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