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

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 investigator 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. She's already asking if she can have a calling in the ward lol. She said her first prayer the 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 :) I'm so excited for her.

I really hope I don't get transferred in two weeks, that would stink.  I really don't think I will though, this is Presidents last transfer and I don't think he will change a lot of things before he leaves.

Brooke went to the temple for the first time in 6 years! We were able to do baptisms with her on Wednesday, which was so so so incredibly fantastic.

                                                   Its raining outside! Reminds me of home :)

So something fun that I have been doing in my studies is I have a blank copy of the book of Mormon, and as I'm 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 weren't as focused as we could be so we played book of Mormon trivia instead.

There is 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 5/19/2014

AHHH BEST WEEK EVER!

 

Miracles are happening here in Dove Valley!

 

PHIL FINNALLY ACCEPTED A BAPTISMAL DATE!!!! This is huge. Huger than huge! I honestly thought this day would never come. Oh man am I excited. Details to come.

 

Monday was super great. We met with this super less active woman, named Gini. She's been divorced for 5 years, and she's still pretty bitter about it. She feels that there is no place for a divorced woman in the church, and she's gone pretty anti. But for some reason she loves us and wants us to come over each week, so that's a huge miracle right there. I feel a little out of my element since I have obviously not been divorced, so I don't really know how to handle this, but I know it will all work out.

 

Tuesday and Wednesday were fantastic as well. We taught a lot of wonderful lessons, especially on Wednesday night. We met with one of our investigators, Cheri, in a members home. We taught her the Plan of Salvation, and she had a lot of great questions. Some were pretty deep, so we put a rain check on answering a few of them. She has accepted the invitation to be baptized, but we didn't put her on date yet. When we meet with her this Wednesday we will put her on date though, for June 21st. I'm super excited. Things are finally happening in the ward.

 

 

President and Sister Toombs

 

 

Thursday we had Zone Conference, so three stakes of missionaries got together to receive amazing trainings from President and Sister Toombs, and our Assistants to the President, Elders Hoyt, Wiffler, and Brennan.

                                                                      THE ZONE

 

 Man oh man I sure learned so much from them. A lot of the training was about Hastening the Work, and also learning how to ask inspired, heaven-sent questions.  I learned the coolest thing ever! So the Story of Gideon vs the Mideonites. (sp?) Gideon started with 32,000 men God weeded out those who were fearful  – 10,000 men remained God weeded out those who were not dedicated – only 300 men remained God confirmed His promise to win with only the 300 , even though the ratio of good guys to bad guys is 1/500. They kicked butt and won of course. There are 7.5 billion people in the world. 15 million members of the LDS church. The ratio is still 1/500. Now is the time to go to battle. Pretty cool, right? My mind was basically blown. Friday we had our lesson with Phil. We went in there thinking we were going to talk about prayer, but then we asked him a question, I don't even remember what it was, something along the lines of What do you want to learn from meeting with us- and it exploded from there till we invited him to be baptized, he said now, we testified and invited him again, this time with the specific day of the 12th of July, and he said yes! The Spirit was sooo strong it was ridiculous. My heart was racing the entire time and it was fantastic.

 

I love this church.

And I love you too! :)

Sister Cannon

Letter as of 5/12/2014

Happy mothers day!

 

Man, it was so so great to see everyone yesterday. You guys are the best! :)

 

Its been a pretty great week, besides the fact that it is snowing outside right now, and there's about 4 inches of it on the ground. :/

 

 

 

 

 

I hit my 9 month mark on Wednesday! The tradition for sisters is to take a nine month pregnancy shot, soo I did. I felt stupid but it was pretty funny. I was praying that our host mom wouldn't walk into our room when I was taking the picture ha-ha. I stuffed clothes under my shirt, like I said felt stupid...

 

 

 

On Thursday was Zone meeting, it was so great. The missionaries here that are in leadership positions are top notch. A lot of the training was about having a vision, our desire to serve, and overcoming discouragement. I learned soo much.

 

This week is going to be awesome. Wednesday we are going to the temple, whoooh! And this LA(less active) we have been working with forever just got a limited use temple recommend on Sunday, and so she is coming to the temple as well on Wednesday, so after our sessions we'll go do baptisms with her. I'm so excited! I honestly don't even remember the last time I did baptisms, I think I was like 17.

 

And then on Thursday we have zone conference, so about 4 stakes of missionaries get together for training. Spiritual high here I come! Its our last zone conference with President Toombs, since he goes home in July. I'm looking forward to meeting President Mendenhall (Sp?) but its going to be weird ha.

 

This ward has been so great. we got 10 referrals this week from members, that never happens! We normally will get like 2 tops a week.

 

Uhhh, I don't know what else to say, sorry my letters are getting smaller and more boring each week! My bad :)

 

Love you all so much!

You rock!

-Sister Jessica Cannon