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