Setting (& Keeping) Dates: 1/24/11

GO PACKERS!!!!!! Oh man everywhere we went yesterday, that game was on. It was nuts. Well last week was pretty frustrating. We haven't been able to get in contact with Willy for about 3 days, so we don't know what's going on with him. Last time we saw him he was with his friend doing bible study. Turns out his friend is a J dub. grr. 

On thursday I got sick. It looked like everyone in our Zone has been getting sick. Elder Wall came to Hopkinsville for Exchanges and the day after he left I got sick... hmm. So we couldn't work Thursday I just stayed in bed all day. Then on Friday, it snowed like crazy!! President texted us all saying to stay indoors, the weather was too bad to work. So we only had a total of 18 lessons last week, no bueno. 

On the positive side, President came to our ward last week and talked about how the ward council should be finding people for the missionaries to teach also. So we went on exchanges with Dustin Buckner, he is 18 years old and preparing to go on a mish. He took us to see 3 people, 1 of them bonked but we set up appts with the other 2. We saw one of them yesterday, Doug. Who is 16 years old. We taught him the restoration, and read 2 Nephi 31. oh yeah... the baptism chapter haha. We got to I think its verse 10, where it says "Follow thou me" and we asked him what "follow thow me" means. He said to follow all of what Jesus Christ did. So then once he said that I asked him if he wanted to follow the example of Jesus Christ by being baptized by someone holding the priesthood authority of God. And he said yes! WOOHOO! So we have 2 dates set now, and the sisters also have 2 dates set as well. 

I have to call President Hutchings every Sunday and give a report on how the ward council is doing by taking us out to "rescue." Only our ward is doing this too, President is experimenting. So I gave him my report and I said, "Oh President, Elder Hall and I have something to tell you... WE SET A DATE!!" Then we screamed like lil girls haha. I can make President laugh so hard it's hilarious. He always is nice to me, and then like rebukes Elder Hall. I find it pretty funny. President said he is impressed with what is happening to the Hopkinsville ward. They havent had a baptism since april 2009, and now we have 4 dates set just this transfer. oh yeah!

So my district always tells me that my trainings give them revelation and inspire them. I always think I do a horrible job on trainings, but the spirit must help me out. Oh this Elder in my last district, Elder Pantelakis, wants me to marry his lil sister. haha. So he wants me to write her, so I did last night haha. I drew a LEGIT picture of me and him bible bashing with this guy it was so funny. 

Well this week should be a good week. The ward council has us going on splits on Tuesday and Thursday. So we will have 4 ward council members taking us to appts they set up. Neat! Oh so basketball is starting up here for the stake, I asked if we can play and they said if we have an investigator there we can, and Doug wants to play on Thursday! Woohoo!! Time to dominate. I guess this ward is horrible at basketball, so this is gunna be awesome possum. But what is gunna stink is that I have leadership training down in Clarksville Thursday-Saturday from 9am-4pm. NO BUENO! haha. I'm sure I will learn a lot there though, its gunna be weird though, being the youngest one there. Wish me luck! I've been talking so much smack about the Laker vs. Jazz game tomorrow. Its gunna be legit. Kay time to go to Walmart. WHELP CYA LATER!

love yall.

Elder Cawley

P Day: 1/18/2011

Hallo, from Kentucky! Sorry I didnt email you yesterday, the Library was closed because it was Martin Luther King Jr day or something like that. Hmm werid, where am I? 

Well yesterday for Pday, we went down to Clarksville in TN and our zone was there. We played basketball (which by the way, I perfected my fade away. I'm unguardable, like Kobe. NEAT!) and I dominated. Won every game on 21, and my team won every real game we played. 

After that we had a Nerf War. We got a bunch of PVC pipe and used them as blow dart guns. They shoot so stinkin fast!! We turned off all the lights and set up barriers everywhere and played capture the flag. It was intense. We played that forever and the games were tied 7-7 so this last game decided who could brag. So it was me and Elder Wall alive and they had 3 alive. We were acting like spys haha it was awesome. I was hiding in the gym and there was this open door across the gym, so I launched this dart at the open door, bcuz I wanted to haha. And it was perfect! Elder Campbell walked through the door and it hit him! I screamed like a lil girl in excitment haha! He accused me of cheating and I just said, the spirit told me to shoot there, and I did. hahahaha. 

So after that we went to Zaxbys for some chicken and it was the last supper for Sister Salazar. She is going back to Temple Square for the last bit of her mission. She knows Sister Hicks, small world.

Anyways, Willy Allen (the person who is getting baptized) is still golden. Still smoke and coffee free. It was so crazy to just quit like instantly. I wish all of my investigators could do that... grr. He came to church on sunday and he looked so FRESH!! He had this awesome suit on, and he had this cane, and the handle was a cobra with red eyes. I called him Indiana Jones. He is way awesome. We were going to baptize him on the 30th and confirm him the following week, but I realized that he can't go 1 week without the Holy Ghost. So we gotta figure that one out. haha. 

But other than that, HopTown is pretty awesome. I go to sleep to gun shots every night - its awesome, I love it. Oh guess who I'm on exchanges with... Elder Wall!! He is sitting next to me, he says hi. He is way cool, he is so stinking funny! 

Well we are going to go to Ferrells for lunch. Its the best hamburgers ever!! This lil old lady makes them all day every day. She talks with us everytime we go in there. I like mustard on my cheesburgers now. I dont know what happened, I was just sitting there and I thought to myself "I wonder..." and I liked it... ALOT! (sandlot quote) 

I'll talk to y'all next week! love y'all!!!

Oh and happy birthday to my Grandpa Cawley who lives in Nevada!!! (and hello Grandma Cawley!)

Elder Cawley

Ping Pong: 1/10/11

WHATTT!?!?!?!? TYLER MARRIED ELDER WALLS' COUSIN!?!?! HE IS MY ZONE LEADER!!!! I talk to him all the time! He is way legit!! What that is so crazy!!! hahaha. Me and Elder Wall are just alike, we are best buds haha. I call him at least once a day hahaha that is so crazy!! Wow that is so cool. haha. That just blew my mind. 

Anyways. this week was good. We taught King James, and we watched some videos on Mormon.org. The ones that say "I'm so an so and I'm a Mormon." We watched the Peris one, because he was in the MTC with me. At the end he said, "I'm Peris, I dominate in Ping Pong, and I'm a Mormon." King turns to me and says, you play ping pong?, I was like... pshhh do I?? So we played one game and the deal was if I beat him he has to come to church. I DESTROYED him 21 to 2 hahahahha. He kept calling me Forest Gump, because I kept putting spin on the ball. He was going nuts, and his wife was too. They were laughing so hard, it was awesome. Probably wasn't the smartest thing to do though haha, bad Elder Cawley. 

We had an awesome lesson with Willy Allen, who is getting baptized on Jan 29th. We taught him The Plan of Salvation and during the middle he talked about how his wife died 2 years ago, and he is lonely and its just him in his house alone. They were married for 40 years, he kept saying how it was a good marriage. He is way awesome. He wants to do temple work for her and everything. I'm so excited for him. 

President Hutchings and the Assistants came to District Meeting this last week. It was intense. I had them all laughing though haha. I gave a training on commitments, and I passed each of them a "contract" and they all said something different, but they were all funny haha. One of them said, "I hereby agree to get on the ground and pretend to be a snail for 20 mins." So I passed them those and said, "Don't read it, just sign it," and I later went on to say that's what we do sometimes when we give commitments. We have to give them (investigators) a background of what the commitment is so that they don't go into it blindly. Otherwise they will do the commitment and not know anything they just read, watched etc. President thought it was very good. yay! haha. 

Well, each missionary has interviews with President this week. He is basically going to look into our soul and tell us if we are in or out of the boat. And we have to tell him what we are going to do if we are out of the boat. INTENSE! haha. Hope all is good in Cali. I'm so telling Elder Wall that connection!! haha. Talk to yall later!

Love,

Elder Cawley

[Note:  Tyler is a long-time close family friend]

Cristine--sister of Elder Cawley--here. My parents attended Tyler's wedding in San Diego. While there they met the bride and her family. Come to find out that the bride's cousin--Elder Wall-- is serving in the same mission as Elder Cawley! Spencer was so excited as you can see above because 1.) Elder Wall is his Zone Leader, and 2.) they are good buds. 

Elder Wall's mom--Sheila-- and my mom have emailed each other about this small world connection and Sheila was nice enough to forward us some pictures of the two missionaries together that Elder Wall has sent. Elder Wall said this of our Elder Cawley in his latest email: 

"I love Elder Cawley to death! The kid is one of the coolest kids ever! YEah I have been with him his whole mission! He was in my district and his trainer was an old ap and was the district leader. He took his place and president split our zone in half so that he would have a good zone to train in being a dl. But Yeah he is a great kid! Ill sent a pic of me and him in this email. That's really cool that you met his parents! He called me earlier today saying he had something really cool to tell me but I haven't called him back cuz I've been down in out!" (he has a bad case of the flu right now)

 Zone--Elder Cawley is the the third from the right standing.

 Bowling

Elders Wall and Cawley--silly

I know my parents are grateful to be meeting other "missionary moms and dads"--especially when their sons are serving together and such good friends. Both Elder Cawley and Wall are fantastic missionaries and we are so proud of them!

New Companion/Assignment: 1/3/2010

Sorry for not sending an email last week, Elder Wright and I couldnt fit in time to email on Monday. That week was hectic. We found out that our area, Hopkinsville, was going to become a District, and that I was going to be the District Leader. When President told me that I was like "uhhhh ive only been out 6 weeks. I still need to be greenie busted." haha He said, "I know." So that was awesome! 

Next was that Elder Wright and I had to find a new apartment for us to live in, because the sisters were going to move into ours. So on Monday, we had to go apartment searching, get furniture, move us all in, because transfers were the next day. We were running around like CRAZY!! haha. We had to weekly plan for us and the sisters, because we were splitting the area in half. So it's like getting white-washed for the sisters. So we filled their week with exchanges, set appointments and everything--their week was awesome. And our week said... CONTACT. The sisters took all of our investigators haha. 

My new companion is Elder Hall. He is from St. George, Utah. He is way cool, he talks to everyone, and I mean everyone. We were walking up these stairs and he yelled "HELLO" and ran up to this guy like 50 yards away and started talking to him. He is short, so I think all that energy cycles faster through his body, then it does for me. hahaha. 

We met this old man named Willy Allen. We think he had a stroke before because half of his body doesn't work right. But anyways we taught him the first lesson, and he was almost in tears. We committed him to read the Book of Mormon and to go to church. He said he couldn't make it to church this week because he will be in Nashville (or Nash-vul if you're from the South) so we said ok and then we offered a prayer. During the prayer I had the impression to commit him to baptism. So we said amen and Elder Hall stood up to shake his hand, and I said, "Willy, can I ask you a question?" I said, "Have you ever thought about baptism?" and then we talked about baptism for another 10 mins and after that I asked him if he wanted to be baptized by someone holding the proper authority of God? And he said YES!! WOOHOOO!! haha. So that was way awesome haha. 

That is the only story that I have this week because we have been contacting a lot, but it's a good one :D Anyways, I hope all is well back in Cali! 

LOVE YALL!!

Elder Cawley