OBERÀ 6

21 September 2015

Happy first day of Spring!!! It is nice and sunny and 95 degrees, and I´m sweating from every pore...it is just lovely and disgusting. So cambios...Hna. Rigtrup and I will be staying together for another transfer here in Oberà which was the absolute last thing that we thought would happen, which is probably why it happened. lol. We thought we had outgrown each other, learned so much, cultivated an amazing companionship, etc. Well, apparently our pride has gotten the better of us and we now have another 6 weeks of adventures to look forward to.  Our branch is currently having huge challenges, anddddd we just got a ward mission leader who really wants to help make a difference. With the help and initiative of one member, I have no doubt that we are going to see some serious progress!!! 

Bueno, moving on...We had a crazy long Zone meeting in Apostoles, which was super fun but between waiting for colectivos, switching colectivos when ours broke down, we didn't get back into Oberà until there was no time to do anything but go home and go to bed. Also, I hate colectivos, because I´ve developed slight motion sickness...okay side note, the cyber café that we write in is like a gaming cave, meaning...there are currently approx. 20ish 13 year old boys getting all riled up over Call of Duty...por favor I need my peace, I cannot concentrate, and MY HOUR IS A FREAKING PRECIOUS!!!!

Anyways...darn, what was I even saying...booooo I do not like crazy 13 yr old boys that disrupt my concentration...

ehmmm we made pizza with tomato sauce!!!! This was absolutely fantastic because Argentines are weird and think that pizza doesn't need tomato sauce. So basically they think that pizza is cheese bread, which its not. So there's that.

As for people...Omar is doing pretty good, isn't progressing quite yet, but we´re working with him. He really does want to strengthen his faith (so he says). When we were there teaching him we actually met his housekeeper, Margarita, WHO IS SO FREAKING GOLDEN!!!!! We had the most powerful lesson 1 I´ve ever had in my short life and it was so awesome!!!!! She does believe that Joseph Smith saw God, and that we are representatives of Jesus Christ, anndddddd she didn't say "no" to baptism, which...is a big deal, at least for us out here. She is doing really great and will be teaching more of the Plan of Salvation tonight. She shared with us that she feels like Satan has been jabbing her with his pitchfork lol, and she thinks its because of us. When we explained to her that it was because Satan knows how happy and how blessed her life could be with the Gospel in her life, she grabbed her Book of Mormon and just started nodding "si si si si"! She is absolutely fabulous.

So something we´ve been doing lately is looking for all of the Menos Activos (and there are a lot) and seeing how they're doing, if they are interested in coming back etc. Anyways after a longggg search we found Hna. Lucy, she was baptized 20ish years ago, and stopped going...20ish years ago. She couldn't remember anything about the church besides that there is a man named Josè...and the missionaries don't drink matè.  lol. Well, we took advantage of the fact that she was trying to saying Josè Smith and totally taught a kick but Restauraciòn lesson! I LOVE Lesson1 !!!! Anywho it was great, and there were tears, and she can´t wait for us to come back! Score!!! I just love these people. Most people...Cristobal, our recent convert, we caught him SMOKING. Uhm...noooooooo :(((( yeah, we had a talk with him, but we´ll have to see I guess what happens.

Well...I am now out of time...I love my life I love Oberà, I´m going to buy a new pair of shoes because literally all of mine are soooooo past the hecha percha stage, and have gone into the "I look homeless" stage. love youu all so much thank you for the emails, letters, PACKAGES!!!!

les quiero muchoooo

chau!

Hermana Cannon

OBERÀ 5

14 September 2015

Saying hola from Oberà and today I´m happy to report that the weather is perrrrfecttt. 80-ish degrees, sunny, with a nice breeze? Because the power went out last week and I didn't get to print off any of my emails, I had lots to catch up on this morning when I printed...everything and everyone seems to be doing so great! I love how both you and Dad both mentioned the Christmas Skype call in your emails this week; we have what, 3 months till then??? Anywho, mission calls, first weeks of school, all my big shot RM buddies living up the dating scene at BYU (gag). Sooo crazy...well besides the fact that I had to take a moment of silence when I realized I had missed

TSwift´s 1989 concert in SLC, I am just doing absolutely great! It was a bit of a hard week...we just finished up week 5, and the last bit of the transfer always drags a little bit. I can´t believe it´s already been 6 weeks since I left Jardìn. We´ll be finishing up Hna. Rigtrup´s training this week, and she is doing soooo awesome, if I don´t say so myself ;) no really though, she is going to do big things. I have learned soo much from our companionship, but we are definitely praying to get separated after transfers, so that our friendship doesn't get demolished...

Well...we´ve got lots of Branch drama going down, of which I wont bother with the details but basically it suckkkkkksss and everyone just has a little too much Argentine pride, and we just all need to remember that we´re all God´s children.

One of the obvious struggles that I was having was to love the people. It´s not that I didn´t want to help them, or that I couldn´t empathize with them, but I just couldn´t figure out how to loveeeee them...charity has been one of my biggest focuses this transfer. This week we were meeting with Maria and Mida (investigators) working so hard to get Maria to accept the Book of Mormon as inspired words from God. On Tuesday we had a really strong lesson, we were just testifying and sharing Bible scriptures to back up the Book of Mormon and the need for Sacerdocio (the priesthood), but none of it was getting through to her. We even knelt down and she offered one of the most sincere prayers I have ever heard. The sprit was so thick, everything was quiet and we just sat there in the dead silence for a while. We told Maria that what she was feeling was the Holy Ghost testifying of the truth...she just sat there unable to say anything, but then she collected herself and started up again with all of her doubts...Mida (who loveeees the Book of Mormon) got so mad at her mom and just looked at me and said, "pueden tratar todo dia todo noche, ella nunca va a cambiar, su corazòn es tan duro y frio" (you can try all day and night, shes never going to change. her heart is too hard and cold)...and that night we realized we would be dropping them. Mida is only 9, and we know that her Mom isn't going to let her take the lessons without her. As we walked home that night, my heart was broken. I did start to cry as I realized that Maria KNEW, she FELT it, and still chose to deny it. I think for a moment I understood just an itty bitty part of what Heavenly Father must have felt when the third followed Satan, and when all of us continually turn our backs, because of our lack of faith in Him and His plan.

In lighter news, we´re meeting with this atheist (who really isn't that atheist because he totally believes in God), named Omar. His religious background includes that there is a God and a Virgin Mary...and that´s it. So lots to do :) We taught the plan of Salvation and he got super freaked out when we talked about the two worlds in the spirit world...he wants to go to Paradise... haha don't we all. He said that he wants help preparing himself to meet "the big guy" lol. We taught him how to pray which took about a half hour but after the 4th time, and with some help from him grandson he did it without reading the instructions from the folleto (pamphlet) We told him how this life is the time to prepare to meet God, to learn, grow, gain experience, have families. Then he asked how old we were and if we were married. We said that was for after the mission and he said that  that we better not wait to long, because chicos no quiero...then he smushed his face together with his hands...I think he was trying to imitate a really wrinkly person...haha Lastly something supper awesome, I did an ABSOLUTELY FABULOUSLY SPIRITUAL study on my Patriarchal Blessing...

you read and write

1. the things you need to do

2. the blessing you will receive
3. the things that will happen when you do the things you're supposed to do

here's why its so awesome...so I have a lot of things to do right?? Lots of advice, warnings, straight and narrow path to be following, but when I compared the list of number 1, to lists 2 and 3...the blessings far out way the work...That's the amazing thing about Heavenly Father. He asks for us to obey, to follow, to serve, but it is ALL for our welfare. And if we are faithful until the end, we will be blessed (Mosiah 2:41)

Chauuu
Hermana c
Cannon

OBERÀ 4

7 September 2015

okayyyy sorry this is a week late Mom, I swear I´m fine...just sometimes we pray for help in being exactly obedient, and Heavely Father will convienently have the power cut a minute after you go over the hour mark. ha ha ha really though there was a crazyyy storm and the power went out over the whole city and everything closed. Even GRIDOS, so we couldnt buy any pity icecream for our terminated pday :(  At least the draft got saved so this is what I wouldve said last week...

Bueno, so this computer sucks which means...no pictures this week :( que pucha. Anyways...Monday night we got home super late from Posadas and didn´t have enough time to walk out to our area, so we contacted and got icecream in centro instead. Woooo! winning combination??? Dulce de Leche con Brownie, Banana con Dulce de Leche, and Chocolate Suizo (swiss chcocolate!!!!) yes, it was amazing.

So Hna has a really cool grandma that wrote a book about the mind. I guess she did this SUUUPER elaborate study about goals, faith, power of the brain, etc. Anywhooo, during companionship study this week we decided to try some of it out. We wrote down like 30 characteristics that we want to be a part of our nature, and then wrote affirmations. Example of affirmation: "I am happy and grateful now that I am...AWESOME. Thank you. I want it. I accept it. I have it. I know it is mine." Then before bedtime we read all of our affirmations and visualize ourselves acting or having that attribute.

"Its like black magic???" - Hna. Martinez

We had divisions and Hna Martinez (Hna Leader) saw the stack of flashcards on my desk and looked a little skeptical. haha it seems a little sketchy, but according to grandma Susan we are supposed to be able to get ANYTHING with the power of our mind. I´ll let you know in...31 days if I´m any different lol.

So divisions...we thought that since Hna was the newbie that she would be going with Hna. Martinez, but nope we ended up on splits together, which was super intimidating because I realized that because my last comps were leaders I had never had one. I was superrrr embarrassed because I got us lost the ENTIRE day, and we had to end up contacting ALL DAY. AND EVERYONE REJECTED US. It was a very very humbling experience. I am now scrambling to learn the area, because we have been getting some vibes that hna rigtrup and I wont be together next transfer (which Im actually praying for, because she is hands down one of my best friends, and I do not want to get sick of her). We have learned sooooo much from eachother in this past month (i cant believe its already been a month) and yesterday we had a talk about how everythings been feeling a little too easy...and how even though its hard, we DO want the hard things. It´s the hard things that help us to grow, change; its the hard that brings us down to the lowest of lows, when we truly are able to feel the infinite power of Him Atonement.

On Wednesday we went to Patricias (investigadora) to learn how to make...BREAD!!!! When we got there we met her super rude, catholic uncle, who told us that because Eve ate the fruit, all women are sinners, and we have no business preaching about God...hate. you. Ugh I had a serious struggle showing Christ-like love for that man, but whatever, his heart was harder than a Lamanites...Oh right, so the bread! It´s incredibly easy!!! And the amount that you make is completely dependent on the amount of water, which effect the amount of flour that is added...anyway, so when we added 6 cups of water...we had to add (I stopped counting after) 15 cups of flour. Then once youre done kneading it it has to rise, so we left to go teach a couple of lessons, and when we returned that evening....there were loaves of bread EVERYWHERE. Really though, at least 7...and two more in the oven lolol. It totally reminded me of I Love Lucy´s "Pioneer Women" episode..."the recipe siad 13 cakes!" "It says 3 cakes..." yeah I just realized that probably only Mom is going to think thats funny but thats okay...anyways, there way so much bread that we got to take an entire loaf home, and we only made it about 30 seconds outside the house before we were in the middle of the road going to town on the pan casero. so. good.

We´ve been visiting this lady Maria, and her daughter Mida, for just about my entire time here and she hadn´t been making any signs of progress. So we said a prayer before our last visit consulting heavely father about givcing her a charla fraca, and dropping her. But then when we got there, they had both read the ENtirE reading that we gave them, and said their prayers!!! Yay! Maria is still really hesitant about baptism but she says she really does want to investigate and see if we have the correct church (which means BAPTISM, because duhhhh we have the true church)

Me & Hna. Rigtrup !

Something awesome about having 6 months in the mission, is that I like totally understand spanish now...which is awesome because sometimes you meet super cool people like, Wilmer. He is an Ex-professional boxer, who know Manny (Pacquiao - Filipino boxer)!!! and yeah, sketch, he went to jail for 8 months for accidentally killing a guy during one of his boxing matches, but he´s a super cool dude. He was talking about how when he was in jail his 3 mormon cousins came and brought him a book of mormon and he read a ton of it! But then he left it there for another guy to read. We were all like, are you serious???? He said that he would totally go check out the mormon church excpet that they didn´t have one here....uhmm perdon...WE ARE THE MORMONS!!!!! He got super excited and commited to bringing his family on Sunday!!

Well I´m just about out of time here...love and miss you all so much!

chauu

hermana cannon

OBERÁ 3

31 August 2015

Oh hey, its me again, reporting from Posadas today! Hermana had to do tramites (passport/visa) errands in the city, so we came in on the colectivo last night and stayed with the Hnas in LaValle (Woodwell, Garcia, and Fox) who I have all missed so much, so

naturally that was a big party, and...I lost some sleep. Anyways, today is awesome because I got reimbursed for all the dumb pricey colectivo rides we´ve been taking, which gave us enough money to buy lunch and live for the next few days. Found a placed the has GIANT hamburgers for only 35 pesos! Only problem is that here they do the weird fried egg inside, which really shouldn´t be a thing. Anywho....this week... was really great because we had Zone Conference which was TAN ESPIRITUAL!!!! Monday night we got a call to help in the contacting skit and sing a duet, which was a lot to plan for with only a couple hours notice, but I am coming to realize that the mission is nothing more than a string of spontaneous events guided by the hand of God. So we ended up singing the "Child´s Prayer" primary duet and it turned out actually really good. President and Hna LaPierre talked about the Dia de Repaso. Pte shared how for the most part the gospel is black and white: we either pay tithing or we don´t. We either live the word of wisdom or we don´t. BUT, the Sabbath Day...is a little trickier, no? the Sabbath should be a 24 hour fast of all the things that we would rather be doing. How we sanctify the Sabbath Day is how we show our love and respect for Heavely Father. Pte shared a story from his college days about how he never received anything better than average grades (me) but when he started to respect the Sabbath day and not focus ONE OUNCE of energy into his "work" (studying), that he not only felt the week start of better but he received the best grades he ever had in his entire career...wellll I know what I´m doing when I get back haha.   Also, I got a ton of mail and a birthday package (thank you FLIA. SUMSION) all for my 6th month mark! How fun is that? 

 So we´ve been looking for a new pension right, because ours is a 30-40 minute walk from our area and we finally talked to a lady about leasing an apartment that is right behind the church, which would be awesome! Well, we find out that the hermanas used to live there. Well, why did they move, you might ask? RAT INFESTATION!!!! I about died when branch President Antunez shared that little piece of information over lunch. Everyone just started laughing at me he he he yeah we´re not moving there.

On Friday we had an activity, where we had made a rompe cabeza (puzzle) out of Book of Mormon laminas! It turned out super cool and it was way fun, even though only 10 people came. Honestly I was just happy that someone showed up. We had separated everyone into 2 groups: men and women, and gave them each about half of the pieces. Immediately they started working at their own tables, focusing on their own puzzles, when they eventually realized that they didn't have all of the pieces. Parts of the hnas puzzle was mixed in with the hnos and they eventually realized that they had to not only help each other, but that they´re two puzzles actually would end up connecting to make one big one. Also, we hid one of the pieces and at the end showed them that the members have all the pieces, and the missionaries only have one. As missionaries, we really can´t do that much on our own. We can find, teach, and baptize, but without the love and support from the ward, when we leave the area, there´s a good chance they´ll fall away. What our branch needs the most is UNITY. And love, lots and lots of the pure love of Christ. But at the end of the day this isn´t our home, it is theirs, and only THEY can change their circumstances and help themselves to gross and progress

This week during companion studying we reviewed the 4th missionary, which is always a good talk to keep you moving and get pumped about changing your life and being a better human. So that was good. Also, we read, "the Challenging and Testifying Missionary" It talks about how we just need to open our mouths and INVITE EVERYONE!! And that for the people that are ready for the challenge, it won´t be a challenge. This is so true! I know that people are prepared here. And if we wait a bunch of lessons to invite people to get baptized we are wasting time finding those people who really are prepared to received the restored gospel.

Lastly, something really cool. So I´ve never been accustomed to reading my Patriarchal Blessing very often. So I pulled it out for the first time since last transfer and read it very carefully. I swear it was a completely different blessing. I know that probably doesn´t make very much sense, but I´m seeing everything so much clearly and differently now. For one thing, you know how I never wanted to go on a mission? and how I was only going to come if I got a CRAZY sign from God? (which I never did get lol) Right, so I never wanted to go, but what got me here was D&C 4, those who have a desire are called to the work. Well, basically my blessing is rather obvious about the need for me to serve a mission and my ignorant mind was blissfully ignoring that part. Good thing I managed to get here, and figure things out. Oh, am I figuring things out. Yes, that doesn´t really explain anything, but basically...it´s all too much to explain. and nowwww I´m just rambling. Sorry this email kind of isn´t quality, they´re playing some REALLY good American music and I´m feeling super trunky and distracted with this Bruno Mars blasting in the background. Well lots of love to everyone out there in America! Super SHOUT OUT to all of my BYU kiddos who started school today, I am so very glad I´m not you. Argentina is always a better idea ;)

chau chau

les quiero muchisimo

hermana cannon

OBERÁ 2- En el campo Semana 20

24 August 2015

Here we go again!!!! and guess who turns 6 months tomorrow???? THIS HERMANA! I honestly can´t believe it, time is honestly the most bizarre thing. This week was so ridiculously long, but at the same time I feel like I was just here at the dumb cìber impatiently waiting for my pictures to upload...

any who...this week was really hard because I was still feeling SUPER sick and couldn't work until Wednesday, which was annoying. But we really were so diligent for the rest of the week and we almost made every one of our goals, which was great, because now we´re just going to keep raising them!

I think the biggest thing that I´m learning is the importance of the members. It´s so very interesting because I honestly hardly saw or spoke to the missionaries back home, and well NOTHING actually gets done without the help of the members. I always imagined missionary work like this: walk all day, clap house (knock doors), get rejected/accepted, move on/baptize them...yeah no...It´s all starting to make sense...we are only in each area for 6 weeks, at max 8 months, which in retrospect is so short. We can find unbelievably awesome prepared people into the gospel, but if they dont have a calling, visiting teacher, if they aren´t truly enveloped into the ward and gospel, they WILL fall away. We´re doing everything we can to learn everyone´s name, which is SOOOOOO hard when they´re all Juan, Jorge, Maria, Marisa or something I can´t pronounce, but it´s fine we´re figuring it out haha. Bottom line, we´re finding everyone and getting them to love us so that we can have their references. They must actually really like us, because they keep giving us food, like LOAVES OF HOMEMADE BREAD. Like everyone is, not an exaggeration, like stop giving us bread, it´s getting a little ridiculous.

I had to give a talk on Sunday, which normally would´ve been fine except for the fact that it had to be 15 minutes and they told me the day before. Grrr it´s fine, it actually turned out super well, and it was the first time I spoke without writing EVERY SINGLE WORD OUT. Annndddddd I was most definitely filled with the Spirit because I´ve never talked so fast and fluidly in my life...and in Spanish. It was such an awesome feeling. Also, its way easier to speak in front of 47 people versus 150+.

Gave Hna. Rigtrup a trim !

Hna and I are doing so good! By good, I mean, that we just have so much love in our companionship, and it is absolutely fabulous! We are scary alike and she is helping me to grow and stretch in ways that I hadn´t ever thought about. I really have been blessed with the best as far as daughters go and I´m so lucky to have such a good friend by my side through all of this. Also, I KNOW for a surety that she loves and TRUSTS me too, because guess what she let me do today???? CUT HER HAIR...5 INCHES!!!!!!!!!! Crazy right? I made sure to tell her the story about me and Alexandria cutting our after AFTER I was finished lol. But seriously though I DID GOOD!

Okay so my favorite part of the mission??? PERSONAL STUDY!!!! Seriously, yes yes very selfish but seriously it truly is the highlight of my day! The more I read the better I feel. The more I study, the greater my understanding of who Heavenly Father and my Savoir are, who I am, and who I have the potential to become increases. My favorite scripture that I stumbled across this week, I found in Job 23:10, 

"But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as GOLD" I LOVE IT!!! I know that all of this is to make me better, stronger, brighter and I love it all. It blows my mind to think about all that I have learned in just 6 months, and honestly I never want it to end (the learning and growing everyday thing) Seriously though I´m having the time of my life, bucket showers and all!

Really actually enjoying the bucket showers though, every time I can´t help but laugh and think, "yes, this is EXACTLY what a gringa, having adventures in South America would be doing right now" jaja 

love you all thank you for all the emails, snail mail, and prayers!

have a good week!

Les quiero, Chau chau

Hermana Cannon

OBERÀ 1

En El Campo Semana 19

Alright, and here is a brief summary of the craziness:

Martes: I had my last Posadas Zone meeting and had to bear my testimony at the end, which I gracefully managed to get through without crying #winning.

I can´t believe how close I have come to be to my fellow missionaries; THE PEOPLE are who make the mission. The missionaries, the members, menos activos, investigators. I´d met so many amazing people over the past 4 1/2 months. Such a crazy feeling it was to pack up for the first time! Really though, leaving the birthplace was a bizarre feeling.

Me & Hna. Rigtrup

Because I was already with Hermana Rigtrup from after we left our companions the day before we decided that we would head out to Oberà that day and get a 2 DAY HEAD START! Uhm, heck yes! So Oberà is about 2 hours by SUPER BUMPY YOU WANT TO PUKE colectivo ride, and well, it is freaking CHUCHI (fancy), in comparison to Jardìn. Anyways, we arrive to a pension that hasn't had electricity for the past week. There´s a back story, but its really not important. Our dueña (landlady) isn't home, isn't answering her phone, we don´t know what to do. Also, we live 30 minutes walking away from our area, our contract ends on the first of September, so we have to figure something out by then. HOLY STRESSFUL! I had a hard enough time finding an apartment back in America, where they speak English. Really though, lots of adult problems were being thrown in my face and it was rather annoying.

Ohh how I miss the comforts from home!

Also, living in the dark freaking stinks. Oh yeah, and the shower doesn´t work #BUCKETSHOWERS (which are actually kind of awesome).

Miercoles: Met the Branch President Antunez and his family! They are so cute, I just love them, especially since she does our laundary and doesnt even make us buy the soap :) Also, their food is manna from heaven. We talked to them for a while about the branch a what we can do to help them...lets just say there is A LOT to do. WHICH IS SO GREAT! It really was crazy though, we were having a super intense conversation about the work here in the area, the Spirit was so strong, and I had no problem as far as the language barrier goes.

Heavenly Father is blessing us big time out here!

Jardin to OBERÁ - Semana 18

Hermana Simmons is leaving ;(

Na na na na na na Another one bites the dust! And today we mourn the death of Hermana 

Simmons...oh man what a wild ride this past transfer has been. So long but so fast at the same time. Im so blessed to have been with Hna even if it was for only one cambio. Now I truly understand why everyone is lifelong friends with their ole mission buddies. So incredibly stoked for our reunion at BYU next year :) 

In the mean time...GUESS WHATTTTTTTTTT?!?!?!?!?!? I AM GOING TO BE A MOM!!!!! Well, a step-mom, but I actually I realized its a pretty sweet deal because I get to do the training for the 2nd half, the less painful part of the training. Annnddddd mi hija es Hna. Rigtrup, who I was on divisions

with last week! I am so freaking excited I cant even contain myself!!!! Since both of our companions are dying, and they were going to put us together until transfers anyways, we get to head to the new area tomorrow!!!!! VAMOS POR OBERÁ!!!!!!!!!!! Its about an hour out of Posadas, in the Garupá zone! And E. Preece is going to be my zone leader again, so itll be nice to have a couple of fimiliar things as we start the next part of the adventure.

Oh yeah so here's a secret that I can now reveal...So we've been pretty miserable because our area has been seeing ZERO progress and we have hardly been teaching at all for the past 2 weeks. Which if there is any way to kill a missionaries desire to work, its by not letting them share the gospel. Anywho we have been working with President a lot and with our Zone Leaders, literally doing anything we could to find people. And after much exhausted effort we found out last week that they would probably be white washing the area. So I started packing. Then yesterday during Hermanas interview President said it was for sure. So I finished packing. So now I don't have to pack and we are just going to be RUNNINGGG to Oberá. Also our shower and fridge don't work anymore; good thing we are ditching that popsicle stand. Muahahah

 Oh my gosh I'm so excited right now I literally cant remember the other stuff I was going to talk about today...

DUOMO ice cream combination: Dulce de Leche con Bananas y Chocolate Brownie. yes, it is just as good as it sounds.

Something I invented: Shake cakes...Pancakes but you use melted ice cream in place of the leche y azucar. yes, I just made it a thing, and it is ridiculously good.

uhmm okay lets get real deep and sensitive here for a quick second...so sometimes I think about how I am one in billions of Heavenly Fathers children, or even one in thousands of missionaries, and I cant help but think how small and insignificant I must be. BUT then I think about where my life was a year ago, even 5 months ago, and I feel like it is truly a miracle that I managed to get myself here. Deciding to serve a mission is to this day, the hardest decision I have ever made, but it has been the best and one of the most important that I will ever make. These experiences are changing my life. The highest of highs verify that this Gospel is true and full of happiness and light, but it truly is the lowest of lows, the moments past 10:30 when Im still down on my knees that I can feel without a doubt that all of this is real. I testify that we have a Heavenly Father and a Savoir who love us all consumingly and that THIS Gospel is the ONLY way.

ahhh thank you for your letter, emails, all of your love!

Les Quiero mucho!!!!

Chauchau

Hermana Cannon

Barrio Jardin 17

Aright just a few things about home...I´m recovering, but still so incredibly jealous about the Disney Cruise to the Caribbean and going to Harry Potter World; thank you for enjoying two of my most favorite things WITHOUT ME! Yes, I´m fine, only a little bitter tehehe

Congrats to the future Hermanas STARLEY and WAGNER on their mission calls down here in El Sur! Uruguay and Perù will be so blessed to have you lovely ladies

Okay okay so last P-day was PUURRRFECTT! I´m sure I´ve said this before, but last week was awesome because we got all of our stuff done super fast, came home, got permission to wear NORMAL CLOTHES and went and messed around at the park by our pension! It was so great and the first really nice day we´ve had all transfer.

 

P-Day at the park

Wednesday I got to leave Posadas for the first time!!!! Hna Simmons and I had divisiones in ITUZAINGÒ for the day which was super fun! Its a little beach town about an hour from here and sooooooo pretty. the entire place is in sand though, so i'm still cleaning that out of my clothes haha but it was so much fun! I was with Hna Hartley all day, and she looks sooooo much like...miss Kyleigh Greenlief!!!!! so that was super funny. But yeah I got to meet some of their awesome investigators and it was relly cool to see the gospel really flourishing in other parts of our mission.

OH MY GOSH I have found the WORLDS BEST ALFAHOR!!!!! yes. yes. yes. I have come to the personal decision that it is in fact the Milka, Torta, Oreo Alfahor that has won my heart. They dont exist in America obvisouly, but dont worry I´ll probably come home with a case of them haha

Worlds best Alfahor !! :-)

My Bible reading in the Old Testament is still going strong, finally almost finished with Genesis! But earlier this week I was reading about Joseph!!! (which was awesome because we´re obsessed with the soundtrack) And I was reading about Potiphar´s wife being her usual floozy self and decided to do a study on Gen 39:9 and temptation, which actually turned out super good...

So from Gen 39:9 I went to Proverbs 14:6 which talks about how the wise man avoids temptation and the foolish man is confident that he can resist the sin...in which case more times than not he will succumb to the powers of the adversary because Satan is just a really sneaky guy. Then Hna Simmons coincidentally was studying temptation too and we read the Alma 50-53 war chapters. Entonces...this is how you deal with temptation:

1. Avoid - we know how weaknesses, don't be the foolish man...
2. Prepare - we can keep ourselves mentally, physically, SPIRITUALLY prepared
3. Resist - sometimes you cant avoid or prepare and temptation is just going to come flying at you and all you can do is pray for extra strength
4. ATTACKKKK - I love D&C 10:5 for this part "pray always that you may come off the conqueror"

Heavenly Father needs to test us BUT he wants us to succeed so we can ask for his help, he wants us to ask for his help, his strength so that we might win the battle. James 1:12 say how we will be blessed for resisting temptation. Yes, we will be blessed for being obedient and keeping the commandments BUT I feel like its when the stakes are high, when the temptation is strong, and we STILL come off conquering is when we are truly blessed for our enduring faithfullness.

But yeah I love me time for personal study, honestly the work is so hard and boring and somewhat depressing BUT personal study really does give me the spiritual fuel I need to get me through the week, and there is ALWAYS so much to learn and every moment is truly perfecting our faith! YAY I LOVE THE SCRIPTURES! :)

Lets seee....nothing too special actually happened in this week. it was really rather a hard week, and basically I´m just very very grateful that I have such an amazing and supportive President and Zone Leaders. Seriously these worthy preisthood holders are my rock! and the Savior of course

The days are nearing for the death of Hna. Simmons, so we all know what that means...TRUNKY TALK!!!!! yeah...lots of that...he he he :/ but its fine because I still love her and I love being a missionary!!!!

Speaking of dying missionaries...guess who is in IGUAZU, without me!!!!! Yes yes it happened again. I was again not invited to the party. But its actually okay because eventually I will get to go...hopefully...haha 3rd times the charm???

So yeah Im on divisions again for the next two days while Hna is at Iguazu and consejo and I have Hna Rigtrup and Woodwell staying with me in Jardìn. And they´re both newbies!!!! So I get to pretend to be a Mom for two whole days! :) I just keep telling myself that maybe its because I need to practice for this upcoming cambio? ¿Quizas? ¿Por Favor? he he really though I have some big dreams for this next transfer, but I wont share them because then they wont come true. Also, whatever happens happens and I´ll be fine with whatever.

love love love you all im so very out of time! till next week!

chauchau

Hermana Cannon

Barrio Jardin 16

27 July 2015

Alright, I´m going to try to keep this short because I actually have a lot of email and birthday responses to reply to, and I´m bragging about this because I truly am grateful that people haven´t forgotten about me :) so blessed!!!!

Happy Birthday to Me!!

So basically we started off our birthday festivities real well with being OVERFED from Sunday till Tuesday, I have not eaten so much food in my life. P-day was its normal problem and I was justifying just about everything since I had just one more day to be an irresponsible teenager, which meant: eating half a liter of multi flavored ice cream...unassisted. And then familia Balbuena were just the most amazing people ever and Hna B made homemade ravioli SOOOOOO GOOOOODDDD and her peach cake SOOOOOO FREAKKINGGG GOOOD and then after lunch she gave us the leftovers to take home...he he he so what ended up happening was Hna Simmons and I hard core repenting for over eating and breaking the Palabra de Sabiduria. This repentance process took in the form of cancelling all of our member lunches and us getting permission to go on the...Eat Your Heart Out Diet. For diet novices it goes a little like this:

Day1 - frutas

Day2 - verduras

Day3 - frutas y verduras

Day4 - 8 bananas y 8 vasos de leche
Day5 - pollo y 6 tomates

Day6 - pollo y verduras

Day7 - sopa de milagros

Anywhoo we totally did it...until this morning when Hna felt like she was going to pass out before exercises and I was just sad, so I ate some dried fruit. But the fact that our form of "craving" was in oatmeal and dried fruit instead of ice cream and cookies, I would say is a sign of full repentance. But basically the diet is doable and totally works, but highly unadvisable for the mission field. Ha worst week ever!!!! Actually not really, now I feel awesome, but in the moment it was definitely a form of slow torture...

We had interviews with President on Friday, which was amazing because he is just so full of wisdom. And while waiting we were talking to Hna LaPierre and were on the subject of pranking. The Elders were confessing all of their juvenile delinquencies and Hna LaPierre was talking about how she short sheets their bed every once in a while to keep President on his toes hahaha they are adorable.

Read two super capo articles in the Liahona this week the first one was about the blessing of journal writing:

-written family record

-clearer, richer memory of the past

-practical method for setting goals

-therapeutic means of solving emotional, social, and spiritual issues (personal favorite)

-improved writing skills

-many righteous desires will be fulfilled

and the second is called, "Our Divine Heritage" which talked a lot about discovering who we are and our true potential. It is so crazy to think that Heavenly Father has a plan for EACHAND EVERY ONE OF US!!!! Sometimes when I think of the billions of children on the earth or even the thousands of children in his army serving missions right now, I can´t help but think how insignificant I must be. BUT, that's so not true, because God loves ALL OF US and answers ALL OF OUR PRAYERS. I know this is true and the more I learn about him and teach these people about the true nature of God, the Spirit is truly undeniable.

Basics in opening a can with a knife & pan

Well...that's about all for this week. Oh wait FUN FACT: did you know you can open a can with a knife and a frying pan?? and also  I ate something really nasty the other night called, REVIRO. Its just fried flour and then they put a fried egg on top (which actually helped) and then they put SQUID on the side....what??? that is not food...

Speaking of food, Hna and I had to make a new rule that we couldn't talk about food from home. This was greatly needed after our 20 minute discussion of the different types of Krispy Kreme donuts...I definitely felt some tears coming on. I think I´ve gotten to that point where I miss the things of America more than the people. EXEPT YOU MOM, DAD, and GEORGIE!!!!!!! haha just kidding I really do miss everyone! Thanks again for all of the birthday love!
20 is going to be my best year yet.

les qiero mucho!!!!!

Chauuu

Hermana Cannon

Barrio Jardin 15 Happy birthday to Me Week !

20 July 2015

HAPPY BIRTHDAY WEEK TO MEEEEEE!!!!

Birthday Mail  :-)

Yeah okay, so I have less than 24 hours until I´m no longer a teenager and I start the glorious adventure that is my 20s´ahhhhhhhhh freaking outttttttt. But yeah, something that´s super cool about my birthday is that it really does fall on our birth week. Allow me to explain...

• my 20th year starts TOMORROW
• my 6th month starts on Sabado
• and Hermana Simmons'  16th month starts on Domingo...

So basically its going to be an awesome week, and we are really quite excited !

Okay so let´s back up to the conclusion of last weeks Pday...we get home, chill, do nothing, it was awesome. With 15 minutes left it begins to rain...hard. and then harder and harder and then the thunder comes and then HOLY SMOKES LIGHTENING STORM!!!!!! Yeah, so the lightening was going about every 1.5 seconds and we were super scared to leave the pension. but we were struggling between the decision of risking our lives and wimping out and calling the zone leaders to see if we could wait it out...yeah we chickened out, called them, and turns out they were hiding in their pension too! haha so yeah we waited out the storm, and then ended up waiting the whole night...we guiltily had SO MUCH FUN listening to music, making food, and lots of story-telling. Lots of really good companionship unity haha!

Wednesday we had divisions and Hna. Fox (newbie) came to Jardìn for the day! She is so awesome and we had so much fun, and I got to try my hand at being senior companion. Yeah, when you have a companion that has 3 weeks in the mission instead of 15 months in the mission, you speak a lot more Spanish...haha it was good and for the most part I think everyone understood what I was saying.

Friday we had THE WORST LUNCH EVER! Really though, I have been so incredibly blessed in this ward, we eat really good food usually. But oh my goodness it was so gross...the rice, bean, liver concoction not only smelled unpleasant but it looked like the classic cartoon cafeteria scene, where the grumpy lunch lady plops a large helping of brown goo on your plate...yeah, not good. After, we went to the pananderia and bought our stomachs some pity food.

Hna. confessed that she is actually SUPER trunky but has been trying to protect me. I just kind of laughed it off, but then she kind of exploded and we got super trunky...we talked A LOT about BYU and classes, being social, dating, etc. and after it was all over I felt very very grateful that I don't have to worry about any of that for a really long time...

So everyday I´ve been reading a chapter in the Bible, because I have never really read it right? Yeah, its kind of really weird and I don't really understand how people have problems with the Book of Mormon, but whatever. Anyways, I was reading in Genesis 24 where the servant of Abraham goes off to find a wife for Isaac. He goes to the well, prays that whoever gives him and his camels water will be the girl! And then walks out Rebekah!! So basically we have a code now for how to determine if "he´s the one": with the CAMEL DRINKING SIGN!!!! Don't worry this is all hypothetical of course, because we dont think about boys during the mission :)

Lastly, some crazy things to share from the Sabbath. We left before church to go look for one of our Menos Activos, Marina. We get to her house and she comes to the door, butttttt her sister had left earlier that morning with the keys to the gate meaning...SHE WAS LOCKED IN HER OWN HOUSE! :( It was really sad because she was all dressed and ready to go. Now its just kind of hilarious, because only in Argentina would you ever have that problem...

Get to church, Valeria didn't come. NOOOOOO seriously we were super bummed because she totally loved it last week and she had been saying how excited she was to come again, and everyone was asking where she was. So yeah, that was disappointing. After sacrament meeting we gracefully sprint to the bathroom, because Hna. Simmons was about to have an accident, and when we come out we are greeted by Claudio.

Quick backstory about Claudio: 2 weeks ago we were out contacting, when we see this guy sitting on the swings. He doesn't say anything but just stares at us as we walk by. I turn to Hna and tell her that the guy totally wants a tarjeta, she just rolls her eyes and mumbles, "Snake".

Snake= just about every guy in Argentina that cat calls us, and is only interested in saying inappropriate things to us. Blehhhh

Anyways, then the guy starts to follow us and I look back and say, "okay that guy is either a super snake orrrr he really wants a tarjeta" so we go back give him a card, leave, nothing special. BUT OH WAIT....then he came to church??? All by himself, and stayed the whole time, and is already making friends, and sometimes Heavenly Father is really nice and blesses us with miracles that we have nothing to do with!!!! it was so awesome!

I wore one of my kinda bigger necklaces for the first time, and everyone told me I looked really pretty, which was so nice of them, but that I should probably take my necklace off because I was going to get robbed. oh bueno.

Snickers !!

We commenced the beginning of our birth week festivities with a delicious banana pancake brunch. I even broke out the peanut butter.

ohhhhh quick note. so the toilet paper really sucks out here. Its like thinner than tissue paper. Yes, normally this is rather unnoteworthy BUT last week we accidentally bought paper towels instead and you know what? 100% better and the same price.

haha welp thats about it for this week!!!! thank you for all of the emails, and for everyone thats been keeping me in the loop! S/O to Elì, who has been keeping me updated on all the summer wedding action. Thank you for all the pictures WHY ARE MY FRIENDS SO GORGEOUS???? So so blessed. And then you for the letters, snail mail is always such a gift :)

love love love you all have a great week!

Chauuuu

Hermana Cannon

Barrio Jardin 14

July 13, 2015

Holaaaa :) Oh my goodness this week was so hard, spiritual, and really AWESOME and here is why...

So it was really hard because: well I´m on a mission hahaha yeah that´s the obvious one, it rained alllllllll weeeeeeekkkkkkkk and no one likes to come out of their house and talk to us when its raining, which is super lame. Also, definitely almost got struck by lightening, I SWEAR IT WAS SO CLOSE THE EARTH WAS SHAKING!! so yeah. Also, we had "charla francas" with all of our investigators because no one had been progressing or doing anything really (charla franca= dropping cane and upfront asking people if they want to start doing things to change their life and be happy) hahaha so after doing that...we had no investigators...whoops. It was definitely for the best though, because then we new we really had to start finding new people. And new people means...CONTACTING PARTY!!!! Oh my goodness we contacted sooooooo muchhhhh and you what??? Now I hate it a little less :) Spanish has been really hard this week because since Hna. Simmons is American obviously we speak almost only English together, which is bad, because I still DONT SPEAK SPANISH! But we ended up making a rule about ONLY being able to use Spanish if we are outside of the pension (unless we´re telling stories about our past lives...then all the rules have been going out the window hah) We are two gringas that don´t know how to cook and love Pananderias...so...yeah...we are in the repentance process for our disobedience to the Palabra de Sabiduria (Word of Wisdom)

It was super SPIRITUAL because...we had ZERO investigators right? So we decided to spend the day "following" the Spirit. There are quotes on that because we confessed to each other that we had yet to experience "street guidance" yet. So that was interesting...yeah we still haven´t mastered that one yet. But this week we are working on virtue. When we are virtuous the Holy Ghost will want to dwell within us sooooo MAYBE THATS THE KEY!!! But really, so this week I´ve been doing my best to push away the remnants of Top20 song lyrics out of my thoughts and replace them with scripture mastery and church hymns WOOOOO. It is a work in progress hah. Oh so back to the ZERO INVESTIGATORS thing...So we get to Friday, its still raining, we know we have another day of mostly contacting ahead and we decide that we are going to have someone in the capilla on Sunday sì o sì (no option) At about 5pm we are in the middle of torrential downpour, clap a house, Valeria comes out, we give her a card, write her number down, and leave. Saturday we start fasting (now I´m not bragging, because in 3Ne something it talks about how bragging about fasting is bad) because the week has been as pleasant as cow stomach, and we had SO MANY LESSONS on Saturday! And then we went back and had a lesson with Valeria, and invited her to Church. We only taught her a little bit but she was super receptive to everything we were saying and said that she did want to change her relationship with God, and SHE PRAYED (which is a big deal). Went back to her house in the morning and she was ready to go!!! Church was AWESOME!!!!!! Really funny though because since she's 18, we accompanied her to the adultos solteros class, which felt really illegal even though hna and I are single, and adults...yeah it was just weird. But she left Church so happy and smiling and we have another lesson with her today! YEAY FASTING IS TOTALLY A THING!!!!!!!! I already knew that, but its always nice to have your testimony strengthened :)

And lastly it was AWESOME because...I LOVE HNA SIMMONS and we are like actually friends!!! It really is so much fun and she's such a hard worker, and is helping me to be a stronger missionary, I really do feel so blessed to have her this transfer. We laugh so much which is something I realized I was definitely lacking. We decided that our life could easily be a reality TV show se llama, "GRINGAS IN SOUTH AMERICA". Oh yeah HNA got bit by a dog! She's fine though, she was actually really happy about it so that she could say she got bit before she got home haha and oh I totally had an "adventures in babysitting" moment...at a members house, I think I see a bunny, pick up the bunny, bunnies don't have RED EYES, scream...it was a rat. "that's not a cat miss that's a sewer rat", goodness I do miss that movie, ohhh brenda....oh speaking of movies last night we were teaching a menos activo and HANNA was totally playing on the TV, then I spent a good 5 minutes of the lesson distracted by my memories of how disturbing that movie was.

Is this happening everywhere, or just here? Fashionnnn Yikesss!

So basically it was a good, long, hard week just like normal. I´m learning that through EXACT OBEDIENCE Heavenly Father will show us the way to his lost sheep. I know that if I´m not obedient he isn't going to trust me to teach them...We don't have that many people still, but I KNOW that there are people here. The field is WHITE!!!! And I´m positive that if we continue to be diligent we will see the fruit of our labors...or someone else will. Egual no màs :)

Kay I´m going to go eat SUBWAYYYYYYYY now!!!!!!!! Yeah! They just put in a subway!!! It´s like $12 though so I might shed a couple tears, but the Elders said it tastes just like America. "Whatever happened to land of the free, home of the 5 dollar foot long"?! - Elder Ollerton

 

love you all thank you for all of your emails!!!!!!!!!!!!

Les quiero muchoooooooo

Chau Chau

Hermana Cannon