a farewell party at buffalo wild wings

10/22/2012: mall miracle

holy guacamole! i'm not even going to say it haha.

Yesterday we had stake conference (and it sounds like you all did too haha). It was awesome!! we had Elder Parker of the 70 there. it was awesome!!!

So here is a crazy story that we found out at stake conference. So, last pday after emailing, my companion and I went to go get lunch. i was driving but i wasn't even really paying attention and didn't even ask him where he wanted to go. i just for some reason drove to the mall food court and we went to China Wok (super tasty and they load it up!!) so we are just sitting there in the food court laughing and having a jolly good ol time and then we leave. normal story righhhttt??? so we get to stake conference, and we meet a family that the hopkinsville elders have been teaching. The mom looked at us and started to tell us this story of how she wasn't sure if she should join the "Mormon" church or not and she was praying for God to just give her a sign. Well she was praying in her heart about that... in the mall. She turned the corner and BOOM we are sitting in the food court hahaha. She said that she was just stunned that right when she prayed, she sees 2 missionaries in the food court. She didn't come up and talk to us because she was in shock and at a loss of words. CRAZY!!!

Then Elder Parker on sunday, stopped mid sentence in his talk and said, "someone in this audience, i don't know who it is, but someone needs to act on the promptings they are getting from the Holy Ghost. they should not resist it any longer." and after conference she and her family decided to get baptized!! woohoo!!! i just thought that was awesome!! you never know when the Holy Ghost is guiding you... even when you are hungry. stay classy!!!! i love yall!!!

Peace out Girl Scouts!

Elder Cawley

P.S. don't get all trunky and excited but i sent two packages home with some of my stuff in it... it will get there like wednesday. and its mine!!! so... NO TOUCHY!

10/15/2012: the chef got baptized!

welp, our chef got baptized on saturday!!! woohoo!!!! It was awesome! he wanted a small baptism, so about 13 ppl were there. Elder Duke baptized him, and I confirmed him on Sunday :) I think that he is the most prepared individual I have ever seen, no joke. He just loves the Book of Mormon... he can't get enough of it! They invited us over for dinner tonight, we are having ribs and steak :O

in Elders Quorum yesterday, they passed around a sign up sheet for the chili cook off on the 27th and i looked at him and was like, "hmm... i wonder who is gunna win???" and he laughed and signed up. He already has an interview with the bishop to talk about him getting the aaronic priesthood :) He is going to be an awesome and strong member!

as for our actress, she is SUPER busy with her shows right now :( but we still keep in touch with her. she wasn't able to come to church yesterday because she was so busy.

It seems like once i leave everything starts happening... on Nov 7th Elder Christofferson is coming out to organize another stake in our mission :) woo!! go missionaries! also, Elder Perkins (from priesthood session) is coming to our mission in november as well... why couldn't they have done this in october!! It kind of hit hard yesterday just how little time i have left on my mission. We were over at some members' home for dinner, and when we were leaving brother _____ and i realized that this was the last time we were going to see each other, he is deploying on saturday. so he looked me in the eye and just said, "have a good life okay??" and i just looked at him like... holy cow... its starting to become real now. I LOVE this family. Brother _____ is Haitian and speaks like 8 languages... no joke haha. he is awesome. and Sister ______ is a Californian, so we always talk about cali.

its weird though... just gotta work hard. Elder Duke and I planned that my last week we are just going to work as hard as we can... like we never have before... go out with a bang! i hope all is well back home!!! i love y'all!!! Cardon and I can have an eating contest! i love y'all!! stay classy!

Peace out girl scouts!

Elder Cawley

10/8/2012: loved General Conference!

General Conference was AWESOME!!!! Man, all of it was good!! i think my favorite favorite favorite one... was good ol' Jeffery. It was kind of crazy, at ZLC we watched a devotional Holland gave at the MTC in January 2011. He talked exactly about what he did on Sunday, but it was better at the MTC, mainly because he had 45 mins :) it was INTENSE!! he gave like the NIV version of John 21 and he just put detail into it and everything. I always thought of what would happen if someone tried to biblebash Holland... that would be nuts!!! hahaha.

Our play investigators are doing pretty good. they are SUPER busy with their play, so its hard to see them, but we see them every sunday and like one other day. the girl is super awesome and already knows all the doctrine to be baptized... she is just waiting for an answer :) I'm listening to Holland's talk while writing this. its just so good!!!

and jakey is getting huge!!! i see pics of him every so often... he is a baller. haha. and dad i thought about sitting next to ya while watching priesthood session, i kinda had the split screen of us watching its as well. it was awesome.

That is exciting about Camille going on a mission!!! she is going to be an awesome missionary, we all know that she will :) it was so amazing to feel the spirit when President Monson said that announcement... it just felt right. well i love y'all!! stay classy!!! eat some in n out for me!! :)

Peace and Blessins!!

Elder Cawley

10/1/2012: last month of the mish

hey its october!!!!!! hahaha.

We went to the temple on wednesday, and the whole time president mckee was like "time is ticking!" and i would go "president! stop it!" haha. and he would just laugh and smile. It was pretty cool though, because president told me that my last month i will get a lot of revelation on my future, and he said when that happens... just go write it down and not look at it until you get home. that way i stay focused :) so i've been doing that.

Yesterday, we had to teach gospel principles... so we decided to teach "The Church of Jesus Christ Today" since our england investigator was at church again. it was cool because it was me and my comp, then our english investigator and the member friend that brought her and 2 others... so small class and we just had them talking the whole time. i like it that way because then we don't have to talk and lecture hahaha. Then they signed up to feed us, well they said to call them because they are so busy with rehearsals and shows, but they want to have lunch with us and have us meet the cast! crazy! 

My comp and I made a goal to read the standard works this month. we have to read TONS of pages to do that. i think its something like 80 pages a day... but its for a good cause i reckon! thanks mommy for the package and pictures!! :) me and my comps trade mark is hot chocolate in a mug hahaha. so the hot chocolate was perfect :) and i downed the salsa and chips!! got a lil left. i hope everything is going as planned for bert's wedding!! :) i love yall!!!  stay classy yall!! Jakey is a stud. end of story.

Peace out girl scouts

Elder Cawley

9/24/2012: miracles

hey familia!! :)

Seems like my companion and I are just seeing miracle after miracle here in Clarksville!!! The first one was our chef investigator that has now finished the Book of Mormon, and made us filet mignon and ribs :):) he is a stud.

The next one happened to us yesterday at church!! So we are in the Chapel just shaking peoples hands, and a couple walks in with a Sister in our ward. Her husband just deployed so we just assumed that it was someone she knew helping her out.... so we thought. After sacrament meeting, we talk to more people, and we walk into our Gospel Principles class and that couple is in there... and i think to myself, "why are they not in Gospel Doctrine???" They are both participating and everything and after the class we go up and talk to them. She is from England, and is an actress that is here for 3 months doing some Dolly Parton musical called like 9 5 or something like that haha. And the guy is an actor in the musical as well, he is a member and he brought her because she has never met a Mormon before. it was sweet!! She asked for our number and said that she would be interested in learning more!!! Just awesome people that are being prepared are showing up to church! i love it!! Everyone at church was coming up to her and saying that they love her accent too. it was pretty funny.

Tonight we are going over to see our chef investigator and he is cooking us seafood this time :O  its the best, but we are running out of lessons to teach him because every time we go over and teach a lesson he goes "teach me more!" and we cant say no. its great :)

I had a good birthday too :) my comp and I went to Chili's!! super tasty strawberry lemonade. remember we would always have competitions to see how many we could drink??? haha. well i think that's it for this week. i love yall :) thanks again for everyone sending me birthday wishes and cards :):) i loved em all. stay classy!! :)

peace n blessings!!

Elder Cawley

9/17/2012: happy birthday elder cawley!

well i reckon its my birthday this week haha. it doesn't feel like it. it is going to take some getting used to when i tell ppl that im 21 and not 20. crazy!! 

So, nothing really happened this week :( although we did teach the husband of the member that wants to get baptized. and he is a chef! like... a good one haha. he went to culinary school and then right after went to France and had a chef teach him for 6 months. Our first appt with him, he cooked us filet mignon wrapped in bacon... super tasty!! and he is just about the most solid person ever, is already in 4th Nephi... knows the church is true... just needs to be taught the lessons and then baptized!! awesome possum!! 

On wednesday, we are having a zone meeting. Since the First Presidency took out leadership training, they want each zone to hold a zone meeting right after ZLC and train the missionaries on what we learned. So that will be on wednesday, we are going to plan most of it today. our zone didn't really change much with transfers. in our whole zone, only 3 people are leaving, the rest are staying the same. i think that they are leaving missionaries in areas longer. 

anywho, i hope yall have a great week!! gotta finish this race running!!! :) i love yall!! stay classy!!

Peace out Girl Scouts!!

Elder Cawley

fun fact... Lake Tahoe is west of Los Angeles!!

9/10/2012: golden referral

my gosh!

this transfer has flown by!! transfer calls are this saturday... then starting next tuesday... is my last transfer... what the... haha. anywho... enough being trunky. 

This week was good. we got an awesome referral!!! This member in our ward just got married last saturday, and she called us up (she talks pretty fast) and told us that her husband wants to join the church. she said that he wanted to wait for a couple months but woke up one morning and said to call the missionaries. So we talked to him, and he wants us to come over twice a week and teach him. They are feeding us every monday, and he just wants to get taught all the lessons so he can get baptized as quickly as possible, because he already knows the church is true. so after all that happened, i picked up my jaw from the ground, and we set up times to go over and teach him :):) woohoo!! its pretty awesome how that worked too because my comp and I were praying to know who we were going to baptize this month, because our teaching pool is pretty low right now. and then BAM, golden referral. its awesome!! 

anywho, we got ZLC tomorrow. love that! we get spiritually fed and also physically fed! stinks though... because my day to drive is tomorrow... so i have to drive us all down to brentwood and back tomorrow. dangit. haha. oh well. its worth it!! 

thats awesome to hear about the Elder Cawley in Florida. (spencer's cousin) he is going to love the mission! :) the weather here has been sweet! in the mornings it feels like CALI! but then it gets really hot and humid later in the day... but i still love it! :) hope all is well back home! i miss yall!! stay classy :) haha.

peace out girl scouts.

Elder Cawley.

8/27/2012: knockin' doors

waddup peeps!!

well, this week was pretty good :) we had to do some baptismal interviews for the traveling elders (they teach at appointments that members set up where there aren't any missionaries) and every time we went on exchanges for that... our appointments fell through. so i was like, "welp, lets go knock some doors." it went okay, we did find some new people to teach! most of em just moved into clarksville, cuz the army is switching people around... kinda like transfers. its going to be weird when september hits though... because all of the 101st is getting deployed, and also 3rd brigade, and that is... like our whole ward! haha. so most of the priesthood will be gone... no bueno. so all of the sisters in the ward are planning to feed us still... but have it be a huge get together, where all of the families get together at someone's house and they promised to bring friends :) otherwise... we couldn't get fed cuz all the hubbys are leaving :( 

hey mom remember that one time you got me chick fil a and i didn't like it??? well that must have been like a bad piece of chicky or something... cuz i'm obsessed with it now!! haha. the people that work there know us too!! or maybe because we stick out horribad? idk. but we were talking to one guy that works there and he was asking where our church was and he is interested :) woohoo!! so it pays off to eat chick fil a! 

Clarksvegas is the land of miracles though... since so many people move in n out (i miss that food btw...) there are always new people to talk to! you could knock one street... then in 4 months... there will be 4 new families on the same street. crazy!! so we are always finding new people that have never seen or heard about missionaries before. 

oh story time. so this prolly isn't the best story, but yeah. Duke and I were just having a poopy day. nothing was going for us. we decided to knock some houses, and we knock on this one and the lady opens her door... this is how it went

Me: "hello ma'am! we are representatives of Jesus Christ and w...."
her: "can you read mr. representative??"
Me: "... yes?"
her: "can you not read the 'no soliciting' sign?!?!"
Me: "yeah i read it :) (the smiley means i smiled when i said that haha) but we aren't soliciting ma'am"
her: "why don't you go get a dictionary, look up the word soliciting, then come talk to me."

(ooohhhh that made me mad!!)

Me: "ma'am have you looked it up recently?? if not... maybe you should, so you don't make yourself look silly again... have a good day."

so i know that was totally not the most Christ-like thing. and i did repent of it haha. but that lil comment just pushed me over... and i don't get mad easily... i totally could have said it differently though... my bad. 

on a better note, we have zone conference tomorrow!!! so that is always a plus... time to get spiritually fed! :) i hope yall are stayin classy!!! and fyi... that pic of me and duke sleeping was at institute... they played an hour long movie that we watch all the time as missionaries... all i remember was our teacher putting the movie in... then waking up to everyone giggling... haha. no bueno. just remember... life is like a box of chocolates... you never know what you're gunna get! love yall!!

peace out girl scouts!

Elder Cawley

picture update

a member of the ward where elder cawley is serving shared this picture and said, "Our missionaries work so hard!! We love them!!"

we love knowing that there are members and nonmembers alike who love our spencer and are taking care of him. 

--cristine

8/20/2012: getting dinners

well this week has kind of been slow :( i think it is safe to say that almost every appointment that we had set up, fell through :( even a dinner! but its all part of life i reckon. 

There were a couple awesome things that happened though. one was a young couple moving in our ward. He is deploying next week and she is moving back to texas while he is gone. and we helped them move out and they took us to lunch, and then they said, "okay, any food that is in our kitchen... you can take, cuz if you dont take it... we are just going to throw it away." so we LOADED up this huge box full of food hahaha. it felt pretty weird though, i felt like i was stealing from someone. but they kept saying... take this, and this, and that. i was like "okay... if we have to"... hahaha. :) and we thanked them like prolly 1786 times :) 

and i found a new way to get dinners. yesterday i just walked around with the calender in my hand, and people came up to talk to me and they would see it in my hand and ask to see it. it worked like a charm!! since the ward is struggling on callings, there are not a lot of people in EQ or RS, so its hard to pass it around. so i think this way will be easier on the members, and us :) 

anywho, other then that it has been a reallllly slow week :( hopefully this week is better!! :) i love yall!! stay classy!!

peace n blessins.

Elder Cawley

p.s. http://www.clarksvillenow.com/pages/13932515.php?imageGalleryXRefId=2917521#imgXR CHECK IT!!!! community service... YES! 

 

8/13/2012: laughing buddies

hey familia!!

on saturday we had another baptism!! :) woohoo!! it was a 10 year old... that stud. 

it was awesome i found these super legit programs that you can make on sugardoodle.com or something like that? idk haha. but they looked sweet. 

anywho, i was able to baptize him! and it was funny cuz the day before we went over and showed him everything and i was like "kay, any questions at all??" he goes "yeah... will the water tickle my ears cuz i don't wanna start laughing underwater." hahahaha. i just started laughing it was hilarious. his dad isn't a member, and his mom is active now. so woohoo!! 

Elder ____-my new companion-- and i are like brothers...i swear. we like all the same things, have the same toothbrush (didn't plan that) we keep thinking the same thing... its gettin weird haha. hopefully we will set a couple more dates this week so we can help more people come unto Christ! time is flying too... its almost half way through august!

There was a pretty sweet storm this mornin. the lightning was hitting right next to us... so the thunder wasn't quiet thats fo sho. haha. man. i'm still super jealous that yall got to go to the beach house!! we better go there again!! "im.... gunna soak up the suuuunnnn"  

oh so, one night elder ______ was driving, and we were just telling stories, and i don't even remember what he was saying, but we were laughing so hard! we were just in the laughing mood... like i couldn't breath. i started to get a lil worried hahaha. and it was on our way to an appt, and so when we showed up they thought that i had been crying cuz my face was red and i had tears in my eyes from all the laughter! that's basically all that happens... we just laugh all the time. well i love yall!! stay classy!!

peace out girl scouts.

Elder Cawley

8/6/2012: golden investigator

so y'all are at the beach house?!?! jealous!!!!

So my companion is being transfered, and he is the new assistant!! he almost passed out when prez called him. President told me that i will be in clarksville for the rest of my mission... so that will be 10 1/2 months in C-ville!!! crazy!! my new comp is Elder ____, he is awesome. i've known him my whole mission. he lost his dad while he was on his mission, that happened about 4 months ago. he went home for a couple days, and then came right back out. he is going to see miracles because he chose to stay! 

here is one... we got a referral from mormon.org and it said, "i want to become a member and learn more :)" i was like no way... its too good to be true haha. so we go over, and it is an APSU student. she is 20 years old and SUPER GOLDEN!!! like she already had a book of mormon, i read a couple verses out of the bible and she had me underline it and mark the pages and everything... just pure golden. she asked how long i had left on my mission and i said 3 months and she goes... "oh don't worry... you will baptize me before you go home." i was like saweet!!! hahaha. i guess she is a model and she competes in Miss USA too... crazy stuff. she lived in provo for a semester when she was in high school and that's how she got introduced to the church. she has been reading a ton!! seriously like the most golden person i have ever taught! 

oh! on sunday, bro._____ came up to us and said, "i am going to teach you the secret..." and i was like the secret of what?? he said. bread! haha. i about jumped for joy!!! he is FAMOUS in the ward for his bread... it is celestial!!! people go crazy when he brings a loaf of bread. so he is inviting us over and teaching us how. He is in the bishopric. he is about 60 years old, very soft spoken and just a stud. i love him! i call him John the Beloved! because he totally could be him! 

The ward was pretty excited that i was staying for the rest of my mission. it was funny cuz my old comp was with me at church, then right after church the assistants came and picked him up, and dropped off my new companion, then we went to our wards break the fast... so everyone was trippin out that i had my new comp already when they just saw the other one fifteen minutes ago hahaha. it was pretty funny! oh and the food was super good too... as always :) 

well i miss yall!! have fun partying up at the beach house!! gosh. oh! people here keep talking about some famous root beer in cali?? called like henry whinehouse?? or something like that... idk what that is. maybe yall could send some to me? :):) stay classy!!

Peace out Girl Scouts!!

Elder Cawley

7/30/2012: all smiles

baptism!! woohoo!!

on saturday we have 4 baptisms!! well technically three, since one was eight years old, so he was a child of record. it was hilarious. they are all kids, so when the first went to go get baptized they all started giggling and saying "is it cold?!" i made sure to make it super cold... not haha. 

We had all of the primary and young women presidencies there so it was an awesome day. We confirmed the 8 year old on saturday, and then the other 3 in sacrament meeting. it took up about 15 mins of sacrament meeting... oops. 

It is pretty awesome though, because we are good friends with the bishopric, the elders quorom presidency, and the primary presidency. also with the RS presidency. we are always smiling and laughing on sundays. its awesome to see. 

on saturday morning we did some service, and Brother _____ (EQ president) was there, and me and him were laughing soo hard. he is from Haiti and speaks 7 languages!!! he is hilarious. it is just so fun to go to church and KNOW that you are going to be smiling and happy. i cant picture what it would be like if it was all frowns. 

that is awesome about bert and cardon! today we are going cave exploring :) so it will be pretty fun! i love y'all!! i hope all is well in cali!!

peace n blessins!

Elder Cawley

7/23/2012: four lil baptisms

We didn't have a baptism last week, its for this week. our 4 lil kids are getting baptized!! so awesome!! this week has been pretty slow, because people are still on block leave, so the town isn't that much of a ghost town... but its still a lil abandoned haha. 

we focused on Less Active work this week. we had around 20 rcla visits this past week. it's a little different then what we normally do, but hopefully that will bring more people to church :) we have been struggling with finding people to teach lately :( idk why, but not a lot of people are interested when we talk to them. hopefully if we just continue to push forward... prepared people will be put in our paths :) 

sorry this is short :( don't have a lot of time to email. we have a DLC soon today. always things to do... haha. even on Pday :( i love y'all!! stay classy!! :)

Peace out girl scouts.

Elder Cawley

7/16/2012: bonding

whats up fam bam! :)

 

this week was pretty good. :) i'll start out with a funny story. So, Elder Hymas came and visited the mission (he is the same one that came to teach the YSA sunday school class a couple weeks ago) and he talked about how we need to involve the members in with our missionary work, and help them become friends with our friends we are teaching :) it was super good :) half the mission was here in clarksville... super powerhouse in that chapel. 

 

after he was done, elder_________ and i took the chalkboard back to the gym and cleaned it, and i had to go to the bathroom. So i walk to the smaller bathroom, because i just knew that the other one was prolly packed. so i walk in and Elder Hymas is in there!! and there are only 2 urinals... so i had to go next to him hahahaha. and the best part was... that i couldn't go to the bathroom bcuz there was a general authority right next to me!!! hahaha. so i just waited there, and flushed after a couple mins. and he flushed right after me! haha.

 

so we we talked while we were washing our hands. it kinda surprised me because he knew who i was. he went "Elder Cawley!!! how are ya?!" and i just said, "oh i'm just doing great!! Thanks for coming." and we just talked for a couple more mins. it was funny too because my comp was outside the bathroom waiting for me. and when Elder Hymas opened the door his face went blank. PRICELESS!!  

 

We are teaching sooo many lil kids right now. which is kinda funny because we are working with the YSA too... the lil kids are future YSA though! :) everyone keeps asking me how we are teaching so many lil kids right now and i just tell em, "go contacting in Toys 'R' Us. its a gold mine!" hahahaha. hopefully they realize that i am joking... if not they will get a good story out of it right?  

 

As of right now we have 5 baptismal dates in our area, all lil kids, all getting baptized on the 28th :) and we had 2 more people show up to church that their friends brought :) and we set up appts with them :) so this next week will be good too :) welp. hope all is well back in CALI! i love y'all!! stay classy!

 

Peace n Blessins'

 

Elder Cawley

7/9/2012: zone meeting

well this week was pretty good. we had a zone meeting to help push the work forward :) it is mainly just to excite the missionaries :) i trained on a program called Set to Wet. its 12 things that we should be doing with our investigators that will help them progress towards baptism. everyone came up to me and said that it was a good training and it helped them :) 

 

we fed all of the missionaries hot dogs and chips and soda on the 4th. (that was when our zone meeting was) it think it was pretty good :) the clarksville 3rd ward had 3 baptisms on saturday. it was awesome to see that family come closer towards Christ. 

 

In a couple weeks we will have our family of 4 baptized :) they have come to church the past three weeks :) its awesome to see! i love it!! sorry this is so short, but we are short on time! haha. i will try and write y'all a letter this week to tell ya more :)  love y'all!!

 

Peace out Girl scouts.

 

Elder Cawley

 

 

7/2/12: cold hands

hey familia :)

well this week has been awesome :) we had another baptism on saturday :) It was awesome too because his biological dad flew all the way from alaska to clarksville just to baptize and confirm him. they hadn't seen each other for 17 years... crazy!!! it was a trip teaching him too. he is the most chill guy ever! haha. he was just prepared. all we did was just invite him to do certain things, and he did them... without hesitation... and he found out that it was true. after that, he wanted to be baptized :) 

oh and on sunday our family that we are working with came to church again :) we sat right behind them. They have 4 kids that are not baptized... and after we sustained our newest convert a member of the church, the dad leaned over to one of his sons and whispered, "soon that is going to be you." so awesome!! these kids are hilarious!! on of the sons has a HUGE white fro haha. they all joke around with each other and are just super funny. they invited us over for the 4th of July to eat fewd and watch some fireworks. (i guess they bought the second most expensive package of fireworks.... oh boy) but don't worry... i ain't touching any of em! haha. 

sunday was seriously the best day ever... we had to go to 5 hours of church though... that was no bueno haha. we went to first ward (where the ysas meet) and then we went to the second ward too. Elder Hymas of the 70 came to the first ward and he taught the YSA sunday school class :):) it was awesome :):) before church we pulled into a parking spot, and elder hymas pulled up next to us, then our stake president pulled up next to him! we all walked into church together. he said he remembered me from my cold hands.... darn cold hands hahaha. last time i met him he said, "oh you got cold hands... but that means you got a warm heart" hahaha. i reckon so! 

anywho, this month will be a good month for the YSAs and also for 2nd ward. lots of miracles are happening!! :) i love it!! i love yall!!! stay classy!!

Peace out girl scouts.

Elder Cawley

6/25/2012: transfers...but not really

well another week down :O haha.

We got transfer calls on saturday too!! it was kind of a confusing call... so basically...the YSAs were meeting with the second ward as a magnent ward, but the stake moved the magnent ward to the first ward now... so, we moved the zone leader area to the 1st ward, and the 1st ward elders are now going to cover 2nd ward. we just flip flopped. so these next couple of weeks we are going to be working on transitioning each others' investigators and all that. kinda stinks... we lose our nice apartment, awesome ward, and all of our investigators... :( we were planning on having 8 baptisms next month too haha. but the Lord knows better.

Elder Lund is leaving. so it will just be Elder Adams and I working with the YSA this next transfer. on saturday we also had a baptism :):):) it was awesome. there weren't too many people there though :( but he still felt the spirit and enjoyed every second of it :) i had to conduct it since everyone is on block leave. clarksville is still a ghost town. Next week is ___ and ____'s baptism :) lots of em this next month haha. 

that is crazy that jakey is 1!! he is getting huge!! no bueno!! he aint gunna know me! haha. i love yall!!! make sure to stay classy :)

peace n blessins.

Elder Cawley

6/18/2012: carmel filled cupcakes

so bert alert survived!! (elder cawley's sister went on a humanitarian trip to ethiopia) woohoo. did she bring a monkey home? that would be sweet!!

 

so this week has been kinda slow. didn't see all the people that we wanted to... because almost everyone is gone on leave from the army. so the town is like... empty. it's weird. 

 

anywho. on saturday, we are going to have 2 baptisms :) it is going to be awesome. one is a ysa, so that will help with building the ysa program. the other one is a friend of a member. this member has seriously brought in almost 12 people to the church (she was baptized 2 years ago). every conversation she has, she brings up the gospel. pretty neat to see. 

 

tonight we are going to have FHE with a young couple that was baptized, and with 2 other ysas also :) its gunna be a party haha. oh so elder adams and i helped build that fence and stuff that i told ya about a while ago. well we had dinner over at their house on saturday, and she is a baker. oh man... she made some goooood cupcakes. carmel filled. tasty!! haha. anywho, they are so awesome. i love them. we get along so well. and we invited them to church, and the husband said that he would... and he did!! woohoo!! we were laughing cuz there was this baby sitting in front of us... that had sooo many rolls!! the dad started bouncing him on his leg and it was like chunk from the goonies doing the truffle shuffle!! hahaha. i just started laughing!! it was great. and he enjoyed church too :) hopefully they will feel the spirit and wanna follow those feelings :) 

 

that's exciting for daniel to be baptized!!! i miss that lil smile of his. well i hope all is well in cali. eat some in n out for me!! i love y'all!!

 

stay classy.

 

Elder Cawley

6/11/2011: baptisms!!

yay for baptisms!!!!

so the mother and daughter i talked about in the last couple of emails got baptized :):) it was a super spiritual baptism!! the dad has been a member his whole life, but not active. his parents are super active and have been trying to get missionaries over to teach them for about 6 years now. so ALL of his family were over there and we prolly had about 60-70 people at the baptism. it was awesome. the grandfather baptized em, and when he was in the font with his daughter-in-law, he said her name, and got half way thru the prayer, and just started crying. he couldn't even speak for about 2 mins. and then he finished speaking, and then baptized her. and then his granddaughter got in the font, and she is 11. and he couldn't even say her name, he was just crying. i think everyone in the room was crying. super awesome spirit there. then after like 4 mins he was able to baptize her. it was soo awesome!! i'll send pics of it when i can, i can't upload pics at this dumb library haha. 

oh then not this weekend, but next weekend we will have 2 more baptisms :) they aren't related, just wanna get baptized haha. :) then the week after that... another baptism!!! in total, we should have around like 4 or 5 baptisms in our area this month. it's so awesome!! i love it. 

i can't believe camille is at college and daniel is 8 and charzard is gunna be in high school. WEIRD! hope all is well back in california! sounded like the youth conference was a big hit :) tell lina that she can't talk to boys. love y'all!!

peace out girl scouts.

Elder Cawley

P.S. yesterday we held a fireside for our stake and guess who spoke???? Brother Freeman... who is the first African American to receive the priesthood after the revelation was given!!! and don't worry mom, i got a picture with him haha. it was so sweet to listen to him speak!! he told us his whole life story. i'll send it to ya when i can :) love y'all!!

6/4/2011: chutes and ladders

hey family!!

 

so good to hear about eric's farwell and also that michael should be getting his call soon!! that's a good job!!  

 

now for a change of subject, this week was not so good haha. it just felt like one super duper long day. and a bunch of our appointments cancelled and a couple investigators dropped us. so that's no bueno. we were kinda just exhausted mentally, physically and spiritually. 

 

the good news though is that on saturday we will be having 2 baptisms :) it's a part member family :) the mom and the daughter are getting baptized, the dad has been less active his whole life. but it was awesome bcuz the mom said that she wants to go to the temple in a year... so they will be in white twice!! woohoo!! their family is coming from florida and kansas and like everywhere to see her get baptized. it's awesome. Then a couple weeks after that a kid named _______ will get baptized :) he is 11 years old. i was with a member (who is going on his mission in 2 months to russia) and we taught him the plan of salvation using chutes and ladders hahaha. it worked like a charm!! so i took the mount thingy off and that was us in the spirit world. then you put it on so your person stands up and that's your body. then you play the game, or you go thru life. every time we hit a chute or ladder we stopped and i explained a principle. and the bottom half of the board was earth, the top half was the spirit world and so on and so forth. the mom was like "cameron, do you understand everything??" and he explained everything back to her. i was like suhweeet!! haha. this kid also LOVES legos too. so after every lesson we take 10 mins and build something hahaha. last time i built a pretty sweet looking staircase. and he built a shark... mine looked cooler. hands down.  

 

anywho. something cool that i'm doing is going through the book of mormon and circling the word "remember" and also highlighting EVERY question mark (these ones ---> ? ) just cuz i wanna see how many questions are in the book of mormon. cuz that's how you learn the most, by questions. and if you don't remember what you have gone thru... you missed the point. so this will help me remember :) 

 

anywho, hope all is well at home!! sure love ya!! ill pray for brittany(...she barely survived when we did the trek thingy for like 2 days...) love y'all!! i'm gunna have a southern accent when i come home :) gotta have one for when i live in tennessee!! :):)

 

peace out girl scouts.

 

Elder Cawley

5/28/2012: two more baptism dates!

So this week was pretty good :) 

We met with the family that we have been working with, and the dad finally got home from ranger school, so the mom and daughter want to get baptized!! woohoo!! it's awesome! the dad has been a member his whole life, but fell away in high school. He then got married and had kids, and the mother in law (dads mom) was trying to get the rest of his family baptized, but they just didn't want anything to do with the church. for 6 years this young family pushed the missionaries away in Hawaii... then they came to Tennessee. Now they are going to be baptized and all of their family is coming out for it. people from florida and kansas and everywhere are coming  to see it!! its awesome!!! 

then last night we had a lesson with a YSA who is investigating the church. he told us that he wanted to be baptized!! woohoo!! so next month is a good month. it was kinda funny. he told us that he is leaving for a couple weeks to go see his family and his girlfriend in Louisiana. so... we taught him the Law of Chasity hahaha. we told him that if he wanted to be baptized that he had to start living these commandments now. He agreed. it was awesome to just see this guy change. he is already in Helaman and we have been meeting with him for about a month. crazy! :) i love it. 

well i cant talk too long... only got 30 mins :( i hope y'all have a wonderful holiday!! miss y'all!!!! LOVE YALL!!! 

peace out girl scouts.

Elder Cawley

elder cawley is on the top row. 6th from the right.

5/21/2012: 5 dates set!

hey there.

so this past week was pretty normal. except on thursday my companion and i had to drive down to nashville for him to do some more tests at the hospital (well actually i just drove down. he slept the whole way). it was crazy cuz we were going to be late, so i had to pull out my california driving skills and we got there on time. i didn't speed, i just didn't let myself get behind slow cars haha.

anywho, so we drove all the way down to nashville... then we had to wait two hours to see what the results were. bcuz if they came back negative then he would have to have another surgery... so we just killed two hours. and then we could go home. so we left clarksville at like 1ish and got back at 10. i was driving the whole time so i was super tired! best nights sleep ever... that's for sure.

then on friday and saturday, we set a total of 5 dates :) and i think in total we have about 7 dates in our area... so the ysa is moving forward! hopefully we have a branch up here soon, if all goes to plan. i think every week my emails get shorter and shorter... haha sorry about that :( i will promise to work on that :)

love yall!!! i've been craving in n out soo much this past week bcuz everyone i talk to asks me if its better then five guys and i just look at them and say "... yes" hahaha. and then i try to describe it to them... but it just doesn't do the job :( oh well. stay classy!!

Peace out girl scouts. ( i ate like a whole box of thin mints the other day... soo gewd!)

Elder Cawley

5/14/2012: silly mood email

hey family! 

 

long time no talk! man it was super weird to punch the home phone number on the phone. but i enjoyed talking to y'all!! even though jakey was throwing things hahaha. So today we had to get up and study for an hour, then drive our new mini van down to franklin. the best place on earth! and we just played lots of bball and now we are waiting to hear if the sounds game is cancelled. yesterday the sounds were supposed to have a game, but it got rained out. so they are doing a double header today... so instead of the game starting at 6pm... it starts at 5pm. and the best part is... the mission van that is supposed to pick us up broke down hahaha. so we gotta drive there. crazyness!! i hope it doesn't rain though... bcuz i don't want my dollar hot dogs to get soggy... haha am i right?! that would be a no bueno. 

 

anywho, and so i checked my memory card and i got 20 pictures left. so i gotta go get another one. but that shouldn't be too much :( anywho, idk what else to say hahaha. since i talked to y'all yesterday. hope y'all have a great week. oh well last week we did help build a huge fence for a guy. it took a couple days to finish it... but we got cake and lil caesars pizza.... and believe me... the pizzas were hot... and they were ready. hahaha. i think i'm in a silly mood. 

 

oh also, the couple we made the fence for, made us this cake. it was soooo rich! it was good, but so rich. the husband was like,"yeah this is too rich for my blood." haha. i ate it all... but i had to have about 3 glasses of milk with it :) tasty :) but yeah that's all i got this week haha. talk to ya next week!!!

love yall!!

 

Peace. Love. & Chicken Grease.

Elder Cawley

4/30/2012: fireside chaos

hey familia!!

well this week has been crazy. we have been doing more fireside work then missionary work haha. it... is... no bueno... so stressful. so on saturday (day before the fireside) sister mckee called us and said she wants a video playing while a missionary is singing the song "his hands" and she wanted it to match with what he is saying. so my companion was working on the programs, so he made me do the video. i found one on youtube, but during certain parts it was cheesy and had, like, the stars and the earth and the sun and then it cut to these ppl dressed in white shaking hands. so i couldnt use that haha. so instead i went and dissected the video and got all the info on what little scene is playing at what time. then went and found all of them online and compiled them into the same video as youtube, but replaced the weird parts with just normal scenes about His hands. it was pretty sweet. 

but i couldnt figure out how to get it to a dvd... i tried for 4 hours. no luck. so i had to call Sister ____ (she is a videographer) and she was like, "ok, i can talk ya through it, or i can just do it." and i was like "ummm well...." and she just said, "ill do it" hahaha. so she put it on a dvd and was gunna give it to a missionary in her ward to bring to the fireside.... but the missionary didn't get it. so i was like crap. when i got to the fireside we also realized that we left the programs back in clarksville... and we were in murfreesboro... double crap. hahaha. so i had to call the lady, have her put the video up on youtube, figure out the wifi password by asking tons of ppl for it, go and basically reprint the programs at the church's library... it was hectic and pure chaos. but the fireside ended up to be awesome :) everyone loved it :) it kinda stinks though bcuz everyone was like, "oh man, if i knew it was this good... i would have invited everyone i knew." so next time they will know :) 

and yes mom my shoes fit and i got a new suit and had lots of compliments on it yesterday :):) thank you :):) kinda bummed the garrisons weren't at the fireside :( but that's otay. they be busy. well i love y'all!! im jealous about the dodger game. soon enough though (that wasn't meant to sound trunky at all...) stay classy!! miss y'all!!

Peace out girl scouts (speaking of that... thin mints?!?! :))

Elder Cawley

the garrisons DID visit elder cawley the next week at the fireside in Franklin :) we not be busy.

4/16/2012: "you wanna try the shrimp?"

brittany has a boyfriend?!?! that's unacceptable! haha jk that's cool. but i don't remember him... but that's still cool! i wanna meet him and also i wanna meet the rat thingy bert alert has. so awesome! 

this week has been nuts! we had ZLC at the methodist church and went and saw their sacred chapel. its called "The Upper Room" and i guess all methodists are supposed to go there and pray once a year. it was pretty. they have this huge wooden carving of the last supper. and it was like we were on a field trip haha. we had a tour guide explaining everything and all that jazz. 

Reverend Albin took us all to the Hilton, downtown Nashville, and we ate at the buffet. it was super good. they had a huge table set up for us, but we were one chair short, so me and elder _________ went and sat at a lil table and just caught up and laughed. it was fun haha. i asked if he wanted to try the shrimp and i put some on his plate and then i was like "umm... this is getting weird. its like we are on a date." we tried to eat all fancy. drinking water with our pinky out and wearing our napkins and cutting our lettuce hahaha. it was so much fun. 

then yesterday we had the "I Believe in Christ" missionary fireside again. except this time it was in Bowling Green. but guess what... this upcoming sunday its going to be in hopkinsville!! and then the week after that its going to be in cookeville!!! and then after that FRANKLIN!!!! its so great!!!! all of my favorite areas! and then ending with my favorite one! franklin!! :):) and yeah that's about it :) 

still really busy. had around 35 lessons this week. so yup. glad the dodgers are doing good :) bout time! :) i love y'all!! have a happy week :):)

Peace n Blessins.

Elder Cawley

4/9/2012: uh oh oreo!

so... hi :)

we are sooo busy!!! it is seriously crazy how busy we are. we leave the apartment at 10am and we dont usually get back until 10pm! this past week we had a total of 40 lessons and 21 new investigators... its nuts! everyday we split up with 3 different members in the afternoon and also at night. so each day we have 6 exchanges... lots of more ground to cover that way :) one of us always works the CV2 ward and the other two work YSA and we just take turns. its like we are all in our own area bcuz we are with members so much we hardly teach together as a companionship haha. and i set a date with a person that we have been teaching :) its pretty cool :):) 

It is weird being a zone leader again bcuz i forgot how to deal with situations when they come up and stuff haha. i'm like "ummmmm" haha but i love it :) i did move apartments... just up the road though. 

and oh get this! so tomorrow is ZLC and we are having it in the huge Church of Christ building in brentwood :) some missionaries are teaching the pastor there and he wants us to have ZLC there so he can watch us haha. should be interesting. also, one of my companions, Elder Lund, is in charge of a musical fireside thingy that him and sister McKee have made. so every sunday starting this coming sunday... we will go across the mission and go on tour haha. this week is bowling green, then hoptown, and so on a so forth. i'm most excited for when we go to Franklin! cuz everytime we go there i just feel like home :) i love it! :) 

oh i got a hair cut earlier today and well.... let's just say.... it looks like i have joined the army hahaha. she totally gave me a military hair cut... but its all good i guess. 

I came up with a companionship slogan... we are the UH OH OREO! cuz elder ______ and i are white... and elder ______ is black haha. and everywhere we go we are going to leave "uh oh oreos" on missionaries cars and door steps hahaha. so they will know that we have been there :) i think it'll be pretty fun. 

i hope y'all had a great Easter! yay for bert alert finishing college!! love y'all!! stay classy m'kay??

Peace out girl scouts.

Elder Cawley

4/2/2012: Wings & a Trio

Hey family :)

so i just got back from Buffalo Wild Wings. we were gunna do the wings challenge. 12 of their hottest wings in 6 mins and you get a free t shirt. well we got there and you don't get a free t shirt anymore... you get a headband. and i was like... "hmmm. PASS!" haha. i would have worn that shirt forever if they still had them... but a headband??? where do you wear that to??? the movies or something

so a couple other elders did the challenge and they were dying. Elder ______ was crying. i was making em laugh and they almost didn't eat it in 6 mins bcuz i was making em laugh so hard. but anywho... back to missionary stuff :) 

so saturday was transfer call outs... and guess what?! i'm getting transferred... again. except i'll still be covering the same area. let me explain... so i was finishing training Elder ______ for his last 6 weeks in CV2 ward. and the Zone leaders covered CV2 and mainly focused on the YSA (young single adults) in the stake. well... they are closing my area, and i'm going to be a zone leader in the zone, with elder ______ and elder ______. so i'll be in a trio and we will cover CV2 but mainly focus on working with the YSA. so i will go to institute and FHE and all that good stuff. it's gunna be pretty interesting. so all the YSA's in the stake go to our ward and hopefully we will have enough going that we can make a YSA branch :) that's the goal right now. So it will be pretty fun. 

And elder _________ (my companion) is going to Sparta, TN. which is like 20-25 mins south of Cristine and Scott and Jakey. and our family of 14 is doing good. we kinda did the silent treatment to em to see if they would reach out to us if they wanted... works every time hahaha. :) he texted us on wednesday saying to come over. so we were gunna go over on friday but his wife had to go to the hospital :( so we will go try and see them sometime soon. he doesn't know what is wrong yet. 

but that is pretty sweet bert-alert trained a rat haha. if only she did that with her turtle in her room.... haha BURN!!! jk... but seriously... that is pretty cool!! and i'll work on my passport when i get the chance :) thank you for sending the shoes :) and thank you for the Easter basket :) 

sorry this is a short email ( i'm pretty sure i say that almost every email...) but i PROMISE next time will be a long one. i love y'all!! stay classy m'kay??

Peace out Girl Scouts. (speaking of those... thin mints are pretty tasty... just sayin')

Elder Cawley

3/19/2012: finding

So this past week was a FINDING week. we have a decent teaching pool, but of course... we wanted a better one. (who doesn't?). so we started walking and talking to people and asking everyone we talked to for a referral. and we didn't really get any referrals, but we didn't find 11 new investigators :) 

3 were pretty crazy. so we are walking home, its around 8:50ish or so, and we walk past these AT&T door salesmen. and one of them says, "hey are y'all Mormons??" and I'm like... "why yes we are.":) and we go over and talk to him and he starts telling us how he is from Egypt and how his church is what the Catholics broke off from and all this stuff. He started saying how Mark (the apostle) went to Egypt and gave them the priesthood. It was crazy cuz I've never heard anyone else call it the Priesthood. so i was like, "hmm tell me more." haha. 

and it was pretty similar to our religion, except they believe the Holy Spirit is the Priesthood. so i told him about Joseph Smith and how he had his vision and you can know if the Book of Mormon is true by praying about it. and he was like, "oh no no no ... you can't just go off of feelings of what you get, you need to pray to know if you should study it then if the answer is yes, then you study it..." and so i opened up the the Bible. i went to John 16:13 which says, "Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come." and so i told him that the Holy Ghost won't tell you anything until you study it out. and so he took a Book of Mormon and so did his other 2 friends that were next to him. we talked to them for about a good 45 mins. it was awesome :) 

So miracles are happening here in Clarksville!! :) now i just gotta do my part to continue to let them happen :) Oh and from all the walking I'm doing each day (close to 15 miles a day) one pair of my shoes basically blew up haha. so i might be buying a new pair soon. just an fyi. love y'all!! stay classy!!

Peace n' Blessings!

Elder Cawley

just found this one. must be from when he first got to the mission.-cristine

3/12/2012: baptism date set!

Hey there,

So here is the run down on how last week went... we set a date with a part member family!!!! his name is _____________ and he has had 15 sets of missionaries teach him, and Pres. McKee told us to go to where no missionary has gone before in their teaching. so i was like... hmm thats easily said and hard to do hahaha. 

but we tried it and had a SUPER spiritual lesson. We taught the plan of salvation with cut outs and once we were done we talked a lot about the Celestial Kingdom. during the lesson i talked to him about how we want to make a goal with him and he kinda smiled and was like, "oh i know what goal your talking about," and i was like... "oh crap" hahaha. and he just picked up the cut out of the Celestial Kingdom and stared at it. then he looked at me and was like... "so what date are you thinking?" i was so happy!! i told him March 30th is what we feel is right and so he will get baptized then :) so awesome!!! :):) 

then our family of 14... we went on saturday and they had to reschedule to today :) woohoo!! so they still want to meet with us... but im SUPER scared now!!! cuz this time we talked to the dad (never met him until then) and he opened the door and i wanted to run home! he is 6 feet 11 inches!!!!!! we are teaching a giant!!! haha. we talked to him for a lil and then i shook his hand (more like i shook his thumb his hand was so big!) and then i asked him how tall he was. he is a cool guy :) so we will meet with them today at 6 :) i feel like we should take a pulpit in there or something haha :) naw it will be amazing to teach a family that big :) im excited!! 

other then that nothing too much has been going on in the Clarksville area. Just still trying to get our teaching pool up but that's what a missionary is always doing. hope all is well :):) love yall!!! yall be good now ya hear? :B

Peace n' Blessins'

Elder Cawley.

3/5/2012: Family of 14!

So... last time I wrote I was struggling a lot in our area bcuz it's soo hard! But we made a lot of sacrifices and now we are receving TONS of blessings!!! So, first off, we got 3 referrals one morning without even leaving our apartment!Sso that was awesome! Then... get this... we found...a...family!!!!!! But not just a family... a family of 14!!!!!!!! They have 12 kids!!!!!! We stopped by their house the other night and they had 2 HUGE vans in their driveway--like the 10 seater ones! hahaha. I was like SWEET!!!. 

They are an awesome family :) They met with missionaries before, and had a baptismal date and everything (like 2 years ago), but over the years they were lost in the transitions of different missionaries. So we are wayyy excited to go teach them :) 10 of the kids are of age to get baptized... I think the hardest part is going to be remembering their names. haha :) Not going to lie, I'm kinda nervous about teaching a family this big, because I've never done anything like this before!!! My goal is to get them dressed in white... TWICE! baptism and sealing :):) That would make Elder Cawley a happy boy :) 

We also found about 5 more different people that have potential to get baptized :) So this transfer and next transfer (if I stay) will be sicky tight! haha. It is pretty awesome to see that when you sacrifice something, with a purpose, that purpose will ALWAYS come into your life, if you trust and believe in the Lord. :) 

Now time to change the subject haha. i think its important to have a lil fun after a good days work... so at 9:30 I was bored and started to get creative. I found these Chopsticks in our apartment, and I found nerf darts. So I put one on one of the chopsticks, and I waved it like a wand from harry potter and it went pretty fast haha. So I started to cast "spells" on Elder Fincher and he soon caught on and we had a full blown battle of Voldemort vs Harry Potter. It was pretty sweet. And now every time I step out of the bathroom he is waiting to fling a dart at me haha. You become pretty creative when you're a missionary :)

Anywho, I'm loving Clarksville. We had a Linger Longer after church yesterday and we just met tons of members and ate tasty food :) So that was sweet :) But i gotta get going now :( We are going shopping then going to lunch and after that... idk haha. Stay classy Cali!! Y'all are the best!! :) Love y'all!!!

peace out girl scouts.

Elder Cawley

pictures

golfing in Franklin on Pday (back in august). 

Got my outfit at Goodwill... for like 5 bucks all together :) hahaha

3 months worth of soda in Linden. :D

 SNOW!!!

Sock Tie Transfer Day

2/27/2012: Back in Clarksville

Well I'm back in Clarksville.

I don't know too many of the members anymore because they moved around the ward boundaries, so a lot of the people I knew now go to CV3 instead of CV2. :( and also its a military town... so people move in and out fast. But I still know about 4 or 5 familes, so thats good :) 

The work on the other hand... it's struggling in our area. The Zone leaders have baptized a lot the past 2 transfers, and they are teaching a lot of families now too. Weird thing is, those families are in our ward, because the Zone Leaders now don't cover a ward, they are working with the YSA in the whole stake. So they are still teaching all of the investigators in our area, so we have... no one. haha. We have been knocking doors allllll week long, and nothing really is peaking over the horizon yet. It also stinks bcuz we are full time bike. We don't have a car, and my companion doesn't have a bike. So, we are walking... everywhere haha. 

President talked in our sacrament yesterday, and we talked to him for a lil and he just wants us to use the members as much as possible. So, I hate to be a burden, but we are gunna call the members a lot. It is pretty weird though bcuz my companion and I are living in the same apartment that Elder _____ and I stayed in when we were zone leaders here. Kind of a blast from the past. 

But anywho, enough of being a downer hahaha. So I know what I wanna be when i grow up!! I can finally answer the 1st grade answer! haha. So... I wanna be a Nurse Anesthetist. So I will be working with the Anesthesiologists and helping them :):) So I gotta be a nurse and specialize in Anethesia :):) I won't have to go to school forever, its short-- I think like 5 years or so, and then I wont have as much loans as a full blown doctor would :) It's what I wanna do! :) and I know a bunch of people in Franklin that can hook me up to go to Vandy. :):) It's perfect! Everywhere I've served there has been an Anesthesiologist that I get close with and I've been praying about it :) So we will see!! Just thought I'd tell y'all :) 

But I hope Cali is nice and awesome :) The weather here is sweet. It's about 62 degrees right now and its winter time!!Tthat just means summer here is not going to be fun... oh well. i love y'all!!! stay classy!

Peace n Blessins!

Elder Cawley

 

2/13/2012: Carmichael

Well this week was pretty fun :) On Tuesday we had leadership training and President asked me to train at that. I had to train on the Doctrine of Christ. So I just went over 2 Nephi 31 and talked about it and gave counsel. 

Then the next day was our zone wide district meeting, and the zone leaders asked me to train at that as well. I trained on the power and authority we have as missionaries. I had about 3 people stand and asked them why they came on a mission. I related it all to the missionaries. I talked about when we are set apart and I had all the missionaries read their ministerial certificate in our white handbooks and the spirit was strong :) It was pretty neat to see that :) 

Then from wed-fri I was on exchanges with Elder Heeb in Cookeville. And of course all our appointments fell through so we just walked in the cold talking to people haha. :) it was great :) Then on friday and saturday it was soooo dang cold!!! i bundled up like the kid in A Christmas Story... I couldn't put my arms down!!! hahaha. 

Oh President at the leadership training told me that I'm one of those missionaries that knows how to have fun while doing missionary work and all I could think of when he said that is... I'm being like BCrow!!! Oh speaking of him... I got a member here to make us lots of Kimchi!!! haha. Elder Goodwin hates it... so I'm just downing it all. soo good!!! Is that lil jar of Kimchi still in our fridge??? haha. 

Anywho, this week has kinda been like the rest... just being cold outside and eating way too much. The Carmichael (that's my tummy's name) is getting pretty big.Hhe likes food and the members here sure love to make food!! :):) Sorry this week is a short email but I love yall!! :):) Stay classy Cali :)

peace n' blessins' 

Elder Cawley

1/23/2012: Robbers!

well this week has been pretty... interesting hahaha. it started off

pretty good. it was sunday, and i met my new ward and then pday was

monday and we just got a bunch of pizza and played board games. Then

tuesday we just went around and saw some of our investigators and that

was fun :) 

then.... on wednesday... this is when it starts getting

crazy!! so, we wake up, and headed to district meeting and it was a

great district meeting :) we went out as a district to lunch and when

we came back to our apartment to change out of our suits.... we

noticed the doorknob looked kinda weird. and we open the door and walk

in and i throw my jacket on my bed and i was like "i dont remember

putting my hoodie and that hangar on my bed..." and elder basset goes

"i dont remember knocking over my cards (they were on the table)..."

and we start looking around. i go in my closet and some of my ties are

on the ground. i was like... no way... hahaha. we start looking around

and we realized that we got broken into!! haha. so here is the weird

thing... we left at 9:30am and came back around 2ish. so we got robbed

in the middle of the day... and we live above a lawyers office...

right across from the court house!!! hahaha. 

so here is what they took.... they took my comps suit and his sports 

jacket and thats it from him. then from me they took a white shirt, 

a tie, 2 bottles of my cologne aaaannnnnddd my electric shaver!! hahaha. 

so weird!!! 

my guess is that they had either A) a court date B) a date C) a job

interview or D) wanted to look like a missionary and smell like me

hahahaha. so when the cops showed up we were all kinda laughing bcuz

its so strange that they didnt take anything else!! like we had a

portable dvd player that the mission gave us... my nice basketball

shoes... my gps was on my desk... its just weird!! so the next

couple of days i put a note on our door just in case he came back and

it said something like "Dear Robber... what the poop?! if you want

more of our ties you can have some more... we have tons. You can also

have some food, we have lots. Make yourself at home!! from, the

missionaries" hahahahahha. but he never came back, or he saw the note

and just walked away idk. but it was pretty funny. 

then yesterday we found out some other crazy news. My comp is getting 

ETd (emergency transfered) to Mount Juliet. and im getting a new comp, 

his name is Elder Goodwin. I was his district leader when i was in Linden. 

so thats all going down today at 4pm. its just weird stuff

happening!!! 

so ive been in the area less then 2 weeks and im getting

a new comp haha. so basically we are kinda like white washing (2 new

elders coming into an area). its gunna be pretty interesting!! last

week was pretty fun so lets see what this week has in store!!! 

by the way, i cant picture bert alert working in juvi haha. thats crazy! 

welp i love yall!!!! "yall come back now ya hear!?" i hear that a lot haha.

peace out girl scouts!

Elder Cawley