Loving Franklin!: 3/28/2011

Well, I LOVE FRANKLIN, TN!!! AHHHHH!!!! The homes here are huge! We were driving in our truck (yeah all ZLs get a truck) in this way nice neighborhood and every house we were like OH MAI GOSH 4 story house!!! hahaha its crazy. It looks just like Santa Clarita kinda but SUPER rich.   

The ward here is amazing!!! I bore my testimony yesterday and I had everyone laughing and giggling. I’m in :) Everyone came up to me later that day and was like, I really enjoyed your testimony. 

We had 3 investigators come to church with us, Eric & Krystal are married and they came and Charlyne is this lil ol' lady who is way legit. We set bap. dates with Eric and Krystal for April 23. So we are pretty happy about that, except our zone is struggling because they aren’t finding. So we came up with a Righteous Competition.

1 point if you find a potential
2 points if you find a New Inv.
3 points if you teach them
4 points if a member is there
5 points if you get them to church
6 points if you set a date
10 points if you baptize them.

Pretty neat huh??

Well I gotta go play basketball with the elders

peace out!

pictures!

 Elder Campbell and Elder Cawley

 King James, Lisa and Elder Cawley

 Dougie-Fresh at his baptism!

 Elder Cawley and Elder Dietz

 Elder Cawley and Elder Wall and "the best drink ever--SKI"

 "yup"

 Elder Richins and Elder Cawley

 Elder Brayden Hill--Spencer's "long lost twin"

 Elder Cawley and his last companion, Elder Hall

Willie Allen's baptism!

Transfers: 3/21/2011

Well last week was crazy... we got TRANSFER CALLS!!! So President called us at like 9:30... which is way early for him to be calling transfer calls... so I was like... AH CRAP! haha. I was brushing my teeth at the time, and President asked to talk to me, Elder Hall said I was brushing my teeth and President said... "Well tell him to spit and talk to me." haha. So he told me that I was getting transferred to the Franklin Zone (right beneath Nashville) to be a Zone leader!!! Once he said that I was like... really?? cmon! haha. 

So tommorow, I'm going to Franklin. The cool part is, that the church where I meet at every Sunday now is right next to the temple... neat! So yeah thats pretty crazy, being a Zone leader after 4 1/2 months. More responsibility. yay. haha. 

Our whole mission had a really crazy experience. So one of the missionaries' mom was hit by a car and has been in a coma since last Tuesday. The mom could pass at any moment. So President Hutchings decided that on Sunday, the whole mission would fast, and at 5pm, no matter where you are, just get down and pray to basically petition to God for a miracle to happen. We did just that and didn't hear anything from President until 10:20 (10 mins before we are supposed to go to bed). We get a text saying... "Good news from the Sorensons. Elder Sorenson's mom showed good signs today. She came off Medical Machines. At 3 pm she opened her eyes." 

Now... Elder Sorenson is from Northern Cali. So they are 2 hours behind us... so 5 pm in Tenn... is 3 pm in Cali. So RIGHT when our whole mission prayed for a miracle to happen... she opened her eyes. I got the heeby jeebyz from that. Mission = Crazy. haha. 

King James is doing good, he hasn't gotten baptized yet... but he will. I got a picture with him today, so when I get the chance, I will upload it on Facebook. Yes I'm on facebook now, I had to go on my old one for a lil to see if I could make that my new page but... no haha. So I will make a new one. It will just be my normal name "Spencer Cawley" we can't put Elder or anything, weird haha. It felt weird when I got on Facebook. Hopefully good things come out of it. 

Well I gotta run and go finish packing. Oh my new companions are Elder Boyack, and Elder Wersten. I'm in a tri! NEAT! love yall!

Elder Cawley

Roleplay with President Hutchings: 3/14/2011

The big answer of the week is... No I don't have an emergency backpack haha. I should probably get on that. (My mother's cousin's son is serving in Japan in the exact area where the earthquake/tsunami hit.) 

So this past week was pretty weird. We had leadership training in Murray, Kentucky on Thursday. It was awesome because usually the Zone Leaders, District Leaders, and trainers are all together. But this time it was just the Hopkinsville Zone, and the Paducah Zone... AND the Zone Leaders went with the Assistants all day for training. So it was 3 District Leaders and 2 trainers in our meeting, from 9-am - 4pm. It was like one-on-one with President and Sister Hutchings. Pretty gnarly. 

The whole training was on our purpose, the role of the Holy Ghost, and teaching people not lessons. It was pretty neat, and pretty scary. We had to role play with President Hutchings, and I was last and he said he was going to role play as one of his best friends back home and I had to commit him to baptism and he was going to say no and I had to overcome the concern. After he said that I did one of the best jobs ever, pretty scary haha. 

I'm pretty bummed out, the stake up here is having the annual basketball tourney. Stinks that we can't play in it haha.

So on Saturday, Ron was supposed to get baptized, and we we over Saturday morning and asked him how he was feeling. (Background, that past week, every day he brought up a new concern, so we would run over there and overcome it haha) So he said that he needed more time, and we aggreed before we saw him that if he had another concern we were just gunna let him be. So we did. He recommitted himself to April 2. General Conference weekend, neat. haha. But that was a bummer. 

I am tots jelli (totally jealous) that all yall are going to a Laker game! garsh! haha, They will win for sure because, I mean... cmon' its the Lakers. Everyone in Hopkinsville LOVES the Wildcats-- the UK basketball team. haha its nuts. No one will answer the door when the game is on, its pretty funny. 

That is crazy that Adam Wiggat (Figgat--family friend that lives in Carlsbad, CA and a couple years older than Spencer) is getting married, and that Kyle (Kyle Hill--another friend) is gunna be bye bye soon, and Daniel (Daniel Aranada--another friend) is back haha. crazy. 

So mom... we don't have a dinner tonight, you think you could order us some pizza on pizzahut.com? You can pay for it at home and they deliver it to us. MADDNESS! It's only a suggestion, but deep dish pepperoni is pretty tasty. Just saying :D haha. (Mom sent them two pizzas, soda and breadsticks:) Well I love yall! Have a good week in the warm cali weather. Have fun at the Laker game too... grr. haha. Peace out girl scouts.

Elder Cawley.

Cell Phone VS The Scriptures

THE CELL PHONE VS THE SCRIPTURES

I wonder what would happen if we treated our scriptures like we treat our cell phones? 
What if we carried it around in our purses or pockets?
What if we turned back to go get it if we forgot it?
What if we flipped through it several times a day?
What if we spent an hour or more using it every day?
What if we used it to receive messages?
What if we treated it like we couldn't live without it?
What if we gave it to other kids as gifts?
What if we used it as we traveled? 
What if we used it in case of an emergency?

This is something to make you go...."Hmmm..Dude.. where is my scriptures?"

Unlike our cell phones:
One Plan does fit all.
Unlimited usage. 
No roaming charges.
You always have reception.
You can use it in the mountains and in a tunnel.
It's free with no hidden costs,
AND you don't ever have to worry your scriptures being disconnected because CHRIST has already paid the bill!
 

nuff said.

"One Point for the Spirit!": 3/7/2011

"Wadd it iz home boi!?" That's what I say to all of our investigators that are black. haha. No joke though... I really do. :) 

So this past week was CHAOS!!! We have a Sister in our ward who does not like the Elders... but loves the Sister missionaries... figures haha. Anyways, she got kicked out by her landlord because she lost her job and couldn't pay rent. So we had to move her out. We show up on Friday morning, and there is a huge 26 footer U-haul truck. I was like "oooooo" --like those lil alien guys at pizza planet on Toy Story haha. So we walk into her house, and NOTHING and I mean NOTHING was packed. So we started packing stuff, moving stuff into the truck, and trying to get her packed as fast as possible. We were there from 10-1ish. It was crazy. 

So then we go out tracting and nothing really happened haha. Then Saturday morning we go back to the Sister's house at 9 am this time. (We skipped companion study until night time.) So we arive there and nothing had happened since we left yesterday, and she has to be completely moved out at noon! I was like... oh my gatos... haha. At this point, we were just throwing stuff into boxes and taking it to the truck. Oh by the way, she has no idea where she is moving to. Yeah, crazy. So we get everything ready to go, I don't know how we did, but we did. And she got moved out. 

Then 15 mins later, a Brother from our ward calls us and wants us to help him move all his heavy stuff into his U-haul truck. He is moving to Fort Rucker, in Alabama. So we drive down to his house and we get there and its a HUGE piano. I was like... oh no. We got that bad boy on the truck, and got all the couches and tables in the truck in like 20 mins. At this point it was 3ish and we had to be at a baptism for the Sisters at 4. 

Rose Andrews was getting baptized and she wanted me to say the opening prayer, because I taught her with Elder Wright. So that was pretty exciting. We had one of our investigators, Ron Wadlington, come to the baptism because he is going to get baptized this Saturday. So he liked the baptism, and later that night we get a call from him saying that he doesn't want anything to do with the Church. He doesn't want to get baptized and all this stuff. So we run over to his house, and talk with him. He said that the parents were looking at him (after the baptism), because he was playing basketball with the little kids and the parents thought he was being a sexual offender... I was like, um your crazy. haha. 

But I was just listening to everything he was saying, and then something crazy awesome happened. I said a prayer to help me know what to say to him. and a voice whispered to me and said, "Tell him he will have a dream tonight." 

me: "Ron, remember the Holy Ghost and what it does?"

ron: "Yeah."

me: "Well the Holy Ghost just told me something to tell you, do you want to hear what it said?"

ron: "Sure."

me: "The Holy Ghost told me that, tonight, when you say your prayers, and climb into bed, you will have a dream that will answer all of these questions and concerns that you have. All you need to do is pray, with faith, that you will have this dream. Ask our Heavenly Father to help you have this dream." 

It was sooo awesome! That is the strongest I have ever felt the Spirit! We are going over tonight to talk about the dream that he had last night. He texted us this morning and said "It worked." WOOHOO! One point for the Spirit! Well thats all the big stuff that happened this week. I love yall so much! Keep it real!

peace and blessings.

Elder Cawley

P.S. So on Wednesday, before District Meeting, President Hutchings called me and first rebuked me because I didnt update a refferal haha, oops, then he told me that in 2 weeks when we have transfers, I'm going to get transfered. He wants to see how I do in a new area, since we are doing so good in HopTown. Neat! I dont know where I'm going, but all I know is that I'm going somewhere! So that was pretty crazy haha. Yup. so... I'm not good at goodbyes... so..... that'll do pig... that'll do. 

P.S.S. Yesterday I related the Book of Mormon to chili. haha. I tasted the best chili I have ever had, and I asked Bro. McCraw where he got the recipe. He said the back of the can. And I related to how the best chili recipe is on the back of the can. Its so simple, yet overlooked by almost everyone that buys that can of chili. Now look at the Book of Mormon, its so simple yet overlooked by many as well. People are looking for answers but they don't know where to find it, and think they're questions are too simple to be found  in the Book of Mormon. I thought it was neat. haha.