Merry Christmas!!!!

Merry Christmas!!!

I hope all of you enjoyed your Holiday! The Holidays are an interesting time for missionaries. Everyone we call just says to get a hold of them after the first of the year. That makes thing hard up until then because missionary work doesn't stop! We don't take a vacation until the January! We are figuring out what we can do until then. 

Christmas Eve was really good. We had a Christmas conference with the Cincinnati stakes. I got roped into doing 3 things for the talent show and 2 other musical numbers. It was a good day, but I was a little anxious because of all the stuff I needed to do. Elder Manning and I did a 12 days of Christmas skit and it was so fun! Elder Manning has never done anything like that. That's what you get when you have a theater kid as you companion. Everyone seemed to really enjoy it. It was a fun day. 

Christmas was fun too! Christmas on Sunday is awesome for a missionary! We went to both sacrament meetings that happen in our building because one of the Elders from the other ward and I did a musical number. I sang in the ward choir and that was really fun. I miss singing in choirs. We then went to Skype home which was fun! Great to talk with my family! And that was about all that happened this week. 

Thank you, 
I love you!!!
Elder Hayden Cannon

Skype on Christmas Day

Elder Cannon and Elder Manning

Referrals!

Hello!!!

This week was a good week. This week felt really long though. It wasn't bad as in it was dragging on, but it did feel long. It was rather interesting. 

On Thursday, we had Mission Leadership Council. I really enjoy those meetings. This meeting was really interesting because there used to be twice as many zone leaders and there were more sister training leaders but because of the zones changing, there were far fewer missionaries there. We had a special guest come, Brother Hemingway, the director of proselyting for the missionary department of the church. It was a really good meeting. Something that was really interesting is that other missionaries and I have noticed is that we will have a meeting like that where there is an emphasis on something and we will treat it as if we have never had access to those principles, even though they have been in Preach My Gospel since 2006. I have found that funny. It was a really good meeting. 

One of the things that Brother Hemingway talked about is asking for referrals. He promised us that if we are to truly ask for referrals from everyone, we would be able to change our finding to baptizing ratio from 33 to 1, to 11 to 1. That is a huge difference! So Elder Manning and I have really been trying to ask for referrals from everyone. The actual asking for referrals hasn't been to fruitful but we still continued to ask. Saturday, we had our ward Christmas Party and while we were there, a member came up to us with his friend as said, "This is Jim, he came to church last week and is interested in learning more." He also came to church yesterday. Heavenly Father has laid out in Preach my Gospel that if we will ask for referrals to teach, we will have many people to teach and Elder Manning and I are just at the beginning a we can't wait to see what else comes. 

Thank you, I love you!!!
Elder Hayden Cannon

One of our new referrals!!

Doubled-in to EastsGate

Hi!!!

Things are going well here in Eastgate! Elder Manning and I were doubled-in here as the zone leaders. That is kinda rare. Usually zone leaders don't get doubled-in. This wasn't even where zone leaders were in the past. It has been interesting. Elder Manning has said that he hasn't prayed so much in his entire mission. 

Elder Manning and I are still trying to get our bearings so we don't quite have much to report. Things have been good and we look forward to the work here. 

Love you!!!
Elder Hayden Cannon 

I'm getting 6 week shafted!

Hello Everyone!!! 

I hope everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving! Both sets of missionaries in the Dayton ward went to a single sisters for a Thanksgiving meal at lunch time. I ate so much then that for our dinner our, I just laid on the floor. It was really good! We then weren't really sure what to do after we were done eating though. Holidays as a missionary are hard because you really don't want to irritate people when they are with their families. What we thought to do was walk around downtown Dayton and hand out the cards for the Church's Christmas initiative. No one was really on the streets though, they were inside where it was ward and had an abundance of food. It all worked out though. 

I am leaving Dayton and will be going to Eastgate, Ohio. I am kinda bummed I am leaving Dayton. The area is really just starting to take off and both Elder Grass and I are leaving. I feel like the area will be in good hands, though. Someone I came out with is taking over the area and is training a new missionary. He should do a good job. I am going to be with Elder Manning in Eastgate, we are getting doubled in and we will be the zone leaders. Elder Grass told me that him and Elder Manning are practically the same person, so luckily I like Elder Grass! Getting doubled in is going to be interesting. Zone leaders aren't usually doubled in, but now I get to be doubled in with someone who I am not training! This should make things a little bit easier. I can't wait!

Thank you for everything! Especially your prayers, they really do work.
I love you!!!
Elder Hayden Cannon

We met an awesome family!!!

Howdy!!!

Things have gone super well this week. Last Sunday, we got a referral from President Welch, which is kind of a rare occurrence. It was from another mission president in Guam who has a sister missionary there whose family lives in Dayton. She wanted us to go visit them. We did and they are an awesome Micronesian family! We met Channell and her mom who are both members. Channell has a fiance, 3 kids, and a nephew who live with her who are all not members. We had some awesome lessons with them and it was great! All of them came to church!!! It was our first time having investigators at church for the entire transfer. It was great! We are really excited to work with them.

I had a thought that I liked during studies the other day. The atonement is meant to save us from both physical and spiritual death. If we are supposed to be saved from those "deaths" then our purpose is to live, both physically and spiritually. The Doctrine of Christ is the instructions to be spiritually alive and to thrive. Heavenly Father wants us to return to Him, but we are to live the Doctrine of Christ to be able to achieve our eternal potential. I love this gospel and the eternal nature of it. There is a quote that I would like to share about this. 

"The great beauty of the gospel of Jesus Christ is the reality of eternal progression we are not only allowed to change for the better but also encouraged, and even commanded, to continue in the pursuit of improvement and, ultimately, perfection."
     -Jean B. Bingham

This is how we spiritually thrive!

Thank you for all that you are doing! I love you!
Elder Hayden Cannon

'Twas My Birthday

Hello!!! Things are going well here in Dayton!

This week was a little slow, but some great things happened. Something that I just found out is that an investigator that I found in Fort Wayne and worked with quite a bit, just got baptized!!! I am so happy about that! Also, Joyce who Elder Lilly and I baptized got to go to the temple!!! That is so awesome to see people that I worked with progress in the gospel, even if I wasn't there for all of it.  

Something that I have learned and continue to learn is that people in the Midwest like to talk! We met these investigators on Saturday and one of them would start talking over us, then the other would start talking over her and they were both asking questions, both of which we were then supposed to answer. It was a struggle teaching them. We are still going to be teaching them later this week. It should be fun. 

My birthday was pretty fun. It was a pretty regular day as a missionary. We did have zone meeting though and it was the first one that I have been a zone leader for. I enjoyed it. I really like giving trainings.  

There was an analogy that Elder Grass used in a lesson that I had never heard before that I really liked. If you are out in the wilderness and your two options are to drink out of a pool of stagnant water or a flowing stream, which do you drink from? You drink from the flowing stream because the movement acts like a filter and cleans the water. A stagnant pool only builds up bacteria that will make you sick. Our spirits are the same way. We must keep moving and progressing spiritually in order to remain clean. When we stop taking the step we know that we should to keep moving towards our Heavenly Father and to stay spiritually alive, we start to grow spiritual bacteria that will eventually cause us great harm. I really liked that and I wanted to share it with you. 

Thank you! I love you!

Elder Hayden Cannon 

Elder Cannon and his companion Elder Grass

My first Mission Leadership Council!!!

Howdy!!!

This week was pretty good! Elder Grass and I are doing some great work here. We are getting along well and we are teaching in unity! We spend a lot of our time laughing at each other! Very good things. We were able to find 5 new investigators this week and most of them were media referrals. Media referrals are really nice because it is someone that has said, "Missionaries, come over!!!" Sometimes they aren't quite as enthusiastic about us showing up at their door, but it is usually a good way to find new investigators. 

On Friday, Elder Grass and I went to Mission Leadership Council. It was awesome! I was so excited to go and see all the other Zone Leaders and Sister Training Leaders. Those are a really good group of missionaries. I was able to receive a lot of good revelation that we can then take to our zones and help them to know where the mission is going and how it is getting there. We weren't able to do any proselyting that day because the meeting was in Cincinnati, but we were still really excited because we got 4 media referrals while we were there. But when we looked at them on the computer, they were all for the other Elders in Dayton... That was a bummer. 

On Saturday I was able to go on an exchange in Greenville! That was really cool! It was interesting to visit an area that have served in before. It was especially nice because I was able to see people that I wasn't able to say goodbye to because I was emergency transferred out of Greenville. I was really happy to be there. 

Whelp, that makes up my week. 

Thank you!!! Love you!!!

Elder Hayden Cannon   

"I mean... It's Dayton..."

Hello everyone!!! 

I hope that everyone is doing well and has a safe Halloween. We are going to be staying inside tonight so there isn't anything weird that could happen with missionaries and Halloween. Don't worry, we have received some assignments from President Welch to keep us occupied. 

Dayton is a very interesting place. There are things that you just wouldn't really see anywhere else other than Dayton, Ohio. People are interesting, they drive interesting, they talk about weird stuff. It is fun though. On Friday, we met the most racist woman I have ever met in my life... That was an experience. When ever we see something that is out of the ordinary, but it normal for Dayton, we say, "I mean... It's Dayton..." 

We do a lot of service here for members. It is pretty fun. We have been helping with a roof of a barn. One day, we were demolishing this shed that was attached to it and the next we were putting on shingles. The roof was really steep though and I really didn't like being on it so I wasn't much help. They were some fun projects. 

The work here is a little slow, but we are working to find some new investigators to teach and help them progress. Elder Grass and I need to involve Heavenly Father in this work more. If we don't, we are going to keep running into a wall, and headaches aren't fun. 

Thank you for everything! I love you!

Elder Hayden Cannon

Hello from the mishmarries in Dayton!!!

Hello everyone!!!

I am really excited to be in Dayton! it is very interesting to be in a city again, but this time I have a full time car! That is really nice to have. I am really enjoying it though. 

Elder Grass is my companion. He is from Sandy Utah. He is pretty cool. A big thing that I have learned on my mission is that the world doesn't have to be nor should it be organized into cliques. To be perfectly honest, Elder Grass and I probably wouldn't have spoken to each other before we were missionaries. We are excited to work together though. We have only been together a week and we are already able to teach people in unity. That was a really cool realization.

Being a zone leader hasn't seemed all that different so far. All we really do is help everyone in the zone continue to effectively work. It really has only been a week, though. I don't think I can give it a fair evaluation. I am really excited for Mission Leadership Council where all of the zone leaders and sister training leaders meet at the mission home with President Welch and have a meeting with him. Once I go to that, I think I will start to feel like a zone leader. 

This week we found some really cool new investigators. We got these two referrals from teenage girls and we were a little worried about them. Teenage girls have a reputation of being hard to teach for elders. These girls though are awesome!!! They are taking this college religion class and they had some sister missionaries from another mission (we think) come to their class and talk about Mormonism. They were really interested and are writing a paper about it. Their looking into the church at first does seem like an academic search, but we see some great potential in both of these girls. One of them had read all the way into the Book of Jacob in 2 days! We couldn't believe it! It was great to talk with them!

Thank you for everything! I love you!

Elder Hayden Cannon   

P.S.

I said "mishmarries" because there is a family in the ward here with a 4 year old daughter who says "missionaries" like "mishmarries." I thought I should include that. I thought it was cute. 

Elder Cannon and Elder Grass

My crusade on New Castle is done...

Hello Everyone!!!

Things have been going well here in New Castle. Elder Davis and I have been able to find a good amount of potential investigators which is really setting up the area for some great success. We had 3 people who were planning on coming to church but by Sunday morning, all of them were unable to come. That was a bummer. 

I had a very interesting experience giving a blessing this week. Our branch president took us to give a sister a blessing because she is having some trouble with her kidneys. I did the anointing and the branch president gave the blessing. He tends to give rather long blessings and this was no exception. I got up to the circle and made sure that my legs were a good distance apart and that I was bending my knees so that I wouldn't pass out. Even with all of that precaution, I still began to feel woozy. Even my tongue began to tingle, that was weird! I tried my best to push through and stay in the circle, praying to myself that the blessing would end. Finally, when it did end, I just about fell on the couch that was right behind me and was super pale. I asked Elder Davis how pale I was compared to the guy who died at the library and he said that I was about half as pale. That was a weird experience. I have since found out that I can leave the blessing if I need to, but at the time, I didn't know that I could. 

I found out this morning that I am leaving New Castle. I am going to miss this branch. We have done some good work here. Elder Davis is going to continue to do really miraculous things here. I have a lot of faith in him. I found out this morning that I am going to be a zone leader in Dayton, Ohio! I am really excited! That is the same zone as Greenville is in. Hopefully I will get to go on exchanges there some time!   

I love this work and I am excited to see what it has in store for me! I love you all! Thank you for everything that you do!
Elder Hayden Cannon

The spirit of Joseph of Arimathæa

Hello!

Sorry I didn't write last week. I ran out of time emailing. But now I am here to tell you what happened. 

We had an experience with this guy who wasn't very interested in learning about our church, he just wanted to argue with us. He said that he had some questions and the first thing that he said was the difference between his beliefs and ours was that Mormons don't give any divinity to Jesus Christ. Right off the bat, I wanted to smack him and I knew that this wasn't going to go over well. We spent the whole time talking about the trinity vs the godhead. It really didn't get anyone anywhere. It was pretty much bible bashing. We tried our best to defend our faith and to tell him what we believe, but he was very much set in his ways. We tried to say that we go off of what the spirit has testified to us is true, but he then said that the spirit isn't a credible source because it could be a whole number of things that make us "feel" that way. I couldn't believe that he was discounting the spirit! He just denounced a third part of what he was defending by saying it isn't credible. He was also denouncing another third part, Jesus Christ, by saying that because Jesus Christ is the one who tells us that we should go by the spirit (John 14:27)! What was so funny to me was that at the very end he said to us, "I tell you this because I love you, but I believe that you need to accept Jesus Christ and repent of your sins." I was very confused by this and told him that I had done so, but he said because I haven't accepted who Jesus Christ is because I don't understand who he truly is. I just told him that we are going to agree to disagree and we left. I am very lucky that the spirit is able to sit with me in situations like that and be able to tell me, "you know the truth!" 

We had a really good zone meeting this week. We talked about the spirit of Joseph of Arimathæa. Joseph of Arimathæa took the body of Christ and put him in a tomb. It says in Mark 15:43 that he "craved the body of Jesus." I love how that is says that he craved Jesus. It got me thinking, do we crave Jesus Christ? Do we crave the atonement and its healing abilities? Do we then want that for others? I really enjoyed that zone meeting and the discussion from that came for the talk about the spirit of Joseph of Arimathæa. I really want to have that in my life and in this work. 

Thank you, I love you!

Elder Hayden Cannon

I apparently don't have the best luck with bikes...

Hello!!!

Think week has been mostly good with a couple of bummer things. On Saturday, we came to the library to email the branch council about our investigators. We were there for not even an hour and our bikes had been stolen. We made a police report which is about all that we can do. I will be sure to buy a bike lock now. We haven't really been able to get one int the past and when we have been in a place to get a bike lock, we haven't thought about it. I will be sure to get one now. 

Other than that, it has been a good week. We were able to find 8 new investigators! We are really happy about that because now we have people to teach! Our teaching pool is growing! It is nice to know who it is that you can help.

There was a BYU Devotional that I found this week that I highly recommend. It is called "The Power of Not Knowing." I really liked it because it talks about the kind of leader that is able to get the most from the people that they are leading. These are the people who allow all of the intelligence of a team to flow and to help build what they are working on. I want to be this kind of leader, the kind of leader who is able to multiply peoples efforts by using their intelligence to help everyone. 

Thank you for all that you do for me! I love you!

Elder Hayden Cannon

P.S.

Here is the link to the BYU Devotional if you would like to read it. 

https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/liz-wiseman_the-power-of-not-knowing/

Wait... A year has gone by???

Hello Everyone!!!

Things have been interesting here in New Castle. This week was full of some ups and downs. At the beginning of the week, we get a call from a member of the branch here saying that the guy who is installing his TV and phone is interested in learning more about the church. We talked with him and he seemed like a really good guy with a very nice family! Him and his family were supposed to come to church, but unfortunately he was called into work unexpectedly. We are meeting with him today though. Even though we had that awesome experience at the beginning of the week, on Friday our most progressing investigator dropped us. "I just don't want to be a Mormon." That was what he said. The thing that bothered him is the churches "view" of homosexuality, which I don't think he understands because if he did I don't think he would have a problem with it. We have been trying to meet with him, but I think he is avoiding us at this point. But Heavenly Father works in strange ways, he opened a door for us before the other door even closed. We are excited for the things to come in the coming weeks here in New Castle. 

I can't believe that I have been on my mission for a year!!! It seems like it was yesterday that I was in Crittenden, Kentucky. I can't believe the things that I have been able to do as a missionary. I have been able to see a change in so many people and especially myself. I am not the same person I was a year ago because now I am a dedicated disciple of Jesus Christ and it is through him that any lasting change will take place. I love this work!!! I love being a missionary! Thank you for all of the support that you have shown to me.

Thank you! I love you!

Elder Hayden Cannon

Hmmm....

This has been an interesting week. Honestly, it has been a slow week. We are getting used to some changes in the mission and it seems like there has been no one for us to talk to while we are walking trying to find new investigators. It has been interesting. There are some changes that need to happen. We are going to try and work with more less active members. We haven't been doing as good of a job at that. There is a saying in our mission, "Every missionary is a leader who changes patterns." There are some patterns that need to change in this area and with ourselves but we will make those changes.  

Marie, the 88 year old woman, finally was baptized!!! She was baptized on Friday! I am really excited for her. Her baptism was very interesting. She had to be dipped 3 times because of some complications with the first two times. What was funny though was that the first time they tried, she thought it was done and just started shouting, "Hallelujah, Praise Jesus! I can feel the Lord!" She has Pentecostal background. It was really sweet though. It was also funny, after her confirmation, she started talking in front of the whole branch, weirdly bearing her testimony. Like I said before, it was sweet. We are excited for her.   

Thank you for everything that you do! I love you!

Elder Hayden Cannon

Study vs. Read

Hello! 

This has been an interesting week. Our 88 year old investigator had a very interesting week. She was supposed to be baptized on Saturday but she was going through some anxiety and it was effecting her blood pressure. When we received the call from her son saying that she couldn't get baptized, I actually felt a lot of relief. I don't know if the relief is from a feeling of her not being ready for baptism or because of lack of planning for the baptism. We have somethings to do with her baptism. 

Anyway, to change the subject a little, I had a thought. As I have been on my mission I realized that I love the scriptures and I was wondering what has changed. I thought about it and the difference was before my mission all I really did with the scriptures was read them. Now that I am on a mission I am studying the scriptures. I love studying the scriptures. I get so much more out of them. It isn't an academic study though, it is one of those studies where you just start learning about something that you enjoy but it isn't for any reason other than to learn for yourself. That has been a fun realization. 

Thank you for everything! I love you!
Elder Hayden Cannon

"Giant Baby Steps" Quote from Elder Davis this week

Elder Davis and I were teaching this guy yesterday and Elder Davis made the comment to this investigator that "You have to take giant baby steps!" The investigator and I gave him a hard time about that for a while. Think about that though and see how that applies to you in the gospel. Regardless of whether or not it makes sense, if you let the spirit work on it, it just might. 

This was a good week. We have another investigator getting baptized this weekend! This is really exciting because the New Castle Branch hasn't had any baptism since November of last year, then we get here and have two baptisms within the first transfer. I am really excited to be here. I am a little worried about this investigator. She is 88 years old and has slight dementia. She knows that the spirit has told her to be baptized in this church but she doesn't really have a testimony of Joseph Smith. We definitely have our work cut out for us to help her by this weekend. 

I was asked to give a talk this last Sunday and I was asked to give it on Saturday. Luckily, I enjoy speaking so I took the assignment without any complaint. I wrote it all during studies on Sunday. I was worried that I wouldn't have enough material to give a long enough talk for the branch. When I got up and started speaking though, I looked up at the clock and saw that 10 minutes had gone by and I knew that I needed to fill 5 to 10 more and I thought I had gone through more than half of what I had prepared, so I was a little worried. I just kept talking, trying to do my best to follow the spirit. The next time I looked up at the clock, 20 MORE minutes had gone by! When I finished my talk, I had spoken for almost 35 minutes! I couldn't believe that I had spoken that long! I sat down and there was still an intermediate hymn and another speaker. Sacrament meeting ran a little long that day, but I felt like I spoke by the spirit and said things that did help the branch. People were very complimentary of my talk. I was grateful that the spirit helped me make such an impact on the members here. 

I love this gospel and how Jesus Christ is able to enable us in everything that we do, even a Sacrament talk.

Thank you so much! I love you!

Elder Hayden Cannon

Sara got baptized!

We had a pretty good week this week! Finishing it off with a baptism made it even better. Sara was baptized! We are so happy for her and grateful that we got to be a part of her conversion. Her boyfriend from Texas was supposed to come to baptize her, but he couldn't make it, So I got to fill in! That was super cool to be able to do that! I also ended up giving a talk on the Holy Ghost because the person who was supposed to give the talk got sick that morning. I was happy to do it though. She will now be able to enter into the Celestial Kingdom! We are so happy about that!

We had a really funny story from earlier this week. We went with Sara to the Library and one of the Family History Consultants in the branch to get Sara started in genealogy. We were at the front desk getting guest passes when we noticed this man asleep on the couch. We didn't really think anything of it until one of the librarians went up to him to see if he was okay. She wasn't able to wake him up though. Another man walked up and tried but still with no results. Finally, he took his pulse and there was none. Somehow, I got roped into "helping" (Elder Davis did most of the work) him down to the floor so someone could do CPR. The lady who was there who said she knew CPR couldn't do it because of her injured wrist, so I got as far away as I could so I wouldn't get "volunteered" to do chest compressions on this man. Paramedics then showed up, did what they could and then took him away in a body bag. Needless to say, I was weirded out by this. I felt weird for a while after that. The funniest thing about this though was this guy died at the library right when we went to go do Genealogy with Sara. I found that rather ironic. Elder Davis later was telling President Welch about the experience and he thought that our investigator died while we were at the library. We were happy to tell him otherwise and then she got baptized this weekend! 

Anyway, things are going well! I love it out here! Thank you for all that you are doing for me and for the world. I love you all!

Elder Hayden Cannon

Doing "Great things!" Quote from Abbey Cannon (*see note below)

Things are going well. This week has seemed a little slow, though. Elder Davis said that he could feel a difference from our first few weeks. I think the best way that I can describe it is using a theater analogy. On opening night of a show, everyone is excited, nervous, focused, and ready to perform. Because of all of this they have a lot of motivation to do their best. They usually do very well. Once the second night comes along though, the performers have an attitude of, "I've got this" and start to let things slide a little resulting in a performance that wasn't quite as good. I feel like we are in a very similar situation, here in New Castle. We were relying so heavily on the Lord the first couple of weeks and we saw a lot of grace from it. One of the people that we found are getting baptized this weekend! We are really happy about that. But because we have had a bit of an "I've got this" attitude, we have let things slip a little bit. We need to be relying fully on Jesus Christ, because that is when miracles come!

There is a funny story that I want to talk about. We knocked on this door and we asked the woman there if she believed in Jesus Christ. She said no. I was curious what religion she was apart of, so I asked her. "I am a wicken," she said. I didn't know what that was and she could tell, so she said, "I am a witch and have been for 20 years." I haven't wanted to leave somewhere faster! I thought that was funny.

Thank you for all that you do! I love you!

Elder Hayden Cannon

*A little side note from home to explain today's title:

     Every night Elder Cannon's 6 year old sister prays for him "to do the great things". The other night she prayed - "please bless Hayden on his mission that he can do the great things, and bless me if I go on a mission that I can do the great things too". 

Good things coming in New Castle!

Things are going really well for Elder Davis and me in New Castle. We are really enjoying it! We have this one investigator who was found because she requested a Book of Mormon from the church's website. We were planning on calling her the next day, but before we could, she called us! We set up an appointment right for the next day. We have now met with her twice, she has been to church twice, and she is on track to be baptized on August 20th! We are really excited! This is going to be another quick, but awesome baptism!  

Thank you for everything that you do for me! I am enjoying this work so much! 

I love you!

Elder Hayden Cannon

New Castle Crusaders!!!

Hello from New Castle Indiana!!!

I have been doubled into the New Castle Branch. This will be my third branch that I have served in and only one ward. I guess my job as a missionary is to help it become a ward! This has been an interesting experience. Luckily the elders that were here (One of them being Elder Tanner who I trained in Fort Wayne) left the area book really nice so we could have some idea of what to do. 

My new companion is Elder Haydn Davis. We have the same first name! There are so many Ha(y)d(e)ns in the mission right now! Elder Woffinden, my trainer, has now trained 2 Hayden's and now I am training a Haydn. It has been rather fun working with him though. Elder Davis is from Irvine California where he did improv and choir. It is interesting because he seems like me, just with ADHD. That makes Elder Davis rather fun though. Boy, does he not like to sit still! That has been hard for him because we aren't really sure where to go so we have to sit down and figure it out and he just wants to go go go!!! It has been funny watching him squirm. Even now, Elder Davis is waiting for me to finish emailing and is having the hardest time waiting. 

There are some really great investigators here. This week, we received a media referral for this lady and she is super solid! Her boyfriend in Texas is a member and is really interested in learning more about the church. She is very ready to be a part of the gospel. Something that was really cool with her was that we weren't really sure who she should sit by during Sacrament meeting. We thought about this one sister and we were planning to make arrangements for them to sit by each other. What was really funny though was that the sister and our investigator walked into the church already together already talking! It was great! Heavenly Father's hand truly is in this work, even in something as simple as that!

Thank you all for everything that you do! I love you!

Elder Hayden Cannon  

Elder Cannon and his new companion Elder Davis.
Sister Westbrook jumping in!

I am leaving Ft Wayne!!!

Welp, I am getting transferred from Ft Wayne. This has been the longest area that I have served in so it is a little weird to be leaving. I am excited to see where Heavenly Father needs me now. I know that this will be good for me! I am excited to see what happens.

I don't really know what to say in this email. It has been a good week but nothing all that eventful happened. I am sure that I will have more to say next week once I have been transferred. 

Thank you, I love you!

Elder Hayden Cannon

We had a baptism!!!

Elder Lilly and I are super happy that we got to baptize Joyce. She is awesome! She was the fastest baptism that I have ever had. The minimum requirement for going to church before investigators are baptized is attending 3 times. The sacrament meeting she was confirmed was her 4th time being at church. We saw Joyce 4 times a week to get her ready for baptism. This was an awesome experience! Joyce is wonderful and Elder Lilly and I are so excited to see her progression and to see how excited she is about the gospel. I am really hoping that I will be able to go to the temple with her when she receives her endowment. This is going to be so cool! 

It was a really hot and humid week this week. It was in the 90s on Wednesday and Thursday. Heat, humidity, and biking makes for very interesting days. I love working though. Any bad feeling that I have towards anything, goes away as I go out and work. I am so happy to be a here in the Ohio Cincinnati Mission. I can't wait to continue to work with people and help them find salvation. 

I love you all! Thank you!

Elder Hayden Cannon

We had a Mini Missionary!!!

Hello!!! Things are going really well! We are really excited about the work!

This last week we had a mini missionary. He is an 18 year old from another ward in the stake. It was awesome having him with us! He didn't quite know what he was doing, which was just fine, but he still did really well. He asked some really good questions and we felt like we were able to help him a lot. It was really fun to have him. It felt weird after he left because we were then used to having 3 people with us all the time. 

We also got to go to the temple this week with the Porters! That was really cool! It was a great goodbye present to be able to do that. We all really enjoyed it. The Mission hasn't been to the temple to do endowments since October so we were really happy to be able to go. We are going to miss the Porters, but I am excited to get to meet President and Sister Welch! They are called of God to lead this mission and I can't wait to see all the good that they do for the mission. 

This week we also found a really great investigator. We got a media referral on our phone that was from this woman's sister in Arizona. We gave her a call to set up an appointment and she sounded so excited! We went to go meet with her and she was so happy to see us. She even already knew the member that we had brought with us! We talked for a good while and had a very spiritual discussion. She came to church yesterday and stayed the whole 3 hours, which I haven't seen someone do the first time they came to church while I have been on a mission. We actually had 3 investigators come to church and they all stayed for the whole service! We were really happy about that. We are really excited for things to start picking up in this area. I love it here!!!

Thank you for everything! I love you!
Elder Hayden Cannon

Elder Cannon with President and Sister Porter. What a fond farewell at the Indiana temple!!

Fort Wayne Stake Zones at the Indianapolis Temple

Elder Cannon and Elder Lilly

We have a mini missionary!!!

On Saturday, we got a mini missionary! His name is Brother Kennedy. He is a priest from another ward in the stake here. He is going to go on a mission after a year of college. He is going to be with us for a week and we are excited to have him! We get to help him learn what really needs to be done to be a missionary and to prepare. This is going to be fun!

That is the most exciting thing that is going on, but here is a funny story. We went to a recent converts apartment in a nursing home yesterday. This woman is an interesting lady. She has dementia and hardly remembers anything you tell her, even if it was a few minutes ago. She was talking with Brother Kennedy and she asked how hot it was outside, he told her and then we moved on. Just a few minutes later, she asked him again, "How hot is it outside?" The funniest part of that was we forgot to tell Brother Kennedy that she has dementia so he was really confused. Later we asked her to turn off the TV so we could talk. She had no problem with that so she went to turn it off. Once she did though, she turned around and said, "Oh, the red light is still on, that means it didn't turn off." The TV was clearly off and I told her that but she turned it back on. It came on again and I pointed and said, "It is back on." She then said, "Let me see that finger." She then grabbed my had and then bit my finger! She bit my finger!!! We just moved on, talked about the plan of salvation and moved forward. It was really funny though. 

Thank you for everything that you are doing!!! I am so glad to be out serving the Lord. I love you all!
Elder Hayden Cannon

Elder Cannon, Brother Kennedy (the mini missionary) and Elder Lilly

Hoosiers are interesting people...

Hello! I hope that everything is going well!

Mission work is going forward and I still very much enjoy it. 

For those of you who don't know, a hoosier is someone from the state of Indiana. I have no idea where it came from. Even if you google "hoosier" is says that the origin is unknown. While some people use the word to say that it is someone from Indiana, missionaries usually use the word to mean someone who fits into a specific stereo type of people who live in Indiana. Those people usually smoke, are missing teeth because of their smoking since they were about 8, and have some very interesting ideas about anything and everything. We have this one investigator that was just passed onto us by the sisters in our ward and he was given to us because he is starting to creep the sisters out. Great way to introduce him, I know. This man has been described as a "hoosier of all hoosiers," which is a really accurate statement. Every time that we see him and every time that we bring someone to meet him he talks about his belief that we are supposed to eat meat hardly at all. He feels that God has called him to tell people about this and that is why he talks about it so much. His logic is that in the word of wisdom it says that we should eat meat sparingly. He says to eat meat like you use a spare tire, only when you need it. You don't go around driving on your spare tire all the time. To spare also means not to kill, so we shouldn't kill the animals for our food! There are other scriptures in the bible that he uses to defend himself, but they still don't really make the point that he is trying to get across. What is still so funny about all of this is that he still eats meat! He feels bad every time that he does so, but he still will eat it! My favorite thing that this man has said was on Saturday during a Book of Mormon study that we have for investigators and members to come to. We were discussing some chapters in Mosiah and he just starts talking about Adam and Eve. It somehow was related, I don't remember how, but it seemed okay, at first. "God married Adam and Eve and because he married them, he made them one flesh. Because they are one flesh, when they kiss in isn't cannibalism..." what... what! WHAT!!! There were four missionaries there who know how this investigator can be and all four of us were trying really hard not to just burst our laughing! Finally a member just said, "Cool." as if she just didn't know who to handle it. I then thanked him for his comment and we moved on. Ever since then I would say to Elder Lilly randomly, "Good thing kissing isn't cannibalism!" Indiana is definitely an interesting place! 

Thank you so much for all that you are doing!

I love you!

Elder Hayden Cannon