SJ Week 5 – Teaching Jesus – Elder Tate Cannon

It’s been another great week of quarantine! We are still pretty cooped up here, but we are busy and helping lots of people! And we are happy!

This week we were able to have district council in person! That was a first since about the first week of March in Argentina haha, so it brought back some good memories. We were outside, socially distanced, masks on, and not allowed to sing, but it was way fun to see everyone and be with other missionaries again.

We went to this food bank to do service twice this week called Second Harvest. We were in this assembly line putting together boxes of produce. I was in charge of putting the mandarins (Cuties) in the box. I don’t know if I’ll look at one of those the same again. There were some that were so nasty and rotten it was insane. I’d go to grab one and it’d be so mushy my hand would just go right through them. Pretty gross. We set the record for most boxes done in a shift so hmu if you want my autograph.

I had interviews with President Hunt on Saturday, where I was able to meet Sister Hunt! That was fun to finally have the chance to meet her and to spend that time with President Hunt. I love them, and am sad that they have to leave so soon.

In our interviews, President Hunt let us know that Elder West and Elder Anderson are going to another area to whitewash and orient two new missionaries. Which means Elder Christiansen and I will be staying here and orienting two new missionaries as well starting on Tuesday! I also will be serving as a Zone Leader, which I’m super excited about. It’ll be way different, because in our mission, the Zone Leaders aren’t companions, due to all of the languages that are spoken. I’m super excited for the opportunity to continue serving and learning! I’m gonna miss Elder West and Elder Anderson, it’s been super fun living here all together.

Our highlight of this week was an amazing lesson that we had with this guy named Jesus! He was a reference who lives in our ward from some of the Sister missionaries at Temple Square who had been studying the Bible with him, and has just recently been introduced to The Book of Mormon. We had a lesson with the Sisters and with Jesus and it was amazing. He is an awesome guy with such a sincere desire to seek God in his life. The Spirit was so evident as we read in The Book of Mormon together. After we would read a few verses and it was Jesus’ turn to read, he would sit and reflect and make a comment about how clear The Book of Mormon was to him. It was incredible, and we are so excited for him and his progress. Such a huge blessing.

My weekly email is just becoming a summary of The Infinite Atonement, but I’m not mad because it’s such a good book hahaha. This week, I was reading about the leper who dipped himself in the river seven times. Elder Callister asked if he had only dipped himself in the river three times, would he be three sevenths cleansed from his leprosy? Or if he had dipped himself six times, would he be six sevenths clean? The answer is obviously not. The cleansing came after the seventh dip. And it’s the same for us. Many times, we look to be clean, or to keep the commandments, or to follow Christ partially. However, true joy, true cleansing, true repentance, true obedience comes from when we give all we can to the Lord.

I’m so grateful for my Savior and the fact that He was able to give all that He had for us. I want to do the same.

I love you all! Thank you for all of your prayers. I’m so blessed and so grateful for every single one of you. I love you, and more importantly, God loves you.