August 24
They didn't show this
happening on "The District"
This was by far the
craziest week of my mission, full of ups and downs. By the end of our fourth
day we had already broken our single week record for lessons taught because
people were practically showing up at our house wanting us to teach them (we
are allowed to teach in our apartment because that is also where we hold
English course).
Wednesday morning I
prayed we would see Paolo or Andrea, two of our potential investigators whose
phone numbers we didn't have, and right as we left our house, we saw Andrea! He
and his friend agreed to come back later for a lesson. They were so curious,
and there were so many gospel principles I wanted to teach them! It was
awesome! The next morning we agreed to begin a fast so that Andrea could find
work. Unfortunately, at the end of our fast the following morning, Andrea came
over to tell us he wasn't interested in the Church. He hadn't been able to
complete his fast and the previous day had spoken with the Jehovah's Witnesses.
He said the closing prayer of our meeting and prayed that we would be able to
learn that God's name is Jehovah, which was both a little funny and
heartbreaking at the same time.
Sunday after church we
went to a non-members house for lunch. It was a big catholic family that
included the awesome family I met at my first English course. Afterwards we
taught them, focusing especially on eternal families. It felt great to share
that truth with them. Sadly, there was an incredibly liberal 23 year old German
girl visiting who started hammering us on gay marriage. If you want details on
how we butchered that conversation, ask my parents. In the end, I realized that
in all likelihood no one will ever join this church because of our position on
gay marriage, and that's ok. Also, the mom told us she is too devoted to her Catholicism
to listen to us. Although other religions are often impediments in our
teaching, I really love the Italians.
It is so fun at
English course to see how the most diverse people become friends just because
they are in the same room. That's just what you do. And you always shake hands
at least twice in a conversation, not to mention kiss if that's appropriate.
This week overall was so great though. We
got to talk to a lady who we had basically shoved a restoration pamphlet to as
we ran to catch the train a couple weeks ago.
We also talked to a bunch of super poor kids who we really, really,
really want to see at English course tomorrow.
This morning I read
this, also by Dieter F. Uchtdorf:
"He seeks to
enlist unfaltering souls who diligently go about the work of building the
kingdom of God--those who, when faced with opposition and temptation, say in
their hearts, “I am doing a great work and cannot come down.” When faced with
trial and suffering, they respond, “I am doing a great work and cannot come
down.” When faced with ridicule and reproach, they proclaim, “I am doing a
great work and cannot come down.”
I AM doing a great and
cannot come down, we have so many important things to do and we have been given
the responsibility of preaching the gospel in Bagheria, which is truly an
honor.
Love,
Anziano Cannon
View from the house of
the family we taught on Sunday!
Some beautiful finding
on Saturday.
August 31
Wow, what a week! Wednesday was the
craziest and probably the best day of my mission so far. Heaven knows how many
miles we speed walked from appointment to appointment. We ended up teaching
seven lessons that day, and gave out four Books of Mormon to investigators who
we taught for the first time.
One of my favorites was Francesca
and her family. They were the family I wanted to go see a month or so ago. She
kept on rescheduling like five times which was sad, so when she finally opened
the door I was so grateful. We taught them the restoration. They are sooo poor.
There is nine of them I think, and a couple weeks ago when we stopped by to see
them, for whatever reason, I still had a tiny plastic top you spin between your
fingers in my pocket (long story how it got there). Anyway a couple weeks later
these kids, like four of them, still were all playing with this junky top. It
will take a miracle to get them to church, but I believe in miracles! Getting
people from Bagheria to Palermo for church is actually really difficult- we had
to take the train this Sunday at 7:30 AM to get there which is
fine for us, but if you don't have a testimony of why church is so important
and you can't afford train tickets, it's more of a problem. So I would
appreciate your prayers with that!
Reason number 363 why I love
Africans: there are like six of them total here in Bagheria, and we have
currently begun teaching three. That's 50%, and I'm sure the others would be
down to learn if we ever get to talk to them. One of them, Festus, kissed the
Book of Mormon his first lesson so I'm pretty hopeful about our next meeting!
Haha.
Also, this might take the cake for
worst Italian shirt with English writing on it that I've ever seen: "Party
till you're homeless". We were laughing so hard, sometimes I think
Italians wear their clothes just to entertain us.
Friday was the baptism of the
bishop's son! Little did the eight year old know how excited I was for the
baptism as it was a great missionary opportunity. The spirit was great there,
there was a ton of non-members and they had an awesome experience.
Anyway I'm pretty sure we started
the transfer off on a good foot, as I pray and focus on others I am really
hoping that at the same time Heavenly Father is making me a better missionary.
I hope you all are taking Elder Ballard's challenge to "be engaged in the
work of salvation before, during, and after your missions"!
Love,
Anziano Cannon
Driving to Palermo. Sorry this is all I've got this week, but this is a general idea
of what I look at every day. Mountains inland, and sea on the other side.
of what I look at every day. Mountains inland, and sea on the other side.
September 7
We had zone conference
this week. It was such an incredible learning experience. Immediately afterward
we started our exchange with the zone leaders. I went to Palermo with my
distant cousin and 6'10" zone leader, Anziano Pingree. It was an awesome,
awesome 24 hours. That's not meant at all to put down my trainer Anziano
Borner, who I have learned a lot from and is a great missionary in his own
right, but getting a fresh perspective on missionary work was so helpful.
In the morning we went
finding and we talked to literally everybody we saw. And it wasn't like the
same script over and over. Based on each person he decides how to break the
ice, whether he needs to start with English course, the Gospel, or something
else. It was exhausting because doing that is so hard at my level of Italian
but it was also great.
The night before we
had an awesome English course. At Palermo several companionships of
missionaries work together for English course, so they have about 40 students.
We taught the basic level. At the end Anziano Pingree threw down an insanely
powerful testimony that had a girl crying (hardly what I would call a
"spiritual thought"), then I added my little piece and afterwards we
had them all fill out some paperwork where they could request materials from
us, and over half wanted Books of Mormon!
Saturday was the
baptism of Giorgia, the sisters' investigator, which was great. One of my
favorite lessons this week was with a guy who at first seemed to really doubt
the Book of Mormon, but after some persistent testimony, he really opened up to
the Book and would have let us read all of first Nephi with him if we had let
him.
I feel so blessed that
day by day I have become a better missionary. One of the most satisfying
feelings is to erase a goal from my list because it is something that is now
easy and second nature. It really is through grace that I can be successful
when I am thrown into the furnace of having to accompany three Italian ladies
at a baptism on a song I couldn't even play by myself in the first place.
Love,
Anziano Cannon
P day was so cool
today! We went to Monreale where an Italian
king of some sort employed Arabs to
build this insane cathedral.
Nice and windy up here!
Especially after the recent heat.
It was 39 degrees on Sunday (I think that's
like 102).
The story of the Bible
is written on the walls.
September 14
Wednesday it
started raining like I've never seen it rain. There was literally no way to
cross the street to get to the house without completely submerging my shoes in
water. So that was fun. Thursday we did a scambio [exchange] with the
Palermo 2 Anziani. I was with Anziano Simmons in Bagheria. He had the idea to
hang a sheet from our balcony as an advertisement for English course. I gave
him a pass along card with our number on it to draw on the sheet. Unfortunately
two days later we realized why nobody had called us.
Whoops!
Friday was great. We taught a lady
named Laura whose whole extended family is LDS. She straight up told us she
could very well be baptized into our church someday, but just isn't ready right
now. It was awesome though, we felt the Spirit very powerfully.
Later that day we taught Alex, an
awesome Nigerian. I asked him how his Book of Mormon reading is going, and he
said good, "but I haven't finished it yet". We had given it to him
just a few days before and I told him that of course we didn't expect him to
already be done, so I asked him what page he was on. His response: "1 or
2". Haha. Well at least that's something.
Saturday was a member present
miracle lesson as we taught another African named Emmanuel. His friend came to
visit from elsewhere in Italy, and we invited him to join us and listen to the
lesson before he told us that he was already baptized!
One cool thing I took away from
Anziano Simmons: if you look at the five lessons in Preach My Gospel, you can
see that every single one of them is related to God’s love for us. And so every
time we teach, we should be so excited because we are sharing this joy and love
that these people have never known about. I hope that you all at home treat
missionary "work" the same way - the joyful experience of sharing
God's love!
Thanks for your prayers!
Love,
Anziano Cannon
This was when it was just a light
sprinkle
Anziano Borner made a deal with me
that he would go running this
morning if we woke up at 5:30 to run to the beach to take pictures. I agreed!
morning if we woke up at 5:30 to run to the beach to take pictures. I agreed!
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