By Small and Simple Things

     It is truly amazing the effect that small and simple things can have upon our lives.  There is a wonderful scripture in the Book of Mormon about this in the Book of Alma which says:
"Now ye may suppose that this is foolishness in me; but behold I say unto you, that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass; and small means in many instances doth confound the wise."
     For example, we were teaching a lesson to one of our investigators about the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, a lesson that all of us missionaries know how to teach because we study about it so often in our morning studies.  Usually in the morning, as well, we have time to plan out our lessons of the day and to prepare the lesson we are going to teach, but because of other meetings that day, we were unable to really plan our lesson for our investigator that afternoon.  This small thing, a thing that would have only taken about ten to fifteen minute out of our day, would have made our incredibly choppy lesson into a lesson that flowed and focused on what she needed to hear from us.
  What I have learned from this experience yesterday is how The Lord wants us to be continually doing the seemingly small things in life.  If we will do our part, He can then work great miracles through us.
-Elder Wesley Cannon

I am one of Helaman's Sons

One thing that has been on my mind a lot recently is why I named this blog what I did.  To start, I would like to point you to a story in the Book of Mormon.  Now, at this time two great nations, the Lamanites and the Nephites were in a great and terrible war, which had already up to this point taken many years, and many lives.  A group of converted Lamanites who lived with the Nephites had long ago made a covenant with God to never again pick up their weapons of war, but they were about to break this covenant in order to help their brethren with the war.  However, the prophet at the time, Helaman, encouraged them to hold fast to their covenant.  So, instead of their fathers picking up the sword to defend their country, 2000 of the young sons who had not made this oath with God, volunteered to go to war.  In Alma 56:9-10, Helaman's described these young men to the Nephite military leader at the time by saying:
 "But behold, here is one thing in which we may have great joy.  For behold, in the twenty and sixth year,  I, Helaman, did march at the head of these two thousand yound men to the cith of Judea, to assist Antipus... And I did join my two thousand sons, for they are worth to be called sons, to the army of Antipus."
Helaman went on to describe an incident where his little band came to battle against one of the strongest armies of the Lamanites:
"Therefore what say ye, my sons, will ye go against them to battle. And now I say unto you, my beloved brother Moroni, that never had I seen so great courage, nay, not amongst all the Nephites. For as I had ever called them my sons (for they were all of them very young) even so they said unto me: Father, behold our God is with us, and he will not suffer that we should fall; then let us go forth; we would not slay our brethren if they would let us alone; therefore let us go, lest they should overpower the army of Antipus. Now they never had fought, yet they did not fear death; and they did think more upon the liberty of their fathers than they did upon their lives; yea, they had been taught by their mothers, that if they did not doubt, God would deliver them. And they rehearsed unto me the words of their mothers, saying: We do not doubt our mothers knew it."
"And now it came to pass that when they had surrendered themselves up unto us, behold, I numbered those young men who had fought with me, fearing lest there were many of them slain.  But behold, to my great joy, there had not one soul of them fallen to the earth; yea, and they had fought as if with the strength of God; yea, never were men known to have fought with such miraculous strength; and with such mighty power did they fall upon the Lamanites, that they did frighten them; and for this cause did the Lamanites deliver themselves up as prisoners of war."

These young sons of Helaman thought more for their brethren of the Nephites than they did for their own lives.  They went out to battle even though they had no experience.  But because of their exceedingly great faith in God, they were delivered and were spared in battle.  I want to be a latter-day son of Helaman, with the courage to pick up my pen and open my mouth to invite all to come unto Christ, so that they can feel the joy I feel because of my faith in Him.
-Elder Wesley Cannon

P-Day Shopping

     I was in Target the other day getting some supplies for the week to come with my wonderful companion.  As we strolled through the music section looking for some gospel music for my companion, one of the assistants came and started to help us out.  My companion was looking for a new CD to see if it was out yet and the assistant happily helped us in our search for this CD.  When we could not find it, she mentioned that it could probably be found during the Christmas holidays that are coming up.  We mentioned that we were messengers of Christ, almost off-handedly.  Never once did she see the name tags we bear, but she said she knew us because of the Spirit we brought with us.  Because of this, she wanted to know more about who we are and what we teach.  As we continued to talk with her, we left her with our number and a card to mormon.org so that when she gets some time for us to come over, she will give us a call.  All this came about because of the Spirit we carry as missionaries by being obedient to the Lord's commands.
     What I have seen from God today is a cause and effect situation.  That by living His standards, we are able to feel His presence more.  That all the missionary rules that we have are for us to be able to have His Spirit more in abundance in our lives so that someone like this Target assistant is able to feel of His Spirit through us and thus begin the change of heart which will enable God to bless their lives more fully.  How has living the commandments helped you to feel of Gods love and presence more in your life?
-Elder Wesley Cannon

Scripture Power

     As we were out and about, we decided to go and check up on a family in the ward before one of our meetings later that day. We proceeded to talk with the father of the family, but the discussion slowly became more and more heated, and we could feel of God's presence getting farther and farther away. Jesus says in 3 Nephi 11:29, "he that hath the spirit of contention is not of me, but is of the devil, who is the father of contention, and he stirreth up the hearts of men to contend with anger, one with another."  This is what happened with us as we were trying to teach him, but we were really just arguing our points with each other. When we left for our meeting, we all noticed that we needed to improve and teach with love the next time we returned.
     I was studying the scriptures this morning and I found a passage of scripture to share with this father that could help him understand the points we were arguing last night.  I wish to share this with him not to prove a point, but to help him and to invite him to come unto Christ, which is my purpose as a missionary--to help and invite everyone to come unto Christ.  Through my studies today, I understand better how God is helping me to lovingly show and teach my brother.
     I saw God's Hand in my life today as I was reading His holy scriptures because He helps guide us to the answers we seek.  So how has reading the scriptures brought you closer to God this day?

Garden Time Joys

Today we were able to help out an older sister in the ward with her yard today for a couple hours. One of the things she has been working on is the landscaping in her front lawn because recently the tree she loved dearly was cut down since it died when it was struck by lightning. Because of the newly created stump in her yard and her now open concept lawn, she has been up in the mornings with a couple of her friends in order help bring life back into the landscape. So we went over there prepped, ready to work, and excited for what would be in store. As she slowly directed our efforts, leveling a planters box here, taking out some grass there, the landscape was transforming around us by our efforts. We never once got discouraged or had "Oh this is going to take forever!" come to mind, but were happily in her service for the short time we were able to be there. As a scripture in the Book of Mormon states, "And behold, I tell you these things that ye may learn wisdom; that ye may learn that when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God." (Mosiah 2:17) I am always so happy when I willingly serve the people around me, though usually when I do the same work for myself, such as taking care of my lawn back home, I am rarely in the same gleeful mood. I know that God blesses us with those good feelings of joy and happiness as we serve, because I have experienced it time and time again. My question is, as always: How have you seen God's Hand in your life this day?"

Work-Out Wonder

To give some background on the experience I'm about to relate, as I have mentioned, I am a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Later Day Saints, and as such we have a general schedule in which to plan our days. In the morning we all have the opportunity to exercise in order to keep our bodies working well for the work that we do. This morning, we were going through the normal routine, with my companions getting up about 10 minutes before me so they could do their pre-workout, and I, waking up a little later in time to accompany them to go and exercise. As we arrived at the gym, we found a couple of other people who have gotten on my nerves as of late, and because of such, I began to lose the good spirits I had started the day with. I began my exercise routine, and tried to get into a healthy routine of stretching and a good cardio workout, but these bad feelings I had towards these people were getting in my way mentally, affecting my ability to exercise. So, I prayed to my Father in Heaven for help in staying positive, looking for the good that these individuals do, and regaining the good spirit I was in when I woke up this morning. After I finished and proceeded to run on the treadmill, I started to remember some positive things about these individuals, and my feelings began to change. Despite the bad feelings I had been harboring against them, these more positive thoughts began to take root and I started to see some good in them. By the time we were finished with our excerise this morning, I was back in the good spirits that I was feeling when I left my apartment this morning. I know that God helped my in my small difficulty this morning, because on my own I would have still have been angry and upset with them for their past actions. God helped me see through my grievances to help me see a small glimmer of what He sees in them. So, my question to you all today is, "How has prayer helped you in the trials of you own life?" -Elder Wesley Cannon

Have you seen Gods' hand in your life?

"Have I seen the hand of God reaching out to touch me today?" -President Henry B. Eyring
This is the idea behind my blog and what I will be posting from here on out.  Have I seen God's hand in my life this day?  Why yes, yes I have.  Last night we had the opportunity to visit the Washington DC Temple Visitor Center to be able and listen to "A Night of Music and Inspiration."  But sadly to our dismay it was all in Spanish this month and they had run out of headphones to translate into English.  So our group went into this room centered on God's plan and role for families here on this Earth.  It goes through the stages of life like that of a child being born, and the death of a loved one.  As we progressed through the roughly 10 minute film, it reminded me of where I wanted my focus to be in this life so that I can be with my family forever after this life.  So, my question to you is, what would you sacrifice so that you can live with your family forever?

As to give a little back ground on who I am.  My name is Elder Wesley Cannon and I am a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Later-Day Saints serving currently in the Washington DC North Mission while waiting on a visa to serve in the Brazil Curitiba mission.  Also, I am trying to learn Portuguese as a second language so that I will be able to speak with the wonderful people of Brazil by the time I get down there. If anyone has any questions they are wanting to ask me, please feel free to message me or to comment on one of my posts, and I'll do what I can to answer you.  If you have anything in particular that you would like me to cover in a blog post, let me know and I'll be happy to talk about it.
-Elder Wesley Cannon