Letter from 12/22

Merry Christmas from Denver!

This week has had a lot of ups and downs. Lets talk about the ups :)

We went to the temple on Tuesday! The last time on my mission, since the temple is closed next month for cleaning. Next time I go to the Temple will be in Seattle :)

We had a mission wide Christmas devotional on Thursday. It was a ton of fun! The first half each zone put on skits for 10-15 each. ours was hilarious! Cant wait to show you when I got home, unfortunately the video size is way to large to attach via email.

Saturday we went to the downtown mall as a zone and sang Christmas hymns for 2 hours. Our voice was so shot by the end of it, but it was so great. We passed out over 200 "He is the Gift" pass along cards to watching passerbys. Great missionary opportunity.

We heard the coolest, most exciting news ever this week. We found out that ELDER DAVID A BEDNAR IS VISITING THE MISSION IN 3 WEEKS.  No biggie :)

Actually, huge biggie. I am so incredibly stoked!! The Colorado Denver South mission will be joining us, so both missions can hear from him. Its going to be so great.

Man, I am so excited to see everyone on Skype in 3 days. President Mendenhall basically gave us permission to talk as long as we want, as long as it doesn't cost our families money. All day talk sesh? I'm in. ;)

 

Shout out to Sister Decramer! Thank you so much for the wonderful Christmas card. It was so great to hear the update about your family, glad all is well :) Cant wait to see everyone when I get home!

 

Love you all so much! Have a wonderful week!

Sister Cannon

Letter as of 12/15

Bonjour from Denver!

We dropped off S.Brooks at the mission home last night! She fly's home today to see her fam bam. It was so weird being at the mission home, knowing next transfer that'll be me.

This week has been pretty slow, but good all the same. YSA wards around Christmas time is the worst, the work just stops, since everyone goes home for the holidays. Oh well!

We went on exchanges this week! Man, it was soo much fun to be with S. Mata'itusi again. She's a hoot! And a powerhouse for sure. She helped me a lot by giving my new goals for the last leg on my mission. She told me to stop thinking about how soon I go home (63 days!) but that's pretty much impossible lol. Its not like I've stopped working hard, I still am, but I'm just excited to see you all.

Something really cool this past week was that I got a letter from someone I taught in Parker. She was a less active member, but she has been coming regularly these past few months. She wanted to write and tell me that I had such an impact on her coming back to the church. Honestly, looking back at the lessons I had with her, they weren't the most stellar, or spiritual even. But I guess, through the Spirit, I was led to say what she needed to hear. That letter made my entire week. I cant help but reread it all the time, it just makes me so happy.

 I love that I came out on a mission. At times its ridiculously hard, but I know this is where I am needed.

I cant wait to Skype with you! #10moredays

Love you so so so much!

<3 Sister Jessica Cannon

Letter as of 12/8/2014

Hellooooooooooooooo!

I am so grateful that it is Monday. Glad for a fresh start.This has been one tough week haha. 

Every single lesson we had set this week canceled. We managed to teach only 6 lessons this week.. I haven't done that bad since my greenie area. Not the hugest fan of this past week haha. 

I think the only good thing about the week was that we put up a ton of Christmas decorations in our apartment! It looks super cute.  We put up flowers and candles on our table..

 We decorated our front door.  . 

    Oh! And we hung up Christmas stockings with our nametags on the  mantle                                                                                                  

And we found these really cute elfs at the dollar tree haha.

We made a paper tree for our bedroom door, with a countdown to Christmas over it and a chain with 183 links around the apartment.

Its super festive and a bit much, but it makes us happy whenever we look at it, so its totally worth it :)

I'm going on exchanges tomorrow night. Sister Brooks will go to the STL's area, and me and sister harker will stay in Maplewood, with S. Mataitusi. Did I mention that she is my STL? Im so looking forward to exchanges, its going to be a blast to be with her again, even though its only a day.

S.Brooks goes home in 7 days. Ah! That is weird, knowing that I will be the next one to go home after her. Although I am still working as hard as I can, I'm ready to be home. I think its probably especially hard since its the holidays. but I'm kind of just done with the whole experience. I feel bad admitting that, since I've loved my mission, and I have learned and grown so much, but again home seems like a great place to be.

Did you get the chance to watch the Christmas Devotional last night? It was so fantastic! If you haven't gotten the opportunity to watch it yet, you can view it at https://www.lds.org/broadcasts/archive/first-presidencys-christmas-devotional/2014/12?cid=HPSU120714557&lang=eng

 

And!! If you haven't watched He is The Gift, do so now! At: http://www.mormon.org/christmas?cid=HPFR112814529

 

Love you tons! Cant wait to Skype you in 17 days :) :)

Love Sis Cannon

letter as of 12/1/14

Hello from the freezing cold of Colorado!

This week has been so great. I absolutely love both my companions, we have so much fun together, and we work really hard together, which is always a plus.

Major highlights of the week:

--Thanksgiving! Tons of fun. We started the morning with a couple of teaching appointments, and then we went to the Hills family for our first dinner of the day. After stuffing ourselves with food (Haha thanksgiving pun- stuffing) :D we played a few rounds of Uno, then had some pie. 

After that we rushed to our next house, the Johnson's. Luckily the food wasn't ready for a while, so we had the chance to just sit and relax. There were 2 other sets of missionaries there, so it was quite a party. We played apples to apples for a while, then sat down for some yummy food. Man I was so full by this point. 

We ended up not going to our 3rd thanksgiving dinner, because something popped up. We went over the next day though to eat leftovers :)

--Damien got the Priesthood on Sunday!! He asked if we would sit in when he was ordained. So amazing. Afterwards, he asked us if he would be able to serve a mission! :) :) :) He goes into the navy in march, and wont be done till he turns 26. Bishop said possibly, that he would have to get special permission to be able to go on a mission, since its technically after the maximum age. He would be such a powerful missionary. We've brought him to a couple of lessons already, and he does great.

--Hand hotties attack. Man, once those hand hotties you sent me get cold, they turn into perfect missile objects. Me and Sister Brooks are in a war right now, on who can hit the other with the most hand hotties. They are all over the apartment. It kind of hurts, but its so fun it doesn't even matter. You never know when to expect them to be hurling across the air. We do a lot of sneak attacks, like when someone comes out of the bedroom or bathroom hahaha. At night we put a handful near the alarm, so whoever wakes up first and turns off the alarm clock gets to chuck them at the other companions. Its a highly effective way of motivation to get out of bed on time. :)

 

Today's zone pday! We'll be playing chair soccer, which is so much fun, and really competitive. afterwards we are going to the dollar store to buy a lot of Christmas decorations for the apartment. I put up the mini tree from last year, and it looks cute! None of the ornaments broke over the year, so that was pretty impressive. :)

Hope all is well back hope! Don't forget to go to Christmas.Mormon.Org and watch the video! Then repost it to your favorite social media site with #ShareTheGift

Love you!!

Letter from 11/24/2014

Transfers are today! I didn't get transferred, looks like i'll be in this ward till the end of my mission haha. Sister Hoemann left to Straasburg. And this transfer I'll be in a trio, with Sister Harker and Sister Brooks, for three weeks. Sis Brooks goes home on the 15th, so she's with us just for a bit.

 

This week was soooo slow. It was finals week at DU, so basically our entire teaching pool canceled on us so they can study. That was a lot of fun..

So I don't really have a lot to report on :( sorry !

 

Oh! One super awesome thing about this week is that Damien had his interview for receiving the priesthood, he gets the Aaronic prieshood on Sunday! And during the interview he also had his temple interview, he goes to the temple to do baptisms on December 3rd! AND on top of that, he got interviewed to receive his patriarchal blessing! SO COOL. This guy is going to be an amazing member, let me tell you.

 

There is this less active member in the ward who knows how much I love the combo of peanut butter and chocolate. So for me "going away present" she made me a 10lb reeses peanut butter cake! So good! So evil haha. We hate like two slices, and then gave it to the Elders.

 

Today we had to drop another sister off in Parker for transfers. When we were leaving, I saw Sister Mathis, one of my most favorite members of the Dove Valley ward, walking her dogs. We pulled over so I can talk to her for a little bit, it was so good to see her!

 

That's pretty much the highlights of my week. Pretty lame I know.

Love you! Have a wonderful week!