What Every Teenager Needs to Know to Be Happy

Heyyyyyooo!

We had another crazy week this week. Our numbers were terrible because we weren't home much, but a ton of good experiences occurred!

Last Sunday (I might have told you this last week-- I can't remember) our investigator Jonathan soft committed to baptism after we had a lesson with him about the Godhead, so that was pretty cool. On Monday we went over to the Cutchshaws (They are a less-active part-member family) and Fischer, their 9 year old son, asked to be baptized. We are super excited about how much they have progressed and warmed up to the church and whatnot, but we are a little nervous about baptizing him as soon as possible because we want to make sure that he has friends in the ward and that he will stay fully active once baptized.

Tuesday morning we woke up at FOUR THIRTY IN THE MORNING because we had to head down south for Elder Whitehead's leadership trainings. Our friend from the ward Ben picked us up at 5:30 a.m. and after an incredibly homemade delicious biscuit breakfast from Dairy Queen, we drove down to Winder where E.W. got dropped off for the next couple days. Ben then drove me up to the Hartwell missionaries' apartment where I stayed for an exchange. Ben's such a nice kid.

In Hartwell we had lots of fun. A 3some set of missionaries is super fun, but really awkward when you stand on people's porches and then knock on their front door haha. While there I was able to help them teach the law of Chastity to their number 1 and 2 investigators. The lesson went really well until their number 1 (who is about 23 years old) said that he wouldn't make any promises about keeping the law of chastity while he was trying to quit smoking... Yikes! Haha it was kinda awkward, (his girlfriend was there and listening the whole time) but still a good lesson. Also while on my exchange to the Hartwell/Royston area, Elder Waters and Elder Disbrow put about 50 pixie stix in my mouth without letting me swallow. Haha it was pretty funny--we were laughing pretty hard. 

Just a fun fact for you. I got back to the church in Cornelia about 45 minutes before Elder Whitehead did, so I was temporarily companionless for a bit on Wednesday night. I asked a priesthood holder from the ward if I could hang out with him and be his part-time companion during mutual and he said yes haha. It was weird not having a companion for that short time and then it was weird when Elder Whitehead and I were reunited; it felt like it had been ages since we had seen each other.

On Thursday we had our district meeting. I did a training for the district on conversion through prayer. We studied a lot from Moroni 10:3-5 and read from other passages in the Book of Mormon and Preach My Gospel. It turned out pretty all right, but when giving it I was just a little bit nervous, wanting to make sure that it was something that was actually helping these other missionaries and not just filling time.

Friday, we got a soft committal for baptism (that means we haven't set a date, but that they accept our baptismal invitation) for our investigator Star. She is 18 years old and has been an investigator off and on for a few months now, and is really seeming to be excited about things finally, and really wanting to do as Christ has taught us to do. That was a bit of a surprise for us, but really good :)

Saturday was John Bytheway. We got to the church in Lilburn in the morning and after a lunch he spoke to the missionaries only. It was really good. He talked about the great things we can learn about Christ and missionary work from the Book of Mormon. After that he spoke to the youth from 3 of the stakes here in GA, including the Athens stake that I'm a part of. He is super funny of course and a really good speaker. He spoke on 1 Timothy 4:12 which is "Be thou an example of the believers in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, it faith, in purity." The title of the devotional was "What Every Teenager Needs to Know to Be Happy" and it was truly good.

Sunday we gave our missionary fireside for the kids in our ward. It turned out great! We had 19 kids there, some adult leaders, and the sister missionaries from Commerce. We helped them know what to do if someone brings up the church, how to make any moment a missionary moment that you can spread the gospel with faith and confidence. We spent about 23 minutes at the end role-playing with the kids, where they practiced doing missionary work with each other. It was pretty cool. It was fun for E.W. and me to be led by the Spirit as we taught them things to help them out. At the end we gave each person a copy of the Book of Mormon to pass out before next week.

Well unfortunatley I don't have much more time, but I love you so much. Thanks so much for all of the support that you give me while I am here on my mission in Cornelia, GA. Have a super great Happy Thanksgiving! I'm so excited myself for the holiday-- it should be pretty good!

Y'all be safe and be good! Take it easy and don't do anything you'll regret!

LOVE YOU!

Elder Caplin