Merry Christmas!!!

The weather here is really weird... It has been in the 50's all week. The last couple of days it has just started raining and hasn't stopped. Everyone is saying that this is still really weird for the area. People are also saying that we are just going to get dumped on with snow in a few days... This should be fun...

This week was just weird in general. We had a really good Christmas meeting with the whole mission. It started off with an interesting talent show. Of course, I was volunteered to get up and beatbox. I didn't argue... After that we had a concert and devotional. During the devotional though, Elder Spagnolo got really sick and became best friends with the toilet in the church where we were. He is now just getting over feeling gross. Because he wasn't feeling good, it made missionary work rather difficult. We are supposed to get at least 20 lessons every week. By Saturday, we had 9. We were playing catch-up on Saturday and Sunday. We did make it to 20 lessons though. We were zooming around all of Greenville to make sure that we got in all of our lessons. We definitely wouldn't have gotten them in if it weren't for the grace of God. We are so grateful for the enabling power that Grace gives to each and every one of us. 

Christmas was interesting. Holidays are still just weird as a missionary. They just seem like regular missionary days where we got to talk to our families (which was great to be able to do) and got a bunch of packages. I still don't know what to think about holidays. It was still very fun and a great experience. I love doing this work and I am very grateful to be out here serving the Lord.

Thank you, I love you.

Happy New Year! 

Elder Hayden Cannon

Merry Christmas!

A Note from the Cannon family -
 Our Skype session with Hayden was amazing!!
It was great to "see" him. He is happy and so excited to serve.
We feel so blessed by his example!
Thanks Elder Cannon!!
We Love You!!!

Merry Christmas from Greenville!!!

Things are going pretty well in Greenville. I am really liking it here. My companion is Elder Spagnolo (pronounced spawn-yolo). He is a really good kid. He is a wrestler, football and rugby player from Idaho. He is a SPAZ!!! The other day he just picked me up out of no where! This should be fun! 

So of course, I'm in a new area so the first Sunday that I am here I had to give a talk in sacrament meeting, Yay! I was given the opportunity to speak about Christmas. It was actually really fun to prepare for and I am grateful I got the opportunity to give the talk. After the meeting was over, a sister from the ward came up to me and said that, just based off of the way that I speak, I am going to be a politician or an apostle. I was appreciative of the compliment.

It has gotten cold here and it is a wet cold the just goes through everything! Luckily, I am a warm body, but there have still been a few times where I have gotten rather cold. It is to bad that we have to share the car with another area... So this week we have been biking in the wet cold. I got a new bike, so I don't have to ride the broken one that got hit. I inherited it from the last Elder who was here.

I am really enjoying this area and I am looking forward to what Heavenly Father has in store for me here in Greenville, Ohio!

Thank you, I love you! 

Merry Christmas!

Elder Hayden Cannon

        Transfer Day. Hello Greenville, OH

Elder Cannon and his new companion - Elder Spagnolo

I worked on a farm this week! (Also, I'm getting transferred.)

I am going to be honest, never in my life did I expect to be in Kentucky, nor did I think that I would ever work on a farm. But this week, I got to work on a farm in Kentucky!!! We went and did some service for one of our investigators on his farm. It has been really nice because it has been rather warm this week so it wasn't miserably cold out while we were working. We spent most of the time driving posts for a new fence and taking out the old fence. It was something I had never done before and it was rather fun to do! 

We met an interesting family this week. They live next door to a less active member in our branch. He took us over there and it was quite the conversation with this family that are born again non-denominational Christians. Both the husband and the wife were talking at the same time, the wife was talking to me about how we are all God's children and as long as we have accepted Jesus we are going to Heaven, and the husband was talking with Elder Woffinden about how the Book of Mormon isn't the word of God because it was written by man. It was loud and very confusing. They strait out said that they probably wouldn't become members of our "denomination" (the wife didn't like us using the word "religion" to describe the church we belong to) but they would love to learn more about what makes us different. After we were done working on the farm we went to go visit the less active member to see if he or his family needed some service because we were still in our service clothe and thought, "why not?" We ended up helping the family we had talked to earlier in the week moving some wood and then talking to the wife and daughter. It was a great conversation and we were able to teach all of the Restoration to them. It was a little weird for us because were weren't in our suit and ties, we were in jeans and t-shirts teaching them the gospel. We are not used to that at all. But it still was a really good conversation and they are still interested in learning more. Because we showed up at their home in jeans and t-shirts and helped them out a little, they warmed up to us quite well. I just goes to show that sometimes the best way to share the gospel is through serving others. 

Thank you, I love you, Merry Christmas!

Elder Hayden Cannon

Cool frosty leaves

This is transfer day. 

It gets colder, but the work progresses!

Things are still going rather well. Yesterday was a great fast and testimony meeting. I love being in a branch here. It is so small, but it is amazing because the spirit there is still just as strong. I got up and shared an experience I had this last week. On Tuesday I was on an exchange with Elder Bunderson and we were in Crittenden, so I was leading the area, I'm not the best at doing leading the area yet. We went to an appointment with a less active member and knocked on the door. There was no answer. We knocked again. Still no answer. We went a looked around the house and we couldn't find any one who lived there. Elder Bunderson suggested that we knock again. We did and yet again, no one came. I wasn't sure what to do, I failed to plan a back up and our next appointment wasn't for an hour. We went back to our car and I started looking through our member folder to see if there were any other less active members that we could go visit. No names were jumping out at me and I had no idea what we were going to do. I told Elder Bunderson that we needed to say a prayer. We prayed that we would know what it is that we needed to do. The second we said amen, Elder Bunderson looked up and started waving at someone who came out of the house who then brought us inside so we could meet with the less active member. Prayer is something that I am indeed grateful for and now even more so after this experience. Prayer has been a huge blessing in my life and it continues to bless me, especially while I am out here on my mission. 

Thank you for all of your prayers and support. I am incredibly grateful for them.

Thank you, I love you.
Elder Hayden Cannon

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Bit of an interesting week. Holidays as missionaries are just weird because the world around us just stops for Thanksgiving, yet we don't. Thanksgiving was good though. We went to two dinners that day. Oh my word, I was so full! I couldn't sit down for about 20 minutes after I ate the second dinner. There was also a Turkey Bowl that morning. That was fun! There was our branch and another ward that showed up. The team I was on lost, but it was still fun! 

There is this one kid who we have been teaching who is awesome! He is nine years old. His dad is a member and he wants him now to be baptized. Yesterday was the first time that he was able to attend all three hours of church since he has moved into the branch. He loved it! There were a good amount of people that he knew from school and was able to make friends really quickly. It is really cool to see someone who is so excited about this gospel and to be baptized. It is also interesting to see someone so young be so excited about it. It has been a real testimony builder of how this gospel can really help anyone.

I am sorry that my letters keep getting shorter. I guess I need to do better at recording the things that happen. 

Anyways,

I love you all, Thank you so much for your faith in me! I am very grateful for this opportunity. 

Elder Hayden Cannon 

I didn't get hit by a car this week!!! Yay!!!! Still a good week for other reasons though...

This was a pretty good week. It started right off with an exchange on Tuesday with the new Zone Leader, Elder McKay. He and I were in Crittenden, so I was leading the area for that day. That was an especially interesting day because of one of our appointments. Elder Woffinden and I ran into a man at the store one day and we started talking about religion. We then set up an appointment with him at a later time. Tuesday happened to be the day that we were meeting with him, in a Starbucks that is a part of the local Kroger store (I know, it is ironic). We were excited to meet with him because he was already a religious person and we thought that we would be able enlighten him with the restored gospel. Not very far into us meeting with him, he was really just interested in Bible Bashing. This guy knew his Bible! I am really glad Elder McKay is there because there is no way that I would have been able to combat what was going on. At one point, this random guy walked up to our table, looked at us and said, "He's right, you're wrong. He can really help you." He then just walked away. We tried our best to do what we can for this man, but there really wasn't anything that we could do. We left him with the commitment to pray and ask Heavenly Father if there could be a possibility of a prophet being here on the earth today. He informed us that he doesn't believe that there could be prophet on the earth today. We told him all he has to do is ask, all Heavenly Father will do is answer him yes or no. He reluctantly accepted the commitment. The next morning we got a call from him saying that he would like to meet with us again but with a few more people with him, but we didn't actually set something up. He also told us that he "can't pray that prayer because that would be denying Christ." We wont be meeting with him again, but I did really enjoy this experience. Even among all this negativity toward the LDS Church and what we believe, my faith and my testimony grew stronger. I highly doubt that the man felt the spirit in our conversation, but I know I did. I felt the spirit telling me "No matter what this guy says, you are right and you know it!" I am grateful for that experience because it showed me how the world's mind is being clouded to the truth, but we have the truth and all of it! It was an experience that I wasn't really sure what to do, but I stand firm in my belief! 

This week there was also a mission tour. We had Elder Bennett come speak to us. He gave a talk this last conference, which was really good, but I have to say that the mission tour was better. There were some really great things in that entire (day long) meeting. There was a lot of talk of being consecrated. Elder Bennett broke down the word for us. Con means completely or all, secrate means sacred or holy. So in order to be consecrated, we need to be completely sacred and all holy. Something that President Porter also said about being consecrated is that "We are on the verge of what can be." There is something that is keeping all of us from being consecrated and keeping us from what can be. Our job to find out what it is that is keeping us from being consecrated and the things that can be. Another quote came to my head right after that. The quote is by Shakespeare, "What e're thou art, act well thy part." I am a missionary, I am a representative of Christ and I need to act like it. I am not doing a bad job at that, far from it in my opinion, but there are still things that I can be doing to be a better missionary, a better representative of Christ, and to be more consecrated. This is what I now have to work on and I am excited to dive head first into it. I know that I can do it with Heavenly Father's and Jesus Christ's help, they have helped me before, and they will do it again and they will help me tenfold if I need and ask for it. 

I am so grateful to be here to help myself be better in every way but more importantly to serve the children of God, my brothers and sisters, who need this gospel. 

Thank you, I love you,

Elder Hayden Cannon

Bit of a "Meh" week.

This hasn't been the best week, I will admit. I don't really know why, I just have had a dip in my mood. Luckily, I know that I can move past it because that just what tends to happen with me and feelings like this.

Tuesday was a day that I was feeling particularly "blah." Before Elder Woffinden and I went out, something just felt off and I don't know what. It was a similar feeling when I felt like there was some sort of homework that I was forgetting to do. We finally went out and started working. That day we were riding our bikes. As we were coming back to the apartment for dinner, we passed by an intersection. A car pulled into the walk way of the intersection where I was riding my bike, but the woman driving started backing up so I thought she was backing out so that I could go, she wasn't. I started going and pulled out in front of her right as she started going and then she hit me... I came out completely uninjured, but that was a rattling experience. She got out to make sure I was ok, once she knew that she left. I wasn't really sure what to do, so I let her leave. It wasn't until she was pulling away that I realized that the wheel on my bike now was bent, making it so I wasn't able to ride the bike. So now I had to carry the bike back to the apartment. As the day went on, I kept saying, "I was just hit by a car..." I wasn't sure how to react to that. I was never expecting to be hit by a car on my mission, but I guess now I can add a new box on my check list and then check it off. Later, thinking about how I was feeling in the morning I thought to myself "Did Heavenly Father just try to literally knock that feeling out of me?" I don't know what the intention was of that happening, but it did.

A scripture that I found that has helped me. 3 Nephi 5:13 - "Behold, I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. I have been called of him to declare his word among his people, that they might have everlasting life."

This mission is not about me or how I feel, while yes, there are things that I can benefit from, but shouldn't be what I am focusing on. I am here so that the people in Crittenden, Kentucky might have everlasting life.

Thank you, I love you,

Elder Hayden Cannon

Well, luckily he looks ok. I'm sure Divine Intervention played a roll. 

"God is easy to please, but hard to satisfy" - OCM Zone Conference

Hello Everyone!!!

I found something that I wanted to share with you from zone conference, "God is easily pleased, but hard to satisfy." God is pleased with all of the good that we do, but he will not be satisfied until we become like him. I like this because it gives us gratification for the things that we are doing and also gives us something to continually work on throughout our lives.

This week has been pretty good! We have some investigators that are doing really well. There is one couple that are really enjoying us coming over and learning more about the gospel. Their current road blocks is that they are not married and that the boyfriend smokes. We taught him about the word of wisdom on Saturday and he seemed really enthusiastic about quitting. It was really cool to see the spirit working in him! He and his girlfriend are on date for the 28 of November! I know that they will be able to make it there! 

Now that the transfer is over (I am not being transferred, by the way) we set a goal for the next transfer. The District leader asked us to set a goal for how many people that we will baptize in the next transfer (we then changed it to until the end of the year). Elder Woffinden and I prayed and we both felt that we should baptize four people. That is a ton!!!  So we told our district leader that and he told us that the district has a goal of baptizing 13 people by the end of the year!!! Holy cow!!! But because of the spirit we felt we know that is what God wants us to do and we know that he will most definitely help us. It is going to take a lot of faith and prayers to get us there, but we know that it can and will happen with Heavenly Fathers Help. 

Just a little fun thing that we were able to do last night is we were able to play with some puppies. There is a part member family whose dog just had puppies and we were able to play with them. I will send some pictures later today.

Thank you all so much for everything! I love being here and I know that there is nothing better that I could be doing. 

Thank you, I love you,

Elder Hayden Cannon

These are the puppies!! 

It was my Dad's birthday so I sent a picture message.
Happy Birthday Dad!! 

Then it was my birthday. A birthday wish from my family. 

KFC FOR DINNER!!!

HAPPY 20TH BIRTHDAY HAYDEN!!!

Everyone needs cake for their birthday!!

                   

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Happy Halloween!!!

November 2, 2015

This week was unlike any other. It wasn't better or worse, it was just different. On Tuesday we went on an exchange with the zone leaders, but instead of one companionship in each of our areas, we all stayed in the zone leader's area (this is called blitzing the area). So that day was weird that we weren't in our area. I was with Elder Heiner. He is a good kid. He has been out for a year. It took a bit to figure out what we could connect with, but we were able to figure out that we like similar movies and music, so we had some interesting conversations about those. What was a rather big bummer about blitzing another area is that we don't get any stats for that day in our area! Just a big fat zero! So we pretty much started the week off behind. On top of that day of not getting much done in our area, we had zone conference on Friday, which lasted from 9 in the morning until 5 in the evening and after that we went straight to the our branch's trunk or treat. We managed to get a lesson in after that, but that was the only one for that day. Saturday was also weird with it being Halloween. We went out like it was a normal day, but we were asked to be in at 7 because people mistake us for being in costume, not actual missionaries. So we missed out on 2 hours of proselyting. By Sunday, we needed to get 7 more lessons in order to reach our goal for the week. We usually don't teach that many, especially on a Sunday! But Elder Woffinden and I went out in faith and we were able to get in 9 lessons! That was a huge blessing for us! I know that Heavenly Father is aware of us and saw that faith that we have and guided us where we needed to be and guided the people we taught to be where they needed to be. We received quite a lot of grace on Sunday.

Zone Conference was awesome! President and Sister Porter have most definitely been called to lead this mission. They had some amazing things to say. Now I am kicking myself because I didn't bring my study journal to tell you about some of the revelation that I received from zone conference. I am sorry about that, I will tell you about it next week.

Halloween was interesting. For the last about hour and a half we were out, there were kids trick or treating. There was this one girl that yelled at us from across the street, in the whiniest voice Elder Woffinden and I had ever heard, "What are you supposed to be?" We said we are missionaries, because we are. At the trunk or treat the night before, someone asked if I was dressed up as something else. I told them the scariest thing that I could possibly be is a missionary without his companion, which that shouldn't even happen. Yeah, Halloween is interesting as a missionary...  

I am continuing to love what I am doing. This is most definitely hard, but I enjoy it making it doable and fun. Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers, I'm sure that they are doing more work than you think they are.

Thank you, I love you,

Elder Hayden Cannon  

"How Firm a Foundation!" Hymn no. 85

October 26, 2015

I don't know why I wanted to title it with "How Firm a Foundation" I just like that song and I feel like I have been singing it a lot. 

Monday was a good P-day. We went bowling as a zone. I think that was the best I have ever bowled before. I got 117. I am really happy with that. That night, we had Family Home Evening at the church that we taught. It was really fun! It was also the first time that anyone has shown up. We played a game where people have a name of a person on their back and they have to ask yes or no questions to figure out who it is. I got Darth Vader. I figured it out way to quickly. The point of the game was that we need to ask our Heavenly Father specific questions when we pray in order for him to answer us in a specific way that we can understand.  

Tuesday was interesting. I was on an exchange with Elder Macfarlane again, but this time we were in Crittenden. I lead the area. That was an interesting experience. It was also rather difficult. I don't know the area super well and some of our appointments fell through. I didn't know what to do. We managed to fill the time though. 

We currently have two people on date! One is on for November 7th and the other is for November 21st. We are really excited for them and we know that this is what they need to be doing.

I feel like not a lot happened this week... It was fun, spiritual, and hard. But I can't think of things to say. I am out of time anyway. 

Sorry for it being so short. 

Thank you, I love you

Elder Hayden Cannon 

There is some good work to be done in Kentucky!

A pretty good week!

Monday started with teaching a family about church. They are in a bit of a tough spot because the mom keeps being scheduled to work Sunday mornings and the husband doesn't want to go without her. They weren't able to come to church, but she has asked to have all other Sunday mornings off in the future, which is a great start! We then went to go see a former investigator that Elder Woffinden and I had never met with. He was a really cool guy. He is a huge computer nerd and loves video games. He and I were able to talk about that for a little while, some of the stuff he said about computers went a little over my head. We finally got to talking about the gospel and he has come to an interesting conclusion about religion in general. He said that religion just doesn't hold a very high priority in his life. He has tried a bunch of different religions, and nothing has clicked. He thinks that the only thing that will make it click would be to see God himself. It will be interesting seeing if he ends up progressing or not. It was also surprising to find someone who doesn't have a strong Christian belief around here. Most people are Southern Baptist, which that itself is fairly hard to deal with. 

We were able to go to the temple on Tuesday. We went to the Louisville temple. Oh my word, that thing is tiny! I am so used to the much bigger temples in Utah. It was interesting to be in. What was also interesting, is that the exact same spirit is there in the tiny Louisville temple as the larger ones that I have been to. I loved noticing that. It was also an interesting experience because I was fasting that day with the entire mission. President Porter asked us to so that we could have added strength to reach our goals as a mission. I liked that. 

There was a family that moved into the bottom apartment of our building. The father is a member, but he hasn't been to church in about 15 years. He also has a wife and step son. They are all really nice people. We have been teaching them and they really like what we have to say. Our goal is to reactivate him and have him baptize the rest of his family. They have some things to overcome, but I know that they can do it. 

One day this week, we were knocking some doors at night. I really don't like doing that. It is a time that it really feels like we are bothering people. It also seems like the time we are going to get a gun pulled on us. Especially in a trailer park. Boy, does that make me anxious! We finally got to the last house that we were going to knock and a man came to the door. We gave him our spiel and he said that we could come over to see him and his roommate the next night. So we did and we had an awesome lesson with them! The spirit was so strong! We even committed one of them to a baptismal date! He now can't get baptized on that date because he wasn't able to come to church, but I think that he could get there! They both could.

That last experience was really helpful. By doing something that really makes me uncomfortable, we were able to find some fantastic investigators! I am really grateful for this and to continue to find out that it doesn't matter how I feel, what matters is that I am finding the people who need this gospel. I can't wait to have more experiences like this. 

Thank you, I love you, 

Louisville Kentucky Temple

Elder Hayden Cannon 

The famous Cincinnati Chili

Ups and Downs...

This week started off just fine. P-day was pretty good. We went to a church and played a bunch of games with other missionaries. We played this one basketball game that I actually did pretty well at. I think it was because I got most of my points from rebounds. When ever I would play as a deacon or teacher I was told to stand under the hoop and get rebounds because I am big and tall. So that was pretty fun. Tuesday, I went on an exchange with the District Leader, Elder Macfarlane. He is an awesome missionary! He is just able to talk with everyone! It was really cool to be able to teach some lessons with him. For dinner that night, we went to Gold Star Chili, Skyline Chili's competitor. Elder Macfarlane said that they are pretty much the same. So I got to try the famous chili that everyone talks about. It was pretty good, I guess. It definitely wasn't bad. I think I will have to try it again sometime. As we were leaving, Elder Macfarlane asked, "So what did you think of the Chili?" I said, "That I need to try it again." I also need to compare it to Skyline Chili. There was a picture taken, but it was on Elder Macfalane's camera, I will get it to you next week. 

Wednesday, was an interesting one. The first person we saw was Daniel. We had a couple more lessons to teach him and we wanted to see if he could fit into one of the baptismal jumpsuits we had. We got there, he attempted to try on the jumpsuit (he is a very large person), and then we started talking. Daniel said that he had a dream where the Lord showed him all of the churches that his father took him to growing up. He says that the Lord told him that those are the churches that he needs to be at. He said that he no longer wanted to be baptized. Daniel said that he doesn't think that the Mormon church is true any more. We tried to do what we could to know that the spirit wouldn't direct him away from the church, but it was all for none. We left Daniel's house and I had the weirdest feeling, I don't know what it was. All we could really do was go to our next appointment. I am so glad we did. We taught a man named Chet. We had met him and his wife earlier and they had us come back, but only Chet was there. We taught him outside of his apartment because he had some people over who are rather weird. There was a bunch of kids running around as well as some other lady running and asking everyone if they knew where Jennifer was. We were pretty sure she was high. Even though we had all of these distractions, we were still able to have a really good lesson with Chet. He really enjoyed it and said that he couldn't wait for us to teach his wife. We really needed that after we had just been dropped by Daniel. 

Something that was also happening this week was a finding challenge. Would get 1 point for finding a new investigator, 3 points if an investigator was a referral, 5 points if we found a family, and 8 points if we found a family that was a referral. This was a mission wide competition. The zone with the most points would get some of Sister Porter's cinnamon rolls. There was another competition within the zone, the companionship who got the most points gets to go to Olive Garden with the zone leaders. I don't know who won for the overall mission, but Elder Woffiden and I won the zone competition with 27 points! That was another pick-me-up needed after Daniel dropped us. 

This really is hard work, but I love doing it. I have a lot of things to work on while I'm here, but that is half of the fun! I can't wait to see the improvements that are happening within me as I go throughout my mission.

Thank you, I love you

Elder Hayden Cannon 

First Week in the Field!

First week in the field has been a pretty good one! I have really enjoyed it. The flight was good, it wasn't horribly long, but long enough to get a little sleep. I instantly felt the humidity when I got off the plane and it wasn't even that humid! This should be interesting to see how much I agree with the weather. We went to the mission home, had dinner, played some games, had a devotional, and went to bed. Sometime in there, we were taken to this park that has an amazing view of Cincinnati. It was super cool!

The next day we went to the Transfer meeting. This is where I found out who my companion is and where I would be serving. My companion is Elder Woffinden and we are serving in the Crittendon, Kentucky area. (If you say "Crittendon" in a southern accent, without really emphasizing the T's in the middle, you are saying correctly.) I really liked that day because it was raining super hard, even harder than it was when I went into the MTC! Elder Woffinden and I were taken back to Crittendon by a member, Lance, and his friend, Bob, who is an investigator. These guys are most definitely southern. Lance doesn't seem real. He seems like what you would think of if SNL made a character that was southern. The way he talks is so funny! You can hardly understand what he is saying. I can't convey the way he sound through text, I will have to tell you when I get back. As we were headed back to Crittendon, I realized that I didn't get bedding back at the Church where the transfer meeting was. Elder Woffinden said we would work it out when we got to the apartment. But Lance for got to get some things back at the church, so we were able to go get the bedding! That experience, though small, was definitely something that showed my that Heavenly Father is looking out for me. We told this to Lance and he said, "See, I'm not forgetful! I'm just inspired!" 

There was another time in the car that was supper funny! Lance was in the passenger seat with his window rolled down and pouring rain. Somehow, the rain wasn't really getting to him. All of a sudden, this car zooms past us splashing Lance with so much water! Bob, trying to get away from the car that was splashing us, speed up, but all he really did was keep up with the car that was splashing us, therefore, splashing Lance continuously. I was laughing so hard! I really needed that. 

When we finally got to Crittendon, we immediately went to go teach Daniel who is getting baptized this Saturday! He already had a date before I got there, but that just shows me that the work is progressing here in Crittendon. (Also, I have been here less than a week and I have already been asked to sing at Daniel's baptism. Elder Woffinden ratted me out.) We taught him about the word of wisdom, which he had no real problem with. During the lesson, Lance went on a rant about how if you drink whole milk, you wont ever get diabetes. I didn't quite understand him, but Elder Woffinden says he is a scientist. I don't know, I guess you should drink whole milk...

Teaching has been my favorite part. It is just something that I am comfortable with. My theatre background has helped me in my confidence in teaching. Where I am struggling though is just talking to people on the street. I think it is weird. I just seems awkward to me to go up to people and ask them if they want to talk about Jesus. I have somethings to work on. Luckily, I have time to work on them and I am in the right place to do so. 

I loved Conference! There were so many amazing talks! The one that really stuck out to me was Elder Durrant's about "Ponderizing" scripture. I thought that this was a great idea. I loved what he said about it giving our mind a place to go when it is wondering. I am one whose mind wonders and giving it a place to go, like the scriptures, is exactly what I need in order to help me stay focused on the work that needs to be done. 

I really like being out here. It is most definitely a different place than anywhere I have lived. Everything is weirdly spread out making it hard to decide if it is better to drive or walk. The people are different. Oh my word, the people are different. Good people, but different. Delightful, but different. Welcome to Kentucky! I am excited to continue working here and can't wait to help bring people to the gospel. 

Thank you, I love you, 

Elder Hayden Cannon        

OFF TO CINCINNATI

Today is the day! MTC to the airport via Trax bright and early at 6:00 AM. It was great to talk to Elder Cannon before he left for Cincinnati, Ohio!! He sounds AMAZING!!!!! He and 20 other missionaries were traveling to Cincinnati today. 

I'm sure most of you know that you can follow a flight while it is en route. Well, when you have a missionary this is the greatest tool known to man.  Thank you technology for this gift!

Then great news - Dear Missionary Parents, Your missionary has arrived in the great Ohio Cincinnati Mission. We feel so blessed to have heard from his mission president. He is in great hands! 

We will continue to update his blog with letters and pictures. Thank you for the love and support you give to Hayden. 

We are so excited for the experience he is having. Hard to believe it has only been 12 days.

We love you Elder Cannon and pray for you.

Mom and Dad

Elder Cannon with President and Sister Porter at the mission home

Week 1.5

Because we leave on Monday, we get time to do laundry and to check email now, Yay! Classes here are now much easier to sit through, learn from, and feel the spirit in. It is nice to be able to role play some of the situations that we could/will encounter out in the field. Those are also really nice because I am able to see that I will be at least somewhat good at this. This week my companion and I actually started fulfilling responsibilities as the zone leaders. We greeted the new missionaries and told them what they could expect while they are at the MTC. I loved doing this. That is a situation that I feel really comfortable, being in front of a group of people and talking. There aren't many better feelings than making an entire room of people laugh! Some of the Elders that got here the same week I did, dressed up like nephites, using bed sheets, and as we all came in for zone prayer, they said "Welcome to the army of Helaman." It was cool and funny. The new missionaries are going to do some great things. 

On Thursday, we went to this "In-field Orientation" that was not the funnest of things that I have done at the MTC. I took about 10 hours to do... When my companion summed it up to an elder that was sick and unable to go in about a minute. There were some great things that were learned, but it was way too long. 

Friday night, two of the new elders asked me to give them a blessing. Giving blessings is a very interesting experience. You go into it with your mind completely blank, a perfect canvas for the spirit to tell and/or show you what it is you are supposed to bless this person with. I blessed these elders with things that I have no idea if they are really struggling with them, or if that is what they wanted to hear, but that is what the spirit told me to say, so I did. 

Today, I went to the first block of class, but I didn't go to the second so that another elder could go because he had missed a few due to his own sickness and now his companions sickness. I stayed in the residence with his companion, packed what I could, wrote in my journal, and attempted to study the scriptures. Reading the scriptures is still not a strength of mine. Bummer, it didn't come to me without any work... Haha! I know that this is something that I need to work on and I look forward to becoming better acquainted with the scriptures and I know that Christ will help me do that, but just for good measure, wish me luck. 

I love this gospel and I can't wait to share it with the people of Cincinnati. I know that the spirit will be my greatest supporter and that this would be impossible without him.

Thank you, I love you,

Week One @ MTC

Week One @ MTC

Hello!!!! The MTC has been a good, bad, interesting, boring, busy, and spiritual experience. When I first got here I was taken around the campus and picked up the things that I needed. I was then thrown into a class room for to long... There I met my companion Elder Miller. He is a good kid from Cache Valley Utah. He really likes sports, but still manages to be a good person, thankfully. We have not had any problems as a companionship, especially compared to the other Elders in our district. I really like my district, we have gotten really close really fast. They are all really cool. The rest of the first day was fairly generic get to know you and here is where stuff is. We met with the zone leaders as well as the rest of the zone (it was apparently supposed to be just the new districts). I was not a fan of the rest of the zone because they tended to be rather obnoxious. I was grinding my teeth throughout the entire meeting. This is people found out I beatbox and they had me demonstrate, like usual when I introduce myself. That night we also did this activity called "People and your purpose." This was really cool because we had "investigators" (people acting as investigators) in different rooms and then we went to talk with them. This is where I realized that this is going to be HARD! I tried to talk to one of them and she had questions that I could answer, but not in a language that someone who isn't mormon would know, and the people before me didn't give me the best hand off. It was still really fun though. Everyone got better by the third and last room. 

The first few days of class went by so slow... We are in class for 6 hours everyday. It is like high school again, without subject changes or walking between classes (you think that doesn't make that big of a difference, but oh my word, it does.) The classes just felt like they were dragging on and on. Everyone kept looking forward to gym time, I wasn't really. I got dragged into a game of basketball. I'm not good at basketball. I didn't do well at basketball. People kept trying to compliment me, but basketball (as well as most sports) I have just accepted that I am not very good at them, which I am completely ok with.  There is a reason I sing, act, and beatbox. I don't like sports. That night we met the branch presidency. President Menlove was the president (he was just released on Sunday). His wife's brother is actually Paul Monson, Jared's Dad! She actually saw me in Les Mis when Jared was in it. Small world! My companion and I were called as Zone leaders there. I am really glad for the opportunity to serve the zone, and to keep things at a less obnoxious level. Something that was really interesting was that night I stood in the circle for blessings for members of the zone. I was asked by the Elder that particularly bugged me and I found rather obnoxious to give him a blessing. That was weird to give this Elder, that I almost instantly had contention for, a blessing. While I was giving him the blessing I felt at least some of the immense love that our Heavenly Father loves him. Very much an eye opening experience. 

Another Elder said something that I really like: "Don't study deep doctrine, study basic doctrine, deeply." That was something I really needed to hear because I have really enjoyed learning about the deeper doctrine because they are interesting to me. But those things are just going to confuse investigators not help them come closer to Christ.

Sunday was really nice because we weren't classrooms all day. Sacrament meeting was really nice. I didn't have enough breakfast that morning though. During priesthood meeting I started to feel like my blood sugar was low and had major cold sweats. That was really hard to focus on the spirit. It was interesting though because when I started to share something, my gross feeling went away, but once I stopped I continued to feel gross. Once I got to lunch I downed a glass of chocolate milk and felt a lot better and was able to get through the day. I went to choir for the devotional that night. That was phenomenal to sing with I believe about a thousand Missionaries. (Mom I think the director was the same person who directed the seminary teacher choir you and Dad were in.) The speaker was Lloyd Newell, the guy who does the announcements for music and the spoken word and conference. I really enjoyed what he had to say, but I did have anything to write down what I wanted to remember and I am kicking myself for that. After I went to a recorded devotional from Elder Bednar called the Character of Christ. That was really good. There was one statement that stood out to me the most. "Working harder and harder doesn't make you a Saint, it makes you CRAZY!!! A saint is someone who is trying to be like Christ." I really like that statement. That will be a huge help to me so that I don't work to the point of complete exhaustion. Also when he said that, I had an overwhelming feeling come over me and I wrote in my study journal, "I AM A MISSIONARY! I AM A MISSIONARY!" That is when I knew that I am now a missionary of God, and I am very grateful for that realization. 

The last realization that I think that I need to mention is how my theater background is going to help me. Because I am good at theater and thing associated with that, I will have the confidence to speak to and in front of people, but I will not be the person to convert people. That is the spirits job, not mine. There is a quote in Preach my Gospel by Brigham Young on page 199, that made me realize this. I encourage everyone to go read it. 

I am grateful for this opportunity to serve. I do enjoy and love being on a mission. I can't wait to get out to the mission field. Thank you for the letters a packages. 

I love you all,

Elder Hayden McKay Cannon

All of the Elders in my district from left to right: Elder Miller, Me, Elder Headrick,
Elder Van Slyke, Elder Taylor, Elder Sutton.

The Big Day - Provo MTC - September 16, 2015

The Big Day - Provo MTC

The ceremonial lunch at the Brick Oven. 

Goodbye on the curb at the MTC.
Thank you to his host!! 

As Hayden is walking away. What we didn't realize was that he was signing "I LOVE YOU". We love you too!! GO and DO!!