This is it!

From Feb 16, 2016

Man, I don't even know how to start the LAST email of my mission. THE LAST EMAIL!!!!! So crazy. It has been SUCH a ride. An amazing one. :) There has been a little bit of everything. The highest of highs, lowest of lows, and everything in between. And all of it being sacred, carrying the name of Christ. It took me a while to make the decision to serve, but I couldn't feel more rescued now that I have. I thought I knew before, but I know so much more now who my Savior is. And for that I will always be grateful.

We're seeing lots of progress in Pamela right now which is amazing. We taught about the Word of Wisdom and helped her make some goals to stop drinking coffee. She was worried about not having enough energy in the mornings to work without it, so we read the promise in D&C 89 that said she would run and not be weary, walk and not faint. We promised her that and I felt the power of our authority as we said it. 

We also taught Elinore! She's a new investigator from last week. She's German so we got her a Book of Mormon in German, and teach her in Spanish. She's still kind of unsure about everything but we're hoping to see some progress in her this week. :) 

We've also had a lot of really cool experiences contacting this week. We're contacting EVERYONEEEEEEE. That's one of the goals I've had during pretty much my whole mission haha but something I really want to focus on for my last little bit here. We actually ran into a lady we had contacted a couple days before who was a Jehovah's Witness that didn't really want to hear anything. But then we saw her in the park and she was all the sudden super receptive and accepted a copy of the Book of Mormon! So we're gonna stop by to teach her this week. 

I love you guys so much. I'll see you soon!! 

Hermana Cannon II

1. went back to ñuñoa last week and got to see Jaime! 

 

 

2. It's me. Hermana CANNON. 

 

 

3. Chile 

Christ is the Light

From Feb 9, 2016

Heyyy!!!!!!

It's my second to last P-day ever as a missionary and that is just INSANE!!!! Soooo crazy. It still doesn't seem real. It probably won't even seem real until I get on the plane!! haha. So it's just been crazy realizing how little time I really have left. Huge mix of emotions. Now I understand returned missionaries a little better I think haha. But yeah I've felt it all. Sad to leave, excited to see all your beautiful faces again :D, anxiety about life haha, not knowing how to say goodbye to these people, sadness about having to leave such a sacred mantle, excited to apply everything I've been learning when I get home, anxious to know what path God wants me to take in life like what to study, etc, exploring what it means to represent Christ without a name tag, and soooo much more. It's been really good. I feel better about it now haha. Last transfer all I felt was fear and anxiety and sadness haha but now I feel a lot better--a lot more prepared and just happy and content about finishing one of the most amazing adventures of my life and moving on to the next one. :) It's been so amazing and I feel like life will just keep getting better from here. 

Miracles from this week!

So we contacted a lady on the street last week named Paulina. She was verrrry Catholic and didn't really want to make an appointment with us but said that if she just happened to be home one day and we passed by, she would let us in. So we decided to pass by yesterday and she was there! We taught her about the Restoration and she was sooooo different from the day we contacted her. We have no idea what happened but she was just so much more open and receptive. So that was a miracle! And we now have a new investigator FINALLY. It has been so hard to find new investigators lately so that was just a huge miracle. Afterwards Hna. Maxfield and I realized that it is probably because we did a combined fast with our district last Sunday specifically fasting that our investigators can progress towards baptism and that we can find new investigators since it was a common challenge among our district and zone. So we did that and have really seen the blessings of it!

We also had a really great lesson with Monica this week. We tried planning for her but for some reason we just weren't sure exactly what she was going to need. So we just said a prayer before and trusted that the spirit would let us know what to say. So then we started the lesson going over the chapter she read in the Book of Mormon which was 2 Nephi 31 about baptism. She said what stood out most to her was the importance of being baptized in water, by immersion and that that was clear for her now. But then she went on to say that when it comes to baptism for her, it was a no. 

....

All we could do was pray and listen and just pray some more that God would help us know what to say. She talked about how it would just be really hard for her because she would feel like she was abandoning her Catholic roots. Then the spirit just led us to share our testimonies with her. Then I asked her if she had prayed to know the Book of Mormon was true and she said no, she hadn't. So we talked about how vital that would be for her, to really pray and ask with a sincere heart and real intent and she nodded and we could tell she understood. She said she would do it. 

It was so intense! But calm at the same time. If I've learned one thing since being out here it is the importance of the spirit. The spirit is everything. Nothing happens in lessons where we don't have the spirit. So it's been a fun journey exploring that and trying to figure out how to connect to the spirit and how to recognize it. It's such a vital skill not only for missionary work but just for pretty much everything in life. So I will be forever grateful for having been able to dedicate so much time to trying to figure out how he works. I hope to have him with me the rest of my life. :)

Something cool also happened yesterday during zone conference. We did this little activity where we all had to write down on a scrap of paper 1 fear, and 1 thing we didn't like doing. As I pondered that, I thought of my regular fears... the ones that I still had throughout the majority of my mission, and then all the sudden I realized I wasn't afraid of them anymore. I pictured each fear and then thought, "oh wait, I have the temple. I'm not afraid of that anymore," or, "oh wait, I have the iron rod. I'm not afraid of that anymore." It was a pretty sacred experience for me. If there's one thing I've really learned about the gospel since being out here is that it dispels all fear. I've really learned and experienced that where there is faith, there is no room for fear. Just like how light dispels the darkness. And Christ is the light. And I can see now how vital that truth is going to be for the rest of my life. A verse from a song that I'm writing right now goes "and even though I've fallen hard before, you've picked me up and dust me off... I never really knew myself before, but I never lost the sight of my Savior." Something like that. Kind of illustrates what I've been thinking about lately about the importance of having Christ at the center. It doesn't matter what happened in the past, who we were, or what trials might be coming in the future... Christ will always be our Savior. And as we look to that, our sight is filled with light. Nothing else, just light. Just Him. And that saves us. 

Love you guys soooooo much. Hope you have the best week ever! :) Next week will be my last P-day and then I'll see you AT HOME! ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!! hahaha. Love you sooooo much. 

xoxo

Hermana Cannon II   

crazy life!

From Feb 2, 2016

 

Hey family and friends!

Soooooo another great and crazy week! Soooo crazy. Despite the fact I only have like 3 weeks left here I still had to renew my visa because it was expired and they don't let you go home if it's not updated haha. So we had to spend a good chunk of two days this week doing crazy visa stuff. Soooo glad that's over haha. But the visa place is the best place to contact people because they are all foreigners and are usually more receptive. We had like 3 people come up to us first to ask about the church before we even got the chance to say anything haha. But it was cool getting to meet all those people while we were sitting waiting in line for like 3 hours. We met a less active family there who wanted their daughter of 9 years old to be baptized and to visit with the missionaries again so we got down their information and are gonna send the missionaries over. We also met a young guy who was selling hot dogs outside who stopped us in the street and asked how he could get a visit from the missionaries. So even though we had to be outside of our area for like almost a full day, we still got lots of proselyting done which was exciting and a miracle. :) 

What else. Oh yeah! It was finally my turn to go to the "self-sufficiency" meeting since I'm going home this transfer!!! Sooooo werid. Everyone calls it the trunky meeting haha. I'm actually going home the same day as one of the APs and we see each other every week for district meeting since he is in my zone and he always makes sure to give me the current count down of how many weeks, days, and hours we have left til we go home haha. Its pretty hilarious. And then he reassures me he's not trunky he just likes playing trunky. Surrrrrrrrrre haha. Whatever he says. 

I also had a really great interview with President this week. We talked a little bit about faith and the future and he said something that really stuck with me. It was a quote: "Regret is looking backward, worry is looking forwards, but faith is looking up." I loved that. It put to rest a lot of worries and anxiety and things like that that missionaries sometimes feel when they are approaching the end. He said it is something we have to apply the rest of our lives, since being a full-time missionary won't be the last calling the Lord gives me. I found a lot of comfort in that. I've been trying to reflect on my mission these past couple days and really try and solidify the key lessons and experiences that have made me who I am today. I still have lots of time left to think about it though which is good because I still don't have my thoughts all together. But I'm excited to see what lessons and things I'll be able to recall and realize how those things have changed me. Something I remembered today that really marked my mission was my first interview in the field with President Wright when he helped me remember that our only reason for serving the mission should be love of God and love of Jesus Christ. That is something that has really changed me and helped me become who I am today. At least I think I'm different haha. Its kind of hard to measure progress when you can't really get an outside view of yourself. But I feel a stronger relationship with my Savior so I think that's a good indicator of change. I've seen that a lot, not just in myself but in other people too, that the closer we get to the Savior, the more we change and progress. It is amazing. It is redeeming. He shows us that we were made for something greater. He shows us our potential and gives us the strength to make progress towards achieving it that comes from his love. His love is so great. That's something else I've learned a lot about out here. How great the transforming power of Christ's love is. There was a time with President Wright when we were doing a deep study of Christ´s atonement as a mission and in that time I really grew to love and cherish and use it a lot more than I had before. That's why scripture study is so important because the only way we can get access to these things is if we learn about them and then apply them. So the importance of scripture study is also something I've really learned. Like seriously where was I before the mission?? haha. I feel like I knew like nothing about the gospel before haha. Another reason I feel redeemed by coming out here. I dunno where I would be right now without the mission and with everything I've learned. These things are good not just for one lifetime but for eternity. I can't wait to apply these things to real life when I get home! haha. It'll be like entering into the same old battle but realizing that I had this amazing bullet proof invincible armor in the closet the whole time that I wasn't even using just because I didn't know how to put it on. But now I do! haha. So life will be good. 

Anyways. :) Update on lessons. Naomi and Nicolas are progressing. Monica is progressing. Pamela came to church again. Rubens daughter is now participating more in the lessons and actually came to an FHE we had in the chapel! Our English class this week was AWESOME. We had a couple new people show up and they all really liked it and learned a lot! They said they would come again next week and bring their friends so hopefully we get lots of new investigators that way. :) It'll be good. 

So yeah. Life is crazy. Oh yeah I also registered for classes this week for spring term so that's crazy! haha. So don't worry mom and dad I have that all under control. ;) I'm being all responsible and stuff. 

I love you guys lots and lots. Pray for me! Finishing the mission is weird cause you just don't know how to feel haha. IT's the weirdest mix of emotions EVER. Also I'll pray for you guys of course. :) As always. 

xoxo

Hermana Cannon II

1. Aida got baptized this week! You haven't heard me talk about her because she's an investigator from the elders in our ward. But we've gotten to be really good friends with her too. We've been to her house a couple times on P-days and she does our nails haha. She also gave me new shoes because all of mine are destroyed. :)

 

 

2. Us with some sisters today for Pday! We ate a yummy lunch all together in our apartment. We made chicken curry. We are skilled.   

 

 

Temple!

From Jan 26, 2016

Hey everyone! :D

Lots of great things this week. :)

Yesterday, after walking around contacting people for a while, our feet started hurting so we decided we'd sit down for a while and make some phone calls. So then we go up to the closest bench where a cute little old lady was sitting. We asked her how she was doing and then she just started to cry and told us about how her sister had just died a week ago. We talked to her for a while and bore our testimonies of the afterlife and the resurrection. I've had a few really special experiences that always come to mind when I bare my testimony of those things so I love it whenever I get the chance to. It almost seemed like a dream as the conversation kept unfolding. She just kept saying how grateful she was that God had sent us to her in that moment when she felt so alone and in need. We ended up going up to her apartment with her and taught her a little bit more about the plan of salvation, baptism, and the temple, and the blessings we receive from making and keeping covenants. She said she's not sure about baptism but that she'll think about it and hopes that we can continue to visit her. 

Hermana Maxfield and I just walked away with a certain reverence afterwards as we replayed in our minds what had happened and tried to record in our hearts how we felt about it. There's something eternal about becoming an instrument in God's hands. It's almost like you get a flash back to the pre-mortal life and can see exactly where you're fitting into the eternal scheme of things. And on top of being interesting, that eternal perspective is so vital to our well-being, and I've really seen that from being out here. Having an eternal perspective gives us the strength, endurance, and orientation we need to not give up what we want most, for what we want in the moment. I have a testimony that temptation will never be too blinding if, by going to the temple regularly, we can maintain our spiritual "bird's eye view." Going to the temple reminds us of our eternal goals which gives us the strength to go back and confront the world again without falling. And the spirit we feel there reminds us that someday, everything we do to live the gospel and keep our covenants will all be worth it. Hna. Maxfield and I actually got to go to the temple today, and that it was I felt. 

I've seen out here how easy it can be for us to lose that eternal perspective if we stop doing those simple things... praying, reading the scriptures, taking the sacrament, and going to the temple. I can see how vital those simple things are and how drastically they can change the course of a life. I've seen it in the lives of faithful converts, as well as those who were once faithful and have since left the path. We may not realize it in the moment, but those simple things are the baby steps that lead us to our eternal destination. 

Also Monica is progressing and has now come to church and is reading the Book of Mormon so pray for her! :) 

love you guys so much!

xoxo

Hermana Cannon II  

1. We also went to the temple with Fabiola last Saturday for her first time doing baptisms!

 

 

2. Me and Hna. Maxfield from the temple today :)

Hi :D

Hey fam! :D

I love you guys.

Anyways. :)

So this week was awesome. Things keep happening that let me know that Hna. Maxfield and I are together for a reason and are in this sector for a reason. We've been seeing God's hand a lot these past few days. 

First there's Gretchen. She's a member who stopped coming to church a while ago and we've been trying to meet with her for like 3 months but whenever we would make an appointment, something would always come up. So finally this week we got to meet her in person and have an actual lesson! We called to invite her to church and she came and we actually got to meet her there. Then later that day we went to her house for the appointment. 

After getting to know her a little bit, we said a prayer and then asked her to tell us a little bit about her story--what did she believe, What is it that made her stop coming, etc etc. As she shared her story the spirit kept testifying to me how important it was that I hear her story now, at this point in my life. The lesson was really filled with the spirit. There were many silences as we tried to figure out what God wanted us to say, and what came to both Hna. Maxfield and I was just to express how much God loved her. We felt it so strong and she did too. She started to cry and thanked us for sharing that with her. 

We also had a really special lesson with Monica this week. We hadn't gotten to see her for almost two weeks because she went on vacation so when we got there we were all super excited to see each other :D. She had committed to read the Book of Mormon the week before but then told us she hadn't read haha so we read with her. As we testified of the Book of Mormon, covenants, and eternal families the spirit filled up the room. She said she knew that what we were saying was true because when we spoke, she felt that it was the spirit speaking rather than us.   

My testimony of prayer also grew this week. I was just having a terrible day and just felt super inadequate/unprepared/spiritually unconnected haha and I didn't know what to do because we were about to go to an appointment so I just went and prayed for a while. After that I felt a lot better and I felt that God was telling me that everything would be okay and that he'd be there for me no matter what happens, today, tomorrow, or 10 years in the future. I've just been learning to trust in him, especially with the time winding down towards me coming home (because AH WHAT IS LIFE IDK WHAT LIFE IS). Haha. So every time I feel anxiety or anything about the future, I just pray and he reminds me to trust Him. And I do so everything will be fine. :) 

Well I love you guys. Lots and lots. Have the best week ever :D

Hna Cannon II

1. Hello. It's me. From our apartment window in Las Condes. 

Last transfer!

So we got transfer calls this morning and I'm staying here with Hermana Maxfield!!!! We get to finish together and we're SO EXCITED!!!! But the elders from our ward both got transferred out so we'll miss them but they're sending the zone leaders out here so we're excited about that! It'll be a really great transfer we're so excited :D :D 

Pamela came to church on Sunday which was a miracle! I think I told you guys about her last week, how she was the less active member we found who lived in our building and who said she would come back this week?? yeah her haha. And she did! She came back this week! So that was amazing to see. 

Jorge and Jessica from Ñuñoa also came to our ward this week so it was super fun to see them! They told me they had a surprise for me outside so told me to close my eyes. When we got outside I opened my eyes and standing there was Jorge Vilches and Jaime!!! Two of the recent converts from Ñuñoa I got to teach. It was sooooo good to see them again. It brought back so many memories of miracles and gave me so much hope for these weeks we have ahead of us. 

We're still looking for new investigators which is always a challenge over here but we started an English class and Fabiola (recent convert from last month) is putting it all over Facebook and is inviting all the people from her work so we're really excited about that! Hopefully we'll be able to meet lots of new people through that. :D 

Our mission also just called two sister missionaries to be the Sister Training Leaders over all the Sisters in the mission so they'll be kind of like the Sister APs! So that's cool :D Hermana Maxfield and I were watching the district yesterday and I actually totally called that that was gonna happen in our mission too and I even guessed which sisters they would be haha. So basically I'm psychic. 

So right now we're also teaching a man named Roberto. Maybe I mentioned him before not sure though. But he is married to a member and so all of his in-laws are members and his daughters. We've been visiting him off and on during the whole time I've been in this ward and the missionaries before us too. He started off having a lot of doubts and things but we've seen a lot of progress in him that we're really excited about. The lesson last time got a little of track last time and kind of turned into something more philosophical. So then we read some of Christ's words from 3 Nephi 11 and it was amazing how that brought the spirit back and put us on track again. Another experience to show me the power of the scriptures. We testified of the simplicity of the gospel and everything seemed to clarify. It was beautiful. 

I'm realizing more and more everyday how important is to be rooted in Christ. That's pretty much all I was thinking about during personal study this morning. It's crazy how different I feel when I'm rooted in Christ versus in something or someone else. We might even be focusing on something good, but its just not the same as focusing on Christ. There's a spirit that goes along with that that I felt during my prayer afterwards that just felt eternal. There's no other way to describe it. I knew it would always be there. When we don't feel it, its always because we were the ones to leave it for a while. And when we come back we realize that. We feel it and its undeniable.

Love you guys so so so much :D

Sending allllll my love,

Hermana Cannon II

1. Us at the temple with Ruben who is investigating :D

 

2. Me with the awesome Ñuñoa converts at church on Sunday!
3. No explanation needed. (Cheetah jammies for Christmas, from home.)
 

Hello!

From Sarah's letter dated January 5, 2016

 

Hey people :D

We have walked SOOOO much this week!!! It's been crazy. In Chile it's super common for people to go on a 1 or 2 month long vacation for the summer so that is just GREAT for us missionaries haha. Idk if you guys remember Monica?? We've been teaching her for about a month and had a really amazing lesson with her this last week. We read the introduction to The Book of Mormon with her and got to explain again a little bit about the Restoration. I love teaching because that's when my testimony grows the most because of how strong the spirit can get. We saw the wheels turning in her mind and thanks to her spiritually receptive heart she commited to read The Book of Mormon without us even asking her to. Then she told us she was leaving on vacation for the month haha so that was a bummer. At least she'll have lots of time to read. :)

Oh yeah another reason why the lesson was so special was because that morning during personal study, I decided to pray again to ask if The Book of Mormon was true and if this was really the restored gospel. I think it was the first time I felt something right there, directly after praying. It felt like a wave of warm peace that started at my head and then just covered my whole body. I just sat there, glowing for a while and the words came to me that felt like a nodding head saying, "it's true."

That was the spirit we brought with us to the lesson which I think was also communicated to Monica.

Things like this remind me that what we're doing is so much bigger than ourselves... We passed by some pictures of the universe when passing by an astronomy lab in our area this week and it made me feel sooooo tiny. I've also found that feeling small is a really great way to cure anxiety haha. Our worries and troubles just somehow seem to shrink when we put the universe next to them. And then we think, "My God, how great thou art".

He is great. :)

We also started teaching a woman this week named Pamela. We contacted her in our elevator one day in our apartment building and as she was leaving, kind of just blurted out that she was actually a member of the church but had since stopped going. She gave us her apartment number and said we could come back later. So this week, after having all our plans fall through for the day, we both felt like it would be a good time to stop by. Turns out it was all meant to be because when we stepped out of the elevator, she was just leaving her room to take her laundry down to the washers. She was super surprised haha but you could tell she was happy to see us.

We ended up teaching about repentance, redemption, and forgiveness. Hna. Maxfield and I both shared some really personal experiences about those things. She had expressed to us how she always felt that the gospel was true, but somehow just fell away without really knowing why. She had gotten into drinking a little bit and a few other things and said she doubted whether or not she would be able to come back. I think the path looks far away sometimes because we forget that Christ will pick us up to bring us back wherever we are. We don't have to do any of it alone. We just have to take his hand.

She said she would come back this Sunday. :) It's been years.

I love you guys so much and think of you everyday. :)

Prayers, hugs, and love,

Hermana Cannon II

1. We climb a hill for P-day today as a zone! We sang hymns and had a testimony meeting up there. It was awesome. :)

2. Because we're buff.
 

3. Las Condes zone and the beautiful view and the nasty smog

Merry Christmas!

Hey everyone!!

So crazy it's almost Christmas haha. Its blazing hot over here just like last year. :D So its weird and not feeling like 100% Christmas but still an amazing time of year. When we talk to people in the street they've been seeming more willing to listen about Christ so maybe that's thanks to the Christmas spirit. :) 

This week has been crazy! First it was Hermana Maxfield's birthday so we celebrated that a little which was super fun. I made her a delicious breakfast of pancakes and an omelet and everyone we visited that day knew it was her birthday and gave us tooooonssss of food haha so it was fun. It was a great day. And the lessons we had that day we're really great too. We actually got to teach Matias's brother, who isn't a member and had a really powerful lesson about Christ and the true meaning of Christmas. We shared experiences about how we had felt his presence and power in our lives and it was really cool. I shared about how I've found strength in him during hard times and it's actually in the middle of those times that I get to know him more.

Fabiola's getting baptized this week so we're super excited about that. She's just amazing. All we did was teach haha. She found US. She's the one that came to church all by herself and that's how we met her. She's a inspiration. 

Love you guys so much! Enjoy some pics XD

 1. Delicious gluten free dairy free made by the lovely Hermana Young. We had a zone activity with all the sisters from our zone last pday. Good times XD

2. The sisters from my zone LAS CONDES

 

3. Hermana Maxfield's birthdayyyyyyy!

 

4. Ran into Nena and Ettiene from Ñuñoa on Saturday at a Christmas concert! So good to see them. We would visit them all the time in Ñuñoa and would always share messages about missionary work and how amazing our missions have been for us in our lives hoping that he would make the decision to serve. So then I saw him there and he told me he just decided to go on a mission and just put his papers in!!! So that was AMAZING. :) 

 

Love you guys! Have the best Christmas ever!

Hermana Cannon 

Some pics :)

From Sarah's letter dated Dec 9, 2015


1. Ignacia got baptized this week! Hermana Maxfield and I taught her so we got to see her baptism even though she got baptized in another ward. Those elders are the APs. She got baptized in their ward. 

2. We had to say goodbye to Adrian last night because he got a got in another city and is moving today. :( But he is excited to meet the missionaries over there and get baptized over there. He bore his testimony on Sunday after a "psst you should go up there" from me haha. Everyone was really touched by his testmiony and his conversion and were still talking to us about it two days later. He's changed a lot and we're really sad to see him go, but happy that he found a good job and exciting to see how he progresses in the new ward. 

 

 

 

We found 4 new investigators this week and each one was a miracle. 

I have never felt closer to my Savior than I do now. He truly is my Savior. He is life. He is the solution. I love the simplicity of the gospel. I hope I can proudly proclaim the rest of my life the testimony I've gained that he is my Savior and this is his restored church. He is the answer.

All my love,

Hermana Cannon

Transfers!

From Sarah's message dated Dec 1, 2015

Hey fam! :)

Good news!! We got transfer calls today and Hermana Maxfield and I will be staying together another transfer yayyy!!!!!!!!!!! We were soooooo excited when they told us we'd be staying together haha. Now we get to be together for her birthday, and Christmas, and New Years!! Plus Adrian and Fabiola are scheduled to be baptized at the beginning of January so that would've been sad if one of us didn't get to be there for that. So yeah! We're happyyy!! :D

Okay so miraclessssssssssss

This Sunday was stake conference and this way happy super bubbly girl comes up to us and just introduces herself and said she was an old investgator of a set of missionaries that used to be in our ward and that now she was ready to get baptized! haha so crazy!!!! So we're super excited to start teaching her this week :D Her name's Jamie. 

Okay so then we had a really awesome lesson with this guy named Christian. We met him on the street last week and had our first lesson with him yesterday. He seemed super nice and friendly so we were excited to teach him. Then as the lesson gets going we realize that he seemed to only want to meet with us to prove us wrong. He talked for a reallllly long time about lots of different things about different churches and how he believed that no one really knew what they were talking about. We listened as carefully as we could and I was just praying the entire time that the spirit would let me know what to say. I prayed that God would give us charity and let that love come across through our eyes and our tone so that he'd be able to feel it and know how much God loves him. After a while he stopped talking and when the spirit told me it was time, I bore my testimony. I told him about how the spirit works and how through it we can learn the truth. I told him about how I went through a time in my life where I didn't really have faith either, and was tempted and considering to just give up my faith... but at the end of the day I couldn't deny what I had felt. My heart knew things that my mind couldn't explain and that's why I was here on a mission. I had felt way too many times the love of God, the power of the priesthood in a father's blessing, the miraculous one-on-one communication I get with God through the Book of Mormon, the sensation of being redeemed through Christ's Atonement, and the glimpse of hope in the future that I get from having sacred experiences in the temple. These things are true and my heart knows it. 

By the end of the lesson he was soooo different! We had marked a couple chapters in his Book of Mormon to read and before we got the chance to schedule the next appointment with him he said he would love it if we could meet again next week. 

So that was amazing!! :) I'm learning more and more everyday the power of prayer and the importance of the spirit. It really is only through the spirit that we are converted. It overrides our doubts. Sometimes we are still left with questions, but also a newfound security. 

I love the spirit. :) 

Love you guys lotssss!! :) Have an amazing week!

Hermana Cannon II    

1. Me with a cute pineapple turkey made by the Traverso family who had us over for Thanksgiving :D

2. We have a CHRISTMAS TREE! And that's hermana Maxfield's cute face.

I'm thankful for MIRACLES :D

Okay so miracles!! 

Oh yeah also HAPPY THANKSGIVING this week!!! haha. Its not celebrated here in Chile obviously hah but luckily we have an awesome family in our ward who spent time in the states and understand Thanksgiving who invited us over for dinner that day. They told us on Sunday they already bought the turkey so I guess it'll just be super awesome! haha. We're excited. Plus they invited a non member and a less active member so we're even MORE excited! haha. It'll be great. Also today we had a Thanksgiving zone activity which was super fun. :) It was the first zone activity of my whole mission because my other mission president didn't allow them haha. It was super fun! :)

Anyways. Miracles! Remember Fabiola? Well she just accepted a baptismal date! That lesson was so incredibly amazing. The spirit was soooo strong. She started describing a feeling she had been having and she asked us if we had those feelings too or if she was just crazy haha. We said OF COURSE we've felt that before and we taught her about how to recognize the spirit. Then we taught her about the gift of the holy ghost and how she will be able to receive it when she is baptized. Then she just said, "about that... when can I do it?? Do I have to wait a few months or something??" And then my heart basically just exploded and I told her that Hermana Maxfield and I had actually been thinking and praying about her and we felt that she would be prepared to be baptized January 2 and then we invited her to be baptized that day and she said yes! New year new life. It was sooo amazing. Her testimony is incredible and will just deepen every day as she reads and searches The Book of Mormon. 

Sooo amazing. 

Then today we ran into Adrian on the way over here to write you guys haha and we just got talking and all the sudden came up with this amazing plan where he is going to talk to his brother about the church, give him a Book of Mormon, then he will get back together with his wife and they can get married and then they can both get baptized together with Adrian and then go to the temple and get sealed! So that is our plan now haha. After saying all that Adrian was just like, man, that would be such a dream for me. Then he said he would talk to his brother so hopefully something amazing comes out of that! We're excited. :) 

Okay so I just love you guys soooooo much. Next week I'll be starting my second to last transfer which is CRAZY. Soooo crazy. Time is just flying as always but I am soooo happy. So life is good. :) I hope you guys are all happy tooooo! I pray for that soo much. I hope you can feel my prayers. :) I love you guys so so much. Have an amazing week! :)

Hermana Cannon II 

1. The best zone ever!

 

 

2. Our district

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3. District again

 

 

 

4. Hermana Young and the weirdest gluten free pasta you will ever meet. She takes care of me :D

 

 

Charity :D

Sooooo this was the best week ever!!! :) 

Adrian finally accepted a baptismal date! Miracle time. We weren't even planning on teaching him that day but the other appointment we had fell through and for some reason we just both felt like we should go visit him. Idk if I mentioned this before but he lives in our same apartment building, so we just took the elevator up to the 9th floor and rang his doorbell. He came out, and we went downstairs to the lobby for the lesson since he was home alone. Hermana Maxfield and I talked before and decided this was the moment to try, yet again, and see if he was ready to accept a baptismal date. We asked him what baptism meant for him and he said it was a renovation, a restart. He talked about the life he had before he met the missionaries and how he needed to put it all behind him and start over. He told us about how when he met the missionaries in the elevator so many months ago, he was in the middle of a pretty big conflict with some people and was actually planning on doing some things he would've regretted. But since he started recieving the lessons, he changed his mindset. He's changed a lot. Even more than I realized. He said he no longer has bad thoughts. He no longer drinks. He has since given up coffee even though he doesn't completely understand the why behind it. He has been praying for support from his family and really wants at least one of them to join the church with him so he doesn't have to do this alone because he has every intention of enduring, and realizes that it will be hard once the missionaries leave. But he wants to. That's why he was putting off a baptismal date--he had been trying to talk to his family about it but just hadn't found quite the right opportunity yet since they live a couple hours away. After that the spirit changed the date we had already planned to extend to him which was november 28, and my companion asked him if he would be willing to be baptized January 1st of 2016. My gut reaction was like whatttttt?!?! haha because who knows if I'll still be in this sector by then. But then I let the spirit work in me and I realized it was kind of perfect. It would be a new year, new beginning, fresh start, clean slate. Plus then that would give his family time to hopefully learn and accept the gospel in their city, and give him more time to really get comfortable in this ward and make some good friends who can support him through this. 

That was the last lesson of the day and when we got home and I just threw myself on the ground and just laid their for a while with a GIANT smile on my face and Hermana Maxfield and I took turns saying "I can't believe it......." "finallyyyyyyy" haha. I was SO happy. I'm STILL on a cloud about it just writing this haha. Seeing that change in him was so sacred to us. The series of events of how he met the missionaries flashed through my head, the experience he had with them, with Hermana Vega and I, and then finally with Hermana Maxfield and I. I saw a replay of his progress and just sat there marveling at how far he's come. I felt the whisper of the Spirit teach me once again that God loves his children and truly does have a plan for each one of us. He puts things and people in our path for a reason and as we strive to be sensitive to the Spirit and follow his promptings, he will usually teach us why. That's true for all of us-- not just missionaries. Miracles can happen every day if we just look for them and ask God to let us be part of them. We'll find ourselves seeing people through His eyes, which makes us suddenly aware of the lense we've been wearing that was put on us by the world and all its unrealistic standards and false definitions of beauty, success, love, happiness, etc. We stop classifying people and begin loving them. Love being an action word. We start finding ways to communicate that love in ways that are more fool-proof than words like giving service, time, listening, understanding, ministering, sacrificing, and so much more. We can read about Christ and pattern the way we communicate love after His. And if for any reason we get scared or nervous to show that love, we can remember what it says in Moroni 7-- "charity never faileth" because it's true. 

My Savior. :) Loving him more and more everyday. And all of you. :) 

Have the best week ever. Fill it up with charity. :) 

xoxo

Hermana Cannon    

Pics from last week that I couldn't send haha:

1. Me opening the awesome halloween package y'all sent me :D I downed that bag of candy corn sooooooo fast 

 

2. Me and guitar reunited AT LAST. Happiest week of my liiiiiife
 

 

Falling With Styyyyyle

Hellllooooooo!! :)

So it's been a pretty great week. We found some new investigators on the street who have all accepted to receive the discussions so we're excited about that. :) I love breaking social norms haha. People on the street think we're strangers but little do they know we're siblings :D

Speaking of family and the human race.... this week I've been studying a lot about the fall of Adam and Eve, the mortal existence, and our need for a Savior. I learned again that there are two things that we cannot overcome alone... sin and death. So when we talk about salvation, that is what we are being saved from--sin and death. Thanks to Jesus Christ we can LIVE again. After we die. Be resurrected. That is how we overcome death. He will make possible for us what would otherwise be impossible without him. 

Then there's sin. We have all sinned. But Him--never--which is why he has the power to forgive us, if we live his gospel. Those are his conditions. Faith, Repentance, Baptism in his name by his authority, receiving the gift of the holy ghost, and enduring to the end. That's it, and we are saved. He will forgive us and we will overcome our sins. Again, making possible that which would otherwise be impossible without him. 

I think before my mission I sometimes would let myself get angry or frustrated by my questions and things I didn't understand, that I wouldn't just let myself accept the simplicity of the gospel. But now I have. :) I feel like I've reconnected with the faith I had as a child, even with all the knowledge and questions I still have. It's pretty amazing. It feels like the fear of free falling mixed with the constant reminder that I have a working parachute. That fear is actually dispelled when I remember Christ. He truly is the light and the life of the world. 

As for the work and lessons and stuff, we've had some really interesting experience this week! haha 

So we taught this man who after being raised in a Catholic family has now stopped believing in God. His reliance on physical evidence and scientific proof has prevented him from having a relationship with his Father in Heaven which was pretty sad to hear about. He rejected our testimonies and there was really nothing we could do for him. Nothing we said would make him sit and think until we asked him why he didn't want to believe. He didn't really have an answer to that one. I still really liked talking to him though because he was really upfront and honest with us about what he believed. My favorite part was at the end of the lesson when he opened up enough to ask us what we thought of him and his beliefs and way of life. I told him I thought he was missing the purpose of his life and his divine potential as a child of God. He thought that was interesting and from the look in his eyes I could tell that was the first time he had ever realized that not believing in God might actually be closing doors instead of opening them. But then after a moment he returned to his same doubts and we all ended up agreeing that it would be better not to make a return appointment. But we let him know that we would still be there for him and that he could call us if he ever changed his mind. 

It was a pretty intense experience. But also a landmark for me in my spiritual progress. I came out from that lesson undented which probably wouldn't have been the case before my mission. But I'm different now and Christ is the reason. :)

Love you all lots and lots. :)

Hermana Cannon II       

            

1. So Leonardo is an investigator from my first area, Nunoa, who I taught with Hermana Andersen. He got baptized on Saturday and President gave us permission to go back to Nunoa for the baptism even though I'm not in that area anymore! It was magic. 

 

 

2. My companion with her old companion, who is now in Nunoa. :)

 

 

3. I got to see Paola again while I was in Nunoa! Hopefully you remember her haha. She got baptized in Februrary. We hugged and she cried.  

Milagros :) from Sept 29th

Hey everyone!!

Lots of miracles this week!! First of all, Hernan got baptized on Sunday which was just beautiful. When he came up out of the water he wiped the water off his chest and said "estoy limpio" (I'm clean) with the happiest smile ever. He's about 55 and says even though he would've liked to learn about the gospel earlier in his life, he's happy to be able to start a new phase of life now. He has a lot ahead of him and is just full of faith and hope. He was a miracle from the start.

Adrian came to the baptism which was sooooo good for him. He's been receiving missionaries for about 6 months but had never seen a baptism because Hernan's baptism was the first one that had happened in this ward in a year. We tried to set a baptismal date with him last week but he said he wasn't ready to commit. But after the baptism we were talking about Hernan receiving the priesthood and Adrian said, "so does that mean he could baptize me?" we've seen so much progress in him it's so amazing!!! He's awesome. 

Joselin, another investigator, also came and asked us after about what do the girls wear when they get baptized?? Another sign of progression! The baptism was just so beautiful and full of the spirit. We had 2 musical numbers and the talks were just really humble and focused on Christ.

We're also teaching  a man named Ruben. Not sure if I've told you about him before but anyway he's been investigating the church for 2 years and would be baptized right now but he can't because his girlfriend doesn't want to marry him. But every time we meet with him he says he just wants to endure to the end because he believes in miracles and that one day his girlfriend will marry him. They've been together 12 years already. She just doesn't believe in marriage. But we are hoping to talk to her this week about her beliefs and see if we can help them with that. So please pray for them! Ruben and Amada. Seeing them get married would be SUCH  a huge miracle. I believe it can happen!! We just gotta pray lots and lots and follow the spirit lots and lots and the rest is up to them and God. 

Also teaching a girl named Ignacia. She was raised Catholic but said she never really felt the spirit there. Last week she wanted to know how to receive revelation so we gave her a talk by Richard G. Scott called "Agency and Answers: Receiving Revelation" and then the next time we met with her she said she had received her answer and wanted to be baptized. She's 21 years old and her spiritual independancy is so inspiring. She only lives in our sector Monday-Friday though so she'll have to get baptized in the ward she lives in on the weekends. 

We keep having experiences everyday that remind me that this is God's work. I LOVE being a missionaryyyyyyyyy. This is the happiest transfer ever haha. Just praying as hard as we can so that all this progress we've seen can keep going. :)

Love you all so much and am constantly thinking and praying for you!

xoxo

Hermana Cannon II 

1. Hernan's baptism! :)

 

 

2. Me and my comp at the doctor for her foot probs. Yeah she has a boot now haha. pobrecita.  

Conference Weekend

Hey everyone!

So a little bit about what's going on right now.

Hernan is doing great! We taught him about his upcoming confirmation (he has to wait another week to be confirmed because this week was conference and next week he'll be out of town) and what it means to receive the gift of the holy ghost. I had a lot of memories flash back from my childhood of times I had felt the spirit. I told him about how many times as a child I would receive warnings or promptings from the spirit and would act because of them and be blessed. The spirit was also the reason I finally decided to serve a mission. I had been receiving gentle yet persistent nudges from the spirit just about everyday for a year before I finally surrendered and said okay fine I'll go haha. He's super excited to receive that same spirit as his constant companion and we are too. :)

I love seeing the way people react to hearing about the things for the first time that I have known all my life. It makes everything fresh and new to me and I really see the sweetness of the gospel and remember what it means to be a Latter-day Saint. I don't think I would've quite understood that without serving a mission. It helps to step outside the box and see yourself from the eyes of those outside. Seeing the way the gospel changes people and gives them a new light is beautiful and probably the most fulfilling thing I've ever done. 

We're working with someone named Eduardo (the one who is in a wheel chair and half blind) who has already had a notable change from realizing the existence of God. Ever since his accident 30 years ago he's been pretty angry. But we taught him about God, eternal life, and resurrection and even though he still hasn't developed full faith, the hope of having a perfect body someday has really lit up his countenance. We taught him how to pray and every time he does he can't stop smiling. 

Adrian is also doing super great! He came to all four sessions of conference! He is awesome. During one of the talks when it started talking about baptism he looked over at us and pointed to himself as if to say, "this one's for me." We are hoping that he will accept a date to be baptized this week. 

Were seeing lots of good things right now in Cristobal Colon. I just wanna stay here forever haha. I would love to spend the rest of my mission here if possible. We'll see! Plus I have the best companion ever. Hopefully she'll be the one to kill me haha (the one I end my mission with). 

Hope you guys are all doing amazing. I said a nice long prayer for lots of you last night so you're welcome haha. :) Love you sooooooo much!!! 

xoxo

Hermana Cannon II 

1. Haven't changed a bit

 

2. Me and my compy!! XD

 

I'M ALIVE

So this was the craziest week everrrr!!!!! hahah I'm sure most of you heard about the earthquake right?? Yeah that was the craziest scariest thing I've ever experienced ever!!! hahaha. Me and Hermana Maxfield were just sitting there in the apartment doing weekly planning as usual, when all the sudden we feel the room start to quiver a little bit. We just sat there still for a while and didn't really think anything of it since we had already felt a few small earthquakes since being in Chile. but then after about 20 seconds right as I was expecting it to stop, it starting getting wayyyy stronger!!! hahhaa  So of course I start freaking out and Hna. Maxfield's just like "Get to the door frame! Get to the door frame!" So I get to the door frame and am just gripping the sides of it for my dear life and just start praying harder than I ever have before!! I literally saw my life flash before my eyes!!!!! hahahah It was so crazy. I have never felt so vulnerable ever in my life haha. Then when things calmed down we peaked out side and saw our neighbor Isabel who was out of breath and trying to calm down her dogs. She told us to get out of there so we got out of there haha. When we got down to the bottom floor (we live on the fifth floor) we saw that the majority of the residents had also come downstairs and among them we saw one of our investigators that also lives in our building. When I saw her I just hugged her as hard as I could and was so happy that she was okay!! But then we had to leave because we had an appointment with Hernan haha. Missionary in any weather!!! So then we went to teach Hernan and he was totally calm and just like, hey if it's our time to die it's our time to die! haha. Then during the lesson there was like two aftershocks!! haha but they were just small. Since then I've felt two others in the middle of the night and another small one during the day. People are saying that we are still waiting for a bigger one so I'm just getting my last confessions in! haha. Nah I think we'll be fine. Santiago is built for earthquakes. Nothing fell and no one was hurt over here. But there were about 12 people in northern Chile that died but its super far from where we are. But I was pretty shocked to hear that. Calling all prayers for northern Chile! 

But yeah so that was the craziest thing from this week haha. But don't worry I am totally fine and even though I was scared out of my mind for a second there I thought it was overall the awesomest experience ever haha. XD

An another note, Hernan is doing awesome and is getting baptized this Sunday! :) He is so awesome and is amazingly prepared. It's been a really great experience teaching him and has been amazing how readily he has accepted all the new commitments. We were a little worried about tithing so we had our ward mission leader teach about that during gospel principles. Another investigator, Ruben, was also there that day to hear the lesson and last week, our ward mission leader said he saw him filling out a tithing envelope. 

The faith of these people is so inspiring and strengthens me every day. We're also teaching someone named Adrian who is just amazing. We asked him to share his testimony with us and then found out that he had been receiving little signs every few days that made him think about us, The Book of Mormon, and baptism, and let him know that this was the path for him. He went away on vacation for the Idependance Day weekend (Sept. 18th in Chile) and when he got home he told us that he had brought with him 2 books-- his Book of Mormon and another novel he was reading but that he couldn't read the novel because all he wanted to do was read the Book of Mormon. We went through the chapters he read and he showed us the connections he had made between the stories and his own life. I saw something in him that I had seen before in myself and it brought tears to my eyes. It's amazing to see someone discover their spirituality and to feel a personal connection with God. I felt such a deep love for him and knew in that moment that when I opened my call back in Provo in April 2014, God wasn't just calling me to Santiago, Chile, he was calling me to Adrian. It's something I haven't always felt out here but something that I keep feeling more of as my conversion runs deeper and deeper. There is something eternal about the relationships I'm developing out here, and I can't deny the feeling that tells me we've always been a family and that these people are truly my brothers and sisters. It gives me an amazing sense of identity no matter where I am or who I'm with. And it is amazing to testify of that to the friends we are teaching, feel the spirit, sense in their eyes that they felt it too, and flash back for an instant beyond the veil and feel the love that has always been between us, regardless of age, gender, race, or nationality. Its so incredibly beautiful. 

I love this gospel. I love this work. I love being a missionary. I love being a disciple of Christ. I love all of you. I love Chile. I love everything!!! Even earthquakes haha. :)

Sending allllllllll my love,

Hermana Cannon II   

1. Me and my cute companion :D

 

2. Unclogging the nasty drain that had never been unclogged since the beginning of time

 

3. We love food. Gluten free pasta. 

 

4. Elevator because why not

 

Transfers!

Hey everyone!!!

Well I'm staying another transfer in Cristobal Colon! Yay!! But I'm getting a new companion which is super crazy!!! Hermana Vega and I only had one transfer together which is suuuuuper short for this mission. So we'll find out tomorrow who my new companion will be! I'm super excited :) Definitely gonna miss Hermana Vega but change is always good. 

So last week we contacted a few young girls in the street and made an appointment to come back a few days later. Then at church on Sunday, a member from the other ward that meets there came up to us and said, "Hey you guys met one of my students in the street!" Turns out she is a local high school English teacher and the girl we contacted was her student! She said that once everyone found out she was Mormon they all started asking her questions and made a pretty big deal about it, haha. She also said that the girls we contacted started passing around the cards we had given them to the other kids in their class. So now the whole school knows about the church all because we contacted those two girls in the street!! Super cool. I loved hearing about that because sometimes its hard talking to so many people and never really knowing the effect we are having on them. All we can do is just pray every night that the people we gave cards to can just open their heart and start their search. And when they do it's pretty incredible. 

Lately I've been telling people about how I've been growing my testimony that the gospel is true. I realized that before my mission, I would pray to know if the Book of Mormon was true but hadn't felt that I really received "the answer." I had had spiritual experiences and felt that it was all true, but it seemed more like a "I hope this is true because I've spent my whole life following it so far and the blessing of an eternal family would be pretty amazing!" instead of a truly secure feeling of truth. I've realized now that before I don't think I was really praying with "real intent." I just wanted to know so that I could say that I knew. But out here on the mission I realized that I need to have an action plan, or feel an urgent need in preparation for some future happening if I want to receive a more direct answer. It was the same with Moses. God wouldn't have parted the Red Sea if there hadn't have been an urgent need--saving lives. After realizing that I contemplated my life and told God that if these things were true, and if he really was going to give me an eternal family, I was willing to do "such and such and such" and I told him specifically the direction I was willing to take my life and the sacrifices I was willing to make. It was kind of scary and I was nervous, but I told Him. Then later that day I received another witness, but this time stronger and more dawning, that this gospel is true. Those moments and feelings are usually the only things strong enough to keep me on the path when my doubts seem to get the better of me. They fill me with hope and reassure me that tomorrow the light will reappear. And it always does. Sometimes it takes longer than just a day haha but it always comes back. 

The security that I have felt during this transfer through this spiritual growth have been pretty incredible. I hope to always always always remember how powerful diligent, sincere, and direct prayer is for the rest of my life.

Wish I had time to write more but that's it until next week! 

Love you guys! :)

Hermana Cannon II

1. Got to see a bunch of people from Ñuñoa at a huge multi-stake devotional we had with President and all the missionaries! Soooo good to see them again. 

 

2. Me with Juana and Leonardo from Ñuñoa. Hna. Andersen tells me that Leonardo is on date to be baptized next month!!

3. Our last P-day together with Hna. Vega. (me, Hna. Vega, Hna. Bajaña, Hna. Mendez)

 

4. Me and Hna. Vega :)