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