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