Letter 11/17/2014

Brrrrr, What a crazy, super cold week. A couple days this past week it was in the negatives. :( Luckily we had a ton of appointments and so we didn't have to spend a lot of time outside. Thank goodness!

This week was jam packed with awesomeness. :)

Tuesday we had zone conference. That's where multiple zones/stakes get together and receive trainings from President & Sister Mendenhall, and the assistants. It was up in Westminister, and it was a lot of fun to be back in my greenie area. I was surprised that I remembered how to get around town over there. The Conference was super great. We received a lot of training on the book of Mormon, and also about change. Changing the culture of the mission, changing ourselves, and helping others to change. It was really cool! The focus was a lot on new goals for the year of 2015 in the CDNM. It felt weird- I didn't know how I could contribute to executing those goals since i'll be going home at the beginning of it. But then I decided i'll just have to make that last month and a half the best on my mission.

p-day playing around....

So I don't know if I've mentioned this yet, but I have the best zone leaders in the entire mission. E. Law & E. Bambo are the silliest elders I've ever met, but they are spiritual giants. And I've never had zone leaders that just care about us so much before. Both of them are incredibly obsessed with Batman, its kind of a running joke now in the zone.  Me and Sister Hoemann wanted to do something small that would show how much we appreciate them. We thought about heart attacking their car... but that just looks inappropriate and lovey dovey hahaha. So we decided to batman their car! We cut out dozens of paper batman signals and taped it to their car. We wern't there to see their reaction but we heard it was pretty epic. Lots of girlish screams were heard hahaha.

Thursday we found two new investigators! Ryan, and Isabelle. And then we met with this less active named Andrew. We've been trying for months to see him, and he finally reached out to us this week and asked to meet with us! He even came to church. Miracles for sure happen :)

Friday sucked majorly. I woke up in the middle of the night only to discover I was super sick.. From like 1:30 am to 7am it was constant state of grossness. I got a priesthood blessing in the middle of the day, and instantly felt way better. I'm now back to a hundred percent, so that's good!

Saturday we went on exchanges. I stayed in the area, and was with Sister Hoopes for the day. I love her a lot, but its so weird that's she's my STL, she's only been out 9 months haha. Oh well! We still were able to work really well together. We taught 5 lessons Saturday, which is pretty rare in YSA.

Sunday was great as well! We had two investigators, and 4 less actives at church. One of our investigators, another Andrew, we put on bap date for 2 weeks from now. So that's super exciting!

Transfers are next Monday, we find out Saturday night whats happening. I really really really want to get transferred, which is weird because we have so much work here. I just don't want to spend another Christmas in a YSA ward. Next transfer has thanksgiving, Christmas, and new years all in one transfer, and I definitely want to be in a family ward for that. But of course i'll go wherever the Lord needs me. Just maybe a little begrudgingly sometimes :)

Haha, love you tons and tons!

Peace and blessings all :)

Letter as of 11/10/2014

Busy week! But a fantastic one :)

Monday was soo much fun. We played lipstick assassin. We played at the church, but kept all the lights off. The goal to is mark another persons neck with the tube of lipstick. Supposed to look like it was slit. Good thing we know the plan of salvation is real :) But seriously though, the game was pretty intense. My heart was beating really fast! :)

 We had some amazing lessons this week. Its so exciting to see how much the area is progressing. We found a new investigator on Tuesday. Her name is Stephanie. She's super sweet, and attends DU. She's met with missionaries in the past, but felt too rushed, but she wants to give it another go. We talked a little abut baptism, and she said she'd be willing to, if she came to know its true.

On Thursday I got my Trunky call.. Its when the mission office calls and asks what airport I want to fly into. I didn't know what ours is called, so I just told her the big Seattle one haha. Now that I think of it, I think its called something super easy like the Seattle International airport. Oh well, I'm sure she will be able to figure it out. So my ticket is officially bought for me coming home! Super weird to think about that.

On Sunday, Damien was confirmed and received the gift of the Holy Ghost. Man, there was such a look of happiness and peace on is face. He is going to be such a slid member. He's already asking when he can be a home teacher, so he can help more people. He's pretty legit.

Like I mentioned in previous emails, we have been reading the Book Of Mormon as a companionship. We are already through the war chapters of Alma, can you believe it? Its so crazy how fast we have to read to do the challenge of finishing the BOM in one transfer .

The other day we introduced Katie to the personal progress program. She was baptized in April, and she's in her mid 20s, so she never had the opportunity to do it. She seemed super stoked about it. I'm way excited for her to do it as well, I know it will help her a lot. I'm planning on redoing the program when I get home. Since I finished it so fast, I didn't really get that much out of it, so I want to redo it so I have something to work towards when I get home.

Winter is supposedly going to hit this week. Its been super nice and sunny, only a little chilly lately. But apparently its going to snow tonight. Tomorrow is only going to have a high of 27... Totally not looking forward to that.

I just saw my first body of water since I have been here...

 

Well, that's enough of me blabbering away. Love you tons! Have a great week :)

11/04/2014

As I was looking at the blog, I saw the letter dated in May as only a draft, I guess I forgot to choose publish...so this week , even though it is old news, you get two for the price of one :)

Angie
aka humble mom trying to keep up

Letter as of 5/26/2014

Hello everyone! I hope you all had a fantastic week! I cant believe its already week 5 of transfer 7. Where did all the time go?
We found a new investigater this week! His name is David, he's super great. We only had time to teach him the first half of lesson one but it went really well. Cheri has been progressing so incredibly much. Her baptism is set forJune 28th and she's really excited for it. Shes rearranged her work schedule so she can start coming to church every week. Shes already asking if she can have a calling in the ward lol. She said her first prayerthe other night! She was raised saying tbe Lords Prayer and so this was her first nonscripted prayer ever. It seriously was the most heartfelt, honest prayer i have ever heard. It was fantastic :) im so excited for her. I really hope i dont get transferred in two weeks, that would stink. I really dont think i will though, this is Presidents last transfer and i dont think he will change a lot of things before he leaves.
So something fun that i have been doing in my studies is i have a blank copy of the book of mormon, and as im reading the only thing i highlight/circle are the names of Christ. Its amazing to see how often he is mentioned on every page. The average is about 10 per page i've found.
Exchanges with the sister training leaders went fantastic as always. I love exchanges, i always learn so much. Turns out sister boyd is as huge of a harry potter fan as i am. We ended up trying to stump each other with random trivia facts. I totally won. Then we felt bad that we wernt as focused as we could be sowe played book of mormon trivia instead.
Theres this super awesome member family we teach pretty regularly, and there son just came home from a mission.Everytime we teach he always tries telling us better scriptures to share for the principles we teach, or if we share an object lesson he always says he's seen it a hundred times. So annoying.. Kevin, get out! Haha. 
Besides that hiccup its been a super great week. I love serving a mission, i love the Lord, and i love you guys.
-Sister Jessica Cannon

Letter as of 11/03/2014

What up! Best week ever.

DAMIEN GOT BAPTIZED :) Man it was seriously the best baptismal service I have ever been to. The Spirit was so incredibly strong.

Besides Damien, we had two other investigators at church. Both of them went up and shared their testimony in fast&testimony meeting. It definitely made my heart melt.

The work here is exploding. It has been so fun to see, because 4 months ago when I first got here, we had like no work. Miracles are real, that's for sure.

 

Halloween was a ton of fun. Me and S. Hoemann did melting crayon art. I actually like how mine turned out! Then the sisters came over (they actually snuck in through the back door and attacked us with a nerf gun fight) Super duper fun. Just for kicks and giggles we each put on the Harry Potter snuggie (thanks for sending that!!) and acted out spells. Total dorks I know, but what else can we do on Halloween? :)

 

Last night we "heart attacked" a couple of doors. We cut out a bajillioin hearts on colored construction paper and taped them on their doors. I forgot my camera so we didn't get any pictures of it :/ One of the recent converts in the ward, who honestly is my favorite person ever, Katie, texted us late last night and said someone decorated her door and it made her life.

Haha man I love random acts of kindness :)

That's our focus in our companionship this transfer. Something that both of us try and do often is leave WILBYC notes to each other. (Why I Love Being Your Companion) They range from dorky, hilarious things, to something heartfelt. Its really helped us bond which has been a lot of fun.

 

We've been reading the Book of Mormon together as a zone. I can't remember if I told you or not, but the plan is to start and finish the entire book this transfer. We are up to page 266, which is the middle of Alma. its so weird that we are zooming through it so fast, 14 pages a day, but its been great. It helps us to remember to talk about the book of mormon more often when we talk to people on the street. We are supposed to hand out one a day, but we most often forget to haha. Last night we had like 10 minutes till we had to be home, and so we were a little desperate since we hadn't handed one out yet. So the first person I saw, I went up and told him we were giving away free books. Probably not the most spiritual experience, but maybe he'll be curious enough to read it. :D

 

Anywhoosies, love you so so so so so so so so so so much!

<3 Sister Jessica Cannon

Last week we did crayon art on p-day, here is mine....

Letter as of 10/27/14

Major miracles have happened this past week. 

We now have three investigators with a baptism date, all three of them came to church, and we have a surprise baptism that's happening this Sunday! WOAH! 

I thought this day would never come. Damien is a new investigator we started teaching last Monday night. He's been taught in the past by missionaries, but in the wrong ward. SO they just transitioned him to us, and so we've been teaching him like crazy, preparing for his baptism this Sunday. He hadn't been taught any of lessons four or five, which are the commandments, and laws and ordinances. Which covers a lot hehe. Yesterday we taught him the word of wisdom, and the law of chastity. Fun stuff lol. Ha, but in all reality it went really well, and he is so excited about his baptism. And so am I! Its been forever since my last baptism. Things are finally picking up!

Sister Hoemann and I were house sitting and got to play with Blue the bunny...so awesome

Me and S. Hoemann get along great. There hasn't been a single day of our companionship that we don't laugh. Its such a refreshing change. We work super hard together, and its great. She's a rockstar, let me tell ya.

Both of us had to speak in sacrament meeting. They called us early Sunday morning and let us know. They assigned me to speak on my favorite conference talk.. But since I didn't have access to a computer I had to rely on my notes, so it wasn't the best it could have been. Oh well! Got that over and done with. Its only the 3rd time I've had to speak in sacrament meeting, so I think I might be off the hook until I come home. Success! :)

We carved pumkins for p-day last week and here are a few pictures of what we came up with...mine was Harry Potter :) 

Uhhh, other than that its been a pretty normal week. Sorry its not the most epic length.

Love you tons and tons and tons!

Have a swell week!

Much love, Sister Jessica Cannon

Letter as of 10/20/14

Good morning from Denver!

Its been a hard week, not going to lie. But it still astounds me that when everything, and I mean everything, goes wrong, you are still able to feel love from the Lord. Its fantastic.

Basically, in a nut shell, almost every single lesson we had set canceled. Struggles of flaky young single adults haha. And the two investigators we had on baptismal date both dropped us. That was pretty hard to accept, but I guess its not their time. Our teaching pool is back to slim pickings.

Do you remember Cheri, a woman who I taught in Parker, but dropped us two weeks before her baptism because her husband wouldn't let her join the church? I saw her on Sunday! She came to the Denver stake Stake Conference. Turns out she is meeting with missionaries again! Ahhh, that is so wonderful! She says I'm the only missionary she can remember from the past. :) I gave her a Gospel of Jesus Christ footsteps to the celestial kingdom object lesson, and she says she uses it with her grandchildren all the time. It made me so incredibly happy! I total forgot to take a picture with her. Hopefully i'll get to see her again!

 

The good thing is that me and sister Hoemann get along very well. Its been a lot of fun getting to know her, and her weird quirks. Turns out she sleep talks.. but I don't think she believed me when I told her that hahaha.

 

We spent a good while downtown this week, trying to find people to teach. While we were walkin around, we took some pictures next to some of the weird stuff you find in a artsy city. Hence the giant broom, the cows, and the small horse on a large chair. Enjoy.

 

Would it be weird if I asked if you sent me my harry potter snuggie? we have some fun plans for Halloween, but I don't want to have to go out and buy a lot of stuff. :)

Thanks! Your the best haha.

 

Love you all thiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiis much

Peace and blessings!

Sister Jessica Cannon