11-7-12

Hola Familia,

This week has been pretty good. I hope that you all had a great halloween and that you have enough candy to last until next year.

The work has been going pretty good. We have a younger brother of one of the recent converts that is reading and progressing, but we are trying to make sure that he is doing this because he wants to follow our Saviour's example and not because he just wants to prove to his brother that he can learn faster then he did. So we are planning and following what the spirit tells us to really help he be baptised for the right reasons.

A lot of our investigators have stopped progressing lately so we are t going to try and if they don't want to progress we are going to have to drop them and find a bunch of others, but that is just the phrases of the mission work.

We have been working on an idea from President Douglas about how we can help the less actives and working with the ward to help them reactivate. We have been working with that for a while now and we are starting to see the results. We have had a couple less actives coming to church and changing their lives. One is Alcenio and he is really progressing. He has to change a bunch of stuff in his life but he is making the changes and has been coming to church for a month straight now. This last sunday the elder's quorum president was giving a lesson about the importance of home teaching, and was saying how important it is to keep visiting them even if you don't see any progress in them but keep visiting them. Alcenio then commented how many times different members had passed by his house and he wasn't ready at that moment to change and come back to church. Then he said, "These two young men, even though I had never met them in my life before were prepared by God to reactivate me and they came just at the right moment in my life when I was willing and ready to make these changes." It was pretty special for me to see how that process works. First we heard the capacitation from president Douglas to talk and pray with the president of the branch and ask for three names of priesthood holders who we could help reactivate. We found the other two but couldn't find Alcenio partly because we didn't know where he lived. We kept trying to schedule a time to go with the branch president to show us where he lives but one day we went on our own asking where he lives. We found him and just got to know him. Then in the next lessons we had planned, and when we started the lesson I felt prompted to flat out ask him about the word of wisdom and we spent the entire lesson working out a plan so that he could change his habits with lots of drugs. We made the plans and then things just started falling into place. He was able to find a job that he works most of the days, and he moved and was able to find an apartment. We bought him a white shirt so that he would feel comfortable to come to church and now he brought his slacks and tie to his house and now he even has church shoes. It has been going great. The members are now more excited to work with us to try to reactivate more of the less actives. With the new changes in the branch elders quorum and mission leader we should be receiving more support from the branch so that is going great.

On Saturday Pres. and Hermana Douglas made a surprise visit to our zone leadership meeting they said that after the "Day of Cleaning" They checked a couple of the houses and they were horrible so they gave us all cleaner and sponges, and told us to clean our house really good because Elder Cornish is going to chech a couple of them. So that was pretty funny with the missionaries saying things like wow how imbarrassing that the mission president has to give the missionaries soap to clean their houses. It was pretty nice because we had just a little bit left so they gave us some more.
Sounds like everything is going great at home. I hope that you guys eat as much candy as you possible can just brush your teeth good. I finished all the chocolate that you guys gave me which was really nice. Keep up all the hard work with school and instruments and sports. I love you all tons and hope that you have an amazing week this coming week!
Con Amor
Elder Cannon

 

10-31-12

Hey family,

This week has been pretty good. We lost power in our apartment. The power was surging stronger and weaker. It burned out the neighbors TV and we thought that it burnt out everything in our house. so we called the office Elders, and they sent over a guy to fix it. Luckily it was just the breakers that burned out. So he replaced them and we were able to have light, but later we found out that the inverter also burnt out so now when there isn´t light we don´t have light.

This Monday we had House cleaning. They say that Elder Cornish from the area presidency is going to check our houses so we had a day to clean them. It took a while. We ended up cleaning it was a hose on the inside, which turned out a lot harder then we thought because we found our that our house is a bit of a bowl shape so trying to get all the water out was a problem.

This sunday was pretty neat. The Stake President came to the branch and an area seventy they both spoke but unfortunatey I wasn´t able to hear very much because of where I was sitting. They also reorganised the Elders Quorum so that is going to be nice because we are going to have more support from the elders quorum in our reactivation efforts, but they took our ward mission leader so now we don´t have that calling to help us.

This week The Branch President went with us and introduced us to a family. The wife had to work so she wasn´t there but we were able to share with the husband and He seems pretty interested. He asked a bunch of questions and told us that he has visited a couple of churches. He told us that he is visiting the Jehovahs witnesses right now. So we hope that that doesn´t slow him down at all.

Today we went bowling which was really funny. While we were sitting there one of the americans were trying to teach the latinos how to bowl and they were making fun of him how he was crossing his leg at the end. When we finally started to play a couple of the latinos slipped and fell on the butts and others there fingers got stuck, so it was pretty funny. We had a fun time.

The lady that was making fun of my companion a couple weeks ago, the one who has polio and we went and gave some service. Invited us to her house to eat some sweat beans and we shared a message. she wasn´t able to read but I hope that she will read and actually learn what we are teaching her. She said that she was going to call us but she still hasn´t called us so we´ll have to see what happens.

Well I hope that you have a great Halloweena and have a blast at the parties and eating all the wonderful food! Your costumes look really great! I love you tons and hope that you eat lots of candy especially tyler because next halloween he could be eating real liver filled with toenail crud and eyeballs, ha ha Have a great Week I love you all tons!!!

Con Cariño

Elder Cannon

10-24-12

Hey Familia this week has been great!

So this week we did our first exchange that Elder Fabian has had. I went with Elder Feliz the zone leader to Arroyo Hondo. It was great for Fabian to lead the area. When I was in Arroyo Hondo we had to go to their new house that they are going to move into and we had to wait there while they fixed the toilet and some light fixtures. So we waited there until 4pm which I am pretty sick of doing. Afterwards we were able to go to work.

While we were there we had to go and visit a recent convert of theirs. He went to the temple on saturday and some of the members thought that they saw him carring garments so we went to double check. We went over there and sure enough he had boughten garments. luckily he wasn't wearing them. He had opened a shirt to see how they were. So we had to explain to him that they are sacred and that he would understand more in the temple. Then we explained a little bit about the temple. We were really hoping that he would loose interest or be offended or something. The Bishop is going to buy them from him so that he doesn't loose money. It was just weird that they didn't ask for a recommend because there were a lot of members or something but they are going to call the Distrubution Center to tell them to be sure to double check.

This week the weather has been pretty nice. It has been raining a lot and has gotten pretty cool like low 80's and I don't know how cold it gets at night but we haven't had to sleep with our fans on so that is pretty nice. We have also been soaked a lot with a couple of good down pours. We were walking home from the Charca and It was raining bucketfulls and he were instantly soaked and we still have about 20 min of walking. A guy offered us a ride and he insisted that we get in even though we soaked his seats. He was really nice we tried to give him a pamphlet but he didn't want it at all. But we were really grateful for the ride.

I don't have any more time but I hope that you guys have a great week and that everything goes well. I hape you have fun preparing for halloween and I'll talk to you halloween. I love you Tons!

Con Amor

Elder Cannon

10-17-12

Hola Mi Familia,

Last week I told you that the floor of our apartment was bubbling up. So last week they came in and were picking out the concrete to put the new floor at the same level as the old floor. We called the assistents and told them and they told us that we needed to stay in the house while they were working. So they came in thursday morning and while they were picking another part of the floor bubbled up and then another and then the whole room. So they brought the owner in and he said rip it all out so they ripped it all out and we had to move everything into the little bedroom where we do our exercise. They then spent a day picking out the concrete and the owner decided not to pick it all out. So they started to put the tile on top and just have a little ledge where the old floor and the new floor meet. So they put a line in and then the next day they were about half way done and the wife of the owner came in and told them NO NO NO. So they had to ripe out what they had done and then they started picking again. They fired the first guy because they didn't like his work so then a day later they found another guy. He came in and had an idea so they siad that it was good. They picked out a part and another part they didn't. This whole time we spend in the two bedrooms between our desks and then our beds. We read a lot! We studied english together and some of the videos that we have. They finally finished today. So almost everyday we were stuck in our room until 6 at night, and then we would leave and teach people until 9:30, 10 at night. And the next day was the same for this whole week. I was able to reach my goal of reading the mission library before I have a year in the mission and miricle of forgiveness. It was a bit hard especially to cook a couple nights we had to eat out. So we tired to choose carfully which ones we ate to see if they were clean, but I didn't really have a problem with any of the food that we ate so that was a blessing.

This week we had a drunk guy stop us. We were on our way home walking with the branch mission leader, and the drunk guy wanted to show us something in his house. It was a pamphlet that he said I had given him. He had built a triangle fame and put around it then put flowers in some fragrent water and then a rosmary around it. He first told my companion to pray to it. We told him no that we don't believe in that stuff. So he told us to read him a scripture so we read about how we should worship God and nothing else. He asked us to recite with him and we told him no. It thought we were mind readers for a while because my companion saw the guys name on a plaque in his house and called him by his name. He told us that he had read the pamphlet "the plan of salvation" and that he understood it. We looked and I wasn't the one to give him the pamphlet. It was a different american that we here almost 8 months ago. So Javi the mission leader asked if he remembered the part when Jesus came down from heaven and burned up the city of wicked people. So he went off on that for a while how well he understood that part. So javi said ok now we know that you have read it. It was really funny.

We are teaching this family with their two boys who are 7 years old and 10 years old. We taught them the plan of salvation and then when we went by the next time to teach them about the gospel of Jesus Christ. Their son was asking their mom if he died would he go where the sinners go. And his mom asked what and then he said if I died would i go to the world teletial. It was really funny. He was telling her that he was trying to be a good boy and that he is nice the the kids at school even though sometimes his does things that aren't so good. Then we talked about baptism and they had a couple of questions about baptising children so we read some scriptures about that. They haven't been able to come to church because of her work. So we talked to them about doing a fast to let her boss have some time off Sunday morning so that she can come to church at least to sacrament meeting. They said that they would be willing to fast with us. So tonight they are going to tell us when they are going to fast with us.

We are also teaching the Brother of Dani, One of the young men that we baptised, and also their cousin. They are progressing pretty well. They have been reading and understanding a lot. Their cousin's dad just died and he seems to be taking it ok. We talked about where he dad is and then on sunday they talked about the temple and about doing the work for the dead, and he seemed releaved knowing that.

I hope that you guys had a blast at yellowstone! I also got the little package with the pillow case you sent it through florida, Thank you! But other than that nothing. I love you all and hope that you have an amazing week!

Con Amor

Elder Cannon

10-10-12

This week was really good.
This week Elder Fabian wasn´t interestedl. I saw it in the way that he acted with me and with other people. I tried to talk to him and he told me that he didn´t know why he was just bored with things. So I tried to help him, and was praying that some way we could find a way to help him be entusiastic about the work. The next day we went and taught a less active that we are working with and the less active showed us some of his books that he has from the church. In the stack was a spanish bood of mormon manual that helps you understand more in the book of mormon. Fabian asked if he could borrow it. Then when we got home he started to study it and found out that he was learning a lot more. He asked me a lot of questions. Some bacause he didn´t know and others to see if I knew. He started studying the Book of mormon with the manual every time we were in the house during lunch and study time, and when we got home after working. He got interested again for the work and studying. It was an answer to my prayers.
Conference was great. First I wasn´t able to watch it in english on saturday. We were the only ones in the church watching it in spanish and every now and again the young man the lives behind the church would come in. It wasn´t as bad as I thought watching it in spanish. I enjoyed all the talks! Priesthood session was really good, and I was able to watch it in english with airconditioning. It was really great spiritual boost. I learned lots of things that I can do better and put in practise these coming months. Sunday a member brought a laptop that I could watch conference in english. I was in the same room so I just used headphones. It was ok it had a lot of lag so at times it our jump and cut a part out.
On sunday we went to the house of another less active that we are working with and he wasn´t. His wife was there and we had tried to talk with her before and she rejected us. We asked if we could share and she accepted and we even had luis with us so that we could share with her. She accepted and we talked about conference and about Jesus Christ. I felt the spirit and what was really good was that her and luis know each other and she asked if he was investigating the church and the surprise on her face when he said that he is a member. He also bore his testimony about how he felt during his baptism. That was a huge stepping stone and Jonny her husband the less active came in towards the and and we asked if we could come back and share with them both and they said yes, she told us without commitments and we said that the commintments aren´t with us they are with you and God.
We contacted this lady and she was really negetive. I had felt inpressed to contact her and right then Fabian said let´s contact her so we went over there. and Her friend was there and started throwing out bible references, but for the most part I know what she was trying to say and was able to explain. The lady was pretty rude first she was insulting Fabian, like I didn´t know you could read and then Luis said some thing and she commented who look he talks. It was pretty rude. But we kept talking and I felt inpressed to ask if there was anything that we could do for them. she told us that she has polio and can´t get around easily and needs help cleaning up her back porch so we set a day to go and help her, she said that if we help her then she would read. So we can only hope for the best.
They are also redoing the floor in our apartment. It was bubbling before I got here. but it has gotten worse we told the owner and he said he would fix it but this last week it got really bad that it was hard to open the door. so we told him and this morning when they started pulling out a coupld of pieces they found out that a lot of the tile isn´t connected so the owner selected the worst part and they are doing that part. Underneath it is pure concrete and they have been picking for a lot time and it is going really slow. The main guy doing it is 79 years old and has been working the whole time. He says that he has energy reserves. His son sufferes from high blood preasure so he has to take breaks but the old guy has been going for a couple of hours straight. It was pretty inpressive we have offered to help but they tell us that the owner is paying for it, but later they accepted a little bit of help.
I hope that you all have a great time up in Yellowstone and that you see lots of animals. Everynow and again I get a smell that reminds me of yellowstone but it is usually garbage rotting in the rivers and doesn´t smell as good as yellowstone. Enjoy the cool weather it is still pretty hot here but at night it is cooling down I think in the mid 80´s somewhere in there.I love you all tons and hope you have a great week!
Con Cariño
Elder Cannon

10-3-12

This week was pretty good.
So first of all the fireside with Elder Cornish was pretty good. It was for investigators and less actives, so he didn´t teach any deep doctrine but it was really great. He talked about how to recognise the spirit, and then he used the salt example that you really can´t define salt you just have to experience it and then you will know. It was really great. All the people that we invited bailed on us at the last minute. Some said that they would meet us there but they never showed up. So we enjoyed it my companion and I. One thing that was really special was that a family that I contacted in Cien Fuegos a while ago they have been going to church and are progressing. They came and they even remembered me. They came up to me and we talked for a while together so that was really great.
This week we went to an appointment that we had with a reference and he wasn´t home but his mom was so we decided to share with her. In the begining of the lesson we found out that she is a Jehova´s Witness and started trying to bible bash. To try to prove her point she showed me a book that explains some of their beliefs. The way that the book explained it was just confusing. We ended up testifying and telling her to pray about the things that we had shared about the apostacy and Joseph smith.
This week some wiring burned out to the invertor. It wasn´t too bad until the batteries ran out of charge that is when we found out that everything in the house the light bulbs that outlets everything but the fridge was contected to the inverter so now that it wasn´t working we didn´t have any light. We left with Eliel an 18 year old and after we left with him the entire day we went back to the apartment and pulled out my supertool and gloves and got into the circut box and figured out which was went to the inverter and which one gave power to the fridge and then connected the two and we had power. We had called the office elders and they got a guy to come and fix it so now everything is fine again.
The four teenagers that we baptised are doing really well they are leaving with us to visit the people and teach them. It is helping then a lot understand better the lessons that we taught them. they branch is also going to buy them church clothes so that will be really great.
I am really excited for conference this sunday. I am hoping to find a way to watch it in english so that i can focus more on the spirit, but if not it will be great.
I hope that you all have a great conference weekend and have an awesome week! I love you all tons!
Con Cariño
Elder Cannon

9/5/12

Hola Familia,
This week has been great as usual.
Training is pretty good so far. At first he was a bit homesick but that is usual. I tried to help him by talking to him and working hard so he doesn´t have time to think about the family. He is pretty cool. We are sharing pretty good the work load so it isn´t too hard on me. He wasn´t born a member but his family converted when he was about 4 years old so he was raised in the church. It is nice that he already speaks spanish. He actually speaks very dominican so sometimes it is hard to understand him, but he is teaching my dominican phrases. 
This week we were contacting and we contacted this guy that is really ganster. He has tatoos and eyerings and stuff all over. While we were sharing with him he told us that he was in an accident really recently where his bone in this right leg came out and he broke his arm. He told us that they took his bone and cleaned it off that then stuck it back into his leg and he didn´t need to have any surgery. Then he showed us his arm. It is still broken. He was moving it around and the bone is broken so we could see it moving inside his arm. He said that it doesn´t hurt and that he isn´t going to go to the hospital to get it fixed. He told us that these were all blessings and that he has a lot of faith, but likes to drink and likes the things in the street. So we left a pamphlet and maybe we´ll find him again. My companion said that by the way he acts he could tell that he has been in the streets as a tigre for a very long time and is ¨seasoned¨
The area is progressing nicely we are teaching this lady named Teofida and she is in a christian church I really gave it to her straight about baptism and I thought she wasn´t going to listen to us again, but the next lesson she told us that she believed that Joseph Smith really was a prophet. So that was great but while we were walking in the street her mother stopped us and asked us for help. When she finally told us what it was that she needed she said that her husband has a demoin in him and wanted us to pray for him. It was really funny.
I hope that you all have a great week this week, and that everyone is just loving school because it is the best. Thank you for the package that I got I really liked everything. I still haven´t opened the letters yet I will open them on my birthday. I thought the special instructions on the pictures was pretty funny. They were pretty good pictures. Well I love you tons and hope that best the week for all of you! Adois
Con Amor 
Elder Cannon

8/30/12

So this week has been pretty good.

So first of all the missionary that I am training yesterday they anounced that I was going to train Elder Ika, but this morning when they brought the new missionary it was a different Elder. President did a bunch of last minute changes. So now I am trianing Elder Fabian. He is from the domincan republic. He has been a member his whole life. His whole family are members. He likes to draw and read. I am still in La Yaguita and will be here for a while longer for at least 3 months while I train.

We are getting ready for a couple of baptisms that are coming up. They are a bunch of teenagers and are really progressing. some more then others but they are all doing really well. They were able to go to a baptism with us in Bella Vista and are now really excited  for their baptism. We didn't want to pay for the rutas on the way back so we were lucky and a member offered us a ride. So we crammed in, which was really nice of them, but really uncomfortable. 

So we prepared for the hurricane, but when it got here is wasn't bad at all. That day it rained on and off all day and had a nice strong breeze but nothing huge. It was actually pretty nice because it lowered the temperature for a couple of days. It even got down to 79 when we woke up which felt really nice, but it makes the water feel a lot colder. Santiango is a bowl that is surrounded by mountains so there isn't any risk when hurricanes come. Just stronger winds and lots of rain.

So while my companion and I were trying to find this guy that we had contacted in the area that is new and has now street names and only a few houses have numbers. We were walking in a gullish area where the river of garbage runs there, and the houses are more poor. While we were walking on the other side of the gully we saw rats bathing in a stream. It was pretty far so that tells you that they were pretty big if they caught our attention while we were walking so My companion and I threw a couple rocks over there. Lately we have seen a bunch of rats, but it make sense with all the garbage.

The mission is going by extremely fast. It is so weird how fast missionaries are leaving and coming. The time during the mission is on warp speed without anything to slow it down. Weeks are like days, transfers are like a week. It just keeps going faster and faster. So I am trying to enjoy every moment while I can.

I hope that you are all having a great time, and are enjoying school. I love you all tons and hope that you have a great week this coming week!

Con Amor 

Elder Cannon 

8/22/2012

This week has been pretty crazy so I will try my best to tell you everything that has happened.

So first of all I am going to be training this next transfer. I am a bit nervous but also excited. I don´t know if I am going to stay here or go to a new area. I think that I am going to stay here but president told me that he doesn´t know where I will be training. The area is doing great and we are going to have some baptisms this next transfer which will be great because it has been a while since there has been a baptism here a couple of months since a baptism.

This week I got kind of sick of rice or spaghetti switching off everyday for this past transfer. So we bought some beef and I made a roast. I has been a really long time since I have eaten that but it was amazingly good. My companion thought it was really good but wasn´t a huge fan of the skin on the potatoes. I was really nice to have a break from the usually. This week we bought some meat that is going to be better then the one that we ate this week, so I am pretty excited.

We contacted a house this week and it was a really nice older couple that were really paying attention expecially the wife. She looked really interested and we answering the questions, but then a family friend or neighbor joined the lesson. He is a hard core pentecostal cristain. So we were sharing about the apostacy and the restauration. He just wasn´t getting it. He had a really closed mind, we would share  scriptures and he wouldn´t believe us so we bore our testimonies and then presented the book of mormon. He just wouldn´t except that there was more scripture. He just kept saying that if it isn´t in the bible then it is false. It was pretty frustrating he was almost yelling that we were wrong and that this religion was completely false. So I just told him if he didn´t want to take the book and read it then we would just close with a pray and then we left. 

The next pretty funny story. On another contact this guy was there that wanted me to write a letter to him to recommend him for a visa. I told him that i was going to be here for a while and that it probably wouldn´t make a difference. So then he took a picture of us together to show the people at the office where to get a visa that I am his friend. So while we were sharing they saw the pictures that I have of the family in my book of mormon scripture case so they asked if they could see them. They said that you all are really pretty and handsome. Then the guy asked how old rachael is and her name. I told him 16 years old but I wouldn´t tell him her name. He asked me to ask Rachael if she wants to marry him. He is 32 and right now has a wife but they aren´t married so it isn´t a problem, he doesn´t have kids with this wife but with his ex-wife he had kids. I told him that she doesn´t want to get married right now, but he insisted that I ask. By the end of the lesson he was calling me brother-in-law. The lucky thing is that he doesn´t live here he was just visiting a friend. It was really funny. The whole time my companion was just laughing. 

We went to this guy´s house. We had contacted his wife and had a return appointment because we couldn´t teach her alone. So we yelled Hello and the first thing he said when he came out of his house was, ¨which one of you is Joseph Smith?¨ it was really funny. We tried to teach him but he just couldn´t get on subject so he really didn´t understand anything that we said. He kept jumping around from old testament to new testament to what he heard on the radio, so we explained what we could and then left him a pamphlet. 

Today we went to the zoo. It was a pretty long ways we had to ride for about an hour and then walk about 15-20 min. The zoo was pretty small and mostly had birds, but it did have monkeys and two lions. and some elk, lama, two andacondas. it was pretty fun we went as a district so the four of us went out there and then on the way home we bought some food.

I hope that you guys are doing great with school starting and everything. The time is flying by I can´t believe how fast it is going by. I hope that you guys have a great week. I love you all tons! Elder De Leon is at byu so if you want to meet him you could. But I love you all so much and take care.

Con Amor 

Elder Cannon 

8/15/2012

Hola Familia

This week has been pretty good. 

We had a special zone meeting on monday about service and pride. It was reallly great. President and Hermana Douglas came. I had to give a capasitation about pride. We watch the talk from Elder Utchdorf about pride it was really great. Then they gave us a weird green fruit with salt on it. Then on the count of three we all took a big bit. It was a vinagrillo a fruit that they make vinager from. It was really bitter and acidy. Right after that they said now we will hear the special musical number from Elders Taylor, Latu, Spruill and Cannon. So we got up there trying to clear our throats from the juice of the vinagrillo. It turned out pretty good. I sang Melody and then switched to bass for part of it. Hermana Douglas shared some really great stories about service, she is such a servicible person. Then President Douglas shared with us about Love Service and Priesthood and how they are one in the same. It was really good, but went a little long. So afterwards we were looking for a place to eat and the only one that was close was one that looked alright. We ate there and found some rocks in the food, luckly mine didn't have any rocks, I got my share of rocks the other time. 

Friday all of our plans fell through so the whole day we were contacting which is a bit rough. Everyone that we had planned to visit wasn't there. We contacted a bunch of people, most of which weren't interested, but we found one that was really interested. His name is Edison. He is a 16 year old that is really trying to find the truth. He is receiving studies from the bibile from the Jehovas witnesses, which we hope doesn't ruin him. He came to church on Sunday and everything. He really participated in the classes and said that he really like it. Most of the young men know him from school and they are friends. It is looking really good. We are hoping that all of our contacting during this transfer that we found a golden contact so we will see.

We are trying to help a couple of people get married. The Family that we were talking about marriage we haven't been able to visit them. They keep calling and canceling the lessons. Because they live in the other area that we only go to two days out of the week they know when we are there and always call with an excuse. This week we changed days so we will see if we can pass by. Another couple has been together for 24 years and still aren't sure about getting married. We shared with them really directly about being married and how it is a commandment, they said that they would talk about it. The other one is living with her "Husband" but wants to wait a year so that she gets to know him before they get married. It is just a weird costum here that makes it hard for us. We hope that they can get married.

I hope that you all have a great last summer week. This summer sounds like it has been a blast and that you guys did some really fun stuff. Just checking up to see if Joshua is still keeping up the list of good movies that have come out? What are you schedules looking like for this next year? Rachael should be pretty packed but Tyler should have a really free year, and joshua and allison should be enjoying elementry school. Take care and have a blast! I love you all tons!

Con Amor 

Elder Cannon

8/8/12

This week it has been raining on and off. We heard that there was a tropical storm that was passing or something like that.

This week we were sharing with this lady that is really adventist and we were...discussing the sabbath day and which day it sould be. We ended up talking for a long time longer then we espected trying to share scriptures. We ended up with her telling us to pray to find out which day the sabbath day should be because if not we are basically condemned, and us telling her to read the Book of Mormon to find out if it is true. We left and she promised that she would read the Book of Mormon but wants to give us a book to read when we come back to her house.

When we left her house we were walking pretty fast trying to get to the next appointment that we had which was pretty far away. I was trying to fix my umbrella and walk at the same time. I had just about fixed my umbrella when my foot hit what felt like a rock. I just about fell over onto my umbrella which would have broken it. When I looked to see what I had kick. I saw a brown smudge, and further in the road was the remnants of one of the biggest and most dense pile of dog poop that I have seen. My shoe was pretty well nuked the the fresh pile of odor. A lady was walking by was making comments about how bad it smelled and how big of a mess it was. Then was giving me big leaves that I could clean off my shoe a little bit. It was pretty funny afterwards.

This week we have actually had a bunch of people reject us, not on the first visit but when we came back they really didn´t want to listen to us. One lesson we were being pretty persistent trying to get them to take a Book of Mormon. They kept saying well it isn´t the Bible it isn´t the same it isn´t familiar. So we persisted some more and showed them how it could bless their lives. Then the Husband told us that we was baptised when he was eight into our church and that his wife had read the Book of Mormon when she was younger and that they had experienced what it had to offered and that it wasn´t for them. Then afterwards he said that this doesn´t mean that we aren´t brothers or anything like that we can still say Hi to each other it isn´t like as you guys are walking by that we don´t look at their house. We told them that we would still say hello and if they didn´t want it we couldn´t obligate them to take it. So we ended and then left. It is helpful to find out that they aren´t interested from the start instead of visiting and using a bunch of our time just to tell us no. 

We have been coordinating better with the branch and they are trying to help us out more. Last night they were asking us when we were going to visit different investigators because they want to visit them with us. So that was pretty great. We are going to see how it goes. We are also trying to help them more by working with less actives we have three less actives that we are going to work together to try to reactivate them.

Well I´m glad that you guys were about to have such a great time up at Big John´s Flat. Keep working hard. Tell tyler to be careful. Goodluck at the Fair with all your stuff I hope that the cakes rachael is making win and the cookies that joshua is making. Well i love you all tons and hope that you have a great week this next coming week! Good bye!

Con Amor Elder Cannon

8/1/12

Hola Familia

This week has been pretty great. 

So we have been contacting a lot lately, and on sunday a couple of the people that we contacted came to church which was really a surprise. We went and taught them. The one was a guy that many people think is crazy, but when we taught him we found out that he is a bit weird but he understood what we taught him, and asked good questions. The others were a bunch of teenage boys that we just said hello to on saturday night and told them to go to church so they did. We ended finding where they live during the week and shared with them. One of them is really interested he said he wanted to be like us and said that he was going to go to church again on sunday. We were pretty exctied about that. He even came with us to another lesson to one of his friends.

While we were walking in the early afternoon, when it is really hot we were walking up a big hill with the sun beating in our faces. We passed a couple that were cleaning then house. So it looked like they were really busy and we had a couple of people to visit that lived pretty far away. We walked a couple more steps when we both looked at each other and felt like we needed to contact them. So we walked back. He had shared with missionaries a long time ago. His mother had just died three months ago and it has been really hard for him. We taught about the plan of Salvation and he was really interested. At the end of the lesson we asked him if he would say the pray. The only prayer he knew what ¨our Father¨. So we taught him how to pray and he said the pray. While he was praying he started to cry and told us that he felf so much better having talked to us, and asked if we could come back again to his house. So we put another appointment and left. It was pretty amazing that we both felt like we should talk to him, and just to see the results.

While we were cantacting one morning we found a lady that seemed really interested so we set an appointment when her husband would be home. We went to the appointment and found out that he was baptised when he was 14 and was now going to a christian church. We started to share with him and he started to tell us why the church wasn´t true because it is formed on ProphteS not just one, then started naming scriptures where there were more then one prophet in the land. We told him that the apostols are also prophets seers and revalators. He wasn´t very convinced and kept up the arguement. A scripture came to mind in Alma 4:19 So I bore my testimony about how in knew that the church was true I explained how I felt and that I knew without a shadow of a doubt that this is the true church. The guy changed he began to think and listen to us. It turned out that we gave him a Book of Mormon. He wouldn´t put another appointment with us because he work isn´t set so he is alway in and out of the house so he doen´t know if he would be home.

We have a family that is really progressing. We talked about marriage and about them getting married. They told us that they have wanted to get married for a while and have been thinking about it. So we were pretty excited about that we have an appointment tonight to go and see them. They told us that they would have a date picked out when we come tonight, we just hope that it is in this transfer so that we can both see it, even if it isn´t it is really exciting.

I am glad that you guys had so much fun camping and that you guys are able to go and stay a couple more days this week. It really is a pretty special place. It sounds like you guys really had a fun time up there. Keep working hard in all that you do and I hope that you are enjoying the last few weeks of your summer vacation. This next school year will be a fun one! Keep up all the hard work.For the list that mom wants: I need another journal I am almost out of pages in this one. I would like some more music that you can sing to ( like Efy or quertet) stuff like that, and if you could put them in mp3 form and put as many as you can on a disk that would be great. Send me a picture of Dad on his mission. if you are going to send shorts make sure they are size 33 around the waist, 32 is a bit tight. I can´t think of anything else right now. I love you guys tons! Have a great week this week!

Con Amor

Elder Cannon

7/25/12

Hola Familia,

This week has been really different. Trying to learn a new area and remember everybodies names including the people that we are contacting everyday. We are doing a lot of contacting. My area has a lot of hills and the majority of these hills are really steep. I think that my legs are going to get bigger while I am here. My companion told me his have gotten bigger from walking the hills. It isn't as big as Cien Fuegos, but we do have another area that is a south of us that we have to walk to twice a week to work out there is takes about a half an hour to walk out there. We walk through some cow fields on trails. It is called La Charca. There is also a huge catholic calimastic center on the hill and there is a huge cement cross that they light up when they have meetings there. There isn't a church here we meet in the second floor of a house. It is pretty small there are two tiny rooms an office and then the main room and a deck. There is only a branch here so there aren't a ton of members. The majority of the houses are made of cinder blocks and there are a couple made of wood, and all the houses that I have been in have a concrete floor at least. 

This week on Sunday we were walking down the main road we were on our way to go and eat lunch at a members house and there were a lot of people drinking. While we were walking there was a pretty crazying looking guy. He was smoking and drinking when all the sudden he put down his drink. There was a lot a talking and some shouting. The guy pulls out a gun and points it at me. He wasn't that far away from me, about 10-15 yards in front of me. Thoughts were flying through my mind. "this guy is going to kill me" "just keep walking and praying" ext. He wasn't meaning to point it at me so when the thought finally registered in his mind that I wasn't the person that he wanted to point the gun at which was a terrifying minute. He pointed it at a different person just as a threat he didn't do anything, but it was a bit scary.

We have a couple really good investigators. There is this really old guy that we are teaching, his name is Tomas. He came to church which was a surprise because he told us that he wasn't going to come. He told us that while he was reading the chapter that we gave him 2 nephi 2 when he was done. A branch fell from the tree into the page so he kept reading and chapter three says branch twice right where the branch fell. So he decided that he needed to go to church because the lord is showing him that this is his church. That was pretty cool, and he is pregressing more and is trying harder to learn and read what we leave him.

The house we finished cleaning it for the most part and are getting back into the schedule of regular missionary life. We are starting to see some changes in the mission with President Douglas. We are pretty excited for this transfer.

This week we went to eat after a zone meeting and we got the usual rice chicken and pigeon peas or beans. I guess I was the unlucky one or something because my food had a bunch of rocks in it so I just about cracked a couple of teeth trying to eat my food, and then the next day it all came out in diarrea, but that only lasted during the morning and then I was good. 

I hope that you all have a great time up at Big John's Flat. Tell everyone that I say hi and hope that they have a great time. It is crazy how fast the time is passing the stores here are getting school stuff ready. So I hope you are all prepared for this coming school year. Enjoy the last few weeks of your summer. I Love you all Tons! Enjoy the cool weather up there!

Con Amor

Elder Cannon  

7/18/12

This week has been a lot different. I got transfered today so I am now in La Yaguita in Santiago South. I also got a new companion Elder Mandrigas he is from haiti so he speaks french and spanish and I have heard that he speaks a little english, but I still don´t know if he does or not.

Today we got up and ready pretty early then the office elders came and got me they dropped me off at my new house and I cleaned part of it a little then got my stuff settled in. We then went shopping to buy some food in the city at La Sirena. so we were down there and had lunch. Then came home and I cleaned a little more and started to wash my clothes, with a washing machine! And now we are using internet, so I still don´t know much of my area just from what I have seen in the car ride, but there are a lot more trees here then in cien fuegos so I hope that it is cooler. We are on the outskirts of the city I think that we are the last missionaries in this area.

It was pretty hard to leave Cien Fuegos. It was really hard saying goodbye to the members and the converts and investigators. I really hope that I can see them again. I spent a lot of time at the Cabrera´s house. They wanted me to share one final lesson with them. We talked then I shared some scriptures with them and then had to say goodbye. I ended up crying a bit saying goodbye and giving them hugs.

This week we also found a leak in the pipe from our tank on the roof of our house. It was spraying our water all over the house of our neighbors. So we went and bought the stuff to fix it. so that took a little while, but we got it all fixed and glued together. I was pretty happy to know how to do it and so did my companion so together it wasn´t a big deal.

Sara wasn´t baptised on saturday we posponed her date for the 28 of july. So that was a bit sad to have shared so long with her and not be able to see her baptised, but it is enough to know that she is going to be baptised.

So this house has a shower that actually runs so I won´t have to take a bucket shower everyday, which is a bit weird because that has been my shower for so long. They have power on and off so when it is here we have to wash our clothes, but their inversor works when there isn´t power so the fans will work. They also have water most of the time and when it leaves it only leaves for a little usually, who knows with my luck.

Well I hope that you guys have a great week camping. Joshua and Allison it sounds like you guys did great swimming this year, keep it up. I´m glad that rachael and tyler had fun at their camps. I love you all tons!

Con Amor 

Elder Cannon 

7/11/12

Hola Familia,

This week we still don´t have any electricity in the house. So we have been washing by hand which is hard because we don´t have the tablet to scrub your clothes so we have to use a brush, but I use the inside wall of the washer. It makes your arms pretty tired, but I have been thinking alot about what Tom Cruise taught in ¨Far and Away¨, ¨You plung and you scrup and you plung and scrub and you plung and you scrub again and if it still isn´t clean you plung and scrub again.¨ It really works. 

Today we have been cleaning the whole house. We woke up and then we washed the walls and stove and cupboards counters and then the floor. Then we spent the rest of the time hand washing our clothes and sheets.

This week we have a baptism planned. It has been a while we have run into a couple problems with all the baptisms that we had planned, but this weekend we have one. Her name is Sara, she is a friend and reference of Jesus Cabrera. She has been progressing a lot and is involved in relief society going to meetings and going to church. It was really good. We were worried because her work schedule was going to change and she was going to have to work on Sunday, but we promised her if she prayed and talked to her boss she would be able to work something out so that she doesn´t have to work on Sunday. She told us yesterday that her boss changed her schedule and she isn´t going to have to work on sundays. She is really excited about her baptism and has been telling everyone about it. So we are pretty excited for her.

Transfers are next week so that is pretty sad I think that I am probably leaving because I have a lot of time in the area. So it is sad to think that this could be my last week with these members and investigators. So this week was also the last week that I had to teach my district, it went really well. I have learned alot from them from studing and teaching them and also from them teaching me. It has been a really good district.

I met President and his wife we had interviews last week. He has the look of a mission president, he is calm but his words have power and are carried by the spirit. The interview was great, it was a bit weird because it was in english, but really great. His wife is more energetic and is very loving and you can see that she really has charity for the people already. she also interviewed us and asked about our families they are and if they write us and are active in the church. They are very excited and have a lot of energy for the work. I really like them and it is going to be great to get to know them better.

Wow it seems pretty crazy at home with all the fires and girls camp and student council camp. I hope that you can all have fun with all these activities. I´m sorry to hear about the high adventure being canceled, but fishing will be fun. Keep working hard and having a great summer. Joshua and Allison it sounds like you guys are becoming really fast swimmers. I remember when I left and joshua was getting pretty good and allison was starting to swim in the deep end and now you guys are racing and working hard. Keep going and win lots for me. Thats good that Dad has a break from work for a little bit, maybe you can shorten the list of ¨hunny dos¨ that mom has. Well I hope that you all have a great week! I love you all tons!

Con Amor

Elder Cannon

7/4/12

This week was really good.

We have been trying really hard with Mayra and Joel. They went to church a while ago and had a bad experience and we thought that they were never going to come back, but we have been teaching them about the power of fasting and asked them to fast with us to see when they wanted to be married and baptised. So on saturday right before we started our fast they called us and told us that we weren´t going to fast, and that something happened and they aren´t going to be married until they solved this problem. We fasted anyways. On sunday they came to church and they had a much better experience. They also told us that they were fasting and wanted to end the fast together. It was so awesome that they ended up fasting with us. We went and visited them last night and shared with them. We had a really long lesson because their kids were hungry when we got there so we waited. Their two year old ended up looking at the family pictures and thought you guys are really cute. We answered a bunch of questions and shared how we can overcome problems and used the example that as missionaries we have to discuss what is bothering us or we don´t have the spirit with us. Them they just kept asking question and more questions, so we tried our best to answer them and show them how through the scriptures they can find their own answers. At the end of the lesson Joel, the husband that isn´t as receptive, said I am going to be baptised. It was so great, and we opened a new window for him in the way that the scriptures can really relate to him and how he can study them. When we left the house they were hugging at the door telling each other that they love each other and kissed. I felf so great! it was such a spiritual experience!

I had an intercambio with elder Kimball and went to tierra alta. It was really weird it is a richer area but it also has some poor parts. Some of the houses are really big and there are a lot more people who at least know a little bit of english, because they visited the united states the people where I live that lived in the united states are usually deported. There was an area called the hole and it was really nasty. There was a river of sewage and garbage and the people built their houses on the side of the hill. During the exchanged I learned a lot more about my own area. There was a member that told me a lot about the process of the Gansters and the police. It was pretty eye opening even though I live there I now understand what is really going on, and see the blessings that we receive everyday. We talked about this because someone else was murdered on sunday in the area that we were working in that night. It is just a blessing how the Lord protects us.

We still don´t have any power and it is hard when the neighbors have their loud music and you can´t sleep very good without the fan. We have both run out of clean clothes after the exchange my companion brought some clothes to wash there, but I forgot because I was already there. We don´t know when we are going to get power again we keep calling the office elders but they are just slow at doing things. It is a bit annoying. 

Tomorrow we get to meet the new president and we are pretty excited to meet him. We have heard some pretty good things. his wife called my companion yesterday to wish him a happy birthday and she speaks a little but is learning at the end of the call president talked just to make sure he got the message. He said the spanish here is a bit fast but he is getting used to it.

Well I hope that you all have a great 4th of July and that you can see a lot of the family and have a great bbq, wow that sounds really good.. I hope that all the fire stop burning so that I can come home to beautiful mountains. I miss the mountians in utah. Have a great time this week, and I love you all so much.

Con amor

Elder Cannon 

6/27/2012

So this week has been pretty good.
So on monday I was on an exchange and when I got back I found out that
the power company came and shut off our power, because we don´t have a
counter to keep track of the power that we use. So they called the
office elders and they couldn´t do the contract with the power company
until they had finished the contract for the house, so they now have
that all arranged. The bad thing is we aren´t going to have power
until friday hopefully probably not until monday. We took the food in
the fridge to the neighbors house they are really kind to help us with
that, but we didn´t have any clean clothes. So we talked to our
renters to see if we could run an extension cord to our house to use
the washing machine for our clothes. They said yes so we have one
extension with power. The inverter also doesn´t have any charge so we
have no light and can´t use the fans so it is really hot. Yester we
didn´t have water so last night we were up trying to find out the
problem.The tank that we have on the roof was full but it wouldn´t go
through the pipes so we were up late fixing that. It turned out that
there was air in the tubes and couldn´t leave. After we fixed that we
had to wash our clothes and wash dishes. It was a pain in the butt,
but now we have clean clothes and dishes, but it is really hot at
night without fans and the bugs get you more when you don´t use a fan.
We woke up today and ate and talked. Then we wanted to go an play
basketball at the church so we went over there and played with two of
the young men and then a kid that just came over and wanted to play.
It was extremely hot and I burnt a little because I forgot sun screen.
It was really good to play I haven´t played in a long time. I was
trying to help Kenny learn to jump higher and when I was showing him I
was able to grab the rim. I was pretty surprised and happy. But
afterwards we were extremely tired, and had to go and buy ice because
we don´t have any cold water because no power. We had lunch and then
tried to relax.
This week with investigators we really worked hard to get
investigators to come to church and we had a petty good number come to
church. We have an investigator that is a haitian lady and she is
reading the book or mormon a lot. We we contacted her and just left
her a pamphlet she tried to come to church but got lost, and then we
gave her a book of mormon and she is reading a lot. We shared
yesterday and found a member visiting with her with her family. It was
really good she believe that the book is true and believes to have
received an answer. Her boyfriend isn´t as interested and it is going
to be really hard for them to get married to be able to be baptised.
We went and visited Sagrario and talked a lot about what she has
learned and how she has felt. Then we talked about coffe and how she
needs to quit drinking coffee. We talked about why she drinks coffe
and found out that it is just something hot to drink so we offered
chocolate and other hot drinks that she could drink in place of coffe,
at the end of the lesson we asked her to give us her kettle because
she can´t quite with it. We had the kettle out during the lesson and
at the end we asked her to give it to us. It took her a while to
answer and then at the end she said no, and that she couldn´t stop
drinking coffee. It made me really sad expecially because I have a lot
of time teaching her and she has made changes in her life. At this
point I felt the prompting that we needed to drop her. That was really
hard because we had grown close we had helped her with personal
problems that she had shared with us. So I took the initiative and we
dropped her. It was really sad I cried a little at the end and i tried
to think if there had been anything else that I could have done.
President Douglas and his wife are coming this week so we might see
some changes in the mission so that is a bit sad to see president and
hermana lee leave, but it is exciting to see changes.
I hope that you all have a great week and that everything is going
great. I love you all so much. Just so you know I am about halfway
through the last journal that i have, dad has the kind that i want.
When you send it if you could send a stress ball the black ones that
are really hard that would be nice. Have a great week and I´ll talk to
you next week. Love you soooo much!!!
Con Amor
Elder Cannon