January 11, 2016
Pretty crazy week,
lots of ups and downs. But overall it's just pretty great that, no matter what,
we always have the opportunity to invite everyone to come to Christ.
This week we got a referral. He has
already been taught once by other missionaries in Rome. We really have to pray
for his wife though. She is a practicing Catholic who got really mad at him for
meeting with us. He sent us a text yesterday saying basically "my wife is
ticked so I can't meet, but don't worry I'll keep reading and learning from the
Book of Mormon" in his imperfect Filipino English. So we'll need a miracle
with that one.
This week we showed Liu "The
Restoration" and he accepted the invite to be baptized!
We also saw Nicola. The lesson was a
bit rocky as we ran out of time before English course at the end. And at one
point we asked our great member Brother DeMateis what the Atonement meant for
him and he must have been dozing a little bit because he went into a ten minute
discourse about how he likes the aspect of this church that you can find out
for yourself if it's true. But the Spirit was there and in the end he also
accepted the baptismal invite.
John Pierr is doing really well.
It's just super sad that his Dad left them and his mom works so long that some
nights she sleeps at work and he's all alone. But we read Alma 32 together and
he made a good connection to weight lifting so that was fine with me.
I wasn't planning on sharing this
with everyone but I guess I will... Saturday was a pretty hard day. Marco told
us he was leaving for Malta permanently for work, we found out a bunch of
people weren't going to be able to come to church, and we faced a ton of
rejection. At the end of the day I felt like I should be justified in crying,
that I had worked so hard and not seen the success that I wanted. But I just
could not find any excuse or reason to feel sorry for myself. That's just
selfish. This morning I got a pretty powerful answer as I thought about Christ
telling me "How hard did I work for these people's salvation?" It's
true. No matter what effort I put into this work, it will never equal what He
has already done.
Love,
Anziano Cannon
Coolest escalator picture ever
no?
January 18, 2016
I pondered about it, and would say
that this week has definitely been one of the three hardest weeks in my
mission. And yet, this was the first time that I legitimately had the thought
that I could be a missionary forever. I don't understand how that works.
We met with Liu on Saturday and
discussed the plan of salvation. He had only read 1 Nephi 1 but holy cow he
remembered it like he was Bruce R. McConkie or something. It was such a good almost word for word
description that I was looking down at my scriptures having to verify what he
was saying was true! Ha-ha. Anyway he accepted the commitment to be
baptized on February 27th! Woohoo. Then he came with us to watch the
baptism that another companionship held in our church. Those are always great
experiences for investigators.
We had a legit MIRACLE with Gian
Pierr. It's so hard to get to his house. In fact, we felt terrible because on
Friday we had to bedonae (cancel on) Marco (something you should NEVER do)
because there was too much traffic on the long bus ride back from Gian Pierr's
house. But then we saw Sorella Rossato on Saturday who lives close by and said
that another sister in the ward was going to pick them up for church because
this sister felt lonely and wanted company - and there was a spot for Gian
Pierr! Unfortunately, he didn't come to church Sunday because his mom wants him
to go study English every other Sunday, so that kind of broke our heart. But I
had a very clear prompting last night that he needs to read and understand the
Book of Mormon, and then it will all fall into place. Usually investigators
struggle to accept rules because they don't understand principles, and they
struggle to accept principles because they don't understand doctrine. So I
figured if we hit the Book of Mormon hard they'll come around.
A heart wrenching experience:
showing "Finding Faith in Christ" to Mauro. It hit PERFECTLY on his
situation. I felt the Spirit strongly anyway, and knew it could have been
exactly what we needed and that we might have been able to extend a baptismal
invitation, had it not been for his two young kids who were no joke possessed
by servants of the adversary during that video. I'm just kidding but it really
was a trying experience. I had been praying the whole time for the kids to be
quiet, but in the end I just had to rely on Isaiah 55:8-9 and assume the Lord
knows what he's doing.
So we called Nicola to meet with
him, who is still without a job and about to lose his house. He told us that we
had nice words, but "Belle parole non si mangia" (you can't eat
beautiful words). I kind of exclaimed "His faith won't grow when
everything is all good and easy!" And I got kind of discouraged. Then it
just *clicked* all at once to me and I realized that I was being EXACTLY like
Nicola. Heavenly Father was testing MY faith, and I can't wait to proclaim my
faith and trust in the Lord until when we have a million progressing
investigators. It has to happen now.
I am super grateful for a great
companion. We've been able to discuss some pretty deep feelings and missionary
experiences that were cool to share because it shows that all missionaries
usually go through the same things.
Ps if you get this email
after 6 pm Rome time, I'm sorry but we had problems... As in no hot water.
Elder Saffer didn't want to take a shower this morning and I was like
"come on stop being a wimp" and took one myself. Well, I did it. But
I will just say that there is a big difference between not having hot water in
Sicily in July and not having hot water in Rome in January. We spent a while
waiting for it to be fixed today.
Have you seen the movie "The
Testaments"? I find it interesting that in that movie, the father, Helam,
receives his sight back after being injured during the storm. Yet all of the
healing the Christ did such as that I believe is mostly symbolic of how He
heals us in a more important way - spiritually. In "The Testaments",
it was in reality the son that received his "sight" back to be able
to see things as they really are through the grace of Christ.
Love,
Anziano Cannon
January 25, 2016
This week we found out
that the Steri family, which we had met before Christmas, didn't actually live
in the apartment we thought they did. So one morning we went over to this
massive three story apartment complex to try and find them, knowing only that
they were on one of the first two floors. We ended up choosing one hall that I
decided "felt a little less dark" (because this is kind of the
ghetto), and we choose a random door to knock on. This lady opened up and the
husband in the background said "come in!!" It was them! Miracle. They
didn't have time to hear the lesson right then but we have an
appointment this Wednesday with our secret weapon: Fabio. Literally
he is the best. He cannot stop smiling, it's almost a problem. No one
understands it. But we love him and are excited to teach the Steris next week!
Frozen culture extends
throughout the world, so I made an instant connection with the little girl and
her Frozen apparel and toys because of my sister Elissa. It was easy to see
that they have a lot of repenting to do - he smokes, drinks coffee, and they
aren't married. But I'm so excited because that's what missionary work is all
about! We are here to help people CHANGE their lives, not to find only those
who already live just like we do.
Dang! Work is SUCH a big problem here... Honestly
it is SO hard for these people to find any work, the general consensus is that
you have to have friends and contacts if you have any shot at working. The
English course lesson this week was "having a job interview" but the
students turned it basically into a bash Italy for how much it stinks
fest.
Wednesday we
taught Jean Pierr (yes, I know I've spelled his name differently in every
email). It's really true what Elder Holland said that we can tell exactly how
well the lesson is going by looking into the investigators' eyes. And for Jean
Pierr, it went really well. We FINALLY got to teach him the Restoration, and he
really liked it! Saturday we saw Sorella Rossato in church, and she told
us his mom Eva had switched jobs so she could be at home more.
"What?" I exclaimed in English, so she explained it again, but I was
just shocked that that had happened. We hope to see them BOTH this week and that
Jean Pierr will have read his Spanish Book of Mormon.
There was an awesome
worldwide training for missionaries this week. The title of the conference was
"Preach Repentance and Baptize Converts" - very succinct and
powerful. That night I went to bed, disappointed that I couldn't go out and
work right then! It was great.
Also PS we still don't
have hot water, if you want to know. My body temperature goes way down during
my shower so then I usually have to bundle up in my winter coat to avoid
freezing during personal study, ha-ha.
Liu is doing well! I
was stoked with our ward and the way they opened up to him at church on
Sunday. It's always so relieving when you don't even have to worry about
investigators because they are busy making friends. Mauro's family came too,
though we weren't able to teach them this week.
The gospel is true anywhere in the
world. And the Atonement changes anyone, anywhere. For that I am grateful this
week.
Love,
Anziano Cannon
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