5-19-13

So this past two weeks have been pretty crazy. I don't think that I told you when I called you so I'll just tell you now.

So last week we got notified on Tuesday that we had to have all the houses found and set by Friday because the system that we have to ask for the money for the houses was going to be going under a modification period. There were still 4 houses that we had to find and they were on opposite ends of the mission. Tuesday we were stuck the whole day doing a special transfer, so we had just 2 1/2 days to find 4 houses. So my companion and I split up with the assistants to find the houses. I found two houses that day during the exchange, but my companion didn't have any luck he could even get one. So the next day he and I went up there again and all the houses that they had seen and wanted to go back to look at we weren't able to look  at so we basically had to start from scratch up there and look for houses. We found a couple that were even better then the others that they had seen the day before. We were able to find the other two houses and get the money submitted by Friday. Nobody thought that we were going to be able to do it, they were trying to find any other way that we could get it done. My companion and I sat down and we felt calm and sure that we were going to be able to find the houses. We prayed lots and we were really directed in where we should go especially considering the circumstances that we were in and the weather and conditions we were in trying to find the houses. In the rain and flooded streets and in the dark. It was a miracle.

The next Monday we found out that we could still order the money until Wednesday, which was pretty much just a joke by then that we had been going crazy to find the houses by Friday.

On Friday I was a bit sick for the day but it went away pretty fast. I woke up fine and did exercise and then I just ended up using all the toilet paper that we had in the whole house in less then an hour and my companion had to go and buy more. So that wasn't that fun but by the evening I was fine again.

We have had more time to go out and teach this week. We went out on Monday to that family that we have been trying to help read the book of Mormon. When we got there we were just planning to find out why they had stopped reading and try to get them going again. We started the lesson and it felt like a pretty normal lesson to start out with. They were just a little un excited about reading anymore and the more we talked the deeper it got. We started to take the lesson more towards Faith and that direction. Then the mom started to go off. The entire setting of the room changed. Everyone was silent and the situation that they were in finally can into view. It was really bleak. They had lost complete faith that they can change. The mom who was motivating them before has just gotten to her last straw and given in and the whole family seems to be sinking. The spirit in the room seemed like a hundred pound weight on my soul. I was speechless completely lost for words my companion just had his head down. It was silent for a few minutes I finally was able to speak a couple of frail words, but they were definitely inspired, "Can we speak to the parents alone." At that moment the hundred pound weight seemed to turn into a thousand pound weight. My companion just started to cry and to be honest I was pretty close to crying too. A family that we have been trying to help for so long and they we love so much just lost all faith in themselves. I was fervently praying with all my heart to know what I should say, because my companion wasn't going to say anything. We started off with questions, and analyzed trying to see what their needs were, which seemed endless. Then we tried to discern what we could tell them without over whelming them, but enough that it gave them some hope and some light. We started with the communication because there is a huge lack of that especially as a couple. We explained how they should talk every night to express gratitude and then something that they could do better. then we practiced right there. It brought some light back into the lesson, and we saw some hope we are just hoping that they can keep doing that. We finished the lesson with little bit of hope and light. But today they didn't come to church their kids did but they didn't so we are going to try to visit them today and keep trying to help them.

Well I hope that you all have a great week the end of school is right around the corner. congratulations on finishing the AP tests and for Graduation in seminary and in High School!

I love you all!

Con Cariño

Elder Cannon  

5-5-13

Hola Familia,

This week the rain finally came for the rainy season. We have had a couple good thunderstorms. One knocked down a bunch of trees and torn some people's roofs off, and knocked out power lines and block streets. So it was a pretty big mess. It even hailed hail that was pretty good size even though it didn't hail a lot it did hail.

So this week I have been working with insurance companies and with the police reporting accidents and a bunch of crap. A motorcycle hit presidents car last Saturday night. So I have been looking for the guy who hit him and doing police reports and insurance reports and church reports. It has been pretty annoying and then on Wednesday this week someone hit Elder Stratford while he was driving so I had to go and check that out, but it hardly did anything but I still have to do the police report anyways so in the future when they try to find out how that happened we have the reports here. So it has been a bit of a long week having to deal with all that and they guys was angry about it al, because he thought that we were just going to hand him over the money to fix his motorcycle, and now he has to do this huge process and so it was pretty annoyed about that and I had to sit there and deal with him and explain over and over.

This week I was also doing my monthly reports on the trucks and we did the math and last month the month of April. We drove 2118 miles, and when I mean we I mean that my companion sat read or slept, and I drove 2118 miles. We were in the truck a lot this last month. I just thought that was pretty cool to know how many miles we drove.

We were also able to meet with Alejandra again. It has been a while because she was traveling and had a bunch of school but she is still progressing little by little. She really understands really well the things that we give her to read. The hardest part is trying to get her to come to church, and we still haven't been able to find a way for her to be able to come to church. So we are working on that.

Today some less actives that we are working with came to church. We have been working with this family of a returned missionary. We have been teaching them a couple of times now and the mom has started to come to church and one of her sons also has started to come to church. The others are a bit more difficult but we are trying. It is also helping to have the returned missionary to be there reminding them about church and prayers and reading. The other is a middle age guy that we have taught only once and the other times we have passed by and just talked before he had to go to school or before he had to go to work. We have passes by with a couple of members that live near him too and they have also helped him, and today he came to church and participated and everything. It was really cool to see him be there without having to remind him the morning or the night before that he just came.

Last Sunday I had a pretty embarrassing experience. We were at the house of the returned missionary's home and we were there with his mom and his girlfriend who is an active member. Before we started the lesson they gave us mangos to eat. So we sat there eating mangos for a couple of minutes. They were a little bit green so in the middle they were pretty hard. Most Dominicans eat everything until there is only the seed. I didn't really want to try to chew on it until there was just the seed. So I said, "¿ Quien quiere chupar la semilla?" Which literally means who wants to suck the seed. I was referring to the mango and who wanted to eat the rest. They stopped and asked me again what I had said so I said it again."¿ Quien quiere chupar la semilla?", and everybody burst out laughing, and my companion was saying while he was laughing,  no compa no compa you can't say that here. So they explained that here in the northern part of the DR the seed also refers to the reproductive part of a women, and the phrase that I had said was extremely bad and suggestive. Luckily they all understood me because they were members even is one was less active and explained it to me, but anyways it was really embarrassing, but really funny.

Well I hope that everything is going great with you guys. We'll have to figure out how we are going to talk on Mother's day, and how all that is going to work out. Well I love you guys a ton! Talk to you soon.

Con mucho Cariño

Elder Cannon

4-28-13

Well this week was pretty intense trying to get everything ready for Transfers. 21 new missionaries arrived so we had to rent a 15 passanger van to get them and move everyone for transfers, and I was the one that had to trunk around in the van for 3 days. So that was pretty interesting. For transfers I was assigned the Navarrete route because there was supposed to be a national riot and so it was supposed to be pretty dangerous, but because I am the best driver they figured that it would be best to send me. During transfers my route took the longest by far, everyone else had finished a couple hours before I had finished. There wasn't even a riot, but there had been a big one the night before because there was a lot of trash and burnt tires and tree limbs in the road which made it a little more difficult to drive but there wasn't any riot. After was had finished transfers and taken the van back to the air port it was after 7pm. We had dinner at the mission home with all the missionaries that were finishing there missions, which were only 2. So we had a testimony meeting where we were all able to share our testimonies. Then the american misisonary told us that he had lost his luggage during transfers and had no idea where it was. So we called missionaries to find out where is bags were, and we finally found then in Jarabacoa which is about an hour and a half from Santiago, and he was leaving at like 5am the next day. So it was about 10pm and Elder Wilkinson and I were chosen to go get the bag. I drove and Elder Wilkinson was there to keep me company and to drive if I got tired, which was pretty funny because during transfers the office Elders and the assistants don't sleep a whole lot. We were able to get up and back safely, and it turned out that the stuff in the suitcase was just a bunch of stuff that he shouldn't have had on the mission anyway like video games and crap like that so that was a bit frustrating.

the otherday we also ate fish in the mission home with President and sister Douglas when my companion and I ate there with them alone. It was imported Samon that president had grilled that was really super good.

Well I have no more time, but I want to tell you all that I love you tons and that I Hope that you have a great week. Tell the Warburtons that I hope that they get better really fast.

Con Carino

elder Cannon

4-21-13

This week has been really crazy. It is the last week before transfers so me and my companion were running around like crazy trying to get all the houses and apartments ready for the new areas that we are trying to open. During this week we went and had to do two moves to Puerto Plata, which is about an hour and a half away. So round trip it is three hours. We had to go up there three time this week and we were working so hard that my companion ended up sleeping on some of the trips, but I had to drive, and that was with the assistants helping us if they didn't help us then we would have had to make about five trips. It has also been pretty rainy this week so trying do moves and driving in the rain makes things go a lot slower.

This transfer we have had to open 10 new areas, 5 of them had new houses and then we had to move normal missionaries for a situation that happened. So we have been doing contracts and moves all transfers we have been so busy that we barely have time for anything else. So yesterday when we were finishing up everything that we have had to do all we have left is one desk that we have to take to an area. We stopped by the mission home yesterday and talked to Hermana Douglas and she told us that there are 5 sisters who are having visa troubles or who had to change dates so now they aren't coming this transfer, but we had no idea nobody told us so now there is going to be at least one house without anyone living in it for at least a month.

This week we went and visited a family of members that are slowly progressing. We have been working with them for a while now and the dad has been coming to church now. So we went there and where planning a goal for the family to read the Book of Mormon as a family and we were trying to make it really exciting so that they will actually do it. Half way during the lesson the mom just says this isn't going to work. It was pretty awkward because everyone went silent. Before she was the one who was always working and reading the scriptures and trying to get the family to pull thing together. Now she just seemed to have lost her faith that they could actually do it. There was a really weird feeling in the room and I had no idea what do say. We sat there for a minute quiet. They were all waiting for me to give her an answer. Silently I was just praying to know what I should say. I started to talk to try to find out more about the problem, and then it just started to flow and how we could help them, and what they could do to help each other. They came up with the solution that if we came everyday and read with them then they would actually read, but that wasn't a very good solution. So we told them that we would call to remind them ever day at 8. They seems alright but the mom still looked like she wasn't very sure that it was going to work. It was a very interesting lesson. Afterward we felt good about the lesson and that the spirit had guided us to show them how they can find the problem and work it out as a family.

Well I hope that you guys had have a great week preparing for all your tests and finishing up with everything. Wow the time flies to think that you are getting close to finishing school this year. Well I love you tons!

Con Cariño

Elder Cannon 

4-14-13

Hola Familia,
This week has been really busy trying even harder to get everything ready for the transfers that are coming on the 23rd of April. So we have had to up our game in finding and getting contracts done for all of the houses. We still have about 4 that aren't ready yet some just need the move of all the stuff and then there are others where we still don't have a house yet. So this coming week is the last week before transfers so we are really going to have to work hard.
So we have been traveling a lot and doing a bunch of moves. Today my companion and I are really sore because of Basketball that we played yesterday and because of all the moves that we have done. Yesterday the assistants helped us do a move to a third floor apartment and the stairs where really narrow and the roof was really low so that you had to duck down to go up them. So that was really hard and awkward to do that move, but this morning all four of us woke up pretty sore, and tired.
Yesterday we also had another activity with the office elders. We went and played basketball for a while which was really nice because we haven't had the time to go out and play in a lot time.Then we came home and we made breakfast, pancakes and some fruit.
We were able to teach a young man this week. His name is Miguel angel and he lives in a pretty getto area where there are lots of drugs and stuff, well that is pretty much our entire area. While we were sitting on his balcony teaching him some guys walked by and were making fun of him because we were over there teaching him. Then he did something that I really admired him for doing. First of all the guys that were walking by were two or three street gansters who were smoking some drug and they knew that kid who we were teaching. But he turned and said," They are my brothers" and then turned back to us to listen. The other guys were a bit shocked and just kept walking. It was pretty neat to see his courage. I really hope that we can help him progress in the gospel. He is such a good kid.
Well I hope that you all have a great week this coming week! I love you all tons and tons!
Con Cariño
Elder Cannon

4-7-13

This week we have had a lot of work here in the office as usual.

We had an internal audit this week in our office. So that day the four office elders were stuck in the office. It was mainly the financial secretary and my companion and I that had to stay there. They were asking for receipts and records so we had to show them that when we paid someone they actually received the money and that we have all the proper documentations, so that was a big pain in the butt. Especially because the Lady was just trying to chew us out all the time in the little things that we didn't know we should be doing but that we should be doing. She is also making it a little harder to process the money that we need for the down payments and contract money to get the new apartments that we need to get for all the new missionaries. So we have been waiting for the process for the money to do contracts and then move all the things in the house.

On Friday the assistants had to go to Montecristi to stay the night with the zone leaders for an exchange, but they happened to take the house keys with them so we had no way of getting in the house Friday night. So we tried to figure out where we could stay the night and the only option was in the mission home. So that felt really weird to have President waiting for us to get to the mission home. It felt like having your parents waiting for you to get home. We got there and stayed the night in the mission home which was really weird. I was really hot and ended up sweating most of the night anyways. We left in the morning and went to the office. We got a phone call from the assistants that they had gotten in an accident on their way home. They were in our truck, and we were in theirs so that was really sad for us. I had to go and help them out with all the forms and reports and also getting them home because the truck doesn't run anymore. It was a really tough situation for all of us, especially for the assistants, but everyone is ok and things are being worked out. It just means a lot more work for me to do now especially with all the new areas that we have to open now with one truck less. We missed the first session of conference but we are going to watch that tonight in the office. It was a miracle with all the blessing of the Lord and how he protects his servants.

We just watched conference in the office with the assistants, with the Latins in Spanish and Elder Wilkinson and I watching it in English. It was so great, I have been spiritually recharged and I have lots of thing that I have to do now. I really loved the analogy of President Uchtdorf about how we are all toddlers learning. It really shows the love of God, and with the Mormon message that I really like about Earthly Fathers and Heavenly Fathers. The way that we can keep doing better and how we really can learn to become like God. I also really enjoyed the talk for Elder Holland about Faith and how we need to hold our the ground we have and to be true to the faith that we have. All of it was great!

The Lord has really blessed me and the people that I serve. It is so hard to describe the little thing everyday that the Lord does, without you knowing the situations. He watches over his children and blesses them everyday, we just have to be watchful and learn to recognize his hand. I know he lives, and I love him with all my heart.

I love you all so much and I wish the best for you all. Thank you all so much for your wonderful examples that you give me.

Con Cariño

Elder Cannon

3-31-13

Happy Semana Santa! How is everything going on that side of the world?

Over here everything is as busy as ever. This week has been the traveling and looking for houses week. This week we went to Nagua, San Fransico, Jarabacoa twice, Puerto Plata three times, and La Vega. During all of this traveling it has been a very rainy week so the travel has been a little bit slower on these bad roads expecially to Jarabacoa and Puerto Plata on wet roads. We also had all the other things that we normally do to do on top of this. We did the mail and I did get your envelope of chocolate, and had to get that sent out the same day because it is La Semana Santa so everything was closed for part of the week.

We had to do another emergency move in Puerto Plata so we had to do all the contracts and stuff and move the missionaries in the rain which is never that fun because you can't let the mattresses get wet or the wooden desks and they always get mad if you get their bags wet.

So that has basically been our week we have been living in the truck if it only had a bathroom in there that would be our apartment.

During all the busy rush we had to take a mini missionary to his house so we picked him up from Puerto Plata and took him to Cien Fuegos to his house so I really wanted to stop by the Cabrera's house so we were able to stop by and say hello really quick they were all really happy to see me and now Jesus's little girl Merili talks but was too shy to say anything. As we were on our way out I felt like we needed to stop by and say hello to Hermana Blanca. She was so surprised that we went to her house. She just about started to cry. She has been inactive ever since I have left Cien Fuegos the missionaries who are there really don't know much about her, and I doubt they even know where she lives. She was so happy and had asked why we didn't call here to tell her that we were coming so that she could have made something for us, but we didn't have time anyways so it was just good to see her and invite her to church again. She said that she wanted to write me so I told her that was fine, so we'll see if she sends me a letter, but it was a great feeling afterwards.

When we finally were able to teach some lessons we got out of a lesson and we were going to see if a contact that we did was in the house a crazy lady came up behind us and said "OH the Mormons so cute, tell me something beautiful" But when she came up she like gave me a hug from behind, but she was pretty short so she was like hugging my stomach, so I had to take her arms off me and turn around. The lady at the house was apologizing and telling us that she is crazy. The crazy lady left and we talked for a minute with the lady that we contacted but her brother just left so we could share with them. The crazy lady came back and offered us some chips but we kindly said no and she walked away a bit angry, but it was funny with her rounded face with really curly hair sticking straight up.

Well I hope that you guys have a great Easter. Thank you for the Chocolate. By the way did you guys make homemade chocolate yet? Well I hope that you all have a great week and get ready for General Conference this weekend. I love you all so much!

Con mucho amor

Elder Cannon