Semana 8

June 1, 2015

So....it turns out we had hot water the entire time and that Hna just never told me that there was a special switch that turns makjes the water warm. thank you for that. Which means the past two months of cold showers were completley unwarranted annnddddd the 7 warms showers that I have had were not a gift from God, but just my companion forgetting to turn the switch off. But YAYY hot(ish) showers from now on!

The i-watch sounds pretty legit, go apple for being all cool and fancy.

Anndddd hullooooo I was totally driving the JUMPSUIT bandwagon BEFORE I left and it wasn't popular !!!!! Super bummed that I'm missing out, I totally would have rocked that trend.

On the colectivo

This week we have Zone Conference with Elder Viñas, de la setenta, and it was super awesome and spiritual and all that good stuff, except...he printed off a list of the missions Recent Converts from the past two years and read off ALL the names. Half of the people we hadnt ever heard of them or they wanted nothing to do with the church, so that was really sad. Conference focused a lot on the Sacrament and how EVERYONE needs to be renewing their covenants EVERY WEEK, because we are constantly making mistakes and sinning all over the place, which is true, but woahhhh yeah I felt like I was in trouble.  Conference itself though was way fun. They fed us hamburgers, except they put corn and peas on it which everyone was complaining about. Yeah, that was a little weird, but I have been craving a hamburger for the past 2 weeks so I didnt really care. Apparently they have Burger King and Pizza Hut in Paraguay though, so that is pretty awesome.

There is an Elder, not in my Zone, that refers to me as "the Asian" or "Asian Persuasion", which ehhhhh please dont. ITS HERMANA TO YOU BUDDY!!!!!! Yeah, some of the Elders are...real special.  I said goodbye to Hna. Gonzalez for real this time since she finishes at the end of this transfer. It was really sad and tears were shed. It is crazy how fast you can get attatched to people. I think it was just especially hard because she is from Paraguya and...I am not.

So.....my birthday is coming up hehehehe and if you want to send a package it really is easy! Hna Fielingstone (who is super awesome because she is also obsessed with Taylor Swift) received her 5th package in a year (that is love) and she only had to pay...it was either 40 pesos or 40 dollars, I cant remember. BUT for some HOT TAMALES and KNEADERS SYRUP it would totally be worth it ;)

This past week was TERRIBLE AS FAR AS THE WORK GOES. So so so so so so much rejection and so so so so so many lazy people. We started off real awful with one of our investigators who started yelling at us telling us that "Joseph Smith is not a God and I dont care about the book he wrote" Normally we would have just shaken this off but we have been working with him ever since I got here...so...yeaah. no more.

We found a new menos activa, Margarita, who reads the Book of Mormon everyday, says her prayers, has an amazing testimony, and when we asked why she doesnt come to church? "eh, I am just lazy"...are you serious. Silly people.

Anyways, Saturday smelled worse then a decaying dog carcus (which is really bad), our numbers were futile, almost all of our appointments kept falling through. At one point Hna was so frustrated she almost started to cry, and then I wanted to cry and then we were getting all negative and she wanted to go home. And that was really bad because I am still in the phase where I always want to go home, but then I remembered Alma 26:27 and it couldn't have been more true...

Alma 26:27 reads:  "Now when our hearts were depressed, we were about to turn back, behold, the Lord comforted us, and said: Go amongst thy bretheren, the Lamanites, and bear with patience thine afflictions, and I will give unto you success.   

Introducing. Ignasia. She is an investigator we have been working with ever since I got here and she is a cute little old lady that hasnt been making much progress but Hna still wanted to visit her so we keep teaching her., she cant read so we dont know how to help her gain a testimony of the book of mormon, but we just keep teaching her. She is SUPER catholic, but we still keep teaching her. she wont come to church, but we still keep teaching her. every day her heart opens little by little, but not fast enough, because i am a super impatient person. fin.

So after an absolutely terrible week, we walk into the chapel Sunday morning and who is sitting there? IGNASIA!!!!!!!!!!! So many tears. she was crying, hna was crying, ignasia was crying. she said that she was praying and God told her that she needed to come, so she did. she said that all she wants to do is serve God, and that even though she doesnt know very much and cant read she wants to learn and has faith that God will help her. WOAHHH!!!! So awesome.  Also, 10 other of our menos activos showed up!

And the talks were ON POINT! Usually they are soooooo boring, but woah it was exactly what everyone needed to hear! And the ward had the best attendance that I have seen so far!

Heavenly Father definitely rewarded us for our labors.

These are my miracles so its a little hard to share them with everyone because I know no one can really understand this feeling, but just know the Spirit I am feeling is so strong and this work is so real, and I am almost to the point where I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY! Not yet, but almost.

It is hard, but as you can read in "Our Heritage" the pioneers suffered 100X more then I ever will, sooooooo I have no room to complain about anything. My life is awesome!!!!! And I can take hot showers now!!!!!  Woo Hoo !!

les quiero todos!!!!!!!

CHAU!

Hermana Cannon

Barrio Jardin - Semana 7

Heyyyyy HAPPY ARGENTINA INDEPENDENCIA DAY!!!!!!

yeah...so because it is independence day, there are close to no colectivos running today, which means we had to walk 2-ish miles so that I could write and tell you all how much I love you and passive aggressively complain about how tired I am from walking so far.  Also, this keyboard I´m using as almost all of its letters rubbed off, sooooo we´re just struggling a bit today.

So first off...EVERYONE IS GETTING MARRIED????? Really though, no exaggeration. I don´t really have any comments to make, but thank you everyone for keeping me in the loop. Happily ever afters for everybody!! yeay

minor accomplishments of the week:

I killed 5 bugs/spiders...with my BARE HANDS wooooo hows that for facing my fears. Granted they weren't very big, but still I think that deserves a pat on the back

and
I finished an entire chapstick and pen without losing them first

Hna. said I woke her up in the middle of the night, because...I WAS SPEAKING SPANISH IN MY SLEEP!!!! Yeay

Food facts to make ya fat :) BUT happy:

1)  In celebration of transfers I tried my hand at baking an Argentine dessert. Pasta Frola (sugar cookie tart thing) and considering the recipe was in Spanish and I dont really know how to cook, it turned out awesome, just a littleeee burnt with the first bath haha. but here´s the recipe:

Pasta Frola

PASTA FROLA:

manteca - 100gr

azucar - 250gr

harina - (por ahi) 400gr

huevos - 2

poco de vainilla
Mix it all together, lay it out all fancy in a cooking mold, then bake it for 15 minutes, then dollop dulce de leche in each of the little squares, and sprinkle cookie crumbs on top!!!

2).  Elder Preece and Elder Ollerton made dulce de leche and it must have been really good because they managed to eat the whole kilo in under 24 hours.

DULCE DE LECHE:

leche - kilo

azucar - kilo

mix in pot for 30 minutes TADA!!! This is awesome, because no one uses dulce de leche in the US, until nowwwww! But...its kindof not good for you, so maybe its not a good thing that I know how to make it in large quantities...he he he

3).  Everyone eats their cereal with hot milk and a bit of sugar....why have we never thought this?!?! It makes cereal eating 100 times better!!!!!!

Highlights from the week:

Being silly with Familia Benitez ! :)

The only thing scarier than being chased by a small gang of neighborhood hoodlums (dogs) is being chased by lightening in a rainstorm. yeah...real real fun. Really though the running through the rain is super sketchy because since all of the streets are made of dirt we´re slipping and sliding all over the place, and then since there´s so much humidity my glasses get all foggy, sooooo pretty much I can´t see anything. Hahah it´s honestly hilarious just a little terrifying.  The other super fun thing about rainstorms is when we´re in the middle of a lesson and I literally have to scream "YOU ARE CHILDREN OF GOD AND HE LOVES YOU" !!!!!!!! so that people can hear you over the noise of the rain and thunder. Mother earth is real real strong down here!

The good thing about drunk people is that they always tell the truth. The unfortunate thing is that sometimes the truth hurts. Hermano Ledezmo, one of our menos activas, is always superrrrr drunk whenever we go visit him. He always tell us how nice we look though, so that´s nice of him. But this time instead, he asked "Hermanita Cannon, you´re face is fat!! We need to make sure Hna. Amopola doesn't buy any pan casero today"...thank you for that...so yeah that was sad, but my mommy says my face is cute when I´m chubby so eh what can ya do.

The Spiritual !!!!!

I started reading Jesus the Christ. Woahhhhh it is so awesome and I´m kind of obsessed, but it is super hard to read in ENGLISH and I feel like I need a dictionary to understand the words haha but it is awesome and like 800 pages sooooo it should keep me occupied for a while.

Alma 26:12 is well...everyday of my life here. enough said

When plans falls through, it is because someone else needs to hear our message! Sometimes it sucks when plans A-E fall through, but we´ve been diligent and finding new people to teach because giving up is silly and every moment of our time here is precious !!!

Well I love you all! Have an absolutely fabulous day!

Les quiero
Chauuuu

Hermana Cannon

My area - Jardin, Misiones, Posadas

Staying in Barrio Jardin ! - El Campo 6

Hola Familia !

Entonces...just recieved a call from our Zone Leaders, because today is CAMBIOS 

 (transfers) !!!!! Well, as I predicted Hermana Tapia and I will remain companeros in Barrio

My Favorite Hermana Gonzalez

Jardín for the next 6 weeks, and then I get to kill her off! MUAHHAHAHAHAH She´s super excited to go home, maybe a little too excited *cough - trunky - cough*. (trunky=when you´ve already mentally packed your bags and all you can do is talk about home blah blah blah). nahh, its okay if I was in her position I´d be wayy excited too! Anyways, no real big changes within our zone, except for Hna. Gonzalez (my favorite) is leaving BOOOOOO :( But we get to keep our awesome zone leaders, so yay!

Anyways, I´m still riding the emotional high for watching the dedication of the Córdoba, Argentina temple! Coolest thing ever!!!!! Super jealous of my MTC Hnas that probably got to actually go, and will get to go to the temple while they´re serving, but ahhhh the spirit that filled our little stake center was so strong.  I couldn´t stop thinking about how much I took having the Salt Lake City temple and so many other temples within an hour of home. Or worse having the Provo temple literally a block away. We are so incredibly lucky...some of these people having been dedicated members waiting years for a temple to be less than a 15 hour colectivo ride. We are so blessed and need to take advantage of the blessings that the temple has to offer! After the dedication was over, all of us were real nostalgic (does that make sense) for the temple. Mehhhhh I miss it !!! But basically, there couldn´t have been a better reward for SURVIVING MY FIRST TRANSFER!!!!!!!!!!!!

Waiting for my mom to call...We finally got to talk on Tuesday.

After lots lots of patience I finally got to talk to my parents on Tuesday night instead of Sunday! Whoop 30 minutes flew by as expected...can´t wait till Christmas he he :)

The song "Rude", by Magic is currently playing here in the Cíber, so that´s really distracting... :(

Oh yeah, so I´m halfway through training! Yeay! It´s kind of terrible sometimes because I really have close to no idea what I´m doing sometimes BUT when you´re in training your pension gets a DVD player to watch all of the ´District Training Videos´ which means....ZUMBA VIDEOS IN THE MORNING FOR EXERCISE. Yes...it is awesome.

Hermana Jackman and her juicer !! 

I did divisions (splits) in my area for the first time, with Hermana Jackman (who is a newbie like me). It was
so fun, she is serving in Paraguay and right before she crossed the border she bought a juicer. So naturally that night we made juice. But as expected when you only pay 150 peso ($15) for a juicer, I wasn´t too surprised when part of the machine was missing, and juice was spilling everywhere. But the juice was really yummy, so it was okay I was soooo nervous at first that we would get lost, but it was actually really awesome! She is soooo awesome and I hope that we can be companions in the future. The Spirit helped us so much to get through lessons that day and we realized that while our Spanish is bad, it isn't AS BAD as we thought! yeay!

I rolled my ankle on a GIANT rock when we were walking in the dark, and I fell straight to the ground. Haha it hurt really bad and it was SUPER swollen so I was one of those wimpy people hobbling around with an ace wrap. Esta bien, estoy mucho mejor ahora!

Sometimes we have to go to the bathroom REALLY bad, and end up contacting a random house so we can use their bathroom, and then we end up staying to teach! Wooo!

Emmy & Cousin Bellie (pre mission)

All of the little children here watch Disney Jr. and this is really distracting because Sofia the First is ALWAYS on and all I can do is think of Bellie :( and it´s pretty funny because I can understand just about everything they are saying now !

I finally got some DearElders!!!!! So that was awesome! I think my favorite one though was from Gammie, "Sorry Emmy I didn´t answer your phone call when you called from the airport. I I deleted your message because I thought it was a solicitor"....sad haha but kinda funny. I LOVE YOU GAMMIE!

A lot of our investigators still forget our names, but they are always really curious and want to know what our other names are. But then they always either call us by our other names (which is confusing) or they just cant remember our name at all....you don´t NEED to remember???......., I´M WEARING A NAME TAG!!!!!

touching the clouds (me :) on the right)

Sometimes Satan is really mean and tries to convince me that I don´t want to be here. But...that´s just silly because there´s no place else I need to be right now. This week was super long, but I feel I grown a lot and learned so much this week. This work is real and it is an honor to be a part of it. 

BRING IT ON! 1 transfer down, 12 more to go

¡les quiero!

ChauChau

Hermana Cannon

El Campo Semana 5

technology issues !

Holaaa ! 
First, I would like to complain about how deceivingly awful calling home is...Yes yes seeing the beautiful faces of the fambam was truly a joyful occasion, buttttt Skyping from a computer with unreliable internet and a semi functioning webcam is not my favorite thing. I could hear everyone, but they couldn't hear me, and it was really sad. And I felt like I was a small animal that couldn't communicate with its  owners that it needed to be taken out go to the bathroom (hopefully you understand the agony from that metaphor). Anyways, found out that A LOT of missionaries actually call home, to spare the stress of the mishaps with technology. ill still get to call Mom again for 15 minutes, annddddd I get to use the "divorced parents" card and call Dad for 30 minutes, so that's awesome :)

attempt to Skype but no sound :(

So...this week was real tough. Hermana Tapia and I chose to focus on the Christlike Attribute of patience, and ohhhh boyyyy was our patience tested...

I started the week off real strong by making it out of the house and to the La Valle for zone meeting, without my name tag. classic. Thankfully there was an Hermana who had left her name tag in the pension of the other Hermanas, so I was Hermana Anderson for the day. I was getting a lot of confused faces, and then some people actually were calling me Hermana Anderson, so it was an easy way to figure out who still has yet to learn my name.

As you recall from last week I was supposed to sing a solo with Elder Thronton accompanying me for the meeting, butttt we hadn't gotten to practice or find music soooo we just assumed that we would do it the following week. FALSE!!!

"and now we will have a special musical number from Elder Thronton and Hermana Cannon"

whooooo?

oh good. Sooooo we winged it I sang, "I Know My Redeemer Lives" and I was super shaky and a little nauseous for the first verse, but after that it was fine, spiritual, and all that good stuff.

THEY ALL LIED! Winter here is REAL and it does get cold! But, winter here is super

annoying because its cold in the morning, like 75 degrees by noon, and then at night its so cold I sleep in my jeans and wind breaker...  Also, my fashion sense had hit an ultimate low when I left the house with long Spanx under basketball shorts under my skirt, two undershirts under my shirt, and two sweaters under my wind breaker...I vaguely resembled Joey, from Friends, during the episode when he puts on all of Chandler's clothes all at once. 

I did something I swore I would never do and I bought a pair of Crocs...but they are super cute, for Crocs, and there is too much mud sometimes to not have them. so they are a necessary evil.

Sad. The zipper on my shoulder bag broke so I had to buy a new backpack. It is purple, and with my short hair, someone told me yesterday that I looked like, Dora La Exploradora (Dora the Explorer) hehehe mehhhhhhh no bueno  :(

WATER!!!!!

So everyone has been asking me about the water sichiation...BASICALLY, if you are going to a country that has a sketchy water system, the CCM (MTC) will give you a handy dandy water filtration system water bottle. It is awesome!!! And I have not gotten sick! However, everyone, especially the Elders all make fun of me, because everyone usually ditches their water bottles and stomachs the water after the first week. FOOLS. Esta bien, I would rather take the ridicule, than have diarrhea!

I just wanted to say THANKYOUUUUUU to everyone that's been writing me and to let you know that I print off EVERY email, so I can read EVERY word, and I will eventually respond to ALL of them!! So keep sending your love and support it means so much to me to have you in my corner.

I have developed a slight obsession with Pepas (shortbread cookies with a dollop of jam in the middle) They are borrato, rico, y capo (cheap, yummy, and awesome)

Also, I discovered that my biggest weakness is pan casero = homemade bread. There are always guys roaming the streets carrying loaves of fresh bread, and lets just say my self control is being stretched to its limits. hehehe pan con dulce de leche is soooooo goooooodddd. Actually, FACT: Dulce de Leche makes ANYTHING taste better.

2 language barrier blunders:

Hermana Tapia was explaining the difference between abeja = bee, and oveja = sheep. Then I was showing off my uncanny impression of a sheep. Then while I was baaaaaaaaaing, I tripped and an old lady laughed and called me a drunk.   Next, we were teaching this lady that had hair so long, it reached the top of her knee (YIKES) But it was really pretty so I told her, "¡su caballo es muy hermosa!" andddd cabello = hair and CABALLO= horse...so I told her her horse was beautiful. she didnt have a horse. she just looked confused and slightly offended.

Hot dog !

The cure to laziness and fatigue is WORK! I have found that the more diligent we are the more success we have and the less tired I am. And this proved so true throughout this past week

Hna Tapia got so sick that we  had to go back to the pension so she could rest and I read the Book of Mormon the whole time. I just love every moment that I get to read its words. I am slightly ashamed that it has taken me this long to realize how amazing, powerful, and inspiring all of it words are, and my testimony of its messages is growing stronger every day. I know with all of my heart that the Book of Mormon is the word of God and I feel so privileged to share it with these people everyday.

I dont know Spanish,

I dont know the lessons,

I dont know the Book of Mormon,

I dont really know anything...

BUT my desire to serve is so strong, and I know that this work and my efforts are and will change hearts and lives of these people and eventually (hopefully) I will be a good missionary and teacher.

lots of love, miss you all!!!!

Te Amo

Chau.

Hermana Cannon

El Campo 4

Hola !

I´VE BEEN HERE FOR A MONTH!!!!!!!!!!!!! WOO HOO and I´m kind of figuring it out...ish.

Mantra of the Week: ¡MAS AGUA, MENOS PAN!  (more water, less bread!)

One of my faves, Hermana Gonzalez

This week started of good, with divisions with Hermana Gonzalez, in La Valle (more city vibe). Yeah...Barrio Jardín is better, but it was awesome to have a mini vacation and work in a different area for a day.

Nothing too exciting besides a lady who thought we were Jehovah´s witnesses and wanted me to come live with her because she´s lonely. pass.

In La Valle there are two sets of Hermanas so we had a mini fiesta consisting of eggs, rice, bread, and fruit smoothies. So it was basically the best thing ever. Also, I´m still not sure how they have a blender. None of the other Argentina have blenders; super jealous.

Apparently I´m really getting the hang of this contacting thing, because when I woke up the next morning Hna. Gonzalez told me in the middle of the night I was clapping in my sleep and introducing myself. haha whoops.

It was hard to go back to Barrio Jardin only because Hna. G and I are soooooo similar and we have the same personality and energy in lessons, but I know that Barrio Jardin is my area, and that I am here for the people.  Ankle exercises are a daily practice, because I roll my ankle at least once a day. At least after years of gymnastics I just pop right back up haha.  So here the custom when greeting someone, whether it´s a stranger or someone you know is to give besos (kisses) on each cheek. It was weird at first but its their custom, so now I´m used to it with all the ladies here. But I don´t think I´ll ever get used to having to quickly stick my arm out and dodge a guy leaning in to my face. No no, I need to shake your hand. Everyone is just so darn friendly.

I currently have 25 mosquito bites (which isn´t too bad) but 4 of them are on my butt! How rude, I feel so violated, and itchy.

Tomorrow I will be singing in zone meeting, with Elder Thornton (who is a Mozart on the piano) accompanying me. Only problem is is that I still don´t know what song I´m supposed to sing, and it´s tomorrow, and I can´t read notes. So....that should be interesting...

Friday was the 1 of May, and the Dia de Trabajador (Day of Work), where ironically, no one goes to work, or school! Instead everyone parties.  Therefore, I embraced my inner Argentine on Friday and ate LOCRO. Locro = everyone´s leftovers from the past week all thrown together into a giant stew. Now, I mean all leftovers...which means...COW INTESTINE. And I´m here to report that cow intestine tastes just as good as you think it would taste...

These puppies...make me miss my Georgie ;)

Two awesome ladies of the ward:  Hermana Correa - president of the Relief Society.  She has a son in Chile, and he is an only child, so she totally understands the relationship that I have with Mom, and provided me with an abundance of comfort food on Saturday. We were at her house for lunch on Saturday, and we were explaining what a blog was, so she had me pull mine up on the computer. She was looking at it for a while and then said, "I can´t understand any of this" Right...that would be because its in English haha    There's also Hermana Manchuk is 87 and is so awesome! She was baptized in her sixties and has a crazy strong testimony of the gospel. She has a bad leg and has to use crutches to get around, but she crutches to church every week, for a mile!!

New Investigators!

While looking for one of our references, we encountered Pierre and Gustavo. The first night we met Pierre I couldn´t understand him at all because he was speaking French. Good. Of, course later after we left,  Hermana Tapia told me that he was speaking Spanish, he just had a super thick French accent. Oh very good. It´s hard enough trying to understand normal Spanish...Any who, Gustavo is Pierre´s adoptive father, and they live with Gustavo´s wife and their son Emanuel, and they are all super spiritual and want to take the lessons! YAY!!! Pierre is 24, but, has more energy than a 12 year old boy, so he is rather distracting during the lessons. One minute we´ll be talking about the Atonement and the next minute he wants to know who my favorite American actor is, or what´s America like, how do I have such straight teeth (S/O to Jeff Sumsion!!!!) BUT, we got to teach him how to pray, which was literally the coolest thing ever! What a special experience listening to someone talk to Heavenly Father for the first time!!!

We had a crazy storm Saturday night and the power went out a bunch of places. It wasn´t too bad
except when we woke up Sunday morning it was still raining which means...no one was going to come to Church :( Yeah...we had about 20 people versus the normal 170 so that was really sad.

Well...that´s about all I have for this week!

Oh wait just kidding, I finally found a place to send letters!!! So I sent 3 and it cost about $10 dollars!!!! Entonces, they better get there or I´m going to be real unhappy. Also, anyone that receives a letter from me better treat it like buried treasure.

Okay, that is all!

te amo,

ChChau

Hermana Cannon

El Campo - Semana Tres !

28 April 2015

Hola!

woahhhh where to start...

The weird stuff:

• they use frosted flakes, fruit loops, and other cereal type options as toppings for their FROYO?! where are my snickers and mini yogurt chips. sad, i miss Yogurtland!

• We were on a SUPER crowded colectivo (sort of like a mini bus) after a Zone Meeting. I turn around to see a lady breast feeding. With forced composure I turn around to see the horrified face of Elder Preece. haha pobrecito.

• I tried matte. And it´s pretty good if you like the taste of freshly watered grass...so basically, its not that good. but esta bien, Argentinians worship the stuff. if you do, you do.

• POMELO JUICE IS THE BEST THING EVER! Seriously though one of our

  

  Learning how to make fresh pomelo juice

  investigators always makes it for us, and last time I´m pretty sure we drank a whole gallon. Only problem, he doesn't have a bathroom in his house.... ha ha :) so we we sped walked about a mile back to the pension to relieve ourselves. ohhhh the struggles.!!! :)

• Speaking of no indoor plumbing. A lot of people here don't have windows or doors or any furniture besides lawn chairs, HOWEVER...... they do have giant flat screen TVs with cable ?????.....I see where your priorities are ha ha  #fùtbol

• sometimes there are horses just chillin' in the park... weird?! ha ha

Lessons learned & things that occurred this week:

• So in my district (4 elderes 2 hermanas) 3 of the 6 of us are dying within the next two transfers (which means theýre finishing their missions, they´re not actually dying, obviously ! :)) and there´s a good chance I´ll be staying in Barrio Jardìn for a full 6 months, which is A LOT but I do love the people and there´s so much work to be done with the members here, and there is an obvious reason why they don´t white wash missionaries into this area. (white wash= 2 new missionaries as companions to an area)

• Being American both helps and hurts. It helps because people usually think its way cool that I´m from super far away and they´ve been taking pitty on me with my castellano. :)  But after they find out I´m an American they suddenly can´t understand a thing I´m saying. interesante. Hmmmmm ???!

• Sometimes we pass by our investigators and they tell us to come back at 5:00PM, then we come back at 5 and their gates are chained and locked. how rude!! I just walked two miles in honor of YOUR salvation !!! ha ha !  (oh well... at least she's getting good exercise?! ha ha! )

• Hermano José (our landlord) said my handshake was too manly so we spent a solid 10 minutes correcting that. (This funny.... it's probably from all the bar work in gymnastics! )

• I had the opportunity to help a member with her math homework, and it turns out teaching advanced fractions in Spanish is harder than Calculus ever was, which is really hard!

• Found my first COCKROACH, and it was IN THE HOUSE! I know that there´s only more of that to come, sadly. But at least my companion isn´t afraid of any creatures.
• *Okay but the bad part is, is that my companion, Hermana Tapia loves ALL living things, meaning she wont kill any of the bugs, she just lets them outside, so that they can come in at a later time. por queeeeee !!! ughhhhh !!!

• I´ve contracted a patch of mosqito bites around my eye and my skin is not adapting very well to the humidity, so basically I´ve been looking SUPER good everyday!  hehehehe

Spiritual stuff:

Dallan H. Oaks spoke to the Resistencia mission this week, and we were able to watch it and interact conference style, SO COOL! He spoke on how we can better be in tune with the Spirit, letting the Spirit guide us and the lessons, how we can be more open to receiving revelation from Heavenly Father, and the importance of the Sabbath Day! It was wayyyyyyy good, and it was in English with a Spanish translator, which was much appreciated for us newbies. So spiritual and so awesome.

I gave a talk this Sunday in Sacrament meeting. Woo that was scary, but it went way well. I talked about faith and how we can strengthen our faith in Jesus Christ. *Alma 32 was my best resource for sure! Anyways the talk was good, and Hna. Tapia corrected all of my grammar beforehand so that I didn´t sound like an illiterate fool, and afterwards Hna. Amopola asked if I´d make her a copy so she could read it to her (SUPER INACTIVE) family! Yay!!!

None, of our investigators came to church which is really sad, but our less-active members are making SO much progress!

Hna Amopola for one has come every week I´ve been here and she will be receiving a calling this week and Elias and Pablo will have their interviews so that they can receive the Aaronic Priesthood and bless/pass the sacrament!!!!!!!!! Yayyyyyy so much happy!

Also, my testimony continues to grow exponentially everyday I´m out here. This work is truly humbling and amazing, and I am so incredibly blessed to be out here. The Book of Mormon is true, I started at the beginning again at the MTC and I´m slowly but diligently getting through Alma. LOVE IT!!!! The words are so true. I´m so grateful for this gospel, and I can´t imagine not having it in my life, which is why BEING A MISSIONARY IS SO AWESOME because everyone needs to know HOW AWESOME  IT IS!!!!

Lastly,

I got my first hole in my shoe. This makes me feel cool, like I´m an actual missionary :) roughing it out in the field. It´s kind of sad though, because this means I´m probably going to have to buy new shoes already, and it´s only been three weeks. oops! (told her that was just an excuse to go shopping!  ha!)

Oh also, kinda embarrassing, I found out that I´ve been spelling Ciao wrong for the past 2 months ha ha!! it´s actually Chau.

soooo...

love you all! Chau

Hermana Cannon

El Campo Semana Dos !

21 April 2015

Hola!

You know you´re living in a 3rd world country when...the city´s water supply gets shut off, and you have no water for two days. What is the solution to this problem?
1. pray
2. take a bird bath with ´wet ones´ wipes and 

3. go find the nearest neighbor who has a well in their backyard

Okay...so a couple things...sorry about being so scrambled last week, I don´t know if any of my letters made sense or the things that I even said, holy smokes the past 2 weeks have been insane. I still haven´t quite figured out an efficient system in which to spend my 60 stressful minutes online, but I´m definitely beginning to get my bearings. In which case, if I don´t get back to you for a couple weeks it is NOT because you´re not important, because you are, and everyone´s support means so much to me. So keep sending your love and I will eventually send some back your way too!

Something super happy is that...I CAN RECIEVE DEAR ELDERS!!!!!!!! Of course they can´t be the delicious Kripspy Kreme DearElder packages, but they can print them off at the mission office and since my area is super close to the mission office I´ll be receiving mail weekly!!! Woooo! Also, the mailing system here isn't as questionable as we thought. NO POUCH MAIL, NORMAL MAIL!!! In which case, since I only have an hour each week, I would love to reinstate the practice of "snail mail" so that I can spend more time responding (just send to the address on my blog) YAYAY Also, the whole "do not send packages" thing, is also a lie!

So now that I´ve been in the field for over a week I can appropriately evaluate my new world...

• Three words to describe my area:   hot, humid, and a lot of bugs
• Three words to describe Argentina: futbol, siestas, and matte (really though they don´t do much else) *Mom make sure that you´re bleeping stuff out if its inappropriate or offensive
• Fun facts. week old puppies look like naked mole rats

  

  milk in a bag, Frosted Flakes & peanut butter

  
  

  
  

• Argentinian's have their milk in bags or in unrefrigerated boxes (not sure how that works)
• cold showers are not refreshing, they´re just cold
• some minor victories: 
• I can make audible noises with both hands doing the finger snapping thin (if you know what I´m talking about then you know that this is an accomplishment, if you don´t then ask a return missionary), 
• I split an apple with my bare hands!! (I knew all those work outs on the bars would come in handy?!) , and 
• I still have yet to see a cockroach (which even President LaPierre was impressed with that ! :)).

From last week...All of my menos activa (less active) DID end up showing up to church, they were just all late, so that was happy...and then this past Sunday they were ALL on time so, yay good for them! We´re continuing to have a lot of progress with the Barrio Jardin (Jardin Ward), and it´s really great to see the members getting involved with the missionary work as well. I never realized how great an impact the members have in the conversion of investigators. I know I definitely didn´t do my part before.

The past week has been a bit frustrating at times, but definitely manageable as far as the language goes. What I realized is that when I´m having a really hard time I just need to speak some English and eat chocolate, and the world is suddenly a much better place. Last week I got to go on divisions (splits) with a Sister from the states so 24 hours with her was pretty much Q&A about the mission and it lowered my stress levels and moved me from the reddish zone to the green zone. happy :).

I´m honestly 100% grateful for Hna. Tapia, she´s easily the worlds best trainer. I´m learning so much everyday, and I know that because of her, I will be a better missionary.

Spanish and Guarani Book of Mormons... too much to know!

Can´t remember if I got the chance to mention this last week but the 3 languages thing. Very very real. Gratefully, I don´t have to deal with it in my area just yet, but once you go into an area in Paraguay they all just speak a mixture of Guarani, Portuguese, and Spanish. So that´ll be fun. Also, I heard there´s more bugs over there. Bleh. BUT they do have blenders and microwaves in their apts so that´s cool!

I am among the few that are blessed with the amazing opportunity to have

• 3 languages
• 2 countries
• 1 God (our mission slogan trumps all muahahah)

My feet hurt a lot, actually my entire body hurts and I´m ridiculously tired everyday, but it´s actually kind of an awesome feeling when we think about all the mileage and people we´re were able to talk to. This work is AWESOME!

I still haven´t thrown up yet, or gotten sick in any other form which is really great! I´m thinking that can be attributed to my handy dandy water filtration bottle and that the only water that I´ve drank has been that of the tiny sacrament cups (which is obviously unavoidable)

OH MY GOODNESS the rain storms here an INSANE!!!!!!!! That´s about all I can say about that, I haven´t quite found a good way to explain it, yet. Also, because of the amount of rain, and the fact that all the streets are made of dirt there´s A LOT of mud, or barro.

Something funny. The first day it rained hard, and we went outside I came making screeching noises and crying out "BLEHH BORRO, MUCHO BORRO" as my foot sunk into a pile of mud. Hna. Tapia would just stand there and laugh at me...after hours of doing this she finally informed me, that BARRO means mud, and BORRO means Marijuana. So...I was basically I was complaining that there was too much Marijuana. Which, there is a solid amount of Marijuana, but that wasn´t quite what I was going for.  Ha ha !

Well, tata for now. See y´all next week

Ciao!