4-25-12- New House and Companion

Hola Familia

This week has been pretty good. Today is transfers so now I have a new companion. His name is Elder Guerrero and he is a dominican. He is pretty good so far, he has slept a lot, but he did make lunch for the both of us, because with Elder Hernandez I did basically all the cooking. So that is nice. This is his last transfer so I hope that he still have some energy to continue working. He said that he really likes to work, but we will have to see. Hernandez it was hard at times, but I learned a lot and this transfer according to what everyone has told me is going to be about the same, so we will have to see. But because he is going to die here I will stay here for this transfer and the next one at least. So that will be 3 more months in Cien Fuegos. 

So Afatasi left today, but Elder Barrus came he is from my group he is now in the other part of cien fuegos so that will be nice to be able to have someone that I know. 

This week we moved into our new house, which was a hastle. I did a lot of the packing Hernandez would do the things I told him but he wasn´t able to do things on his own other then his own stuff. When we moved Afatasi and Olguin came and helped us along with the office elders. We moved in Friday night, so we didn´t get to bed until late. The house is a lot nicer then the other one and it has a breeze that passes through it which is extremely nice. The only problem is that the outlets don´t work in the main room and the bed room so we need to talk to our renter. It was really hot one night with no breeze and extremely humid and without fans it is really hard to sleep. 

This week it has rained a lot so we have had to walk through a bunch of mud and we get pretty wet. We have been working a lot and leaving with the members a lot lately. Last sunday was Stake conference it was alright it was hard to hear because I was in the back so I wasn´t able to get a lot out of it, but Jesus cabrera got the melquezedec (have no idea how to spell that right now) Priesthood so that was pretty exciting. 

We have a couple of really good investigators right now. One Angelo is girlfriend just lost their baby and she now lives next door to him. So we are teaching her and trying to talk about marriage with them. We are teaching a family that have been reading and praying a lot. They were a reference of Felix Cabrera and they are progressing really well, they have three kids, but aren´t married we talked to them about that and they are willing if the church really is true. The husband Yoel has been looking for the true churchand is really reading the book of Mormon so that should be really good. Sagrario is still reading and working hard. She is having trouble with coffee but is trying and it is coming slowly.

Well I will talk to you soon. I will try to figure it all out this week about what time and using what. I´m glad joshua did so well at the recital and I hope that tyler and rachael know how smart they really are and that they are going to do great on these tests! But I love you all and hope that you all have a great week!

Love Elder Cannon 

4/18/12

Hola Familia,
This week it has rained alot. Last Wednesday we had to walk through a road that was basically a river. The water came up to our knees it was really fun, especially when it rains that hard the sewage overflows and it smells bad, and the roads turn into rivers. The members left with us a bunch last week we had 33 lessons with members it was really cool, and now that they have left with us they are making lists of people that we can go and visit it is something to help them see the joy in missionary work. So now we are going to have a lot of work to do with all these references.
With all the rain that we had last week the house really leaked. It is really nasty now. We live in a cave basically it is making cave formations and now that it is somewhat dry it is going moldy. It was nasty we made a pizza for dinner on sunday but the dough didn´t have time to rise so it was really hard and flat. My companion made some juice but he used a gallon instead of a liter of water. So while we were eating cardboard with ham and cheese and slightly flavored water. Sitting there while the ceiling dripped orange brown drops on us we just had to laugh. But now it is drying out, and luckly it doesn´t leak where we sleep or where we study or where we cook.
We should be moving soon the new house it finally done we are going to do the paper work today hopefully and then when the office elders come to help us move. Transfers are next week so hopefully we will move in this week because next week it will busy.
The work is going alright we have a couple of really good investigators and some that are taking a while, but the work is going good. We are working really hard talking to new people and leaving with the members.
We were in a lesson with a lady and after the lesson we asked if she would offer the pray. It was really funny. She said in her pray ¨I can´t go to your church Lord because I am in a different religion¨ We just were thinking well if you know that this is the true church why do you go to the other church. We also saw a boy riding a bike down the road and a little girl was swinging a hoop and the boy rode right into it and got nailed in the head it was really funny.
But everything is going well over here. I hope that everything is going well over there too. I love you all and hope that you have a great week. Congratulations Rachael on getting asked to prom I hope that you have a fun time. It is a little weird thinking about you going on dates but I guess you are old enough, and I still can´t believe that you can drive now. It is just weird to think about. Keep working hard. I hope that you have a great week I love you all very much!
Love Elder Cannn

4/11/12

Hola Familia
This week has been a bit harder. We haven´t had water for the past week, we had a bottle of fresh water, but no running water. So we ran out of clean dishes and my companion ran out of clean shirts. We had to walk down to the other missionaries house to shower and clean ourselves. So a two of the nights we stayed over there because it was really late and we sweated alot so we showered at night and in the morning. We bought all the bottled water that we could which was two bottles and there was no more of that so that my companion could wash his clothes. The water finally came today! We are so happy, you don´t know how much of a blessing running water is, normally we have running water most the time during the week and not on the weekends, but the blue barrel lasts during the week ends. When we didn´t have water the blue barrel was pretty much empty. We had to walk a lot back and forth to their house to shower. Something that was great to see how many blessings we received. Like members and investigators feeding us without knowing that we didn´t have anything clean to cook with at home, and an investigator gave us two gallons each to bath one day, which was great because it was late and we were really tired so we didn´t have to walk to the other missionaries house. It was a blessing that the other missionaries let us go to their house to shower.
Jaden was baptised this last weekend. It was really good. We had a good number of members for the Semana Santa. He was baptised and then sunday he received the Holy Ghost and the priesthood. So that was really good to seen him progress and see his testimony grow. He should be able to go back to the United States in June, which will be great for him.
We had a ton of Habichuelas con Dulce this week ( sweet beans). On friday we had it three times and then again sunday and last Wednesday. It was pretty crazy the members left with us a ton especially Sandi and Felix they left with us and the other missionaries in Cien fuegos three days all day long. They really have a desire to share the gospel, it is awesome to see how far they have come from learning the basics to leaving with the missionaries and receiving callings in the church. Felix in the first counsilor in the young mens presidency.
Today was P-Day Santiago so we were able to go to the office and Pricesmart to buy stuff which was good because we were getting low of the stuff that they sell cheap there like jam and stuff. And we get to see and talk to a lot of missionaries. so that was good.
It has been raining a lot lately, and our house in the front room is leaking a lot. One day we were down in La Piña (a neighborhood) which doesn´t have paved roads and it rained a ton the roads were mud rivers, and we had to walk our of there to get to the next lesson, but we were able to avoid the deep water.
It is sad when we have to drop investigators. This last week we told a family that we have been sharing with for almost 3 months that they weren´t progressing and the reason why we are here is for their salvation. some were crying by the end and were begging us to give them one more chance. so we did we are going to pass today and see if they did anything.
I hope that everything is going great at home! I´m glad you guys found the chocolate from last year so were able to eat some of it this year. I hope that you are all feeling good. Enjoy the stuff I sent and you´ll have to tell me what was your favorite. I also sent some more letters so you can look for them in the mail. Keep up all the great work! I love you all and Have a great week!
Love Elder Cannon