April 18, 2016
Dear Family and Friends,
We didn't get transfer calls so I'm staying here in
Newport News with Elder Free and Elder Hess.
When we showed up to teach our English class on
Wednesday, we saw that the Hermanas car was already parked in the parking lot. Well
to be funny, I parked in the spot in front of them. This would make one of them have to back out the other
one, since you have to have someone stand outside and back up the driver. When
we came back to our car after the English class had ended we saw that our car
was covered with pass along cards that have Jesus’ picture on them. They stuck
them in our windows and in the gaps of our trunk. It was super funny.
It has been a super busy week! We taught a lot of investigators,
we have 40 now. We set Jose, who is from Cuba, with a baptismal date of June 4th.
He fully intends to be baptized on that date but I don't think he quite
understands what he needs to do to meet it: come to church at least three
times, and then be an active member afterwards. It’s alright though because we
will help him understand what is required.
For the past few weeks I have felt that our
district needs to focus on inviting people to be baptized. We set a goal as a
district that we would invite 22 people to be baptized, and we ended up
inviting 25. Of the 25, Elder Hess, Free, and I invited 13. We invited people
in lessons but a lot of people we invited by contacting them on the street. After
introducing ourselves, we said something like this, "As
missionaries we help people come closer to Jesus Christ. One of the things
that we do to accomplish this is to invite people to be baptized. Will you be
baptized by someone who holds the authority of God?" Some people were
taken aback, but many people said, “Yes, I will. When do y’all have your next
baptismal service?” Sadly, we had to pass most of these people on to the
English Elders since they were not Spanish speakers. It was amazing to see how many people on the
street wanted to improve their relationship with God.
Miguelina and Leapoldo are doing really well. A few
hours before the lesson we were eating dinner with the Ramirez family. After
dinner, she brought out a cake since it was her birthday. We told Brother and Sister Ramirez that we
didn't have time to stay and celebrate since we had to get to a scheduled
lesson. They asked us to come back after
the lesson and before our appointment with Miguelina and Leapoldo. When we came
back to the Ramirez’s home they told us that they had invited Miguelina
and Leopoldo over and that after our lesson with them we would eat the cake. It
was a really powerful lesson. We talked about baptism and the Holy Ghost.
Miguelina accepted the invitation to be baptized with a very different level
of commitment compared to the first time that we invited her to be baptized. The first time we asked her about baptism she
told us that she had been baptized in the Catholic Church, but
she told us she wanted to feel more prepared before baptism this time.
Miguelina came to church again this Sunday. Leapoldo had to work, so he
couldn’t attend. After church, Miguelina told us that she is liking the church
more and more each time that she attends.
I know that this is the church of Jesus Christ. He
leads His church through a living prophet named Thomas S. Monson. The Book of
Mormon is vital in our testimony about the church. I know that the Book of
Mormon is the word of God.
I hope that everyone has a great week!
Love,
Elder Cannon
Our District after Transfers
Our car decorated in pass along cards
