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