November 3, 2014
Zone Exchange and an Upcoming Baptism
Hey family and friends!!!!
This past week has been an amazing week!!
On Monday night, we had a family home evening night
with our entire Spanish Branch at the house of President Hamilton, the
stake president. It went super well!
On Tuesday, Elder Remund went over into the Zone
leader's area for the day while Elder Terril, another of our zone leaders, came
down here to work with me. Elder Terril is an English Speaking missionary so
that meant that I was going to do all the talking because he doesn’t speak Spanish.
We had some tracting planned and a few scheduled lessons later in the night. At
the first home where we tracted, it was really hard for me to have a complete
conversation with the woman of the house in Spanish. Normally I'm used to
having Elder Remund step in to clarify something I was saying but since Elder
Terril was there instead, I was on my own. Notwithstanding, I managed to
schedule an appointment with her later in the week. As we
began knocking on more and more doors throughout the day, it got easier
for me to converse with the Latinos and they could actually understand
with me. I had a 15-minute conversation with a gentleman and his wife in
front of their home and I was able to give them a book of Mormon and
commit them to read it. It was pretty funny because during the entire time we
were tracting, Elder Terril basically just stood there and watched me talk
because he had no idea what any of the conversation was about. After each
conversation he asked me what we talked about.
Elder Terril is an amazing missionary. It’s no
surprise to me that he is a zone leader. Whenever we ran into someone who spoke
English while we were tracting, which happened a lot, he would be able to pull
out scriptures based on what they were saying.
He was really good at getting people to open up and be friendly when at
the beginning they weren't.
At 5 p.m. we had a lesson with Jeff which went
super well and which was lucky for Elder Terril because that lesson was in
English. Afterwards we had dinner with
the Ojeda family. The dinner with the Ojeda’s ended up being pretty awkward
though. After we taught them a short lesson after dinner, Brother Ojeda asked
us some questions about Joseph Smith and polygamy that he had seen on the news. He and his family have been converts for
about 5 years. Our discussion ended up focusing
on polygamy. Our answers to their
questions didn't really seem to help Brother and Sister Ojeda feel better about
what they had seen on TV. We really tried to focus our answer about having
faith and relying on their testimony.
Later that evening, we had an appointment with
Edwin and Miriam. I had been a little worried about this appointment since this
was going to be our only scheduled appointment in the day that would be only in
Spanish. But it ended up going super well.
I taught them the importance of having Noche de Hogar, Family Home Evening,
and I committed them to have it.
On Wednesday, we ate lunch at Abuelita's home. This week ended up being a tender mercy
because she didn't have enough time to make the soup so we just had the rice,
beans, and chicken. I actually got to enjoy eating this part of the meal for
once because normally I'm super full after eating the big bowl of soup that is
usually served first. So for once, I left Abuelita's home feeling contently
full and not feeling sick because I was too full.
There is a nasty cold that has been passing around
our branch this past week, and I ended up getting it. Thursday just ended up being a sick day and I
slept most of the day because I felt really sick. I am feeling a little better now but I am
still sick.
All the missionaries in our mission got Halloween
night off after 6 p.m. because President Baker didn't want us to tract or be outside
during trick or treating. Elder Remund
and I went to the zone leaders' apartment and we ate pizza, played Apples to
Apples and then carved a pumpkin. It was
super fun!
On Saturday we had the social media split!! Some
members of our ward walked around with us the whole day and took pictures and
videos of us doing missionary work.
Later, they posted the pictures on Facebook and Twitter and used the
same hashtag that the Book of Mormon musical used so that when people look that
up, pictures of missionaries from all over the mission will pop up. The members
of our ward had been very excited about it ever since it was announced. We had
some of the young men in our ward take pictures during our study hour. This worked out great because we were able to
have a really good discussion about the Atonement after our personal study time.
We also had a great service opportunity where we got to help unload items for
the Bishop's Storehouse and then we helped sort the items for the individuals
who needed them and helped these people put the items in their car. All
in all, I think the social media split was extremely effective in our branch!
Jeff had his interview for baptism on Saturday with
one of the Zone leaders and he passed!! He is going to be baptized this Saturday
Nov 8!!! He has asked me to confirm him and give him the Holy Ghost on Sunday.
Elder Remund and I are super excited for him!!!
Hope everyone has a great week!
Elder Cannon
Our Ward at Stake President's home for FHE
Playing Apples to Apples with Zone leaders on Halloween night
At the beach with Elder Remund
Sunrise at the beach on transfer day with Zone leaders
