Helado helado helado

Yayyyy I finally have time to write this week!

How is everyone??? I'm GREAT. :) This was probably one of my favorite weeks. I learned A LOT.

Okay sooooo I learned a lot about God's timing this week. Ya know Ana? The one who accepted a baptismal date last week? Well we taught her yesterday and she told us she wanted to postpone her baptism. And I actually felt totally okay about that, because I could feel her sincerity and faith. So I came to the conclusion that God always has a plan for each of his children and--what

The other hermanas had a baptism! The investigator is named Andres. I'm not teaching him, but still super exciting so i thought you guys would like to see the pic!

Me at the park being weird (appropriately sideways ha ha).

Me and my companion being weird.

me with familia Navarro

do ya know--it's not always the same as the missionary's plan. Also today is her birthday so fun fact. :) She's the greatest. I love her. 

I also learned tonzzzz about the plan of salvation, agency, and the nature of Satan versus God. Like mind blowingness! We had an amazing zone conference about all of those topics. I learned more profoundly that we actually do have the power to choose our eternity. The decisions we make everyday are molding us into the kind of person we are going to be forever. There's nothing magic about final judgment. It's just the end result of the person we've become. If we lived a life trying to be full of hope and belief, striving to progress and choose happiness despite everything, we will continue with that same attitude forever..... that's called heaven. Or if we chose to live a life doubting ourselves, doubting others, full of negative thoughts, pride, and resentment, realizing how wrong we were and never changing, we will continue living that way forever.... and that's called hell. Both are made up of sinners. Just sinners facing different directions... one towards Christ and the other condemnation.

So I love being a missionary because I get to help people find their reason to believe... They find it in the promise of Christ, and that saves them. 

Idk about you but that's the best news I've ever heard. :) 

Love you all so so so much! Now go watch "He is the Gift" on Youtube and then do what it says at the end.... "discover the gift... accept the gift." And then share the gift for Christmas. :) 

Con cariño,

Hermana Cannon II

literally no time :(

Momio Please tell everyone i love them and I'm sorry the guy at the internet cafe just told me they are closing in 5 minutes and I just barely got on. :( 

this week was AMAZING. 

Ana accepted a baptism date! And she goes to all the church activities when we don't even tel her about them. shes incredible. Her baptism date is december 27 (happy anniversary cassie and wade!)

CONGRATS TO CAMILLE AND COLLIN FOR MAKING IT OFFICIAL!!!! the ring is beautiful. :) Its perfect. 

I'm so glad you guys had a great time with Jorge! He's the best ever. 

We taught a spontaneous lesson in the street this week. We ran into a contact we did forever ago and then we were like lets just go to this little cafe and talk bout the gospel! but then it was closed just we just started walking down the street with him. and then he started asking us questions so we basically taught him al of the restoration right there in the street. He had a lot of good questions. One of them stumped us so i wrote it down and told him we would study it. 

it was Hermana Navarro's birthday this week so we had a Noche de Hogar with her and her family and a less active member. It was awesome. I looooooove that family. We talked about Christ and watched the Christmas 2 minute video that the church put out. ITS AWESOME. i love it. I get chills everytime at the end when it says "descubre la dadiva. Acepta la dadiva" which would mean "discover the gift. Accept the gift" in English but idk exactly how it reads in the English version.

Everyone watch it and share it with your friends!

LOVE YOU SO MUCH!

First week as a trainer!

I didn't die!!! haha. This has actually been like the best week ever. I think I've learned more in this week alone than like my entire first two changes.

My companion is awesome! Her name is Hermana Gil, from Peru, and is 26 years old. She knows toooons about the scriptures, which is a huge help to me haha--I'm still working on that part. It's been fun learning stuff about Peru and talking Spanish 24/7. Also I'm helping her learn Enlgish which has been super fun! She's great. :)

Had a great lesson with Ana last Thursday! She said she wants to get baptized, and that she will when she is ready. So we're just gonna keep teaching her and praying like crazy! 

Jorge says he's still waiting for a sign/message that says it's okay for him to go ahead and get baptized. Usually we leave him with chapters to read that we think will help him with that. But this week, I challenged him to sit down, pray, ask God for a message, and then look for it in the scriptures. He said he would do it. I'm super interested to see how it goes. We'll find out when we visit him tomorrow. 

Contacting is fun. :) I saw this dude just chillin on a bench close to the apartment of a menos activo, so I stopped and asked him if I could give him a picture of Christ. He said of course! (sometimes people just run away and say they don't have time haha so he was nice). Then we got talking and I told him how we were here because we wanna talk to people about God and how to be happy and find salvation, and he was super cool and receptive to the whole thing. Turns out he was just about to move though and still didn't have his address so we couldn't get his info. So I said that's okay and asked if we could say a prayer with him. In it I thanked God for the little moment he gave me to get to know my new friend and if God could bless him. After the prayer he smiled, shook my hand, and said super sincerely that the prayer helped him feel a lot better. Ahhhh I just love those moments. And you don't have to have a nametag to make cool connections like that. ;) hint hint. 

So yeah week one as a trainer has been a success! Thank you soooo much for your prayers. I needed them LOTS. God is showing me my weaknesses big time haha but it doesn't discourage me. It motivates me. I hope you can feel my prayers too! Love you!

Hermana Cannon II

Last day with Hermana Garcia

Me and my new hija!

Funness after Stake Conference

Our last lunch with Hermana Garcia and La Familia Uribe

Humitas! Chilean food! Kind of like a tamale but totally different taste. Yum. :) Bought it on the street.

ch-ch-ch-CHANGES

FYI: Sarah's email address is:   sarah.cannon@myldsmail.net

Her mailing address is:  Sister Sarah Cannon

Chile Santiago East Mission

Cristobal Colon 6824

Las Condes

Region Metropolitana

Santiago, Chile

This week Sarah sent the following. 

---------------------------------------------------------------

 OHHHHHH MY GOSH SO MUCH ANXIETY.

Yes.

We had transfers. 

I'm staying.

My companion left today

And.....

I'M TRAINING. 

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh breathe in out in out.

So yeah basically I'm freaking out!! hahaha. so many feeeels!!! I couldn't even sleep the night after President called me. I was just feeling this terrible mixture of anxiety and inadequacy ha..... and my companion and roommates woke up in the middle of the night to comfort me. (they are the best ever ohhh i love them). So they talked to me for a little and I felt better. :) Hna. Escobar gave me her teddy bear to sleep with hahaha she is so precious. But yeah I just kept thinking... I'm too young to have a daughter! haha. But then the other side of the emotions started coming and now I'm super excited to meet her. :) I made her a cute cover for her agenda and I already love her--whoever she is. Just hoping I'll be able to help her adjust to mission life and help her understand what it means to be a missionary. Still trying to figure that out myself haha, so we'll learn together. :) 

But yeah it's been a pretty emotional weekend all around. My companion was in this sector for over a year.... a lot of people in the ward cried with her this weekend. A family offered us lunch and we got to make some good memories with them for our last meal together. And our recent converts had a barbeque for us that same night where we made some more good memories. Ohhhhh I'm gonna miss her. Along with todo el mundo. But the Lord needs her elsewhere and that's super exciting. I'm excited to hear about her stories in her new area. 

So yeah! That's what all my focus is on right now haha. We're still working with Jorge. My companion is bummed that she didn't get to see him be baptized, but I'm gonna keep visiting him and praying for miracles. 

Ana is still awesome and progressing. Just praying that she can open her heart to the spirit, recognize it, and follow it. 

Right now I think my biggest goal is to get a better understanding of the scriptures. I've already learned a ton about them here on the mission compared to how I studied (or not studied) them before. But yeah that was the biggest advice that President gave us at the meeting for trainers. He said a big part of becoming autosufficient is finding your own solutions to your problems in the scriptures. And it's true! So that's my goal. 

So weird that it's almost Christmas! Especially because it's blazing hot here. Ha. I'm getting the weirdest tan lines on my feet. 

Well I love you guys. :) You're in my prayers constantly and I hope you can feel it! 

XOXO

Hna. Cannon II

I met someone famous!

Hey friends and family!!!

IT´S TRUE I MET SOMEONE FAMOUS :O......

Elder Nelson! haha XD

Really though it was hilarious--there were like a bajillion missionaries lined up outside the church waiting for the doors to open so we could get seats for the conference, and when they opened the doors it was like we were the GA section of an Imagine Dragons concert hahaha. 

But anyways the conference was soooo awesome!! We got together with the Santiago North mission, which means I got to see a bunch of my North friends I met in the CCM! (Sam Scarr I thought of you too and was sad that I didn´t get to see you!!) But yeah the first thing he did was shake all our hands. It was really cool :) it took a half hour haha because there was over 400 missionaries. 

In his talk, he explained about 6 points of doctrine. First he talked about the Abrahamic Covenant and I was like NO WAY I was totally trying to study that during the week but my brain wasn´t functioning and so I was still confused about it!! So that was exciting. :) Now I´m like.... whoa. Feel the responsibility. (preaching the gospel I mean). It was a good pump me up. :) 

He got my excited about studying better and really understanding the doctrine until it´s part of me so that I can explain it more clearly and simply. Working on that this week. :)

Soooo we had a totally awesome experience with Jorge this week. Basically I was having one of those missionary-stensial crisis because I was like wahhhh why isn{t Jorge progessing, what am I doing here, etc etc... and then BAM he shares his testimony. And wow it was strong. He told us he was passing a hard time last week when he told us he didn´t want to be baptized after all. In fact he was so down spiritually that he didn´t eat for five days. He told us he had stopped reading the scriptures during that time and it made him feel like he was living under water. Then Hermano Sepulveda (the member that always comes with us to teach Jorge) made all these cool symbolic comparisons to Jorge´s experience, and rebirth/baptism. Then we asked him how he felt about being baptized and he said he knew he needed to do it, he just needed time. So we´ll see what happens. PRAYING SOOOOO HARD. Not just that he can be baptized, but that he can think clearly and be able to distinguish the spirit from the adversary and then act according to his beliefs.

PHEW.

Also pray for our other investigator, Ana!!! She´s so awesome. Such a sincere person. She even invited her own member to come to the lesson with us this week! She was at church and the Relief Society President came up to her and was like hey I wanna come visit you! And then she was like, oh I´m meeting with the missionaries this week if you wanna come! haha so that was awesome. But yeah she´s so sincere in her soul searching. She just wants to find the truth. And we´re trying hard to help her find it. She accepted the baptism date of Nov. 30th so that´s our goal! Praying that she can get an answer to her prayers this week. :)

Ahhhh I just love you guys. :) Thanks for everything. I love P Days cuz I love hearing about your livessss!!! keep being awesome!! 

XOXO

Hna Cannon II 

Troy Varner´s cousin is in my mission!

Me and the girls I live with outside before the conference with Elder Nelson (from left to right: Hna. Phillips, Hna. Garcia, Hna. Escobar, me)

Hna. Burr, Hna. Garcia, and me! (Hna. Burr used to live in our pension and was the companion of Hna. Escobar befor we had transfers last month)

Cerro San Cristobal!

FYI: Sarah's email address is:
sarah.cannon@myldsmail.net

Her mailing address is:
Sister Sarah Cannon

Chile Santiago East Mission

Cristobal Colon 6824

Las Condes

Region Metropolitana

Santiago, Chile

 

This week Sarah sent the following.

Hey everyone!

Today for PDay we went to Cerro San Cristobal! It´s this hill/monument thing in Santiago that is dedicated to the Virgin Mary. Google it! haha. It was pretty cool. I like that we get to leave our sectors on P-Day because then I realize that Santiago is more than just Ñuñoa (my sector) and it´s actually a lot cooler than I even know! But yeah we got to see this giant statue of Mary which was cool. There was also a statue of Christ but it was really small and kind of set off to the side :(. It was interesting to see the contrast in what the Catholic church focuses on versus what the Latter-Day Saints focus on. 

I have bad news. :( 

Jorge´s baptism date fell through again. We went to see him on Tuesday, had an awesome time with him, and then right before we were about to leave, the member we were with mentioned to Jorge that he was going out of town this Sunday but he was going to cancel his trip so he could be at Jorge´s baptism. 

Turns out Jorge didn´t realize his baptism date was coming up so fast. He knew it was going to be the 2nd of November but I guess he just hadn´t realized it was that Sunday.

Soooo he went on to say thank you for everything, that he didn´t feel like any of it had been a waste of time even though he wasn´t going to be baptized. 

Whaaaaaaa?

It was a hard rest of the day. :( 

Especially because his testimony is so solid in the Book of Mormon. 

And we love him. 

And we want him to get the blessings.

He told us he needed time so that´s exactly what we´re giving him. We haven´t stopped praying for him--we also fasted for him yesterday. And we´re still gonna visit him twice a week. But he needs his time and that´s okay. 

He actually confessed to us that he had stopped reading his scriptures which makes a lot of sense. Then when we saw him later that week, I felt prompted to share my testimony about scripture study, prayer, and revelation. So I did and it went really well. Keep praying for him! 

Halloween was this week! Our ward had a fun activity we got to go to. Five investigators came! And three of them dressed up! It was awesome. It was probably the coolest Mormon dance party there ever was...even though we didn´t get to dance, being missionaries haha. But yeah Latino ward activities are the BEST. :D

Well I love you all! Thanks for all the support! I hope you all got my updated mailing address! 

Muah! xoxo

Hermana Cannon II

p.s. shout out to Eliessa and Chad for getting engaged!!! ahhhh marriage!!!! Love you guys!!!

Pic 1 Cerro San Cristobal

Pic 2 Opening a package from Chance and hugging delicious caramel candies

Pic 3 Halloween funness!

Pic 4 WE FOUND A TACO SHOP. We are both in love with Mexican food so we died when we found it. We definitely ate there and it was glorious.

Milagros! (Miracles)

Family! Friends! Hope you guys are doing awesome. Cuz I love you all. :)

This week was sooooo exhausted emotionally. First, something tragic happened to one of our recent converts, Nelson. We found out that his wife passed away on Monday. She commited suicide. We called him to see how he was but he wasn´t able to talk because his voice was full of tears. We were full of tears. We just sat there and prayed. And then we walked quietly to our next appointment and were just drained. We got there early so we took about 20 minutes to sit down. Hermana Garcia wrote in her journal and I prayed and cried some more. I just had so many emotions and worries come over me... I thought of my dear friends at home who have also lost a loved one like this and I cried for them. I prayed for them. I prayed for Rhyse. 

We found out the funeral for Nelson´s wife would be the next day, but it was out of our sector so we would have to get permission from the President to go. I prayed asking that he would say yes and he did! So me, my companion, and the two other sisters in our apartment went to the funeral. Nelson wasn´t there yet so we waited for about an hour and then he came. He came up to us with swollen eyes and almost forgot we weren´t allowed to hug him. We settled for long handshakes and an arm on the shoulder. He then told us that if we hadn´t shown up, he was going to make an announcement in sacrament meeting the next week saying that he wasn´t going to be attending anymore because he didn´t feel the support of the church in his most desperate hour. 

I´m so so so so glad our President gave us permission to go. And I´m so glad we waited long enough for Nelson to show up. He then told us how grateful he was to feel our love and support. We stayed for a while giving words of comfort, and then gave him letters we had written for him before we left. 

That pretty much drained us for the next couple of days. But it was also a really intense spiritual experience for me. I learned a lot about prayer, the roll of friendship in life, and how to let yourself love others and receive love.

We also had like five million miracles on Sunday. 

First, Jorge came to church! He talked to his boss and worked things out and told us he now has Sundays free! That´s the miracle I was talking about last week! It happened! Ahhhhh. Yes. Then he accepted Nov 2 as his new baptismal date. That´s this Sunday! Pray for him! 

Second, Ana came to church again and she stayed for all three meetings! We´re going to keep teaching her and invite her to be baptized on Thursday. She´s already talked about being baptized though so I think she already understands a lot about the gospel. But yeah I´m super excited to keep teaching her. 

Third, Andrea came to church! She´s a member who hasn´t been to church in about a year. When we met her, she came up to us saying she wanted us to come visit her. So we did and she came to church! She´s pregnant and said she wanted to come back to church because she wants her child to grow up learning those principles. I was soooo happy when she said that because I feel so glad to have had that opportunity growing up. 

So yeah! It was an awesome week. Exhausting but lots of spirit. :)

Loves!

Hermana Cannon II  

Sector Slammmm!!

From Sarah's email dated Mon, Oct 20, 2014

Hey friends and familyyyy!!!! I love you all. :)

Anyways.

This has been a crazy week! We had exchanges and did this weird crazy sector slam business. So I was away from my companion TWICE. We almost died. 

But yeah at the sector slam I got to go around with an Hermana from a different sector and a member. We were trying to invite everyone in that ward (less actives, members, investigators, randoms) to church that Sunday because it was ward conference. Ward conference in Chile is a HUGE deal. They have activities everyday for seven days before the conference and they try to get the entire ward and EVERYONE to come haha. And I´m just over here like... yeah I barely notice in Utah when we have ward conference. Oops. Lovin´ the contrast here in Chile. 

So yeah we were going around with a member, and then de repente (suddenly) she was like, hey I wanna go invite my friend to the conference. A non member. :D (that is a missionary´s dream to hear.) So we went to her house and taught her a lesson. The spirit was strong. She had read some of the Book of Mormon before. Then at the end I knew I needed to bare my testimony about the Savior, the plan of salvation, and why I was serving a mission.... so I did. It was one of those times where me and the spirit were working together and I could tell she felt it too. I´m still learning how to make that happen, and when it does, it makes everything worth it. No matter how hard the mission can get, feeling the spirit just fills me up. Like recharges me I think. It´s very cool. :) And then me and my companion dance around the streets and people think we´re crazy. 

Anyways she texted her member friend afterwards and said she really appreciated our visit and said it was well needed. :) I hope she keeps progressing. She´s not in my sector though so I don´t get to teach her. :(

Jorge´s baptism date fell through. We were devastated. He said he had to work again. I told him that I knew God would provide a way for him to be able to go to church if he had enough faith to change something about his work. Whether that was finding a new job, being more direct with his boss when asking for time off, or something else. Because God is bound when we do what He says. Like whooaaaa. God--the omni-everything--is BOUND when we keep the commandments. He has to bless us. And He´s blessed me immensly. So that´s what I told Jorge. I told him to believe in miracles. To believe God´s promise. And then have the faith to make the change. I told Him I used to pray for a miracle to happen in His work, but now I´m gonna pray more for him to have the faith to do his part in the miracle. To take his step in the dark and do something about his work schedule. Because I know there will be a miracle if he does that. God will do his part. He has to. It´s 100% guaranteed. So now we´re just praying like crazy for that. He still wants to be baptized. So we´re hoping for the first Sunday in November. 

Missionary work is the best. :)

We also got a new progressing investigator this week which is super exciting! We started him off with the Plan of Salvation instead of the Restoration because he had tons of questions about that. I asked Him if he would pray at the end and He did! I love hearing investigators pray. They are always so sincere. Great examples. 

I love you guys so so so much. I´ve been printing out the pictures you send me and putting them up on my wall! They´re cute. :) Ya´ll´re cute. :)

MUAH. loves. hugs. XOXO

Hna Cannon II 

Yeahhhh no time

Sorry I have like NO time this week haha.

Jorge has another baptismal date! We think it´s for real this time! We´ve been praying for him every day and we fasted for him this week. He says he knows it´s true, that he believes demasiado, he´s just scared to make such a huge committment. He´s solid. He´s ready. Prayers are welcome. 

i love you guys so much! And I love the gospel. And the mission. Things are getting better and easier and more fun everyday. 

Love you alllll!

 

 

 

Here´s a pic of me with some missionaries and members after general conference!

 

Conference yo!

Hey everyone I love! 

I´m super exhausted right now haha.... one of our roommates, Hermana Burr, had cambios today so we were all helping her pack late last night. So I´m lacking sleeepppppppp. blaho. BUT this was an awesome week so that makes up for it. :)

GENERAL CONFERENCE AHHHHHH. I love it. It was super weird seeing Salt Lake City on TV though haha I wasn´t expecting all the feelings of home to hit me so hard. Plus mom I saw you again! haha idk if you noticed or not but they showed a picture of you from one of your Mormon Messages in between the sessions of conference. I was like, "that´s my mom!" and all the missionaries we were with were like.... uhhh Hermana Cannon is hallucinating... she must really miss her family haha. But then after my companion testified of the truthfulness of my words, they finally believed me. XD 

How was conference for you guys? I hope you all got to see it! I think my favorite talks were probably D. Todd Christofferson´s and Elder Uctdorf´s. I loved that the focus was on gaining our own understanding of the gospel and seeking our own personal confirming revelation of the things the prophets say. I also loved the relation that Christofferson made between freedom, gravity, and obedience. He said something like, freedom doesn´t come from resisting the law of gravity, but instead from understanding and applying it. WHOA. So true! The law exists and we can´t do anything about that soooo we should just start trying to figure it out and let that understanding help us create cool inventions. Just like the commandments. Consequences just exist. Good and bad. So we should just start trying to figure them out aka the gospel aka how to gain eternal life and let that knowledge help us instead of try to resist it. I hope that made sense haha. If not-- READ THE TALK IT´S SO AWESOME.

I felt like Uctdorf´s talk was mas o menos about the same thing too and I LOVED IT just as much. The take away I got from his talk was this: the understanding we seek about life and the gospel might not come as fast as we want, and we might not ever come to a COMPLETE understanding before we die, but I felt like the spirit was telling me during the talk that if we do our part in trying to understand, we will. Or at least we won´t sit there in a rut. God will keep opening up the truth to us if we keep asking and studying. 

ESO.

Me encanta conferencia genial. :) 

Other than that it´s been a pretty crazy week! Ooooo we had an awesome lesson last night with Rosario, the investigator who is trying to quit smoking. We talked about the Plan of Salvation. I basically just bore my testimony the whole time haha. Since I started my mission, the purpose of life has gotten a lot clearer for me and I loooove talking about it. Especially to people who have never realized what it is. After the lesson Rosario said she felt something really special and she felt good. I told her that was the spirit. :) I felt it too. Then she gave us yummy oranges to take home haha. YAY FOOD. 

Anyways, I hope you guys can feel my prayers. :) I´m constantly praying for you guys and you´re always in my heart. 

PEACE AND LOVE. 

Lots of it though. 

:) Hna. Cannon II  

Sarah's Addresses

Hello Family and friends,

This information was updated on 2/22/2015.

I wanted to have these addresses on the main page of the blog, but since it is a rather long and detailed thing and since I wasn't able to see how to make it fit in a technical sense, I thought I would just make a post about it for you. I hope this is helpful.

We received a letter from Sarah and it took nearly 3 weeks to get to us! If you just want to send a letter, email is probably the preferred method for promptness and reliability. Sarah’s email address is:

sarah.cannon@myldsmail.net
          

Letters, cards, packages, please mail to the mission office at this address:

Sister Sarah Cannon       
Chile Santiago East Mission
Cristobal Colon 6824
Las Condes
Region Metropolitana
Santiago, Chile


Footnote: I sent one by FedEx and she got it, but it was very expensive. I haven't yet tried the USPS to see about time, reliability and expense.

          Pouch mail is also an option I haven’t tried. This is good for postcards or one-page correspondences (no envelopes) written on one side of the page only. No photographs. No cash. Fold letter in thirds. Secure the long side with two pieces of tape about one inch in from each end, but do not seal the ends. Use first class US postage and address the letter:

Sister Sarah Cannon
Chile Santiago East Mission
POB 30150
Salt Lake City, UT 84130-0150

What happens in Chile...

Loved ones!

So this has been a verrrrry eventful week haha. In the best and also weirdest of ways. 

First of all, remember Jorge? The investigator who hasn´t ever come to church but is like super spiritual and has tons of faith?? HE FINALLY CAME TO CHURCH!!!!!! Ahhhhhh we were so happy. Still are :D. We showed up at his door Sunday morning and he walked outside almost before we could yell "Halo!" (that´s what you do in chile when people don´t have doorbells). So yeah he came!!! He walked outside looking nicer than ever--wearing a black button down shirt and what looked like new jeans and dress shoes. It was a cool feeling seeing him dress up like that because it showed that he had respect for what we were about to do. And it was cute/funny when we got to church because he was all stressed out about his hat saying things like "is this allowed?" "should I take it off?" "I just don´t wanna do anything inappropriate." Haha :) he is seriously so awesome. 

Everyone was super nice at church and tons of people introduced themselves and made him feel at home. He looked like he was having a great time. :) Which took a lot of stress off of me and Hna. Garcia haha. A recent convert in our ward invited Jorge to sit next to him and he explained the whole process of the meeting to Jorge as it was happening. 

So basically everything went awesomely!! I´m super excited to meet with Jorge tomorrow because he said he´s gonna tell us how he felt about the whole thing. Prayerssss!!!

So a crazily nasty thing happened this week!! Me and Hna. Garcia were just walking along one day, happy to be missionaries, minding our own business, when we see a car parked perpendicularly to us, not too far away down the path with the drivers door wide open and a guy sitting inside. Hna. Garcia squints her eyes and says, "oh haha, I thought that guy wasn´t wearing any pants!" Then I squint my eyes... it actually looked like he wasn´t wearing pants haha..... but we still couldn´t tell. Maybe he was just wearing cacky pants or something. So we get closer and Hna. Garcia says "hola" like we´re in the habit of doing when we see people on the street. Yeah...... he definitely wasn´t wearing pants. No pants. Nowhere to be found. I was blessed to only have seen the guy´s chicken legs. My companion on the otherhand.... poor girl haha. So then we just walked away as fast as we could, me laughing my head off, and Hna. Garcia trying not to be sick. Probably the weirdest thing that has happened on the mission so far.

Anyways! Had exchanges for the first time this week. I went out with an Hermana who is 32 years old! She looks 20 though. It´s crazy. It was a great experience. 

One day last week we were teaching a less active, Cristina. 40 ish years old. She´s super sweet. Has some sort of mental problem. My companion randomly just thought to ask her if she had eaten that day. She said no. We asked if she ate the day before. She said no. We asked her if she had any food to eat in her house. She said no. She then started to cry because she´s been having a lot of pain in her legs and it´s hard for her to walk. That day we had planned to teach her to read and write, but because of what we had just learned, we changed everything. We called a member over to give her a blessing. After the blessing we told Cristina that we would be right back. We went home as fast as we could and gathered up the extra food that we had at home, cooked two tupperware dishes full of noodles, and brought her the food to last her for the next week or so. 

Super humbling experience. I don´t think I´ve ever had the opportunity to serve someone quite in that way before. I´m learning that on a mission, you see a bit of everything, and it makes me realize how easy my life as been in comparison. Learned a lot this week. 

Anyways I hope you guys are all happy and healthy and have lo suficiente and everything! You´re always in my prayers. :) 

Love love love!

Hna. Cannon II

 

Me and the comp with a recent convert. He is so cool! He knows some Farsi! Taught me to say "malecum salam." Not sure how you spell that. 

Vida can't help but adding: love the color coordination!!

 

I love peanut butter

I´ve already eaten like half the jar today haha. 

Anyways!

Last week was Chile´s Independence day! 18th of September. Yep. Everyone went wildddd!!! Our ward even had a Fonda (huge fiesta thing) that started at 11 am and went until 11 pm. There was tons of food and a bounce house and music and dancing! It was awesome! We got to go for a couple of hours. There was actually a whole table of non members there so we got all their info! Hopefully we´ll get some good lessons out of that! 

But yeah it was a good day. We also taught tons of lessons that day which I was especially happy about because I was worried everyone would be out partying. But some weren´t! Miracles. :) 

Ohhhh my gosh we had an awesome REN meeting this week. (Reunion de Nuevos--meeting for newbies). Our mission president invited an investigator to come. She stood up at the pulpit and told us all about her journey finding her faith, meeting the missionaries, and setting a baptismal date. Then we got the chance to ask her questions. We asked questions about what were the good things the missionaries did that helped her make the decision to come unto Christ. The idea was that we could learn from her experience and apply those things to ourselves. She was AWESOME. Someone asked, "one of our investigators is having a hard time making the social change into our church. Their family doesn´t approve or support them and their friends laugh at them." Then she went on to say that her family isn´t very supportive either and some of her friends make fun of the Mormon church. But she just realizes that they haven´t felt what she has felt, so she forgives them. She said that she just remembers what she learned from Jesus through the Book of Mormon, and that keeps her going. 

Wow. Talk about a testimony rooted in the scriptures. She´s inspiring. Made me want to work on that myself. It´s true--everything we need is in the sciptures. Because Christ is in the scriptures. We can apply His principles to any situation in our lives and follow His example. 

Also--holy cow I have never studied the scriptures like I am doing now as a missionary. All the stories are coming to life and I´m realizing that these things really did happen. That´s what the spirit tells me and it´s awesome. Plus they´re a lot easier to understand in Spanish--as weird as that sounds haha. They just say everything more straight forward. 

So yeah overall it´s been a great week. :) Oh except Jorge from last week--the one that said he was gonna come to church--didn´t come. :( We even speed walked all the way to his house to pick him up but he said he had to work. :( We´re praying so hard for him. He´s such a great guy. 

Love you guys so much! Thanks for all the love and support. It helps more than you know. I always have a prayer in my heart for each of you. :) 

xoxo,

Hna Cannon II 

Sorry these captions are non existent. Sarah didn't tell what she wanted them to say.

This one she did write: They are my family while I´m here. :)  love them so much

This one needs no caption! A Pablo Picasso Mural!! Wow!!!

How To Eat An Elephant

Heyoyoyooooooo!!!!

Yep. This week I´ve been utilizing the advice I learned from Mrs. Long in 6th grade about how to eat an elephant... one bite at a time. In other words, I´m still learning how to be a missionary haha. It involves a lot more than just preaching the gospel and having a testimony. There´s planning, learning the streets, learning how to have a good attitude in any situation, planning, planning, and more planning. YAY LIFE SKILLS. I´ll come out all shiny and golden just wait. 

OH MY GOSH I LOVE ZONE CONFERENCE. I have the best mission president and wife of all time. This week got me so pumped to eat the elephant. Ha. I left with goals and plans. It was great. :) 

Had a really cool experience with a less active member this week, Daniela. She´s a single mom and holy cow she has such solid faith. She told us all about her situation. She has some hard decisions to make and has gotten conflicting advice from pretty much everyone. I encouraged her to pray and left her with D&C section 121. Told her that God´s advice is gonna be a lot better than anyone else´s. Praying for her. 

Ahhh finally we had an investigator show up at church!! It was so exciting!! Her name is Rosario and she´s trying to quit smoking. We had a lesson with her earlier in the week that was focused on helping her to quit. We told her if she came to church, we could get a member to give her a blessing of strength afterwards to help her quit. She said she would love that. :) After that I had an idea pop in my head, so I said it. I told her she needed to come with a sincere desire to quit, which meant she needed to bring her cigarettes to the blessing, and after the blessing, throw them all away. After I said that she knew we were serious about helping her. The look on her face changed a little bit, like she was realizing the commi

Vida's comment: I'm assuming Sarah is frowning here because she would love to have some empanadas, 

but the gluten free thing is preventing her.

tment we were trying to get her to make. It was a really cool moment. I´ve never felt so excited to help someone. Anyways she came to church, got the blessing (which was beautiful) and then I asked her if she brought her cigarettes. She took out the box and said she had 1 left. Then she tore it up into little pieces and threw it away. Suchhhh a cool moment. Ahhhh. Praying so hard that she´ll be able to quit. 

So yeah! Missionary work :). It´s awesome. And crazy. And emotional. And hard. And fun. And then all of that times 20. 

I love each of you more than words can say. :) Thank you so much for the support. I feel it and I feel your prayers! I hope you can feel mine. :) 

PAZ Y AMOR

Hermana Cannon II

Viva Chile!

Yoooo!!!

This has been another awesome week! I´m learning a lot about myself. Especially my weaknesses haha. I have a lot to work on and improve. But I´m trying to stay motivated and believe that through God all things are possible!

I finally got to watch Finding Faith in Christ as a missionary! haha (my mom is in that video if you didn´t know) MOM I GOT TO SEE YOUR FACE AND IT WAS A BLESSING FROM HEAVEN!!! My heart went crazy!! haha. I love you mamacita. You sound great Spanish dubbed. But yeah we watched this with a couple recent converts and one of them, Franklin, told me to tell you you are very famous and loved in Chile! He says hola.

Highlight of the week: had an aweeeeesome lesson with an investigator named Ricardo. He`s dating a member, and she was there with him during the lesson. The spirit was strong, and I was able to communicate my feelings in Spanish better than ever. Here´s an entry i wrote in my journal from this experience:

"We were going to teach about baptism. I was just praying so hard during the small talk that I would be guided by the spirit and be able to say something helpful for Ricardo. 

"It was an awesome lesson. I felt the spirit so strong as I testified of the atonement and faith. And I felt a love for Ricardo even though that was the first time we had talked. I wanted to understand him. I wanted to help him. I wanted him to feel the spirit and access the power of the atonement. I wanted him to comprehend the reality of prayer and the guidance of the spirit.

"When the lesson got over he asked if he could have a word with me alone outside. Of course, Hna. Escobar had to come with, so us three stepped outside. He proceeded to thank me for being so real with him. That he had been taking lessons from the missionaries for a while but they felt more rehearsed. He told me he knew the things I said and the questions I asked were part of me and came from the heart. He told he was definitely going to read and pray about the section we left for him (Alma 37)."

So yeah!!! It was an awesome experience. I´ve been praying hard for him. 

So much to say!!! Oh well I'll just leave it there and pick it up next week. :) Love you guys so much. And THANK YOU for the package!! It came so fast!! I love the picture! I look at it everyday!!

Oh yeah this week is independance day in Chile and everyone is gonna go crazy partying. It´s on the 18th. Which is why this is called viva chile!! Haha people are super patriotic here. 

PEACE AND

LOVE AND MORE LOVE

Hermana Cannon :)

p.s. check out the view from our apartment building!

P Day is MAGIC

Hey everyone! It´s my first Pday in the field! 

This has been a great week. I have so much to tell you! And I didn´t get enough time in the CCM to tell you guys about how much I loved it!! Here´s part of my journal entry from August 24:

"I have never felt more loved in such a short amount of time. This district is my family. I love them sooo much and they´ll never even know how much! Tomorrow´s our last day. We just finished packing, running around, screaming, teasing, hugging, laughing, smiling, scowling, and more. I love them."

So basically i loved it! A lot of the people in our district were converts and their stories were so inspiring. That was part of what kept me going throughout. 

Now about the field!

My trainer/companion is Hermana Garcia who is from Guatamala, but born in California, grew up in Texas, and is bilingual. We Spanglish sooo much. It´s probably 50/50. Which is awesome because I get to practice my Spanish, but if I can´t say something, I just say it in English. She´s super fun! Super spunky, hilarious, energetic (she walks like 10000 mph haha. it´s a workout to keep up with her) and has a strong testimony. She´s been out here for almost 11 months. 

We live here in a little pension (apartment) in the middle of the city with Hna. Burr from Utah and Hna. Escobar, also from Guatamala. It´s a party :) They are a lot of fun too. We had a dance party the other night to efy music haha

I cannot tell you guys how happy I am that I already have Spanish experience. ohhhhh my gosh these Chileans speak sooo fast!! haha and their accent is crazy. And the idioms are nothing I heard in Mexico haha. but at least I can express myself! haha. No it hasn´t been THAT bad trying to understand people... I just tell people, yeah I know Spanish, now I´m just working on learning Chilean. 

I loooove our ward! It HUGE. Like... it´s about the size our home ward was right after it split the first time. They fill up the chapel. That´s pretty rare here. And everyone is so awesome. :) I love chileans! Everyone wants to take care of me and feed me gluten free/dairy free food haha. They are so sweet. One member asked me what kind of milk I drink. I said almond, and she said she was gonna go buy some. I always feel bad for being all like ahhhh I can´t eat anythingggggg. But the members are understanding so that makes it easier. :)

We had an aweeeesome lesson with Jorge, an investigator this week. Here´s what I wrote in my journal about it:

"It was an awesome lesson. My companion hugged me after and said she had no words for how awesome it was. I felt the spirit so much during it. Jorge was having doubts about prayer and revelation and comparing our church with Catholicism and all that... so I said, "Jorge, me gustaria compartir algo con usted." (I would like to share something with you) and proceeded to tell him my story and how I found faith. I told him how I wasn´t always going to serve a mission. I had doubts. I told him that I have fought with my faith, I´ve considered the alternatives and I´ve been tempted many times even to leave the church. But I´ve also learned something in the midst of all the soul searching: faith is a choice. And there is more happiness in faith."

He sat there in thought for a little while after I said that. I think it really touched him. He actually has a date for baptism but he hasn´t gone to church yet so we keep having to push it back. I just pray so hard that his heart with be touched and that he´ll understand why Christ suffered for him. Because when we understand the atonement, we naturally want to do whatever we can to follow Him. At least that´s how I´ve felt. 

Man.... the gospel really is so powerful. My testimony has grown faster and stronger than ever in these last three weeks. I´m SO GLAD I decided to serve a mission POR FIN. Ahhhhh seriously. Thank you to everyone who helped me work out those feelings and to my friends and family who served missions/are serving and set that example for me. I can already tell this is one of the best decisions of my life. 

I love you all! Have a great week. :)

Hna. Cannon

Me pointing to the Chile flag

The elder in the front is from the Slaven´s home ward! (Friends of Sarah's from BYU).

  We saw each other like every day in the CCM. so much fun! Small world.

Me and comp. Hna. Chavez from CCM. We love each other obvi

me and trainer Hna. Garcia. We like rice and ketchup.

Sarah is done with the CCM

Hello family and friends,

We got a short note from Sarah last week. She is finished with her 2 week accelerated courses at the CCM in Chile and is now getting assigned to her first area. We will probably find out more today

With President and Sister Wright

about where she is and who her companion is. We'll keep you tuned in. Here are the photos we got of Sarah with her mission president and his wife, the Wrights, and a big group pictures of missionaries.

Love,
Vida

New Missionaries

New group with trainers

With PhotoShop Magic, my niece, Kiera created this image for me of Amanda handing her scriptures off to Sarah -- like handing over the mantle of missionary work. The photos were taken in our front yard, 3 weeks apart and Kiera blended them together so nicely. Followed by a note from Sarah

I love people!

Its been such a great week! today was awesome. Everyday we go to the park and do exercises, and today I talked to someone and got his contact information! He was way cool and nice and easy to talk to. And then today for Pday we went to the mall and went to this cool little thrift shop thing and talked to a lady there too. Seriously everyone here is way nice. I can't wait to get out in the field and meet more people.

The CCM is awesome and crazy since I'm in the 2 week program, I'm with all natives, and literally everything is in Spanish. Sometimes I get lost in class but I've been surprised at how much I do understand. i LOVE my companion. Her name is Hermana Chavez and she's from Peru. We like to joke about our pololos haha. Oh and the slang here is crazy but i was totally prepared cuz i googled all of it before i left XD. All of my rommates are natives, too, so literally everything is in Spanish haha. THEY ARE SO FUN. I love Spanish and i love latinas. Crazzzyyyy immersion over here. 

I've learned so much about myself this week. 1. I need to be more patient with myself. Sometimes my companion gets talking like fjdksalfjslkjfdslkjfkaljfsdklfjlkdsjafl in Spanish and I just sit there like whaaaaaa and i get a little frustrated. But i need to have patience. 2. I need to totally solidify my reasons for being here because some days get hard and long. But if i remember why i'm here, I get super motivated. 3. I need to remember to just calm down sometimes and not worry! Because all is well as long as i'm doing my best. :)

I'm praying for all of you!!! And i love you all so much. Mom I wear our ring every day and whenever i look at I feel happyyyyy :)

much love,

Hermana Cannon :)

I made it!

I made it! I'm here! I love the CCM! It's pretty chill here so far. All I have done is unpacked and taken a shower. But my power converters are all messed up and my hair dryer almost caught on fire haha so I'm just chillin with wet hair. We'll figure it out.

So I love planes. That 9.5 hour flight from Atlanta was kinda blaho though. I slept decently well. We got 2 delicious meals. But the flight to Atlanta was WAY COOL because I sat by this way awesome guy and we literally talked the entire flight. Four hours. We talked about his ex girlfriend, his religion (baptist), my religion, the pre mortal life, the after life, marriage, polygamy, abortion, gay marriage, his fishing trip, guitar, music, the south, food..... EVERYTHING! I was sad to leave him when the flight was over. We felt like best buds. 

Chile looks soooooo much like Salt Lake it's crazy!!!! I feel right at home. :) And the cold really isn't that bad. Well, in the CCM it isn't haha cuz it is heated here. And the temple is literally in our backyard!! Another thing to make me feel at home! :) 

So I haven't met my roommates yet or my companion but President told me that I'm rooming with all native Spanish speakers! Costa Rica, Peru, and some other countries that I can't remember. So basically my Spanish is just gonna explode. I'm excited. :) 

That's pretty much the update for now! Peace and love. :)

Hermana Cannon (I feel like Amanda haha)

Hermana S. Cannon :)

Set Apart

I am now officially set apart as a missionary! Still have so much to do before I hop on the plane tomorrow at 2pm for my 16 hour flight to the Chile MTC.

Time has been moving so fast... I've barely had time to just sit down and feel some feels. But I got to spend some good moments today with the people I love. And I realized once again that a mission is the right thing for me.

Leaving is hard because you know exactly what you'll be missing, but have no idea what you'll be gaining.

I'm excited to find out. :)