Monday, December 21, 2015

Fwd:

Some more Christmas pictures. Navidad! 


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Jenna Sandau <jenna.sandau@myldsmail.net>
Date: Mon, Dec 21, 2015 at 12:59 PM
Subject:
To: Emilyn Cannon <emilyn.cannon@myldsmail.net>




--
Hermana Sandau :)

Fwd:

Here`s some fun pictures. 

1 Merry Christmas! 
2 and 3: And me eating "peludo" or armadillo. Some members went out with their dogs to hunt them the other day, and gave us some left overs. Yum! It wasn`t too bad. Just a little...hairy. And footy...and taily... But it was... meat! haha It`s probably better fresh, I`m thinking. Hopefully I`ll get the chance to try it recently boiled haha. 


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Jenna Sandau <jenna.sandau@myldsmail.net>
Date: Mon, Dec 21, 2015 at 12:56 PM
Subject:
To: Emilyn Cannon <emilyn.cannon@myldsmail.net>




--
Hermana Sandau :)

Feliz Navidad!

Dear Family: 

Iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit`s Christmas time! 

I can`t believe it`s almost here! This week we had some fun spreading the Christmas Spirit. We went out caroling. It kind of reminded me of the Halloween finding activity we did. Cuz just like no one really knows what Halloween is, no one really knows what caroling is either. We would knock on the door, they would come out, and we would just start singing, right? Caroling! Then after the song, we would ask if they would like to hear the Christmas story from the bible. One lady let us in, and says, "I always saw this type of stuff on TV, but I`ve never seen it here. I didn`t really know what to do." It was fun. 

We also acted out the Nativity with a recent convert family. That was also fun. I took some pictures, but technology isn`t on my side today, so I`ll have to send them later. 

We also made some fun Christmas cards with me and my companion to give out to members and investigators. 

Sigh. I love Christmas. 

Things are going well with Juan, the only problem is that he works a lot, so it`s hard to find him when we can, and also when a member can come with us... But he`s progressing well. Yesterday he had some questions about the holy ghost and the gift of tongues, and it was a little difficult. Afterward we were talking with the member who came with us, and she said, "he just needs to know that the chruch is true. Becuase once he knows it`s true, none of the other stuff will matter." And I can definitely testify to that. Once anyone knows that Joseph Smith was a prophet, the book of mormon is true, and that this church is the same restored church of Jesus Christ with a true and living prophet today, nothing else matters, and everything else makes sense.

Love you all! MERRY CHRISTMAS! See you on Friday! 

Oh, and next monday I won`t be emailing becuase we`re having p-day this friday for Christmas, and then I`ll email the following friday... I think. Something like that. Basically, don`t worry, you`ll be hearing from me. It just won`t be monday. 

Feliz navidad! 

Hermana Cannon

Monday, December 14, 2015

Wahoo!

Dear Family: 

Wahoo! Wahoo wahoo wahoo! Wanna know why? Juan accepted a baptisimal date! Now you can all join me, ready? One, two, three, WAHOO!!!! 

He came to chruch yesterday and stayed the whole time! Okay, so he fell asleep a little in sacrament meeting haha, but that´s okay. It was kind of funny. We had the branch primary program yesterday, and it was adorable. Just sometimes the kids talked for a long time and it was hard to hear becuase we don´t have a microphone. But it was super great, and he really liked it. 

Then last night the sister who was supposed to come with us to the lesson (he lives alone, so we have to always have a member) canceled on us, so we called everyone possible (which are few since there aren´t too many members) and finally a sister said she could come with us and we were able to teach the restauration with Juan, and answer a lot of his questions. At the end, he said he just feels so good reading the book of mormon, and coming to church. He still doesn´t feel like he´s recieved his answer yet, but we´ll keep helping him out with that. And he said he´d be baptized! 

The whole time we´ve been working with Juan I keep thinking of the scripture "to be learned is good if he hearken to the counsil of god." Because Juan is very learned. He knows the bible inside and out, by memory. And when we first met him, I thought it was just that. He was learned, end of story. But he´s hearkening! And it´s so fun to see. He loves reading the book of mormon, and is already making connections to the bible, and to his own life from what he learns. So we just pray that he keeps hearkening and learning, and following the will of God. Exciting stuff! 

Anyway, that´s about it for this week. We had a zone conference in San Luis the other day and then I stayed there another day for exchanges with the sister training leaders. Here´s a couple fotos. 

Love you all! 

Hermana Cannon

Some Scary Fotos

Here´s some more fun fotos of the week. Argentina is a scary place... :) 

The bug is a poisonous legend here in Argentina, which we´re supposed to catch and take to the hospital especially if we get bit so they can do some tests and see if it´s venemous. Neither of us got bit, and in the end it turned out to not be the right kind of beetle, but we just wanted to be sure, since we´ve seen a few in the pench before. Fun stuff! 

And the dog...well, we call him two-face. 

Enjoy! :) 

Monday, December 7, 2015

Swinter (also called, Wummer!)

Hey Family! 

Phineous and Ferb reference anyone? Christmas is coming up, so we´re starting to sing Christmas Hymns and share the Christmas story, and we´re also of course sharing the new christmas videos that the chruch put out. It´s all pretty exciting! You would think after a year in Argentina I´d be used to Christmas in the summer... but no. :) It just feels like everyone decided to sing hymns and talk about Christ randomly in July. But whoever said that was something we couldn´t do? So it´s fine. :) 

The only thing is that due to all the rain we´ve been having, there are mosquitos everywhere, and we´re kind of being eaten alive. I haven´t hardly used my bug repelant my whole mission, even though I brought two or three bottles. But this summer I´m definitely going to be using all of it. Soooooo grateful for Deet! It was actually kind of funny becuase one of the first nights the mosquitos were really bad we had gone out without repelant. At the end of the night we stopped to talk to a guy on the street who was sitting out on his front porch. He had met with missionaries before, and had some questions, so it was really interesting conversation, and the perfect opportunity to share testimony. The only problem was that while we were standing there and sharing, we were kind of dancing around and swatting at mosquitos the whole time. Trying to do it all sneekily and casually while trying to have a normal conversation. haha. Finally we just handed him a restauration pamphlet and said we´d see if we could come back later. And then basically ran to the appartment, still swatting. It was pretty hilarious. All week my legs have been covered in bites, it looked like chicken pox. I think the bugs like foreign blood haha. Now it´s a little better, and the repelant is definitely effective. 

Anyway, this week we met with Juan again! We were able to go with the branch president and his wife, and had a really great lesson. He was able to read over the testimony of Joseph Smith, and said he really liked it. The funny thing was he read about Moroni, got curious, and searched him on the internet. He found somwhere that listed that Moroni was a servant of the Devil, and got scared. We kind of laughed. He goes, No, I´m serious! And we were like, Yeah, I don´t doubt it. We had a really good lesson about the book of mormon and the holy ghost, and how he can know for himself that it´s true, getting a direct answer from God. 

He came to chruch again on sunday as well, and this time he was able to stay for at least sunday school. He keeps saying that everything is just so new to him. He knows the bible backward and forwards, so when we talk about the book of mormon, he´s a little lost. We´re going to be working on our lesson plans, by putting in more scriptures, both from the bible and the book of mormon so he can easier see how they relate. He also keeps saying he´s really glad we come over and teach him about the gospel, so things are going well! We´re thinking to set a baptismal date for him this week, so pray for him! 

Well, that´s about it for this week. Love you all! Here´s a foto of us at a park in San Luis when we went down there for the Zone Meeting. Have a great week! 

Hermana Cannon


Sunday, December 6, 2015

Givet hanks

Dear Family: 

Purposeful typo in the title there. Ees for fun. 

Happy thanksgiving! Hope you all had a great holiday! Hermana Sandau and I bought some rotisery chicken (you see Emu more often here than you see turkey), pulled out some gravy packets we found in the mission offices from an elder who went home, I pretended to make stuffing, (while we`re on the topic, could you send me the recipe dad? I always forget to ask.) Hermana Sandau made some mashed potatoes, and we finished off with some apple pie (also a made up recipe. Not too shabby. :D) Turned out pretty well. See the pics. The only thing missing was you guys! Awwwww! ...well, and probably a salad. And cranberry sauce. Yams. Rolls. But yeah. The most important was you guys. ;)

Anyway, so this week. We had some pretty good lessons. We finally were able to meet with Juan, the investigator who wasn`t an investigator but came to church more often then our investigators. Yes, that one. We finally were able to go over with a sister in the ward and give him the first lesson. It went alright, we were able to talk a little about how the gospel can help his life, and the sister who came with us was able to bear testimony, then we sang Joseph Smith`s first prayer, and had him finish off with a prayer. He talked a lot during the lesson, so we weren`t able to get a whole lot in, but it was good to finally meet with him and establish our purpose as missionaries. We also invited him to read the testimony of Joseph Smith and pray about it, and today he was texting us saying that he really liked it! So we`ll be setting up a meeting with him and see how it went. Super exciting! 

Today we`ll be meeting again with Pamela, who I told about a while ago. Recently she hasn`t been progressing, and she and her boyfriend, who is a less active, postponed their marriage again. So we`ll see how it goes. 

We`ll also be meeting with Marta again today. The last time we went and met with her, we talked about the importance of the book of mormon, and invited her to church. She had a few doubts about coming to church, for example, she thought that you weren`t allowed to go unless your whole family came with you. So that`s part of the reason she hasn`t come yet. So we talked about what we do, and invited her to come. Today we`ll be talking again about going to chruch and Plan of Salvation, so I hope it goes well! 

On Saturday we were able to attend a baptism in the other ward. It was really great. We went early to practice a musical number with the other hermanas, and were able to talk a little bit with Harol, the one getting baptized. Later his mom came in and we were able to talk to her, who was going to be getting baptized as well. It was really impressive to talk to them, and get to know them, just before they would be taking this big step in their lives. I just was able to strengthen my testimony of the changes the gospel brings into people`s lives. It`s truly impressive, and such a blessing. The best part is that the changes never end. There`s always more we can learn, more to do, more ways to progress. And I`m so grateful to our Father in Heaven for forever offering second chances. and third, seventh, and fourteenth chances. :) 

I know this gospel is true. Taste it, love it, live it, share it. 

Love you all!

Hermana Cannon

Fwd: Givet hanks


Dear Family: 

Purposeful typo in the title there. Ees for fun. 

One more picture.

Monday, November 23, 2015

Everything Normal to Back

One more photo.

Everything Normal to Back

Dear Fam: 

Well, for the first time in about a month we finally have a normal week ahead of us! Wahoo! I´m pretty excited. 

This last week was so crazy, it feels like five weeks passed by. 

First of all, the special meeting with Elder Ulisses Soares from the 70, and Elder José A. Teixeira, Second counselor in the Area Presidency came to talk to us. It was really great, and they shared so many great things. It was fun becuase none of their first language was spanish, I think they all come from Portugal? Or something like that... but anyway, they spoke really well, with just a couple italian or portugués words thrown in there. But something I really liked about Elder Teizeira´s talk is that he gave us the secret of how to follow the spirit. "Es muy simples" he says. :) He explained, everything that´s good comes from God. So when you wake up and you want to work and help people and teach, and you feel good, this is from God! And when you have feelings of dissappointment, and you feel like the worst person and you don´t want to work, this is not from God! It was funny the way he explained it, but it´s very true. If you get the feeling that you should do something, and it´s a good thing and a good feeling, it´s from God! 

It was a great meeting. And the musical number went great as well! I got to play the piano, Hermana Matamoros played the violin, and Hermana Sandau (and a couple other missionaries) sang, so it was a fun family reunion! 

Lets see, things here in Justo Daract. We taught Leonardo again, and this time a member was able to come with us. It went really well, we taught about the plan of salvation. We also invited him to be baptised again, but he says he still wants to think about it and learn more first. It was kind of sad to hear, but of all the reasons to say no, that´s one of the best. He doesn´t want to decide to be baptised when he still doesn´t know exactly what it actually means. So we invited him to keep thinking and keep praying. He wasn´t able to come to church, so hopefully he´ll be able to come next week. I guess prayers on his regard, that he can recieve his answer would be great. :) 

And Juan came to church again! We still haven´t been able to meet with him yet, becuase he works a lot, but we´re definitely going to be trying this week. We also saw him saturday standing by the side of the road by his car, and he motioned us over, so we went and talked to him a bit. He said he looked over a few things in the book of mormon, and had a bunch of questions. So we talked about the book of mormon and the story in contains, and tried to answer his questions. He´s still a little aprehensive about taking lessons and accepting the gospel, but he´s definitely curious, which is something we can work with. We´ll see how it goes! 

We also had a really great lesson with Marta, who´s a friend of a member. I don´t remember if I told about her, but she´s really great. She already has a book of mormon, which we talked about the other day, and she´s already prayed and said she feels that it´s true. She also accepted a baptisimal date, but she hasn´t been to church yet so we´re probably going to have to change it. The lesson was great because her daughters were there, and a couple of them are evangelicos, which is always interesting. The Evangelist chruch has so many things that are so close to what we believe, so they´re usually pretty accepting of everything we teach. But it means we have to be very bold with the differences, so that can understand that they´re not the same thing. so we were able to bear testimony of the priesthood, and how it was lost and restored to Joseph Smith. It was a powerful lesson, and her daughters said they would read the book of mormon as well. Oh! And the funny thing about Marta´s family is that they have 7 kids, the oldest is a girl, then a boy, and the rest are girls! I told them all that´s left are two kids from Ecuador and there you have my family! It was funny. 

Well, I guess that´s it for this week. Oh! Yesterday after lunch just before taking the long walk home we went over to the Elders old pench (we still have the keys because they haven´t come to take the fridge and stove out yet) to see if there was anything else they had left there that we could use. Just as we get in, it starts hailing. I´ll send some fotos. Long story short, we were very grateful we happened to be inside at the moment!  

Okay, that´s it. Have a great thanksgiving! I´m thankful for all of you! :) 

Hermana Cannon

Mas Fotos

Here´s some fotos of the crazy hail storm this week! 

Mas Fotos



Here´s some fotos of the crazy hail storm this week! 

One More


Monday, November 16, 2015

Quick Update

Hey family! 

So, crazy week! Long story short for the day, tomorrow we have a special meeting with a member of the 70 and one of the area presidents, and we´re doing a special musical number with a bunch of other elders and sisters, which we´re practicing tonight. So we all used today to travel from all ends of the Mendoza Mission here to Mendoza Centro and practice, so I´ve got just a minute here in the mission offices to send a quick email home and tell you all I´m alive! :) 

This week we had an activity in the branch, and it turned out great! We did a dessert contest, and some fun minute to win it games. here´s some pictures, see if you can guess what the games are. ;) 

The week actually started out pretty slow because we came here to Mendoza to do visa stuff for Hermana Sandau, and didn´t get back till wednesday night. But we still got to see some great miracles and find some new people! 

One of the exciting things that happened this week is that Juan showed up at church yesterday. Juan is a guy we met a few weeks ago while we were proselyting, and started up a conversation. He´s evangelist, and very active. Basically, he was quoting and referencing the bible more than he was using his own words. It was interesting conversation though. I like to talk to those who know the bible, because for the most part, they´re right! Anyway, so we talked for a long time, and then invited him to the activity. He sent us a text after the activity and asked if he could come. We said it was already over, but he was welcome to come to chruch tomorrow. And, surprise! He came! He really liked it, and afterwards we gave him a Book of Mormon and invited him to read it. So we´ll see! :) 

Well, that´s it for this week. Love you all! Have a great day! 

Hermana Cannon

Quick Update

More photos


Monday, November 9, 2015

The Missionary in Argentina

Hey Fam: 

I had to differentiate there in the title, because now there are two missionaries in the family! YAY! Super excited to hear the news, and so excited to be working together in the Lord`s work as his chosen servants. Congratulations Jessica! I mean, Sister Cannon. :) 

This week was pretty crazy, because we were traveling a lot. First we had interviews with the presidente, then we had a zone meeting on friday in San Luis, and ended it all with Intercambios with the sister training leaders. Then today we`re going to Mendoza to do some Visa work for Hermana Sandau and won`t be back till Wednesday. It`s all pretty crazy. But craziness doesn`t stop these sisters! We had some great lessons this week, and one of our investigators came to church! 

His name is Leonardo. We are also teaching his brother Victor, I don`t know if I`ve told you about him. But Victor has been working a lot so we haven`t been able to see him for a long time. Anyway Leonardo is about 26 years old or so, and he`s a language teacher. The Elders have been working with him for a while, so he`s already read various parts of the Book of Mormon, and says he thinks it`s true. He`s also already prayed to know if it`s true, and says he felt good and at peace. Wahoo! We invited him to be baptized, and he said he`d have to think and keep praying about it. Yesterday he came to chruch, which was really exciting! It just so happened to be the same sunday where the entire stake presidency came to visit the branch, so the chapel was full to the max. He couldn`t stay for priesthood, but he was able to come to sunday school, and he participated lots too. Anyway, we`re really excited about him. 

During the intercambios I was working with Hermana Lloyd, who`s actually from Karl and Vida`s ward. So that was fun. Hermana Goates, the president`s wife, has said that we should try and find more service opportunities to find people. So Saturday morning we walked past a family who was outside doing some saturday chores, and we offered to help. As always, they were a little resistant. But we kept offering, and talking with them, and finally they let us help out. We washed some of their porch chairs, and then shared a scripture and Book of Mormon with them. It actually went pretty well. They even gave us some juice and empanadas, and one of her daughters gave us a flower. So we`re definitely going to be doing that type of thing more often! haha

Well, I guess that`s about it for this week. Hope you all have a great week! 

Hermana Cannon

p.s. There`s a picture of me with Presidente and Hermana Goates, and a balloon. Hermana Goates used balloons as an example of how we should elevate ourselves to elevate the mission. So...just to explain. :) 

Monday, November 2, 2015

Mas Fotos


Here´s some more pictures of the activity we did with the primary kids and their kites. Bariletes, they´re called. :) 

Mas Fotos


Here´s some more pictures of the activity we did with the primary kids and their kites. Bariletes, they´re called. :) 

Feliz Hallo...como?

Hey Friends and Family! 

Happy Halloween! So I thought they didn´t celebrate Halloween here because I didn´t see anything or anyone dressed up last year, but this year we did! Just a few kids going around to some of the street shops or houses asking for candy. It was cute. And I happened to have some candy in my pocket from earlier that day, so I handed some out. 

Also that morning we had traveled to Villa Mercedes (40 minutes on bus to where the other missionaries in our district are) to do a Tormenta Blanca, which is basically just where a bunch of missionaries all get together to help out one specific area. Knock doors and find people to give the missionaries in that area a little boost. So we went around and knocked doors, taking a Halloween approach to make it more interesting. It kind of went like this. 
Knock Knock. 
"Hola?"
"Hola! Feliz Halloween!"
"...Como?"
"Sabe lo que es Halloween?"
"...no."

And then we explained what Halloween was and offered them candy, a passalong card, and tried to set a time that the other missionaries could pass by and visit them. It was kind of funny. A couple people had heard of Halloween, but it´s just not that common. 

What else is new... oh, this week was a little slower because Hermana Sandau came down with a sore throat and a bit of a fever, so we had to take a trip to the hospital and try and get her better. She´s still got a little frog in her throat (haha, see pic) 

But we were still able to meet some new people, and do some teaching, so that was good. We weren´t able to meet with Christian this week, because he nor Ignacio were there for the meeting we set, but we did see Lucia. And she read! We left Moroni 10:3-5 and she read it through a couple times she told us because she didn´t understand it the first time. We have another meeting with her tonight, so we´ll see how she´s doing. 

This week we had a cool experience, and another testimony builder on Member Missionary work. We were looking for some old investigators, and one man we found told us that there was a lady who lived down the street whose brother had been listening to the missionaries, and had passed away not too long ago. So we went over and knocked her door. We talked to her for quite a while, but she explained that she was really closed off to God for now, and didn´t want to meet with us. We tried to share a hymn or different things, but she just kept refusing, so we left. 

The next day we went to the primary activity to help the kids make kites, and guess who was there? Vanessa! The lady we had talked to. Turns out she´s friends with the primary president, and she had invited Vanessa with her daughter to the activity. It was great, and she really liked the activity. So we´ve talked with the primary president and her husband and they´re going to try and set up a service activity in her yard and a family home evening with her. 

It was really neat to see, and although it was sad to see that she doesn´t want to accept the missionaries, the more important thing is that she accept the gospel, which can be taught and shared through many different forms. Love Member Missioary Work! 

Well, have a great week! Love you all! 

Hermana Cannon

Sunday, November 1, 2015

Springtime Winter

Dear Family: 

Good news! Hermana Sandau is letting me take pictures for her using her memory card, so I can send pictures now! We´ll see how long this lasts... haha

So these weeks have been really interesting because we should be in the middle of springtime. We´ve had a couple days where we went out with short sleaves and everything. But the weather is being really crazy, and for the last three days it´s been really cold, cloudy, and rainy. I had to bring my thick winter scarf out and everything. And I keep hearing that it´s going to be off an on like this for the whole rest of the year! Super weird. I was really looking forward to getting my Christmas tan. Que lastima. But I guess we´ll see. 

So besides the wacky weather, things are going great here in Justo Daract! More than anything we´re just having trouble getting second meetings with people. We´ll meet with them on the street or in their house, teach and have a great lesson, and set a time for the next meeting, and then something always happens and it falls through. Oh, I guess I kind of explained that already. Well anyway, it´s still a problem. But we were able to meet with some great investigators for the second time this week! So I´ll tell about them. 

Cristian, Ignacio, and Lucia. Lucia has family who are recent converts, so she already knows a little bit about the chruch. She and Ignacio are living together, and they have three daughters under the age of four, and they are so adorable! And Ignacio is so cute with them. Cristian is their neighbor, and brother of the Elders Quorum President. The first lesson we had with them we talked a little bit about the restauration and invited them to pray. Lucia looks at the pamphlet with the steps of prayer on it and goes, "okay. Let´s see how this goes." And then she just starts praying. After she finishes, Ignacio goes, "Okay Cristian, your turn." And Cristian then offers a heartfelt prayer too. It was very neat. 

Then this next lesson that we had was really great too. Ignacio and Lucia hadn´t prayed or read any of the pamphlet, but Cristian said he had. And he told us that all that week after our first visit went really well for him! It was so great to hear that from him. After the lesson, we invited Ignacio to pray since everyone else had already offered one before. He didn´t want to, but he sat there looking at the steps and thinking how he might say it, and we kept helping him out and encouraging him to do it for like 20 minutes. Cristian and Lucia were also helping him out, and encouraging him to do it. You could see the look on his face, and knew he wanted to do it, but in the end he said he just couldn´t. It was kind of sad that he didn´t feel up to it, but something Cristian said was interesting. "It´s hard the first time, but then it gets easier." And it really made me think about what prayer really is. I guess I had never thought of prayer from their point of view. It´s their first conversation with their father in heaven. After going throughout their lives, maybe they know God is their father, maybe they don´t. Maybe they don´t even know He exists, much less that He loves them. Hearing investigators´ first prayers has always been one of my favorite parts of missionary work, and now I understand a little more why. 

I know that prayer is real. That God does listen, and He does care. And He gives good gifts to His children, especially those who are willing to ask. 

Have a great week everyone! Love you all! 

Hermana Cannon

Springtime Winter


Monday, October 19, 2015

And The Things Are Goin

Dear Fam and Friends: 

Another week in Justo Daract! Still going well, still love it lots! 

We`ve been able to meet lots of new people, and everyone we meet is super great. Very receptive, and show lots of interest! The only problem we`re having at the moment is getting a second appointment with people. We meet so many great investigators, and have great first lessons, but the second meeting something always happens and it falls through. So, we`ll keep working on it. 

As for the branch, it`s super great! The members are really nice, and they`ve been giving us lots of referals too, which has been helpful. They`re great member missionaries, and they have lots of hope for the branch`s future. 

And Hermana Sandau is doing great too! She`s learning really fast, and she`s starting to understand and be able to talk a little more. She`s a hard worker and has great ideas to add to the work too. We`re working hard! 

This week we went to a member`s house to eat lunch and we helped them make empanadas. They looked a little different than usual, but I didn`t think much of it till we started eating and everyone asks, do you like it? do you know what it is? I don`t remember how the word is in spanish, but they showed pictures, and apparently it was Emu meat. you know, like that ostrich thing? Yeah! It did taste different, but I liked it. The thing is that it was their pet apparently. I don`t remember his name, but they told us. ...so yeah! 

They also tell me they eat armadillo here. The elder`s quorem president says he`ll go out one of these days with his dogs to catch one so he can make it for us. So I`ll keep you posted! 

I guess that`s it for this week. Love you all! Sorry, no pictures. I don`t know if I`ll be able to send any more because the memory card won`t let me. I guess I`ll see what I can do. 

Love ya! 

Hermana Cannon

Monday, October 12, 2015

Justo Daract

Dear Family and Friends: 

Hey! So first things first, my new area is called Justo DARACT not Iraq jaja. That was a good thing to get cleared up. 

It was hard to leave Tupungato, but I was super excited and nervous for what was to come, I didn´t think too much about it. I miss the families and the area, but I also love San Luis, so it all just kind of evens out. 

My new Hija! Her name is Hermana Sandau, and she´s from Vernal Utah. She´s so great! I really wanted to send a whole bunch of pictures, but my memory card isn´t working. So, we´ll see if I can send some next week. She´s got red hair and freckles, I can tell you that jaja. She´s so great! How´s her spanish you ask? Well, let´s just say she took german for three years. jaja she said she was just confused when she say Mendoza Argentina on her mission call. So yeah. Basically I´ve spoken more english since thursday then I have my whole mission combined. So that´s a change. 

Actually, she´s doing really great with her spanish, I´m really impressed. Even if she doesn´t know the exact words, she jumps in where she can with the spanish she knows. Not like me at the beginning of my mission where I was avoiding eye contact with my companion so I wouldn´t have to give any part in the lessons haha. And I´ve been speaking as much spanish with her as I can, and she understands most of it. Where it gets hard for her is understanding the Argentines. Especially here in San Luis, the accent is different, and I´m still getting used to it as well. Justo Daract is a half hour walk from Cordoba, so the accent is really close to the accent from there, which is a bit more sing-songy. It´s really fun, I love it. 

And the area is so beautiful! And the members are great. So it´s a little branch, yesterday we had 19 people come to church. But we´ll see that grow, no worries. :) We´ve already met with some of the investigators the elders were working with, and we´re super excited about them. there´s not much to tell because we just got here friday afternoon since it´s a five hour drive to San Luis from Mendoza, and then another forty minute bus from the terminal in Villa Mercedes to Justo. Then we spent a lot of time planning and cleaning out the area book. It´s been somwhere in the 10 year range since there have been sisters in the area, actually. So we´re making history me and Hermana Sandau! Wahoo! 

So this week we´re getting right to work, and I´ll let you know how things go. The area isn´t too large, but it´s all full of houses, not as much farming feilds as I´m used to, so there´s lots of people to see. 

I guess the moral of this week is, no matter the task, the area, the challenges, with God, all things are possible, and I know that. The power of prayer is real, and I´ll be using it a lot this week. And the gift of tongues, also a powerful tool we´ll be seeing lots of these coming weeks. :) 

Love you all! 

Hermana Cannon

Monday, October 5, 2015

Drumroll Please...

Dear Family: 

First of all, these keys on the keyboard are extremely sticky. oh the joys of public cybers. 

Secondly, how great was this conference!?!?! In all reality, the speakers were truly inspired, the spirit was extremely strong. I loved every minute! And listening to the three new apostles was extremely special, and one could truly see that they are men called of God. 

Let`s see, what else is there to tell? ah yes... the TRANSFERS!!!! that`s right ladies and gentleman, brothers and sisters, romans and countrymen, it`s transfer week! What happens with Hermana Cannon you ask? Well, I shall tell you. I`m going to Justo Iraq, San Luis! (I don`t know how to spell it, but that`s how it sounds). My first time leaving the province of Mendoza! I`m way excited, and i hear it`s very pretty there. Ah, but there`s more. I guess you probaly won`t be surprized to hear that I`m training! and washing area! haha I couldn`t believe it when I heard it. So this thursday I`ll head to Mendoza to recieve my new missionary. Only two sisters are coming in. One from Luisiana, and the other from somewhere here in Argentina. Super excited! 

Let`s see, a couple great things that happened this week was the day when we had surprize splits. an hermana in the branch called and said, hey! I`m in centro! can i accompany you? meet me at the chruch! So we go and she had brought another sister with her so we split up and were able to have a few member lessons! So that was fun. 

Also yesterday we had a cool experience. Yesterday in between sessions we had planned to see someone, and they weren`t home, so we knocked doors. I thought we wouldn`t find anyone because it was a in the middle of the afternoon on a sunday, but we entered a house, and found a golden investigator, a 19 year old single mom with a one year old boy who shared with us she had just been praying recently to be able to believe again in god, and pleading for his help. Way neat! Miracles really do happen, even during the siesta. :) 

Also this week we were able to meet with Graciela and her whole family and teach them lesson one. She`s living with her boyfriend again, which is another story, but we`ve been trying to meet with them both and haven`t been able to, but we found them. He has lots of doubts, and isn`t afraid to share his opinion, which is actually a lot easier to teach when investigators are like that, so it went over well. At the end, he offered the closing prayer, and did it perfectly. Graciela started crying. it was very sweet. they didn`t come to the conference, but I know they`ll come to chruch someday. 

We also had a great lesson with jorge and maria yesterday. we had planned to teach the law of chastity, but then they were a little busy and we started late, so we decided to teach something else. before we could start, Jorge asked us a question about homosexuals and what`s the chruch`s opinion on it. Hermana King and I look at eachother and go, well, looks like we`re teaching Law of Chastity. Sometimes God can be pretty straightforward, it`s great. :) The lesson went really well. They`re improving so much! Their prayers have gotten so much better, and their questions are always great, and they`ve been reading every day. So exciting! 

It`s going to be really hard to leave this area. I love everything about it! I`m going to really miss the members, the area, the investigators, everything. I`m so grateful for the opportunity to have had to be here and serve a little in the lives of the Tupungatinos. And so, I go where the Lord wants. Here we come San Luis! 

Love you all! Have a great week! 

Hermana Cannon

p.s. sorry, i didn`t take pictures last week, but I`ll have lots this week of saying goodbye to Tupungato, my new hija, and San luis! Tune in then! :)

Monday, September 28, 2015

Dear Family: 

Hey guys! Hope you´re all in good health. 

This week was great! The first normal week we´ve been able to have in a long time. No meetings, no trips, just WORK. It was really refreshing! Especially since this week is going to be a little crazy again. We´ve got Consejo on Thursday (the meeting we go to as sister training leaders with all the zone leaders and the president and his wife and assistents), then we have GENERAL CONFERENCE THIS WEEKEND!!!!!!! Basically almost better than christmas. Can´t wait! We´ll be watching it on internet here in our chappel in Tupungato, so we´ll be praying lots that it doesn´t freeze too much. :) 

So anyway this week we were able to see lots of miracles! I´ll share a few of my favorites. Firstly, we met with the Freyre family this week. They haven´t really been progressing, and they´ve been having some problems in their families and marriage and such. It´s hard and sad, but it´s also not a surprise. Not because of them, they´re great people! But because the adversary knows that they´re on to something good. So he´s right there with them pinching arms, tugging ears, and tickling noses, creating as much trouble as he can. Just those little nibbling at the heal things. They´re always small, but he has a way of making them look so big. The other day we were cleaning the chapel and talkig to the relief society president about them, and she said something I really liked. She said that in her life she always found that she always expected Satan to attack from the outside, but it turned out that all the problems she´s had to face recetly were things that came from within her own family, and her own self. That she had to be the one to humble herself, ask forgiveness, and repent. It´s so true! Satan really gets in all the nooks and cranies of our personality, our weakesses, and even our testimonies, trying to turn even our own strengths against us. And what can we do in return? Ask your nearest primary attendant. PRAY. READ THE SCRIPTURES. GO TO CHURCH. Keep enduring, it´s not the end yet. And I´ve found, especially this week, that the first thing God asks us to do is to be humble. Pride is a real killer. Satan´s favorite tool. Don´t give it fuel! Humility. Gratitude. Repentance. Those are normally the hardest things for me to do, but I can almost always bet they´re the first things on the list of things God needs me to do in all the trials he sends my way, until I can get the hang of it. 

...where was I? ah. Miracles. So this week we were able to visit them with the branch president. It was a great lesson! He was able to relate a lot better with the Hermano than we´ve been able to, and bore great testimony of Joseph Smith and the truthfuless of the Chruch of Jesus Christ. So, we´re making progress. Slowly and surely. They came to chruch on suday for part of the meeting, so that was an improvement! :) 

And my favorite miracle of the week! So remember Jorge and Maria? They´re so great! We wanted to do a church tour with them yesterday, but they all came down with pink eye (or something similar with some spanish name) so they couldn´t come. :( But anyway so the whole time we´ve been teaching them we´ve tryed OUR HARDEST to get a member to come to the lessos with us. But time after time something always fell through. Finally one thursday we asked Hermana Gonzalez to come with us. And all day we prayed and hoped that it would all work out. It did! And when we walk into the house, who woulda known? They knew eachother! They were already friends! The lesson was great, and Hermana Gonzalez was able to bear beautiful testimony of the chruch, and her own conversion experience. When we leave, I remembered something from like four months ago. Hermana Gonzalez had told us was that she had a friend who was very into the evangalist chruch, and she had tried a million times to share the gospel with her, to no result. Then she moved to a different house, and they kind of lost contact. This was her friend! And we had found her because one day we were looking in the area book and there was registered from the missionaries before us Jorge´s name and address. Hermana Gonzalez shared that recently she has been praying for missionary opportunities. I have no doubt that her prayers sent us to their house, so that she could later come with us that day and bear testimony to her friends. 

Miracles are real friends. I believe in the power of prayer, and I know that we are always blessed, in the Lord´s time. He wants us to be patient, to be humble, and to be firm in the faith of Christ, and He is always there to help us along, and send us little gifts and miracles along the way. 

Love you all! Have a great week! 

Hermana Cannon

p.s. Sorry, I didn´t take lots of pictures this week. This picture is one of us when we got caught in a hail storm in the middle of a bunch of vinyards. Some as big as gummy bears. Fun stuff! The good thing is that they weren´t completely ice. It was more like snow. So, I mean, it didn´t leave welts... or very many. haha!

Monday, September 21, 2015

Things Happen


Dear Fam: 

This week has been great! 

We had another Sonda storm this week, which was the biggest one I`ve seen here yet. So that was fun. 

We also had an earthquake here. I don`t know if you all heard about the earthquakes happening in Chile. But the effects are felt here too. But really small. Big enough that you feel it, and the light fixtures and trees move around and stuff, but it only lasted a few seconds and then it was over. So nothing huge here. But we`ve been thinking about those in Chile. 

Sorry I don`t have a whole lot of time to write this week. Everything`s going good. We`re still working with Graciela, Jorge and Maria, and the Freyre Family. We found lots of new investigators too, so we`re doing lots of work! Here`s a couple pictures. Worth a thousand words, right? 

Love you all! 

Hermana Cannon

Things Happen

One more picture


Monday, September 14, 2015

I say, good day!

Dear Family and Friends: 

Well, things are going pretty good here in Tupungato! This month the area presidency put out an iniciative of Month of Invitations! ...it sounds better in spanish. Mes de Invitaciones! Ah. Mejor. Anyway, this month we´re focusing lots on Keeping the sabath day holy, and inviting all friends and family to come to chruch. So as a Zone we put together a contract where the members can sign their name to say they´ll attend the four sundays in September, and invite a less active and non member to chruch as well. And we´ve really seen results! There´s a picture I sent of us making tacos for less actives, and then another of when they came to chruch! And they haven´t attended my whole time here, so we´re really excited! I´m a little indecisive of whether it´s was thanks to the contract, or the tacos that brought them to chruch, but we´re gonna go with the contract. :) No, in all honesty, I have a real testimony that the area presidency are truly inspired, and that this focus on chruch attendance, which I believe is worldwide, is exactly what we need as members and missionaries. The attendance yesterday was 99! Usually it´s around 70 or 80, so it was a huge improvement! The goal for the branch is 120, so we´re getting there! 

Also this week we´ve been working with lots of investigators, and doing lots of finding. 

Graciela we met this week, a single mom with three kids. We only had two lessons with her, but she´s really understanding, and accepted a baptisimal date! She didn´t make it to church yesterday because she was making empanadas, but we´ll definitely be working a little more with her this week. 

Still working with Jorge and Maria, who also didn´t make it to chruch. They have lots of work this season with the walnut cracking and separating, which is really time consuming. but they always have lots of questions when we teach, and they keep asking us to bring members with us to the lessons so they can ask more questions. THat´s always the goal, to have members in every lesson, and sometimes it´s a little difficult becuase, you know, life. But, we keep working at it. 

We´re also still working with Marcela and Miguel, the couple who got married. Right now they´re going through some hard times in their families, and their relationship. Prayers for them would be appreciated. The good thing is that the gospel is made for that, helping us in our individual lives, in our families, and marriage. It´s good for everything! We just have to help them to understand that, and understand how to put the teachings into action. 

So, things are still going great here, and the work moves forward. Thanks for all the prayers, Love you all! 

Hermana Cannon

I say, good day!

More photos


Monday, September 7, 2015

Kinda Normal Week

Dear Family: 

Well, no really big news this week. We went to the Mission Council meeting on Tuesday and had our Zone meeting on Friday, but although usually having lots of meetings like that cuts down a lot on the mission feild work, we worked super hard this week, so I kinda forgot we even had meetings. We´re still getting to know our new area, and this week we´ll be going out with lots of members so they can help us out a little bit. The thing with our area is that it´s made up of lots of neighborhoods that are far away from one another. So it takes a little more planning than normal with all the buses we have to take and such. This week we didn´t get off the bus when we should have and had to wait till the bus turned around and headed back. We made it at last, just a little late. Like an hour. It was kind of funny.  

As for the Freyre family, we met with them this week, and found out that they still don´t have a real testimony of the basics. Prayer, The Book of Mormon, church attendance, those things. They weren´t able to come to church yesterday either. So we´re starting back at the beginning with them, and we´ll have to change their baptism date for sometime in October, we´re hoping. We know the desire is there, because they took the step to get married. Now we just have to work with that desire until it can grow into a firm testimony that can last, well, the eternity. So we´re still excited, we´ll just be doing a little backtracking is all. 

Last week we found a new family too, Maria and Jorge and their three daughters, and we´re super excited about them. We shared the Gracias a Que El Vive video with them, and set up a date to come do service. There´s a ton of Walnut orchards in Tupungato, and lots of people find work cracking and separating walnuts. You ask for a provider to send you bags of walnuts, then you crack and separate them, and the provider comes and picks them up and pays you. It´s nice because you can do it in your own house and time, but it´s super time consuming, and doesn´t pay very well. A lot of people do it as a side job, in addition to whatever else they´re doing. Anyway, so they had to finish their load by friday, and were a little behind, so we came and helped them out for a few hours. While separating walnuts they were asking questions about the church, and we were able to talk a little bit about the plan of salvation with them. Yesterday we were able to have another lesson with Maria, and taught about Joseph Smith. It was a really good lesson, and we invited her to pray and ask if it was true. it was cute because at first she didn´t feel comfortable praying, and after explaining the steps of prayer and inviting her again, she finally said she would do it. Then she goes, "But what if he doesn´t answer?" It was really sweet, and I think it showed that she´ll pray with real intent. 

And I guess the main thing I learned this week, from both families, is what a blessing it is that the gospel is so simple. A lot of times we get caught up in the extremities, or we complicate the doctrines and principles. But being able to teach people the simple truths of the gospel reminds me of my days in primary. I think my favorite testimonies to hear are those of the primary kids, becuase it´s so simple, and so pure. Jesus Christ lives. Joseph Smith was a prophet. The Book of Mormon is true. God loves us. He hears and answers our prayers. 

I know this gospel is true, in it´s simple fulness. Let us learn, remember, and live the basic truths. 

Hermana Cannon