Merry Christmas!!!

The weather here is really weird... It has been in the 50's all week. The last couple of days it has just started raining and hasn't stopped. Everyone is saying that this is still really weird for the area. People are also saying that we are just going to get dumped on with snow in a few days... This should be fun...

This week was just weird in general. We had a really good Christmas meeting with the whole mission. It started off with an interesting talent show. Of course, I was volunteered to get up and beatbox. I didn't argue... After that we had a concert and devotional. During the devotional though, Elder Spagnolo got really sick and became best friends with the toilet in the church where we were. He is now just getting over feeling gross. Because he wasn't feeling good, it made missionary work rather difficult. We are supposed to get at least 20 lessons every week. By Saturday, we had 9. We were playing catch-up on Saturday and Sunday. We did make it to 20 lessons though. We were zooming around all of Greenville to make sure that we got in all of our lessons. We definitely wouldn't have gotten them in if it weren't for the grace of God. We are so grateful for the enabling power that Grace gives to each and every one of us. 

Christmas was interesting. Holidays are still just weird as a missionary. They just seem like regular missionary days where we got to talk to our families (which was great to be able to do) and got a bunch of packages. I still don't know what to think about holidays. It was still very fun and a great experience. I love doing this work and I am very grateful to be out here serving the Lord.

Thank you, I love you.

Happy New Year! 

Elder Hayden Cannon

Merry Christmas!

A Note from the Cannon family -
 Our Skype session with Hayden was amazing!!
It was great to "see" him. He is happy and so excited to serve.
We feel so blessed by his example!
Thanks Elder Cannon!!
We Love You!!!

Merry Christmas from Greenville!!!

Things are going pretty well in Greenville. I am really liking it here. My companion is Elder Spagnolo (pronounced spawn-yolo). He is a really good kid. He is a wrestler, football and rugby player from Idaho. He is a SPAZ!!! The other day he just picked me up out of no where! This should be fun! 

So of course, I'm in a new area so the first Sunday that I am here I had to give a talk in sacrament meeting, Yay! I was given the opportunity to speak about Christmas. It was actually really fun to prepare for and I am grateful I got the opportunity to give the talk. After the meeting was over, a sister from the ward came up to me and said that, just based off of the way that I speak, I am going to be a politician or an apostle. I was appreciative of the compliment.

It has gotten cold here and it is a wet cold the just goes through everything! Luckily, I am a warm body, but there have still been a few times where I have gotten rather cold. It is to bad that we have to share the car with another area... So this week we have been biking in the wet cold. I got a new bike, so I don't have to ride the broken one that got hit. I inherited it from the last Elder who was here.

I am really enjoying this area and I am looking forward to what Heavenly Father has in store for me here in Greenville, Ohio!

Thank you, I love you! 

Merry Christmas!

Elder Hayden Cannon

        Transfer Day. Hello Greenville, OH

Elder Cannon and his new companion - Elder Spagnolo

I worked on a farm this week! (Also, I'm getting transferred.)

I am going to be honest, never in my life did I expect to be in Kentucky, nor did I think that I would ever work on a farm. But this week, I got to work on a farm in Kentucky!!! We went and did some service for one of our investigators on his farm. It has been really nice because it has been rather warm this week so it wasn't miserably cold out while we were working. We spent most of the time driving posts for a new fence and taking out the old fence. It was something I had never done before and it was rather fun to do! 

We met an interesting family this week. They live next door to a less active member in our branch. He took us over there and it was quite the conversation with this family that are born again non-denominational Christians. Both the husband and the wife were talking at the same time, the wife was talking to me about how we are all God's children and as long as we have accepted Jesus we are going to Heaven, and the husband was talking with Elder Woffinden about how the Book of Mormon isn't the word of God because it was written by man. It was loud and very confusing. They strait out said that they probably wouldn't become members of our "denomination" (the wife didn't like us using the word "religion" to describe the church we belong to) but they would love to learn more about what makes us different. After we were done working on the farm we went to go visit the less active member to see if he or his family needed some service because we were still in our service clothe and thought, "why not?" We ended up helping the family we had talked to earlier in the week moving some wood and then talking to the wife and daughter. It was a great conversation and we were able to teach all of the Restoration to them. It was a little weird for us because were weren't in our suit and ties, we were in jeans and t-shirts teaching them the gospel. We are not used to that at all. But it still was a really good conversation and they are still interested in learning more. Because we showed up at their home in jeans and t-shirts and helped them out a little, they warmed up to us quite well. I just goes to show that sometimes the best way to share the gospel is through serving others. 

Thank you, I love you, Merry Christmas!

Elder Hayden Cannon

Cool frosty leaves

This is transfer day. 

It gets colder, but the work progresses!

Things are still going rather well. Yesterday was a great fast and testimony meeting. I love being in a branch here. It is so small, but it is amazing because the spirit there is still just as strong. I got up and shared an experience I had this last week. On Tuesday I was on an exchange with Elder Bunderson and we were in Crittenden, so I was leading the area, I'm not the best at doing leading the area yet. We went to an appointment with a less active member and knocked on the door. There was no answer. We knocked again. Still no answer. We went a looked around the house and we couldn't find any one who lived there. Elder Bunderson suggested that we knock again. We did and yet again, no one came. I wasn't sure what to do, I failed to plan a back up and our next appointment wasn't for an hour. We went back to our car and I started looking through our member folder to see if there were any other less active members that we could go visit. No names were jumping out at me and I had no idea what we were going to do. I told Elder Bunderson that we needed to say a prayer. We prayed that we would know what it is that we needed to do. The second we said amen, Elder Bunderson looked up and started waving at someone who came out of the house who then brought us inside so we could meet with the less active member. Prayer is something that I am indeed grateful for and now even more so after this experience. Prayer has been a huge blessing in my life and it continues to bless me, especially while I am out here on my mission. 

Thank you for all of your prayers and support. I am incredibly grateful for them.

Thank you, I love you.
Elder Hayden Cannon