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....