Week 57

June 27, 2016

This week I did my first member split!! I went with Fratello P, this super cool old guy, to visit Sorella D. He is no taller than 5'1" and she is probably 4'11". The first five minutes of the visit they were talking about the advantages of replacement teeth; I felt about as useful as when I home taught with my dad and we'd go to the Layers' house and talk about epidurals. Fratello P did say something I really liked though, referring to the lack of home teaching our ward does: "why would the Lord give us more sheep when we can't take care of the sheep we already have?" I've never really thought about it like that.

Giuliana's baptism went great! I had kind of murmured about how much time we had spent practicing the musical number "Nearer my God to Thee".  However, my attitude changed when we sat down after singing it and Massimiliano, who had just heard the talk about the Holy Ghost, leaned over and said "That was definitely a manifestation of the Holy Spirit".  He was really bummed to miss her confirmation the next day because apparently I had told him church was at 9:30, not 9:00. But we were walking home yesterday and he ran out of a gelateria he was in to say hi and tell us he was going home to read the Book of Mormon.

We also started teaching Giuseppe this week. He said he felt super drawn to this church. At first I was worried that he was like the other guy who was just happy we were preaching in the name of the Lord but would never have committed himself to this church.  Then he told us he had studied with the Evangelicals but didn't like it, so that made me feel better.

Love,

Anziano Cannon


Matera, where they filmed "The Passion of the Christ" 

Week 57

June 27, 2016

This week I did my first member split!! I went with Fratello P, this super cool old guy, to visit Sorella D. He is no taller than 5'1" and she is probably 4'11". The first five minutes of the visit they were talking about the advantages of replacement teeth; I felt about as useful as when I home taught with my dad and we'd go to the Layers' house and talk about epidurals. Fratello P did say something I really liked though, referring to the lack of home teaching our ward does: "why would the Lord give us more sheep when we can't take care of the sheep we already have?" I've never really thought about it like that.

Giuliana's baptism went great! I had kind of murmured about how much time we had spent practicing the musical number "Nearer my God to Thee".  However, my attitude changed when we sat down after singing it and Massimiliano, who had just heard the talk about the Holy Ghost, leaned over and said "That was definitely a manifestation of the Holy Spirit".  He was really bummed to miss her confirmation the next day because apparently I had told him church was at 9:30, not 9:00. But we were walking home yesterday and he ran out of a gelateria he was in to say hi and tell us he was going home to read the Book of Mormon.

We also started teaching Giuseppe this week. He said he felt super drawn to this church. At first I was worried that he was like the other guy who was just happy we were preaching in the name of the Lord but would never have committed himself to this church.  Then he told us he had studied with the Evangelicals but didn't like it, so that made me feel better.

Love,

Anziano Cannon


Matera, where they filmed "The Passion of the Christ" 

Week 57

June 27, 2016

This week I did my first member split!! I went with Fratello P, this super cool old guy, to visit Sorella D. He is no taller than 5'1" and she is probably 4'11". The first five minutes of the visit they were talking about the advantages of replacement teeth; I felt about as useful I home taught with my dad and we'd go to the Layers' house and talk about epidurals. Fratello P did say something I really liked though, referring to the lack of home teaching our ward does: "why would the Lord give us more sheep when we can't take care of the sheep we already have?" I've never really thought about it like that.

Giuliana's baptism went great! I had kind of murmured about how much time we had spent practicing the musical number "Nearer my God to Thee".  However, my attitude changed when we sat down after singing it and Massimiliano, who had just heard the talk about the Holy Ghost, leaned over and said "That was definitely a manifestation of the Holy Spirit".  He was really bummed to miss her confirmation the next day because apparently I had told him church was at 9:30, not 9:00. But we were walking home yesterday and he ran out of a gelateria he was in to say hi and tell us he was going home to read the Book of Mormon.

We also started teaching Giuseppe this week. He said he felt super drawn to this church. At first I was worried that he was like the other guy who was just happy we were preaching in the name of the Lord but would never have committed himself to this church.  Then he told us he had studied with the Evangelicals but didn't like it, so that made me feel better.

Love,

Anziano Cannon


Matera, where they filmed "The Passion of the Christ" 

Week 57

June 27, 2016

This week I did my first member split!! I went with Fratello P, this super cool old guy, to visit Sorella D. He is no taller than 5'1" and she is probably 4'11". The first five minutes of the visit they were talking about the advantages of replacement teeth; I felt about as useful as a home teacher as when I home taught with my dad and we'd go to the Layers' house and talk about epidurals. Fratello P did say something I really liked though, referring to the lack of home teaching our ward does: "why would the Lord give us more sheep when we can't take care of the sheep we already have?" I've never really thought about it like that.

Giuliana's baptism went great! I had kind of murmured about how much time we had spent practicing the musical number "Nearer my God to Thee".  However, my attitude changed when we sat down after singing it and Massimiliano, who had just heard the talk about the Holy Ghost, leaned over and said "That was definitely a manifestation of the Holy Spirit".  He was really bummed to miss her confirmation the next day because apparently I had told him church was at 9:30, not 9:00. But we were walking home yesterday and he ran out of a gelateria he was in to say hi and tell us he was going home to read the Book of Mormon.

We also started teaching Giuseppe this week. He said he felt super drawn to this church. At first I was worried that he was like the other guy who was just happy we were preaching in the name of the Lord but would never have committed himself to this church.  Then he told us he had studied with the Evangelicals but didn't like it, so that made me feel better.

Love,

Anziano Cannon


Matera, where they filmed "The Passion of the Christ" 

Week 55 and 56

June 13, 2016

Ok here is a BIG recommendation for all of you... I had forgotten to look at the ward list to plan out all the birthdays in the ward this transfer until early this week, then I remembered to and I don't think it was a coincidence. The next day was Sorella C's birthday. We called and she responded "Elders, how did you know it was… why did you call?", As if doubting within her that we had called her for her
birthday. Literally, all we did was wish her well and sang to her over the phone and she broke down crying twice expressing her gratitude. Then at church she had an interview with bishop and when she came out she told us how she had explained to him how we had been "two angels" that day. Seriously this took like no effort whatsoever, I would highly recommend applying similar principles to people within your sphere of influence, especially with those who are lonely.

I told Elder Haws going into our last lesson with Samuel that if we needed to drop him it would be obvious. It was obvious. He hardly slept after getting off work to come to church again yesterday, but that doesn't change the fact that he's just not there right now. It's sad but my companion has been calling down some big time miracles...

Massimiliano wouldn't (yet) promise to be baptized, but his friend Giovanni came to English course and is a stud himself. He asked a question that kind of set off a bomb during the spiritual thought about the second article of faith and scriptures that talk about cursing the fourth generation, but in talking to him after, it seemed
pretty clear that he was quite interested. He just started reading the Bible and wants to read the Libro di Mormon as well before he heads to England to be a nurse.

Angelo also seemed stoked to read, and Gianni left the Book of Mormon at his girlfriend's house and he says he thinks she might have finished it by now!?!?  I don’t know if that's true, but according to him, she thinks it is bello [beautiful] and we are meeting them together tonight.

Memorable moment of the week was the marriage reception that we held in the church for the daughter of a less active member. In other words, the place was packed with non-members. The high priests group leader who organized it was "armed to the brim" with his pockets full of pamphlets and pass along cards. He had everyone watch a Mormon message about charity by Elder Holland. And then I was asked to give the prayer. Fun times.

Love,

Anziano Cannon

June 20, 2016

Yesterday was the first time I've been really stressed in church for a while. The only other pianist in the ward was out of town so as I warmed up I thought "they picked some really weird hymns". Then during the intro, the chorister looked at me funny and I realized I was using the English hymn book. During the first talk, I took "the ox is in the mire" attitude toward using my iPad in sacrament and put it on the music stand so it looked like I was watching the speaker while I actually made edits to my talk I thought I wasn't going to have to do.

During this time Massimiliano came in to his first sacrament meeting. My companion had before that been sitting next to crazy Luca.  He started showing up last week and his dad, who came for the first time, is definitely not crazy and someone I want to teach.  We also had Milena who came and I almost mixed her up with the visiting American family because she was raised in Boston. She brought her two year old to meet all the kids... Unfortunately, none of them came. During gospel principles the sisters did an on-the-fly lesson to everyone there while I translated for John. Then I thought I would give John the Aaronic Priesthood but bishop just went for it himself.  I tried to remember everything the bishop said in the blessing so I could tell him later.

This week we started teaching Massimiliano's friend Giovanni!!! He is a great guy. He totally has that real intent. You can tell by his prayers. It's so nice explaining the Plan of Salvation to those who want to hear it.

I did my first baptismal interview this week, it was pretty cool since this lady was so prepared, it wasn't very difficult to give her the go. Like greenies, I love how new members are so excited about the Gospel, I could have let her talk for two hours straight about her testimony and experiences if I wanted to.

Love,

Anziano Cannon

Post district meeting lunch

Weeks 53 and 54

May 30, 2016

This week at DDM our zone leaders tried to do one of "those" addestramentos [training]. The assistants had called them and told them they wanted our zone to find 30 new investigators this week (the standard of excellence of 3 for 10 companionships). So they tried to pump us up. I've never thought more about reaching a goal on my mission. We found one, then two... Sunday night we hadn't had the success we wanted and were just getting down to the wire. It was the fourth quarter, the last lap, the ninth inning (or the 18th hole as I've become accustomed to with my current companion). Our goal had been 4 new investigators that week, but even if we didn't get that, we certainly didn't want to drag the zone average down.  At like 8:20 we gave one last shot to go to a park. After walking around the whole park and seeing nothing but teenagers making havoc, we passed by a couple playing cards... Miracles happen. Restoration taught, return appointment set up. This week we'll be focusing on helping these new people progress.

Transfer calls! My companion, whose obedience and righteousness, among other things, will be missed, is headed off to Gela, also known as the Jehovah's Witnesses capital of Italy. Even there I'm sure the Lord is preparing people. I'll be getting an "I-don't-speak-a-lick-of-Italian-but-I-have-faith-to-move-mountains" elder fresh baked from the MTC here in Bari.

The other week we finally found a haircut place that is open Mondays.  Monday is like the official break day of haircutters here in Italy, so it was no surprise that these people were Chinese. They also are way cheap. We went today, and I was scared out of my mind. Normally guys who cut hair try to keep their own hair pretty stylish and well-kept based on that culture's standards. These Chinese guys looked like they had just woken up and not washed their hair in days. Plus they
spoke like three things in Italian, "haircut", "shorter?", and "va bene". Anyway, it turned out ok.

So basically our work right now is Samuel and a bunch of new investigators or soon to be new investigators. Samuel fasted FOR THREE DAYS this week and at the end was miraculously offered a job through our member friend Emanuel. He basically guards cars from getting stolen. It's a brutal job that he has to walk an hour to, but we are all grateful. We will be doing a fast together this week for him, then he is basically either getting baptized or done. We'll be praying!

Love,

Anziano Cannon

June 7, 2016

Dang this training thing is a whole different world!! Honestly the mission lingo of him being my "son" is a lot more true than you would think (based on what I can imagine real fatherhood to be like). You could say it's hard for the trainer but obviously it's a lot harder for the new elder when you're really enjoying a lunch appointment with an older couple after church and the new elder has no idea what's going on.  Or honestly when you do anything at all and they have no idea what's going on. It's HARD!!  But Elder Haws is hanging in there like a stud, and I've done my best to adjust my 230 kilometer an hour missionary work pace to help him get up to speed.

But holy cow I NEED him!!!! What a champ! He is brilliant. Small miracles and large ones abound. For example, on day one we are about to walk pass an old man gathering his cherries into a basket he uses to sell them, and Elder Haws tells me: "talk to him". Normally I wouldn't, but I did, and it was a nice experience, he ended up forcing us to take a ton of his cherries. But bigger miracles are happening!

We went and taught Gianni in the park again on Sunday. At first he seemed distracted by his son, and I was kind of bummed.  Then I thought "this isn't going super well, but it's the second lesson. I'm not coming back here again unless he's going to progress in the Gospel, so we are giving him the baptismal invite!" And he accepted! And promised to read a lot from the Book of Mormon this week.

Then last night Ivan called us. Like I said this guy is 18 years old and a couple months ago pretty dang less active. Yesterday he went to the dentist for his mission checkup and despite his fears bore testimony to a girl he met there who now wants to meet with the missionaries!!! We passed her on to the sisters. Miracles dropping from the sky; that's what greenie life really is.

Samuel talked to President Waddoups for 40 minutes on Sunday.  He's not ready to be baptized but he is still a stud. Our less active new convert Emanuel who gets off work late Sunday morning said "if Sam can come to church, I can too".

John is doing great, the Holy Ghost is really a clear blessing in his life!

Love,

Anziano Cannon

This will be Ethan's last zone conference with his current mission president.

Ethan is in the same zone as his cousin Tristan Spencer!