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