#20 - Christmas 2k15

We were driving down the road and saw some llamas! we had to stop and take some pictures haha! Reminds me of the good ol days of taming these bad boys:))

Fun fact we were the 4 wise men at Jesus' birth

Dear Dad,

The other elders didn't wear their shirt and tie. I was going to no matter what, but they are their own person and i cant make them do anything. it has taken a lot of patience! that is something i didnt think i would be learning as much as i am! some dont like to shave every day or do their hair or wash their dishes or be clean and i will encourage them to but sometimes it comes down to their decision. it gets frustrating but im not their mom :) clark learned how to wash dishes the day before he came out here... in other words he didnt work lol. I love him and he is a great guy but sometimes he needs motivation to shave and be clean haha. but i am thankful he wants to work hard in the field! that is a blessing!

i am so happy for Johnny!! i try to write in my journal every day. sometimes i forget but for the most part i do it pretty good! there are some wild experiences out here i wouldn't want to forget haha. 

we are still having a hard time getting people to come to church. we haven't had anyone come for 6 weeks now and it is frustrating. maybe it is because it is cold or something but do you have any creative ideas how to get them there? i am focusing on member involvement. i want the members to be friends and bring them into the ward. as a member how have you seen our missionaries over the years involve members with the new convert process? what makes the ward like a missionary? what makes a good missionary in the wards eyes? thanks for all you do. i am so blessed to have you as my father. 

love you

Family and friends,

We had a mission Christmas conference! All the missionaries in the whole mission were there. We had a devotional with lunch and a talent show! It was nice to see some of my friends again! It is crazy how many friends you make out here. 

On Christmas eve we went to a family in the ward for a Christmas party. We played a game called greed! It is like a gift exchange but you can win more than one gift! Super competitive haha. 

I was so nice to hear from my family on Christmas!! I miss you all! The hour we get to talk went by so fast holy cow!! After we went to the Potters house for lunch. They are so nice:) They are my favorite family in all of Indiana! I pray with all my heart that one day their hearts may be open to the message of Jesus Christ. The gospel can bless their family so much. It can help them grow closer not only to each other but to their Savior.

YOU WILL NEVER GUESS WHAT HAPPENED TO US ON SATURDAY..... We were out visiting some potential investigators and while were were in a mans house teaching the Plan of Salvation. His house was dark and pretty dirty. I am used to by now going into gross houses and teaching. I sat down on one couch and put my bag on the ground. My companion Elder Clark sat down hesitantly on the other couch. After about 5 minutes Elder Clark began to quietly freak out. He began to pick at his clothes like he had bugs on him. I wasn't sure what was wrong but I just continued teaching. As we said goodbye and the man shut the door Elder Clark began to tear off his clothes and was flipping out. He told me that he began to notice there were bugs all over the room. He found three bugs on him! As he looked over at me he found that I had a few crawling on me, in my jacket, and in my bag!! AHHHHHH they were BED BUGS!!! We took off what we could and inspected each other. Sure enough we found them! Groooooooosssss. We called the nurse but she didn't answer. We ran home and waited for her to call back. After about two hours of waiting we had enough and so one at a time we sneakily took off all our clothes and put them in a garbage bag and ran inside to take a super hot shower to get them off. After we went to the laundry mat and put everything we had in the dryer. I don't think I will ever forget that day! So far we have not seen any more bugs so that is a blessing. We have been praying that we do not get any!

We have been teaching many different people from many different walks of life. The other day I was reading in Mosiah chapter 2. If you want a happy life, or want to know how to find peace and joy in life, or even want to have a united family, read that chapter! King Benjamin knows what he is talking about when he says when you are in the service of your fellow beings you are serving your God. When you keep the commandments of God you are blessed not only spiritually but temporally as well. You are blessed with the spirit of righteousness. I know that this gospel will bless everyone. God loves each one of us. He wants us to live with Him again and has given us a perfect plan to follow so that we can return to him and live with our loved ones again. "The intensity of our desire to share the Gospel is a great indicator of the extent of our personal conversion." Elder Dallin H Oaks. 

Have a great week. May we continue to share this gospel with everyone around us.

#19 - Merry Christmas from the Hoosiers!

this truck is massive. Elder Quick wants it...

  The shovel used in the ground breaking of the Indiana temple

Pic in downtown Bloomington

 This is elder Lorch. He is my ZL and lives in bishop packers ward!

I got my staples out Saturday! you will have to see the cool scar it left:)

Luckily we just want to save souls...

We meet some of the strangest people when we are tracting! The best is when a big fat man opens the door without a shirt on and invites us in to teach him:)) Or while we are praying with someone they start hooping and hollering for their Lord Jesus. Hoosier have a way with making some of the most awkward situations feel normal.

We had a district meeting on Friday. I couldn't figure out what to give a training on all week. Friday morning I woke up remembering the weirdest dream! I can't remember it anymore but in the end we had found some great investigators from super weird and creative finding ways. The district meeting was awesome because we came up with ways to find new people! The most successful ways to find is from member referrals! I hope everyone is finding people who can meet the missionaries. When someone already feels welcome and has a friend in the ward it makes it so much easier to make the leap of faith to be baptized. "The intensity of our desire to share the Gospel is a great indicator of the extent of our personal conversion."

Elder Dallin H Oaks

Wednesday we had a ward party to make fruit baskets. They had 4 extra baskets so we delivered them to some of our investigators. They all loved it! I have been challenging everyone to get to know their neighbors here. Christmas is a great excuse to go bring them some cookies and introduce yourself. We have also been asking our investigators who they know would want to meet us.

We woke up on Thursday with icicles in our room! The heater wasn't working and we woke up soooo cold. There were not actually icicles but it felt like it! We ran to the other missionaries house and did morning studies there because I wasn't trying to get hypothermia. No worries now it is fixed now:)

We met a country singer named Tim! He accepted an invitation to be baptized this weekend. He seems like one of our more solid people on date to be baptized. We also are teaching a man named Ace who is a rapper, Charlee and his family, Tracy, and the Fish family. Mike Fish has a friend in the ward and loves the Book of Mormon! We found a man who has been taught by the missionaries about a year ago. He has a wife and two little kids. There are many more great people we meet with but those are the ones on date or soon to be! None have been to church yet so we need to get them there!

Have a good week!

#18 - Christmas time

What a crazy week! We had a ward Christmas party Friday night. I have no idea why but they wanted us to sing Far, Far Away on Judea's Plains. We kept telling them we can't sing but the bishop wouldn't have it. He wanted us to do it hahaha. So we got up there and Elder Quick started to sing and I just started to laugh. Then Quick and Clark did too. We sat up there laughing so hard all the way through the song! Hopefully we didn't ruin the spirit... Oh well I don't think they will make us sing ever again!

We were chased by our first dog the other day! We were in a sketchy part of town walking down the street when a medium sized dog comes out of nowhere at us! hahah I WAS GONE. No worries :) How do you out run a dog? You dont. Just outrun your companion:)

We were knocking doors last night and two cop cars pulled up to us. Apparently someone called in saying we were looking in their windows and being very suspicious... :)

We found a new investigator named Ace this week. He is my first black investigator and he is awesome! He is a rapper! He flew down to Florida on Thursday to have his first album signed! What a G. He calls himself Lil Ace like Lil Wayne :)

Tuesday we were in Fishers all day long, which is where the mission office is. We had specialized training for the new missionaries. It was a long day, but as usual it was very powerful! We watched a talk from Elder Holland. So powerful! As a missionary you need to be either all in or you are all out, it is that simple. Either you can work to be an instrument in the Lords hands, or not. I am all in! 

Transfers are on Tuesday! No more trio! Can you believe i will be in this area for 6 months!? That is a long time. I know everyone in this little town. When people drive by i think to myself, " yep I've knocked on your door." 

When we teach investigators I have learned on of the many important things to do is to promise them blessings. When they can act in faith knowing that they will be blessed, that is when they will receive spiritual confirmation of how true this gospel is! I love this quote- "God wants our faith to be founded on knowledge and evidence, but He says that we must act first in order to obtain that evidence. How ironic. Those who demand confirmation first miss the opportunity to get the witness. And those who are willing to act without confirmation end up getting the witness." Gerald N Lund.

Have a good week everyone! Merry Christmas

 Our ghetto Christmas decor...

 Selfie with Quick...

#17 - Pictures...

this dude in the second pic just got out of prison but he was kinda crazy haha. we were driving by and saw he had jesus signs and pics from our pamphlets posted on his windows!

 thanks, Mom for the christmas tree and the birthday presents!

We found a dead mouse on a doorstep:)

Tracting in the trailer parks

 "Jesus is a Liberal" 

We were having a group study night because Jeff was bashing us hard core haha

The Chainsaw.... accident!

#16 - I 'm in a trio...

Sorry I didn't email yesterday we had a multizone conference with Elder Nash from the quorum of the 70. That was the best meeting ever! He was so in tune with the spirit and such a powerful teacher. The meeting lasted for 7 hours and honestly I felt like I could listen to him speak for another 7 hours haha he knows how to teach by the spirit! When you can solve someones problems in the scriptures, then we will be effective. That is my goal. To know the scriptures so well that I can answer questions and solve problems through them. People need to understand the gospels relevance in their lives. Our job is to help them feel the spirit, understand the relevance, and know how to solve their problems through the scriptures.  

He said there is a simple formula to seeing miracles. Go to work+ Work Smart= Miracles. To work smart requires some help. And the help comes from the ward. Starting with the bishop. If you can get him involved in the missionary effort then the ward will follow. We need to have a member present to all of our lessons. Get the members to fellowship investigators into the ward. The best way to get them on board is to teach a lesson with a member present and have them have a spiritual experience. Get them motivated in the work! That was exactly what I needed to hear because we have so many investigators on date but none of them will come to church because they don't know if they will be accepted. We need to fellowship them into the ward. 

Thanks for the birthday and christmas package:)) It was a great surprise. And yes I opened it ASAP there was no way I was going to wait to open it haha. I hung my christmas tree up in the hall so everyone will see it.

Guess what!? I am in a trio! One of the missionaries in my district went home today. It was hard to see him go. I gave him a tie to remember me:) But on the bright side now Elder Quick is my companion as well as Elder Clark. Haha! He is moving his bed into our room tonight:) 

For my birthday tonight we are going bowling. Thanksgiving morning we had the turkey bowl! It was really fun running around all the old men in the ward;) They videoed some of it so maybe they will be able to send it home for you! We went to the Potters at 1 o'clock. At 4 we went over to the Piersons for another meal! Hopefully I gained weight haha because I ate a lot! One pound of turkey meat offers more than 133 grams of protein fyi:) That night we went out and bought some boots for me. They are nice and I got them on sale since it was black Thursday night haha almost black friday. 

We helped a lady on Tuesday move to Greenwood. It was so fun. We backed the truck up to her back door to get some things from the basement. We loaded the Uhaul truck up but ran into a problem. We couldn't get it back up the little hill! It got stuck! Apparently the ground was too wet and soft hahaha. When we tried it only got even more stuck. So we came up with an idea. We put junk under the tires so it had some traction then Quick would give it as much gas as he could and we would push to help. We got so muddy! Eventually it caught traction and started going. The lady was a bit angry because we tore up a good amount of the grass hahahahha. It was so funny we were all rolling watching the truck burning out in the grass! There were tire tracks all over the grass from the truck. Oops good thing in the winter the grass is dead anyways. Oh the fun we have :)

Love you all! Peace out homies

Turkey Bowl 2015

Elder, Elder Coon, Elder Quick, & Elder Clark

#15 - Meatloaf All Day Every Day...

Wesley thinks he is an alpha wolf from teen wolf haha

The awesome district!

Usually we get fed pretty good here. Every few days we get something a bit strange but thats it.... Except this 

week.... We were fed nasty meatloaf 3 nights in a row this week! Ewwwww hahaha. The first night the meat was still raw!! I picked out as much as I could without them noticing and ate the rest but my poor companion Elder Clark didn't notice that it was still red from blood and went to town on it! Ate everything and then some! HAHAHA I was laughing all the way home! We all thought he was going to be sick from eating raw meat. Ah so funny:)

The next night we had it again! This family loves animals... you know that that means.... The meatloaf had cat hair in it!! Elder Clark pulled out 4 hairs from his plate hahaha! I was too scared to even look at my food. What is funny is all four missionaries noticed the hair plain as day but the members seemed blind to it. Saturday night we ate at a less actives house and guess what they had... meatloaf. I don't ever want it again after this week hahaha. 

But besides that this week has been great!! Vance was baptized!!! It was a wonderful weekend for us. I have seen him from day one not knowing if God loves him to now excited that he could be sealed to his wife for eternity in a year from now. This gospel changes lives. The commandments are here to bless us, they aren't restrictive. The work is still as busy as ever. We still have a challenge with getting our investigators to church. If anyone has ideas share! That seems to be my goal this transfer. People have a lifestyle of sleeping in and watching sports all day and it is hard to get them to change to going to church every Sunday at 9:30. 

Turkey bowl this Thursday! Pumped! Its crazy because no one out here even knows what that is. We have to explain to them what it is haha. 

Ah man Elder Quick is hilarious! On Tuesday the member we were supposed to go on exchanges with canceled and the other Elders didn't have anyone to go see so they went home and changed into regular clothes and came out with us! Hahaha we laughed so hard. We were able to get our member presents we needed thanks to them;) Last night we were sharing funny stories and he had us rolling. I don't think I have laughed that hard in years! Eternal friends:)

Yesterday was so cold when were out tracking! Funny story we knocked on this one house that smelled like straight up weed. This dude looked out the window and told us to get out of here (and some choice words) so I said ok and told him to have a nice day. He then said some more choice words as we walked away laughing at him. Not 5 minutes later six cop cars came flying around the corner and arrested him!! He should have listened to us. We want to go back and teach about repentance:) 

Have a good week everyone! Thanks for not forgetting about me too much. Love you all 

Email me james.coon@myldsmail.net

I would love letters too! 1441 S Marion St, Martinsville, Indiana 

pic 1 is of my district after we had an awesome district meeting:) we played basketball haha

pic 2 is of the martinsville mormon missionary mafia squad:) #mmmmsquad

 Vance is baptized!

The Fleener family where we cut off the chickens head!

The cold weather is coming!!!

thanks Grandma for the beanie!

This is at the farm. Here is sister banks. I love her! she calls me one of her "boys." She takes good care of us. If we ever need anything she tells us all the time to call her. Don't worry Sister Banks takes care of her "boys"

Elder Clark, me, Sister Banks, Elder Quick, and Elder Bornes

#14 - Week of Miracles!

This week was a week of miracles. On Tuesday we found a lady who just moved into her house and three weeks ago her husband passed away. She let us into her home and we taught her the Plan of Salvation. She knows that she will see her husband one day. I think it is so special when we meet those who are prepared for our message. She told us how she wants to be baptized! It is very rare for someone to let us in their home around here. It almost felt like she was expecting us! 

Funny story a lady told us this week she was baptized by God.... Cool! Hahaha don't know how true that is... We had a guy offer us a drink but I told him I was driving tonight and he asked Elder Clark and he didn't know what to say. hahaha I love throwing him into awkward situations:)

We are going to Bloomington for Pday to go play basketball with our zone!

Today when we were doing our laundry we talked with a man who wanted to know what football team we played for. Haha all four of us elders played in high school but we told him we were missionaries who helped people come closer to Jesus Christ. He was so appreciative of what we were doing. He told us that is much better than playing football. Right before he left he walked up to me and with tears in his eyes handed me $40! We don't accept money as missionaries but he literally wouldn't let me give it back to him. We knew he didn't have much money but he wanted us to go out to lunch with it. I think I share this every Monday but I have a testimony that people can see the light of Christ in us. We are different because we have the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I invite everyone to be an example to those around you by living it. 

We had a zone conference on Wednesday. President Cleveland is awesome! He is so inspired. I love how he teaches us with his coach voice! There is never a dull moment! 

Vance is getting baptized on Saturday! We have been teaching him for two months now. It is incredible how he has changed. Everyone is invited. It starts at 10 o'clock and don't be late;)

Nikki, Paula, Jared, Chuck, Jonie, and Mary also accepted invitations to be baptized. We have seen so many miracles this week. The Holy Ghost is so important as we teach people. The Holy Ghost is the teacher in the lessons. Tuesday night we were at Jared's house about to go to teach the Book of Mormon and I remember how as we knocked on the door I said a personal prayer to teach by the spirit. He was one on our investigators who was on the fence, boarder line to accept or reject what we had to say. As I testified to him of what I know to be true that night he knew it to be true. His attitude has changed so much since that night. He has the desire to be baptized. 

The Book of Mormon is the word of God. It testifies that Jesus is the Christ. Without it we would not have the fulness of the Gospel. Our whole message relies on that book. I know it to be true. I challenge everyone to read and study it and then to ask God for themselves if it is. If that book is true then Joseph Smith was a prophet and the Church of Jesus Christ has been restored in these last days. 

Love ya! 

Peace Out

We bought CLEVELAND hats #represent

This guy is part of the Martinsville Mafia he says. We changed it to Mormon Mafia! Dude is a THUG and he calls us his brothas so its a G

This is Dennis we baptized. He is so old and looks scared out of his mind but he was really excited I swear haha

Dear Mom,

ah Jeff potter the dad is all into anti! he has been researching why Joseph smith isn't a true prophet and everything. he goes about trying to find fault in the church not why it is true. it has been so hard. Nancy and the girls like to go to church every once in a while but we haven't taught them the lessons because of Jeff. He doesn't know the basic principles of the church so when he looks up all this deep doctrine it makes him go crazy. last night at 11 he texted me telling me that he was a false prophet because a false prophet makes false prophecies and apparently he said Christ's second coming would be in the 1860s or something... its so stupid. we want to show them some mormon messages and gospel videos. maybe watch 17 miracles with them? any ideas?

clark is working hard and growing! lol one of the first days he was here we were teaching a man about the restoration. i gave the first vision and the spirit was super strong. usually as a greenie you don't know much so you don't talk a whole lot. this man told us he feels like that could happen but he wasn't sure that we were the only church of jesus christ, but all people could go to heaven. before i could answer clark starts talking about the 3 kingdoms of glory! haha!? what?? it was way off the topic and just made the dude look at us like we were dumb. he learned a lot from that lesson. we laughed about it as we walked away. but yesterday we put 3 more people on date for baptism! this work is on fire! we taught 61 lessons this week. top in the mission;)

hmm easy rules are like going to bed and getting out to work. but since I've been training i realize how exhausted i am haha so in the morning its hard to wake up at 630 but i still do it. so that is a bit of a challenge. another one is we are suppose to have someone back us up when we are driving but i usually just back up. i will work on that ha

Letter from President Cleveland

Your son, James Dallin Coon, has been assigned to train a new missionary. The position of trainer only comes to missionaries who have demonstrated the highest level of trust, obedience and diligence.  A new missionary's trainer sets the standard and establishes the framework for the entirety of the new missionary's mission experience. We have every confidence in Elder Coon and know that he will be a great blessing to his new companion.

We appreciate your love of and support for Elder Coon.  Those acts have helped prepare him for this new assignment.

Sincerely,

Steven C. Cleveland
Mission President

#13 - President threw a curveball...

What a week! I am staying in Martinsville for another 3 months so everyone can start sending me letters and packages now! If you forgot my address is 1441 S Marion St, Martinsville, Indiana 46151 :) This week was so fun! Many stories and memories! But first...

We had interviews with President Cleveland on Thursday! In the interview he told me that next transfer I would stay in Martinsville and get a great follow up trainer. I was relieved because people were telling me I would train ha. Friday night when we were out trick or treating with the Potter family President called us again. He said he feels that I should train a new greenie next transfer.... Oh shoot! Then he asked if I was willing to be the district leader as well. I could hear the APs in the background laughing because my mind went blank as I tried to talk and only spoke jibberish. hahahaha but I said yes. That is a lot of responsibility! I felt really stressed out that night laying in bed. It is crazy how the spirit works. As I was in my bed my mind went to what I was studying in the scriptures that morning. 2 Nephi 4:34-35

34 O Lord, I have trusted in thee, and I will trust in thee forever. I will not put my trust in the arm of flesh; for I know that cursed is he that putteth his trust in the arm of flesh. Yea, cursed is he that putteth his trust in man or maketh flesh his arm.

 35 Yea, I know that God will give liberally to him that asketh. Yea, my God will give me, if I ask not amiss; therefore I will lift up my voice unto thee; yea, I will cry unto thee, my God, the rock of my righteousness. Behold, my voice shall forever ascend up unto thee, my rock and mine everlasting God. Amen.

The spirit testified to me that I can do this. My whole life I have put my trust in my Lord, and He will be there with me to lead and guide me. When we build our faith in Christ, our redeemer, our rock, we can get through the toughest times of our lives. What is also so great is that this week my scripture I have been ponderizing is D&C 68:6

 6 Wherefore, be of good cheer, and do not fear, for I the Lord am with you, and will stand by you; and ye shall bear record of me, even Jesus Christ, that I am the Son of the living God, that I was, that I am, and that I am to come.

Be of good cheer! As a missionary we go out every day and bear record of Jesus Christ. What is better than that? The Lord is with us as we do so. I love the promise in D&C 100 that says as we teach in the name of the Savior the Holy Ghost will give unto you all things whatsoever ye shall say in the very moment. This is the Lords work and we are his mouthpiece.

"One of the great lessons from what we know of Amulek is that once God knows we will obey, He will try to give us the greatest of all blessings: sanctification and hope of eternal life." (Henry B. Eyring)

Besides that... it has been a fun week! Dennis was baptized!!!! I will send pictures! We didn't realize how old that man was. I am pretty sure when I dunked him he broke his back lol. Not really, but the font was not filled all the way, it was about at my hip and Dennis can't bend his back apparently. The first time I put him under his feet went all over the place. We tried a second time, and I tried to hold his feet down but right before his head hit the water he kicked out his feet again!! I was trying not to laugh it was all I could do not to! The Bishop told us that was good and to get out and get him dry. I was so proud of Dennis!

We also hit up the zoo, stole little children's candy, and carved pumpkins. It has been fun! Everyone is so sad to see my companion Elder Redmond leave. He has been a big influence in the lives of these people. The ward is becoming like my family. It will be hard to leave this area when it is my time.  

Love you all

Elder Coon

 The Zoo...

 Elder Redmond loves superman so he got a superman onezie 

First day we had a frost was freezing!

 Halloween with the Potter's!

 Hatch it man... Bye Bye Chicken! 

 Quite the collection on wall decor.

 Wesley and I hanging out.

Fall is here...

They say this year is an Indian Summer.

Colder one week,

the next week warm.

Strange weather!