Ciao! Io non ho molto tempo parlare, ma-
oh wait! I forgot I was speaking in Italian! Whoops! Hahaha just kidding I
totally wish that was actually a problem. The Italian is coming along well but
I am constantly humbled by how little I know. This first week has been crazy
and difficult but very spiritual and rewarding as well.
On Wednesday I woke
up at 4:30 to catch my flight to Provo. I was actually kind of glad
for this, because we were all so tired that I don't think any of us realized
how sad we should be to say goodbye. Once I got to Provo my grandparents drove
me to the MTC. I was rushed through a million things and received nametags,
papers, and a MASSIVE freaking bag full of everything Italian (including a 200$
textbook, yikes!)
Within 5 minutes of
being in the MTC I saw my BYU friend Elder Larsen! That was totally cool. You
get to see pretty much everyone here at some point; I also got to see both
Sister Jacksons (Sisters Jackson?) from my BYU ward on the first day. Elder
Larsen told me Jeffrey R. Holland had come to speak at the devotional last
night! I was so sad I missed it, but it was OK- I'll explain why later. Anyway,
I got to class and met my district. I love them! There are six anziani [elders]
and four sorelle [sisters]. I don't know the sorelle that well, but the anziani
are great. It's so nice to be able to talk to them and unwind after our
stressful classes. They all are super funny; I'm surprised how hard I've
laughed since I've been here. My companion is Anziano Topacio. He looks
Hispanic, has an Italian last name, but is Filipino. He is a great guy. I have
learned a lot from him. He was called to be the zone leader and is already
doing an excellent job. We were actually in a tri-panionship the first two days
with Anziano Penfold, whose companion was sick and didn't show up till Friday.
Anziano Topacio has never finished reading the Book of Mormon. The other day I
got to explain some cool parts of it to him; it made me really grateful I had
awesome parents, seminary teachers, and Book of Mormon professors who helped me
gain a greater understanding of that stuff. Still, it's not the most important
thing. Anziano Topacio has a really strong testimony, which is what you really
need.
Thursday was hard.
We have to sit in class learning Italian for nine hours a day. It is super
frustrating. Anziano Topacio never went to college but this is the fourth
language he is learning, and he is soooo good at it. It is great motivation for
me, he has really pulled me along. So about the food... It's ok. It's like the
Cannon center at BYU. The problem is that we finish dinner
at 6:15 every day, and they don't provide any food after that.
Anziano Topacio and I are both very health conscious: neither of us have
touched the desert bar all week. The other thing is that we both like working
really hard during gym (me on the Precor and him with his weights) and as
teenage boys we eat a crapton of food. So the idea of not having ANYTHING to
eat between 6:15 and 10:30 was kind of disheartening- we decided to
keep our chins up and just laugh it off when the "nurse" told us we
could stay full by having our parents send us "healthy snacks" to eat
in the dorms like popcorn. Hahaha.
Friday was my
hardest day. The rumors were true: we had to teach our first lesson to a person
named Francesca who supposedly doesn't speak English. Once again I had to take
Brother Schwartz's advice and be able to laugh at myself, in this case for how
dumb we were. I was saying the closing prayer, so basically we were showing
Francesca how to pray. Then I forget how to ask for blessings in Italian, so I
had to grab the prayer book from my companion and look it up during the prayer.
It was so bad; we were cracking up so hard, it's a wonder that Francesca kept a
straight face. But each day since then we've taught her a lesson, and it has
gotten much better.
Saturday got a
little better. We were all completely drained by Saturday night during
our 6:30 to 9:30 lesson. Fratello [Brother] Wortham (one of
our teachers) could tell I guess so he had the anziani do a squat competition
where you are up against the wall in a squat position. The four other anziani
were long gone when Anziano Topacio and I gave each other a fist bump and sat
down together. If that's not companionship unity, I don't know what is! ;) Then
we read 2 Nephi 4, and he told us about his testimony of it. It was a great
experience!
Sunday was a great
spiritual day. Janice Kapp Perry came to give a devotional. I thought after
singing the EFY medley which I think she wrote like seven thousand times, I
wouldn't care anymore, but singing it with 900 other missionaries I felt the
Spirit so strongly! It was so great.
Yesterday I found
out that our flight to Rome has a layover in Frankfurt! I know I won't actually
get to do anything, but still it's cool that I'll have gotten to go to Germany.
There was rumors a member of the Quorum of the Twelve would be at the
devotional, however I was still shocked when D. Todd Christofferson walked in.
We were sitting on the seventh row! You could just feel the Spirit emanating
from him. I listened so closely the whole time!
Anyway it's been
one of the longest weeks of my life, sorry for the long email, I'm sure next
weeks will be much less eventful. I miss running (what I would do to run up
Provo Canyon right now), my family and friends, obviously, and a lot of other
things. But there's no place I would rather be right now. I am so happy to be a
missionary for my Heavenly Father.
Love,
Anziano Cannon
June 10, 2015
Day 14 and still going strong! Wednesdays
are one of my favorite days because we have P-day and the new elders come. Last
week my companion and I helped these two elders from Latin America with their
suitcases. The one I talked to was from Guatemala, so it was super cool to tell
him how my brother is just finishing his mission there. He hardly spoke any
English, so I had to talk to him with my very rusty Spanish ;) Languages are
super fun. I've picked up a few words in German and Japanese since I've gotten
here, and I even learned how to say hi in Madagese (I think). There are two
elders in the whole MTC that speak it (they are going to Madagascar).
On Friday I had to
leave my companion to go with a few other Italian missionaries to Salt Lake
City to do some visa stuff. It was a little scary but also fun to be out in the
real world for the first time with my nametag on. I did my best to remember
what I am representing now. Riding the train home I just stared out at the
mountains the whole time. They're so beautiful right now. I guess I took the
view out of my dorm window for granted in college!
The Spirit is
always present here. On Sunday we had a testimony meeting with the zone. It was
nice to hear that I'm not the only one who doesn't find this the easiest thing
I've ever done, because a lot of people talked about how difficult it is. But
we all feel God's love and support and appreciate all your prayers!
On Tuesday Linda K.
Burton came to speak! She talked about being disciples of Christ.
We haven't seen any
new missionaries yet today, but when they come, they'll have orange stickers on
their nametags so we know they're new. We're supposed to tell them
"Welcome to the MTC." At first I think they appreciate it, but by the
end of the day, it seems like it gets pretty old for them. So Anziano Topacio
and I decided that whenever we see an orange sticker in the distance, he'll
start whistling the Harry Potter theme and when we pass them, I'll say "Welcome
to Hogwarts". It was pretty entertaining last week ;)
I got to see my BYU
friend Elder Pastor this week. I remember talking to him last semester. He
seemed like he wanted to serve a mission, but I encouraged him a ton because he
definitely didn't seem sure about it. So I was so proud to see him here, where
I know he is supposed to be!
Thanks for all your
letters and food!
Love,
Anziano Cannon
June 17, 2015
Another great week, marred slightly by
the sickness that I've been having recently. On Thursday I felt bad
for my companion because at breakfast it was like a big BYU reunion with a
bunch of my friends who I hadn't seen since I left college. I would list all of
them, but there were honestly too many to name. It was so much fun! Fratello
Wortham left today for Alabama for his ROTC. That makes me really sad, I love
him! He made me want to be a better missionary. On Thursday we went around
the room reciting word by word the First Vision, our Missionary Purpose, and
the baptismal invite. We ended up with 2.5 "errors"- which meant that
the anziani had to do 2.5 minutes of plank right there. Thank goodness we
didn't do that a week earlier, or we would have been on the ground for half an
hour! Haha. On Sunday I taught elder's quorum. I wouldn't have blamed
anyone one bit for falling asleep - it's right after lunch and everyone is
always exhausted. Instead it was a great lesson and the Spirit was really
there. That night we watched a talk called "Character of Christ" by
David A. Bednar. I would recommend it to everyone, but they probably restrict
it to missionaries because if I can feel like I am not doing anything right
while I am spending two years serving a mission, I can only imagine how you all
would feel watching that talk ;) It was seriously like being shot with
spiritual shotgun shells. But I enjoyed it.
One of the things I willingly gave up to
go on my mission was competitive running. I guess that God didn't require me to
completely sacrifice it, because on Thursday in the big gym, I saw a
glorious sight: an MTC records board with everything from soccer juggles to
pullups- and the mile. So on Monday during gym I got one of the
workers to escort me out to the field where he observed me while I broke the
mile record by 30 seconds. Admittedly, based on when the records were set, it
looks like they've only been doing this this year. But I was still happy about
my time- 4:28. Not bad for running on a sloped grass field during my
mission.
Tuesday we got to hear from David F.
Evans. Apparently the whole first presidency and quorum of the twelve are
coming next week to train the new mission presidents, I hope one of them will
talk to us! That night they changed leadership and made me the new district
leader. I am quite glad for the opportunity to worry about others instead of
just myself. You truly are so much happier when you are caring about others
more than you are yourself.
Love,
Anziano Cannon
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