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