Week 36 and 37

February 1, 2016

What a week! The mission is one heck of a roller coaster. 

This week we taught Janus again. My comp had a pretty sweet inspiration to ask him during the lesson if he wants to serve a mission. I had just earlier had the thought: "man Janus should go on a mission, too bad he's not even close to ready so we can't bring it up". But it ended up being a great conversation; definitely glad it happened as it is the perfect answer to his tough family situation right now. 

Weird experience. This week I went to Terni for a scambio [exchanges] with my zone leader. It is a BEAUTIFUL hour long train ride. While I was there I met Marco Petrollini, who is featured in one of my favorite “I'm a Mormon” clips. He was just as happy as he is in the video.  He and other faithful members remind me why Italy is getting a temple.

We were out finding at one point and walked past a park with a bunch of guys doing "parkour" [picture special ops guys doing an obstacle course]. I've seen videos of this before, but it was cool to see it in real life. By that I mean, people doing some of the cool moves and tricks in real life, but also the reality that not everyone starts out perfect- most of the guys there just cracked us up as they performed some of the most ridiculous, lame "tricks" ever. 

While I was there, my companion was back at work in Rome, and apparently Mauro accepted the invite to be baptized! Asking questions is something that I've learned is so important. Previous missionaries who had taught Mauro a year ago had been kind of wimps, and, when my companion asked as we had planned why they thought we came to visit them, his less active wife responded that we were there to bring spiritually uplifting messages. Thankfully, they cleared that up with a nice message about our purpose, and our next lesson will be the Restoration. 

We got a text from Jean Pierr. He told us it might be better if we met when school ends... In June. My companion and I are very worried that his mom is part of this. She means well for him, but she seems very occupied with his grades in school, and he currently has a tutor coming over for a few hours a day three times a week. Yesterday he agreed to meet one more time, we'll need some big time prayers that it will go well! 

Liu is doing better, he's found some more work recently (a blessing of the spiritual steps he's taking in my mind). Sadly, he too said he may be leaving to find work elsewhere. I've never cared more, prayed harder, or loved as much the investigators we have right now. It's so hard, but I try to look on it always from the positive light. If they accept the message, they have gained so much. If not, it's not like we've hurt them. We can (usually) only do good here. (I say "usually" as I am reminded about when I stuck out my arm to block the metro door from shutting this week so my companion could get in too, then it malfunctioned and we cost all 200 or so passengers on that train about 20 seconds).

We have some incredible members. Yesterday with the Salerno family I was shocked again at the guts some of them have, hearing about how they preach the gospel on the buses or at work. Also on that note, we had a nice surprise when a member brought a 22 year old Romanian named Gabriel to church! Of course the combined third hour about genealogy taught by the high priests group leader and a senior missionary probably wasn't the most entertaining thing he ever listened to, but he said he'd come back next week and today we'll get in contact with his friend that brought him to see how we can get involved. 

Love

Anziano Cannon 

I have been terrible about getting pictures, it's hard because I think we are only allowed to take pictures indoors or on Mondays. Here's my district though. Quick note about the senior couple: they are the BEST. The Memmots have spent almost their entire retired life serving missions. Elder Memmot worked with Mitt Romney during the 2002 Olympics. They are great people and we missionaries really appreciate them. 

February 8, 2016

Good week, we got our hot water back and found out Anziano Saffer and I are staying another transfer here! 

Liu had a pretty cool dream this week involving the picture of Christ's second coming that's right out in the main area of our church. The members are really being great to him. The only awkward thing this week was when they consecrated a big bowl of oil for the ward priesthood holders to use during priesthood. If you try to put yourself in the shoes of a non-member, that's a little weird. Thankfully Fratello Rossato totally singled him out and was like "seeing as we have an investigator among us, let's explain what the priesthood is." Haha but it was no big deal at all, quite helpful actually. 

I know we are supposed to become super mature and spiritual during the mission and all, but I'm not going to lie, if the Jehovah's Witnesses who proselyte here challenged us to a winner-take-all calico [soccer] death match, we would totally take them on and wreck them. Don't get me wrong, there are some really great members of their church, but most of their people we see are like 65 year old ladies. 

We taught Mauro this week! Fabio had given us a really cool idea about illustrating the Restoration using a cup tower. Unfortunately, it didn't work out quite as we had planned it and I ended up having to basically say "As we can see, Christ's church was much more perfect than this cup tower". But it ended up being really good.  If investigators don't feel the Spirit when you tell them the first vision they usually never will. And he did! It was pretty emotional for him and he accepted a March 26th baptismal date. I've also been really blessed to feel a love for his 14 year old stepson Dennis, who is a member. He is at a crossroad in his life and needs the family to be all together and active in the church for things to go well for him. 

Oh my word this week we went to Villa Pamphili!!! It is the COOLEST PLACE EVER. You just enter this amazing park with these massive trees and walk on these super wide sand/gravel paths with a bunch of (actually decent) runners and an occasional biker. You walk past these beautiful Roman statues, and all the sounds you are used to from the city are gone - just birds chirping and some church bells ringing. The whole thing is kind of elevated so at one point there is a nice view overlooking Rome and St. Peter's. Even in just natural beauty alone, for you Oregonians I will say that this beats Lithia Park. But we didn't go there on p-day. It was actually for finding on a cloudless morning that was a warm 20 degrees [68 degrees Fahrenheit]. We found one guy to do the Restoration with; unfortunately he was a little too open minded in the end to accept it as truth. 

I'm sorry to everyone and especially my mom for no pics, later today we are going to see some stuff with a less active who needs help. 

Love, 

Anziano Cannon 

[A few picutres of Villa Pamphili downloaded off the internet.]

Weeks 33-35

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? 

 Trevi fountain 

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 

Week 31 and 32

December 28, 2015

Wow... What just happened? Yesterday Elder Dallin H. Oaks of the quorum of the twelve apostles came to our church! First he spoke to the missionaries in Rome. There were about thirty of us, plus it was filmed and broadcasted throughout the mission. They asked if someone could play the piano, so I got volunteered. I was supposed to go up and play prelude about twenty minutes before the meeting started, but all of a sudden some guy ran in and was like, "He's here, he's here!" So I had to rush up and start playing, and of course being super nervous I was playing "How Firm a Foundation" in the wrong key as Elder Oaks walked in with his wife and President Whaddoups and everyone else stood up.

Then we were informed that we would be able to meet him. "Them too!", said Elder Oaks, pointing to me and the translators. Sitting at the piano, I presumed to go last, but Sister Whaddoups said "Him first, so he can play piano". Thus I walked up and shook Elder Oaks' hand. He asked me where I was from and I managed to get out the most distracted "Oregon" I could have said, all the time thinking about the stories about how apostles can conduct a whole PPI by looking through your eyes into your soul while you just tell them where you are from. Then I sat down and continued to play, even after everyone else was sitting and quiet as we waited to begin. 

So yeah, it was pretty intense, and I learned a ton!!! I definitely know he is led by the Spirit to know what to say, because he spoke for a couple minutes in response to literally the exact conversation we had had with the sisters about the priesthood the day before.  

He spoke about being a "tool in the Lord's hands", and in specific, a pen. We need to have a full cartridge (studies), be functional (stay healthy), be willing to "write" 24/7 (including p day), and always write the Lord's message, not ours. 

Then he spoke to the whole stake an hour later. Holy cow, so many people came!!!! We packed in a GAZILLION chairs, honestly we destroyed the holding capacity of that room. We had four investigators come, including Eva and Gian Piero, who miraculously got seats despite coming late (we were outside in the hall). Afterward I took Fabio to go meet them [the investigators], and he KILLED it, like always. I merely asked them how they were, then he jumped in and talked to them nonstop in Spanish for a few minutes. I think I heard some stuff about the Book of Mormon and we missionaries. Then he gave Eva a handshake and Gian Piero a hug! Ha. Stoked about that. 

We ate an awesome Christmas pranzo [lunch] with our ward mission leader’s family. I enjoyed eating a "Bethlehem dinner" as is tradition in my family. Skyping my family was fun, but it went SO quickly. 

We also found a great potential family this week! And they told us to come to their house in the mornings! 

Your special spiritual thought came from something Elder Oaks said to the stake:

If there is one problem in the church, it is that there are millions of members who are on the path and not progressing. Last year the apostles prayed about this for a few weeks together, and decided that the best way to fix this was to increase our faith in Jesus Christ. And how do we do that? By improving our Sunday meetings and do better at honoring the Sabbath. He said that unlike the Jewish leaders of old who set tons and tons of rules of what is appropriate for Sabbath day observance, we focus more and more on the principle that the Sabbath is a sign to God. It is a day we set apart. The closest thing to a rule is "the suggestion to not go shopping on Sunday" (he actually used the word suggestion). Sunday is MY favorite day. Especially as a former college student, I can really testify that choosing to not study, run, etc. and instead focus on Heavenly Father and spiritual things was a great source of energy, stability, and happiness. 

Love, 

Anziano Cannon 

Yummy Peruvian lunch

Christmas Eve

January 4, 2016

I think I'm going to like 2016!!!! Honestly the miracles just come every day here. January 1st was deep cleaning day. I had a fun time cleaning the black mold off our bathroom ceiling with a sponge taped to a broom head that I dipped in bleach and tried to not drip in my eyes or on my clothes. Fun stuff, eh? 

Ok the next day we were doing weekly planning when a guy named Nicola called us, saying that somehow he got a pass along card with our number and wanted to meet us. So we went to the church, taught him the Plan of Salvation (I felt that based on his needs we needed to change from our original plan of the Restoration on the fly. Thankfully we have the companionship unity for stuff like that to work). He has had a tough past few years, but he still remembers with great fondness going to Salt Lake City for business a few years ago and loving all he saw about Mormonism. He came to church yesterday and was chalk full of questions about everything that would take hours to respond to, so I promised him we would get started when we meet again Tuesday! 

We also did a pass off lesson with the sisters for the Mendez family this week. We gave the 2 year old daughter Eva a blessing. They have so much potential, it's going to be hard but all of our efforts will be worth it if the dad and son get baptized and the wife reactivated!

Another miracle happened just a few hours ago! It was a bit annoying that we had just gotten our groceries and the bus was taking forever to come. Just then we saw Liu walk by on the other side of the street! RIGHT afterward, our bus came. Not a coincidence if you ask me. The problem was that we hadn't been able to call him.  He had gone to Cuba on December 26th to see his mother who was in critical condition in the hospital. We had been praying really hard for both, but staying out of contact because we can't call out of the country. Turns out that because of certain problems he actually couldn't go to Cuba, but it's ok because his mom is doing fine now! So we'll see him tomorrow. I'm stoked for the Plan of Salvation. 

This week I gained a testimony of less active work. Our lesson with Janus Silva (a 20 year old from the Philippines) helped me realize that to God, the importance of the souls of less actives, investigators, and missionaries are all the same! In the middle of the lesson he just broke down crying as he told us about how active he used to be in the church, and how he wants to return. I felt God's love for him really strong right then and am super excited for him. 

Saturday night we started our member missionary work operation using a sheet we got from our zone leaders.  It helps them write down friends that they can invite to make certain small steps in the Gospel and progress towards the missionary lessons and baptism. We went to the Barriga family. Honestly this is one of my favorite families in the world (literally, I'm so privileged to have been able to come to Italy to meet this awesome Peruvian family). Around them it's just impossible to not smile. 

Oh yeah, one more funny thing that happened. This week we stopped a lady in the street and asked her what was the most important thing in her life. She responded that God was, and she told us she wanted to show us a picture. It was the wallpaper on her iPad - the picture of Christ holding the lamb that is found on the cover of "The Restoration" pamphlet. Ha-ha so that got the conversation going pretty quickly. She had found it online. We sent her phone number to the sisters where she lives. 

With even more examples of people like Nicola and the Mendez family where we just have investigators handed to us on a plate it has become very clear to me that what we learn in 2 Nephi about grace applies to missionary work as well: it is by the power of God that we have success AFTER all we can do, not BECAUSE of all we do. 

Love,

Anziano Cannon

Ethan is on the second to last row, first seat on the left.

Weeks 27-30

November 30, 2015  Aposta-city

Well... What a week it has been. I like to be optimistic but honesty is important too. It's kind of hard because in my life there have only been a few things that I've really wanted to be good at, but when I decide that I do, I go full boar 101% until I have success. Being a missionary is one of those things. Only God will ever really know the mental and physical dedication and discipline I have put in to being the missionary He wants me to be each minute of the day. (Speaking of which, a funny thing I thought the other day is "wow it's so cold, thank goodness I'm a missionary and don't have to complain about it". Ha-ha. Maybe there is some wisdom in that). But as a missionary it doesn't exactly work like that. You can be cleaning up every part of your work - being more obedient than you've ever been on your mission, working harder and smarter and with more faith than ever and there's no guarantee that you'll have immediate success, despite how logical that might seem. So I guess what I'm saying is that I don't need any prayers for my own well-being; just pray that we can find success! 

Got a nice bunch of contacts this week, once we can meet with them things will start rolling... I've been very blessed. I would never recognize myself four months ago with how I contact now. We get better and better each day. And we had a nice, successful third hour in church where we missionaries talked about missionary work. It went pretty well; I'm excited for them to start helping us teaching their friends. 

We had inter-zone thanksgiving dinner on Thursday.  Good to see some old friends from the mission. I've been becoming quite the jump-roper lately during morning exercise, but I'm REALLY hoping President lets us do this massive Rome 10K that Nike sponsors on the 31st as a proselyting tool like they did last year. 

Referring to the title of my email: I know I said I've been being obedient, but on Friday I went to a movie theater to watch a movie that didn't even get done until 9:45. But I did it with my mission president! Ha! “Meet the Mormons” premiered here so a bunch of politicians and people apparently came to watch it, and they wanted us missionaries to be there for our presence, so we got permission to go! It was great! 

Excerpt from our lesson yesterday: "As member missionaries, who we are is the first act of missionary work that we do. I have a journal where I write down impactful scriptures, and I testify that as I have studied them, they have helped me to better myself and become a better example and light for non-members." Read the scriptures! If you feel that the Spirit does not communicate with you as much as you would like, I suggest you study and memorize scriptures. 

Love,

Anziano Cannon 

Not a very flattering picture of some of us, but here we are caroling before the movie.

4/10ths of my MTC district on thanksgiving 

Don't worry, I ate thanksgiving dinner with family this year ;)

December 7, 2015

What a great, insane week! Woo hoo! Things are starting to get moving here. It's been hard work but I am grateful for the lesson of humility I have learned this transfer. You can never come into a city and just "fix" it and get the work rolling. Sorella NaBita, the sister from my district who just finished her mission, hit me hard when she said that every miracle or good thing that comes in our mission is a tender mercy from God. At the          same time, that does not mean we should be pessimistic or down on ourselves! The past couple days especially I have felt a strong confidence - that if we do what is right, GOD will provide us with success. 

Saturday the sisters had a baptism. It was incredible. I left the building that night just ready to GO and with a renewed vigor that comes from remembering that although the lows come a lot more often in the mission, the highs totally outweigh them and make them worth it. So literally the second guy we talked to turned out to be a young man who isn't very satisfied with his experience with Catholicism and is looking for truth. Normally we call contacts the next day, but Anziano Saffer called him that night, and invited him to church. He came yesterday morning, took a Book of Mormon, and set up and appointment with us for this week! 

After church I gave my first blessing in Italian. Boy have I been blessed with the gift of tongues. Also it was seriously a miracle that I could remember these ladies' super LONG Italian names. We've started to do 100% SYL [Speak Your Language] Wednesdays as a companionship. I'll admit that it's easy to slip into English when you're not thinking about it, but for the rest of the week it makes it easy to "slip into" Italian just because it's easier when you might normally speak English. 

Sunday night there was a fireside. We heard it wasn't missionary related, so we had to have an investigator with us if we wanted to come. I thought, "ok we'll try to get an investigator there, if not it's not a big deal". We ended up actually getting two to come, which was especially nice because I walked in there expecting it to be a broadcast, but instead my attention was immediately called to a huge 6'4"ish black guy. Elder Joseph W. Sitati had come to speak to our stake! Well that made it a little more interesting. It wasn't a normal devotional, he was talking about self-sufficiency. But another little blessing is that one of the guys we brought was super into it, he was like making hand gestures to show his approval of what was being said ha-ha. I personally love learning at the feet of general authorities; Elder Sitati was throwing around some insanely deep thoughts and connections between the parables in Matthew 25. Though I will say that I've also come to love the imperfections of these men - like Elder Bednar said, it is faith PROMOTING. If God can take an imperfect man and help him fulfill his calling as a prophet, he can certainly help me be a good missionary. My companion and I gave each other a weird look when Elder Sitati mentioned how the master gave his servants "five talents, four talents, two talents and one talent" ha-ha. 

I've definitely learned to "judge righteously".  I heard some things at the start of this transfer that shook my faith a bit about this ward, but as I have actually gotten to know them, I have started to love these converts (I saw by a raise of hands- they are basically ALL converts). For example, we have a cool door-to-door salesman who gave us tips on going house to house, an awesome member of just two years who doesn't have hobbies anymore because he prefers "focusing on church service now", and an incredible ward mission leader who treats his calling as a full time job. 

For my little spiritual thought, I'll just talk about preparation, having to do with the devotional, but not anything Elder Sitati said. Right when I saw him there, I almost subconsciously felt my sideburns to make sure they were above my ears, checked to make sure my shoes were polished, pants were ironed, etc. Thankfully all was in order. But the point is that there are things we do every day, physically yes but also spiritual, that may seem like a pain or nuisance. But we never know when our "second coming" will be. We have to prepare now so we will be ready when the day of reckoning comes. 

Vi voglio bene, [I love you all]

Anziano Cannon 

December 14, 2015

This week we kind of realized the importance of English course. It actually is a really great opportunity to learn how to be a better teacher. I've found it’s important to go super hard for one hour, being full of energy and enthusiasm and smiles and humor, etc. so you can entertain your students and hopefully teach them some English as well, despite the awkward fact that a couple are more bilingual than you are. But this has been especially important in this area, because we have a big English course (the sisters teach one level and we do the other) and LOTS of potential investigators (which is why we do it in the first place).

This week we had our first lesson with Fransisco, a Peruvian who we very glad to teach in the presence of one of the coolest RMs I've ever met, Fabio. Then we definitely have some other potentials. Bishop wants us to teach more families and I'm like "heck yes I would love to, we just need referrals"- it's really hard to stop families on the street. But we have this new student, a man who brings his two sons and has a wife at home who was asking us about what we do for like 15 minutes after class one night so we'll try to start teaching this week... Along with the Cubans! The problem is, we still don't know their names. But it's at the point where we've known them long enough that it would be awkward to ask, so once we find out their names they'll be baptized for sure! Ha-ha just kidding. But really they are super cool, a pair of friends who are like 30 years old each. I don’t know if they are new or what, but I have no idea why previous missionaries haven't started teaching them. Last week I talked to one of them, who told me he prays to God for 3 or 5 minutes every morning and that he loves what we do. So I told him we'd love to talk to them and explain "what we do" a little better! 

We also started teaching our post-baptism street contact Andrea this week. He's a really interesting guy, but still completely normal. He showed up to the first lesson wearing roller skates - you might be inclined to judge, but if you saw the picture of what he looked like before he had started roller skating (probably 50 pounds heavier) you might quickly realize he has just found a very unique way to exercise. He only missed church yesterday because it was his 21st birthday. 

We also were blessed with some success with less active work this week. Last night right as we might have been about to turn back after ringing at this old ladies house without an answer, her young nephew just happened to walk up and led us up to her. She was sick, but he gave us his number and wants us to come back soon (he's not a member). We also got to go to a less active member and teach "him" a lesson, but his whole family of like eight, none of which have been baptized, were listening super intently the entire time. Next time we come we might just so happen to decide to teach "him" the Restoration. 

In other news... So yesterday I got to translate priesthood meeting. We have these little microphones that transmit to headsets English speakers wear, so I got to be on the hotspot and translate for some Americans, though I'll tell you the vocabulary we use to talk about "strengthening our stakes" isn't easy.

Afghanis are definitely the best dressed people here. Honestly I'm totally wearing clothes like they do when I come home, they wear these sick scarves with their jackets and tan pants... Also, the verdict from president on the 10K was "absolutely not", but at least I have had some athletic success as my jump rope record went up to 443 in a row this week despite my lack of coordination. 

Something I am really passionate about (though obviously not perfect at applying) that we heard from Elder Christofferson last conference:

"In the Church we not only learn divine doctrine; we also experience its application. As the body of Christ, the members of the Church minister to one another in the reality of day-to-day life. All of us are imperfect; we may offend and be offended. We often test one another with our personal idiosyncrasies. In the body of Christ, we have to go beyond concepts and exalted words and have a real ‘hands-on’ experience as we learn to ‘live together in love’.”

As members of the church we do in fact need to get our "hands" dirty as we keep our covenants. Pilate cleaned his hands because he wanted to avoid this. He knew what the right thing to do was but he was too scared to do it. For us it cannot be that way! Though our forms of service and sacrifice may not be noticed by all, or be easy to perform, they are seen by God, and that is what really counts, right? 

Love, 

Anziano Cannon

Africa right by our house 

December 21, 2015

This week I had the interesting thought the names of the people we've baptized so far translate to "God is with us" and "Savior".  (Speaking of which, I just heard that they are both almost prepared to get the priesthood. Yay!) Maybe next up is Liu, who named his son "Ire D’Angelo" (luck of an angel). We actually just taught him an hour ago. He is our Cuban English course student. The background on his phone is a picture of Ire, who is three years old and he does "everything” for.  Such a good guy, it was so easy to ask him to meet us! The Restoration went great, it was an ok lesson until we started talking about Joseph Smith. Then the room got all quiet and the Spirit was really strong.  Now we just have to figure out what to do because his girl and son live in Venezuela since it is cheaper for them to stay there, but they aren't actually married.

This week I've been praying for miracles every day, and I testify that THEY HAVE COME. my companion got sick earlier in the week, but I felt the reassurance that even though we weren't working as hard as I would like to be, God is the one we really rely on, and He knows we are doing our best and will still put prepared people in our path. This came true on Sunday. I was actually fasting for help with the work. One of the difficulties we face is with mornings. Investigators work.  Members work. Potential investigators should probably be working.

We did a new thing this week as we rung doors, which hardly ever works since people can't even see us over the intercom. We just rang them all at once, then when multiple people started asking over the intercom "who is it?" we responded in a soft voice "sono io" ("it's me"). Then usually someone will open up the gate, and we can proceed to do real door to door throughout the apartment complex. But our success was short lived - the average age of the people at home was like 94. Thankfully, I not only received some revelation afterward on how to handle this morning problem, but we also had a massive miracle Sunday as the sisters brought a less active woman and her whole nonmember family of five to church for the first time! Apparently the mom wanted us elders to teach the dad and 13 year old son since they are guys.

They were the only investigators we had at church though, because one of our Simps [short for the Italian word for investigators] literally showed up 3.5 hours late. Yep, if you think Americans aren't punctual. We also had Gian Piero and Eva show up though!!! Peruvian referrals. A 16 year old and his mom. It was really a blessing because he is kind of shy and when he went to the young men's activity the day before, I didn't think it had gone as well as it could have with him making friends, but later that night he called us saying he wanted to come to church! They had problems though but still showed up on time to see us and the members before we left.

We actually have a lesson planned on Christmas morning. We will confirm the day before, we aren't sure if the lady remembered that the 25th is Christmas. But of course we wouldn't complain to do it. Am I sad to not celebrate Christmas like I am used to? No. I'm sad that not everyone gets to celebrate it as fully as I do by inviting people come to Christ and use his holy sacrifice that we celebrate on Easter and throughout the year.

Merry Christmas,

Love,

Anziano Cannon

You when your comp is sick and you have just 

watched the entire "District".  Fun times.

MTC group in the Rome east zone!!! We are starting our fifth transfer!! 






















 





Syrian kebab place I went to before zone conference. I heard this is illegal in America? They use this saw type thing to shave the meat off. Super yummy. 












This is a picture of the hill we live on.