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!!