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

Tuesday, September 1, 2015

Change of Plans

Dear Framily: 

So it seems there´s been a...change of plans. (Fore those of you who didn´t read that sentence--in your head or otherwise--with the most movie-dramatic voice posible, please retry.) 

Turns out that the Rama Tupungato, which used to have six missionaries, now has only four. Me, Hermana King, Elder Poot, and Elder OrmeƱo. SOOOO we changed the area limits a little bit, and now we only have half of my old area, and all of the area the other hermanas were working in. Wahoo! 

So, it´s a pretty big area, and I´m washing area YET AGAIN, but we´re really excited! Hermana King is really great, really upbeat and funny and with lots of great ideas, so I´m really excited for this transfer! Also, we haven´t spoken english once this whole week, so that´s been great! In all honesty, spanish comes out easier than english, so it´s all good. :) 

So anyway, we´re working super a ton, and it´s great. There´s so much to tell! 

First of all, the hermanas were teaching a family, the Freyre family, and they´re on their way to get baptized! And by on their way I mean, for reals! THEY GOT MARRIED ON FRIDAY!!!!!! It was super great, we got to attend their marriage, and it was so special. I sent a picture with me, my companion hermana king, the happy couple, and a girl in the ward, Karen, who came to support them. The picture of us in the car is us going to their house for the lunch. the two boys in the picture are their two kids, Ezequiel and Leonel. Ezequiel just turned 8, so he´s getting ready to be baptized too. WAHOO!!! We´re really excited, and we´re going to be working with them really closely this week. They´re date for baptism was September 12, but they´ve only been to church once, and they have to come 3 times at least to be baptized. Prayers in their regard would be appreciated. We really need them to come to church, and to gain firm testimonies so they can remain faithful members. 

Anyway, so that´s the most exciting news. Other than that we´re just trying to get to know the area, and working with the members. We did meet with Macarena, who read the Law of Chastity pamphlet and a few passages in the book of mormon, and we had a great lesson with her. She´s in the elder´s area now, so we won´t be meeting with her ourselves anymore, but the good thing is that she´s showing true interest in the gospel. Wahoo! 

We also met with Daniel and his wife Cintia, and now he´s working a little less which is good, so we´re going to be able to meet with him more often this week. I´ll keep you all posted! :) 

Thanks for everything! I love you all! 

Hermana Cannon

Change of Plans


More photos.


Hermana Cannon