March 24, 2015
Well, it feels like I was
just barely here, and this week that's actually true, since I wrote last
Thursday. Anyway, the highlight was that, after fighting through an incredible
amount of investigators who received their answer but haven't progressed, we finally
had a baptism! On Sunday we had a very spiritual baptismal service for Janet
Garcia. She was a miracle and another example of how much faster the Work will
progress through members than through our own efforts (such as knocking doors).
We met her for the first time a few Sundays ago when she attended church with a
family of recent converts, la familia Lopez. They had invited her and after
that we just had to teach her. In no time she was ready for baptism. Now
she's super excited to bring the rest of her family to church and I'm confident
that because of her example, they'll all be baptized in not too long. Janet is
super pilas and was incredibly prepared. We put the fecha fija (I have no idea
how to translate that, it's like the set date or something when we the
investigator commits to a certain date to be baptized); anyway we put the fecha
fija right in front of all her family. Her dad especially had not been very positive
to us, but right in front of everyone we challenged her to baptism next Sunday
and she accepted. Everyone was a little surprised, to say the least, but it was
a cool trial of her faith.
That's about it for
this week. My companion and I are having an awesome time and the zone is doing
great. Lots of miracles this week. There’s even an elder from Oregon in the
zone, Elder Myer. We're down to just 4 in the mission, in the unlikely case
that anyone was interested.
Love you all!
Elder Cannon
March 31, 2015
This week was probably the fastest in all my
mission. We had so little time to work in our area, it was kind of frustrating.
It would seem that the Lord continues to teach me patience. Why is it that the
only way to develop more patience is by being in situations that try it? I feel
like this week was blessed with an increased number of those lovely moments
when you start to fear that your eyes will bleed or some artery will rupture
from all the stress and crazy things going on. Luckily though, I'm still here,
so don't worry. My eyes and arteries will be better off because of it. Anyway,
it was still a great week, some highlights:
- A baptism! It was of Hermana Vilma, a woman
who the elders here had been teaching for quite some time but who, due to
complications with her pregnancy, had been bedridden for a couple of months.
She was very anxious to finally be baptized and it was a blessing to be able to
help her in her eternal progression in our own small way. She's the third
single mom that I've baptized in this area and the 6th woman. Not sure why we
only teach women. The problem is that they really are more pilas than the men.
We had a Family Home Evening yesterday with Hermana Janet, who got baptized
last Sunday. It's so great to be able to see investigators be truly converted
and then want to share the gospel with everyone else. I feel like desires to do missionary work is the crowning indicator of conversion. I'm confident that her
family will be baptized in not too much longer.
- Also, I'm feeling pretty full of the Spirit
right now, as we just came off of a really cool experience, a miracle really.
There's a companionship of sisters in the zone that has been struggling with
some little issues in obedience and diligence. I was very nervous to talk to them
because it's always difficult to correct hermanas, they're so different from
the elders. It's not their fault or anything, just for an elder to correct an
hermana isn't as easy as just pulling an elder aside and saying "hey,
what's going on with you guys?" However, knowing that it was our
responsibility to do something, we pulled them aside and expressed to them our
concerns. The Spirit was so strong and we could feel it guiding us and telling
the Hermanas the things they needed to improve. They were very repentant and my
worry about them has ceased. I guess I just can never get over how great a
blessing the Spirit is. Feeling that guidance and the mantel of whatever
calling we have is way worth the "sacrifices" we have to make in
order to stay worthy of its companionship. It's such an amazing experience to
feel that you-re being an instrument in the Lord's hands.
- Yesterday for P-day my companion needed to
buy new shoes, but, being a size 14 there was nothing that fit him here. We got
permission to leave the mission and a family took us to Miraflores, one of the
nicest malls in Guatemala. Now, obviously, I'm not a mall person or anything,
but it was cool just seeing how big and expensive everything was. I felt like I
was sitting right in the middle of the great and spacious building. My favorite
part was that in the parking garage they had little cameras above all of the
parking spaces that were connected to a light on the ceiling. When a car was
parked in the parking space, the light would change from green to red. Making
it quick and easy to be able to find an empty space. You just had to scan
around for a few seconds until you could see a green light. After looking at some
shoes in the mall that cost 750 Quetzales ($100), we finally ended up going to
a megapaca, (similar to Good Will) and buying a pair for 24 Quets, ($3).
- Lifesavers! I found a box of lifesavers that
a person was selling in a tienda in our area. They were real Lifesavers and
everything. I bought the entire box for 10 Quets. In other words, I paid 12.5
cents per roll of Lifesavers, each of which contains 14 Lifesavers. That's less
than a penny a Lifesaver! Yeah, that was awesome.
- The rainy season has
begun! At last! We got our first rain on Sunday and I was dancing
with joy. It has been far too long.
Well, as you can see, life
here is going well. Love you all!
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