6 MONTHS!: 4/25/2011

Hey familia!

I got your Easter package thingy :) thanks so much! I'm still trying to eat it all, it was packed full of candy, which is a good thing of course. For Easter, we went to a Catholic Mass at 8:30am. It was crazy. There were SO MANY peeps there! haha. We had to stand because there weren't anymore chairs left. I was standing next to this huge Tongan guy, and we started talking and we just kept busting up. I felt horrible because I was laughing, but he was so dang funny! Turns out he isn't Catholic, and he just came here with his family for Easter. So I got his address and we are gunna go visit with them later on. Man that guy is legit! 

Hahaha oh man, Lina would pretend to battle against us to run down the stairs. But of course we all know that I would have won :) So anywho, Lina made the JV volleyball team!? NEAT!! That's awesome!! She has to start doing P90X to get a 6 pack and all that. Volleyball is so much fun, it helps when you can jump high, like me :D haha. 

Speaking of that, I dunked an alley oop last Pday. I got a free pizza because of it :D I bet Camille looked beautiful, like she always does. I'm happy she went to prom. Who was her date?? haha. Give meh the dets! 

So what is up with the Lakers losing to the hornets!!!!1!1! That's unacceptable! Its all good though, Kobe is just waiting to unleash the beast, and throw down like 81 points.  

Oh man the next time Cristine and Scott go to the doctors again, they will leave wiff a lil guy! crazy! haha. (Elder Cawley thinks I am ready to deliver apparently. hah. Not so. I still have 9 weeks to go:) There is this couple in our ward, the Barnes (I'm friends with him on Fbook, name is Christopher) and he reminds me EXACTLY like Scott haha. They have a lil boy named Tate, and he is the cutest lil guy ever! We had dinner at there house yesterday, and he just had some lil bball shorts on and Nike socks, and I was slappin his lil belly with a calculator haha. He was busting up. That is what I will do to the lil guy when I get home :) Do they know what his name is yet? (Nope.) Scott better train him to be the next Jimmer. I'll help him out too haha. 

Our Zone is doing really good, we had 3 baptisms last week, and we have 6 dates for next month. So we are doing aite. I am in the Winstead Hill Ward, the best ward ever. I could get stationed here for the rest of my mish and be perfectly fine. Its crazy to think I've been out 6 months... where did the time go?? Lets hope the rest goes by slow ;) 

So for Pday today, we are going to make sack lunches and go find the biggest tree we can find, climb it and eat our lunch in the tree. hahaha. How cool is that!! Trick is, finding the biggest tree, and not falling out hahaha. Naw we will be good, we got the armor of God on us! 

Yes mom, my clothes are doing good, although I did get this gnarly grass stain on one of my white shirts. We were at the Critchlows house for dinner (they are way awesome by the way) and they have this rubber band thingy that like launches you back and forth, and I did that and ate dirt like 1 min later haha. It was awesome! But anywho, I don't need anything, just some familia lovin! And yes, I washed my sheets last week haha. I love y'all so much! Hope y'all had a good Easter, and have a good week!

Love,
Elder Cawley

P.S. I forgot to put this in, but the Germans (a family in the ward) went grocery shoppin for us, and the daughter, Liesel brought it by last night. and they got us SO much food! It was awesome! I didnt even know what to say when I saw all of it, it was amazazing! And they are taking us out to dinner on Tuesday. Pretty much the coolest family ever. And they have a son on a mish in Arizona. Whelp, I think that's all haha. peace out girl scouts.

Fun with the AP's: 4/18/2011

Hey Familia!

So another week gone. Man time flys! I'm glad Rosalie and her papa got
to go to that Easter program. She has a strong spirit. Man that would be
awesome to see that happen. 

I saw that Todd and Heather are engaged! I went
crazy!!! That is soo awesome!! Awww Papa Kirby is all grown up. haha. I
didn't know about Justin though!! Who is he engaged too!?!?! That is totally
strange you mention Beau in your last letter, because I had a dream about
him a couple of nights ago.  He and I were talking and I was telling
him that he wasn't strong enough (physically) to keep going on, so I flew
out there to be his companion and we DID WORK!  Man I miss that kid.  It's
gunna be fun to party it up with him in 2012. He better wait to get married.
I gotta be one of his Best Mans (or whatever they are called). 

Yup I can skype yall on Mom Day :) that will be fun. I get to see all those cute lil faces, haha. 

So anywho, this week was awesome possum. I went on exchanges
with the APs and it was so much fun. We were laughing the ENTIRE 3 days. I
don't even remember what we laughed about, but we did. 

Then yesterday, it was 8:55pm and we had 5 mins till we could go inside. So we decided to walk down this road, and we were just walking, waving, and having a jolly ol' time. Then we spotted this skateboarder behind us and I was like YES
SKATEBOARDING! So we turned around and talked to him and we ended up talking
to him for around 20 mins. 

Turns out his Grandmama is a "Latter-Day Saint" as he said. It was awesome. He is a keyboardest in a band called "Hey Hi Hello" and they are going on tour to L.A. in 2 weeks. I was pretty jealous about that. I'm gunna add him on facebook, and keep in contact. He is gunna be Mormon someday haha. He said his band is a mixture of Owl City and Maroon 5. Pretty neat. 

So to put it in simple form... I love my mission. Love yall!
I'll see you guys on Sunday :O
 
Elder Cawley   

{Mom's Note: He apparently confused the upcoming Easter holiday with
Mother's day - bless his heart}

"chillin in the mission"

One Tie: 4/11/2011

Hey familia!! So this past week FLEW by! Its crazy how missionary time works. On Tuesday, I had my first ZLC (zone leader council) it was awesome. It was held in the mission home, so it was all of the zone leaders and president and the assistants. We talked about each one of our zones and what we are doing to help them progress. 

Then the assistants trained and talked about passion. How we need to have passion for missionary work. So we went around the table and each one of us talked about someone that we know that has passion for something. I talked about Grandma and Grandpa. How they have such a passion for the church, how they up and left everything to serve the Lord. How the missionaries LOVED them and although we all missed them, Singapore misses them more probably. 

After that, President gave us an hour to go off anywhere in the mission home and study the doctrine of Christ and write a letter. That is when I wrote my letter to Grandma. I prayed for about 10 mins, then picked up my pen and started writing like crazy haha. Very spiritual moment. 

After that we talked about sacrifice. Elder Boyack and I committed each other that we are going to wear ONE tie for the rest of our mission, we don't care how we look, we just want to spread the Gospel. That didnt work too well, on Sunday we were like, "i cant take it!" So that crashed and burned haha. But we are giving up singing songs that we knew back at home, it doesn't invite the spirit. 

Then on Wednesday, we went on exchanges with one of our district leaders, Elder Dallof. His companion, Elder Barton, came up to Winstead Hill with me and Elder Boyack. He loved it haha. The night he got here (he has been out 3 weeks now) at like 9:30 a knock was at the door and this laurel brought us cookies. It was weird haha. Once we shut the door, Elder Barton looks at us and says, "I like it here." I started busting up hahaha. So funny. 

This coming Wednesday I'm going on exchanges with the assistants. Pretty nervous haha. But I'm sure it will be a blast!! We found out why we weren't getting so many meals... turns out the ward still thought that you had to have an investigator or RCLA at the dinner still. So we told them that is not the case anymore, I guess before that rule we would be booked with breakfast, lunch and dinner. So lets hope that happens soon! I love the ward here, it reminds me of the ward back at home! 

This is crazy... so I only get to play basketball every Monday, but my shot is amazing now! I think my record is hitting 18 threes in a row, and every time I hit at least 4 or 5 in a row. Its awesome! haha. Little blessings from the Lord, yay! I am gunna get my hair did today, prolly gunna go to SportsClips. Get the MVP package, that thing is awesome! haha. Well I hope all is good in cali! We had a tornado touch down last week in Cool Springs, about 10 mins from our apartment! I got a video of how windy it was and how hard it was raining. There were HUGE trees knocked over and stuff. It was NEAT!!! well love yall!

Elder Cawley

Making/Keeping Goals: 4/4/2011

So I'm on week 3 of being ZL! crazy!! I'ts going by so fast!!! I guess it goes fast when you have good companions that you like. Like seriously everyday I think I laugh almost all day, even in lessons sometimes haha. 

I'ts pretty fun being a zone leader, you're in control of how your zone does. The first week, we only got 11 new investigators out of 8 comapionships... horribad. So last week we made a goal with President Hutchings to find 25 new inv. He told us that if you make a goal with him, we MUST meet that goal. If that means us finding 17 new inv. on Saturday... so be it. So on sunday we found 5 so we were like WOOHOO! haha. Then time to do numbers come... we add up the new inv. and we had 24!! We were like NOOO!! So I'm pretty scared to go to zlc tomorrow because thats when President is prolly gunna rebuke us. haha. 

But yeah other then that I am doing good. I'ts crazy in Franklin... so many parties... if I had a dollar for how many times I was offered a beer or a cig I would be a rich man haha. I'ts nuts. 

We are doing a challenge with the ward. We are going to every active family and giving them a BofM and we are saying, "However many BofMs you pass out, we will double it." So if the ward passes out 50 we will pass out 100. I'ts pretty neat! haha. 

Well I hope yall are having a good time, enjoy that nice warm cali weather. peace out :D
 
love,
Elder Cawley