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