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

6/20/2012

This week was really Great!

So this week we had a capacitation with President and Hermana Lee for just our zone, and a half an hour before a meeting with the three district leaders and zone leaders. So we were on our way and running a little bit late. Then the ruta that we were in died. ¨great now we are going to be even later. The driver got out, popped the hood and started the car and then reved it up. We went a little ways and it died again. So he got out and started it again and reved it up. We went another little ways and then it died a third time. He got out of the car and started the car under the hood, but this time he forgot to take it out of drive. So when he reved up the car it nailed the driver knocking him pretty hard onto the ground and then kept going. I thought that the car was going to run him over we were just waiting for the bump bump and the screams. He was able to roll to the side and then running after him car. He jumped in the window and throw the car into park. It was so funny to watch a guy hit himself with his own car. All the people in the car were trying not to laugh.

When we finally got to the capacitation we talked about planning and contacting 10 people everyday. It was really good. he talked about preaching the gospel ¨en camino¨ in D and C 52, and how we need to open our mouths and trust that it will be filled. he told us about how sometimes we are scared or timid to open our mouths and preach the gospel, but if we do this we showed us how it would be simple to have a baptism once a week. It was really good. I just hope that the other missinonaries put this in practise so that when I get transfered they will have put in the effort to open their mouths. 

On monday I had to give my first capacitation as a District leader. I talked about the importance of inviting and helping our investigators come to church. I had a lot a participation from the district and it turned out really good. 

I also did an exchange in La Union. We had a really good day leaving with members and working out there. We were able to have a lot of success contacting and talking to people. That night I slept terrible. All there was was a matris so sleep on so I had a shirt that was a very little pillow and then the elder I was with gave me one sheet. During the night my right calf crapped up really bad about 5 time. So I would wake up and try to stretch it out and then go back to sleep only to wake up and try to stretch my leg out again.

We are starting to get more refereneces from the members. On sunday the lesson was about having excitement about sharing the gospel. So I think that really helped, we are really trying to asked references from everyone to try to reach the goal of 10 references every week. It has been a bit hard because there are 4 missionaries in the same ward and both of us are asking for references, so 20 references every week from the ward. 

I hope that you all have a really fun week this week for Strawberry Days. Eat a bunch of strawberries and cream for me. Keep up the good work in school and piano. Try to teach chief how to sniff out non members so that you can teach them. Have a great week and Enjoy the summer together! I love you all!

Con Amor 

Elder Cannon 

6/13/2012

Hola Familia

This week has been pretty good. We haven´t had water for a couple of days so the past couple of nights our neighbors have given us water to wash our clothes and bath. So after we are done during the day we go and haul water up to our house. We have probably hauled 100 gallons. It is pretty Tiring to lift it up the stairs to our house, but it has been really nice to have water. 

My companion and I are getting along pretty good. He loves to cook and took classes so I am learning a little about how to cook food from Guatemala. He also cleans alot which is really nice because our house is more clean.

So as a zone we are focusing more on goals and how to achieve them. I had to get a capacitation on how we are going as a zone to get 1,200 references this transfer. We are really trying to focus ourselve more by setting and making better goals.

So this week we have really been trying to help Mayra and Joel come to church. This Sunday they came a little late but they came which was really good. The class with the inverstigadors was really good and they really had a good time. But during priesthood some things were said that has made a bit harder. I think that it won´t slow their progress too much but it might a little bit, so that wasn´t very good.

Yesterday we went to Sagrario´s house and shared with her. She is doing a lot better. We have a goal to reactivate some less actives in the Ward. The other day we were walking and saw this lady carrying some boards. So we offered to help her and she didn´t want us to. We insisted and then helped her. We found out that she used to work in the houses of the missionaries and is now less active. She just moved here and was really happy to see us. It was awesome to see that just by doing what we were supposed to be doing we happened to pass by just at that moment, and insisted to help her. The spirit was really strong and she has a Desire to reactivate and become an active member in the church again.

We have been fasting and studying and it really goes to show the power of fasting, we are finding more people that are really progressing with the lessons and we are constently receiving new ideas in the things that we can do to help the members and investigators in our area. The work is moving forward everyday as we are contacting and finding new people that the gospel can bless.

Seeing people change their lives everyday really shows the power of this gospel and the teachings of Jesus Christ. In a song that I have It says ¨seeing their lives begin to change I know that i´ll never be the same, how can i keep this gift to myself when I Could lift somebody else, I am a witness of his Miracle and his mercy…¨ It is a really good song that talks about missionary work.

That is great that you guys were able to go to ST. George and see all the family and get all those pictures. I am sorry to hear that allison is a bit sick. Tyler don´t worry about the ACT you did fine. It was great to hear that Rachael had a great time at EFY and that allison and joshua are doing swimming again. I hope that you all have a great week and I love you all very much.

Con Amor 

Elder Cannon 

6/6/2012

This week has been pretty good. My companion is going home today so we have been working pretty hard. He was able to finish strong. My new companion is Elder Muralles from Guatemala, Guatemala City, and says that he know a bunch of missionaries I asked about marshall Nielson but he said that there were two Elder Nielsons. I am now the District Leader of 8 missionaries 6 Elders and 2 Hermanas. There are 4 from my group of missionaries that are in my district. It is a bit intimidating, but I´ll just do my best. 

This week we saw something that I never thought I would see in my life. So we were at the church to pick up a member to go and do visits with us, and a big black dog came waddling down the road. It was half squating. Then it stopped in and tried to poop, it must have put a good amount of preasure because it was shaking. Then it waddled some more and then tried again. On the third attempt it came out. It was a grocery bag that it had eaten. It was pretty gross, and really funny.

We have eaten at a lot of members houses this week because my companion is leaving so they all wanted us to go and eat over. One day I ate a ton I thought that I was going to explode. We have had a lot of meetings that we have had to go to this week. We had an exchange while my companion was in a meeting for the missionaries who are finishing their missions. When we got back, because we were the only companions that got back on time, but the meeting was still going so I was able to play the piano a little bit. It was also nice to see all the missionaries that are finishing their missions to say goodbye to them.

It has been extremely hot lately. We are sweating like crazy. The members don´t like to leave in the early afternoon because it is so hot, but they are leaving with us which is really nice.

Yesterday we went to an investigators house when we didn´t have an appointment. When we got there she didn´t want to share with us it wasn´t a good time. We sent another appointment and asked if there was anything that we could do, because something was wrong. She told us that it was something personal and something emotional and that there was nothing that we could do for her. So we left, I felt like was should go back, so we walked back up the stairs and knocked on her door. She was pretty surprised to see us at her door again, but she was close to tears. We told her that she was a good friend and we didn´t want to leave her like   that. She said that there was nothing that we could do, so we told her that whatever she was going through the Book of Mormon would help. It was extremely impacting. My companion and I were close to tears when we left. She is normally very excited and laughs and likes the visits, she has also asked us advice about problems that she has in her life and is a really good friend and investigator. It was really hard, I don´t know how to discribe it, I really wanted to help her and felt like I couldn´t, my heart was heavy and sad it is just hard to discribe. 

I hope that you all have a great week this week with brand new carpet the squishes when you step on it and goes in-between your toes. Wow that seems so foreign. I hope that Rachael have an awesome experience in EFY, and that you are all enjoying your first week in summer. Keep working hard and having fun! I love you all and thank you for the package that you guys sent me. Have a great week!

Con Amor 

Elder Cannon