Monday, January 26, 2015

Algunos Cambios

Dear Everyone: 

Traslados! Are you ready? Are you ready for this? ...wait for it... Hermana Cannon se va a Uspallata! And wait, there`s more... Hermana Cannon is training! And, by process of common sense, that also means that Hermana Cannon is washing the area! 

Whew. It`s okay, you can take a second to breathe. I`ve been doing so multiple times all morning. Let`s just say Hermana Cannon didn`t sleep much last night haha. 

So, it`s goodbye beloved Balloffet, and hello to mountains in the middle of nowhere closer to chile than Mendoza, with district meetings over the phone. En serio. 

Actually, I`m way excited. I`ve learned so much here in San Rafael, grown a ton, and made five million y pico mistakes, and I`m grateful for every experience. I basically have no idea how to train mi hija, but I`m not to worried. In part because I think reality still hasn`t quite hit me, and in other part becuase I know that if God wants this for me, I know I can do it. I`ve only got 18 months here in this strange land, so hey, give me everything possible so that I can grow and change and make as many weaknesses strengths as possible before heading back to the regular world. I know it`s going to be hard, and I`m sure anyone who can see what`s ahead can probably laugh in my face, but when I leave things in God`s hands, I know that He can do great things with me in the refiners fire. 

Anyway, so there`s that. Mission motherhood, here I come! :) 

So this week we had a capilla abierta activity, and it went really well! The ward mission leader and a a couple kids were outside the doors talking to people on the street, giving out pass along cards, and inviting them to do a tour of the chappel. Just from those people we did five tours of the chappel, and got a bunch of names of people interested in hearing from the missionaries! I think my favorite part was the enthusiasm from the members. The relief society and young women decorated their rooms in the chappel to show the people who came in, and everyone was really excited about the whole thing. It was so great to see. We even had a menos activo come who hasn`t been to church in a year! Woot! 

It was so exciting. 

Oh, I guess I have a little bit of bad news. So after teaching the word of wisdom to Mauricio, he hasn`t wanted to meet with us. He hasn`t said anything, but whenever we set up appointments with him, he`s never home or never answers the door. So we had to drop him. I just wanted to say thanks so much for all of your prayers for him and for his family. Although he may not want to accept the gospel at this moment, we keep praying that he will continue in his research, and hopefully someday accept it completely. It`s always sad to drop investigators, but it`s still good to know that we planted a seed. It says in preach my gospel to remember the importance of sharing and teaching the gospel, no matter the result. Really, I know that Mauricio felt the spirit in the lessons, and at church. And although he`s not ready for baptism right now, the things that he learned I know helped him, and will continue to help him. 

Well, I guess that`s all I have time for. I was reading in Mosiah this morning, 16:8-9, ( I think that was the reference) which talks about the sting of death being swollowed up in Christ. It talks specifically about the ressurrection, but it also applies to any sting, any pain, any difficulty. Really, it doesn`t matter what happens in life. What mistakes we made, what challenges we have to face, if we focus our efforts on Christ, he can give us the strength to do all things, to face our fears, find comfort in hardship, and to help others when we ourselves feel weak. I`ve seen the power of the Atonement countless times in my life, and know this to be true. All of it. 

See you all next week in USPALLATA! :) Oh, yes, that it where Hermana Tirado went. And now she goes home to Peru in two days! 

Chao for now! 

Hermana Cannon 

p.s. Oh, some photos of the activity, and also me and the real "don`t cry for me argentina" lady. Not maddonna, the other one. Well a statue of her anyway. Her head, really. ;) 

Monday, January 19, 2015

Your Friend in South America

Hey all! 

Hm. I don´t really feel like there´s much to tell this week. Weird.*looks in her agenda to see what happened this week* Yeah, it wasn´t all that action packed. We had interviews and a meeting with the president, as well as intercambios, so we weren´t able to meet with as many people as we had liked, which is a bit discouraging. But most of the efforts for this week will be "taking fruit" per say, this coming week. We´ve got lots of citas set with new investigators, noches de hogar with members and menos activos, and I´m way excited to see where this week takes us. 

We also had Mauricio and Telma cancel on us this week, so that was a bit of a downer. But we did some service saturday morning for a less active whose mom is going back to Neuqen this week, so that was good. We also met with Hermana Liz, an investigator we´ve been working on. I guess I´ll tell a little about her, cuz there´s not much else to report. :) 

Liz is from Peru and has lived here in San Rafael for six years with her husband Jesus and her 4 year old Anabella. Basically she´s an investigator a little different from the others. Whenever we teach her, she always has a ton of questions, and doesn´t really like to take our word for anything. "where does the bible say that?" "Where do you get that idea?" That kind of stuff. Normally it would seem a little annoying, but it´s actually really great to know that she´s not going to just believe anything we or anyone tells her. We invited her again this last lesson to read the Libro de Mormon and to pray to know that Joseph Smith was a prophet. I´m excited to see if she was able to take the challenge. :) 

Hmm... what else. 

I´ll send some photos from Valle Grande when we went two weeks ago. It´s super weird becuase it basically looks like Utah. Hermana Keil, another sister in the zone, is also from Utah and as we were driving to Valle Grande we were like, This isn´t even Argentina. haha

Oh, so this week cayó piedras. Or in other english words, it hailed. But the hail here is huge. They say sometimes it gets as big as golf balls. Last night when it hailed they were about as big as my pinky nail, so not too huge. But yesterday walking around the Barrio there were leaves everywhere in the streets, and the trees were pretty destroyed. So that was exciting. 

Anyway, guess that´s everything. Have a great week everyone! 

Hermana Cannon

Monday, January 12, 2015

A Week with Wots of Work

Hola Todos! 

First off, sorry, this computer is frustrating, so no photos this week. But hey, no complaining, I haven´t missed a week in like, two transfers. :) 

Second off, a little update about Mauricio. The last lesson we gave was a review of the Restauration, and we introduced him to the Word of Wisdom. We were really excited becuase he said he only drinks alcohol occasionally, and with smoking and drugs he doesn´t have a problem with. And he´s getting a lot better in his prayers as well. But, as I think I´ve mentioned, he works in construction, and it´s an event job. So this week he´s been working a lot and we haven´t been able to meet with him after that. We went again yesterday to walk with him to church, and once again no one was home. We´re starting to get a little worried that he may not really be interested in continuing, and has been avoiding us so he doesn´t have to tell us. Nothing final yet, we haven´t lost faith. We just have to find him and have a talk about whether or not he really wants to continue. Lots of prayers for him would be appreciated. 

It´s really hard to drop investigators. But at the same time, there´s only so much we can do for people. In the end, they have their agency, and we can only present them with the truth in an atmosphere where the spirit can testify, and then it´s up to them to choose. In the end, I know that even before I got here, God has been preparing people who are ready to not just recieve the missionaries, but recieve the gospel. Our job is to find them. As President Goates said in the last zone conference, (I don´t remember where the scripture is, about the fishers and hunters...) "I´m here to tell you that the time of fishermen has come and gone. The missionaries we send out now are the hunters. We no longer sit for hours with our line in the water waiting for a catch. But we go out searching in every place for those who are prepared to hear the gospel." In other words, lots and lots of walking, referral asking, door knocking, talking and teaching. 

And this week we were able to go out a lot with the members, which is always great. 

Hmm. What else to tell...

Oh, so we hear tell that the mission president is thinking of changing the proselyting schedule for the summer. What happens is there´s always been the siesta here, where everything shuts down after lunch and every goes to take their afternoon nap. But before, people would wake up and get going again around 4:30. Now that the temperatures are a little closer to the full concentrated powers of the sun, people don´t wake up until about 6, and things really don´t start moving again until about 8, when we´re just about heading back to the pench. So depending on how things go after interviews with the president, we might be allowed to stay out a little later, and, get this, maybe even SLEEP THE SIESTA. haha. I guess we´ll see. But that would be pretty exciting. 

Anyway, I guess that´s about it. We were only able to meet with Telma for a few minutes, and she´s also been really busy with work, so we´re hoping that things settle down a bit so we can meet with her a little more this week as well. 

Hope all is well for everyone! Thanks for all the prayers and support! Love you all! 

Hermana Cannon 

p.s. Haven´t gotten the christmas letter yet. It´s probably sitting around in the offices somewhere, so we´ll see if the President brings letters this thursday for interviews. :)

Monday, January 5, 2015

Feliz Año Nuevo!

Dear Framiry: 

Hey everyone! So this week was a little very weird. Starting on the 30th, both Hna Fernandez and I got a werid stomach ache. We figure it´s probably from something we ate, but we thought of everything and can´t pinpoint it. Anyway, the 31st and 1st we weren´t allowed to leave the pench to proselyte anyway, which kinda worked out cuz we were in no condition to go out and preach the gospel. We cleaned out the fridge, the bedroom, in fact the whole pench, and disinfected everything. It was kind of a pathetic arangement actually. We both would be laying down until we got bored and be like, okay. We´re feelin good. Let´s go clean. Or make a pie. (see picture. :) )  And then in the middle of said activity we´d have to go lay down again. A little hilarious. 

That night we were invited to a New Years dinner in the Zone Leaders´ ward, (all the missionaries have permission to stay out till 11:30. woot!) and we were so sick of the pench that we went. The food was delicious (see picture). Or at least, the little bit that we could stomach down. It had to be New Years. haha

Anyway, so there´s the new years story. All in all, it was an interesting break, and we´re more than happy to be healthy and invested again in the Lord´s work. 

This week was also a little difficult to find people to teach. What with the holidays and partying and all. Worst of all, we weren´t able to meet with Mauricio, and although we went again on Sunday to take him to church, his brother told us he had left the night before and wouldn´t be able to attend. :( 

But I still have hopes for him. He´s doing great. The good news is that the lessons we have had with him thus far went really well. The last lesson we had he told us he had been reading the Gospel Principles manuel that we gave him. He couldn´t find his brother´s book of mormon, so we gave him one of his own so he can start reading that. And when we talked about how he felt about chruch last sunday he told us that he really liked it, and more than that, that he felt a difference in his life because of it. More purpose. 

It was so great to hear that from him. Because it´s so true, and you can see the change in him, just from a few little readings, and attending church. Normally he´s pretty quiet and reserved. And now he smiles more, and when he saw us on his bike one day he shouted out hello. And that´s what the gospel does. It doesn´t matter who you are, where you are in life, what you want to acheive, the gospel of jesus christ will help you. If you apply the principles and doctrines of Christ, you will be spiritually and mentally happier, healthier, and stronger. 

I´m so excited to continue working with him. Thanks for all the prayers and support! 

Love you all! 

Hermana Cannon