15 Feb 2009

Dear Family,

Thank you for your very uplifting letters. I am feeling a little bit better. But the last two days I've been very tired and this morning i awoke with a very painful headache. Last time sister Porter told me to drink as much water as i can. It seems like I drink a lot of water, but maybe I'm not.

This week was transfers, and i am still here in Chartwell and Rototuna wards, with a brand new missionary, Elder Tham from Melbourne Australia. He is a really neat missionary. His father is from Malaysia and his mother is from Hong Kong. He was born in Hawaii, lived in Singapore for about 8 years, and has been in Australia for about 5 years. So his accent is a mix between Aussie and American. He is the eldest in his family of four kids.

This last transfer was tough and many times i was overwhelmed in what i could do to work with my companion. I know that i was probably part of the problem, but President reassured me that he was with me for a reason. But he was a good missionary and we accomplished much in helping our investigators progress.

On Saturday, Maree was baptized by me at the chapel. we had a very good turn out. About forty people showed up. Elder Tugaga was instrumental in preparing the ward for her baptism and in the formation of her baptismal programme. She was confirmed yesterday and the ward is absolutely amazed at her humility and her desire and will to follow Christ and to join His church. We stopped by the Bishop George's last night and we had a chat with him and with his wife. She had said that she had given the closing prayer in Relief Society and that it was a pure prayer, one with complete sincerity and trust and all the ladies in Relief Society were amazed at how she prayed, that they all looked up at her in amazement after saying "amen". Bishop gave the confirmation.

I don't know if you know, but when people say "amen" here in New Zealand, they say the "a" the same way you pronounce "a" in "hawk". I remember that Mom had corrected me on it one time, but they do a lot of things differently here. Also, the words "damn" and "hell" have been said in church and in the home and it doesn't mean the same as it does back home.

The weather was very hot this last week. I would get a shower in the evening and be sweating after i got out. We stopped by a members house and we were so sweaty that he with all seriousness asked if we would like to get cold shower! When i went to Nauvoo, the humidity was quite bad. I am somewhat used to it, although i surely don't enjoy biking through it.

As for you, Mom, asking about me feeling a change, i don't know if i can recognize any change. It could be because of this last transfer. I've learned some things that have given me greater understanding and i've been using my study journal better, which could be making a difference. I've also just finished reading the four Gospels and am in the book of Acts right now. Been reading steadily through Jesus the Christ and will be done with it in a couple of weeks, i hope. It could be that that is what is making the difference.

Thank you again for the emails. Love you all. Pray for my companion Elder Tham as well. By the way, how have your FHE and family scripture studies and prayers been going?

Love, Elder Cashmore

8 Feb 2009

Dear Family,

How are things going? I almost put "2008" again when putting the date down. Things are sure flying by fast. This week is transfers and i have no idea who will be staying and who will be going. I am kind of hoping that they will be dividing this area (we cover two wards: Rototuna and Chartwell wards). They encompass a lot of the northern part of Hamilton and our only effective mode of transportation is our bikes.

I've been a little sick since Friday. I got up Friday morning with a very sour stomach and when back to bed, not feeling good enough to have any studies. I got a blessing from some of the Elders and then was finally able to rest for a couple solid hours. We didn't go out on Friday and on Saturday we left around midday. But every morning I've been waking up with severe headaches. I haven't been sleeping well either. I'll need to call sister Porter and see what else i need to do.

We have been working steadily with Maree who is going to be baptized on this Saturday. If i am still here, i will be the one baptizing her. She is so neat and humble. She had her interview yesterday and all went well with that. She would be one of those golden contacts.

It was good to read a little bit about the experience that Hermana Mortenson had. She is such a stalwart individual and comes from such a solid family. She'll do great.

Just a neat experience we had this week happened with finding an additional investigator. We received a referral last week and we contacted him on Thursday. He's only 10, but has been coming with a member family. We didn't really have lesson, but introduced the Book of Mormon and talked about what he could read. Before we left, he said he would read it. His father is Catholic, but he, Shannon, is not interested in learning about his dad's faith, but about his mum's faith. Very intelligent kid for his age.

Also, we were supposed to have a lesson with a part member family but they weren't home. We were waiting for a couple minutes to just wait to see if they were running late. I noticed the neighbors car was home. i had the thought that we needed to go and talk to the neighbors. We went over and talked to the YSA age lady, Lisa, and we're going to be having a lesson with her this evening. Choice.

Well, i gotta get going, my times almost up. We're doing our emailing at the Chartwell library, because you get 30 minutes for free, instead of having to pay 4 bucks for an hour.

Love you all and keep praying for me, especially that i can be more effective at teaching simply and also have a greater and deeper understanding of the restored gospel.

Love, Elder Cashmore

1 Feb 2009

Dear Family,

Again, thank you for you wonderful emails that keep me updated on progress of the family and friends. I just have a couple of questions. Is Marie Mortensen serving a mission right now? If so, when did she start and where is she? Also, if you could keep me updated on Kyle Cashmore and the aunties, uncles, and cousins.

This week has been quite interesting. Its funny that you mentioned putting my name in the temple and how my name came to your mind. I felt prompted to fast for the family this week. Usually i fast for myself or other people. So i hope all is going well.

Something i also wanted to follow-up with is how we are doing on our food storage in storing and utilizing it. I don't read the news or watch the TV but i certainly can hear from the members and others the things that are occurring around the globe. I am not fearful of what is taking place, but rather concerned in the what, how and when for our preparation for times of distress. Like it says in Doctrine and Covenants, "if ye are prepared, ye shall not fear".

We had interviews with President Porter this week. I concur with what Scott Pitts mentioned to you, Dad. President Porter said that the companions that I've had are really preparing me for marriage. It sure can be a struggle at times and very testing of one's patience and ability to be still, literally. But things seem to be going better. I have found that most arguments come because of misunderstanding on the part of the individuals involved and also due to pride. I've been a senior companion for about 8 months now, which can be hard when things are going rough and I have to lead. It sure requires more humility and charity.

Transfers is next week, amazingly. I am thinking that one of us will get transferred. We cover two wards and i really am hoping that they will divide the area among 4 missionaries. But we shall see.

We had some good experiences with working with members this week. There is really no success without the members involvement/participation. We met with some families that weren't very promising in helping us find, teach and baptize. But there were a couple that were super missionary minded and they expected us to be asking them about what they are doing to share the gospel and how it is going. With one particular family, the Chang family, he was telling us of his conversion and missionary work in his homeland of Korea before we even started dinner and during and after. We simply just asked him and his wife what they were doing to share the gospel with others. There was no need in preparing their hearts to do missionary work, because their hearts were already aright. We were able to set up a time in which we will be stopping by "unexpectedly" when they will be having some Korean neighbors over for a noodle dinner.

Members shouldn't give referrals, but rather provide people for the missionaries to teach in their home. But it requires the members to be wanting to do it and to effectively do it.

Something you could talk about in a FHE or family council is preparing one individual or family to be invited to a FHE or a dinner. Take care and have a great week.

Love, Elder Cashmore

25 Jan 2009

Dear Family,

This week has been fairly busy and also quite interesting. We found quite a few investigators and had nearly double the amount of lessons with a member present. It was good being able to increase our teaching pool. We currently have two set for baptism, both in the Rototuna ward. Most of the people we found this week were in Chartwell. We have been very blessed in that way.

During the week we had two trade offs, one with the zone leaders and the other and latter with my district leader. I had the opportunity to go to Huntly and Ngaruawahia with Elder Linger, our district leader. He is very humble and he's a great guy. He actually finishes soon. Note for Camille: he's from Idaho and will be going to BYU-I during the fall.

I had a neat experience on the trade off, that I wanted to mention. We went to Ngaruawahia on Saturday avo for just a couple of hours. We had some referrals to follow up with and we were doing that. We knocked on this one house that we both felt impressed to knock on. The lady wasn't interested. Then we saw a guy walking across the street with a tram and we went over and began to talk to him. Wasn't too interested either, but we kept talking to him about the Church college closing as we walked through an alley and onto another street. We walked by this one house with quite few people inside and we waved as we talked to the aforementioned man. We quickly cut the conversation off and went and talked to them. Went to the door, talked to a lady that said she had been set for baptism when she was a kid, but that she wasn't very interested in it. We then said,"Well if you're interested in your family, then this is going to unify your family and give you direction for you to raise your kids". We basically just promised the blessings of the Restoration in relation to her family. We then set a return appointment and at the end said that she really wants what we're going to share help her out with her family. It was a neat experience of following the Spirit, and being bold in testifying and making the Restoration realavent to her.

I wrote a letter to Grandma Cashmore, so hopefully she got it. Hopefully she's doing alright.

Love ya all, keep up the good work Camille with school. Keep reading the scriptures as a family and doing family home evenings as well.

Love, Elder Cashmore

18 Jan 2009

Dear Family,

This week has gone quite well. We had some choice investigators come to church, but we were expecting more. We have also been having several less-actives return to activity in the Chartwell ward. It has been good working with Elder Tugaga as he works hard and is sincere.

Thanks Dad for the email you sent, discussing the results of the meetings concerning members trusting missionaries. I've thought a lot about it and we actually talked about it in our zone conference this last week.

I feel that the Rototuna ward is starting to pick up in missionary ward. We had one of our investigators, Marie, come to church the second time, and we had several members come and introduce themselves and chat with her before church started. I've really had my vision increased as far as how necessary the ward is to doing missionary work.

I usually don't just sit down but we usually make ourselves the unofficial greeters at the entrance to the chapel. But i sometimes feel like a dud in my effectiveness as a missionary and I'm sure the members can see it. But this challenge has been something I've struggled with for a while.

President Porter said in a zone conference a little while ago that the three main building blocks for success as a missionary are faith as a principle of power, obedience, and recognizing and following the Spirit. I know that you pray for me often, but if you could specifically pray for me to have and follow these things, i know it will help.

Camille, that is great that you have been employed at Orcutt Burgers. They have some of the best food. It will be good for you to work at a fast food restaurant. Just be patient with those you are working with and remember to stand tall for what's right. Its hard sometimes, and obviously follow the Spirit, but I've had experiences (such as at Subway) where i could have dealt with situations a bit better. But, you'll do fine. It will nice to have an income for yourself.

Dad, to expand on what you shared with me in your email, is there anything that can be done to help those missionaries in our ward become more effective? I've certainly had members correct me and recently we had a counselor in the Rototuna Bishopric tell us that missionary work in the ward isn't happening. So we asked him what we could do. He told us and we've been making some changes. I don't know if that's how its supposed to be done, but its helped in the past and recently. If they haven't made a move to get to know you, one idea i have would be to invite them over for a personal meeting and to share with them what the ward could do and how they could help the ward work together to find, teach, baptize and confirm, and reactivate less-actives.

Man, our house is going to be completely different when i complete my mission. How are those lights down the driveway doing? Speaking of lights, i turned on one of the lamps in my room and it blew a circuit in the house and turned off all the power. We looked at the box inside, but couldn't figure out what to do. We had a prayer and then went outside and found the other box and pressed this button and we checked the power and it was on. I've never been too lucky or good with electrical stuff.

Well, anyway, i need to get going, We've got a busy day ahead and i have set goals to read all the standard works by the end of my mission, as well as finish the missionary library, and others.
Thank you and i love ya all.

Love, Elder Cashmore

11 Jan 2009

Dear Family,

This week went very well. We have found some good investigators and they are doing great. Both came to church on Sunday, and one of them is very ready (humble) and is quite prepared for baptism, despite us having only taught her twice.

Also, Rebecca was confirmed this Sunday, which was a great relief. I performed the confirmation with my companion, and several other members of the ward. I felt it was a good blessing, and it was actually my first confirmation. Last week i had been so nervous, but i was much more calm this week. If she hadn't shown up yesterday, then we might have had to baptize her again, which wasn't an easy endeavor, since she's in a wheelchair.

The fishhooks that i gave each of you have a little description of what each means. They are for good luck and prosperity and since the one that Mom has is a fishhook, it pretty much means the same thing. Hopefully you like the tie that i got as well. Ties can be quite dear, but i guess they weren't cheap back home either.

That is so exciting to hear about all the projects that are taking place at the house. When Dad was talking about the latter to the attic and the joke he made about it, i couldn't help chuckling and reminiscing on how Dad always likes to "joke about the junk".

I had some pretty neat experiences teaching this week. We taught this less active a couple times this week and both times we were quite bold in what we taught. He felt the Spirit and after reading the first half of Mosiah chapter 4, i asked him if he believed in the gospel. Then i told him to basically live up to that knowledge and then committed him to come to church. Unfortunately, he didn't come, but the power was there. Sometimes it takes time. We have had some other less-actives coming back to church and it is exciting to see them come back with greater enthusiasm and frequency.

Camille, that's neat that you had that experience at Zone Conference. We are having ours this week on Thursday. I have always enjoyed Zone Conferences. When one develops greater faith in God and Jesus Christ and in the restored gospel, the desire to share the gospel becomes greater and its easier to talk to friends and invite them to activities and to learn more from the missionaries. There is a girl that is about 16-17 who has invited her boyfriend to church these past two Sundays and will soon invite him to investigate the church. Put forth the faith with action, and trust in the Lord to say the right things.

Yesterday we met a less-active returned missionary (he served over 10 years ago). From the conversation we had with him about him returning to activity, i really started to think about what i need to do better as a missionary. One of my first companions told me that if as a missionary you aren't keeping mission rules, that when you return, its likely that you'll struggle in keeping the commandments. I haven't been willfully disobedient, but there sure is a lot of improvement, in the way of the many small things and my own weaknesses. I still am going to ponder on that and then work on what needs strengthening.

Thank you for your love, your prayers, and your encouraging letters.

Love, Elder Cashmore

New Zealanders love to eat!!

Not sure what kind of food is shown in the first picture but the second picture is a pig (at least we think). Elder Cashmore says the food is really good and they make tons of it - every occasion seems to be one with food.