Letter from 8/25/2014

Oh hello!

My life dream has come true. We played Quidditch on zone p-day. 

So incredibly fun! We had three different sized hula hoops that made up the goals, a four-square ball that was the Quaffle, and four plush balls that made the Bludgers. Elder Brennan (The shortest missionary) was the snitch. He had to run around the entire park with two other Elders trying to tag him. Funniest thing to watch, ever. We played for about 3 hours, and I was so exhausted by the end of it. I'll have to teach everyone how to play when I get home :)

ZONE P-DAY the group that played Quidditch....

Tuesday was a day of miracles. We taught some amazing lessons to some super great less actives. One, Travis, has been trying to give up coffee, because his dream is to go to the temple one day. He is having the hardest time quitting though. He previously had been addicted with Crystal Meth, and he has been clean for 10 months now. So he's so frusterated with himself that he cant give up something so simple as coffee. I remembered that really gross drink you drank all the time mom, the barley substitute for coffee, and so I mentioned it to him, and he seemed really excited about it. We told him we would buy him the first container.. Which was a mistake haha. We could not find it absolutely anywhere! We tried Walmart, Target, King Soopers, (its the equivalent of Safeway here) and Walgreens. And nothing. We asked an older lady who was in the coffee aisle in one of the stores, and she said Oh I know it used to be popular with the Mormons awhile back, but I don't think they sell it anymore. Haha. When I told her That's us! As in the Mormons she gave us a look that looked like she was about to sneeze lol. The reactions of some people, I swear. Well anyway we didn't give up and tried one last place, Whole Foods. And we found it! Now that's finding with faith. :) We gave it to him yesterday at church, and he told us he wished he could hug us because he was so grateful. :) Man I love serving here.

Wednesday we went to the temple!

 Apparently we are like one of the only missions in the world (besides missions in Utah) that go to the temple every single month. SLC is trying to decrease our temple attendance to only once every 3 months. I told President he could do that starting in February haha. Then that day we found a potential investigater that is from Federal Way! We reminisced about all the wonderful things found there. :)

Saturday was so incredibly fun. Our Stake held their annual fair, and there were over 1500 people who came! There was so much food, games, and dancing. We may or may now have participated in some of the line dancing :) I took a couple of videos, but they are too long to post via email. I'll send my flash card home soon so you can see them all. They are goldmines though. Pretty hilarious.

Man, transfers are next week. Im like 99.9% sure I'm staying. Not sure about Sister Vest. It seems like President Mendenhall likes to keep companions together for two transfers, so that will be fun if we stay together. But who knows. So I will either email late on Monday, or wont get to it till Tuesday. We'll see! :)

love ya bunches! -Sister Jessica Cannon

Letter as of 8/18/2014


Ello!
Man this week was pretty slow. Grrr, that's never fun. But! It still
happened to be a super great week.

Also, I had a crazy dream last night. Don't laugh. Soo I dreamt that
 I had just gotten home. Home as in home home, as in Federal Way. But the
 house we pulled up to definitely wasn't the house I remember. And I kept
asking everyone if we moved, but you all kept saying no, we didn't move.
And I kept getting frustrated because I KNEW that the house was not the one
on 328th, and everyone kept lying to me ha-ha. And then all my old
friends came and introduced themselves to me. And I was weirded out because I knew
them, and yet they were acting like they didn't know me at all. And then I
finally gave up, and introduced myself, saying Hi! I'm ......  Jessica?
Woah it was so weird saying my first name. So basically moral of the story
is that I'm not ever coming home, sorry, end deal. :)

Back to missionary life though.

On exchanges with Sister Hardy. Our goal for that day was to hand out 100 of the restoration pamphlets. 

We only got to 83 :( 

David is so pumped for baptism. 18 days left! Cant wait. 

Also we had zone conference on Tuesday,  but it honestly feels like three weeks ago. 
Man time is so weird out here.  ZC had Denver & Denver South zones, Westminister, 
and Arvada zones. Super great to see everyone! I may or may not have left my camera at home-
I don't know. I might be remembering wrong.. Which means I probably don't have any
pictures this week. My bad :)

I might get my hair cut today. I'm still deciding. I'm so bored with my hair.
I might get a longer A-Line. Who knows.

Oh! That reminds me. Turns out I'm super indecisive about everything. I realized if someone asks me a
question, like where do you want to eat, I never know how to give a solid answer ha-ha. 
Its a struggle for sure. :) Sister Vest is pretty much the same way, so its been interesting.

Hows home? Hopefully ya'll didn't move on me, and then didn't tell me  :)

Hahaha. Well anywhooos. I love you all so much. Thanks for all the
wonderful support that is so needed. I definitely couldn't do this without
you. Your the best!

Hugs and kisses and all that gooshy stuff.
Sister Cannon

Letter as of 8/11/2014

Hello from the crazy streets of Denver!

This past week has been so amazing. We taught more this week than the last two weeks combined. Man its been awesome.

Guess what guess what guess what? My favorite investigator in my last area, David (Brookes friend) is getting baptized in 4 weeks! Whats even cooler than that is we found out he actually lives in Maplewood boundaries! We knew he didn't live in Parker, just didn't realize he lived so close to us. 3 blocks away actually haha. So I get to teach him again! So pumped about that.

Today for PDay we are going shopping at the 16th street mall. Its a really cool mall downtown that has random pianos on the sidewalks so anyone can stop and play them. I might amaze everyone around me with my skills of playing row row row your boat. :)

We went on exchanges this past week. I stayed in my area, with sister hardy. I served with her before, in the Denver north zone.  It went really well. I absolutely love exchanges. I wasn't super duper excited that I stayed in the area, because I feel like I don't know it at all. Dove Valley was one mile by three miles. Maplewood is probably 20 miles top to bottom. Definitely an adjustment for sure.

President Mendenhall came to our sacrament meeting yesterday. He had meetings in our area, and so he wasn't able to take the sacrament in his home ward. He's growing on me. I think i'm starting to like him haha.

Thursday I officially hit my year mark. Downhill from here I suppose. :) Just kidding I love serving  a mission and I never want to leave :)

How are things on the homefront? Hope everything is well!

Love you all sooo much.

<3 Sister Cannon

Letter as of 8/4/2014

Hello! This week has been super good!

We had interviews with our mission president earlier this week. It was great to get to know him a little better. Not nearly as cool as Pres. Toombs, but he's growing on me :)

Don't you love the fake fire, but I do love being in my own apartment...

 Speaking of President Toombs! He called us last night! :) :) Here's the story. We got a text from a number we didn't know, asking if this was sister cannon and sister vest. We said yes, and asked who we were talking to. He replied and said someone from your past. And then send who misses you very much. Then sent I'm back in Denver today. We thought at first it was our investigator Abdul who has been in Saudi Arabia the past few weeks. The he said he wasn't Abdul but he had helped teach him once. We decided to just call the number, and it was President Toombs! He thought he was so funny ha-ha. Man It was soo good to talk to him! He met Sister Vests grandmother (he spoke in her sacrament meeting) and told Gma that He would say hello to us for her. That silly man. :) After we talked for a little bit he called back ha-ha and asked if we wouldn't tell other missionaries that he called us so they wouldn't be upset that he did it to us. Cant help we're his favorite :)

Its been raining so incredibly much lately. The other day it rained nonstop. The fields behind our apartment couldn't handle it, and it flooded over. Me and Sister Vest thought it would be a good idea to play in it on our lunch break. She had rain boots, and I didn't, so I put on my snow boots from winter. Turns out they are not water proof. At all.... :)

So I'm back to not getting fed every night. Struggles of serving in a YSA ward :) So we've been cooking a lot at home. I've gotten pretty pro at it actually. I can cook (and eat!) all sorts of things I didn't before my mission. Like we made enchiladas, and cilantro lime rice the other day. So yummy! Then we had extra rice so I made rice and cinnamon. Mhmm :)

Sorry its not the longest letter! I've been really lame at that..

Love you all so much!

Sis Cannon

Letter as of July 28th

Can I just say, that I love it here? Serving Metro Denver is so fun. It was pretty much a huge culture shock from going from super white, rich people of Parker, to super diverse fun people in Denver. For example, I'm teaching someone from mainland China, someone from Mexico, Jamaica, Saudi Arabia, and Alabama.... Okay well the last one isn't "diverse" but her accent is pretty great.

 

I live in an apartment! Super excited about that. We have a kitchen, living room, bedroom and bathroom. We even have our own washer, dryer, and a dishwasher. Totally spoiled :) I love living in an apartment. I always felt like I had to tiptoe around the members. I'll have to send you pictures of the apartment next week.

 

Elder Rhodes of the Seventy ran our ward council meeting yesterday. He asked for our missionary planners and he basically yelled at the council because of all the open hours we had haha.

 

I miss the safe feeling I always had in Parker. Definitely don't feel that way in Denver, but its all good. Sister Vest knows the area pretty well, and which areas to stay away from. They have a voodoo doughnuts here downtown! I'll have to see how it compares to Portlands.

 

How have ya'lls missionary efforts been going? Thank you so much for keeping me, my companion, and our investigators in your prayers. They are definitely felt and very appreciated.

Tell everyone who wrote me a letter, THANK YOU! It really did make my day....

 

Love you all so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so much!

<3 Sister Jessica Cannon

I asked her for her new favorite scripture and her reply was...

New favorite scripture I guess is 1 Nephi 11:17. It changes day by day by day. :)