Good Tiding of Great Joy

Dear Beloveds: 

Thank you for coming here this day. 

This letter´s gonna be a little shorter cuz I just talked to everyone not too long ago. :) Hooray! 

Okay. So, as you already know, I have a new companion! Her name is Hermana Fernandez, and she is not from Mexico, but from Salta Argentina. She served for a year in Mexico, went home for a minor sugery from which she recovered in about a week, sat around at home for four months waiting for her reassignment, and has now arrived in San Rafael! She´s great. You always learn a ton from your companion, and I guess some things that I´ve learned from her the time that we´ve been together are 1) the Mexico mission is very different, and a lot stricter on...everything. Not to say that the Argentina mission is slacking on the rules, just that things are a lot more dangerous in Mexico, so the missionaries need a little bit larger boundry lines. I´ve heard some pretty scary stories from Hna Fernandez of stuff that happened to people and missionaries in Mexico. Not to scare anyone away from Mexico, I´ve also heard lots of good things, and she really misses her mission. But, yeah. Lots of precautions. 

BUT I can say I´m way excited to be working with her, because the things she learned in Mexico, the tactics they use in teaching, finding, goal making, planning, EVERYTHING are really helpful, and we´ve already seen lots of results. 

And here´s the news everyone´s been waiting for! Mauricio attended church!!!!! Sunday morning, instead of doing our regular studies at 8, we walked half an hour to his house to ask if he wanted to come to church, and he did! A member found us walking to church with him and gave us a ride, so we even got there on time! 

But wait, it gets better. After sacrament we went with a member to teach Mauricio a lesson, and at the end, he re-accepted a baptisimal date! January 24th. WAHOO! We´re so excited. 

And I guess more than that, I´m a little more committed to doing all I can in helping him prepare to be baptised on that date. Becuase last time, although part of the problem was that we could never find a time when he was at home to teach him and help him prepare to be baptized, I feel like we didn´t really sacrifice all we could in helping him to be ready. We could have tried a lot harder in getting lessons, in bringing him to church, and explaining what it actually meant to have the goal to be baptized. 

So I´m way excited to work with him and Hermana Fernandez. Thanks for all the prayers for him and for us! I can´t wait to see the changes God can help him make in his life, and so thankful for the priveledge to be teaching and working with him. 

Have a great week! 

Hermana Cannon

p.s. The pictures. When Hna Fernandez got in we went with Hna Lopez to a Mexican retaurant to eat dinner with the president and his wife. That was fun! The tortillas were not real tortillas, and the spicy wasn´t really spicy. So, it wasn´t really Mexican, but they did the best they could. Also, we all went to the stake center with the missionaries to make Asado on Christmas, so there´s some pictures of it. Yum! 

I Wanna Wish You a Merry Christmas

Buen Dìa Todos! 

Once again, it´s a cold day today. Honestly, the weather here is worse than Utah. Scorching hot one day, and the next day you bring your coat back out. It really is weird. 

Anyway, enough small talk. Let´s get to them elephants in the room, eh? 

My new companion! I sent some pictures of Hermana Tirado just before she got on the bus. It felt weird after she left to stand there companionless. There were other companionless sisters there as well, so we kept eachother company for a few hours until the other bus showed up with our companions. No one had told me the name of my new companion, (they´re very mysterious about those things in the officinas...haha) so I just kind of waited as people got off the bus looking for another companionless sister. Sure enough, an Argentine shows up and says, "Hermana Cannon? Soy su companera!" Hermana Lopez. Hooray! 

After talking a bit I find out that she´s only here for a week. Apparently (as the secretary finally called and let me know) My new companion Hermana also-nameless-for-the-moment from Mexico, was serving in Mexico, went home with health problems or the likes, and now has recovered and was reasigned to this mission. So at 6 tonight we all travel to Mendoza for the Mission Christmas Party tomorrow, and either tonight or tomorrow Hermana still-nameless-as-I-have-no-new-information-on-the-subject will show up and we´ll travel back to San Rafael together Teusday. 

Pretty crazy! The good news is Hermana Lopez is extremely tranquila and "Rey contenta" as she keeps saying, as I try and figure out how to run this area without Hermana Tirado. And it´s been a great practice for when Hermana yep-I-think-you-get-the-idea comes in. 

So, yes. That´s how things have been going this week, basically. It´s kind of how it is on the mission sometimes. You just kind of go with what you have, speak spanish, talk and visit with people, and in the end, as long as you keep close to the spirit and pray lots, it all works out just how it´s supposed to. 

Anyway, what else happened this week? We had a Ward Christmas Dinner on Friday, that was fun. Especially since we showed up at 8:30 when it was supposed to start, and hung around till 10:15 when they finally said the opening prayer. Don´t worry, we had permission from the District leader to stay a little later since we live about 30 seconds from the chappel, but we basically just ate and left. Also, during all the hanging around we spent some time talking to Telma, our investigator! She came! Woot! Then we invited her to the baptism in another ward the next day, and even though I made some mean banana bread, she didn´t show up. So that was sad. But we still have high hopes that she´ll keep progressing and hopefully come to church one of these sundays, so any extra prayers for her would be appreciated. 

We also visited with some Antiguos Investigadores, and that went really well. But I think my favorite lesson this week was with a menos activa, Hermana Sandra. We hadn´t passed by in about a month, and whenever we had she hadn´t been home. But yesterday we dropped by and she let us in to share "El es la Dàdiva". They didn´t have internet and I didn´t have my flashdrive, so we couldn´t watch the video. But we read John 3:16 and talked about, well, Christ. I mean, the lesson wasn´t really all the special, but just to be there, bearing testimony of Jesus Christ, and thinking not only on his birth, but his life, his atonement, his ressurection, and especially the love that he has for us, as his family. I know, with all my heart that he lives. I know that God sent Christ to this earth for us, and that because of that, we can be clean. We can change. We can become like Him. Best of all, we can live forever with our families in Heaven. I´m so thankful for Him, and for everyone in my life that have helped me stay close to him, through words, testimony and example. 

A Merry Christmas to all! God bless us, every one! 

Hermana Cannon

p.s. The other picture is my little model christmas card for yalls. Feliz Navidad! (da-nuh nuh-nuh nuh nuh-nuh) Feliz navidad! (da-nuh nah-nah nah nah-nah) Feliz navidad, prospero año y felizidad! 

A Bit of Change

Dear Fam and Friends: 

Translado day! No one sleeps on translado day, and Hermana Tirado and I were no exeption. Last night waiting for the Translado call was the worst! But, finally, at 11:30 or so the call came. Aaaaaaaaand, I´m staying! Hermana Tirado, for her last transfer goes to Uspallata, one of her old areas. She´s absolutely ecstatic about it, and cried for 20 minutes half becuase she´s leaving and half because she´s going back to her little branch in the middle of nowhere. It´s pretty exciting. 

Oh, and my new companion will be a mini misionera. A mini misionera is an Argentine Hermana who for one reason or another can´t serve a full time mission, but serves in Argentina for a while as a missionary. We don´t know who will be coming in, but we´ll find out Wednesday at least. 

So basically I´m a little nervous to be in charge of the area. But at the same time I´m excited for the challenge, per say. And I know that God has a reason for me here, some things for me to learn, some people for me to serve. So, I´ll stay where he wants me to stay. ;) 

In other news, we had some Christmas things happen! Yep. Some Christmas things. On Saturday we went as a zone to the Plaza to sing Christmas hymns and pass out El es la Dádiva cards. It was great, but it was in the morning so there was basically no one in the park. Turns out just a few blocks away there was some kind of charity carnival going on, with music, and games, and dancing so all the crowds were over in that direction. SO, a few sisters went and asked the people in charge if they wouldn´t mind us setting up in a corner and singing for them. To our surprise they said yes, but they gave us some time in front of the microphone to sing for everyone! It was great. We all sang, and a few elders mingled among the crowd passing out cards and talking to people. It was great! Afterward we gave a Santa hat to the lady in charge and took a picture. (see picture)  

Also, yesterday was the Stake Christmas Devotional! That also was lovely, and turned out very well. Made a few piano mistakes, but whose counting? Not the mostly tone deaf Argentines. No, but the choir sang with all their hearts and souls, and that´s the true spirit of Christmas. ;) 

So, I guess that´s about it for this week. Got some exciting changes ahead, and can´t wait to get working! 

Love you all! Oh, and welcome to the world Baby Sam! Congratulations Joey and Jenna! Remember, I´m the favorite aunt. :) 

Con amor, 

Hermana Cannon

Hola Mis Queridos:

First of all, this week we found out that it is not in fact summer until the 21st of December. So that was embarrassing. Still primavera! However, that doesn´t change the fact that there´s still some cement egg frying heat going on. :)

Also, last week´s email I forgot to mention the reason for the dog picture. This dog follows us around everywhere. He always hangs out outside the carniceria on our street, and when he sees us, he jumps up and follows us to all our appointments and everything. Sometimes he even waits outside of the house or store until we finish and come back out. We named him Tomás. There´s also a smaller dog who follows us sometimes which we have named Tomenos. (más y menos? Get it? ah, spanish humor. ;) )

Anyway, a little update on Hermana Tirado´s health. We went to the doctor un montonaso de vezes this week to finish all of her exams, and this friday we´ll go back in to pick up all the results and meet with the doctor one last time so she can tell us what´s going on. Meanwhile, she´s doing much better, which is weird because this week we had two of the hottest days ever in the history of hot days. I guess more miracle like than weird. :) Anyway she hasn´t died, and we´re just keeping her out of the sun as much as possible.

Since we were at the doctor a lot this week, we weren´t able to visit with as many people as we would have liked, which is always a bummer. And that also means there´s not too much to tell in this email... heh heh...

We did however go to Evening of Excellence! They wanted to sing the EFY medley, you know with As sisters in Zion and Army of Helaman, and they were like, Hey! You play the piano! Play for us! But they didn´t have the music, just the hymnbook and primary song book. So I just kind of played them both and improvised a little of each during the mixed part. All in all, it actually turned out pretty nice. Not to toot my own horn. ;)

The service was really sweet too. Each ward was assigned a value color and all the girls made skirts and dresses in that color that they wore to the evening. But by far my favorite part of the whole meeting was when Cecilia got up to bear her testimony. Cecilia is a special needs YW in the ward, and when it was her turn to speak she got up and says, "Yo sé que Jesu Cristo vive. No lo veo pero lo siento." Then she just stood there in silence for a few minutes until another YW in the ward stood up to help her finish her whisper-repeated testimony. But how sweet it was to hear. It was such a testimony to hear just a few simple sentences and have the spirit testify of them so strongly.

This week we´ve been sharing the church´s Christmas video with everyone, Él es la Dádiva. (He is the Gift I guess is what it would be in English haha) If you haven´t seen it or shared it 5 million times yet, do it! It´s a beautiful message. The church is really pushing that the missionaries use this video in the work this month. We even have passalong cards specifically made for it. Join in the effort!

It´s truly a priveledge to share the message of the gospel, especially this Christmas season, when we can remember Jesus Christ, and the gift of his life, his example. I´m so thankful for our Savior, and I add my testimony to Cecilia´s, that I know he lives. And that this gift given by a loving heavenly father continues on when we share His love with others.

Hermana Cannon

p.s. The pictures! Last week for P-day we went to Los Reyunos. Just like a river/dam thing that´s really pretty. We also toured a winery, which was... extremely smelly. ;) Oh, and guess what we found on display all you Messi fans!?!?!? ;)

Happy...what´s that canadian holiday?

Dear Friends and Family: 

Happy Thanksgiving! No, we didn´t celebrate it. I did eat an extra helping of pasta last thursday in honor of the great day. And one of the members said he would cook up some pavo for us, but that didn´t happen. Actually, turkey is really expensive here, not to mention the fact that I´ve never seen it...anywhere. So that´s fun. But yesterday we did have this delicious Pollo a la Naranja, that I hear is a regular Colombian recipe. Don´t know if that´s true. Guess I´ll refer that one to you, Joey? Regardless, it was delicious. And I think I´ll take the liberty to call that my thanksgiving experience this year. Woot! 

Actually, this week Hermana Tirado and I learned the real meaning of giving thanks this week. A few months ago Hna Tirado and I started talking about Corrie Ten Boom. She had read a talk that mentioned a bit of her story, and I took the opportunity to share my favorite part (And mom´s!) with her. The short version is that Corrie´s sister while they were in the concentration camp told Corrie that she had to give thanks for the fleas in her prayers. Although it made no sense, she did so. Turns out that the reason the guards never discovered or took away their bible, medicine, and other things was because no one wanted to enter their room, due to the fleas. 

Well, we had a few fleas this week. One huge on in particular. Hermana Tirado suffers a lot with the heat. She´s from Cajamarca in Peru, on the tippy top of the Andes mountains. In other words, eternal winter. It never gets above like, 60 degrees, even in summer. So here where it´s often 85 or higher, especially during the siesta, she hasn´t been doing too well. She gets dizzy, sometimes throws up, and this week she broke out in hives and her throat started closing up for a bit. She´s fine now, breathing and alive, not to worry. We called the mission nurse who said to just keep her out of the sun and heat, and to use a few creams and stuff, but the president and his wife told us to take her to the doctor just in case. 

Just saying, I hope I never have to be treated here in Argentina. The hospital was a few steps above the office scene in Joe Vs the Volcano. Flourescent lights, cement walls, full of sickly and tired looking people, and the nurse was sipping mate as she asked questions and took the blood presure and stuff. 

In the end, Hermana Tirado has to go in for a bunch of tests and x rays, so they can figure out what the problem is. We´re praying for her, and yesterday she recieved a blessing. We´ll be staying inside during the siesta (aka the full concentrated power of the sun), and filling her full of water and juice and using the umbrella to keep her out of the sun while we wait for her appointment with the doctor. Last year they sent her to Uspayata in the summer, the coldest area in Mendoza which still isn´t too cold, so we´re anticipating a traslado coming up here soon. 

Anyway, so this week was a little difficult to give thanks. And yet, there are always things to give thanks for. For the birds singing in the morning. For the members here in the ward. For the chance to sing Christmas hymns in the stake choir (actually I´m playing the piano. Woot!), for my great family and friends, your support, prayers, and examples, and for the opportunity to be here in Argentina, wearing the plaque, and representing Jesus Christ in inviting and helping people to come unto Him. And like Corrie Ten Boom, there´s still room to give thanks for the harder things too. The trials. The hard days. The fleas. Because this is the time to prepare to meet God, and there´s always more to learn when you´re being pushed and stretched, and thrown into the fire. And God knows what we need in order to learn patience, humility, charity, faith. I´ve always loved the Hymn "More Holiness Give Me" and I feel that it´s a great missionary theme song, and motto for life. Because it´s the trials that teach you all the attributes found in the song, and I know that´s true. I´m thankful for the trials I´ve been given, and for the things I´ve learned, and the muscles I´ve strengthened through Christ. And I know that it´s through Christ that our weaknesses become strengths, and for that, I´m truly thankful. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. 

Hermana Cannon

What time is it, SUMMERTIME!

Dear friends and fam:

That´s right my friends, it´s summer. Which is weird. Kinda like this shirt I found in a store today. A little backward, but I guess it makes sense if you´re not from the states.

Also weird because we´re singing in the stake christmas choir, (wahoo!) so although we have christmas songs in our heads all the time, it doesn´t feel like christmas at all. Maybe as it gets closer...nah. I don´t think so. It´ll probably feel more like Christmas on April 6th, which I guess works out just as well.

Let´s see, what´s to tell this week. I guess I have some good news, and bad news. The good news is, Mauricio accepted a fecha! Baptism on December 13th! And then the bad news is, we went yesterday to pick him up for church and he wasn´t there. He also wasn´t there on Thursday when we came for another cita. He told us his friend´s mom had an accident, so we´re hoping that 1) his friend´s mom is okay, and 2) that he´s not lying about his friend´s mom. So we´re a little worried about him, and really hoping that he just had a bad week, and doesn´t want to drop us. We´ll see this week when we go visit him again.

More good news, we´re recieving tons more help from our mission leader and ward missionaries, and they´re becoming tons more involved and excited to be involved in missionary work. We´ve been going out a lot with the ward missionaries, and they´ve started giving us ideas for activities, for people to visit, introducing us to their friends, it´s great. And it´s spreading to the ward too! We´ve been recieving referrals, had families ask us to help them have Noche de Hogar, and we have lunches with members the entire month, and then some. Seeing all of these changes makes the first little while of trudging, pushing, and pulling through washing the area all worth it. Almost. ;)

Uh...what else happened. I guess other than that this week was pretty normal.

I guess I´ll end with a little spanish. Este semana empezé a leer los cuatro evangelios. Para una misionera, son caramelos. jaja. Estoy toda via en Matéo, pero he aprendido muchisimo de nuestro salvador, sus atributos, y su ejemplo. Algo interesante que encontré es cuantos veces Jesucristo dice a sus apostoles, "poco fe" o tiene que explicar los paraboles a ellos, o la razón por que pasó este o eso. Y pensé, ¿por que jesucristo llamó a estes hombres? Hay muchas personas en ese tiempo con más fe, mas entendimiento, ¿por que? Eso es una de las preguntas que estoy buscando en mis estudios, pero eso es lo que aprendí hasta ahora. Ni la fe ni entendimiento viene del hombre. No viene de milagros. No viene de un llamamiento o posisión. El fe viene solamente de jesucristo, y solo el fe en jesucristo tiene valor. Por eso, Dios llama los debiles, los con poco fe, poco entendimiento. Por que en el fin, no importa donde empezó. Todos tiene el poder de tener la misma fe, entendimiento, y poder de jesucristo, si podemos poner todo nuestro confianza en el. Se que eso es asi, y se que con jesucristo, y solo con jesucristo, podemos llegar a vivir con Dios y nuestros familias para siempre. Se que si seguimos jesucristo y su ejemplo, confiando en el y usando el poder de su expiacion, vamos a tener su imagen en vuestro rostro, y llegar a los cielos de Dios. Se eso con todo mi corazon, y lo comparto en el nombre de nuestro santo salvador y redentor jesucristo, Amen. 

Hermana Cannon

p.s. The other pictures are our district, and the Ozan family, some less actives we visit.

Investigatored in the Work

Mis Queridos! 

Hola todos! If I had a picture of an alligator I would put it under the title. Cuz then there´s the pun with the invested and investigators, and then there would be a gator and it would be basically hilarious. But, alas, if there´s one thing Argentina is lacking it´s gators. So you know. Pucha. 

Asi que, bueno. (most common phrase ever here) Miracle week! I love miracle weeks. This week we went, for the millionth time to Paula´s house. We´re always in the area, so we knock on her door a lot. A few times we were pretty sure she peeked at us through the curtains, and decided not to open the door, and any other time, she just never answered. So when Hna Tirado wanted to knock again, I have to say my faith level was below zero. As I´m sure you guessed, not only did she open the door, she let us in to talk with her! She said she would come to church yesterday, which she didn´t, but regardless, we have an appointment with her this week, so we´re really excited about that. Turns out her daughter is baptised too, which is great. 

This week we also went and met with a reference from the hermanas in Barrio 1, Mauricio. Usually the references we get from other people don´t turn out so well, or don´t even exist. But God wanted us to meet with this guy, because everything worked wonderfully. Mauricio was home, and so was his brother. It also so happened that Hermana Mohamet, one of the ward missionaries, was with us, so we were able to enter the home. We sat and talked with them, explaining a bit about what we do as missionaries, and what the gospel can do for them in their lives, and they listened to attentively. I don´t remember how it came up, but Mauricio´s brother, shirtless, and finishing off a cigarette and throwing it in the fireplace, gets up from his chair, goes to the cabinet, and pulls out a Libro de Mormon. He sits back down, and begins to dust it off with his torn handkerchief. Folded in the pages were two pamphlets, and a passalong card. Pretty sure that image is one I´m never going to forget. Watching him so carefully dust off this sacred book that a pair of elders had long ago given him, and pamphlets from lessons they´ve taught... wow. They never got to see him baptised, nor even perhaps gain a testimony or read the book. And maybe I won´t either. But they planted the seed. And now we´re digging out the weeds, and nourishing the ground. It´s all part of the work, no matter how long it takes, how many hours spent bent over in the sun. And maybe they´re tree of faith isn´t growing straight, or very strong at the moment, but it´s there. And in time, if they let it, it can grow, and bring the fruits of the gospel in their life. And as long as I can do something to help them, to teach them, to comfort them, whether it be a prayer, a lesson, a scripture, I´ll do it. Because that to me is worth it. 

We were also able to meet with another former investigator. Remember Telma? Lives across the street from a Hermana Miriam? She wants to meet with us again! Actually, it was really sweet. Recently the family who lives across the street has been going through a lot of hard stuff. Their dad has some drinking problems, and I think they´re both out of work. But when we met with Hermana Miriam and Telma, Telma shared how although they were going through a lot, they somehow continue on, unified as a family. She said she never hears them yelling or fighting, and often sees them outside sipping mate together. Although Miriam says they fight a lot, haha, the point is the same. It was because of this family that she wants to hear more about the gospel. A testimony to me that it´s true what they say. Teaching by example is real. People see the way we live, they see the changes that the gospel makes in our lives, even if they don´t realize it immediately. 

And that´s the message I´d like to leave with you all. This church is true. It doesn´t make us perfect, by any means. At least not in this live. But it brings real changes. I´ve seen it in me, in my family, and in the lives of so many others. Christ lives, and he loves us. And if we follow his example and apply his teachings, we can not only become like him, but help and inspire others to do the same. 

Love you all! 

Hermana Cannon

P.s. It´s extremely hot, so sometimes Hermana Tirado likes to wet her feet in the sekia. (Not sure how to spell that word. But that´s what it is.) Also, the family across from Telma has puppies! 

Week of Weeks

Mis Queridos:

This week some stuff happened, but all I really remember is anticipating the meeting with D Todd Christopherson, and then reading over my notes a million times after the meeting with D Todd Christopherson.

So, I guess I´ll tell you about the meeting with D Todd Christopherson, eh?

Wow. It was so cool, not only to be there with an apostle, so close, listening to him talk directly to us, (the entire mission was there!) but after he walked in and sat down, the mission president told us that D Todd Christopherson wanted to shake the hand of every missionary. And he did! We all lined up and got to shake his hand! He asked everyone their name, and where their from. And when I told him I was from Lindon he said "Lindon! I used to live there when I was a boy." So neat. Also it turns out he served in Northern Argentina back when there were only two missions, North and South. And he served under Richard G Scott as his Mission President.

Also, the day before we traveled to Mendoza for the meeting, we get a call from the Asistentes. "Hermana Cannon, remember the song you and three other new missionaries sang at the capacitacion? President Goates would like you to sing it again for D Todd Christopherson. Esta dispuesta?" So, not only did we sing for the entire mission of 245 missionaries, but also for an apostle of the lord, a member of the 70, and their wives. I can´t really believe it happened. We sang La Oracion del Profeta to the tune of Come thou Fount. Sigh. So great.

The main theme of the meeting was John 8:29, and being sure to do always those things that please God. "I don´t always acheive that," he says. Oh, in spanish too, no gringo accent. He talked about the importance of always knowing the will of God and doing it. He also talked a lot about the importance of the Book of Mormon. He said, being a lawyer, if he was in court and the issue was whether or not the chruch was true, he would lay the Book of Mormon on the table and say, here´s the proof. And it´s true. How important to remember that, as missionaries, as members, because here we have the proof, the testimony, the word of God. Are we using it?

His wife also shared in spanish, and english both, switching back and forth. I love what Sister Christopherson shared, which was the story of 2 Kings 4:1-7. She talked of the great sacrifices that God asks of us, and how when we have something to give, no matter how small and insignificant it may seem, we give it with all our hearts, and God will consecrate it for our good. She also said something else I love, "God is generous to those with faith in Him. He has all that we need, and more than we need, and He will give what we are prepared to recieve."

I think my favorite part of the entire meeting was being able to hear his testimony. Just seeing him standing there, bearing witness of Christ, just after I had shook his hand and looked in his eyes, and seeing him stand there, bearing testimony that without a doubt Christ lives. I know that he is an apostle of the Lord, called by the Lord to this work. And I´m so grateful to have had the opportunity to see him face to face. What a great reunion. And I add my testimony to his, that if we strive to always do the things that please God, someday we will be able to stand before God face to face and give a good report. In the name of our Savior, Jesus Christ, Amen.

Hermana Cannon

La Mejor Noche Del Año

Here´s some photos of the actividad, and our barra de hiero. Woot! 

Three Months and Three More to Come

Che! Amigos y Familia! 

Che is an expression everyone uses here. It´s kind of a mix between "hey" and "dude". It´s like, "hey, you!" Anyway. There´s your castellano (kas-teh-SHA-no) lesson for the day. ;) 

So this week is traslados! Both me and my companion are staying, and in fact our whole district is staying just how it is. So we´ve got us, two north american elders Elder Connoly and Elder Lawrence (a newbie who flew down the same time as me), and the other sisters Hermana Aguilar from Peru, and Hermana Dutra from Brazil. They´re all great, and we´re all excited to be sticking around a little longer. Hermana Tirado especially didn´t want to leave. She dies (goes home) in January, so she´s really hoping to finish out here in Balloffet, and I think she probably will. If all continues the same, we´ll both stick around for Christmas and New Year and I´ll get to kill off my first compañera y mamita! haha 

So this week we had our activity! We called it La Mejor Noche del Año. (I know, we´re incredibly creative) Basically we made a sweet obstacle course with rope that everyone had to follow blindfolded. We had the bishop, the elders quorom president, and hermana Jenni (a pregnant sister due in december, like Jenna! woot!) blow whistles, throw pillows, and bang on pots and pans to scare everyone on the way. Eventually the rope lead to the tree of life where everyone would find the fruit/candy.

It went really well! I mean, we started 45 minutes late when people finally started showing up, but once it actually got going, everyone really enjoyed it, and had a good time. We were kind of bummed that no less actives or investigators showed up, but at the end we gave everyone a paper apple and had them write names of people who they knew who were lost "en el camino" and they would like us to visit. So we got a bunch of referrals! It was like Christmas. 

Speaking of holidays, Halloween! To answer the FAQ of the week, no. Argentines do not celebrate halloween. We passed one house that had little paper ghosts and pumpkins in the window, and a couple kioskos that had little Feliz Halloween signs, and that´s it. In fact, we were standing in line at the grocery store and this lady in front of us was explaining to her kid, a little angrily, about how halloween is just something that the norte americanos made up and that we argentines don´t celebrate it. So that was fun haha. However, Hna Tirado and I did dress up for a minute as eachother (aka switched placas) and took some halloween pictures. Just for you. ;) 

Welp, I guess that´s all for now.

Ooh! I almost forgot! D Todd Christopherson is coming this saturday! So all the missionaries in the Mission are going to travel to Mendoza central to listen to him. We´ve known for a while, and we´re all really looking forward to it. I kept forgetting to tell you. This week! Aah! Does anyone know where he served on his mission? Cuz I´m thinking he probably speaks spanish. He was the one that started his talk with "Buenos Dias!" haha. 

Anyway, the work moves onward. This chruch is true, and I know it. 

Love you all! 

Hermana Cannon

Windsday

Mi Querida Familia! 

Hey! This week was pretty crazy. First of all, there was a crazy wind storm on Friday that the Argentine´s call Sonda. Basically, it´s just a hot wind. But it was pretty scary, there was dust and dirt everywhere, and lots of trees and branches fell everywhere. We´re okay, and everything´s fine. Luckily we were inside visiting with a less active for the worst parts, and walked home when it had mostly settled down and all the ruin was left everywhere. Pretty exciting.

Also this week I had my fist divisiones! One morning we had to go to el centro to pick up some invitations for an activity coming up, but we had citas fijas, so we asked if two girls in the ward, Lis and Aileen would go on splits with us, Aileen with me to visit with an investigator, and Lis with Hna Tirado to pick up the invitations. Basically I was nervous out of my mind. My first lesson without Hermana Tirado! I kind of freaked out all morning, and prayed lots and lots. We were teaching Mariela, our only progressing investigator. She´s been reading the Book of Mormon, and ALMOST accepted a fecha for baptism. She doesn´t quite feel ready yet, and is kind of still deciding whether she wants to be baptised into this church, or the evangelical church. So the morning´s lesson was on the priesthood, and it went fabulously! It helps that Mariela likes to talk, and also that she always has lots of questions, which makes the lessoning easier. The lesson went very well, and Aileen was able to talk about the temple, and how this church has the authority to seal us as families even after death, which was something Mariela seemed to like a lot. Well hey, me too. :) 

On the other hand, we´ve had a lot of investigators drop us recently, which is always fun. And our new goal as a zone is to focus on finding new investigators. So Hna Tirado and I have been praying every day to find new investigators, and though we find new people, most of them turn out to not really be interested in inviting us in. It´s kind of a bummer, and sometimes I wish people would just tell us no rather than giving us their address and waiting till we come to visit so they can pretend not to be home. But at times it´s a better option than getting doors slammed in your face, which as of now I´ve only experienced once. So you know, ups and downs. 

Regardless, on thursday we were walking down a street and this little girl who we see sometimes on the bus named Valentina comes up to us. She grabs my hand and literally pulls us to her house a few houses down. Well, we took it as a sign, and knocked on the door. A young girl answered, and said she would get her mom, and after a while of waiting we figured her mom probably wasn´t coming. So we told Valentina, "Creemos que su mami es ocupado, vamos a regresar mas tarde, si?" She just kind of looks at us. "Espere." She says. We couldn´t say no to the little 5 year old, so we waited a little more. Her mom did eventually come out, invited us in, and we taught her and her 13 year old daughter. Valentina was there as well, giving us water and playing with our nametags, mostly just distracting everyone. But the mother, Marcela, said we could come back again. New Investigators! 

That same day we also met with another family, the mother named Norma, who we also were able to have a lesson with her and two of her grandsons, who said we could come back another time. New Investigators! 

As I´ve learned on the mission, sometimes you´ll have weeks where no one lets you in, all your investigators drop you, and no one comes to church. Then other weeks it´ll seem like everyone invites you into their home for lessons, service, almuerzos, and everything else. And it´s interesting because the weeks like this one, where we´re able to see those miracles, to meet the people who´s hearts God has prepared for us is a really sweet experience, and those weeks are the best. But the other weeks are the weeks when I learn the most. I have to practice keeping a good attitude when we´ve walked more miles than we´ve taught lessons. I have a chance to find the millions of little, less obvious blessings when it´s seems that there are none. And  most of all, I have a chance to feel just the tiniest bit of what the Savior felt, and rely completely on His strength, becuase it´s only in those times when I truly realize that I can´t do this work alone. 

Thanks for your prayers and support! I really wanted to send photos, but the computer, once again, is being dumb and won´t recognize the card. :P 

Love you all! 

Hermana Cannon

Successful Missionaries

My Beloved Loved Ones: 

Haaaaaaaaaaappy Monday! As my companion always says, "Lunes otra vez. Siempre es Lunes." Course, she also says that for Viernes, Domingo, and Jueves, so, you know. 

Whew. This week. This week was a little discouraging, as we had most of our investigators drop us. The Rodrigues Family, the family who invited us into their home to pray? They´ve been awefully "busy" lately, so we haven´t visited with them in a long time. Hna Tirado says that happens a lot with people. We come to them when times are hard, and show them the strength and guidance that the gospel can bring into their life. But then once they come out of the hard times, they forget the importance of the gospel, and drop us. 

We also had to drop Maria, the sister who knew basically everything about the bible. After our first lesson with her, although at first we were excited that Hna Tirado had been able to answer all her doctrinal questions, we realized that in reality, we hadn´t felt much of the spirit at all during the lesson. So for the next lesson, we taught about the Book of Mormon and the power of the Holy Ghost. The whole time Maria kept trying to change the subject and bring up different interesting doctrines, and we kept trying to bring the lesson back to the Book of Mormon. We soon found out she really didn´t want anything to do with the Book of Mormon, nor with the church. We left her with a Libro de Mormon in the end, she left us with one of her little doctrinal comic booklet thingies, and we parted ways. 

In a way it was a bummer, but both Hna Tirado and I felt a lot better about the lesson having focused on the spirit and in truly helping her understand that as missonaries, we aren´t here to discuss the difficult, nit picky doctrines found in the crevises of the bible, but the small and simple truths of the gospel. Because it´s those things that help us on the path to return to Heavenly Father. As we´re reminded every year in General Conference, most of the numbered lists given to us by the speakers include prayer, scripture study, and chruch attendance. And it´s not that there´s nothing else to talk about, it´s that it really is those simple things that help us the most. 

And in conclusion, I want to share my testimony that I know that that is true. You would think it would be tiring, going into home after home, preaching these same simple truths, the primary answers over and over. But for some reason, it´s not. It´s actually quite amazing, to see each person come to the same conclusion. In Predicad mi Evagelio, it says, no matter the needs or problems, the Savior, and His teachings, or the Gospel, will help. And it´s such a testimony to me to be able to teach each less active, each investigator, that if they will only apply Christ´s teachings in their life, the small and simple things, no matter what has passed, or what will come, everything will be alright. 

Thanks for all the prayers! love you all! 

Hermana Cannon

p.s. Oh, I forgot to explain one of the pictures of last week´s email. It´s your favorite sign dad! Slow children at play! The only thing is that in spanish it doesn´t have a double meaning, becuase it would have to be Ninos Dispacios Jugando rather than Despacio, Ninos Jugando. All the same, it was exciting. :) 

A Bunch of Firsts

Well Hello There: 

First off, that title of last week´s email was embarrassing. Yeah, nuff said. 

So this week I had a lot of firsts happen. Firstly, (hah. Kind of punny. Sort of.) I had my first "Godhead" discussion. This lady and her husband were washing their car outside, and after giving them a passalong card, I don´t know how it came up, but we started discussing the Godhead and how they thought we believed in three gods, and that they believe in only one, but that He´s sometimes called the son because he was the son of mary. Anyway, you all know how it goes. It wasn´t any fiery arguement or anything, just basically an exchange of beliefs. And afterwards I was like, hey! That one discussion everyone always talks about! I just had it! And yeah, it was cool. 

My second first, (heh, still funny) me caì! Wahoo! I took a picture too, the one with me by the wall that says "freestyle es vida". Lemmie splain. So Hna Tirado and I walk outside of our appartment all chill like, heading to district meeting. We look across the street, and there´s our bus. So we´re like, yeah we kinda need to be on that thing RIGHT NOW. So we run across the street, and I jump from the street to the curb, right? I´m telling you, it was like a baseball player skidding into home. It was like...what´s that thing called where you swing around and do crazy stuff on the dance floor? Yeah, it was like that. There was no blood or anything, and we successfully got on the bus and to the district meeting. But I ripped my nylons (you can´t really see it in the picture) and we happened to pass by that graffiti, so I had to take a picture. 

My third first, General Conference! Sigh. So good. At first they couldn´t get the english session working so we gringos watched the relief society session, and one session of conference in spanish. It was kind of cool becuase they do the whole voice over thing, and it was interesting to see the apostles, but hear some spanish guy talking, but it was kind of hard to understand, so I was glad they got the english session working. And so cool that they had them speak in different languages! I was watching the spanish session when the Cantonese guy was speaking, so that was kind of cool to have it translated from cantonese to spanish. 

All in all, I´m so thankful for the prophets that we have to lead our church, and the inspiration and support they are for me as a missionary, and a daughter of God. I know that Thomas S Monson truly is a prophet of God, and I´m so thankful for the chance to hear God´s word through him and the other church leaders. It truly is a blessing. 

And, back to the work! Love you all! 

Hermana Cannon

SDFLKJSDFLKJSDFLKJ HEY CHANGE THIS LATER

Mis Queridos:

So this weird thing happens on the mission where the moment you step into the computer cafe, everything that happened in the past seven days leaps out of your brain, and takes the collectivo to San Juan. So, I´m a little empty at the moment. 

Yesterday we sang with the stake choir, and that was fun. The choir needed some help in the alto section, so we were given permission to sing with them and help them out during stake conference coming up in a couple weeks. Sigh. I love music. After practice, in which I basically sang and remenisced (or whatever that word is) of those Maeser choir days, we drove home with the choir director, his friend, and a sister in the ward, and we all sang Christmas hymns together. I don´t really know why, the choir director was just talking about programs that he had done in the past, and started singing Christmas hymns. So all squished in the little car with a hymnbook between us in the backseat, we harmonized all the way home. 

We had a really interesting lesson yesterday too, before practice. We came across Maria on the street, and as soon as I said "iglesia de Jesu Cristo" her face lit up. We explained that the church of Jesus Christ is centered on the teachings of Jesus Christ as he established them in ancient times, and she seemed to really like that. Yesterday when we taught her, the first lesson, she just kind of sat there listening, and anytime we mentioned Jesus Christ or the Bible, she payed special attention. We came to find that she´s very well read in the bible, and has a very strong desire to follow Christ, and to find the truth, the truth, and nothing but the truth. I´m a little worried about teaching her, becuase she knows the bible backward and forward, and was asking a lot of questions that regardless of whether or not I understood her spanish, I had no idea how to answer. Hna Tirado seemed to know what  she was talking about however. Hna Tirado and I discussed the lesson afterward, and she´s very excited to teach Maria because if she can come to know for herself that Joseph Smith was given the same priesthood of the prophets of old, and that this truly is the same church of Jesus Christ established again on the earth, she´ll be baptized in a heartbeat, her desire to do what´s right is that strong. The only thing I´m worried about is that she´s very fact based. As long as we can teach her to trust the spirit, and to find answers for herself through prayer, then she´ll be golden. 

We also had two church attendances this week from less actives! We went sunday morning to eat breakfast with Hermana Rubio before church and drive with her to church afterwards, and on the way to her house we crossed paths with Lucas. Lucas´ mom is named Sandra who we found her walking down the street one night, and shared a card with her to find that she was already a member. Sandra was baptized at 15 years, and was only active till age 18. She has one other son besides Lucas named...something that starts with an F. Both of her sons were baptized 8 years ago, and both became less active soon after. So so no one in their family has been to chruch in 8 or so years, and here comes Lucas down the street, all by himself, an hour before the meeting starts because he thought is started at nine. If that´s not a miracle, I don´t know what is. 

That´s all for today. Oh, the pictures. One of the members has a pet bunny, I made empenadas one day, and one of the sisters went home a few weeks ago, so there´s all the sisters in our district just before she left. 

Love you all! Can´t wait for General Conference this week! Woot! 

Hermana Cannon

Guess What? PICTURES!

Mi Querida Famila: 

Finally got this ancient camera figured out! Yay! More on the pictures later. 

So this week was again another pretty slow week. We went to Mendoza Monday and Teusday for another reunion with the President and Hermana Goates for all the newbie missionaries, came back to Balloffet Wednesday, and returned to Mendoza Thursday night to do my visa paper stuff Friday. We were a little bummed at first that they didn´t have us just stay an extra day Wednesday to do my papers, and as we were walking through a neighborhood Wednesday morning complaining about it, a woman called to us from across the street, and invited us into her home. 

Turns out she, Olga is her name, had seen us on the bus and knew we were missionaries, but had never had the courage to talk to us until now. She told us that many bad things had happened in her house, and she wanted us to say a prayer for her and her family. Hermana Tirado and I were shocked. Of course we will! Olga, her daughter and daughter in law all knelt down with us as we prayed, and afterward Olga began to cry. "I don´t know why I´m crying," she says, "I just feel so good with you here." Luckily, we knew exactly what she was feeling, and shared with her about the Holy Ghost, a little more about prayer, and set up an appointment for Saturday. 

When we left their home, and started walking down the street, Hermana Tirado started crying. Did that really happen? We said a prayer together, and thanked heavenly father that we hadn´t stayed an extra day in Mendoza so that we could meet this family. This experience is such a testimony to me that God truly prepares people to hear the gospel. After so many weeks of no new or progessing investigators, to have this experience, to find this family so prepared for the gospel, hearts so open to His spirit and message, it´s truly wonderful. 

And they were waiting for us on Saturday too! That was the best part. Because a lot of people will be great the first lesson, and then will kind of avoid us afterward. But they were waiting for us, we taught the first lesson, and we´re so excited to continue teaching them. 

I know that God is aware of His children. He´s aware of me as a missionary, of his children here in Argentina, and of all of you. We all have times where we may not be able to see the light at the end of the tunnel, and we feel all our efforts are in vain, but it is in these times that we need to put in more strength, and excersise more faith. Because it is only when we turn to Christ and His atonement that we recieve the strength and comfort needed to keep going. And the blessings will come. I can promise you that, because God has promised us that. The blessings may not be when or what we thought we wanted, but in the end it will always be what we needed. And I testify of this in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. 

Hermana Cannon

The pictures! I don´t know what order they´re in, but one of them is our Mormon Helping Hands activity when we painted in the school down the street. Very dirty. And very fun. One of them is my district last p day eating sanguchitos, or sandwiches. And the last one is of me in Mendoza. Yay Cannons! :) Love you all! 

Okay, Now I´m Settled

Dear Fam: 

What with our Conference with the President Monday, P day Tuesday, Zone conference Friday, and Service Project all day Saturday, la obra misional was a little slow this week in San Rafael. So now that I´ve taken a few weeks to get my bearings here in Argentina, I thought I´d take this time, to give you the low down on my area, and answer all the cliches so many love to ask. :)

So San Rafael! How to describe... Firstly, the weather. Right now we´re just coming out of winter and heading into spring, so although most of the trees are still barren, the popcorn is beginning it´s popping, if you know what I mean. (Primary, anyone?) We´ve been getting a few little sprinklings of rain, but nothing too heavy or hindering besides the fact that you have to be sure your laundry isn´t drying outside during the storm. Not fun. 

The food! We eat lunch with the members basically every day, which is great. I would describe the food here as basically anything you´d eat in the states, just with less flavor, less sugar, and less fat. We eat a lot of pasta, potatoes, and salad. Rice too, but not as often as you´d think. Their salads typically have lettuce, carrots, tomatoes, and for dressing usually just oil and salt, or lemon juice. Ranch doesn´t exist here. Also, Argenines tend to have obsessions with random things. Like mayonaise. It´s basically gold here. And soda. Every meal they´ll bring out a liter of soda. It´s more common than water. Which I guess is a good thing seeing as I can´t drink the water here unless it´s bottled, and luckily there´s a brand of soda here without sugar that lots of people buy, so that´s been great. 

And the empanadas! They say empanadas are very common here, and I guess they are, but I´ve only had them once. Basically it´s a tortilla thingy with meat (somtimes eggs and olives too, or other random things) inside, then it´s folded in half, press down the edges like a pie, and bake it in the oven for a while. A member family fed us empanadas the other day and we both ate like ten or something. It was kind of disgusting in a very delicious and succulent way. 

I wouldn´t describe the area as poor, more just well used. Anything you see around here has wear in it. If it can go for another year, it does. Let´s just say garbage day means a few grocery bags of stuff. 

Let´s see, what else. There are bikes and motercycles everywhere. Any time of day. Everyone has them, and uses them, all types of people. You´ll see guys in suits riding their bikes to work, women riding around with a little kid in a baby seat attached to the back, and all kinds of people hauling different things around like groceries, wheels, boxes, random stuff. 

Oh, how could I forget. We´ve got the Siesta here. It´s definitely a thing. After lunch, the biggest meal of the day, everything shuts down. All the tiendas, gas stations, schools, everything. Everyone locks themselves in their houses and takes a little nap. AKA, no coming to the door for missionaries. So, we take this time to study. We have a half hour in the morning for personal study, and then study our other half hour during the siesta, plus our hour of companion and hour of language study. Normally missionaries don´t have as much study time, but I´m in training so they give us that extra time. 

Anyway, there´s a little bit about Argentina for you. As for the people, generally we´ll talk to them on the street, give them a little tarjetita, and take down their address to visit them later. If they didn´t lie to us about where they live, which happens quite often, they´ll usually let us in for one or two visits before they lose interest. Let´s just say we´ve got lesson one down, backward and forward. A lot of people are Catholic or Evangelical, so after a visit or two either they´ll tell us they appreciate the visit, but really have no interest, or they´ll just kind of hint at it by giving you excuses or not opening the door. But, we keep searching. Somewhere under some Argentine stone there´s someone with a heart prepared to hear this message. We´ll find them. 

Meanwhile, we visit a lot of the less active members. As President Goates says, reactivating a member is just as important as a baptism. Strengthening the ward is just as important as finding new investigators. So, we´ve been doing a lot of that, and the work moves forward.

Well, that´s about all for this week folks. Thanks for the letters and prayers. I´m so grateful to be here bringing people closer to christ, whether they be members, less actives, or that random guy over there. The church is true, and I know it. 

Hermana Cannon

Pday Tuesday

Hola mi familia! 

Yeah, it´s not Monday, sorry about that. I was supposed to tell you last week that we had a Zone Conference yesterday, so we changed our Pday and I forgot to. Buuuut, I´m here now! :) 

So, I guess I should start from last Monday. Just after emailing we went to the stake center to eat lunch and play games with the other missionaries in our zone. After playing games we went to the kitchen where we had left our groceries and things, and my bag was gone. The doors to the chapel had been left unlocked and someone probably waltzed in, saw us all playing in the gym, grabbed my bag, and left. So, mom and dad, that explains the call you got about the credit card, and canceling it and such. The thing is that I never have either of my credit cards with me, in case of robbery, but it was the first monday of the month, so we had to go to the bank to take out all our money. Of course, all my monthly money had been in my wallet as well, so we had to call the finance guy and he put my monthly allowance on my companion´s card so I could have that. I also had the home card because I was going to take off some money from it as well, but I didn´t get the chance, so there´s the that. Most everything else in my bag was replacable. My agenda, my chapstick, my water bottle, the emails I had printed out, both from last week and the week before (sorry to those still waiting for replies! I´m reprinting everything today, so thanks for the patience haha, I promise I love you all!), The worst thing though, was my camera. My beautiful, kind of expensive camera, case, extra battery and SD card, and the computer cord. I thought it would at least last the transfer. 

But I´ve learned some things. First of all, God knows what we need. And that week hadn´t been the best week to begin with. One of the elders in my zone talked about how a mission experience is kind of like marriage. It starts out in the honey moon stage where everything is great and you´re excited and love everything, and then reality hits and things get hard, and then with time you learn and grow, and things slowly get better from there. Buuuuut, that´s not really how it happened with me. Reality hit my right off. The culture is different, the food is...well...not North American, and everything is in spanish. It´s probably the farthest thing from a honey moon. It´s hard. I was talking to one of the sisters from Georgia in our zone about how the days are kind of split in half. The first half will be really good, you´ll feel good and excited, and happy, and the last half is hard, and you´re discouraged, and down. Or it´ll start out hard and end up happy. 

But it was interesting. When I found out my bag was gone, things didn´t get worse, things got better. 

Firstly, let me tell you something about bags and women. Due to some wise-guy in history, womens pants and skirts hardly ever have useable pockets, or any pockets for that matter. So if a girl wants to carry something, she can either use her hands, or a giant external pocket attached with a strap over her shoulder, more commonly known as a purse, or bag. Basically, anything of any value to a girl, you can find in her purse. So when I found my bag had been stolen, not only had I lost quite a few valuable posessions, I literally felt like I had lost a limb, my heart, everything.

And then, I started to find things. We were walking to the bus, and while we were waiting, I realized, ooh! I still had my watch. Sitting on the bus I thought of our appartment. Ooh! I still have all my clothes. My sleeping bag. My weird little multi colored hippy monkey sent from the fam. My scriptures. My journal. (Two things I had almost put in my bag that morning). Oh, and get this. One of the sisters happened to have an extra camera. It´s from the ice ages, and the selfie range capacity is basically none (bummer), but what a miracle! And the best part, as we were just getting to the appartment, I realized that I still had my Nametag. Yeah, it´s cheesy or whatever, but when I looked down and saw it, I almost started crying. None of that stuff mattered. Not that it doesn´t really stink that I lost a months worth of pesos. Not that I don´t still groan every time I take a picture on my little feo camera. But I´m still Hermana Cannon, still serving here in Argentina, still representing Jesus Christ. And that´s all I need. 

Anyway, time´s about up, but there´s my dramatic story for you. 

Aaaaaand speaking of the miracle camera, I have it, but the computer doesn´t read the card. So I´ll see if I can come across a camera cord next week and see how that works out. 

oh, also, here´s the mission home address if yall´s wanna send me letters! 

Hermana Emilyn Cannon

Mision Mendoza Argentina

Cabildo Abierto 161

5501 Godoy Cruz

Mendoza

Argentina 

Love you all!

Hermana Cannon 

I´m not good at titles

Dear Fam:

I don´t even know where to start. All the days and weeks kind of tend to melt together. 

First of all, Yay for Baby Elizabeth! I started reading all the emails sent to me about the baby, and seeing the pictures and I´m just sitting here crying and trying to stop crying so I can read and see and stuff, and it´s so exciting! I´m an aunt! Congratulations Katie and Tristan! I hope everything is still doing okay, and I´ll send some extra prayers to you and Elizabeth June this week. 

I guess I´ll talk a bit about some of our investigators. I think I already told you about Gisella, I don´t remember. But she was the first investigator we taught. She´s reading the book of mormon a little more now, and told us that she´s been thinking lately about how she wants to follow Christ. Wahoo! We gave her the first lesson and she said that she would read the pamphlet and pray about it, which is also good. 

We also found two investigatores de oro this week, which was exciting. First we found Gladys, a former investiagator, I don´t remember if I talked about her before either, but she also has a very strong desire to make some changes in her life and come to christ. We´ve only been able to meet with her once, but I can´t wait to work with her too, and help her strengthen her faith. 

The other golden investigator is named Telma. She lives across the street from a sister in the ward, and is a referral from this sister. We´ve only had one lesson from her as well, but she also has a great desire for truth, and told us that she´d come to the next lesson with a list of questions, which is great. With Telma, a lot of what has been great in working with her is that she´s already friends with a member. 

I know people say this all the time, but member missionary work? Yeah, it really works. Things really do go better when members help out in the work. The one lesson we had with Telma was basically me and my companion sitting there listening to Telma talk to Hermana Mirian, and listening to Hermana Mirian bear her testimony, share her own conversion story, and help Telma understand how to recieve answers through prayer. It was great because as missionaries we can share and teach, but there´s something about having a friend, a member in the church sitting there bearing testimony of the truth, that the investigator can so much easier apply the same truths in their own life. Missionaries need Members! 

The church is true. Prayer is real. And faith, paired with works, will bring success. I know that´s true. 

Love you all! 

Hermana Cannon

p.s. The pictures! The one of us sitting at the table is my Feliz cumple-mes picture. One month from my MTC date! Wahoo! My companion also finished one year on the mission this week, so we celebrated with french toast and peanut butter. 

The other picture is me standing next to a palm tree, and a pine tree. A strange phenomenon that you see all over here in Argentina. Still throws me off. Darn Clima. :) Chao! 

The Pictures I Forgot

Don´t worry! Pictures! 

I found Hermana Bently! She´s in my zone, but not my area. We went to a little mission conference thing to listen to Elder Viñas of the 70 and she was there. The meeting was great. 

The other picture is the "pizza" Hermana Tirado and I made. She called it a pizza, but I couldn´t really bring myself to it. It had a crust, cheese, ham, and eggs. So I mean... :)

The Real Week

Dear Family:

And my first full, real week comes to a close. And I think I´m finally getting the hang of everything now. In reality, this week was a little bumpy. A little harder, and a little better than the first week. For one, I´ve been learning the real meaning of Ether 12:27. God likes to show missionaries their weaknesses. But as I´ve seen all my weaknesses kind of come crumbling at my feet this week, after a while of frustration I realized that if God didn´t give us experiences in which we see the things we lack, we would never find them. It´s like leaving a sliver in your hand because it hurts to dig it out. It´s necessary, and in the end, you´re so much for the better. 

So, a little about my area. One of the sisters in the companionship in our area before us was pretty sick for a month or two, and the president decided to "wash the area" with us. So neither of us have been in the area before, and we´re both just exploring and discovering it together. Because the sister was sick for a while, not a lot of work got done during those months, so we step in with no progressing investigators. Also, the ward hasn´t had a baptism for some four or five years, so we have to recent converts either. So we´re basically starting from scratch. Luckily, we have our nifty thrifty area book in which we´ve dug some former investigators from the depths of its pages to visit and teach. 

The first lesson we taught here was with Gisella. She´s an investigator the sisters had been visiting with before the one Hermana got sick. She lives alone in her apartment, and the first time we visited her she told us about her family, and shared about herself. She told us she had lost her book of mormon, so we brought her a new one. As we´ve visited with her we found that she knows there are some things in her life she wants to change, she´s just having a little trouble with taking that first step. 

The hardest thing about this area is that even when we schedule appointments with them, they´re rarely at home when we visit. We go out with lots of different people written down we can visit, and usually end up visiting with only one or two. There are lots of less active families here too, so we visit with them a lot. 

Oh, so kind of a funny story. We went with some sisters from the relief society to visit a non member, Mabel. We all sat down and Mabel showed us how to make these roses with little peices of material, so we all made them together. Afterward we were going to share a message with her. I thought of the scripture I had recently read, (mom´s favorite!) of the lilies in the field, and I was like, perfect! We´re making flowers, here´s this scripture about how we should be like the flowers and stuff, I´ll share that. So I pull out my Libro de Mormon to share it, and I can´t find the right scripture. I finally just shared one I thought was it, 3 Nephi 13:26, and later found out it was 3 Nephi 13:28. Anyway, it was kind of funny cuz verse 26 talks about birds, so the sisters were probably a little confused. 

I did my first batch of laundry by hand this week. Quite the adventure. If you´re ever bored and happen to have a tub of water and laundry soap, I´d definitely reccommend it. It´s kind of relaxing.

Well, I think that´s about it. I´m going to print out your emails and read them at home today. Love you all! 

Hermana Cannon

Argentina At Last

Dear Family and Friends: 

I´m here! I can hardly believe it! At first I thought the time in the MTC would never end, and then suddenly it all went by so fast. I mean, I guess you can´t really call a 14 hour flight fast...and it wasn´t... but yeah. 

So we flew in to Buenos Aires and took a bus to the temple, had lunch in the visitors center, and walked around the grounds a little bit. Oh, and Wallaces, we didn´t go to the mission offices so I didn´t get the chance to visit with Brother and Sister Wallace, which I was super bummed about. :(

After that we took another flight and bus ride to mendoza where we met with President Goates and his wife. We had the rest of that day and most of the next of orientation and interviews, after which we met our companions and were assigned to our areas! Hermana Tirada is my companion, and our area is San Rafael. Hna Tirada is amazing! She´s more of a compañita because she´s, well... small. :) But she´s been great. She´s from Peru, Cajamarca. She has one brother and he nor either of her parents are members. But she has a very strong testimony, and a great love for the gospel. She´s been out about a year and says that if they asked her to stay out another 6 months after her 18, she would do it in a heart beat. My spanish is better than her english, so although she speaks some, we speak spanish almost all the time. Also, she sings, which has been great. We walk a lot, as missionaries do, so we sing together while we travel. She´s the best. 

Let´s see, the housing. San Rafael, like most of Mendoza, is very poor. Most of the neighborhood streets are dirt, as well as the sidewalks, and the houses are very humble. It reminds me a lot of Ecuador, and actually it´s almost exactly similar. It is the end of winter but each day has been considerably warmer than the last. I wore a coat the first two days, but now I only need a little sweater and I´m good. The nights are a little colder, but my sleeping bag has been excellent. Thanks dad! :) Also, the shower, like Joey´s in columbia, is just a hole in the wall that spurts out water. Apparently those are all the rage here in South America. 

As for packages, the official word is don´t send them. If they ever do eventually get here, the president or zone leader or someone has to go through customs to get it, and the tax usually costs considerably more than the items in the box, so it´s just a huge hassle. Letters though normally get here, although I think I have to pick them up in the main office in Mendoza. So if you want to send pictures, drawings, or dear elders, I would love to get them! Just know that it will be a while before I can get them. Not really sure how often we go to mendoza. 

The language. My companion tells everyone that my spanish is really good, so there´s that. The main problem is that Castellano is awfully fast. So listening to the people here is like putting together a puzzle in my head. I catch words every now and then and try to put them together. But it´s getting easier, so with time, and Heavenly Father, I´ll get it. 

And the thing I love here about being a missionary is seeing all the little miracles that happen. Just little things that God puts in our path, like finding un Hermano on the street and talking to him, just to find out he´s the person who´s house we were just going to visit. I´ve realized these past few days a new level of closeness we can have with God through prayer and diligence in following Him that makes it easier to see these miracles and find blessings. 

I love you all and hope things are all going well! So much more I still wanted to say, I need to learn to plan my emailing time better. :) Love you!

Hermana Cannon

And Some More!

San Rafael! And my Companion Hermana Tirada! Beginning of the day and end of the day pictures.