You Know You Are in the DR when...

You Know You´re in the Dominican Republic when…
· The women have 5 o´clock shadows
· You can´t tell the difference between a party and a funeral
· It´s more commonplace to see naked kids than clothed ones
· You have 12,000 baptismal dates but 3 baptisms in your entire mission
· You can fit 9 people in an ´82 Camry
· 50 year old women think that bras are optional
· A lesson about Joseph Smith turns into a lesson about anatomy
· The school bus has a reserved section for pregnant students
· The women sweep the dirt around
· A couple has been together for 30 years and has 4 kids and aren´t sure about marriage
· A visa to the U.S. is more important than a visa to the Celestial Kingdom
· Someone has lived on the same street for 10 years and doesn’t know the name of it…nor do they know the number of their house.
· Every wall in the city serves as a urinal
· Shirts are optional for men and pants are optional for boys…and morals are optional for everybody
· At church, it´s just a party with Jesus
· Renting plastic chairs is a very profitable business, but the most profitable business is owning a church
· The dogs get stuck
· They don´t wipe, don´t flush, and don´t aim
· A fork and a cheese grater is considered a musical instrument
· You can´t tell the difference between someone feeling the Spirit and somebody having a seizure
· Christian schools are owned by liquor companies
· The outlets in your house were installed upside down or sideways
· Being rained on causes liver failure…but the 20 bottles of rum don´t
· They burn every piece of toxic trash out in the street right next to your house
· They sell milk by the liter and oil by the gallon
· You mistake someone singing for a mix between a dying duck and a screaming banshee
· A truck comes by, buying anything old and used, even your grandma
· You try to say hello but everyone just says goodbye
· No one ever finishes building their house
· They use an old T-shirt as a welcome rug
· Being embarrassed constitutes a foul in basketball
· The most frequently used phrase of a child is “Give me 5 pesos”
· You hang your clothes up to dry, and they´re gone within 5 minutes
· The best lawnmower is a Haitian or a goat
· A high quality T-shirt is a HOLISTAR
· “C Ben D” means “For Sale”
· Cockroaches are not only tough, but immortal
· People use the word “vaina” for everything in sight
· Cough drops are considered candy
· The most convenient time to beat your 3 year old is in a lesson
· All you can think of is “What!? She´s only 13!?”
· All you need to get a cute girl is a sparkly shirt and a shiny hat
· Everyone is on key except for the piano
· You can smell the men´s BO from a mile away and a woman´s perfume from 2
· Dating only consists of making babies
· Your speaker system costs more than your house
· A toy consists of a bike tire and a stick
· The highlight of the conversation is about baseball, visas, or the girl that just walked by
· The cost of everything goes up for being white
· You eat chicken with your hands or a spoon, but never with a fork
· When every part of an animal, inside and out is gourmet.
· The hairnet is just as popular as the turban in Iraq
· The whole economy is monopolized
· Every shop is sponsored by Kola Real
· The key to a woman´s heart is an American visa
· You have to sleep with the fan on to keep the mosquitoes from eating you alive
· Every house has 3 butterflies next to the front door…and no one knows why
· Crossing the street is like playing Frogger
· The cornerstores advertise everything they don´t have
· They hang aloe vera upside down in their doorways to keep away witches…and Haitians
· There´s a party every time the power comes back
· They wash their house with a hose
· You can´t tell the difference between a school and a prison
· Cleavage is mandatory, no matter what age you are.
· Nobody can read for more than 5 minutes without getting a headache
· It doesn´t matter who´s right, because the loudest one always wins
· Dating a 13-year-old is the norm, not the exception
· You see 5 people on a moped; one with a washing machine, one with a gas tank, and one with a baby.
· Cross-eyed people wear glasses
· You don´t follow the hairline; you cut your own.
· You can obligate everyone, but no one can obligate you
· You knock on a door and someone in the back yells ”Nobody´s here!”
· Work time, fun time, rest time, and everything time is spent sitting out on your front porch.
· All the American food has corn on it
· You think you´re original, but it´s just another variation of beans, rice, and meat
· There´s a synonym for “filling the stocking” and “sucking the pineapple”
· 3 year old children wear playboy shirts
· Haitians work and the rest watch.
· Three guys on a moped isn´t gay, it´s a way of life
· Yawning means your hungry
· You´ve got two handles for the faucet, but only the cold one works
· Honking exempts you from all traffic laws
· Someone throwing a tantrum means there´s an evil spirit in the house
· They say you already know, but you don´t
· Burnt rice is a delicacy
· Cohabitation is considered to be marriage
· A blue shirt means they´re too young

1/25/12

Hola Familia
I attached a file that my companion gave me that is really funny. Enjoy!
Here are some things that I need you to send me. My line of authority, and rileys email address. Some awesome news is that Elder Bednar is coming to my mission the 13th of February. So we are really excited for that! This week here in the DR. We had the office elders come to our house and move out all of the extra stuff, because they are splitting our area. So we spend all morning moving stuff into the new house that we had to find, but isn´t for us. It is for the new elders that come into our area. That was a ton of fun except going up the spiral staircase with a fridge and a stove.
Our house in dying. We found about a hundred flies and a couple of cockroches that were dead in our house this week, and fussy moss mold stuff that is growing in the ceiling. We should be moving next transfer which is next week, but that is the hope it may be later we don´t know yet.
All of our baptismal dates have fallen because they don´t have enough weeks to get the required amount of times to go to church. So we are going to set new dates and work towards them. Jesus wants more time to read the book of mormon, but he is doing great stuff he has searched the churh online and read a bunch of stuff on there and watched some of the movies that they have on there. He also wanted us to help him take pictures in front of the church so that he could put them on facebook. He is fasting to receive an answer so that is great! Johan is still progressing, but it is a stuggle to get him to church, he is always helping his dad who was in an accident and he is always over there on sundays, but this sunday should be better he should be coming to church. We contacted a reference of a family who seem really interested. They already have a Book of Mormon and have great potential. A little girl was walking down the street when we were on our way home and ran over to us. She said that she really wants to be baptised and they told her that she had to be taught by the missionaries and go to church, so she came and found us. We are going to visit her today so that should be really good.
We were walking down this allyway thing and this little tiny girl with a bottle in her mouth was walking down it alone which isn´t that wierd, but when we walked by she ran up and smacked me, it was really funny, she seemed so angry that I had different colored skin or something. Another time when we were walking home some guy mooned us, that was pretty interesting.
People here are freezing at around 9 and I feel great it feels so good, so I am a little worried about the summer. Everything is going great! I love you all and hope that you are having a great time!
Congratulations Rachael for getting your young women medalion, and sorry to hear about daisy. But for future reference please sent the letters for the week earlier. I love you all!
Adios
Elder Cannon

1/18/12- Trying to get Jesus to come to church

Hola Familia
This week has been really good. Today was Santiago Pday so we were able to go to the office and get things that we needed from there I got a really good book that I got to read after all the other really good books that I have on the list to read. I haven´t made much progress with Jesus the Christ, but I am trying to read a lot we just don´t have as much time as I thought we would.
Crazy stuff that happened this week. For the most part is has been raining at night so we haven´t really gotten that wet. The past couple of days it has been raining alot, but only while we have been in lessons. During a lesson it will rain hard and then when we go to leave it will lighten up to a little more then a mist, which has been a huge blessing. One of the times when it was really raining we were under this overhang of a house and watched a dog die. It was just sitting there and it had blood and snot coming out of its nose and it looked like it was trying to cough up stuff which was really nasty and it was just laying over to die it was pretty sad and nasty at the same time. Some of the crazy things that happen here are. Every weekend is take your child to the club with you which is really gross. There are naked kids that run around and sometimes they pee where ever they want sometime off of the upper floors down in the sidewalk. There is a lot of liter and garbage everywhere. I have seen a family of four on a motorcycle carrying buckets of stuff. There are dogs that get stuck together which is really nasty.
This week has been really good spiritually during one of the lessons I got the chills four times and I thought that I was getting sick, and I finally paid attention to the thoughts and feelings and we just needed to go home a different route which was really good, and we got home safely. Jesus is doing pretty good, we came this week and he had searched the church online read the rest of the pamphlets that we have, watched some of the movies that the church has on the website and looked up the temple, he is following every commandment to the dot, everyone but he has a doubt about the sabbath day and we have tried to explain it to him over and over using different scriptures but he still has that doubt. He is in the end of alma which is really amazing. But this week he asked us to move his bauptism date later to give him a chance to finish the book of mormon and receive and answer, which was acceptable. We are just hoping that we can help him get over this doubt. It is just really hard we haven´t been able to find a scripture where it commands us to meet on Sunday we have found scriptures of examples but not where it says that it should be sunday.
We haven´t moved yet it is in the paper work process and waiting for the office elders to come out and see it and make sure that it has everything that it should, so we don´t know exactly when we are going to move, but we just keep cleaning the house that we are in and it isn´t that bad. This week has been really awesome! The mission is awesome. Well I have to go now and I love you all talk to you next week.
Elder Cannon

Pictures!

1/11/12 -- This week they carried Jesus to church!

Hola Familia
Before I forget here are somethings that I was going to tell you. The letters work the best when if you use the florida address. They get here 10 times faster and are cheaper for you and as far as I know they don´t cost anything for us here. Either in the next package or with braden please send a few Cd´s like David Lanz and some others, maybe with your favorite songs, mission appropriate. And if you really are going to sell my car, I´m fine with that as long as you get everything out of it under the carpet in the hood and under the speakers in the back. And I finally was able to order the scripture cases and the bag from billy.
This week has been pretty good. We have had two special meetings. The first was with a really cool guy he used to be a professor at BYU he came and talked about the truths that are in the Book of Mormon and history and how they are linked which is really cool. My companion told me that most of the stuff is in the Book of Mormon study manual so I ordered that to help me study. The other one was with President Lee. It was cool because I was able to go to the leaders meeting before because my companion is a DL. We talked about how we can be better with working with members and how we can better use the church and going to church with our investigators. The only bummer about all of these meetings is that I really haven´t had a good study time for days.
Our investigators are really great! This week we really wanted Jesus to go to church, but our ride fell through and we couldn´t get anyone else to come and give him a ride. So me and my companion went with determination. He lives on a road that is really bad and has a stream running through it. My companion and I carried him to church which was a great experience. We almost dumped him because I rolled my foot on a big rock and just about fell over, but we didn´t. On the way back my companion didn´t quite make it over the stream so his feet were wet, but we got Jesus to church. We also challenged him to read the entire Book of Mormon before his baptismal date on the 28 of January, because the only thing keeping him from fully committing is not having an answer yet so we promised him an answer if he reads the Book of Mormon all the way. He is way cool he is already paining a tithe, I don´t know to who but he does and he is already fasting, and is keeping all of his commitments. The only thing that we are worried about is that he is really wants to walk again and he really believes that he is going to walk again, we are just worried that he is looking for a miricle to show him that this is the true church, so we are going to try to explain all about that to him this week. A lady Socorro is way spiritual and loves the bible we gave her a book of mormon and she has been reading it like crazy, her daughter is falling in love with me and my companion, she loves it when we sing and asks us to sing all of the timeñ the Angle the husband is pretty crazy last time we went he was telling us all of his past sins and how he doen´t want anything to do with religion. So that was really hard, we were just wondering why Socorro was staying with this guy. Johan (joan) is really doing great he now has a baptismal date for the 11 of February, we just hope that he does everything so that he can be baptised that day, but he is really progressing so we expect that everthing will work out great. It was hard this week we had to go and talk to Hermana Blanca (the lady that fed us on Christmas eve) she is too attached to the missionaries and her family is suffering from it. She really loves the missionaries and wants the best for them. But we had to go and tell her that we can´t pass by anymore, and that she should work on the relationships with her family. By the end she was crying and We really care about her so it was hard, but we know that it is the best thing that we can do for her.
We had the fumigador come and spray the house down, and while he was doing that we did a deep clean of the oven, it was really really nasty, but now the oven looks like new and is fine so we are making sure that the rats can´t get in our house because we blocked all of the holes. We are looking for a house we need to find two because they are going to split my area, which will be nice so we can focus on a smaller area. We found two houses we hope that we get them they would be nice to live in. Well I have to go I´m Loving it out here. I love all of you and would like to wish Allison and Dad a very happy Birthday I hope that you guys had a blast! I love you very much I´ll talk to you next week!
Adios
Elder Cannon

1/04/12- The first week of a full year!

Hola familiaThis week has been pretty interesting. We´ll start with the bad. Well our house has some problems. The rats are definately back and we found out that they have made their house in our stove between the oven and the stove top in all of the insolation. We found that because there was enough poop to fall through the holes into the oven. So that was extremely nasty and the muffins that we baked on Christmas eve don´t seem as good. We can´t get in there to clean it out so we can´t bake anything. We have requested a new stove, but we don´t know how long that is going to take. Also we found mold stuff on the walls in our wash room. So we had to take the majority of a morning and clean our house as good as we could. We made sure that all the holes for the rats are covered and scrubbed the walls, we also had to clean up parts of the ceiling in the one cabinet. So that was a real pain in the butt, but now it is alright, it isn´t as bad as it seems we are both fine and loving life . We talked to president and he wants us to move so we are looking at two different places that are pretty nice so hopefully we can move soon.
We were able to go with a really cool guy named Juan Franko he just got off his mission and was a really good guy, he really made a difference with the visits that we made that night. It was really awesome. Our investigators are alright it is hard to get them to really progress, because they are not really keeping our comitments, but we found a couple who have a son that seems really interested and is a pretty smart guy, so we will go and see if he is really interested if he reads the stuff we left him, and we found another lady who is reading everthing that we have given her and we left her with a book of mormon, so we´ll get to see how she is doing with that.
During the lessons when it is hot and I´m tired and I´m not really understanding what is going on it is really hard to listen and pay attention, but I have really tired to pay extra close attention to what it going on in the lessons and I feel like I am understanding a little more, but I´m definately feeling the spirit more in the lessons which is really nice, and motivates me to pay attention in the lessons. Now when you read this don´t think that I am great at spanish I still don´t understand a lot during lessons, and when we´re not in lessons it is even harder to understand, but it comes little by little.
I don´t have any time left because I have been fiddling around with picture stuff, but the mission is great even though we have some problems it is great! I´m loving it out here. I love you guys and hope you are all having a blast at home! Adios
Elder Cannon

Where to Write!

Mission H.Q.:

Elder J. Hunter Cannon
Dominincan Republic Santiago Mission
Av. Estrella Sadhala
Plaza Alejo 2-B
Santiago
Dominican Republic

Pouch:
Elder J. Hunter Cannon
Dominican Republic Santiago Mission
POB 30150
Salt Lake City, UT 84130-0150

Dear Elder:
wwwdearelder.com
select "Dominican Republic Santiago" Mission

Pictures

These are some pictures I have taken in the past two days the one is my first baptism Darlin, another is just a regular street and the last is Christmas eve dinner with a lady named Hermana Blanca.

12/28/11

Hola familia,

First of all let me clarify on the food you sent. The jerky I went to open it and it was moldy, I don´t know if it had a hole in it somewhere but it had gone moldy. Don´t worry about sending jello I can get it here for less then a dollar. The browny mix and the quick mixes with water are really good. Also the water mix flavor stuff is good.The seasonings were also really good. I will tell you when I need anything like shampoo. We really have no idea when we get mail here it all depends on when we see the zone leaders and if they saw the office elders or the aps and when they saw them they had the mail with them, so it is a very long system.

This week has been has been really pretty good. We have been able to get a couple new investigators, and some of them the way that we got them to let us in was through singing which has been really good, and now they are pretty receptive. We are trying to find people who are strong in their faith right now, so that when they are converted they will strong members in the church, but they really like to talk, sometimes in a louder voice about religion so that has been pretty interesting. We are also going back to Rafiel´s house (the crazy guy that prayed for 15 min agout people killing each other) so that is going to be interesting.

Jesus Cabrera now has a baptismal date, that was a way cool lesson. My companion told me that I was going to teach the majority of the lesson, and we were teaching about prayer. So I started the lesson and I was understanding him pretty well, well enough that I was able to answer his questions and have a regular conversation with him. So that was really cool. We have also been able to plan to go with a bunch of members this week and that is one of the zone goals this week so that should be really good as long as they really come with us. Lately they have always said that they would come with us and end up have work or something like that.

We definately have rats in our apartment so we are trying to find a really good trap to get rid of them, but they can´t get to our food or anything like that, so that will be an adventure. I don´t think we are going to try putting gas in the hole and lighting it on fire, that wouldn´t turn out very good.

We had a zone soccer game this morning which was a ton of fun, but boy you really get sweety, and the worst part of it is that after you have to change back in your prosoliting clothes to travel back to your house to shower. If you don´t hang up your clothes to dry afterwards they will go moldy really quick, which is a pain.

I think that I am getting more tan, which is nice, but everyone here still stares at me which is really annoying, and it is funny when I am in a house teaching a lesson and people walk by twice just to see a white guy. There are only four americans in my zone, and one of them is my companion who has darker skin.

Another pretty crazy thing about here is the way that people dress. the other day my companion just randomly said that lady really needs to change, and when I looked up it was a heavier woman who was wearing pants that looked like jeans but they were see through and she was wearing a thong, I have no idea why they find that attractive, it was really nasty. We see someone dressed really stupid every now and again and we just laugh.

I feel like I am getting used to the way things are here and can focus more on the work then all the crazy thing happening around me, and it was funny after I had told you that nobody was hissing at me, a few people hissed at me. I am feeling more comfortable about the area and somewhat know where things are.

If you want to look on google maps we live in monte bonito apartments, building 6 apartment level 1 number 2 it is a pink and creamish building. next to it there is a basketball court and recreation building and a catholic church with a little ground area that has a fence around it. it depends on when the picture was taken either around the buildings will be a large amount of gravel area, or it will be packed with cars, most likely the gravel.

Tyler I think that I figured out carsons email, I found a mistake that i had made when I was trying to email him, so I will let you know if it works, but thank you very much for trying to get it for me, and another question are you posting an address to where people can send me mail, and did you end up doing the blog thing?

Well I have to go. I love you all and hope that you all have a great new year! the next time I talk to you it will be 2012 and my black year, or the year that I won´t see family or friends for an entire year, that will be weird. Les amo mucho Adios!

Elder Cannon

12/21/11- First Day in the Field

Hola Familia,
This week has been really busy trying to get everything ready to go. President left on sunday so me and my companion had to do more to make sure that everyone was doing what they needed to be doing. We left the MTC and went and got on a bus to go to santiago. There were 10 of us that are going up there. I feel like i have a lot of stuff. The bus ride was about 2.5 hours, when we got here President Lee was waiting for us. We went to the mission home which is in a really nice are and it is pretty big. They gave us a ton of papers and told us a bunch of stuff that we need to do. Dinner was good we had pizza, which was really good because it has been awhile that I haven´t had pizza. A bunch of missionaries came and we went out on splits which was a ton of fun. I went with Luke Newmeyer, he is from lindon and knows amanda so that was pretty cool. Spanish is alright I can understand the main points of the lesson, that is because in the MTC you usually use religion language, but in the streets it is hard to understand. It was pretty cool serving in my actual mission has a different feel to it. We came back after teaching a couple of lessons and doing some contacting. A lot of missionaries know Braden so that is pretty cool. Had an interview with the president which was really good, he told me some stuff that he wanted me to do, and it was cool because alot of the stuff that he told me to do was the same stuff that braden told me to do, so he was pretty happy about that. We had dinner and then time to read the papers that they gave me and prepare for tomorrow. I was able to play the piano and play some ping pong.
We stayed at the mission home that night which was pretty nice, and it was the last hot shower in the morning. We packed up which was hard to move all my bags and two boxes with a fan, but I was just dropped off my one of the zone leader in the truck. My companions name is Elder De Leon. He is way cool he know braden really well. Tell braden that he is my trainer. Our appartment is pretty big it was orginally for four elders to live there but now it is just the two of us. He said that it is one of the worst houses in the mission but i didn't think that it was too bad, but we do have rats that come in during the night and crawl around the kitchen, I guess i get to experience that tonight. Our area is Cein Fuego, it used to be two areas but now it is just one so it is pretty big. I got the packages and that was really nice, I had to open them right away because we went shopping today and I needed to know what things we needed. it was really cleaver about your scriptures, but the twelve days of christmas didn't really work because you didn't have numbers on the presents. Today is just P-day so I was able to unpack for the most part and then we went to Jumbo, Just a big store, and bought the food that we need. Oh just so you know I am good with shampoo. Don't worry about sending anymore hair gell. I haven'g been using it since the second week in provo so I still have the original stuff that you gave me, I really liked all of the seasoninngs that you sent me they should last a long time, peanut butter they do have but it is really expensive so that was nice. I really like the poem that Tyler wrote it was reallly good, and the picture that allison drew for me it was very pretty! It was really nice to hear from the ward, but I will try to write something and send it to you through the mail to give to the ward. I'm doing fine with everything and don't need anything so don't worry about sending anything. Just think of questions for Sunday and I'll talk to you then. We are planning on skyping at about 1, but I don't know how sure that time is, from the sound of it it is pretty sure. So that makes it 9 your time. I don't have any idea what I am going to talk about with you on sunday, so think about questions or things that you want to know. It is really sweet here in the DR! I love you all and will talk to you on Sunday! Adios
Elder Cannon

12/15/11

Hola Familia,

It has been pretty crazy here since it is the last week. The missionaries are all getting anxious and nervous to get out into the field. So that has been pretty crazy. Last night after my companion and I did the hallway walk and were in bed. We hear screaming, and I mean bloody murder screaming. My companion and I are trying and fast as we can to get up and find out what is going on. We get out in the hallway and there is nothing. It is silent, so we start walking down the hallway checking the rooms, when we get to the end of the hall one of the elders stuck his head out the door. We were asking what was going on, when we see his companion running from where my districts room is, just laughing. We found out that he was hiding under one of the elders beds and when he was done with his prayers he grabbed his legs and was growling lifting his bed up with is back. So that was a pretty funny experience this week.

To try to answer all of the questions. I am still learning a scripture a day, and that has helped me. The fruit is really good, but we usually get the same fruit all the time bananas, watermelon, pinapple, and papia. We had the plantains for the thanksgiving dinner, they were supposed to be the pumpkin pie so it was more of a spice pie that was alright, but doesn't compare to pumpkin pie. The people here are very receptive, and are always willing to talk about religion so that has made it easy when we have the opportunities to go out into the field.

I haven't received any of the packages yet so so hopefully I get them when I get up to the mission home. I did receive the pin number so don't worry about that. Dear elders take roughly 10 days to get here, because they bring mail only once or twice a week, but I have no idea what it is going to be in the field. The dear elders come to I think it is the west mission and so they will probably take longer to get up to me.

My body is adjusting to the food and the climate, but you have to realize that for pretty much all day everyday except fridays I am in an air conditioned building. So I still think that the real adjusting is yet to come. My nose is fine, I can breath fine out of it.

Thank you tyler for writing me back on the 5th. It finally got here, and it was great to hear about what you are doing. To answer your questions you feel different, but not invincible, as long as you are doing what you are supposed to and don't do anything stupid then you are fine. You feel like the spirit so much and sometime you become accustomed to it and you don't realize that you have it until you say something stupid and it leaves then you can feel it leave. There really isn't any big change it comes with the things that you are supposed to being doing, you get the spirit becasue you are praying and studying and listening for the spirit. Your willingness to work and how you study, it is all the same. So make sure that you prepare to work and study, by working and studying. I really liked what you said about having that really strong desire to serve a mission, because there are times when that is all you have is the desire to serve the Lord, and if you remeber why you are really out on your mission it will be easier to stay focused and work hard all the time.

We went into the field and go on splits with the missionaries in the field last week and agian tomorrow. My companion was from Honduras so that was cool, he spoke pretty much no english, but he was really trying to learn english. We went to an appointment with an investigator and we had to reschedule because it wasn't a good time. The next appointment was with a lady that was baptised a year ago, we shared scriptures and just talked about it, and we were there for an hour which was really long especially for here. We had to hurry to the next appointment because it was raining a ton. It was a member whose daughter isn't a member. They were pretty hard ot understand because they would say the domincan verson of a word and I had no idea what they were saying and then they would try to say it in english and I couldn't even tell that it was in english so that was tough, especially when it is really noicy they have people coming around all the time with megaphones mounted to trucks trying to sell stuff and all the windows are open because it is hot so you really can't here. We rode in the taxis which is crazy. They usually have a toyota carola 80's models and then they are pretty beat up and ride pretty low. They cram 4 people in the back and then 2 people in the passanger seat and then the drive. So tomorrow I get to go out again into the field and I should get the same companion, but we'll see. It was really cool and made me see how much I still have to work on, so it was really motivating.

My roommates are really cool, my companion and I always scare elder Coleman he is so funny so that has changed it up a little and brought some fun into our daily routine.

I just wanted to say that I love you all. I'm really proud of Joshua for learning Jingle bell rock, that is one of my favorite ones. Allison I hope that you are feeling better and don't itch anymore, I sorry that you had to get sick. Rachael I'm glad that you are having fun and earning money babysitting all the kids in the ward. Tyler enjoy it while it lasts not having any college classes right now. Mom and Dad I got your dear Elders a couple of days ago I really appreciate that, Mom that wasn't the right talk from elder holland but that one is really great, it was a MTC tuesday night devotionalin January of 2011.

Tyler just a reminder about trying to get carson's email for me that would be great.

I love you all and hope that you are all enjoying the time off of school and work to celebrate Christ's birth take the time to truely feel the spirit of Christmas and come closer to your Savior. Don't worry about me and eat all the sweets you can! I'm having a blast here always feeling the spirit of Christmas, and constently coming closer to the Savior! I love you all!

Love, Elder Cannon

12/8/11

Hola Mi Familia

Thing here have been pretty crazy, the time has been flying by I can't believe that we go out in the field in 12 days. I am definately nervous but above all I am way excited to be going. Spanish is hard, I know that back in Utah you think that I am pretty good at spanish, well it is really hard. I constantly feel like I am behind to where I think everyone else is, but I have talked with other missionaries and they feel the same way so I am not too worried. I haven't received the packages yet and today I just received three more dear elders and haven't read them yet so I'll answer any questions next week.

This week my companion has been sick at first it was the flu and now he has a cough and sore throat. I have been feeling good until yesterday when for lunch we had stomach soup, it actually was too bad and I ate a big bowl of it, but about 20 mins later it was coming out the other end, my stomach didn't feel very happy at all. It felt like a boxing match in my gut, ugh! After dinner though I felt much better so that was really good to get other food in my stomach. It feels like the days are getting faster and the nights are getting a lot faster. They say that the first six months drag and then it really flies by, but it is already flying by so I can't even imagine what the time will do when I am out in the field.

It is sad this week another elder went home, that makes four elders, and it is really sad to see them leave the mission field. Some say that they will come back but we'll have to see if they really do.

I haven't been able to buy the scripture cases or the fanny pack, the one guy came also does the scripture cases but they aren't as good and I didn't get them from him, he ended up messing up on a bunch of peoples. I know that you sent me the phone number but that doesn't really do my any good because I can't call anybody, so we'll just have to see when I get up to Santiago.

I do get to pray and read my scriptures a lot and I hope that I am studying them the best that I can because there is so much to study.

I sent a letter to you last week on the 1st I think, so look for it. It is pretty much the Christmas gift that I can send so you can't open it until christmas eve or christmas. We were able to watch the Christmas devotional, which was really great I hope that you were able to see it. It brought the true spirit of chirstmas into my heart. Honestly it doesn't feel like Christmas at all it is always 80ish and I do the same thing pretty much everyday, but I can feel the spirit everyday which is great to have it. the weather is all the same, it isn't that humid right now so that is good, and it isn't that hot yet, but this is the cold time of the year. It is funny to see everyone in Jeans and a t-shirt and others in jackets and we are really hot just in our slacks and short sleeve shirts.

Everthing is going great I'm not sick I don't need anything that I can think of, if you sent a cd player then send the david lanz orchestra version please in the next package. That all I can think of I really appreciate all that you guys do for me!

Will you do me a favor tyler and look up carsons mission email. His sister should have but it on facebook. if it isn't there ask her to give it to you the one he gave me doesn't work, and make sure that you have my address on my facebook.

I love you all and really appreciate all of you prayers and i pray for you too.

Love Elder Cannon

12/1/11

This week has been really crazy but first I would like to answer some questions before I forget. I have received the poem from amanda a dear elder from tyler and a dear elder from mom. I have not received the packages that you have sent yet, but I hope that they come soon. Oh and for grandpa hermano niñes said that there are cows here but there aren't a tone of them here.

So at the begining of the week we were able to go to the super market, it was pretty crazy. it was really big and was the store that is like a Walmart. In the clothing section they were playing the theme song to bonanza which I thought was really funny. they had a lot of similar stuff the stuff that is native is really cheap and the stuff that is imported is more expensive, except soda which is really cheap. All I got were some of the things that I needed some paper deoderant soap and some pens (roughly) it was really wierd going up to pay for it and they ask for $500, it was really only $13 but it was really weird feeling passing over a $500 bill to them. some of the missionaries cards weren't working here because they forgot to tell their banks that they were going to be in the dominican republic. I wasn't able to find an ATM so I don't know if my card is working here or not, but will you double check that we have imformed the bank that I am going to be in the Dominican Republic.

That day we also had a devotional with President Glazier about the atonement that was really great. We went in dept about teh atonement and talked about how it applies to each of our struggles while we are on our missions and how it can help our investigators. I was great we read a lot from alma 42 and others but mainly from that one. It has really helped me remember how important it is that not only do we invite our investigators to use the atonement, but also that we as missionaries can use it when we are struggling, it was a great reminder for me.

This week the latins are coming to the mtc so my district had to move, but we were ok about it. He moved us because he wanted the elders that he trust to be in their own area and to keep all the latins in the same area. It was great because the new rooms are for 8 people and we only have 4 they were for the sisters so each room has 2 bathrooms and 3 sinks so getting ready is a lot easier and the beds are softer as well. My old bed sounded like I was crunching dead bugs evertime I would move. And there is a ton of room in the new rooms. and just outside our room is the window to the temple which is really nice to see every morning.

My companion and I were relieved of our district leader duties and are now the zone leaders. It is crazy because we have to help all of the latins get into their rooms and class and the works so that is stretching my spanish. last night we had to wait up for the last two elders coming in yesterday they got in at around 11 so we were up for a while.

Something that was really funny was during an interview with Hermano Sanchz during coaching missionary study he was talking about certain elders in the district that could use help and how they were doing in spanish. He turned to me and said in spanish, "I am very proud of you spanish" and I translated it as, "you are very proud with you spanish" so I responded "I know that I am proud when it comes to spanish I have been working on it and will continue to study humility. It was pretty embarassing, but it was funny. Another really funny thing was the avacados here are enormous and we had them for lunch one day and a missionary hadn't really eaten them before. They were just in slices with the skin on it so he took a big bite skin and all, and just how he wanted to fit in so he said this is really good.

Thank you for all you do I hope that you have a great week! I have to go now. I love you!

Elder Cannon

Room Pictures

Here are some pictures from the old room to the new room.

11/24/11

Hola mi familia,

This week has been really crazy at the begining of the week we had a devotional from a MTC devotional back in 1/11 from Elder Holland. And it was incredible, there is no way that I could begin to explain it. It was a straight forward elder holland type of talk. It has changed my perspective of my mission! You should try to watch it somehow. It was really a spiritual high and has me fully commited to do everything in my power to be the best missionary that I can. The day after such a spiritual high is was so hard. I wasn't understanding a lot of the spanish so I was lost a lot of the time and I kept thinking about other things like thanksgiving and driving going out and playing sports so it was just hard to stay focused. Then yesterday it was the toughest day since the first week in the provo MTC it was going great until president came into our class right when I was teaching our teacher about the love of God, and so you get a picture of how the president is he wants you to always teach from the scriptures so if you say something in the lesson he askes where is a scripture that says that, I right then I was stuck and the class started to help out and it turned into a arguement instead of a lesson and I was trying to say anything but it was all going so fast and then after that my brain was dead and the rest of the night was so hard I wasn't getting anything any spanish any of what the teacher was trying to teach us, so I just hope that somehow my brain got the message and I will have learned from that experience.

It was awesome we were able to go to the university. We talked with a lot of people and most I could understand somewhat mainly because it was about the gosple and they were speaking really slow just for us. The last guy we talked to was a perfect investigator. He is fully commited to his family and serving them, but he is willing to devote his whole life to God he just didn't know what God wanted him to do. He was very willing to talk to us and was very excited, he mumbled a lot, but he did know some english which helped with the conversation, but we gave him a Book of Mormon and talked to him about it and we read the last bit of the introduction and he was way interested. We gave him the number to the other missionaries and hopefully he will call them but that was a really fun experience! I heard the fastest speaking in my life, it was a wonder how anyone could get their mouth to move that fast, it was incredible, he said what he had to say three times and I didn't get any of it.

Spanish is coming but it is a challenge as always, some of the concepts are difficult and just remembering the amount that they try to teach you here is insane, and then teaching they tell you to always practise what you are learning, but is hard to think of what you are going to say and then remember how to say it in spanish with all the verbs and right words and then congugating into the right tense and subject it is hard to remember what you were trying to say in the first part, but the Lord is helping me a ton, there is no way that I could have learned this much in the amount of time that I have been here, which has been flying by. For Tyler enjoy the small things in life. I have to go so adios and have a great time for thanksgiving and finding a christmas tree! I love you all! Elder Cannon

Here is a picture of the temple just outside the window at the MTC.

11/17/11- First week in the DR MTC

So it is pretty crazy here. When we first got here in the airport I couldn't understand anything that anyone was saying and they were all trying to get us to do different things and they were trying to take our bags places and show them boarding passes and tickets and all sorts of stuff, and I really didn't like not understanding anything that was going on. As we drove to the MTC it was crazy we were in a huge bus going about 80mph the driver would get within inches of the cars bumper then honk and speed up and barely clear them with the side of the bus. We almost made a sandwhich with a landrover and the barrier on the freeway. We almost got t-boned a couple of times. During the ride we passes some really poor areas and that was pretty sad. There were piles of garbage in vacant lots and at some of the corners of streets, with stray or wild dogs around them. As we come closer to the west side and closer to the temple it went form really poor to well off. There are big buildings and some pretty nice car dealerships, like ferraris and stuff, but they had guards there sitting on the side walk.

We got to the MTC and we got new companions my companion is Elder Burningham he is pretty cool guy he is from kaysville. So Joshua it is really nice here the MTC is pretty new and has AC. The food is good, but sometimes it doesn't really agree with my stomach. For breakfast we have this Nestle Chocolate oatmeal goop it is alright I usually dip my toast in it, and we have some cereals and we eat those with powder milk, I can eat it with my cereal but I can't drink the stuff. Lunch here is their biggest meal they always have rice and beans with some other side usually these potatoe stuff and then we have chicken and usually another piece of meat. It is a ton of food for lunch so to try to put it in persective it is about two fists of rice with a ladle of beans over top and two to three scoops of the potatoe stuff so about as much as the rice and then a piece of chichen and another usually smaller piece of meat. Overall it covers the entire plate and is heaped as high as it can be. Usually I finish it all because I am always hunger. Dinner it just depends on the day so far we have had tacos and mexican stuff a couple times and another night we had this stuff that reminded me of sloppy joes, and it isn't that huge. Every meal we always have bananas and these rolls that look like hotdog buns, and juice. During either lunch or dinner we usually get pinapple or papia ( sorry about the spelling) So the food is alright. The place is pretty nice I haven't seen a single bug in the MTC at all, we have hot water and ac so that is way nice, we can drink the water but it is pretty clorinated so I don't drink it. I'm glad that joshua and allison are eating all their food. Here they have great avacados and fruit the pineapple is so good!

The language is hard as always, when I first got here it was really hard to understand the teachers here, but now I can understand at least what they are saying most of the time. The teachers are natives and they know some english which is helpful. The temple is way pretty here and we get to go and walk around it usually everyday it we want to, there are a ton of lizards that we see as we walk around the temple. I am trying to see if the Atkinsons (grandma and grandpa cannons neighbor) will take my clock home to you. It changes itself back to your time every threeish days so then we never wake up on time, I have tried to fix ti but it still changes back. The atkinsons are going back this weekend it not then I'll probably send it home. I'm glad that everyone is doing well in all their activities. Make sure that if you are going to send a package that everything in the package will last the trip, because if not then I have to pay for it and then just throw it away. the packages will usually sit in the sun at some point before it gets to me, if you send money or stuff like that they suggest you put them inbetween pass along cards and then laminate them together, but that is if you send that. Later today my district has the oprotunity to go out with someone and go see somethings in the city.

Allison I wanted to say hello to you and thanks for saying hello to me.

Joshua Thank you for writing me. I hope that I answered all of your questions, if you have any more just ask. I also wanted to wish you a Happy Birthday this friday! Big nine years old. I hope that you eat extra cake and ice cream for me! Wow you are getting so old.

The weather here is always humid and hot, when it rains for some reason the peole here don't like to be out in the rain, when me and my companion were walking back from the temple which is literally across a driveway all them people kept telling us to get out of the rain, so we did but I wonder why. It has rained everyday that I have been here. And when it rains it is a quick shower it will sprinkle then dump and then be gone and it will be sunny again. When we play basketball for the little time that we have by the end I am really sweaty and am so greatful for the ac in the building, in the field there will be no mercy.

The usual day we get up and ready then we have breakfast we come back for Tall which is language study on the computer, then we study in the class you until lunch we usually study for the grammer that will be taught later that day and we have Hermano Sanchz who comes in and teaches us and then he is one of our progressive investigators. we have lunch then study more in the class you we then have gym and time to shower after then dinner and more studying in the classroom, and Hermano Rubio who comes and teaches us then and we have the opprotunity to teach him as one of our investigators. I feel like I am learning the language faster here because they speak faster but nothing compared to the domincans. We have devotionals twice on sunday and once on tuesday they are usually just a recording of a provo mtc broadcast that we watch.

The mtc presidency is awesome they are so great with the scriptures and with helping us. it is definately harder here then it was in provo the intensity level has gone up. one of my companions from the provo mtc had to go home I don't know why but is was sad to see him go. It is alot different then what I thought it was going to be like but there are some things that are the same as what I thought they would be.

I have to go now and eat lunch and then get ready to go out into the city. so adios until next week. you'll be in my prayers and Happy Birthday Joshua make it the best day ever! I love you all! Adios

Elder Cannon

11/11/11 - Finally in the DR

Hey family I'm finally here in the DR mtc. The address here is avenida bolivar #825, exquina, calle Genesis, Los Robles, Santo Domingo Republica dominicana. It is pretty crazy here the ride over we almost got hit a couple of time and cut people off, it was pretty awesome. It is pretty poor, but when we got here is wasn't too hot so that was nice, the humidity is really crazy and yes my hands are getting better. I could not understand anything expecially at the airport were they were asking us to do stuff and taking our lugage and we had no idea where they were taking them. I have to go but I am fine and it is really pretty here my p-day is on thursdays so that is when I will get a chance to email, I think. Adios Les amo

Elder Cannon

11/9/11- Last Day at Provo MTC

Today is the last day at the Provo MTC! I'm so excited to go to the DR. The food here is kind of making me sick just from eating a ton and sitting for 8 hours then eating more, but I haven't gained any weight since I have been here. It has been hard to say goodbye to hermano bailey but I''m looking forward to finding out who my teacher is in the DR. I don't really know what to say. This week has been forever it seems but it has gone by fast. I haven't been able to sleep very well these past couple of days because I've been excited I guess. I have started to gather up all my stuff, and I am going to be sending some stuff home so look for the package. Thanks for all the packages, but instead of just giving me sweets it is nice to get a little bit of salty like chips and that sort of thing, just because I get all the deserts that I want here. We taught Christian this week he finally commited to be baptised which was way cool. This week our instructor told us that we can no longer use the notes that we make in spanish so we have to teach now with just the language that we as a companionship know which is harder but I can feel the spirit more in my lessons. I was able to sing in the choir this week with Carson and Kenny ( garth's older brother), so that was way cool, one of the speakers bore her testimony is portugese and I understood part of it which was way cool! I was a little sad that I wasn''t able to hear one of the 12 or the first presidency speak. It is nice to feel the cool brisk morning with the snow on the tops of the mountains before I go to the thick waves of heat that the DR has to offer. I have noticed that the more spanish that I learn my spelling has been getting worse, and those bad study habits were terrible to have my senior year because it is making learning spanish harder. So make sure you have good study habits which include no cramming. I have a ton to get done today and I hope that I can get to bed ontime because I have lost a bunch of sleep this week. We had elder franks come and stay with us his last night because he had no companions, we were up until 12 and he had to leave at 4 so that wasn't good for my sleep. It has been a blast at the MTC it has been stressful but a blast! I have drinken chocolate milk with every meal which has been alright, to tell you the truth I am starting to get sick of it, and all the food is tasting the same. Brother bailey said that the food in the DR MTC is a ton better then the food here so I am way excited for that. I hope that I can call you tomorrow some time and talk for a little while. I don't know when my P-day when I get there and I don''t know my address yet but I''ll let you know. I love you all and hope that you are all loving life without me, the devotional talk yesterday said that you are better off without me and I felt the spirit through the talk so... I''ll talk to you when I can Adios mi familia. Les amos ellos!

Love Elder Cannon

11/4/11

So this week has been alright. It seems like everyday is going slower now that I have my travel plans, and it is getting harder to pay attention. We got two new investigators this week and Diego left, we now teach Chritian and Tomàs, they are both pretty good investigators Christian is about 20 and seems interested by it is hard to get him to do what we commit him to do. Tomas is great he always does the commitments that we leave him and we can see his faith in Christ has grown since he has started taking the lessons. Christian has accepted the commitment to be baptized, but he won't commit to a date until he know that the church is true. My district is seeing a little more conflict, just because peoples personalities are setting in now and they are getting irritated more often, It is mainly at elder wirig, so that is starting to be a bit more of a problem. My instructors are pretty awesome, Brother bailey went to porto rico and his twin to the dr so he knows alot about the language there and what to expect. He is way big in sword fighting, he goes and fights with wooden swords and armor with long bows ( they have about a fist size end that isn't sharp) and they have big battles, he has been fighting since he was 8 so he is pretty good. he also does a great inpression of smeagle. The language is coming but I can't see as easily the progress I have made so it is harder to pay attention. I see a lot more kids from pleasant grove so that is a bit weird to see them, but it is also way cool. Next wednesday I will be packing and doing laundry so i don't know if i will be able to get on to email or not, but I hope so. I have some stuff that I am going to send home, but I won't send it until next week some time. Also remeber to send in my court judge thing. The pancakes were alright, the only time we ate them was before gym on the days that we had gym before breakfast, but they went bad really fast and you sent way too much butter and jam. so I will send the jam home the butter melted into a mess. My toiletries bag shower part has started to come apart, as well as my cheap laundry bag and my journal had some pages fall out that I am trying to glue back in. The MTC is hard, my companion elder tracy is having a hard time because of the amount of stress that is here. It is so hard because there is a lot of stress and you can't releave your stress the same as you did at home, so Tyler practise good stress relieving skills, because you only get one 50min gym time a day there is no music at all in the mtc, but when we are doing our computer language study we listen to music on lds.org. so basically every stress relieving things that you have won't be here or you will get very little, and it is easy to get overwhelmed. You just have to realize that the language will come little by little and everything will just take care of itself. elder tracy is worrying about home and his girlfriend so before you go tyler make sure you don't have a girl friend. The halloween stuff you sent was pretty cool we had a party in my room that night. I carved the ghost picture that you guys sent me. I got my fist haircut today because they don't let you cut your own hair, so I went to the barbershop they cut it pretty short, but it is ok. The food here they are definetly going to quantity and not quality. It isn't too bad but everything starting to taste the same and we are getting a little sick of it, but that is probably because we are looking forward to the food in the DR. I hurt my back the first week I got here, and it is starting to feel better. elder tracy wants me to go see a doctor, but that is probably because he popped his hip and he wanted to go and get it checked out and doesn't want to be alone. I got my suit dry cleaned this week and it was really cheap it was $6 to dry clean a suit. Will you send me more stamps, just so I don't have to buy them in the DR, and maybe suitcase zipper locks, about 4-5 locks, if you send them. Thanks for all the prayers and thoughts, I am doing by best to bless you in spanish every night when I pray, Sounds like everyone is have a great time with being asked out my a senior to having flat tires and doing doughnuts in the dessert having a evening with dad all by his self hearing the prophet. It sounds like a blast, but things here are a blast, my district tells a ton of jokes and stuff so that is one way that we relieve stress and singing in the choir, I hope that a apostle comes before I leave that would be awesome! my time is expired so I have to go now. Adios I should be able to call you this thursday but that isn't for sure yet. Love you all!

Love

Elder Hunter Cannon

First Week- Check!

So my first week is over. It seems like I have been here for weeks already, but now that the first week is over it is flying by. We have made progress with our investigator. Yesterday we felt like he was ready to hear the baptismal challenge so we had a lesson on faith and baptism, after we had said all that we had written down all of our vocab and sentences of spanish we asked him and he said he didn't know why he had to be baptised again, he was already baptised in the catholic church, so we tried our best to answer his question. It was pretty cool because we were just going off the spanish that we knew but we were still able to teach somewhat, but he wouldn't commit. The district is coming along great, at first our district was awesome, but one elder couldn't stop talking about himself and the stuff he said was outrageous, and the district had so many inside jokes about what he said. We finally talked to him and things are really changing so that is going great. I found our Carson and I room in the same building so I get to see him all the time which is way cool. Spanish is hard, harder then I expected. Tyler Rachael spanish is harder because I had bad study habits my senior year I would just cram for the test and then forget all the info, and now when I am trying to remeber verbs and vocab I learn then for a while then forget them, so I am constently relearning which is a huge pain. So don't do what i did. I've been sleeping better now that our room temperature is down to 73 at night is was around 76, and now that Elder Tracy sleeps on his stomach, before he slept on his stomach in a snoring contest he could beat grandpa nowers noise by 3 times as loud. He could snore so loud that he could shake his bed. I am finally on my official schedule. Each day it changes but it is the same every week. I can email on fridays when I do my laundry, which is either 6:30 in the morning or during our regular laundry time which was around 2, but i only have 30 mins on my email each week so I don't think that we could chat very easily. I usually print off my emails and read them so I am not wasting time reading the emails. I also get to go to the temple on fridays which we are all looking forward to. I am not supposed to see anyone while i am on the field or going to the temple, but we go to the temple around 10ish I think maybe I mixed up our regular laundry and temple time, I don't have my schedule next to me. Everyday we have 50 mins of field time everyday monday and thursday it is early in the morning and the field isn't open, Saturday and I think wednesday is around 4 and tuesday is around 11, but those are just estimates. I need the keychain oil flask thing, another P-day t-shirt, and pair of shorts, and the petigree chart thing. Also if you could send the photo album. I need my drivers licence as soon as it comes. I got my itinerary yesterday so I leave november 10 at 3 am from the MTC, my flight is american airlines that leaves at 6:30ish we fly to dallas texas have 45 mins to get to our next flight going to miami, we have a 4 hour lay over there then we fly to santo domingo, so excited! I have only 13 days left, but I really need my drivers license, but before you send it make sure you make a copy of both the front and the back. I Love you guys, how are joshua and allison doing with the deal about eating their food? Tyler Math is tough to get just because it is going to fast, the homework isn't bad as long as you understand the lessons, if you don't talk with palmer he really helps, Rachael I hope you start feeling better, and don't get caught up about the little things. Mom I appreiciate all of you letters and comments, If you email me I only get them every friday so emailing me a couple times each week, I would rather have it all be in one emaill; Dear elder I recieve on a daily bases so if you use that I get it usually that day. Dad I know that you can relate about all the experiences, and I have been stuffing myself with no wieght gain so far, If you ever drive my I am in 18m it is the large building second from the left, It is also the parley P pratt building, on the fourth floor, but the first one is sunk in the ground so second from the time in the third window that is where I am usually all the time. Well I have to go. I love you all and hope that you are enjoying life without me. ;)

Love Elder Cannon