Elder Josh Cannon: Week 71

November 18, 2014

Things have been difficult here in Complapa; however, the Lord did bless us with a great miracle this week. Wednesday we visited a member named Hermana Cony, she's super pilas and has hired a young woman named Daisy to help her clean and cook. Daisy said she'd like to listen to us (the missionaries) and sure enough, she was the miracle we'd been praying for.

Daisy is probably the smartest person I've ever taught on my mission. There's nothing quite as satisfying as having an investigator truly understand dispensations, apostasy, authority, and the need for the Restoration. Just like Preach my Gospel says, it is easier for investigators to receive the answer that this message is true when they actually understand it.

Anyway, we left Daisy with all the normal commitments to read the pamphlet, attend church, and pray and ask God if this is true. Two days later we visited her again. She had prayed and had received a very clear answer through feelings of peace and security, just like we had promised her she would. Completely on her own, she had then asked her dad for permission to be baptized and he had consented! It was a cool testimony builder for me that is really is almost easy for anyone with faith, real intent, and a sincere heart to ask God is this message is true and receive the answer that it is through the Holy Ghost. Sometimes we have to fight to help investigators find their answers, but those who are truly ready don't have any problems in receiving it.

Since she was so pilas we decided to leave her a whole chapter in the Book of Mormon to read. I asked her if she would prefer to read in 2 Nephi 31 about the Gospel of Jesus Christ or in 3 Nephi 11 about Christ's visitation to the Americas. She said simply that both sounded important so she'd read both. She did, that very night. It's been a reminder to me to never lose hope. Even if things are rather difficult, this is the Lord's work and he is in control. He's preparing the people as it says in Alma 16:16, He's prepared us (D&C 138:56) and we just need to be diligent and obedient and have faith.

I can't believe it's already mid-November. This is insane. When's Thanksgiving? I'm not sure. We've been singing Christmas hymns in our district meetings since April. That's one of the perks about being district leader, getting to select the hymns. Things have been starting to get cold here in Comalapa, like, really cold. Not just the cold I felt when I left the coast to go to Patzicia, but like, real cold that makes you think it should be snowing. Still, I’m loving it and am enjoying being a missionary more than I ever thought I would.

Love,

Elder Cannon

The picture is of Elder Mendieta and me last night. Supposedly the rainy season has ended and so I had stopped taking around my rain jacket. However, it started pouring and so we did what any good Guatemalan would do and went to the nearest tienda and bought a couple yards of ¨nilo.¨ We then spent the next hour contacting in the central park of Comalapa. It was pretty fun. The sad thing is that those plastic sheets (which cost about $0.30) kept me drier than my high tech jacket which probably cost 100 times as much.

Also, the Ammon statue in the park of Comalapa. Get it? The arms? Well, I thought it was pretty funny...

The second half of the mural at the entrance of Compala, this part is of the Guerrilla, the Gautemalan civil war 30 years ago or so. pretty violent, but the stories that members tell of occasionally about what they lived in that time are pretty grim as well. It's something here that the people certainly haven't forgotten.