Zone conferences are over!!!

Hello!!!

We had our last zone conference of the transfer. It was really good. I got to sing a cool arrangement of A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief. That was really fun! It was just a really spiritual zone conference. I enjoyed it quite a bit. 

It has been quite hot and humid this week. I went on exchanges with the Elder in the Fairfield Ward who currently don't have a car because they were rear ended. So we walked around all day. We taught a lesson to this man who was so excited that he was feeling the Spirit. "My fingers are tingling, so is my chest! Look at my arms, I have goosebumps!!!" It was really cool to see someone with such excitement. It was so hot and humid though that I had to take off my glasses because they were fogging up. The great lesson made it all worth it though. By the end of the day, there was only one spot right above my shirt pocket that wasn't wet from sweat. It was really nice to get into an air conditioned car after that. 

We had another really cool miracle. The young men this week went to the Sacred Grove and the Palmyra Pageant and in that group was one of our investigators who is the son of a member in the ward. One day this week, he called us and told us that he just came out of the Sacred Grove and had just prayed and he knew that he should get baptized into the church! The reason that he hadn't is because his dad hadn't given him permission but now because of our investigator's experience, he has the courage to ask him again and tell him that is what he wants. It has been fun getting to work with him and I can't wait until he gets his answer from his dad! Miracles really do come even though Elder Bee and I are serving in the office. 

Thank you, I love you!!!

Elder Hayden Cannon

Busy with Zone Conferences

This was a pretty busy week. Two of the three zone conferences were this last week and one of them was all the way up in Fort Wayne. It was really fun to go up to Fort Wayne again but it required a lot of driving. We got back from Fort Wayne at about 10pm Wednesday night. This was also after we stopped to look at the elders' in the Fairfield car because they were rear ended earlier that day. We received an estimate for the car and it is going to cost almost $12,000! The church usually totals cars if it is above $4,000. Luckily the mission will be getting new cars soon. The zone conferences thus far have been really great. There still one more tomorrow. We are excited for that. 

Our investigator, Leslie, who we put on date for the 29th is now attending the Norwood ward because that is where she will be moving to. We had a lesson with the Norwood elders and Leslie and it was a really good lesson. It is a bummer that we wont be able to teach her any more but we are excited to see that she still wants to come to church and be baptized. We are still looking for people to teach which can be difficult with our companionship assignments in the office. We have been seeing some miracles though. There are a pair of Spanish Elders that cover our area and they keep finding us referrals. They have been really great people to teach. One of them we are meeting with tonight and we are very excited. There was another person that they referred to us who is awesome! The Spanish elders asked Heavenly Father for an opportunity for a person who needs the gospel to find the missionaries, rather than the missionaries finding them. They went about their day and at one point they hear this woman shouting, "Elders!!!" This woman is from Africa and was attending church consecutively from 2000-2003 and somehow was never baptized. She has since moved to the US and hasn't been in contact with the church since then. The Elders then passed her information on to us. We called her and she sounded very excited! We set up an appointment which made us very excited as well. We then went to what we thought was the address and found out that it wasn't her address. We called her, got her real address, and realized that it was out of our ward. She was expecting us though so we went and saw her. She is awesome! She remembers so much about the church. While we were there, I texted the Sisters that cover that area and told them to call her that night. What was funny was that the sisters called while we were still there! She seems to be progressing very well. We are excited for the sisters to be teaching her and can't wait to see what happens!

Thank you, I love you!!!

Elder Hayden Cannon  

Everyone thinks we work at Kroger!!!

This was a good week, I really enjoyed it. There was a lot going on this week. Monday, New missionaries came in and we got to teach them about vehicles in the mission. It is always fun when the new missionaries come in. They have an awesome energy about them that is just fun to be around. 

Tuesday was transfers and we spent pretty much all day running around. There was a set of Elders getting doubled into the Lake Side Park ward in Kentucky. They didn't have a ride back to their area so we ended up taking them. There was just one thing missing, the keys to their apartment. We called everyone we could think of to see if they had them. We got to their apartment and we were still unsuccessful. We just told them to go proselyte and we would get things figured out. Finally, we just had the apartment complex open it for us and they locks will probably have to be changed. That was a big hassle and during that, we were also trying to get other things done. That was just a crazy day! 

Thursday, there were 3 cars that needed to get tiwis. A tiwi is what monitors our driving as missionaries. It was fun to see some more missionaries that day. 

Friday, we went to go help clean out an apartment that missionaries will no longer be staying in. It was a good change of pace and was rather fun. I will most likely be doing a lot of that when I get into the swing of things as the Housing Coordinator. 

Saturday was kinda weird because we actually started our day with proselyting! That hasn't happened in a while for me. Our first appointment fell through but our second appointment was with our investigator who is on date for baptism for the 29th. That was a really good lesson. We had noticed that she hadn't been reading the Book of Mormon very much. So we taught her about how the Book of Mormon can really help her. It was a very powerful lesson. 

Sunday was good. Church was great. As soon as the member of the bishopric that was conducting turned the time to the congregation for testimony meeting, about a dozen people got up to bear their testimony. There were so many people that we went over on time and the other missionaries in the ward got off the stand without bearing their testimony. It was a good meeting. We had our investigator there. We barely got her there though. We got her a ride the night before but they wouldn't be able to take her home. We went to church with faith that someone would take her home. Someone said that they would so we didn't worry about it. When we went to the Welch's for dinner that night, Sister Welch told us, "I took your investigator home! She is great!" We weren't expecting her to but we are very happy that she did! 

Something funny that has happened this week is that Elder Bee and I have started playing a new game. It is called "Guess how many people are going to think that we work at Kroger." Every time that we have gone to Kroger, there is at least one person that thinks that we work there. It is really funny. There was one lady that asked us a question, we politely told her we don't work there and she said, "Well sure you do!" She then saw that our name tags didn't say Kroger on them. It was funny. 

Thank you, I love you!!!

Elder Hayden Cannon

Best Week I have had in Western Hills!

Hello Everybody!!!

It was a very good week this week. It was the best week that Elder Bee and I have had! We were able to find 3 new investigators and they are great! One of them came to church yesterday and has a lot of potential. We met with her on Sunday after church and we were talking about baptism and she asked, "So when can I get baptized?" That is always a fun question!!! We continued to teach her about the Plan of Salvation and she is on date to be baptized on July 29th! We are really excited. It is really cool to see such miracles happen even when much of our time is consumed in the office. Heavenly Father is looking out for us!

I have learned some cool things this last couple weeks. I feel like that I have been trying to actively improve in charity for the last year or so. I have felt that I haven't made much progress in that area though. We had a General Authority, Elder Dyches of the Seventy, come to our mission. While he was speaking, I received the revelation that I need to exercise more faith for an increase in charity to happen. At this point, what that is going to mean for me is to be patient and wait on the Lord's timing. It is interesting to me how often we talk about faith being an action word, that we believe in something so much that we are motivated to do something about what we believe. It is interesting to me that sometimes the action is wait and be patient. Many times, it doesn't feel like we are doing anything but that is where we have to trust Heavenly Father. It can be frustrating, but it is how He intends for us to receive the greatest of blessing that he has to offer. Well, that patience paid off surprisingly quickly. This week, I was listening to a talk about charity. It quoted Moroni 7:45, a rather famous scripture about charity.  "Charity... is not easily provoked." That line stood out to me more than it ever had before. It made me think of my relationship with some of my past companions and how I could be somewhat snappy and contentious towards them. Looking at how I have been with my more recent companions and we have all gotten along very well. I love what one of my companions said, "I love being companions with older missionaries because they aren't as uptight and don't get irritated about little things that other people do." While it is weird to consider myself an old missionary, it is true. I have not been so annoyed by silly thing that a person might do. That realization was very much revelation that I have covered more ground in regards to charity than I thought I had. I know that I still have a long way to go to emulate the perfect love of Jesus Christ, but that truly was a blessing from my Heavenly Father to see how far I have come.

Thank you, I love you!!!

Elder Hayden Cannon

Busy Week!!!

This week was definitely different from all of the others that I have had in the office. This week we went to two of the three zone conferences in the mission. Since Elder Bee and I are the Vehicle Coordinators, we go to zone conference and inspect all of the cars, decide who has the top 3 cleanest cars and give them extra miles, and give some trainings about vehicle safety. It has been really fun. We get to see all of the missionaries in the mission. There is still one more zone conference tomorrow and I am really looking forward to it.

Something that happened this week was we got to go teaching with President Welch's Grandson, Wiley. That was really cool! He is a good kid and we were able to pick up a new investigator while he was out with us. It was a great experience. Being so close to the Welchs makes things interesting. Sister Welch asked Elder Bee and I to do a musical number in zone conference. We wanted to practice with Sister Welch one last time so we asked when we could come to the mission home and practice. She told us to come over at 9:15 at night. We get there and talked with her about office stuff for 20 or 30 minutes before we actually started practicing. The whole time she mentioned how tired we looked. Well we keep getting in late because we are at the Welch's! It is funny. The next day at zone conference, Sister Welch made sure that we were going to get a good amount of sleep that night. I love the Welch's. I am very grateful to be serving with them.

Missions are just great experiences!!!

Thank you, I love you!!!

Elder Hayden Cannon

Busy week in the office...

Wow, this week has been busy. It all started on Monday when new missionaries came into the mission. We had to train them about driving as a missionary. It was fun! It brought back a lot of memories of first being in the mission field. Just being dazed and confused. It was really cool to meet all of these missionaries. Tuesday, we then had to arrange for 10 new cars to go up to where the transfer meeting was being held, and then have 17 cars be driven back to the mission office afterwards. That was a huge ordeal!!! Somehow, we didn't do our math correctly so there were still 3 cars that were left up in Centerville, Ohio! Retrieving those cars was our adventure on Wednesday. We had the Assistants drive us up to Centerville because they were on they way to Muncie, Indiana because the Zone Leaders their didn't have their car keys due to one of the missionaries who left there accidentally took them to his new area in Eastern Cincinnati! So they dropped us off in Centerville and then we took two cars to Greenville to give a set of Elders there a new phone. Elder Grass is now there and he is training a new missionary. Since I was there not that long ago, I helped point them in the right direction of who they should go see. That was cool to be able to help them with that. Thursday, we went to put a set of sisters TIWI (a tracking device that monitors our driving) back on their windshield and needed to get a set of elders in Kentucky a gas card. Friday, a set of elders locked their keys in the car. We were all over Ohio this week!!! There was one day that we actually hit all 3 states in one day because the highway 275 went through Indiana to come back into Cincinnati. We did a lot of driving this week. It was fun but it took a lot of time!

Now, as far as the work is going, it is going well. We have this one investigator who we are excited to work with. We haven't been able to get her to church because she needs a ride and we haven't been able to confirm with her that she was coming closer to Sunday. Sunday morning rolled around and we still didn't have a ride for her. We were in a bit of a panic, wondering what we should do. This was a time where ward council really came in handy. We asked them who we should ask to give our investigator a ride they said this new family in the ward. We texted them at about 8:30 and they were able to give her a ride!!! I feel bad though because apparently the address we gave them didn't come up to where our investigator actually lives. They were able to find it after being on the phone with us for a few minutes but they were late to church. I really hope and pray that they are blessed for this sacrifice that they have made to help our investigator come to church! It was a great day!

Thank you, I love you!!!

Elder Hayden Cannon

Interesting couple of weeks...

So, mission life has been interesting these last few weeks. I am not longer in Huntington, Indiana. I was emergency transferred 3 weeks into the transfer and I am now serving in the Western Hills Ward in Cincinnati. My companion and I are assigned as the office Elders. So I rode the tornado all the way to the mission office!!! Working in the office has been very different but it has been good. There have been a lot of things that I have had to learn in order to help one of the office Sisters with for financial things. On top of learning those things I am also going to be replacing my companion, Elder Bee as the vehicle coordinator after the end of next transfer. So I will have to learn all of those responsibilities in the next 6 weeks. It should be fun. 

It has been fun here in this ward. The Assistants are also in this ward and one of them is Elder Demke, one of my old companions. That has been fun to be able to serve around him again, especially considering that I was emergency transferred away from him when I left Greenville the first time. We have been having a lot of fun! It is also really cool because President and Sister Welch live in our ward as well so we get to see them pretty regularly. We actually had dinner with them and some other missionaries at the mission home last night. That was really fun!

Something that happened yesterday that was really cool was we had a regional conference. There was a broadcast from Salt Lake and it was great! Elder Oaks was presiding and he gave an amazing talk at the end. He spoke about that it is primarily the members responsibility finding those who are ready for the gospel and the missionaries responsibility to be teaching those people. He talked having members pray for those missionary opportunities to be able to help the missionary effort. What was amazing was that President Welch has been teaching the mission to help members help those people to be ready to accept the gospel. That experience strengthened my testimony that this church is all run by Jesus Christ and His authority. I know that President Welch has the authority to be able to help our mission and that it aligns with what the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles want for the world. I love this gospel!

Thank you, I love you!

Elder Hayden Cannon

Elder Bee and Elder Cannon in "Elderly Parking"

Mission Home Sunset

"Ride my Tornado!!!" Welcome to Huntington, Indiana!!!

Hello from Huntington, Indiana!!!

Things are going well in the new area. I have really enjoyed being here. My new companion is Elder Thomson from Bountiful, Utah. He is 19 years old and has been on his mission for about 8 months. He is a good kid and a good missionary and I look forward to working with him. It was exciting coming into the new area because there is a couple on date for baptism this coming weekend! It is great to see things progress throughout the mission. 

Something that was really funny that happened this week was we walked by this guy who we see fairly regularly but this time he was listening to headphones. As we walk by him he starts singing along or something to what he is listening to and exclaims, "Ride my tornado!!!" Elder Thomson and I have been saying that multiple times to each other and we laugh every time! Looks like things are going to be fun in Huntington!!!

Thank you, I love you!!!

Elder Hayden Cannon 

Transferred Again!!!

Hello Everyone!!!

Whelp, I am getting transferred again. I am going to Huntington, Indiana and my companion is Elder Thomson. I am excited! It is going to be fun to be back in the Fort Wayne Stake. 

General Conference was wonderful. There were so many great talks given. We had a fantastic miracle with one of our investigators and conference. Two weeks ago, we set up with our investigator to watch conference at their house for the session at four on Sunday. Heavenly Father's had was in that appointment. The talk given by Elder Costa stood out to our investigator incredibly. He said that he felt an urge to read the Book of Mormon from that talk. That was amazing! 

I also received some revelation that I enjoyed. During Elder Grow's talk he invited us to pray for something and I thought, "I need to make sure I pray for that tonight." Something that has been almost bothering me about the clear mind and blank slate way of praying is that I feel like there are things that I have been wanting to pray for but haven't because they don't come to mind while I am praying. The thought after that though was, "Why wait? Pray for it right now!" I realized that every time that I have the thought to pray for something, I can do so right then. There is no need to wait. I think that this will greatly improve my prayers. What I find funny about this though is that I don't remember what he invited us to pray for...

I got to go to the temple on Friday!!! That was amazing! I was able to be the escort for a member in Greenville who just received his mission call. My experience at the temple was another indication of Heavenly Father's hand in my life. Elder Grass, a former companion of mine, also attend the temple during the same endowment session that I was there for! It was super cool to see him there. God truly is awesome and He does love us!

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

Elder Cannon and Elder Grass at the Indianapolis Temple 

All is well in Greenville!!!

Hello!!!

I hope everyone is doing well! 

This has been an interesting week. The week started off really well. We were working hard, staying busy, and doing things that were in alignment with our purpose as missionaries. It was great. 

Friday, we had interviews with President and Sister Welch which were awesome!!! President had some really cool things to tell me. He first asked what I am working on. I told him that I want to change my prayers in a myriad of different ways. He then suggested a different way of thinking. Rather than treating a prayers as a list of things that I would like to thank Heavenly Father for and of things that I would like help with, pray as if giving a blessing. The best way to prepare yourself for a blessing is to have a completely blank mind, ready for the Spirit to fill you mind and your mouth with things that Heavenly Father wants you to bless this person with. This is how we should approach prayer, letting Heavenly Father tell us was we should pray for. This then aligns our will with Heavenly Father's and makes prayer a more spiritual experience. It was a great piece of advice that I really have been trying to apply. 

One unfortunate thing that happened this week was that our Investigator who is on date didn't come to church. He left a note for the person giving him a ride that none of us really could understand what he meant. So, Sunday night we went to go visit him. We Wanted to make sure that everything was okay and see how we could help him. During that lesson, my testimony that Satan will do what he can to stop people from progressing in the gospel. Just while we were there, his neighbors knocked on his door and they had a pretty vulgar conversation that started because we were there. After all of it though, David still wants to meet with us. I know that this gospel will strengthen him. He is a great guy who can do so much better! I pray that we will be able to help him. 

Can't wait for conference!!! It is such a wonderful opportunity to hear from the current Prophets and Apostles. 

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

Happy St. Patrick's Day from GREENville!!!

Hello Everyone!!!

Hope you had a good St. Patrick's Day! Mine was undoubtedly Green!!!

Elder Erickson and I had a great week. In our mission, we have a standard that President Welch would like us to meet so we can increase baptisms by 25% like the General Authorities have asked the missions in the North America, North East Region to do. That standard is 4 new investigators, 2 investigators attending church, and 1 investigator on date for baptism. This week, we had 5 new investigators, 4 investigators at church, and we have 1 investigator on date!!! We are so excited. Elder Erickson and I really have been working hard to connect with Heavenly Father to do this work in the manor that He would have us do it and we have been blessed with success this week. We are ecstatic!!!

I had an interesting epiphany during a lesson with some of our investigators who came to church. We were teaching them about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The "aha!" moment that I had was how grace relates to us. The distinction that the Spirit brought to my mind during that lesson was that grace cannot be earned, grace is freely given to us. Grace, though, cannot be forced upon us, we have to accept that gift. The way that we accept that gift is my being humble and submitting ourselves to the will of Heavenly Father. I think it is amazing how Heavenly Father can speak to us so suddenly, but He will speak to us when we need to hear what He has to say. 

Thank you for all that you are doing!!! I love you! But more importantly, God loves you!

Elder Hayden Cannon

I am back in Greenville!!!

I am back in Greenville!!!

I can't believe I am back in a branch that I have served in before! It is crazy! It has been so fun coming back to this branch. I have gotten to see a bunch of people that I knew before and it is great to see how people have progressed. Recent converts that I knew have received their endowments, other investigators have gotten baptized. It is awesome!!! It was super fun going to church yesterday because the branch didn't know that I was coming back. That was really cool to surprise them. The member that gave us a ride home from transfers told us that in the 15 years that she has lived in Greenville, a missionary coming back has never happened. I am really glad to be here. 

Elder Erickson is my new companion. He is great! He is from Orem. He plays the guitar which can make for some really fun musical times! This is his 3rd transfer and he is just ready to go! I really like that about him. It really will make the work so much more joyful!

We had a really great miracle this week. Elder Erickson found these girls as potential investigators before I got here and we were able to to meet with them this week, pick them up as new investigators as well their Grandfather! Then they came to church! It was great to see this family coming to church together. We are looking forward to working with them. 

I love being a missionary!

Thank you! I love you!

Elder Hayden Cannon

I finally attended Stake Conference!!!

Hello Everyone!!!

This last Sunday, I attended my first stake conference of my mission!!! In all of my areas, I have been transferred into an area right after stake conference or I have been transferred out of an area right before stake conference. I really enjoyed the meeting. It was really good. 

This week was a pretty good week even if it was slow. 

We had a worldwide missionary conference with the missionary executive council. I loved what Elder Bednar said in the broadcast about how Heavenly Father is the one who gives us success, it isn't anything that we do. That I think has helped me to realize that just because we aren't seeing success right now doesn't mean that Heavenly Father doesn't want to grant it to us, it just means that we have to continue in faith and pray for the success because as we do, we see that success. That was something that I already knew but I think it is interesting to see that we really do need reminders from our Heavenly Father. Many times, those reminders come as calls to repentance. I think that recognizing that success does come from Heavenly Father and relying on Him and his son is a great way to repent. 

Another call to repentance that I received from the broadcast was the fact that I do not have to know that something is revelation or inspiration to act on something. I just have to know that it something good and then I must do it. I think that is something that I have been struggling with for a while. I have desired to know that something was revelation before I went and did it when that is not necessary. I look forward to implementing that in this work. 

The last call to repentance that I thought was noteworthy happened when I was writing in my journal one night. I was thinking about what I was going to write about and I remembered a general authority talking about writing about how we see the hand of God in our day. I thought that is what I would right about. I thought that was an interesting connection to how the thought to see the hand of God in my day was a call to repentance. It is a good reminder that a call to repentance can be just as simple as to look for the Hand of God in my day or to go and do good or to ask for and look to God for success. I look forward to making these changes and seeing how I draw closer to my Heavenly Father. 

Thank you!!! I love you!!!

Elder Hayden Cannon

Culture is what makes changes.

Hello!!!

Things have been going well here in Eastgate. It has been really fun here with Elder Burton. We have had some really cool experiences. 

Elder Burton and I went on exchanges with the Assistants this week and it was really fun. I stayed in Eastgate and was with Elder Verdoni. I have to admit that I was a little stressed out by the exchange because I have had some rather stressful exchanges when I have lead the area in the past, but this one was really good. At one point, we were looking through the area book wondering what to next and Elder Verdoni made the suggestion to pray and ask what we should do. I had already made the decision but wanted to make sure that it was the right one by praying about it. So we prayed and we went off. We went to go see this less active member, but outside his apartment was this man on his phone, so we started talking to him. We were able to talk about God's plan for him and even though there were some unfortunate things that happened, they will all be for his good. We are really excited to see how he does. 

We had a meeting with the stake president and President Welch. President Welch made a comment that I really liked. He said that if we really want people to be doing things like missionary work, or temple and family history work we have to develop a culture of doing those things. That made me think about the cultures that I want to have around me. I really want to have a righteous, Godly, culture to be able to maintain the same spirituality that I have been able to experience on my mission. 

Thank you for everything! I love you!!!

Elder Hayden Cannon 

We have a baptism this weekend!!!

Hello Everyone!!!

Things have been going well! Elder Manning and I have a baptism this weekend. Unfortunately, Elder Manning is getting transferred though. That is a big bummer. We have been able to do some really good work together and we got along really well. It will be fun with my new companion Elder Burton. I don't really know him but it should be fun. 

I had this thought during the week. We all know the scripture "Wickedness never was happiness," but sometimes, neither is righteousness in the eyes of some people. Why do these people fail to see the blessings and joy that come from righteousness? The only thing that is keeping them from seeing the happiness is their own attitude. If we are able to look at the big picture of what we need to do as something that is going to make us closer to our Heavenly Father and not as a restrictive list of dos and don'ts then we are able to see the light of the gospel illuminate our lives in a greater fashion. 

Thank you! I love you!

Elder Hayden Cannon