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