Elder Cawley Meets David Archuleta: 6/20/2011

Hey family! (and friends)

Sooo the first week of the new transfer is over! It was a blast! Our new companion is SWEET!   He looks and acts JUST like Brandon Crow.  Like its kinda scary how they are the same.  So his name is Elder Alex Thompson. He is from Eagle, Idaho (just outside Bosie).  It is just like talking with bcrow when I talk to him, and he loves "The Goofy Movie"... just like bcrow. haha.  Look him up on facebook, its awesome.  

So we have been trying to find a family to baptize this past transfer and this transfer.  We prayed for a date in the near future when we are going to baptize a family.  So we decided that on July 9th we are gunna baptize a family... and I have no idea who it is  (hahaha) but we got so much faith that its gunna happen :)  

The Sounds game (minor league baseball) was awesome!!  There were around 60 missionaries singing the national anthem and the owner (or whatever of the team/field - idk, some high up dude) told President Hutchings that the way we sang the anthem is how it should be sung every time. NEAT!  Go Mormons!   

While there I met David Archuleta.  I went to go buy a Sounds baseball hat (which totally rocks btw) and I was like "wow that guys short... WOW thats David Archuleta!!"   So I walked right up to him and was like "hey, can I get a pic with you?"  He said sure, so we started talking and I got him laughing and we had a jolly good ol time of about 45 seconds.

OH so today for pday, we went shopping. I went to Marti and Liz shoe store. Its like nice shoes that were sent back so they sell them for super cheap.  So I got a pair of those and then we went to the Nike store and I got a shooting sleeve and a shirt bcuz this huge buff guy found out that I like bball... so he challenged me today at 4pm. I will own him! hopefully. haha.

Other than that there is nothing new.  I'm trying to learn how to spin stuff on my finger.  I got a pillow and a binder and my study journal down.  I'm working on the book of mormon hahaha. But I don't do that in public of course... haha. We are still in the finding stage, its super hard to find and teach people in this area, but I love it.   It makes me work hard so that makes me feel good.

Well, I love yall!   Tell Lina to do good at her volleyball tourny in Phoenix! And tell Bert alert (Brittany) to keep makin the monnay! hahaha. I cant wait to be an uncle! ahh!!  Imma make that baby look so fresh in the clothes I get him and stuff haha. Its gunna be neat!  kay, love yall!

Peace out girl scouts.

Elder Cawley

p.s. Oh! Tell the Donaldsons thanks for the candy package. They sent me like 15 lbs of candy ahhaha. I'm getting phat!

Singing at a Baseball Game: 6/13/2011

Hallo there,

So this past week has been really hard. We have this rule in the mission, where we can't drive our cars until we find 3 new investigators. So on Monday, we found 3 right off the bat. It was sweet. Then, nothing the rest of the week. This was the last week of the transfer, and we knew that one or 2 of us was going to get transferred, so we tried to make it a good week. Throughout the whole week, we had a total of 13 set appointments fall through. It stunk. They were all like in the evening too, so we had nothing to do at all in the evenings. So we just walked around and knocked doors. Not the most fun I've had. 

But today should be good. Elder Wursten is getting transfered to Clarksvull, so him and I are going to play some golf today. We are gunna go to Goodwill and get some cool clothes :) Elder Boyack and I are staying here in Franklin, and Elder Thompson is coming with us. 

But the good news is, that our zone is doing really well. 2 weeks ago we had only 2 dates in the zone, and now we have 11 dates :D Thats pretty good for 7 companionships. It has just been really hard to go talk to people since we have had a really crappy week, but that's okay, there is always a trial right before a miracle right?!  

Well I love yall!! I'll talk to yall later. Sorry this was so short, but we gotta go pick up and take missionaries places. WE ALL GET TO GO TO THE SOUNDS BASEBALL GAME!!!! And a bunch of missionaries are singing the national anthem!!! And I'm one of them!!!! WOOHOO!! hahahaha

peace out girl scouts.

Elder Cawley

President's Last ZLC: 6/6/2011

Man time is going by too fast. I don like it. haha. So yeah transfers are next week, so on Saturday we will find out who is leaving and staying and what not. So crazy. I did get the package with all the Shotmaster stuff in it :D  That P-day we wore all the Shotmaster shirts when we played basketball. It was way legit. haha. 

So Thursday was ZLC. It was soo awesome. It was Presidents last ZLC of his life... and from 9-12 it was trainings and round the table discussions. Then we had lunch, and this is where it gets good. So we come back from lunch, and we sit down. President stands up and tells us some advice on how to be good priesthood leaders. He told us everything that helped him out in his life. He then opened it up to testimonies. No one was getting teary eyed until Elder Stringam stood up and basically said that President told us one day that he is the way he is because he met a person that was a man of God and tried to be just like him. He went on to say that President Hutchings is a man of God, and we are all going to look to him as an example forever. 

We all started bawling. It was awesome. So we all bore our testimonies and I seriously cried for about a good 3 hours straight. It wasn't like making the cry face and huffing and puffin, just tears were flowing haha. After that, President got up and expressed his love for us. He said that this group is the best group of leadership he has seen since he got there. Then we sang, "Ye Elders of Israel" (Sister Hutchings' favorite song) and that was the closing song. I looked up and President and Sister hutchings were just crying like crazy. I dont think any of us made it through the last verse. That was the strongest I've ever felt the Spirit. 

It reminded me of Grandma and how she can't sing the song "God Be with You Till We Meet Again." I shared that in my testimony, I told all of the missionaries that I want to see them all in the Celestial Kingdom and we are gunna get in this group up there, and I dont want anyone missing. Very cool experience. I'm glad I could be there to witness that. 

Well I love yall. I'm fixin to go back out to work pretty soon. This is just a mini P-day, we are going to the temple on Friday so that will be our main P-day.

peace out girl scouts!

Elder Cawley