Hello from Thornton CO!

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving (and a good birthday Dad!)

 

This week was pretty normal/boring, except for Thursday. Me and Sis. Sprague had 5 Thanksgivings.... thats right, 5. And they were all sit down dinners, so we couldnt just grab one or two things to eat at each. It physically hurt to eat by the third meal. Me and Sprague took pictures after every meal. You can see us be super happy at the beginning... and super full and tired by the end of them. 

 

 

 

So some exciting news: we have 5 investigaters set with a bap date. Three of them are in Dec, and two in January. So we have been staying pretty busy trying to teach everyone. This week we had 24 lessons... which is actually lower than normal believe it or not.  :)

 

Transfers are in two weeks. I have a feeling that I'm going to be transferred again. Dad, how many areas did you serve in, can you remember? I'm already on my fourth area, and its only been a little over 3 months. My area right now is so huge that i'm a little overwhelmed, I feel like I dont know the area/ward at all, when last transfer I knew every member by name. Its definately been an adjustment.

 

We talked a little about transfers and this is her reply...

 

Yeah I'm ready to be transferred. There is a lot of people here to teach- which is great- but I don't feel like I know this area at all. We have so many people that we teach that we get to see each person like once every other week - so I don't get to know that at all. I'm used to seeing the same person like 3 times a week. The three wards I served in previously were all small, and I miss that. 

 

This is my reply to her That's because we have always lived in smaller wards and you are more comfortable that way. You are doing great work and the Lord knows where you are needed.

 

Last Monday all the sisters in my zone went shopping. I was proud of myself because I only bought three items lol. Two bottles of lotion, and a really awesome sweatshirt :) I forgot to take a picture of it, but its from forever 21 and has a huge toy story picture on it. Its pretty legit ha-ha. 

 

Today Sprague and I are going to hang out at one of the sisters homes. We are just planning on writing letters home, and just chillaxing, which sounds super nice right about now. 

 

Mom have you decorated the house yet with Christmas? We bought a tree last week thats 3 ft tall (sadly its plastic). The ornaments are blue and silver, and on each ornament we attached a slip of paper, and on it it says one thing we are grateful for. Its actually pretty cute :) 

 

This week is going to be extremely busy. We already have 16 appointments set up, and we normally make like 15 appointments during the week, so this should be fun teaching a bajillion people.

Like I said, i'm planning on writing letters today, so expect something soon in the mail. :)

 

Have a fantabulous week! Love you all lots.

 

Sister Cannon :)

 

I asked her if she needed anything and she replied..

 

Gift cards and music cd's, gift cards to target, WalMart, Chipotle :) Burger King and the like, or just a visa card that is accepted anywhere. I'm not too picky :)

 

GUESS I KNOW WHAT TO SEND HER FOR CHRISTMAS!

Letter as of 11/25/2013

What an insane week. We taught 28 lessons this week, which is such a miracle.

 

Things have been going really good in the Woodglen ward, there is so much work to be done here, I love being able to teach so many people. 

 

John 21 is one of my favorite chapters in the bible. After Christ died, Peter decides he wants to "go a fishing" and bring five other apostles with him. They go out to sea, but catch nothing until a stranger on the shore tell the fishermen to cast their nets on the right side. Doing so, they catch so many fish that there nets start to break. Heading back to shore, Peter recognizes the stranger as Jesus, and rushes to him. Jesus has a fire and fish waiting for them, and pulls Peter aside and asks him if he loves Him more than everything else. Peter replies saying Yes Lord, you know that I love you. Christ then tells him to feed his sheep. He then asks Peter the same question twice more, and Peter replies the same. Christ tells him again that if he loved Him, he would feed His sheep.

 

Luke 22 is my favorite rendition of the denial, because it does mention Peter making eye contact after he denied Christ. 

Luke 22 is my second favorite chapter of the bible actually, because of the Garden scene. I love how it is the only one that mentions an Angel comes to strengthen Christ after he prays. We had a huge training on it actually. As soon as Christ aligned his will with The Father, then he was blessed and strengthened. And we consecrate ourselves fully to Gods will, then we will be blessed as well. 

 

I've been reading the Old Testament every morning. It is so hard to get through. One of my zone leaders gave me some really great advice though- as you read, underline the words of Christ/God because then you pay attention to what he is saying more fully, and you ask yourself why was it so important that he spoke those particular words. Its helped out soooo much, because I couldn't get past all the incest and the like.

 

Every time I read this story I have to ask myself, Do I truly love Him? And if so, how do I show it? 

I've been working a lot on showing my love for Jesus Christ, and Heavenly Father, because I know that is how I will be able to feel His love, and be able to share that love with others. As I've been having problems with my companion, I have been studying a lot of charity/love, and boy do I have a lot to improve on. I know that President has placed me with Sis. Sprague for a reason, and I just have to figure out why. Maybe to learn how to have patience, and how to love someone. 

 

Her Dad asked her if she had any scriptural questions and she replied...

 

I just started Exodus, so I haven't gotten into the extremely heavy stuff yet. I'll let you know if I do have questions.

 

Have you read Jesus the Christ yet? When I first started it I had a hard time because of the writing style, but I absolutely love it now. I'm about 2/3 of the way through, and its amazing on how much I have learned about Christ from it. I read it every morning for about 20 or so minutes.  If you haven't read it- do so!

 

Its been snowing a lot this past week- and its been so cold. I never thought I'd say I miss Seattle weather. Two days ago we built a little snowman with our investigators daughter. Jeremy Dean is a single dad that has the two most adorable kids ever, Emily (7) and Olivia (5). We were tracting his apartment when we saw them all outside playing in the snow, so we decided to play with them. We were in our proselyting clothes, making snowmen, while teaching the restoration. Definitely one of the more interesting lessons I've had :)

 

So two weeks ago, we accidentally left our members plate that we borrowed for cookies at a stake center an hour away. Sis. Compton (age 75) got really mad at us, and told us we needed to get the plate back or else, basically. You know how old people get attached to their stuff... Well anyway we called like 12 people having them search for the plate, since we thought some relief society member brought it home, but no one found it. So today we ended up driving all the way over there, and we looked for two seconds and we found it... I was pretty upset but I was also extremely glad we found it. Just wish we didn't have to waste an hour of our time this morning and a ton of our miles.

 

On Thanksgiving we have 4 dinners... One at 1pm, 3pm, 4pm, and 6pm. I'm going to die from food ha-ha. We tried getting more, but no luck. We can only spend out hour each at a members home, which I'm bummed about because I don't want to proselyte on Thanksgiving. Its pretty hard being away from home for the Holidays, I hate that I'll be gone for 2 thanksgivings, and 2 Christmas's. Who all is coming to the house?

 

 

 

Anywhoooo, I love you all very much, and I hope you have a fantastic week!

 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Love Sis. Cannon

Letter as of 11/18/2013

 

Hello everyone!

 

What a busy week. We were able to teach 23 lessons this week, and its been such a whirlwind. 

I'm kind of overwhelmed with the amount of work to do in this area. I have met sooo many people, but honestly its hard to remember who I taught and what I taught since its been so crazy. 

 

So instead of working at a food bank, like I did in Westminster, we volunteer at an assisted living home. We facilitate bingo, we help pass out snacks, and we disinfect the bingo chips and cards that get filthy. Helping out with bingo is so incredibly fun, I love it. The residents get so into it, and its hilarious because all they win is a quarter. But I guess when your in a home then you have to find stuff thats exciting for you.

 

It's interesting having a different companion but thats okay, I know that I'll learn a lot from her, and also we do have a lot of success as a companionship. We have the highest amount of lessons in the stake, which is so different from my last area. One pro about Sis. Sprague is that she is very good about getting inside peoples homes. below is a picture of us heading off to an appointment!

 

 

 

 

 

Tonight I'm going on companionship exchanges with the sister training leaders. I'm going to a different area which is great, because I have absolutely no idea how to get around in my area. I love exchanges. I always learn so much from my STL.

 

Yesterday at church we had two investigaters show up, and three less active families show up. That was such a miracle, we were only expecting one investigater and one less active. In this ward the missionaries don't teach gospel principles, which I'm pretty bummed about because when I teach a lesson I'm able to get so much more out of it, since I have to study so much before hand. Our class has a lot of members that come, but not a lot of participation.  

 

Ashley, a 15 y/o we are teaching, is set for baptism on the 14th. She came to church yesterday, and she even brought a friend. She is so golden, I absolutely love her. Every time we teach her, the spirit is so incredibly strong and we always end up in tears. She also went to the youth fireside at the Bishops house yesterday, and she said she loved it, she loved the youth and the message that was shared. We have three investigaters set for baptism in Decemeber, but right now she is the only one who is ready. The other two don't have a huge desire, so we are going to have to reteach some lessons. 

 

I love the opportunity that I can talk to so many people about Jesus Christ. We work in a low income area, and just like Alma realized, they are the best to teach because almost all of them are so humble, and are searching for something.

 

I hope that your week was fantastic! I love you all, and thanks for all the support you give me :)

 

Love, Sister Cannon

Letter as of 11/11/2013

This has been such a great week.

We found 3 new investigators in the Broadlands ward! In addition to the four last week, we now have 8 investigators we are teaching, which is so huge for us.

Miracles have been happening  here in CO.

 

 

So Friday night we found out that Sis. Mataitusi is training a brand new greenie this transfer, and on Saturday I found out that I'm getting transferred to a different stake.

 

 

 

 

                                        Hot Chocolate break for the last time before transfers...

 

Saturday night all the sisters in the zone gathered for an impromptu transfer doctrine. Normally when we find out where everyone is going, we meet together as a stake in the evening, so we can bear our testimonies and say goodbye to everyone. Well our zone leaders decided to just send out a mass voicemail instead, in order to "make our last hour productive". Yeah no thanks. Instead all the sisters met together like I said so we could listen to the voicemail together. Hearing my name be mentioned with moving areas freaked me out, but like I said this area is so great.

 

 

I am now serving in the Denver North Stake, Woodglenn Ward. My new companion is Sis. Rylee Sprague, and she is so great. She is the sweetest person ever, and she made me breakfast this morning while I was in the shower :)

 

The Woodglenn ward is about 6 times larger than my last ward, and we have so much work to do here.  We have around 250 active members, and over 600 less actives. HOLY COW. We also have 12 investigators, with four of them set for baptism. We are so incredibly busy, which I love. 

It was a little scary being transferred, since I've always been in the same district, and same companion, but I can tell I\I'm going to really like this area. 

 

Since we are so busy we teach an average of 25 or so lessons a week.. my last area was like 12. Whooh I love that I'm finally able to teach.

 

 I moved from an area that was super affluent to an area that needs some TLC, so its going to be interesting.

 

 

 

                        

 

                     A picture of 2 of the Laurels that have been going out with us...

  

I hope everyone is doing super well! I miss all of you tons.

 

Love, Sis. Cannon :)

11/04/2013

 

BEST WEEK EVER.

 

I don't even know where to begin.

 

So the beginning of the week was pretty boring, nothing really happened and we werent finding anyone to teach.

 

On Thursday (Halloween) we went service tracking, which is when we go rake in hand, door to door, asking if we could rake up their yard. I swear it was the coldest day in the year, but it was a ton of fun. We brought a laurel with us, so we were able to do the yards quicker and be able to get to more houses. The people we raked their yards for were super appreciative, and we plan on stopping by this week to all of them and sharing a message with them, which I am super excited about.

 

Since it was Halloween, we had to be inside our house by 6pm, for safety reasons I guess. We live in a very young neighborhood, and had 275 kids come get candy. (The swicegoods pass out king size candy bars ha). Sister Mataitusi and I were so bored, we deep cleaned out living area, decorated our planner for next transfer, and ended up just talking to our host family for a couple of hours, which was pretty nice to be able to get to know them better.

 

Friday we got a new investigater! His name is Pete, and he is in his 40s. We have been struggling for a long time finding a new investigater, so this was such a miracle to us. We have knocked on his door a handful of times before, but since he is a single man we have never been able to get inside his house. But this time we had another sister missionary with us (her companion is actually in the hospital... but she's coming home today!) and since we had another sister we were able to sit down inside (which was a relief because it was FREEZING outside). We talked for about an hour, and it was great. He said he is willing to take the discussions, but he "probably won't be converted". We all know what that means- he'll be the best mormon ever lol. 

 

Friday evening we went on exchanges with our Sister Training Leaders (STL's) ---- thats where we have a different companion for a day. I ended up going to the Hidden Lake ward for 24 hours, and it was really great. We taught 9 lessons in one day! Which is more than I've ever done before. I definitely learned alot from it. While we were on exchanges, Sister Mataitusi and Sister Kim in Broadlands ward (my ward) they had a lesson with 2 different families that we have never been able to see. Seriously me and Sis. M have knocked on both their doors about 20 times now, and they finally answered while I was gone. ANNNNNNDDDD they also found 2 MORE INVESTIGATERS. Ken & Debi are former investigaters from a couple of years ago, and each time missionaries knocked on their door since 2010 they always say they are not interested... but when Sisters M and Kim knocked they welcomed them right in! What a huge miracle, we are so excited.

 

Sunday was great. During Relief Society, a bishopric member came and pulled us aside and said there is a woman sitting on the couch (nonmember) who has an appointment to go to the family history center, but she arrived thirty minutes early. He asked us if we would be willing to talk to her so she wouldnt be by herself, and of course we said yes! We talked to her for about 30 minutes about Christs love, and how she can find happiness in the gospel. The spirit was so incredibly strong, and she wants us to come back to her house and teach her and her son. We set up a return appointment for Tuesday, and that is when we found out she is outside our mission.... so we immediately referred her to the elders in that area, who happened to be at the church at that time. Boo.

 

But thats okay! Because earlier in the week, this inactive woman Lindsey Pollaccia, called us out of the blue. Now the Pollaccias are known for wanting no contact with the church, and basically every member has told us 'Good luck trying to teach them'. Well she called and said 1) Her 10 y/o daughter Kaya wants to baptized, 2) the whole family plans on coming to church on sunday and 3) they wanted to feed us dinner sunday. MIRACLE ALERT! :)

 

So Sunday comes, they all come to church, had a great time. That evening we went to their house, had an amazing italian dinner, and taught Kaya the first lesson and invited her to be baptized. So thats our 4th investigater in 3 days! Every sunday they plan on feeding us dinner (they are amazing cooks) and they we will teach Kaya. We have to cancel a couple of dinners this month because some active members signed up to feed us on sundays, but this is more important we feel. :)

So basically i'm still jumping up and down with excitement. The Lord has really blessed this area and my companionship, and I just cant wait to teach all these wonderful people.

 

Thank you sooo much for sending the CD's !!! You said Sister. DeCramer made them? Go give her a huge hug for me! They're awesome. We had only 6 cd's before that we listened to, but its been 3 months of just those 6 cd's, so she saved us from going insane. :) 

 

Love Sister Cannon

 

Memory Board in her room!

 

 

Sister Hunt was home sick on pday so we all decided to visit her. Excuse my awkwardness.... :)

 

 

 

 

Letter as of 10/28/2013
Hello everyone!

Hope its not as cold home as it is here :/

This letter is going to be pretty short, it's been a pretty uneventful
week.

This week has been pretty tough, but i've learned a lot from it.
We've only taught 3 lessons this week, and only to active members. Our
success in the area is at a standstill currently, but that's okay I
know it'll be so much better this week.

Our mission has had some awesome miracles happening recently.
President Toombs has received revelation that every single
companionship can have a baptism in December. That's 111
baptisms!!!!!!! We are calling this challenge White Christmas (I think
you can guess why lol) and our zone is Santas workshop. Our zone
(Westminster stake) has had 15 new investigators since Tuesday. That's
insane! But totally awesome :)

Sister Mataitusi and I have had to do a lot of tracting this week
unfortunately.

Although we had a new investigater last Saturday, unfortunately we have yet
to meet up with her this week due to conflicting schedules. So to make tracting
more fun, and more productive, we have been bringing sisters in the ward with us for 2
hour blocks. So far we've had 4 sisters, and 2 laurels come out with
us this week.... which makes over 12 hours of tracting this week :/

Last Pday we invited some other sister missionaries over to our house,
and we baked lots of goodies :) Brownies, halloween cupcakes, and Oreo
truffles. We divided them up between companionships, and me and Sis. M
brought our half to this recent convert, Lara, who has been struggling
lately. Shes going through a pretty bad divorce, and her husband wont
allow her kids to have anything to do with the church, absolutely no
contact with them. The kids alternate every other week with their
parents, and Lara had the kids this week. We were pretty nervous to
drop by because we didnt want to cause her any trouble with her
husband, but we just felt really prompted to visit her. We talked on
her doorstep for about half and hour about turning to Christ for help,
and you can tell it was just what she needed. And she liked the
goodies too! I'm glad we decided to go over there.

Our primary program was this sunday. Holy cow it was so adorable.
Remember how the Curtis kid in Lacey would always sing super loud?
Well We had a kid like that, but 10 times better. He was sooo loud, it
was awesome. Unfortunately his mom is pretty by the book, and ended up
 taking him off the stage :/ Lame! But the whole program went really well.

Today for PDay we are planning on doing absolutely nothing but taking
naps, and painting nails, and putting on face masks that my companions
mom sent her. Its going to be great :) im so excited to be do nothing
at all.

Sorry this letter wasnt the most exciting!Hope you all have a fantastic week,

 I LOVE YOU <3
Sister Cannon

Below is their "Halloween Costume" they were asked to judge the chili cook off which is really funny =because Sister Cannon does not like chili. She did say she is learning to eat whatever is placed in front of her...

On Monday, October 21, 2013 

Hello everyone! Hope all is well!

This week was superb :) WE GOT A NEW INVESTIGATER!

We took a laurel tracting with us on Friday, and for the first hour
and a half there was zero success. And then we knocked on this one
door, an old woman answered, and said "I already have Jesus" :) We
kept talking to her though (persistance pays off!) and asked if we
could pray for her. She immediately agreed, and when we asked what she
wanted to be included in this prayer, she rattled off 10 or so names.
Eventually, after she got through her list she said "Oh nevermind
then, you might as well come in now!' Success! :) We went inside, and
ended up talking to her for about an hour. Nancy  is almost 70
years old, and is the sweetest person you will ever meet. She's had a
super hard life, and a lot of death in her life, and so we talked
about Jesus Christ (Which is a given lol), and we also talked about
eternal families. She was in tears when we told he she would see her
son, and husband and friends in the next life. Sabrina, the laurel who
came out with us, just loved her, and when we were walking to the car,
her jaw basically dropped lol and she is just so excited to serve a
mission now. If only it was always like that!

Going back to earlier in the week, on Monday we carved pumpkins. It
was a lot of fun! And also very gross :) My pumpkin turned out pretty
good I think, its a Cyclops.

 

 

 

We met this russian orthodox (sp?) priest
while we were tracting. His name is Father Alexander and he was in the
full priest garb. We talked on his doorstep for about 30 minutes, and
he wants us to come back.. If we convert him, maybe we can convert his
whole congregation! I've heard it happening before... :)

 

For dinner on Tuesday, a family took us out to Chick-fila! Yummmmy. :)

One of Sister Cannon's favorite places in NC was to eat here...

One of our recent converts in Broadlands, Tara, is awesome. She got
baptized in the summer, and she is already a ward missionary. She just
absorbs everything, and she is pretty much golden. We've been told to
give her the new member lessons, where you basically redo all the
lessons they had as an investigater (as i'm sure you remember with
Christina and the like) but because she is now a ward missionary,
we've taken a different approach. Now we study the lessons together
from Preach My Gospel. So she is relearning it, but she's also
learning how to apply what she learned in the lessons, and knowing
what is or not important to teach. It's been going extremely well, and
I know all three of us have gotten a lot out of it.

I just found out that Danathan recieved the Priesthood on Sunday! I'm
so excited for him, thats awesome. And his mom, who we helped
reactivate is meeting with the bishop this week so she can get her
temple recommend. Whooooh! :)

We did a crazy amount of service this week, it was great. We
volunteered for about 14 hours at the food bank, helped someone move,
helped the reynolds (our host family when serving in red leaf) clean
their house in preparation to move. and we did some yard work for our
current host family.

Yesterday we had a Preach My Gospel study group with the youth before
church. We talked about conversion, and it went super well. I went
into more detail about this lesson in the letter that i just sent this
morning.

I'm excited to get another package :) Thanks!

I'm super jealous you all had spaghetti. We've had it a couple times
since i've been out, but no one makes it good. Most of the time its
straight out of a can :/ But hey, atleast its food right? I feel like
by the time I get home I wont be picky anymore, I've had to eat some
not so great stuff.

 

 I also mentioned this in the snail mail I sent,
but they asked me and my companion to judge the chili cookoff for the
ward halloween party... I know your probably laughing right now since
you know i dont particularly like chili... So this should be
interesting!

 

Sister Cannon sent us a letter made into a puzzle and a letter written on a Sacrament Program, this is her response to a question I had for her...

I'm glad you had fun with the puzzle, it was a lot of fun to make!
Hopefully it wasnt too hard to do. The snail mail I sent this morning
was on another sacrement program, so i guess you got your wish :)

 

I asked her what her plans were for the rest of her P-day...

Today for Pday, after emailing and shopping, we invited the other
sister missionaries to our house and we are baking goodies to hand
out. So a bunch of cookies, and chocolate covered pretzels and the
like :)

I love you all!
-Sister Cannon :)

 

Entire Zone with Mission President and wife....

 

 

 

Letter from 10/14/2013

GOOD MORNING VIETNAM. I mean... Federal Way.
Things have been super. :)

Earlier this week, we were tracting and knocked on this potentials door. She met with missionaries before and  we just wanted to check on how she is doing, and we asked if we could
do anything for her. Expecting her to say no, we were pretty surprised  when she immediately answered "Yeah you could come inside and pray for  me!" Turns out she was just in an accident, and she remembered a couple of years ago she got in another accident, missionaries knocked on her door that evening, prayed with her and left. She said she never felt that good before, and wanted to feel that way again. So we prayed with her and she was in tears by the end of it, and wanted us to come back as soon as possible :) Unfortunately every time we stop by she is never home, but I know we'll meet with her soon.

And then on Tuesday we had a meeting at the church, and afterwards this woman, Charlotte, walked in and asked I we could teach her more about the church. So basically an investigator just fell into our laps. :) We've been praying really hard as a companionship to find those that the Lord has prepared for us to teach, and there she is. I'm super excited to work with her.

On Friday all the missionaries who have only been out for 2 transfers met together with our mission president. And it was basically a Q&A session, but President Toombs said something that really stood out to me. One missionary was having a hard time with the idea that her companionship almost exclusively worked with less actives. Pres. Toombs replied that its not about "baptism" its about the next ordinance. If we reactivate a family, they then go to the temple, and faithfully keep their covenants, then we just helped make a new kingdom. That family will one day be Gods, and they will make their own kingdom. It pretty much hit me on how important this work is, and put a whole new perspective on it.


The weather here is so bipolar. Some days its super hot, and then this morning it was hailing like there's no tomorrow. Its been pretty gloomy since then.

 I HAD MENTONED WE WENT TO THE PUMPKIN PATCH AND THIS WAS HER REPLY.

Was it pretty cold when you went to Maris farm? Sounds a lot of fun, I miss those little guys. (she is talking about her nieces and nephews).

I ASKED HER WHAT SHE NEEDED...

Coloring Books! I'm not too particular on which coloring books. Maybe a precious moments book if you could find one? or any Disney princess. Or mickey mouse :) I'm up for whatever :) And for the stickers, basically  anything awesome. Have Jason help you. Anything cool like superheroes,
mickey mouse, anything Disney basically. If you could find a Disney  sticker book that would  be awesome. :)

I ASKED HER HOW EXCERSISE WAS GOING AND IF SHE WAS IN A CAR NOW...

 I am on a car route. Exercise (when it actually happens) is going  pretty good. The Swicegoods have a gym downstairs that's awesome. They have an elliptical, a bench press, weights, balancing ball, a punching bag, and a dummy that's meant for punching. Its a lot of fun and lets off our stress :)

Something that Dad will be able to appreciate- I went to Five Guy for the first time. Delicious! Too bad its pretty expensive.

I sent you guys 2 different letters yesterday. :) Hope you enjoy them.

Love Sister Cannon

10/7/2013

Hello from the CDNM!

Its been a pretty great week! We have been working through the entire area book, trying to contact every name listed. So we've been crazy busy which is great :) We've also been trying to meet as many of the active members as possible, so we'll teach two or three lessons a day to members of the ward.

The Broadlands ward is amazing! Everyone we have met so far is super missionary minded. They are really good about sharing the gospel to all their friends. This ward has had a baptism every month for the past 5 months, so hopefully we can keep up the tradition!

We've been doing a lot of volunteer work at the food bank. Its set up like the bishops storehouse, where we take the customers around the room collecting only the items that are on their assigned list. Its super fun, and there are normally five or six sets of missionaries serving there at a time so its always a party. The recipients of the food are always so grateful and kind. I love working there, I'm definitely going to serve at food banks when I'm back at home.

On Friday it started to SNOW!!! I woke up and there was a good inch.

Sadly it melted by noon :/ But I'm also okay with that because its freezing outside. So not fun to tract in.

The zone leaders came and gave us our commissary (our supplies like Books of Mormon, and
pamphlets) and also brought us hot chocolate. They are the sweetest!

They brought it on one condition- that we listen to Christmas music in the car. Only problem is we haven't bought any yet! So while we were driving away we called them and started singing carols to them. :) It was a lot of fun!

The Swicegoods, my host family, are insane. But in a good way :) Last time they scared me with a skeleton in the shower, and the other night they put a fake snake in the sink. I jumped a foot. So of course we had to retaliate so we put a scary mask on the skeleton, and put it in their food pantry. this morning Sis. Swicegood saw it and she screamed :)

General Conference was just amazing. President Monson was so right on target when he said that when he will write in his journal that evening that this session was the most inspiring one we've had yet. Me and sister Mataitusi cant stop talking about the speakers, they were just so great! I cant wait until they come out in the Ensign so we can reread everything.

How was general conference for everyone back home? 

Love Sister Cannon

 

BONUS LETTER!  We received a letter in the mail....a little side note. When are 2nd daughter was serving in the military we would write different types of letters to each other. One time I wrote in a circle. Sister Cannon decided to send us a letter written in a circle...so you can fully appreciate what I went to so I could read it, here it is in its original form, ENJOY!

 

 

start at the bottom to read

 

 

What a week.

I feel like I say that each time I write home, but wow. :) PDay we were at the house almost all day. We left to email and food shop, and the rest of the time we stayed home and relaxed.
Twas wonderful. Sisters Faulk & Mataitusi took a nap, and I wrote letters and read for a little bit. It was super nice to relax and just not have to run around like chickens with their heads cut off. :)

We had a couple of great appointments during the week, mostly with inactives. We found out that we were moving houses again. So we were busy packing what we had just unpacked, and moved houses on Saturday evening.

But before I go in to that, DANATHAN GOT BAPTIZED ON SATURDAY MORNING.
I know I mentioned in my last letter that it wasn't going to happen,  but on Tuesday evening, Nancy, Danathans mom, called us and said she  wanted it for this Sat. So we scrambled around trying to organize it,  and it was wonderful. We had such a huge turn out for the ward, about
40 members came, which never happens as you know. Danathan asked me to speak on Baptism,  and I guess I did alright. I seriously hate  speaking in front of a large amount of people, I always look so awkward.

After the baptism we moved house to the Flanders, and I set up the bunk bed all by myself. I was definitely proud of myself :)

Saturday evening was transfer doctrine, and I found out that I'm getting transferred to the Broadlands ward. Its still in the same district, same zone, just across town. And the great thing that I'm still companions with Sister Mataitusi :) So I'm super excited.  This means that I had to move houses AGAIN on Monday. So this is my  fourth house in six weeks, which is pretty insane. We are living with  the Swisgoods, who are a middle aged couple that are amazing. The entire house is decorated for Halloween, and apparently they love  pulling pranks on the missionaries. This morning when I took a shower there was a skeleton in the shower. Scared me almost to death. So in retaliation me and Sis. M put a fake rat in their shower. They loved  it :)

 I'm super excited to be in this area. Being white washed (both  missionaries new to the area) is actually great. Its a complete new  start. The elders that served here before us were actually the APs, so  we have big shoes to fill. They didn't have any investigators  currently, but tons of potentials and formers, so we are planning on  working through the entire area book. Its going to be wonderful :)

Saying goodbye to the people in Savory Ponds was really hard. I'm so  not looking forward to doing that multiple times in the next year and  a half.

The hardest family to say goodbye to by far was the Deans. We  saw them at least three times a week since I've been here. Sister Faulk,  Matatusi, and I went over Sunday evening to say goodbye. We each  shared our favorite scripture, prayed with them, and sang God be with  you till we meet again. All of us were in tears by the end of it. I'm  so grateful that Danathan was able to be baptized before I left the area though.

Its good to hear everything is going so well at home! I'm excited to see all the touch ups to the house, I'm sure it looks great. I'm probably forgetting like 97956287829 things in this letter, so sorry.
 :)

The following part is in answer to questions we posted to her...

we asked her if she received her latest package and her answer was...

Yes I got the package. Please I beg of you to please stop sending
food! I promise i have enough to last my entire mission. Lol we get
fed almost every single night for dinner, so I don't really have
opportunities to make all the food you guys send us. I super
appreciate it, but moving around so much has really made me rethink
having so many food items. :)

we asked her if she was excited to be in a new area...

Yeah I'm really excited to work through the area book. Last night we
went to some former investigators that the APs had difficulties getting
inside their houses because they were single women. We got two new
investigators in one night :) The work is definitely hastening over
here.

David commented to her that at least she didn't have to tract...

I actually don't mind tracting. When we tract we try to always
pray with them. its gotten so many potentials from it, and its fun to
see how everyone reacts to us. Me and Sister Matatusi get along
great, so when we are out tracting we always have a lot of fun
together, so its really not bad at all.

We asked her if there was anything she needed...

So I don't need food, lol. But could you send some CD's pleeeaaaassse? EFY soundtracks are great, and so are Vocal Point hymns. Anything from the Piano guys. Anything from the young women artists, like Jenny  Phillips, or songs like I walk By Faith, Walk tall your a daughter of
God, His Hands, stuff like that. Any hymns. Not a huge fan of motab or the like, but I'll listen to whatever is sent. Especially since we are in a car, we get tired of listening to the same three cds over and over. The more the merrier!

Alright my companion is ready to go and we really need to go get some groceries, so I'm going to log.  I LOVE YOU! Talk to you next week :)

Love Sister Cannon

 

 

THE RAIN HAS FINALLY STOPPED!

 

 

 

Planning Meeting!

 

 

YUMMINESS!

9/23/2013

 

What a crazy week :)

On Monday, we had our Zone PDay. All the Elders and sisters in the
Westminster Zone went to the church, and had a bbq. We played
volleyball for about 4 hours, and it was so much fun. And there was a
ton of food! Which is always nice :)

For Family Home Evening, we taught Danathan and his family about Ammon
protecting King Lamonis flock, and chopping their arms off. The two
young boys loved it :) The lesson went really well! I love the
progress I can see in the Dean Family. When we first met with them,
they never participated in the lesson, and never read the BOM reading
assignments we left them. Now they really get involved, and they
almost always read the chapters we leave for them. They have
definitely drawn closer as a family, and to our Heavenly Father.

Tuesday we taught 6 lessons, which is more than we've ever taught in
one day. And we got a new investigater as well! Her name is Lavanda,
and she is a straight up bible lover. She wasnt interested in at all
in the Book of Mormon, because she read that one scripture in
Revelations where it says not to add anything to the Bible. I cant
think of the exact reference right now, sorry. Each time we met with
her we would always try to leave a BOM, but she never would accept it.
But finally she saw how important it was to us, and she accepted it.
We left her with 3rd Nephi 11 & 12 to read, and two days later we went
by to check on her. She hadnt read it yet, so we decided to read it
with her. We were short on time, so we only got through the first 11
verses, but she said "Oh wow! This is really interesting, I cant wait
to read more" The three of us missionaries just looked at each other
in amazement. Earlier in the evening, as a tripanionship we prayed for
a miracle to occur, and if that wasnt a miracle I dont know what it
was. I cant wait to meet with her again so she can gain more of a
testimony of the BOM.

On Wednesday, we did this really awesome service project. We went to
this inactive/investigaters home, The Hildebrants. Brother Hildebrant
is opening a Military musuem, and he collects artifacts, like helmets,
guns, uniforms, letters, and so much more. His basement is completely
filled with the stuff, and it is so cool! The other sisters were
moving around artifacts, but since I had the best handwriting he asked
me to copy a soldiers journal. The journal is from a navy officer in
ward war 2 and he was writing to his sweetheart. Its very faded and
written in cursive, and he had me rewrite everything in a spiral
notebook. This was sooo awesome! I loved just reading what he had to
say, I cant wait to go back to finish it.

Friday is our weekly planning, and it normally only takes about 3
hours, but since we had to do both wards it took almost 7 hours to do.
We took all of our stuff to the park nearby and brought basically a a
months worth of food as well. :) Planning for that long always drives
me insane, so it was great that we could do it outside on a beautiful
sunny day instead of in a dark basement.

Sunday was FULL of meetings. We had Ward Council at 9, church for read
leaf at 11. After sacrement meeting we went to 20 minutes of gospel
principles, and then we had to go to Savory Ponds sacrement, gospel
principles, and relief society till 4. Directly after church we had
ward correlation with the ward mission leader, until 5 oclock. It felt
like the longest day in history and we forgot to pack a lunch so we
were pretty hungry by the end of it.

When I was studying this morning, I was reading the Ensign, and I
found a article that made me think of you Mom. I really encourage you
to read it. Its James E. Faust's "Dear are the sheep that have
wandered" from June 2013. Your such a great Mom, and I'm so thankful
for all the support I've had while I've been on my mission. I couldnt
be here without you. Thank for for all the hard work that you do for
the family, and for the loving example you are to me. I miss you so
much, but I wouldn't give up this experience for anything. I have
drawn so much closer to my Heavenly Father, and I know it wouldnt have
happened if you didnt encourage me to serve this mission.

Always remember that I love you.
-Sister Cannon

 

These two guys work at DQ, and they bring them home all the time, and
their freezer was getting super full so they gave them to us ha-ha. We
each had like two, and then brought them to our zone meeting we had
the next day, so the elders ate the rest...

Biking in the Rain!

 Letter from 9/16/2013

 

What a week!
So on Monday, the sister training leaders, me and my companion, and
two other sisters went to the park to play volleyball. We played for
about ten minutes, and then it started POURING. Instead of going back
inside, we pulled out a frisbee and just played in the rain for an
hour or so. It was so much fun! We got COMPLETELY drenched. Afterwards
we figured it would be a great idea to get some frozen yogurt :) What
better time to eat frozen items when your cold and wet? :)

 

When PDay was over, we went over to the Deans home for FHE. We taught the kids
(Danathan, the 12 y/o whose getting baptized, and Drayden, a 7 y/o)
about the two thousand stripling warriors. You should have seen there
faces, they were so excited about this story! Each week we have FHE
with them, and teach them awesome stories from the BOM so that they
will be more interested in reading it. So far we have taught Nephi
retrieving the brass plates from Laban, the tree of life, helamans
army, and tonight we are talking about Ammon, and how he protected the
flock by chopping of the arms of the bad guys :) I'm sure they will
enjoy that story.

On Tuesday, we met with tons of inactives. It was out busiest day of
lessons yet. We had to bike like crazy to make it in time for our
lessons. When we got home, we found out no one signed up for dinner,
and just as we were making something to eat, a woman in our ward, Sis.
Tanner, came and dropped of a 45$ gift card to Chipotle. Obviously we
stopped making dinner and sped over to Chipotle, since we all know
thats my favorite place :)

 

Dinner was great, and then we went to meet up with this woman, Shavonne.

She is from Jamaica, and has a heavy
accent, and a huge love for Christ. She knows the Bible incredibly
well, so we scheduled a study session with her, so we could introduce
how the bible and book of mormon work together. We talked mainly about
Jesus Christ, and his life. I brought up the fact that Jesus Christ
walked miles and miles (50) in order to be baptized by John, who had
the proper authority to baptize, and we talked about the importance of
that authority, and that our Church has the very same authority
mentioned. What a coincidence! :) Lol. I asked her to be baptized, but
she didnt really understand since shes already been baptized. We again
stressed the importance of that authority, and she then agreed to be
baptized :) Third person I've asked, and all three have accepted :)
The Lord is definitely blessing me.

On Wednesday, we had our mission tour, where a general authority comes
to speak to us. Elder Corbridge (sp?) from the 1st quroum of the 70
came, and talked on teaching MIT, the Most Important Thing. Instead of
focusing on details that wont matter to their salvation, focus on what
will help them come to Christ and have that eternal life. It was
really great, and has helped so much when planning our lessons. The
conference lasted all day, from 9am till 430pm. Afterwards, me and
Sis. Mataitusi got on our bikes, and went to visit some people.

 

Our ward council gave us a list of 45 people that they dont know who they
are, but know they are members of the ward, and gave us two weeks to
contact everyone and find out as much as we could about each person.
Its a HUGE assignment and has been taking up a lot of time, so
unfortuantely we havent had much time to meet with our investigaters,
which sucks.

 

It started pouring down rain as soon as we got on our
bikes, so we had to bike for a couple of hours, visting house to
house, in the rain. We got completely drenched, and it wasnt much fun,
but we got a lot of work done so thats great. I think they felt sorry
for us so thats the reason we got into so many houses that night :)

On Friday night we got a call from our Mission President. He decided
to send Sis. Jackson home, because of health reasons. She is the
sister I went on exchanges the other week. She has been sick and in a
lot of pain for almost two months now, and the doctors didnt know what
was wrong, so she is going home for a transfer or two to get better.
Since her companion, Sis. Faulk cant stay alone, he had us became a
trio. So early Saturday morning we moved houses into Sis. Faulks
house. She serves in the Red Leaf ward, so now we have two wards to
cover, so its a lot more work to do. She is the best, and we've been
able to work very well together. And now we have a car! Since we are
covering two areas we need it. I'm so grateful because we are able to
get so much more work done now.

Concerning the matter or rain: Wow. It has been raining nearly nonstop
since Tuesday. I know you've probably heard in the news how bad its
been, its flooding everywhere. We've been pretty blessed, and in
Westminster we havent gotten flooded too bad. Not like it has been in
Boulder, oh wow I feel so bad for everyone there. We didnt have much
issue of flooding until Sunday. We have to go to both wards on Sunday
which is pretty interesting. So we went to Red Leaf ward first, and
the rain was nonstop. We went to their sacrement, and half of their
sunday school before we had to go to Savory Ponds sacrement meeting.
Sacrement was great, both wards talked about Following the Prophet,
which is always a great lesson to hear. at the end of the meeting, the
bishop told everyone that the last two hours of church has been
canceled, because the rain was so bad and the roads were flooding.
Almost every main road was flooded, so getting home was interesting
because we took 59734769220 backstreets. But we're all safe, still
doing the work, and recieveing tons of blessings. :) So no worrying!

 

Love from the mission field

Sister Cannon

9/9/2013

 

 

Hello from the CDNM!

I know I keep saying this, but I just love it here. Since that last
time I wrote, so much has happened.

On Monday, directly after emailing, and shopping for food, we went to
the park and had a water balloon fight :) It was over 90 degrees, so it
just felt perfect and it was a TON of fun. Today after emailing, we
are going to the same park to play volleyball, which I'm excited
about.

Oh wait. I just remembered last week I emailed on Tuesday because of
Labor day... oh well... :)

So on TUESDAY I was on companion exchanges, with Sis. Jackson. She's
great and I learned so much from her. She had such a great perspective
on Charity that I've never heard before. Charity is the pure love of
Christ, but it also was the MOTIVATION of Christ. I love that. Jesus
Christ did everything that he did because of his love for you and me.
Although I've always known that, it's still amazing to think about. We
focused all of our lessons that day on that concept. And each lesson
we taught we began with the hymn I Stand All Amazed. Each time we sang
it, the Spirit was so incredibly strong, and I've definitely grown a
new appreciation for that hymn.

In the evening, we taught Danathan, the kid who is getting baptized on
the 22nd of this month. We taught him the Plan Of Salvation, and it
went really well. I was nervous to start because I thought it might be
too difficult for him to understand, but me and Sis. M were able to
simplify it enough that he just paid strict attention and wanted to
know everything about it. I love his desire to know more about his
relationship with his Heavenly Father, and how to return to Him. He
really inspires me, because he is completely focused on this path. He
reads the scriptures every night, and is always eager to share to us
what he learned while he read.

On Thursday, at our District Meeting, we did a whole bunch of role
plays, which are so not my favorite, but i do always learn from them.
We worked with our zone leaders, Elders Traasdahl and Brennen, and I
had to recite the first vision, and immediately ask them to be
baptized. I messed up on it :/ but it all worked out in the end.
Thursday way the Broncos game, so unfortunately when we went tracking,
no one was interested in talking to us because they were too busy
watching the game. Stupid football lol. Now if it was soccer, I'd
understand! :) Just kidding.

We did meet this one young lady, Felicia, who we did the prayer
approach on, and after the prayer she was in tears. We made a return
appointment for this week, so I'm excited to see how that'll go.
On Friday, I committed another person to baptism :) Her name is
Brittany, and she's in her mid thirties. She is still a little unsure
about the church, but is interested in learning more, and said if she
felt like if she had a testimony by her date then she will get
baptized. Unfortunately her baptism wont be till Oct. 13th, because
she will be in and out of town for a while, so its difficult to give
her all the lessons, but I know she will be ready and excited for her
baptism.

Friday evening we went on another companion exchange, this time with
our Sister Training Leaders. I was with Sister Kim, and this time we
served in my area. I was really nervous because I have no idea where
anyone lives ha-ha. Sister Mataitusi is beast at remembering
directions, so I always just follow her...  It turned out all right
though, I only got us lost once :) but we were able to find our way
again. We went to the stake baptism for children, and four kids got
baptized, which was great to see. In the evening, we met with this
inactive, Abba. He is from Israel, and has a heavy accent, but is
literally the sweetest person you'll ever meet. We talked to him for
about an hour, about blessings that he recognizes comes from his
Heavenly Father, and I tied that into blessings you can receive from
attending church. He has no family, so I talked to him how he can
strengthen his family relationship his Father in Heaven, and his
brother Jesus Christ. I also mentioned that he is in a ward family,
and they would love to have him come back to the church. He was in
tears by the end of it, and committed to coming back to church, which
he hasn't come in years. And he actually did! He showed up in this
throwback suit from the 80s, but he was there :)

On Sunday, we met with another inactive family before church. It was a
woman, Burgandy, and her two sons, Orian (9) and Briggs (7). We showed
them how to do FHE, and they soaked it right up. We taught them the
story of the stripling warriors, and the boys ate it right up. They
came to church as well, and they haven't been active in years. Its so
great! I love missionary work :)

 

I cant remember if I mentioned that me and my companion are looking
for new housing. Well we are :)

We found this really great apartment, that's a decent price, and its
right next to where we have tons of inactive and potentials.
The move in date is tentatively set for the 26th of this month. We won't
know for sure until next week, the mission office is handling all the
lease agreements and stuff. The apartment is called Highland Way, in
Northglenn CO.

 

I'm surviving the biking, barely. Its definitely gotten a lot easier, but I do struggle with all the hills. Bro. Crawford is right, there are tons of hills.  We're actually
getting a car within two weeks, so I'm super excited about that. I
don't mind biking, but its so inconvenient for planning. It takes like
20-30 minutes of biking between appointments, which sucks because then
we can't meet with as many people per day.

 

Thanks for that great package! That's a lot of yummy food :) Feel free to keep
sending stuff! Ha-ha.
We tried the fettuccine  alfredo last night, and it was super
yummy! And we made some pancakes this morning.
Its definitely appreciated. It adds a variety to all the cereal, and
meat & cheese sandwiches lol.

My roommates are all jealous that my mom sends me so much food. Its
great, now I barely have to grocery shop this week.

 

Love to all

Sister Cannon

Pictures from the field...

 driving privileges finally!

 at the park

 companions in our awesome shirts

 Golf!

 ice cream after District meeting...

News from Colorado...   

 

Phew, this week has been crazy busy. So since we last talked, on
Monday we went golfing. I suck... but it was a LOT of fun!

 

We have done a lot of service in the community as well. We cleaned up a local
park, which took forever since there was a lot of trash. By the end of
it we were all exhausted, dehydrated and sunburt (well mine turned
into a tan atleast, lol) but it was really great to see all the
progress we were able to make.

 

When we first arrived into the mission field, President Toombs issued a

challenge to the greenines that by the end of the first two weeks,

to pass out a Book of Mormon and also invite someone to be baptized.

 

Well I didn't put too much effort in to this, and the day before the

two weeks was up (with a meeting with the
president to check our progress) I still hadn't done either of them. So
Thursday I really focused on handing out a Book of Mormon. I literally
talked to 40 or so people that day, and they either were completely
uniterested, or the past missionaries had already given them a book.
Darn those missionaries for doing their jobs...

 

By the end of the night I was really disapointed in myself because I couldn't get anyone
to accept it. But on Friday, directly after the meeting, I was able to
talk to this investigater. His name is Danathan, and he's twelve years
old. To back up a few days, we taught him and his family on Monday for
FHE. We taught him about how Nephi retrieved the plates from Laban. He
loved hearing the epic stories in the scriptures. Then when we met on
Friday, we taught him the Restoration, and I offered him the Book of
Mormon, and he accepted! In this book, my companion and I, actually took
the time to highlight all of our favorite scriptures in it, to give
him an idea of the things he'll find in the book. He was really
receptive to it, and wanted to start reading it right away. And then
we started talking about Christ, and then I felt inspired to invite
him to be baptized. AND HE ACCEPTED. He's getting baptized on
September 22nd, and I'm so excited for him. He's such a precocious
kid, and I know he'll gain so much from this Gospel. At the end of the
night, I just knew that the reason I wasnt able to hand out a Book of
Mormon on Thursday, even though I tried super hard, was because Danathan
was meant to be my first person I was able to reach.

Yesterday was P-day, (but we couldnt get to the library because it was
labor day) and we as a district went to the park, and played frisbee
and basketball. The sister training leaders (Sisters Kim & Hand)
showed up and we had a water balloon fight. It was so much fun! And
was perfect timing, since it was boiling outside. The weather has been
hard to get used to, since in WA we start freaking out when it gets to
like 75. Its either super hot, or we have a lot of lightning/rain
storms. But the great thing is than I'm pretty tan :) I love it.

 After the park, we went and did companion exchanges. I slept the night at
another sisters home (Sis. Jackson) and today I'm with her all day. So
I'm serving in her ward, and her companion is serving in mine.

Its been a really great experience and I've really gotten a chance to
learn how to do things in a different way, which is always good.

Sister Jackson is super sweet and I've learned alot from her. We're
switching companions back after dinner, so around 6:30.

Like mom pointed out, its hard to believe that I've been out on my
mission for almost a month now. At times it seems like its a really
short time, and others it feels like I've been out here for months.

The knowledge that I've gained in the gospel and my testimony has
strengthened so much, that its strange to think about. I love this
church so much. I might not understand every aspect of it, but I know
its true. I know that Joseph Smith saw Heavenly Father and Jesus
Christ. That through Joseph, Jesus Christ restored his church on the
earth. I know through personal revelation that Brother Joseph
correctly translated the Book of Mormon. That the words inside are
true, and that they are of God. I know that Thomas S Monson is a
prophet of God, and he recieves revelation for us daily. 

 

I have grown such an appreciation in the principle of Faith. At times it
seems like we are alone and that we can't do what we've been asked, but
I know through Jesus Christ we are able to do anything. Faith has been
such a huge blessing to me. I feel really out of my element, but I've
really grown to rely and trust my Heavenly Father to help me out.

 

My new favorite scripture of the week is D&C 50:41-42. I highly recommend
you all read it. :)

 

Love from the mission field

Sister Cannon