by church president Brigham Young to serve as a missionary for the church in California. This assignment involved working the mines and attempting to preach the gospel to gold miners. After doing this for several months Cannon and several other mining missionaries were asked to head to the Kingdom of Hawaii, where he served for four years. Initially the missionaries in Hawaii focused on teaching European and Euro-Americans in the islands. Cannon was the first missionary to focus on teaching natives on the island of Maui. While in the islands, Cannon taught and baptized many Native Hawaiians. He also organized multiple branches of the church and on occasions met with government ministers of the Kingdom of Hawaii to get the church recognition. One of the most notable was Jonatana Napela, who assisted Cannon in translating the Book of Mormon into Hawaiian. Joseph F. Smith, a future church president, would follow Cannon and serve in Hawaii one year later. Cannon eventually was made district president over multiple branches in Maui. By October 1852 there were slightly over 900 members of the LDS Church in Hawaii with most on the island of Maui. Returning to Utah Territory, Cannon married Elizabeth Hoagland (daughter of Abraham Hoagland and his wife.) He was almost immediately called to assist apostle Parley P. Pratt in publishing a newspaper in California. Meeting Pratt in California, Cannon was told that he would remain behind and became president of the church's Oregon and California Mission; he held this position from 1856 to 1858. During this period of time, Cannon published the Hawaiian translation of the Book of Mormon. In February 1856, he started the Western Standard, a weekly publication based in San Francisco. Returning to Utah in 1857 to assist in the Utah War, Cannon was commissioned a Lieutenant General in the Nauvoo Legion. During this time, Cannon served as printer of the Deseret News while it was publishing in exile in Fillmore, Utah. After the Utah War, he was called as president of the church's Eastern States Mission. Apostle The murder of Parley P. Pratt in 1857 created a vacancy in the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. That vacancy was not filled until Brigham Young called Cannon to the apostleship three years later. Cannon was ordained to the priesthood office of apostle on August 26, 1860, at age 33. Upon his joining the Quorum of the Twelve, Cannon was