September 29, 2014- Investigator Update and a Scare

Investigator Update and a Scare

September 29, 2014

Hi Family and Friends,

This week was kind of hard at first but it ended up being a really good week!

Elder Remund and I had set a goal this week to get 5 members to come to our investigator lessons.  We have been praying hard to reach this goal because having a member present at the lesson makes all the difference because a member can really make the investigator feel more comfortable.  It started really slow this week when our lesson with a member present fell through on Monday night, and our other three scheduled member present appointments fell through when either the investigators weren't home or the member forgot to show up. But miraculously we met our goal and got five for the week when we had three member present lessons on Sunday!

Here is a quick summary on our investigators with baptismal dates:

Jeff-

Jeff was initially set for Sept 27 but Elder Remund and I recommitted him to October 25 when we realized that he wouldn't be able to meet the date because of word of wisdom issues. Jeff is really excited about this date and is working really hard. He has a tremendous amount of faith and he knows that God can help him. Elder Remund and I taught him the law of tithing on Thursday.  Jeff didn't blink an eye when we explained it to him and he said that he knew that tithing was important, that it is a commandment and he committed to living it. I'm really excited for him. He has also told me that when he gets baptized on October 25th, he wants me to baptize him. He said that I radiate with the spirit like no other missionary he's met and that's why he wants me to baptize him. Jeff has been taught by the missionaries for a very long time and initially didn't want anything to do with the church, but slowly he has changed. Elder Remund has told me that most of Jeff’s progress has transpired since I have been here.  He thinks that some people just don't progress until a certain missionary clicks with them.  He thinks that I have been that missionary to Jeff.

Elias-

We have not been able to meet up with Elias for two weeks now. Elias just got a new job and has been working crazy hours, and as a result we haven't been able to meet with him. We have set up multiple appointments with him, but then the appointments have fallen through when he gets called onto a shift that he originally didn't have. As a result, we have to drop his baptismal date because he isn't going to be able to meet this date. Elder Remund and I are hoping to meet up with him in the next couple of weeks when things get less crazy for him

Edis-

Last week we set Edis’ baptism for October 25, but when we taught her this week and tried to reset her, she was a little wishy washy.  She said she had already been baptized, so we will talk to her about the importance of having authority in order to baptize during the next lesson.  As of now she doesn't have a baptism date.

Edwin and Miriam-

Elder Remund has been teaching this couple since February.  They are so strong in the gospel and have such strong testimonies. They haven't been baptized yet because they need to get married first because they had a child together before marriage. They are getting married on December 20th and are scheduled to be baptized on January 10th.

We take turns, with the four hermanas in our district, teaching an English class. This was my first week teaching the class. It was really awesome. I never really realized how complicated English was until I tried to explain vocabulary and grammar to the Latinos in English. Its crazy to say this but although Spanish is hard to learn, the way vocabulary, verbs and sentences work are normally more simple than English. For example: "How much does this cost?" is just "Cuanto cuesta?"

While we were teaching the class we met Jorge, a less active member.  At the end of class he asked us if he could come with us to an investigator’s lesson.  Jorge is an amazing guy. He has such a strong testimony of the gospel and he loves coming out with us to lessons. He went with out with us for three hours yesterday and taught two lessons with us. He is extremely humble and loves the gospel so much. The only reason he is a less active member is because he doesn't go to church very often since he works most Sundays.  I don’t know how to get him to church more often when he has to work to support his poor family that is back in Honduras, but the hermanas who are teaching him have a plan to help him.

The temperature has really changed this week. Normally, it rains quite a lot here, but it really hasn't rained much since I have been here- until this week. The temperature has also dropped. It's starting to get cold here and the humidity doesn't help. The humidity just seeps into you. The weather here is also unpredictable. Earlier in the week it was really cold and rainy and the past few days it has been warm.

It's a challenging to speak Spanish successfully with everyone because the Latinos that we are meeting here are from all over the world: Mexico, Honduras, Salvador, Ecuador, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Panama and so forth.  Every person has a different accent and different vocabulary.  Some people I understand perfectly and other people I can barely understand at all.  However, it is cool because I get the chance to try lots of different foods and experience all the different cultures. My ability to speak is improving as well although sometimes I still have a hard time talking to people.

We participated in two service projects this week. We helped the Garcia family move. My companion and I were the only ones to show up to help, so it took us five hours to move everything into the moving truck. We also helped the Ojeda family clean out their extra storage space. They just moved in 4 weeks ago and they still had some boxes in this storage area that needed to be unpacked. After the work was finished, I had a near death experience at their house. Hermana Ojeda cooked some eggs for us.  I didn't bother to ask if she cooked with peanut oil because I've never heard of anyone cooking eggs with peanut oil before.  In addition, all of the Latinos I have asked, "Cocina la comida con acieta de cacahuete?" have said no. Luckily, Elder Remund just happened to ask the question for me and she said she had used peanut oil! So if Elder Remund hadn't asked I probably would have eaten the eggs and gotten really sick.

On Sunday, I participated in giving five priesthood blessings. Three were for members of family in our ward that were sick, and the other two were for Edwin and Miriam, our investigators, who have been having a hard time. I gave two of the blessings and one of the anointings. We arranged it so that I give the blessings to the individuals who could understand English because I'm still working on learning to give a blessing in Spanish.

I'll talk to everyone next week! Nos Vemos!

Love,

Elder Cannon

Whenever we find new Latinos in our area we mark their location down on our big map. I was pretty happy because when found some new Latinos and I got to mark it on the map.

September 22, 2014- An Answered Prayer and Colonial Williamsburg

September 22, 2014

Hey Family and Friends!

This past week has been a really good week. We committed another person to baptism this week. Her name is Edis and she is from Honduras.

Last Monday during our p-day, Elder Remund and I, and three other missionaries went mini golfing in Williamsburg and then went to the colonial town of Williamsburg. Williamsburg is a   revolutionary war era town that was occupied by the British.  When the Patriots won the revolutionary war they stormed in and took over the town. The town has been really well preserved, so it was pretty fun to tour.

That night, we taught a guy named Giovanni for the first time.  We taught him the Restoration and it was an amazing lesson. When I was on splits last week with my zone leaders they told me that whenever missionaries teach someone for the first time about the Restoration of the gospel, Satan always tries to create a disturbance to distract the individual from feeling the spirit. I definitely noticed that during the lesson. Our area is next to an army base and a few times a day loud fighter jet will fly by.  When my companion began reciting the experience of the first vision, many loud fighter jets flew by one right after another. But that didn't derail our lesson and we got invited to come by again. I think he potentially be a really good investigator.

On Tuesday we dropped off our car at a dealership because our bumper needed to be fixed. We ended up not getting the car back until late Friday.  During those three days without a car, we did a ton of walking because we don’t have bikes to fall back on. In those 3 days we walked over 20 miles!  It was hard because our bags were filled with a lot of Spanish and English materials and so our bags were heavy.

Wednesday we had zone conference in Virginia Beach. We were told the musical called "The Book of Mormon," will be coming to Norfolk Virginia during the last week of October.  To counteract this, On November 1st we will be doing a Social Media split. Local members will spend the entire day with us and during that time they will take pictures and videos of us as we have our studies in the morning, lessons with investigators, and do street contacts. Then, the members will post the videos and pictures online to social media sites so that people in this area can see what missionaries are really do. President Baker said that in this way we can use this event as an opportunity to create interest in our church after people in the community see the musical.

Later that night we had a really good lesson with Jeff and his family.  Jeff is coming closer and closer to baptism and he even says so himself so that's really exciting.

On Thursday morning, Elder Remund and I walked from our apartment to the dealership to pick up the car.  They were running behind so we walked over to this park to figure out what we were going to do the rest of the day since we wouldn't have a car. While we were there, a black preacher came over and started talking to us. After we talked to him for a while he went off on this tangent about how there was going to be a third coming of Christ and about the dimensions of heaven.  He was quoting scriptures from the Book of Jude and Revelations, which I wasn't too familiar with. We just listened to him and then introduced the Book of Mormon to him.  He actually said he would read it, which was pretty cool.

On Friday, Elder Remund and I attended a family history class that the stake here requires that all new missionaries in this area take. It was a very interesting class.  The instructor talked about how we can use family history to introduce the gospel to people, which I had never though of before.   We were finally able to pick up our car later that day.  I don't think I have ever been so happy to be able to ride in a car.

Yesterday, we drove down to Buckrow Beach in Hampton because we had two appointments with Latino families. We brought a 17 year-old member of our ward, Brother Richie.  The Richie family is one of the Anglo families that have been assigned to our Hispanic branch, to provide leadership and help this Spanish branch grow.  It ends up that neither of the families were at home. As we were walking back to the car, our phone started ringing, so Elder Remund answered it. As he was talking, a man from across the street asked, "May I ask you gentleman from which organization you guys are from?" So I walked over there with Brother Richie while my companion continued to talk on the phone. I answered that we were missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. He said that he had seen us in the neighborhood talking his neighbors and wondered why we hadn't ever stopped at his house. I told him that we were called as Spanish speaking missionaries, so our focus was to talk to Latinos, but we were more than willing to speak to English people as well.  I asked him if he would be interested in hearing a message from us about Jesus Christ.  He declined because he said that he already knew a lot about Jesus Christ and the Bible, and that he was already "full of the faith". I asked him if I could at least give him a card from our church. He said yes, so I handed him a pass along card with a picture of the Resurrected Savior on it. I explained that our purpose as missionaries is to testify of Christ and bring others to Him. He really liked the picture of the Savior.  He said that he really admired us in how that we took our time to bring happiness to others and to testify of the Savior. He then said, "I'm not trying to take up your time or offend you or anything but can I ask you a question?" He asked, "What is your church's stance on gay marriage?" At this point Elder Remund was just starting to cross the street so I knew I had to answer the question and not wait for Elder Remund. I started to give him an answer, and it just amazed me what came out of my mouth as I started quoting phrases from the Family Proclamation to the World that I didn't even realize that I knew well enough to quote word for word. I blended those phrases that I recited to him with my answer about how God loves each of his children so much and that we lived with him before our life on Earth. I said that He loves everyone here on earth because we are all of his children.  I explained that "gender is an essential characteristic of who we were before this earth" and that "God had ordained marriage between a man and a woman to bring happiness to his children," and therefore we did not support gay marriage. I said something kind of like that although it flowed and sounded a whole lot better when I explained it to him. He seemed really satisfied with that answer and that's when I launched into “Because God loves us he called prophets in the bible, etc. and basically I ended up explaining the Book of Mormon to him.  We read a couple scriptures about the Savior and that the Book of Mormon has is another testament and witness of our Savior Jesus Christ. At this point, my companion finally was able to jump in and bear his testimony too. We committed him to read the Book of Mormon and he was super excited about doing so.  When we were done talking to him we asked him to pray. And in the prayer he thanked God that he was able to talk to us because we were an answer to a prayer that he had offered earlier that day, in which he had asked how he could come closer to his Savior Jesus Christ. It was an amazing experience and the spirit was so strong.  I really know now that the scripture in D&C that talks about "first study the word and then you will be given in the moment what to say" to be true. When it was just the two of us talking, I really felt like I was being guided in what to say because I'm positive those weren't my words that were coming out.

Last night, we visited Jonathon. We have tried to come by and talk to him in the past but he has always said that he was busy.  One of our other appointments had fallen through, and we felt like we should go see him, so we did. We knocked on his door, and he answered it and said, "I don't know how to say this, but I don't want you guys to come to my house anymore. I'm just in a part of my life where things have been hard and I just don't want to hear from you guys." We told him that we understood.”  Then he asked, "Before you guys leave, do you want some water?" After he got us some water, the spirit touched his heart because we ended up staying there on his doorstep talking to him about questions that he had just about life and about Jesus Christ and his Atonement and how he had suffered for his sins. We also gave a Book of Mormon and talked to him about it and he said he would read it. We told him we wouldn't stop by anymore but we that if he ever needed help to give us a call. I wouldn't be surprised if he calls us by the end of the week.

Being here on a mission is hard work. It's probably some of the hardest work that I have ever done. It has its downs when people reject your message but I have experienced so much joy as well. I have already seen how people can change and bring happiness into their lives as they come closer to their Savior, Jesus Christ.

Love,

Elder Cannon

sheep pasture in Colonial town of Williamsburg

Governor's Palace in Colonial town of Williamsburg

September 15, 2014- Tracting in a Flooded Area- The Beach at Sunrise

September 15, 2014

Hi family and friends! My first full week in the mission field has been really amazing!!

It has been raining a lot this past week. As a result, the mobile homes that we were planning to tract at on Tuesday were completely flooded. The water was high enough to cover the wheels of cars on the street. It honestly looked like a hurricane had gone through the mobile home park. Elder Remund and I decided that we wanted to go see a potential investigator anyway so we put on our boots, rolled up our pants and walked through the water to the house. The water ended up being knee deep all the way, and the investigator ended up not being at their house but it still ended up being an awesome experience.

The Spanish hermanas in our district that cover middle Newport News had a baptism on Tuesday. They baptized this sweet old lady from Guatemala. Even though the baptism wasn't for one of my investigators, it was still a really cool experience to see a convert baptism for the first time.

On Wednesday, Elder Remund and I taught Valerio, a less active member from Guatemala. The spirit was so strong in the lesson as we taught him the importance of going to church.  We told him that we wanted to visit with him because we loved him and the branch members loved him. I could see that he definitely felt the spirit so hopefully that will help him decide to go to church again.

On Thursday, my companion and I met with Jeff again. Elder Remund and I had fasted on Sunday for Jeff that he would receive an answer to his prayer about whether the Book of Mormon is true. The spirit was so strong during the lesson.  We asked him if he would pray right then and ask if the Book of Mormon was true. He did, and afterwards he said that he had this warm feeling inside him. I then asked Jeff to be baptized and he said yes! Now Elder Remund and I just need to help him overcome his Word of Wisdom problems.  In order to support him, both my companion and I are both giving up something we like. Elder Remund is giving up Oreo cookies and I am going to give up diet soda. It’s going to be hard but it is going to be worth it when Jeff is able to get baptized. We also gave him a priesthood blessing, which he asked me to give to him, and that was amazing. I remember Dad saying that he hadn't given a blessing until a year into his mission. I feel blessed to have already participated in 6 blessings, three of them in which I was able to pronounce the blessing.

We went to Edwin and Miriam's home and they served us paposes, a dish from El Salvador. I really like eating paposes, even though they do have beans in them!

On Friday, I went on my first exchanges with our zone leaders. It was a lot of fun because we taught a lot of lessons to investigators I hadn't met and they were all English speaking.  It was a relief to take a break from Spanish. We also went to the CNU college campus and talked to a lot of people on campus. We set a goal to talk to everyone and I think we did a good job of talking to everyone that we saw.

On Saturday afternoon, we met with Francisco. He is from the Dominican Republic and will be in the U.S. for only 6 months. He is visiting his daughters here, both of which are members in our Spanish branch. His daughters asked us last Sunday if we could help him stop smoking, as he has been addicted to smoking for over 50 years and has tried to stop before but wasn't able to. So we went over to his home and talked to him about how the Atonement of Christ can help us overcome temptation because he not only suffered for our sins but also for every pain we would feel and for every temptation we would experience (Alma 7:11-13). We also gave him a blessing, which Elder Remund gave in Spanish.

On Saturday and Sunday we had Stake Conference.  The focus of this meeting was Hastening the Work and the importance of members in missionary work. I would encourage everyone back home to be involved as a member missionary and tell everyone about Jesus Christ and his restored church!

Yesterday I learned why its kind of stinks to be a Spanish missionary in the U.S. Elder Remund and I were tracting yesterday in Hampton where we met two African American women. The first one was super friendly.  She was interested in our church and after talking to her for a long time; we gave her a Book of Mormon.  She told us that she was going to read the Book of Mormon to her kids that very night. The other woman was from Haiti. She said that she wanted a copy of the Book of Mormon, too.  We told her we could get her a copy in the Creole language, which is the language they speak in Haiti. She seemed really excited about that. The sad thing about these two solid potential investigators is that since they don't speak any Spanish at all we had to hand them over to the English speaking missionaries, which kind of stinks, but oh well.  I'm still really glad I’m a Spanish speaking elder!

This morning, myself and seven other Elders went to the beach to watch the sunrise. Our mission president allows all the missionaries that are close to a beach to go to the beach every six weeks, or at every transfer, to go watch the sunrise.  We aren't allowed to go into the water but it was still really awesome.  It reminded me of when I watched the sunrise in Hawaii with my family in June.

Later today, after we have completed our P- day duties, we will be going to tour the historic colony of Williamsburg.  There are many historical places in my area, Williamsburg, Yorktown (where the revolutionary war ended), Jamestown (the first American settlement), and the island where Jefferson Davis (the Confederate president during the civil war) was kept as a prisoner.

I'm really excited for another week in the mission field and I will talk to everyone later!

Love,

Elder Cannon

​I thought this was pretty funny.  This is a building outside an apartment complex in Hampton. I wonder what the people who live across this building think when we say that Joseph Smith restored the church. "WHO? Joseph Smith? You mean that attorney across the street??" hahah :)

Here is a flooded trailer park that we tracted in.

Here I am in the flooded trailer park up to my knees in water.

In the middle of Newport News there is this big foresty area similar to Central park in NYC. The whole area around here is forested, which is a relief compared to the desert in Arizona that I'm used to.

Sunrise at the beach on Pday

Pupusas from El Salvador