a new investigator!: 5/23/2011

Another week down! (thats gewd and bad)

So, here in Franklin, it is very hard to get new people to teach. Everyone is always "set in their ways" and don't want to talk to us. We have been struggling on finding people to teach. Yesterday we taught our first real sit down lesson in someone's home since like 2 weeks ago. So here is the story... 

So about 3 weeks ago, we were walking down this road and we hear, "Hey guys wait up!" and we look back and John Doe (like 35 asian male dude) is walking towards us. We contacted him about 5 weeks ago, and he comes up to us and starts to say how he has to go to rehab because he is always drinking and smoking. So we tell him about the addiction recovery class which are on thursdays. 

So that was 3 weeks ago, and he hasn't come to one class. Saturday night he texts us at midnight, "Hey guys. It's John. Are yall awake?" Of course we weren't... I was in a coma or something haha. So after church we go over to his apartment and see how he is doing. He invites us in, and we meet his sister and mother. He gives us a coke and some banana nut bread (super tasty haha) and we take a seat on the floor. 

Somehow we just started talking about the Book of Mormon, and he jsut opened up on how he was locked up in jail for like 3 years if you put all the time together. He said while in jail he had nothing to do, so he read the Bible, and his eyes were opened. He said that he was in there for drunk driving, so he had a misdemeanor, but they put him in with the people who had felonies. So he said he was really scared. He said that God protected him in there, because I guess he said he could have gotten killed or beaten up pretty bad, but he was always protected. Then once he got out, he went right back to his old ways and lost that path he was on. 

I told him after he said that, that there was no coincidence that he called to us that one day, and there is no coincidence that we are sitting on his floor talking to him. That this is what God wants him to hear, and this is how he can get back on that path he felt he was on in jail while reading the Bible. We soft committed him to baptism, basically he said if he finds out its true he will get baptized. So we were wayyy happy about that lesson. He told us that we are always welcome at his home, and that he will always be there for us. 

Then like 2 hours after that lesson he texts us saying that he knows we are missionaries but we are still people too, and if we ever need to talk to someone that we can talk to him because we are friends. haha. He is just an AWESOME person. Man, I have never seen someone pick up what we say so fast. We told him to read some verses, and he was like, "Oh I get it... its saying... " and I was like holy crap that is better then I could say it. It was nuts. Best lesson I've had on my mission. OH and the BEST  part was after the lesson John was like "So what do I do next?? Like what do you guys want me to do?" I was like well... get baptized, get married,  go to the temple, no just kidding I didnt say that. :)

He set up the appt for tomorrow at 8pm and we have a member going with us. So he is prolly going to get baptized! hahaha. So its been a good week. I hope yall have had a good week, and hopefully this upcoming week will be good! I love yall! Stay safe! And smile bcuz we are mormon :D <----- big smile! haha

peace out girl scouts

Elder Cawley

P.S. So I forgot to mention that on May 20th, we had Jason Deeres band... they are called "The Nashville Tribuite Band" come to our stake center, he is the one that did the Trek cd and the Joseph Smith cd. And he is coming out with a new cd called The Work. Its based on missionaries. The lady who plays Emma in the Prophet of the Restoration movie was there in the band. Due west ( famous country band) was there. And they are all members. So our whole mission was invited. They performed 2 days in a row Friday and Saturday. It was soo good. OH and on June 13th, its Mormon Night at the Sounds Stadium! President is throwing the first pitch, and 50 missionaries are singing the national anthem. The whole mission is invited! And its the day before transfers... so Prez will pick up the new missionaries and go straight to a ball game! hahahahaha. So funny!

following the spirit: 5/16/2011

Man so yesterday was... insane! So some background, about 3 weeks ago we are walking in this neighborhood, and this  14 year old boy is like "Hey Elders" and we were just like "umm do we know you?" haha. 

He tells us that his family lived in Sinking Fork, Utah. So we got his address and we decided to stop by yesterday. We knock on the door, and this guy answers the door and is like "Hey Elders! Come on in!" I was like SWANK! haha. So we go in and sit down. Turns out they had there names removed from the church about 3 years ago... and they told us why. We were there for about almost 2 hours, and they were just throwing TONS of anti at us.

All three of us left and were so like confused and didnt know what was up or down so we decided to call President and we talked to him for about a good 45 mins. It helped alot. Then in the morning the Assistants called and we talked to them for a good 30 mins. So im doing alot better. 

But the cool thing was, that as we were there, the Spirt... kay get this... the Spirit told me that this family is one of the reasons why I am here in this mission. So I don't know how to approach it now. This family wants to have us over again, and feed us. They are very nice, very loving. I just dont know how to do this. If I dont go teach them, is that bad because the Spirit told me that I need to focus on this family... I just dont know what to do right now. I'm still waiting for my answer from Him. Very neat experience though. 

I love being on a mission. It's fun and rewarding but very tough at the same time. I hope yall are doing good. Stay safe. Stay happy. And just smile because we are mormon :D haha. love yall!

Elder Cawley

P.S. Pray for Brother Troy German, he is in our ward here and is going through alot. He has to have some surgey done in the near future on his liver. Just pray for strength for him and also his family. Thanks so much! 

My parents received the following email from a member in the ward where Elder Cawley is serving. It's awesome. Tender Mercies and inspiration certainly come when we obey the Spirit and live the gospel:

Hi! 

This is Jane Doe from Franklin Tn and I wanted to send you an email to let you know what a wonderful missionary your son is.  He is just full of love and personality and we love having him and his companions over for dinner.  We have also had the opportunity to be involved with some of their teaching and it is obvious he and his companions love the gospel and love to work.   

He asked me to share a little story with you which is also part of the reason for this email.  I was out on a walk with my son a few days ago and had a little thought I should have the missionaries over for dinner.  I almost didn't act on it since we had just had them over, but a little bit later I had the same thought.  So, I called them up and invited them over. Before they came I had an impression that I should say a prayer for them- that if they had a difficult day or needed some support and encouragement that my husband and I would be able to share the right words and they would feel the Spirit in our home.  Very quickly into our meal they related a troubling visit they had recently had and how it had negatively affected them, especially your son's companion.  We shared what we felt impressed to, laughed, had a wonderful time and after the meal your son was able to give a blessing to his companion.  It was a very tender experience for me.  

I just want you to know the Lord is watching over your son and we feel blessed to have him serving here in Franklin.  

Have a wonderful day!

Jane Doe

Well Hello There!: 5/2/2011

Waddup my familia. 

First thing first, that is crazy they killed Bin Laden! I feel so clueless (good movie btw) about the outside world haha. On saturday, we walked into taco bell, and this new Katy Perry song was on and I started dancing in the middle of the place. Some people were lookin at me funny, but its all good, that happens all day every day! haha. 

So I guess I'll start off the letter with a lil story. So, there we were, in Kroger (a grocery store).  We are walking around in our shirts and ties and what not, it was us and the Spaniards ( the spanish missionaries). This 14 year old girl comes up to me and is like... "Excuse me do you know where the marshmallows are??" She thought I worked there, but I kept my calm and said, "Oh, there are some right here!" pointing to some. She then told me "We already have those we need more," and thats when I told her that I didnt work there. It was pretty funny. If you're not laughing, then I guess you had to be there hahaha. 

Anywho... This last week went by super fast. I dont get it, I blink and the transfer is over. On saturday, we had interviews at the mission office. They were supposed to be on friday, but President ran out of time, so we pushed them to saturday. He showed us the whole transfer board, so we knew everything about transfers before the assistants knew. pretty crazy. So as for me and my companions, we are staying the same :) Which is good. I love it here! I wanna stay here for the rest of my mish! :)  

 Elder Cawley and Elder Wursten "translating the gold plates."

Also on saturday, Eric and Krystal got dunked :) (baptized) woohoo!! It was really awesome, Eric was glowing when he got out of the water, no joke. Definately a kodak moment. I'll post some pics on facebook later on today. 

 left to right: Elder Boyack, Eric Wilson, Krystal Marie Moore, Christopher Barnes, Elder Cawley, Elder Wursten

I burnt a tie on my 6 month mark haha. It went up in flames! (lighter fluid helped) Well I hope all is well back in Cali! Keep me posted on the Lakers, who do they play next? Are the Dodgers owning face?! I need to know! I love yall!

Elder Cawley

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