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!