#67 - April 24, 2017

This week was a good week. We taught Samantha with her parents. They will come around to the gospel some day, they are so perfect for the church! We are working to get Samantha to the temple!

We had a very interesting lesson with some Seventh Day Adventists. Did you know they believe after we die we just sleep until the resurrection? -Eccl 9:5. Well they are still super nice people. We are having dinner with them tomorrow night and they want us to come play ultimate frizbee with them too. Sounds like a good time! 

We had stake conference yesterday. It was amazing!

gtg!! love you all!

I will send pics next week

FUN FACT FOR MOMMMA

1. We made a pinewood derby with the cub scouts and raced it :)))) #6thplacechamps

yes i have seen a few pics and both girls look super tall! we had stake conference yesterday too!

the companionship is going well. richards loves to talk ha! so he talks and talks. i have really had good companions my whole mission. never any yelling between any of them. they all have been hard workers. it has been a blessing. oh man what have i learned? -to do the dishes hahaha. and to be patient with them. each has a different personality, but i find when we are focussed on the same goal and have the same focus, we get along great. every once in a while i will make a stir fry. i bought some green drink again. in the mornings i have a protein/green powder/spinach/strawberry/banana drink, not bad.

I have been really digging in my jesus the christ. i love that book! talmage has a talent for making the bible apply to life.

this week we have come in contact with many people from the 7th day adventist church. there are a bunch around here. the ONLY thing they talk about with us is how the sabbath day is on saturday. so we have really studied up on the topic. ha! they follow the jewish custom (and think it is a commandment, which is a big difference) to worship on saturday. the commandment is only to have a day of "rest" after 6 days of work. they don't give a specific day. if it was so important on a specific day you think the bible would specify! lev 23 is all about important days being specific, but the sabbath day is not there. so that is what we are working with! fun stuff! they also believe in a false prophetess named ellen g white, if you do any study on her teachings you find she is not a true prophet ha! in fact more than 80% of her teachings were plagiarized!! some from joseph smith too!

Wow only 10 baptisms in the stake!? we probably are at 20-30 a year for our stake. yes act on the prompting!

how is the other lady that had baptists argue her down the street?

Ian! that is so great! i'm happy for him.

cgcc- i have done some college dual enrollment in hs, you might want to check with wf school records to see which ones i have taken.

it is amazing how the leaders will follow the spirit and it seems they can answer any question through an experience and scripture. that is how i want to be!

we had stake conference as well! i really enjoyed it. the 2 hours seemed to fly by! people said that it was a bit long but i was taking a bit of notes and was sad to hear it finished! we had Elder Dudley of the 70 at ours. he talked about  "weeds vs seeds" and how as a young 35 year old stake president, hinkley called him and said that he feels a temple should be built near the area. so they went to work and he couldn't tell a soul about it! he said the land they picked was filled with weeds and president hinkley didn't mind wading through waist high weeds because he saw the potential of the land. hinkley would stomp on the weeds! we need to stomp on our weeds in life as well. he also taught about how to plant righteous seeds in our life. great story of the prophet.

the father of a recent convert family we work with received the Melchezidec  priesthood after conference. that was a great experience too.

we have mlc and zone conference every transfer. no actually each zone gets an allotted mileage and we disperse the miles to each companionship. so we get 8300 miles as a zone and we allot ourself 1600 bc of how far we are. each time we go to indianapolis it is a 300 mile trip ha. 

hmm i love teaching about the book of mormon and helping them find their testimony of that. once they have that it is a huuuuge foundation to everything else. after that i love focusing on repentance. the most important step i feel. we need to learn to constantly identify and correct our actions.

oh yes make sure to share all your adventures with me!!! 

#66- pictures

 Baptism of Samantha

Niles missionaries with Catholic Mormon Joe...

Elder Morgan and I 

the drive to mlc! only a 3 hour drive... ha

 we had a great mlc Friday!! we stayed in the "crossroads mansion"  Thursday night.  At 5am we got up at  and met a bunch of other ZL's and fishers missionaries at the fishers building to play ball! it was a blast!

Here is the crew at the AP apartment having pancakes for breakfast!

#65 - Here is to another week!

This week was another super week! Samantha will be baptized on Saturday at 4.

This week while tracting we had an interesting experience! We knocked on this door, and when the man opened the door the first thing he said was, "I am gay, so that solves that, good bye." We were a bit taken back and before he shut the door on us I said, "Well not really!" I guess it caught his attention because he opened back up to us. We taught a powerful doorstep lesson on Christ and the power of His atonement and the Book of Mormon. He said every other church will kick him out of church and call him a sinner before they even know anything about him. We will be meeting with him again this week so we will see how things go!

We are all good and I am enjoying the mission life! Have a great week

i am sure thankful for a great father and mother! and what a blessing you have to have such a strong ward with so many members! we had about 50 members show to church yesterday. 

you will be proud to hear that i have made my bed every day for about a year now :)

wow that is crazy how fast everyone is growing up!!

have you heard about where Ryan coon is going on his mission yet?

this weekend Samantha will be baptized! brother province is from the franklin ward. he was a great ward mission leader! do you respond to the member messages? i don t mind if you do or don t, just wondering.

i miss dads lessons on the week before easter!

love you!

#64 - General Conference, shotguns and Masons

Not much time today! This week was super! Elder Richards is a great new companion. We are working hard. Samantha is still good for the 15th for baptism! Ramon is officially on date for baptism as well for May 13th! Things are looking up for him! We are still working with Joyce and Rodney for a date. 

General Conference was ah-hay-zing as usual! Saturday we went down south (about a 3 hour drive) to a baptism in an old area of my companions. So we listened to portions of the conference in the car. There were so many great insights, here are a few good pointers that I liked

-We increase in the Saviors power in our lives by making and keeping our covenants.

-Learn to love being worthy and staying worthy.

-Be thankful, but dont inhale it!

-We should not and must not hide our light. Preach what you practice.

-We must act on our first prompting! You will get it right 9/10 times.

-Those who do the small and simple things will have strong faith to overcome the hard troubles of life.

Samantha's dad is huge in the free masonry so he gave us a tour of the masonic temple in South Bend!! It was so cool! He said we saw more things than most masons have in their life! From secret passage ways to the kitchen to the friendship room.... it was super cool! Very interesting to learn about it. And to see that there was a good amount of the founding fathers involved with the organization.

Love, Elder Coon

 This is jordan from my last area. elder larson and i taught him. he was baptized about a month ago, here are his pics!

Hello Elder,

What a great day / weekend of Conference.  It only takes 10,000 Hrs to become an expert!  That is 8 hours a day, 365 days a year for 3.4 years.  Do you feel you are getting close to the expert status as a missionary?  I am certainly shy of an expert, but hope,  with this weekends motivation, that with scripture study and prayer that my spiritual well being will increase.  

We received your letter in the mail and enjoyed the gospel questions you included.  We will use those tomorrow night at FHE.  Next week, Tiffany is getting married and family will be coming in.  We will have Cath, Liz, Laurie and Katie T staying with us.  It should be a Coon Marathon. 

I have two cousins, brothers, that are serving as Stake President's.  They are dealing with a number of missionaries that are coming home early.  This week in High Council Mtg, Pres asked what our thoughts are for helping prepare our young men and women to serve.  I raised my hand and said that my dad was not more than a Sunday School Teacher, but raised 8 children to be active members in the church.  His mantra was "Get out of bed and go to work!"  I believe these young men need to hold down a real job and need to be put to work long before 17 or 18.

The Coon Cousin you found was fun, it is amazing to find a distant relative.  Please let us know your gators progress and how your work is progressing.  Also, tell us more about your Pres.  I loved Elder Yoom (sp?) talk on, "When it rains, look up and open your mouth."

I pray for you throughout the day that you will have the blessing of the Spirit to teach and testify with power.  I also pray for the members in your area to open their mouths that you may teach.  I know you were called to serve and assigned to labor in the Indiana Indi Mission.  What a comfort and motive to know that Father knows where and who you are.

I love you James, keep that contagious attitude, the Lord can work with that superb talent.

Dad

hah wow that means im getting close! um i feel confident in missionary work but im sure not close to being an expert ha!

good answer! it is all about a desire for the work. the Lord can work with those who will believe. great general conferece talk! 

yes the coon cousins are stellar missionaries in their ward. we were at a baptism in moorseville where they live and they were the key to the conversion of the family being baptized! all it took was an invite over for dinner!

thank you for the prayers! i feel them more than ever!