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
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