homes... we accidently double booked.... uh oh. bring on the food. ha. time to go. peace. love yall!

I Leave for Nashville on Monday: 11/12/2010

AHHH! i leave to nashville on monday! this is crazy hahaha. so umm i forgot to tell you but last week Elder M. Russel Ballard came and spoke to us. the main thing that he focused on was that we have to be happy and smile all the time. if we teach an investagator and we are showing that we are happy, then why are we going to listen to us? i was like... hmm that true. thats a good job Elder Ballard hahahaha. so yeah that was crazy that i saw him in person. and then this week on tuesday when we have fireside i was like hmm... i wonder who is gunna speak (bcuz they dont tell anyone who is coming) and we are singing a song and the doors open and BAM!!! Elder Bednar walks in! i was like WHAT!? 2 apostles in 2 weeks!? hahahah it was awesome!!! he talked about principles, application and doctrine. and he said not to answer a doctrine question with a doctrine or dont answer a principle answer with a principle. change it up. so that was really interesting too haha. 

But these three weeks have gone by soo fast! i seriously cant believe that i am going out to the mission field in 3 days. My branch president handed me a grip of pass along cards and told me to pass them out to our district so we can pass them out to ppl at the airport. i was like, holy crap, its real now. hahaha. it was intense. OH we went to a TE last night (teaching evaluation) and he was like "soo what do you want me to teach you" and we said door and street approaches bcuz we haven't practiced that once. and our teacher served in Greece and he said that his entire mission was knocking doors and talking to people on the street. so he was PRO at it haha. so we talked about that and we practiced a little. then we get back to the classroom and me and Elder Perez decided to practice some more(elder perez is from las vegas and he is brown... thats why we call him "brown sheep" instead of black sheep hahahha) but i was the investagator and he sat next to me on a bench and kept saying "so how have you been?" and i was like dont say that say something else. but everytime we restarted he kept opening up with that question so we were busting up. then we finally started talking and i said that i was a grandpa yada yada yada. then i said that my wife died and he was "oh, thats good" even though he mean oh im sorry. so i just looked at him and made my eyes get all big, and we just started busting up. i was on the ground laughing and i couldnt breathe and i think i was crying hahaha. that was a good day. 

OH ON WEDNESDAY I TAUGHT A REAL INVESTEGATOR!!! it was crazy! we do these things every wednesday and saturday where we teach for 45 mins to a random "investegator" who is really a member, but this time, ours was real hahaha. my teacher Brother Shumway threw a curveball right before we left to go and said, "oh by the way elder cawley, you might actually have a real investegator tonight" you should have seen my face, it was white hahaha. and we wanted to teach him lesson 1 the restoration but when we went in he was talking about after death and stuff ( he was old) and so it was goodbye restoration and hello plan of salvation. hahaha. might i tell you that i have only looked at maybe the first 2 paragraphs of that lesson.  but i went in like a trance and i didnt know what i was saying or how i was saying it. and then before i knew it i was drawaing the plan of salvation on a peice of paper for him to understand and then the 45 mins was up. it was totally the spirit taking over and teaching threw me. it was amazing!! hahaha. my companion turned to me and was like... how did that just happen? i was like i have no idea hahaha. 

Well i got 3 mins soo i will make this fast.  my companion Elder Hutton is from Anahiem and he worked at disneyland for 3 years and wants to be a pilot. thats all he talks about. i dont think i can send pictures through here sso idk how i am gunna get pictures to all'yall. so mom set up that walmart thing :D haha

well i love yall so much! i hope you have a good week!!! 

love,

Elder Cawley

P.S. mom i need a stake directory. idk where the one you gave me went haha. and i have tons of letters to send

Week One...Done: 11/05/2010

So week one is done, and now the days are FLYING!!! Travis was totally right... or should i say Elder Beach. Days go by like weeks and weeks go by like days. Being District Leader is really fun, but its totally hard haha. trying to keep everyone inline, including me is hard, but i know that i can dew it haha. My companion is pretty hard to work with still. We are going to a TE class to help him, so i have to cut back on my learning to help him, but i guess that is more importante. Everyday our two teachers take me out of the class and ask how he is doing that day, and he is improving, but slowly. My teachers say that it is a good thing that i am his companion, bcuz i am learning very fast, so i have lots of time to help him. He is starting to get on peoples nervous though because he always wants to sleep in and he sets the alarm for 7:30, but i am sneaky sneaky and set mine for 6:15 so he gets up then if he likes it or not haha. There was one time where he wasn't getting up, so i pulled a trick that dad would always do to me. I said "okay elder hutton, you have 30 seconds to get up, or im gunna fill up a cup full of water..." of course he didnt believe me until I had a cup of ice cold water right infront of his face. So that got him up, but he didnt like me that day. but esta bien haha. 

I got the pumpkin bread mom, it was mucho tastyo haha. once i open it i started jumping up and down yelling that i have fresh bread. so you should send me more packages ;) hahaha. I have seen Dylan 2 times now, and both times i was wearing my laker clothes and he would always say "NICE SHIRT!!" and then we would make fun of the Jazz fans in the gym haha. stoopid jazz fans. :) Also i see Elder Johnson all the time, its pretty funny, he is almost like fluent in spanish, and he is forgeting english words. So i have to fill in the words for him. Like one time he forgot to say Savior, i started busting up hahaha it was soo funny. OH i say Elder Stanfill (brian) i was eating breakfast and someone tapped me on the shoulder and i turned around and it was him. i just screamed YEAHHHH BOYYYY!!!!! haha and we hugged and stuff. but we dont cry, we are manly. haha just kidding, i have cried so many times since ive been here, like everyday i cry atleast once, not because i miss home (but i do miss home) but its bcuz the spirit is soo strong all i can do is cry haha. i sound like a baby! what is this!? like this one time i think it was wednesday, we had some extra MDT time so i hoped on lds.org and watched this little 4 min video of President Hinkley telling a story of 2 young boys walking down the road... for sakes of time i cant write it out, but if you go on LDS.org scroll down its called "lessons i learned as a boy" i watched that, and at the end i was no joke... crying so hard haha. i can notice the spirit soo easily now its awesome. 

Dad i have some advice for you in the Mission prep class, when you recite D&C 4 and our purpose, recite the first vision. i think its on page 37. we have to recite those 3 everyday, and everyone was amazed that i had 2/3 memorized hahaha. Also, roleplay, roleplay, roleplay. It seems thats all i do now hahaha. oh i have a funny storry about roleplay, so me and my companion went to a "investegator" and we had to teach them the first lesson for 45 mins. it was crazy. so i started it out and i was talking about our we have a god up in heaven and how we are his children and he loves her. and right after that my companion jumped right into the book of mormon.. i was like NOOO what are you doing. haha so the whole time i was trying to bring back the lesson on track, but he kept going off on how he worked at disneyland and how he wants to be a pilot. so after like 40 mins we ended it, we got her to come to church the next sunday, and to read the bom and pray about it. but when we walked out, i just gave him a hug and said "oh elder hutton i love ya" haha. i wasnt even mad which was weird, but awesome at the same time hahaha. 

OH lina... i am getting pretty amazing at volleyball, i can spike the CRAP out of the ball and i learned how to jump and serve it. we play king of the court which means there are 4 lines and if you win you stay on and if you lose you go back in line to play again, and me and this other guy that played volleyball in Highschool were ripping it up!!! we didnt lose for like 30 mins hahah it was awesome. well time is about to expire haha. oh and brittany, my whole district saw our picture in hawaii and they are all inlove with you and basically want to marry your haha. and they thought that lina was like 18 hahahaha. well okay i gotta go now, good thing i type fast :DDD 

love ally'all!!! (working on my southern)

Elder Cawley

P.S. PEACE AND BLESSINGS!!

First Letter from the MTC: 10/30/2010

Hey there familia!

        Well its been almost 3 days in the MTC and I am loving it. My companions name is Elder Hutton, and he is 5ft 2in. He is well, different. He had a speech problem for 3 years, and he has been inactive for awhile before deciding to serve a mission. I have been getting very frustrated because he doesn't really know how to teach or what to say. For instance, we were teaching this "investegator" yesterday and I started it out how God loves us very much and how he has a plan for us. yada yada yada. Anyways, after i finished talking, he was his turn to talk, and he jumped right into the book of mormon, didnt testy of anything i said, but he wouldnt stop talking about the Book of Mormon. He talked about Nephi, Lehi, Lamen and Lamuel and he kept going on and on until Captin Moroni. And once he stopped i didnt know what to say but my testimony. So after that we talked with this sister who was our "investegator" and she said that it started off good, but then we drowned her with wayyyyyy toooooo much information. The hardest part though is that no one can understand him, he mummbles everything. i have to ask him over and over what he said. So its pretty hard. 

       Anyways, i was called to be the District Leader, so that is pretty awesome. I have lots of responsibility over everyone, i have to interview them everyweek and report back to the President. Also, i have to meet with the President every Sunday and he gives me advice on things i should help my district on. Its funny though, im the youngest missionary in our district, yet i have to be the leader over everyone hahah. OH i forgot to tell you, my companion, Elder Hutton, is 26. haha crazy right?? yeah its a different experience to be at the MTC.

      Today, Sister Maxfield was teaching us, and we have 40 mins to read this article about "Mark Mocha" you was a bank robber and how he robbed 4 banks, got caught and went to jail for 11 years. When he got out, his wife divorced him, and took his 3 daughters. So Sister Maxfield was pretending to be Mark Mocha, and every 5 mins 2 of us at a time had to go in and teach her, while the rest of the companionships watched behind a one way mirror, it was like something in Cops hahaha.But yeah we all failed miserably hahahaha and we paid the price for it. Sister Maxfield chewed us out, badly hahaha. She is the nicest person i have met, but man can she get mad. She is doing that because she wants us to learn from our mistakes haha. 

        Since i am the district leader though, i get to assign nicknames. muahahaha. Elder Perez and I bonded instantly, but his nickname is "Brown sheep" ahha. only 2 other elders have earned there nickname though, the other two are Elder Hutton aka Elder Tomato. because for gym he always wears a red shirt, red shorts, red socks and red shoes hahahhaa. the other one is Elder Rhine aka Elder Seth Rogan. you guys prolly dont know who that is, but he looks EXACTLY like him hahahahha. (he is an actor) 

       OH if you email me on dearelder.com, the MTC prints out the email and gives it to me throughout the day, no matter what day it is. so you can do that if you want.

well i gotta run and finish laundry and stuff hahaha, i will talk to yall in a week.

PEACE AND BLESSINGS!!

Elder Cawley

(im almost positive i made spelling mistakes... dont judge) :D

Elder Cawley heads to Utah and the MTC

 Brittany was clinging to her brother for dear life.

 One last close-up.

 Ok...one more. This time a silly one.

 Nap time at the hotel.

 Brother and sister in front of the Salt Lake Temple doors.

 Mom and Dad at Temple Square.

 Mom and Elder Cawley mimicking the statue behind them.

 Brittany says goodbye at the airport. "Don't leave me brother!"

 Father and son hanging out at the hotel.

 His bags are packed!

 Our favorite missionary is ready to go!

Mom practices her sad face and prepares for the goodbyes.

Elder Cawley's "Last Supper."

 Heading toward the Missionary Training Center!

 We love you Elder Cawley! See you in two years!

Goodbye Sisters! Goodbye Cousins!