Letter as of 7/21/2014

Hello from DOWNTOWN DENVER! Yep, that's right, I got transferred. I'm so excited! I'm back in YSA, and its going to be so so great. My new companion is Sister Vest. I've never met her before today, so its a totally new start.

 

This past week has been so good. But the thing is I can barley remember any of it. Ha-ha the trials of being a full time missionary. :)

 We went and saw a TON of members this week, just saying goodbye to everyone I love because I just knew I'd be getting transferred. 

I am so bummed to leave Parker, its my home, but I'm so grateful I finally get to serve in Maplewood YSA. I've been hoping to serve in this ward since day 1.

 

Playing card games at the Elderly peoples home. I made bank!

 Painting nails at the retirement home

Brother and Sister Wisemen. Brother Wisemen has Alzheimer's and I told him to stand there and look awesome. That was his "awesome" pose :)

 

 

Its like 100 degrees outside. Not a fan at all. I feel gross all the time. Bleh.

Sister Svedin and I, with help from the Barlows, filled the entire entry to the church with cups of water. This was on Saturday night, right before transfer doctrine, where the missionaries in the stake get together to know whats happening with transfers. It was a lot of fun!

 

I feel like I don't have anything to say this week. Sorry I'm so lame!

How's everything back home? Have you been having any luck with having a summer this year? I think the first thing I'm going to do when I get home is jump in a pool. I don't even care that it'll be in the middle of February when I get home, I miss swimming so much ha. 

Sister Svedin so kindly counted out how many days left I have on my mission as of this morning. Apparently I have only 210 days left..

Super crazy.

 

Yep, that's all I have this week. Sorry! Hopefully the multiple pictures make up for it :) 

Love you all soooooooo much!

Sister Cannon

Letter from July 14, 2014

Hello from super hot and sunny Parker!

For reals though, its hot. But im working on my tan. Bonus!

This weeks been super great! A little slow but that's okay.

We went to the zoo today! Definitely by far the most exciting that's happened though :) We went with this super awesome family, The Palmers. They wouldn't let us pay for anything- those stinkers. Seriously, I don't know how to accept so much generosity. Literally every time I go shopping at the grocery store, a member buys my food. Or if we get a craving for slushies at 7/11 (Totally went on 7/11 day) someone always pays for it as well. I fell so bad, but I cant deny them the blessings ;)

 

I cant believe transfers are next week. I think i'm finally leaving Parker :( I told President Mendenhall that i'd be happy to stay a few more transfers, and he asked me how long I have been here and I said 3 transfers in Dove Valley. Sister Boyd interrupted and said that I was in 2 transfers in the YSA ward beforehand though. President just laughed and said he'll take it up with God :) Here's hoping I stay! I know its super unlikely though. Unfortunately. We set up a TON of appointments for this week though so I can say goodbye to all my favorites. We have 25 appointments set before Sunday night. Super excited about that.

 

I get to go to the temple on Wednesday! I'll probably do either endowments and baptisms, or endowments and initiatory again. Not sure which one yet, but i'm super excited.

 

There's been A'LOT of drama this past week. Some pretty nasty rumors are going around about the elders in our ward. I honestly have no idea what to believe about them, which is sad. The English set of Elders will most likely be taken out next transfer. So it'll probably just be the Spanish elders and us here in dove valley, which will definitely help out a lot. DV is not ready for 3 sets of missionaries at this time.

I decided that if I get transferred, I want to serve in downtown Denver. It was a lot of fun being around SO many people. Parker is totally suburbia and no one is ever walking around.  Then I get to go to the zoo more often :) and the 16th street mall, which rocks.

 

I got to sit down and talk with Sister Mendenhall the other day, which was super great. President came down to talk to some missionaries and we saw Sis. M just sitting in her car, so we jumped in and talked to her for about half an hour. It was so good to get to know her better! She asked us a lot of questions as well. One of the questions she asked was What is the greatest miracle we have seen on our missions. I see miracles literally every day, so it was hard to come up with the Greatest. I just opened my mouth, and what came out of it was The greatest miracle I have seen is for myself, learning how to apply the atonement in my life. I thought I knew before my mission, but I have never had to rely on my Savior so often, and its been great.  

 

Basically, serving a mission was the best decision I have ever made in the history of decision making. Okay, well the decision to follow Christ's plan in the pre-mortal life beats it, but I don't remember that actual occurrence. :)

 

LOVE YOU!!!

Pictures from the Denver zoo today....

   

Letter as of July 8, 2014 This was written on Tuesday because the internet went out on her end on Monday. They were given permission to get back on with their familes...LOTS OF PICTURES THIS WEEK!

As of yesterday, I have been out for 11 months. So crazy.

Hope you all had a wonderful fourth! I had soo much fun.

Friday morning we went to our wards pancake breakfast at the park. We had a good turn out! One of our investigators came to it and had a great time :)

After the breakfast, we did service at the old peoples home, and they were all super sweet. I love serving there.

In the evening we had to be home by pm (Halloween, new years eve, and the fourth we have to go inside early. Apparently the crazies come out ha ha). We made foil dinners with sister myrick, and we invited Brooke to come with. It was super yummy! We then made banana boats. So delicious. After stuffing ourselves with tons of food, we played a lot of board games and watched fireworks. I am basically boss at Pictionary, just to let you know :) We also played gospel scrabble and a game called Skipbo.

I went on exchanges Monday night! It was so much. I stayed in dove valley, with Sister Elwell. I love exchanges, I always learn so much. We're actually going on exchanges again tonight, I love double exchanges :)

We met our new Mission President and his wife on Thursday. They are so so so great! I love them already. We made a sign for them...

We have 10 investigators we are working with. Also about 8 less actives we work with regularly as well.

 Transfers are the 21st!

Sorry this letter is super short. I had a super awesome long one written out yesterday, but the internet went out yesterday, and the draft didn't save unfortunately.

I love you all sooooo much!

Sister Cannon

Letter as of 6/30/2014

Hello!

Man it has been so incredibly hot this past week. Either been in the 80's or 90's. So gross. But I am getting a tan, so that more than makes up for it :)

goofing around cause it was a slooowwwww day....

We found 2 more investigators this week! Brooke & Jamie. Brooke is 15, and Jamie is her dad. We met Brooke a little over a week ago on the street, and just started talking to her. We asked if we could come to her home at a later date and share a message with her, and she just said she would have to ask her dad. We got her phone number though, and a couple days later we texted her, and she said we could come over Monday evening. When we got there it was just her for a little bit, her dad was tinkering around in the kitchen, but after awhile he came and sat down. We taught them the restoration, and invited them to be baptized, and they said yes! We haven't set them on date yet, we'll do that the next time we see them.

Unfortunately we no longer have any investigators on date for baptism. Phil and David both haven't been coming to church regularly enough and they cant get baptized by their date because they need to come at least 3 times to sacrament. Which is a bummer, but we're not giving up on them.

President and Sister Toombs are officially back home, as of Saturday, and now President Mendenhall is my mission president. I get to meet him on Thursday, which I'm really excited about.

This week we did A LOT of service. Its been really great. We helped this nonmember move on Saturday, she didn't have a lot of help so a member called us and asked if we could help for a little bit. Me and Sister Svedin did pretty much all of the heavy lifting, while the Elders wimped out and carried the lighter boxes and stuff ha-ha. From upstairs to the truck, we brought down four beds, three dressers and a couple bookcases. It was fun! I'm pretty impressed with myself ha-ha. Guess those weights were finally paying off ;)

SERVICE AT THE ELDERLY HOME...working in the kitchen with our stylish hairnets! :)

We go on exchanges tonight! I'm super excited. I'll be staying Dove Valley this time, and I'll be with Sister Elwell. Shes super nice. She was companions with Sister Sprague the transfer before I got there.

 Oh yeah, Sister Sprague is now in my zone. She got ET'd here to replace another sister who had to go home because of illness. 

How has your week? Hope everything is going swell! 

Love you lots!

Letter as of 6/23/2014

Heeeeelllllllllloooooooooo!

This week has had its ups and downs. Mostly ups!

Week 2 of Transfer 8 was very, very slow, up until Saturday. We weren't able to find a lot of people to teach earlier in the week, unfortunately, but that's okay because Saturday more than made up for it.

 We found 6 new investigators to teach! 6! Ahh, I'm so pumped. Linda and Brita, (mom and 18 y/o daughter) were tracted into by the elders months ago, and they gave us their names so we could try it instead. And they welcomed us right and we taught them the Restoration, and they were very interested in learning more.

Nabini, Raj, Vidhi, and Minal are some Hindus that we tracted into that are the nicest people. All we got out of our mouths was "Hi, we"re missionaries.." and Minal, who answered the door, said Yeah come on in! And immediately welcomed us in. Sister Svedin and I just looked at each other, shocked because honestly that never happens ha-ha. They told us they were just talking about God, and what Christians believe God is, and they had a lot of questions for us. Golden. They were super interested in what we had to say, and Nabini said the closing prayer for us, which was so cool! We are going back to see them next week, which I'm so excited about.

But life has been going really well, besides that hiccup last week.

Sorry its not the longest letter I've written! But there will be some snail mail coming your way the next couple of days! 

Love you!

Sister Cannon

Letter as of 6/9/2014

Colorado Skyline

Big news first.

 

I didn't get transferred! I was so so so sure I was going to, I even started telling a couple of people goodbye which was way funny cause surprise I'm still here. I'm actually way happy about it. Sister Robbins got transferred. She'll be serving in a YSA ward up in Arvada, so that's super fun. My new comp is Sister Svedin. (Pronounced sfuh-deen, say it really fast haha) She seems super great. She's been about 3 transfers, so like Sister Robbins was when we became comps.

 

 

 

 Sister Robbins and Cannon

 

 

This week was pretty rough. Every lesson that could have canceled, canceled. The one saving grace was that we were able to meet with Cheri again. She is so wonderful. She is so looking forward to her baptism, she cant stop talking about it. She loves the Book of Mormon too, which is so fun. She always takes a lot of notes when we teach, and on what she reads. She really wants to learn as much as possible about the Gospel, which is really refreshing to see.

 

The weather has been so insane lately. One minute its 80 degrees, the next its pouring down rain and the tornado sirens go off. At church yesterday the alarms went off. I wanted to go see what it looked like sooo badly, but Sister Robbins wouldn't let us leave sacrament meeting to go see it. Lame. There was this one family who got scared and left to go home, to hide out in their basement. When I saw that I just wanted to tell them that they were being stupid, the safest place on earth that you could be in during a tornado, besides the temple is a church building. But of course I'm a missionary and cant call people stupid haha.

 

 

The district...

 

On Wednesday we had our Mission Conference. The entire mission got together to hear President and Sister Toombs last address. They leave in 3 weeks which is way sad. We had a professional photographer come in to take a picture of the entire group (256 missionaries and president and sister Toombs) We get to buy a copy of it if we want, which I probably will. Details to come.

 

last picture with this Mission President and wife

 

I'm really really happy I get to stay this transfer. I get to see Cheri all the way through baptism, and Phil as well. I don't think I would like to stay another transfer after this one, but who knows :)

 

I hope you all hade a wonderful week!

 

I Love you sooo much!

<3 Sister Jessica Cannon

Letter as of 6/2/2014

 

Hola de Parker, Colorado!

 

Its been super hot this past week! In the 80s everyday. This coming week looks like it will be about the same. Finally starting to get my tan back! About time :)

 

Cheri finally came to church! She absolutely loved it, and she cant wait to be baptized. She's progressing more and more each day. She loves the Book of Mormon, she loves the plan of salvation, and each day she's getting a stronger and stronger testimony. Her only hold up right now is that she isn't sure Joseph Smith and Thomas S. Monson are Prophets, but I know that will come with time. Rome wasn't built in a day. :)

 

Its been a really crazy week actually. Weird stuff keeps happening. Monday we met with this super crazy man, Steven. He's less active (I'd go so far as say completely inactive) He just preached at us for over an hour. Each time we would try and leave he would basically yell at us to sit down and let him finish. It was a little intimidating, but we ended up just standing up and walking away without saying a closing prayer. Definitely wont go visit him again anytime soon- we'll let the Elders handle him for now on even though he's in our area of the ward lol.

 

Saturday morning was pretty eventful. The woman who we live with, her niece was staying with us for a week until she can be sober enough to enter into a rehab. Well Courtney, the niece, ended up leaving randomly on Wednesday, and we thought she ran off. Well she came back Saturday to grab her stuff, but she was obviously high on something. Our member wasn't home so we helped Courtney pack us her stuff and put it in the car. We found out that she hadn't had anything to eat really since she left, so we quickly made her a bagel and some yogurt with granola in it for the rode. She was a little hysterical for a little bit, so we offered to pray with her, and she was really grateful for it. She told us she was checking herself in to rehab that day, but I don't really think she did unfortunately.

 

 After she left we went back to our studies. Part of companionship study is that we recite a couple of things. Our Purpose as Missionaries, D&C4, The Standard of Truth, The First Vision, and Our Commission. As I was reciting Our Commission ((I am called of God. My authority is above that of the Kings of the Earth. By revelation I have been selected as a personal representative of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is my Master and has chosen me to represent him. To stand in his place. To say and do what he himself would say and do if he were personally ministering among the very people to whom he has sent me. My voice is his voice, and my acts are his acts. My words are his words, and my doctrine is his doctrine. My commission is to do what he wants done. To say what he wants said. To be a living, modern witness in word and deed of the divinity of his great and marvelous latter day work. How great is my calling! -Bruce R McConkie)) the Spirit just hit me very strong as I was saying this. I just wanted to help Courtney, and love her, even though she had track marks up and down her arms. I really hope she did up in Rehab. She has a lot of kids that are waiting for her to turn her life around.

 

I truly love being a missionary. I Can't believe how much I have learned in the past 10 months that I've been gone.

 

On Wednesday the whole mission is getting together, President and Sister Toombs will be addressing us for the final time before they head home in a couple of weeks. I cant believe they are leaving, its so incredibly weird, and honestly I haven't processed it yet. Not looking forward to telling them bye. But there daughter lives in Puyallup, and they said we could get together when I get home :)

Love you all so so much. Have a fantastically wonderful, awesomely amazing week! :)

 

Love Sister Cannon