Week 58

July 4, 2016

A year ago today, I was about to leave the MTC, and to avoid offending those who came from other countries, we held a devotional called a "Celebration of Freedom". At a certain point, a few elders broke out with some immature chants of "USA! USA! USA!" Today my experience was a barbecue at the church with the other missionaries and YSA.

If I asked you which of the following is the most powerful, effective, and righteous missionary, who would you say?

A) Alma the Younger
B) Ammon
C) Dan Jones
D) Sister Meyers, from “The District”

Anyone familiar with this would know "D" is the clear answer. That's one of the things I've learned from watching "The District" over again with Anziano Haws.

This week President Pickerd came!!! I am so excited! President Waddoups was great.  Now I felt an instant connection to our new captain. One memorable thing he did at our multi-zone conference was have all the people stand up whose parents (or they themselves) joined the church when they were between the ages 15 and 40. 13 of the 38 missionaries stood, including Anziano Haws and Anziano Saffer, whose parents accepted the gospel in Italy and Sweden, respectively.

President also told a bunch of cool stories. He knows the General Authorities pretty well, having been an Area Seventy before. One time, after reorganizing a stake, he was driving home with President Nelson (then 85 years old) and asked "Aren't you tired? I'm exhausted!" President Nelson responded, "I feel great! Tomorrow I'm going for a hike", then added, "after I hit the ski slopes with my daughters in the morning". A few years later President Pickerd asked if he still skied, and he said "Next week I'm going to take down (a certain Utah ski resort) with President Uchtdorf".

The war is about to begin!!! I've never helped anyone quit smoking, but now we are about to get started with Ronaldo (name has been changed at the request of President Pickerd).

We also had a new friend, Steve, from Ghana, who showed up at church Sunday! John is still being a stud, he was SO sick last Saturday but came to church Sunday to pass the sacrament as he had been assigned to do.

So on Saturday we went to Godwin's house. He's been a member for a little over a year. We ate a SUPER good fufu [a staple food with deep roots in Ghana's history and common in many countries of West Africa and the Caribbean. It is often made with cassava flour.  Other flours, such as semolina, maize flour or mashed plantains may take the place of cassava flour.]  It was honestly better than the hairy cow leg stuff I ate at someone’s house last fall. This one was done with fish. At one point Godwin grabbed a piece of spine, and showed us how he chewed it up and sucked out the juice before spitting out the dry bones. Channeling my inner Nigerian, I asked if there was another one and had the same yummy experience myself.

This week I had one of the most spiritual experiences of my mission.  I was able to watch "How Rare a Possession" for the first time on my mission. Holy cow, seeing Vincenzo DiFrancesca was such an emotional rollercoaster. He was baptized in Termini Imerese, a train stop near Bagheria. And watching him walk up to the Swiss temple to receive his endowments, just like the saints still do here in Italy today, was something I can't describe.

Love,

Anziano Cannon