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