12-26-12

Hola Familia,

It was great to talk to you guys yesterday. You guys look like you have really grown. That is so great the you guys had a white christmas and had a wonderful time. It sounds like you are all getting a lot of snow with the snow storms on Christmas eve and today.

So this week I have been coming in a lot to the office getting a feel to my new job. Driving around and ordering stuff for the mission store and all the mail and cell phones. It is pretty interesting it seems pretty chill right now in the office, but trying to figure out some weird bills that have come from the phone company, but it is really nice that I will be in the office for the church because they are really organized and if we paid there is a receipt and a copy of the check stamped and everything so we can solve the problem pretty easily, but then again a large part of my job is filing and organizing everything so that when a problem like that comes we can find the receipt and I have to have a copy of the checks and all the forms. So that part isn't as fun having to organize all the mail and bills and the forms for the cars.

Driving is a different experience, it is just basically roaming all over the road nobody really follows any lines or anything if your car fits then your good to go. So a street that would be for one car in the united states now fits three cars and a motorcycle weaving inbetween them. You have to try to predict what the person in front of you is thinking but here just be ready for anything they may just stop in the middle of the road or turn left from the right lane and things like that so that can make you pretty frustrated but you just have to be really watchful and have lots of patience. But I am really enjoying it I have missed driving. Sometimes while we are walking and we see someone driving a nice car I sometime will just make car noices or act like i am shifting or something, and when i got called my companion said now you can do it for real and you don't have to pretend. I am pretty happy to be driving, I just have to be careful.

This sunday there were hardly any people at church, in our sunday school class there were three people and two of those were my companion and I, so we just discussed the lesson and read and made sure that the one person understood the lesson, but the one person was the new ward mission leader who is also a recent convert who is 18 years old, so it was a bit different.

I basically told you about everything else big that has happened this week. I hope that you all have a great week this week I hope that you had a very merry christmas and that you have a Happy New Year! I love you all tons and I was great talking to you!

Con Amor

Elder Cannon

 

12-12-12

Hola Familia
This week has been pretty good.
We have been trying to help a couple of couples that are having problems. They are investigators and are starting to teach them so we made some goals and are trying to help them, but it really opens my eyes and helps me see what I can do in the future to stay away from things and how to resolve them.
This week there have been a lot of tempting opportunities, where we get to the house of the investigator and they are watching movies that have come out while i have been on the mission and they are watching them, sometimes in english with spanish subtitles. They invite is to watch the movie with them and even invite us to dinner, but we have been strong and haven´t given in, especially because my companion is a fanatic with movies before the mission he would watch 3 maybe 4 movies a day. I have no idea how he can spend so much time watching movies.
Last week we were walking with the branch president to the charca and these teenage girls wanted to walk with us, because it can be dangerous because people have been attacked especially two teenage girls it would be dangerous. So they walked with us and found out that one is a friend of a member and has gone to church a couple of times, but that was a really long time ago, we went to their house and shared a message and they seem alright interested in the message and at the end of the lesson they gave us a plate of dinner yuka with a ham in sauce stuff. It was so cool to see the way that they accepted us right in and acted as if we were old friends offering us dinner and to stay and talk and play dominos with them, the people here are very loving and giving people.
During an exchange in Bella Vista we went and tried to find some investigators that just moved from our area to Bella Vista. They have been trying to get us their address so that we can give it to the missionaries in Bella Vista and all we had was the street name and the neighborhood, so we went on the hunt. I could recognize his truck so we went walking. We found the house in a short time and their daughter saw us coming and yelled they found us! They were really happy that we found them. We shared a short message and I introduced Elder Carrasco he and his companion will continue to teach them which was a really good hand off from one set of missionaries to the other. They are a great family.
This week is going to go really fast. We have activities planned this week. We have a branch christmas dinner tomorrow and then on friday we have a conference with all the missionaries in the City Santiago and then Saturday we have a Flash mob that we are going to do, so that is going to be way cool!
Well I hope that you all have a great week this week I love you all so much! Keep working hard in school!
Con Amor
Elder Cannon

12-5-12

This week was pretty awesome here in the DR.

So we met the new zone and there are a lot of dominicans that are in our zone now, there haven´t been hardly any americans coming into the mission and President told my companion to take advantage now so that he can learn some english because there aren´t going to be very many more americans coming in the next while.

This week we had a lesson, well it was more of visiting. We went to have a lesson with Pablo who tends to talk a lot. So we were just saying hello sitting down asking how things were going and he was telling us how his week went and then his cousin came in Juana, who we are also teaching and talks a lot. ¨And they were off Juana leading on the inside but wait she is being cut off by Pablo from the outside. It is Juana...Juana... Juana but Pablo takes his move and takes the lead.¨ It was really hard to understand. One would be telling a story which is fine and then the other was start a story in the middle of the first story and would try to take over the conversation. So the first would talk louder and so the second would talk louder. Then the second would try to head them off by touching their arm or shoulder or something. Then finally one of them would die out for a minute and let the other talk for a second and then before there was even a break the next one was off. We just sat there and when we tried to say anything it was like. ¨That is interesting but........¨ We ended up just having to leave because we had another appointment to go to. We did learn a lot more about La Yaguita about the people and how much drug exchange and stuff there is. there is a Fied chicken place that you can order the Complete and it comes with the drugs hidden in your chicken. It was pretty eye opening to hear about everything like that.

We had lesson with Arelis. She was a missionary for the Adventist Church and we went to teach her and we were planning on dropping her because she doesn´t read because she is so busy. We were telling her about reading the Book of Mormon. LIke usual she tried to tell us how we should teach her. She was explaining that if we wanted her to learn it then we were going to assign a couple chapters and she would read then we would discuss it in detail. She was very insistent. My companion was looking at me waiting for me to answer. We had discussed the same thing for like 10 and she still just wasn´t budging. I was about to just say ok, but it didn´t seem right, but I waited and then a thought came to my mind. Then I explained that her idea wouldn´t work because she doesn´t have a testimony and if we read it that way she wouldn´t take it as scripture and would only pick it and not believe it. I told her that that may have worked for her because she was teaching out of the bible and the people believe that it is scripture. I told her that the thing she needed to do was to read it and pray about it with real intent a sincere heart and with faith, and then I bore my tesitmony. The spirit was really strong and everyone was quite for a minute. Then her husband who is pretty funny just said he is pretty smart, you know that he is right. It was amazing to see that the scripture that you won´t be confounded before man. I was extremely grateful for the spirit that guided me in the lesson, and it strengthened my testimony.

I hope that you all have a great week this week! Work hard in school there are only a couple weeks left to go until Christmas Break. I love you all tons and hope that you have a great week!!

Con Cariño

Elder Cannon

11-21-12

Hola Familia

This week was pretty crazy so I will do my best to type it all out in a way so that you can understand.

First of all on Sunday we wen't down to teach a reference and to get there we crossed this little stream to a couple of houses that we up against the hill that was more like a wall. When we got there it started to downpour. We both had a bit of a cold and didn't want to get too wet. We were teaching for about 30 min and the water had risen. At about 40 min the little stream turned into a raising river and it took out the bridge that we crossed on. We finished the lesson and were trying to evaluate our options. It was getting dark and still raining really hard. The river was still raising really fast. There were a couple of cables that stretched across the river and the water level was almost up to the cables, which was the only other option to get to the other side. We then had to act fast. We rain over to the cables which were connected to some stumps. Wilmer and Ruben were with us and led us over there. We had to cross with one wire at our feet and one in our hands. Like the big fat rope that we had on the swing set that we could walk across, but the difference was the wire was really narrow it was almost dark in a down pour with a raging river underneath us. We had to cross about 12 feet to get to the other side. We were able to cross without any problems and then we got out of that area.

We found out latter that just a couple minute after we had crossed the wires broke. The water rose more then it had ever risen before and the houses that we were visiting were in danger. A less active heard that they were in danger and thought that we were down there still so he came running to help. He and a couple of neighbors got a latter and stretched it across the river to the other side and were getting people out of there. While they were taking little girl across the river a stump came down the river and slammed into the latter and threw the less active member and another man and the little girl in the water. The man and the little girl both died but the less active member what able to get out of it, before he got knocked out by branches and rocks or covered by garbage and couldn't do anything. So we were extremely lucky if we had waited any longer the water would have broken the wires and we would probably crossed on the latter. So that was a huge blessing.

The only down side was that when we got home I found the window above my bed were open and had got my bed pretty wet, luckily the mattress pad had soaked up most of it so I laid my blanket down on the matress and slept on that.

Wilmer got baptised on saturday, which was very special because Dani a convert that I taught and baptised was able to baptise his brother. It went well there was also another member that had turned 8 and was getting baptised so a good number of members showed up and support them. Also the member's mom bakes cakes so she brought this cake that was filled with a pineapple cream stuff that was really good.

The area is also really going great. We have seen miricles in the area. Less actives who didn't want anything to do with us are now reading and asking when we are going to come back. The members are also supporting us and we have found a couple new investigators that are interested and should progress so I was pretty good about staying here. All the members wanted us both to stay, even the branch president said that if we wanted he would call President Douglas and ask him to leave us both here, When Wenesday came we ended up staying together anyways.

Well it sounds like you guys had a very busy week with Joshua's birthday and the Patr. Blessings of Tyler and Rachael that is so neat and I hope that you all had a very spiritual experience. I am doing great and loving it. Don't forget the scripture Hunter 8:8........ "stuff thyself", and have a great Thanksgiving. Tell everyone that I tell them Buen Provecho. I love you all Tons!!

Con Amor

Elder Cannon

11-14-12

Hola Familia,

This week has been really busy.

First of all on thursday we had a conference with Elder Cornish from the seventy. It was a great conference. We talked about really bringing the spirit into the lessons so that we can take advantage with the investigators that we are finding and getting them to be baptised. We talked a lot about being obediente and showing a good example. Then they told us of the change. Because of the age change that happened our mission like all the others is going to grow a lot. Right now we have about 150 missionaries and within a year we will have 250, so he said that there are going to be a lot of trainers and a lot more leadership positions. We discussed how we are going to prepare for the changes and how they are going to be missionary houses with 4 or even 6 missionaries living in one apartment so that is going to be crazy and they are a bit worried about missionaries actually studing and planning like they should. So that was really great, they said that everyone that can breath is going to train. Afterwards we had a question asking session with Elder Cornish which was really great, but we could only ask a couple of questions. The answers were really cool with the questions that were asked.

Then on Friday we went and did a service project with an institution called acción callejera We went there are cleaned up the building it was really messy but there were a lot of missionaries and it didn't take too long. Then we went back on tuesday to help them organize Christmas cards that they are going to try and sell so raise money, but there were only six missionaries that would come including us.

This week we have a baptism planned we are going to baptise a boy named Wilmer he is 13 and the younger brother of Dani a teenager that got baptised about 2 months ago so that is really good. he has been learning a lot and always reading what we have been leaving him. at first we were going to move his baptismal date to give him more time to prepare because he was joking a lot in the lessons and not taking it really seriously. So we planned and have been giving him chapters to read in the Book of Mormon and he has gotten more serious about being baptised.

We have been teaching this man named Joselito and his family, and he has been reading but he just learns a little slower. He lives in the farther area la charca that is a long walk to church, but normally most the people that live there have cars. He said that he would come to church and sure enough he came to church but he doesn't have a car and had walked to church. the Branch president was pretty impressed because even active members when their cars are in the repair shop won't come to church because of the walk. So that was really great, he was really shy so I was with him most the time trying to intorduce him to the members.

Well I'm glad that everything is going great. Everything here is going great next week are transfers so i may be emailing from a different place and have no idea what time i will be emailing it depends where i am. well I love you all tons and hope that you have a great week this week!

Con Amor

Elder Cannon

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