Week 91 and 92

April 7, 2015

Wow, what an incredible, and very full week this week. A lot is going on. I loved General Conference! We had to watch the majority of it in Spanish, which was a bummer. It's just not the same, but as always, it was the best weekend we’ve had in the last 6 months. Elder Holland's talk had me on the edge of my seat. His talk, as well as President Uchtdorf's right after was incredible. I love thinking that the Atonement isn't meant just to take us back to our state of innocence from sin before our Heavenly Father but to take us forward, helping us to become more like Him. President Uchtdorf’s talk in Priesthood session was also very instructive (and also included a fair amount of chicote). It’s very easy to become too focused on the outward signs of our discipleship and forget what's most important. I also loved the talk about leaning to hear the music not just doing the dance steps. It was a talk long dance metaphor which made me and the other two elders in the zone who also love ballroom dance pretty excited. Speaking of being excited...

President Brough got called as a counselor in the General Young Men's Presidency!!! Ahhh!!! All the missionaries said he would be called as a member of the 70, but they didn't read his name and we were all disappointed, then he just got called straight to the General Young Men's Presidency! We were watching it with all the other members in the chapel but before I could stop myself I stood up and in a half yell and said “No!” and grabbed my companion. It was more intense than any sporting event. He'll be amazing, getting the youth ready to serve missions. His spiritual presence is incredible. We were hoping that he'd speak, but I guess that would have been just too much to bear. Our mission would have struggled a lot after having so many of its elders and sisters die from the sheer joy of it all. Maybe next conference.

Also, this week was Semana Santa. People come from all over the world (literally, we've contacted people from all over the place) to witness Semana Santa in Antigua. The only place where it is as big as in Spain. It was pretty ridiculous, but also incredibly cool. One Thursday we had to go to Antigua and the buses couldn't even get in. We had to walk and then once we arrived we found that the city was jam packed. We were sitting in an internet cafe (long story) and right then one of the processions came by. It was super cool to be able to watch it all. I'm not sure of the doctrine of it all, but during this time the Catholics have something like a funeral parade where they carry a massive intricately decorated platform with Christ and some saints. They follow it with a band and other things, such as people burning incense or dressed as roman soldiers. That's also when they make the very beautiful carpets made out of flowers, plants, and colored wood shavings (referring to when the people covered the road with palm fronds as Christ rode into Jerusalem). It was a huge thing and made me grateful to have been called here specifically, seeing a thing that only a handful of missionaries have seen on their missions.

Finally, I’ve included a picture of a mollete, my favorite Guatemalan dessert. I have never eaten a food that looks and feels so repulsive, but tastes so heavenly. It’s made of bread, filled with cream, that's fried in egg and left to sit for a day in honey. It's soggy, cold, and incredible.

April 14, 2015

Another great week. I can tell right now that this email will degenerate into me talking about food, so I'll get right so the spiritual stuff. Baptism! Wohoo! His name is Pablo and he's probably one of the purest people I've ever met. He lives with his sister and brother in law who are both members. They invited him to a Family Home Evening and he liked it. He went to church, met us, and got baptized. Pretty easy with him.

Missionaries say that in the mountains the people are all very hard and don't want anything and if you go there you won't baptize. However, after being in the mountains for more than a year, I can say that I have never met investigators who are so prepared to accept this message. I never had converts who were so truly converted when I was in the coast. For example, the Saturday before his baptism, we asked Pablo to come with us to visit some investigators. He jumped at the chance and when we started the lesson and were presenting ourselves, he burst out, ''I'm Pablo and I'm getting baptized tomorrow!'' Then, yesterday, he went to work with us from 5:00 to 8:15, at which point we went to his house to teach him until 9:00.

It's a great privilege to be able participate in someone's conversion. Another great blessing is that Pablo lives very close to our house (we had no idea there were members there until we met him because they've been attending the other ward).  He's always home at 8:00 at night, there's always a member present (his family) and they always give us food (including this amazing pineapple cooked in syrup with cloves and pepper. Yep, the food talk has already started). In other words, it's a missionary's dream set up. As you can see from the picture, President and Sister Markham were passing by that day and were present in the baptism. I love them so much. Also, you might note that this is the first time I've ever had a convert who was taller than me. 

This week I also tried harder than ever to be even more diligent. It really does feel good to know that you're working as hard as you can. It feels far better than holding a little back just because you feel tired or lazy. All these commandments that the Lord gives us, like being obedient and working diligently, really are just to help us personally be happier.

Ok, now to the food. Last week we took the most successful companionships in the zone out to eat in the nicest restaurante here in San Lucas: San Martin. I hadn't eaten in a nice restaurante like that in all my mission so it was quite the experience. Interestingly, my companion and I both ordered soups and salads while the sisters all ordered these giant hamburgers which they couldn't even fit in their mouths. 

This week we had our district P-day and learned to make molletes and a flan chocolate cake. And we also ate mole, my second favorite dessert in Guatemala. Now we're going to go to a new, supposedly really good restaurante here in Antigua. Yep, I'm gaining weight..

Love you all

Mole

The district

Making molletes. I hadn't used a Kitchen Aid mixer in a long time... 

That's for sure... Too bad it wasn't a Bosch though.

Making molletes. I hadn't used a Kitchen Aid mixer in a long time... 

That's for sure... Too bad it wasn't a Bosch though.

Weeks 89 and 90

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!

Week 88

March 19, 2015

Well, we're writing on Thursday today because yesterday we got to go to a multi-mission conference with Elder Anderson. It was so incredible to be so close to one of the Twelve Apostles. We testify of the blessing it is to be guided by living prophets and apostles every day, but yesterday, while teaching, I felt that my testimony of how much of a blessing that is was stronger and sincerer than ever. It almost surprised me how just in the moment of shaking Elder Anderson's hand, I could feel the spirit so strongly. Electrifying is probably how I would best describe it. 

We had changes, I received Elder Caton. He's probably one of the most loving missionaries I've ever met. This morning, while I was standing up eating breakfast (oatmeal chocolate chip cookie dough and broccoli), he shined my boots (I was wearing them at the time). I was a little surprised to be sure, but it was a great gesture.

This change was a little sad because a lot of my friends in the zone got transferred and a lot of my friends in the mission died (went home). Such is life in the mission. The work goes on.

Love,

Elder Cannon

A picture of our zone. Yep, we finally made some cool 

zone t-shirts, not the boring ones they always have.

The district in Antigua

La familia Lopez, some of the most converted converts I’ve ever met. You can see the 

picture of the temple in the background, along with the pictures of their baptism.

Weeks 84, 85, 86 and 87

Feb 17, 2015

Well, happy Valentine's Day. Here it's called el Dia de Cariño (the day of affection) but in a spiritual thought in zone training last week, one of the missionaries tried to sell it as el Dia de Caridad (the day of charity). It was a nice reminder about the pure love of Christ, which we all could use more of, and gave us a holiday that we could actually celebrate. 

Wow, there have been lots of problems in the zone this week. Lots of problems. It literally is quite tiring. For three days in a row we've been getting to bed around 11:30, which is pretty unusual given that we always have to be sleeping at 10:30. Still, it’s cool how much love the Lord gives us for the missionaries under our stewardship, or in our flock, you could say. The frustrating thing is that I feel like we hardly ever have time to really work in our own area. As far as our investigators go, I feel like we have had pretty much zero progress in this last week. It's discouraging because I know that we have to give the example in baptizing every week, but we haven't baptized since January. That's not just sad for us, that's even more sad for those people who haven't been able to be cleansed from their sins as they make that essential covenant with God. Oh well, we keep working.

We have become great friends with a family that owns the best bakery in all of our area. Last week, after buoying our daily dinner of bread to eat as we walk, they gave me 1 Quetzal more than they should have in exchange for the Q10 bill I paid them with. I realized what had happened when we were a block and a half away, but we returned to give them back what is the equivalent of 13 cents. They then gave us a couple of pounds of free bread and sent us on our way with plenty of "que les vaya bien's" It was a fun experience and made them love us and us love them even more. 

Anyway, I was thinking yesterday about what the Lord has taught me in each of the areas that I've had. In hindsight, it seems so easy to see the hand of the Lord in every area, in every companion, etc. As I have progressed in the mission, the Lord has taught me humility (in Escuintla), patience and charity (in Patzicia), diligence (Comalapa), and now, here in San Lucas 3, I feel like I have the opportunity to put all those lessons together and become a truly consecrated missionary who has the constant companionship of the Spirit. Obviously, I still have very far to progress in all of those virtues, but I am so grateful for the time the Lord has given me to be a missionary because I know that I wouldn't be able to have that progress if I weren't here. Throughout my time I have also learned to have so much more love. I wasn't a very loving person before, but now I feel so much love for the people, for the culture, for my investigators and converts, for the other missionaries, and of course, much more love for the Lord. But seriously, I never want to leave the mission. I could definitely hide in some backwoods aldeas and the assistants would never find me. I'm thinking about somewhere around Zaragoza...

As always, this area continues to provide me with things I haven't done or tried since I entered the mission field (e.g. Jolly Ranchers, root beer floats, etc.). My favorite this week was when I got to use President Markham's iPhone 6 to send a text message to the Stake president in Chimal. We were returning from a meeting from him but got stuck in the Sunday afternoon traffic in Antigua (best thing ever since we spent in total two hours with him just asking him questions). He handed me his phone and told me to send the message. He asked "do you know how to use it? Oh... of course you do..." The truth was though, it took a bit for me to figure out how to do it again. The experience was something of an adrenaline rush though. 

Love you all,

Elder Cannon

Feb 24, 2015

Wow, this week has been one of the most tiring since my training. On Saturday we were on divisions (long story) and one of the elders asked me "Elder Cannon, are you tired?" I said that yes, I could hardly stay awake, to which he replied, "Yeah, I can see it in your eyes." That day Elder Alarcon and I spent so long traveling, contacting bus after bus. At the end of the day we had 208 contacts, 104 contacts each. I sure am getting to know Antigua well, as well as all of its surrounding cities. Speaking of which, Guatemalan geography has finally clicked for me. In all my mission I've been traveling around Guatemala, in the coast, city, and mountains, and pretty much everywhere you can see at least one, if not several, of the major volcanoes (Fuego, Agua, and Pacaya). For whatever reason though, it's always been hard for me to be able to orient everything well in my head as I've been in areas in very different position to the volcanoes. However, in our area there's a place where we went that finally helped to see how it all fits together, how if I drop down between Agua and Fuego I'll get to Escuintla, or if I drop down the mountains on the opposite side of Agua I'll get to Villa Nueva and the Capital. I'm realizing as I explain all this that it really isn't interesting at all unless you've been traveling around these places for a couple years. Let's just say that it was a pretty cool realization for me.

Moving on... Now I'm not sure what to write about because I'm afraid it will just turn out to be something else that's only significant to me... Oh well, too bad...

I realized this week that one of the things that I most love about being a leader is having more opportunities to get to serve my fellow missionaries. I often think about how much love the Lord gives us for those we serve. Even if it means that we have to sacrifice time working in our own area (and man, our time has been very limited this week), it really is a blessing to be able to have these opportunities to serve the other missionaries, opportunities which the majority of other missionaries don't have. For instance, in this week I installed a water heater for some very grateful sister missionaries who had been taking cold showers for several weeks, moved two sets of sisters and one set of elders to new houses, and had to negotiate a rent contract with a very crazy land lady.  After battling with her and all of us getting angry, we left and said a prayer and then the Spirit softened her heart and I (my companion, yet again, was in divisions) found out that she was actually a BYU alumni, along with all her family, became her sincere friend and was able to please both parties in fixing the contract. It was a cool lesson in how the Lord's way is always better and how important it is to love and the power of the Spirit.  We also did several baptismal interviews all over the zone, and quite a few other things. 

One quick thought that our bishop gave to us on Sunday (this ward is so pilas! We sat in on a ward council and were stunned yet again. Later we asked him what he did to be able to get a ward where all members, not just the bishop and his counselors, do exactly what they should), anyway, he said that if we want the companionship of the Spirit, we have to be willing to pay the price.

Love,

Elder Cannon

March 3, 2015

I really don't know what to write about this week. I'm not sure where it all went. I feel tired though, so I assume that I was working quite a bit. This week was a tiring week. One night all I had energy to eat for dinner was a half pint of vanilla ice cream that I had left in the freezer. We've really been fighting to get the Work moving here in our area. Things have been pretty slow mainly because we haven't had much time to work. It's been disappointing and frustrating, but I've definitely come to learn that if we're doing all we can, we really don't have to worry, we can have peace and know we're doing the Lord's will.

Actually, now that I think about it, even though we're not having a lot of success with our investigators right now, we are very blessed in that our converts are doing quite well. On Sunday, in fast and testimony meeting, Marcela, the oldest daughter of Alicia Avalos (the family we baptized at the end of December), bore her testimony. She said that she had no idea why she did, she just felt something inside of her telling her to do it. Her younger sister Paula is the president of the beehives class in her ward and both are completing their Personal Progress. Alicia is listening to the BOM on tape every day as she drives to work and is participating very actively in all the welfare classes the ward is offering.

That reminds me of something. Thursday we visited them and after the lesson it became apparent that Marcela was very stressed about her math homework that was due the next day. After all was said and done, we spent two more hours there as I taught her how to factor binomials. It was a great experience for me and an excellent opportunity to serve. That is one talent that I never thought I would be able to use on my mission, but sure enough, it looks like I finally got the chance. I now know a bunch of math vocab in Spanish, which is a plus.

In other news, my childhood fear of dogs has returned. Lately my companion and I have had several pretty much near death experiences with some very aggressive dogs. There are always packs of wild dogs roaming the streets and I used to walk through them without hesitation. No longer. I think that the most dangerous part about the mountains of Guatemala isn't the crime or strange diseases, but the wild dogs and buses that are honestly very skillfully driven twice as fast as any sane person would. 

Love you all,

Elder Cannon

PS I included a picture of me using a mecapal, a strap that Guatemalans use to carry heavy things. They really are pretty ingenious. Still though, after carrying just a couple of these huge 100 lbs. bags of sand up a hill, my companion and I were pretty dead.

March 10, 2015

It was a good week, even though things are still moving slowly as far as the Work is concerned in our area. However, I have continued to feel the Spirit more and more. It's really indescribable, but I feel like I'm finally starting to see some progress on that front. I've for so long wanted to have the guide of the Spirit and now as I’ve been trying to sanctify myself, I really have had results. It feels so good to have that constant companionship. I can see now why President Hinckley (at least I think it was him), said that our having the Holy Ghost is more important than almost anything else in this life. Of course, along with the Holy Ghost's presence inevitably comes spiritual chicote about things that I still need to improve, but even that feels good because it gives me hope that I'll be able to progress even more now that I know what I need to do.

For our zone P day on Monday we watched a compilation of many of the videos the Church has made about the life of Christ. It was interesting because the style was so different. The videos were very quiet and subdued, not a lot of music, movement, or dialogue. At first it was almost a little bit boring, but then I realized how much chance that gave to the Spirit to teach us. When the movie ended, I felt so full of the Spirit that I felt like I could do miracles just like the apostles in the time of Christ. It's such a great privilege to be a personal representative of Him. I know this is His work.

This week we witnessed a cool miracle. We were visiting an investigator for the third time and who had attended church last Sunday. She explained to us how she had had a dream three months ago that two gringos came to her and told her that they would come and sow because they said that the field was ready and had already been prepared. She watched as the vegetables grew and became very beautiful and delicious. She then told us that she felt that she felt that we were the meaning of that dream. The Spirit testified to us that yes, the Lord had prepared her to receive this message and that we had been guided there to plant it and in time it would bear plenty of fruit.

Well, time's about up. I'm off to do divisions with the assistants for the first time in all my mission. I'll be going to Boca del Monte with Elder Hintze. Should be super fun. Adios!

Elder Cannon

PS Here's a picture of our weekly planning. How we got into a situation so unconducive to revelation is a long story, involving having to move the hermanas yet again? We finished our weekly planning on the balcony above a super busy intersection, sitting on a of pile of tires, wrapped in a blanket and a sister's sweater. It was interesting. We're getting quite proficient at moving. My companion and I are thinking about starting a company. I also fixed yet another shower head. This time I had to take out some of the piping and put in new (with Teflon tape and everything). If the moving company doesn't work out I'll become a plumber.

I have never cut up so much fruit with a knife so small in all my life. 

Only in Guatemala can you buy 20 lbs. of fruit for just a few dollars.

Everyone was in agreement that a pancake taco with Nutella, a 

banana, and whipped cream was so good it was a sin.

Also the food we bought and made this morning for the zone for zone training. I have a bunch of extra money from my time in Patzy and Comalapa (since there was nowhere to spend it) and despite my best efforts, I haven't been going though it as fast as I should. We went a little overboard and made breakfast for everyone.

Week 83

February 10, 2015

Well, another super short week, though this one was a little difficult.

I felt like my efforts to spiritually progress diminished somewhat and therefore I did not enjoy the companionship of the Holy Ghost as much as I would have liked. It can be very discouraging and tiring to keep dealing with the same problems and weaknesses again and again without seeming to make much progress. I guess that's because we really can't do it on our own, we have to rely on the Atonement of Christ in order to become like Him. We just need to keep pushing forward doing the things He's asked of us, trusting that one day we will become like Him. Still, though, it can be very hard for me at times.  But I am always grateful for the great experiences that the Lord gives us that let us keep pushing forward with hope, such as today, when I could feel the Spirit strongly testify through my companion and me during the talks we gave on becoming disciples of Jesus Christ. I truly desire to reach the highest level of discipleship and be able to say that he is truly my friend. I know that He wants to be mine.

Anyway, we also had a very Guatemalan experience this Saturday when all of a sudden all the missionaries started to call us. A few minutes later we found out why, as huge clouds of ash began to fall in our area. Apparently, the Volcan de Fuego (or maybe it was Pacaya), both of which are right next to Antigua, had erupted more violently than usual (I say than usual because it is erupting every day). Anyway, the ash that started to rain down wasn't the soft, fluffy volcanic ash that I have always imagined, it was very fine, but very hard sand and rocks. Wow, just with being outside for a few seconds my eyes started to burn with all the irritation and my throat started to get irritated. Luckily, it stopped after an hour, but we're still shanking dust out of our hair and trying to sweep and the little rocks out of the house. Experiences like these make me so glad that I was called here to Guatemala. I mean, c'mon, how cool is that?

Well, that'll be it for now, we've got sheep to divide from the goats,

Love,

Elder Cannon

Week 78, 79, 80, 81, 82

February 3, 2015

Well, yet another week. It's scary how fast time is passing. Changes are tomorrow and I will only have three changes left in the field. I feel like Elizabeth in Pirates of the Caribbean 2 when the Kraken grabs her ankle with one of its tentacles and drags her "kicking and screaming" to the edge of the boat until she is rescued. Kind of a weird image, I know, but it's the one that best fits how I feel. 

This week was a little bit discouraging because of some disobedience that was going on in the zone. I did get my first real experience with the gift of discernment though, as we were dealing with all these problems. I think for the first time I began to understand why being a bishop could be so difficult. It's hard to have people you love lie and try to hide their sins. It's so disappointing.

The Work is going well in our area. It's neat to see how the Lord blesses us and we still have a very large pool of investigators to teach despite the relatively little time we spend working there. 

Changes are tomorrow. My companion and I will stay together. Elder Mendieta will be training though! I'll be a grandpa! Also, in the zone we have eight companionships, not counting us. Of those eight, four are sisters and of those four, there will be a sister finishing her mission in each area. In each of those areas, her companion will be training a new missionary fresh from the CCM. In all, we will have 7 newbies in the zone. It'll be a crazy change, but it'll be fun. New missionaries have a really great spirit.

Well, time's up yet again. Time to go find some lunch.

Love,

Elder Cannon

January 27, 2015

Not a lot of time today, so this'll be a quick letter. De todos modos [Anyway], there's not too much to report anyway. We had our weekly share of miracles and blessings, my favorites were a couple of days in which I felt an increased sensitivity to the Spirit, something I have been striving for quite a while. It would seem like this whole process of purification/sanctification is having some effect. For example, last Tuesday I was on divisions and went to the area of one of the district leaders, Elder Henriquez. We visited a recent convert of about a week, Jesus, and his older sister, Jessica (who has incredible desires to be baptized). 

That night we had the miracle of being able to teach her boyfriend with whom she was living and already had one daughter. We taught him lesson one as normal but then started to talk about the law of chastity and why he had to marry Jessica or stop living with her. Ha, I have never had a lesson quite as cool as what happened that night. The Spirit was so strong and we started to give him chicote (reprimand him) so hard. Often when I give chicote I feel frustrated or angry but this time the Spirit was guiding us as we tore into him. It was an incredible experience. I think one thing I've come to learn on my mission is how Heavenly Father feels when men mistreat His daughters.  From what I've seen in situations like this and caring for the sisters in my district or zone, I can tell that, wow, it's something serious. After the lesson my companion and I were both super pumped up and practically ran home, not just because it was so late. Then, we suddenly felt exhausted from the Spirit we had felt and forgot most of what we had said.

Well, that's all folks. See you next week.

January 20, 2015

Well, the rapidity with which the weeks fly by has ceased to surprise me. I feel like all I have to do now is close my eyes, count to ten, and then it's a new week. Time has been going by especially quickly because we've been so busy. One day last week we didn't even work in our area at all. We were running around Antigua and San Lucas all day long. Speaking of which, there are some really weird gringos in Antigua and I am really awkward contacting in English. Part of the fun of that day was getting some more medical tests done (tests of a nature that I will not include here in order to respect the dignity of my calling). Good news! I passed my kidney stone! Bad news! I've still got whatever I contracted in Patzicia. I would love to see a graph of the time I have in the mission compared with the number of times I have called the nurse. My bet would be that 90% of her calls are from the missionaries that are in their first month in the field or their last 8 months. 

This area has been full of "this is the first time I've done, seen, eaten, etc. this in the last 18 months. For example, yesterday was the first time I relaxed in a massage chair in probably a couple of years. On Sunday we were waiting for a family to finish making lunch and the husband started playing around on the piano to entertain us, first time I've listened to that in 18 months. The list goes on and on. This is such a different world that Comapala or Patzy. 

Hmmm, this letter hasn't been very spiritual. I will say that we have been continuing to have a bunch of miracles. We're teaching a lot of people who are really passing through some pretty intense trials. There's one man in particular named Luis. We visited him for the second time yesterday. The sisters in Antigua contacted him as he and his wife were sitting in the park crying after learning that their daughter was just thrown in jail. Luis said they appeared out of nowhere like angels. In our first visit he seemed so thirsty for all the knowledge we could give him. He so sincerely desired to know, as he asked us, how he could draw closer to God in this trial. It's always so cool to see the peace and joy the gospel brings. All we taught him was the Restoration, but when we went back yesterday he kept saying how he could feel more peace now, how he was sleeping better, and praying more. The challenge for him will be church attendance. He is dying to go, and bring all his family, but Sunday mornings are the only time they can visit their daughter and bring her food and clothing. We’ll be praying for a miracle with him.

Anyway, love you all,

Elder Cannon

The baptism of Isabel

The views from our house

The view from my window as I study every morning.

January 13, 2015

It was a great week as we were able to see the Lord work many miracles and clear the obstacles so that we can help many of God's children enter the waters of baptism. On Sunday we had the baptism of Isabel, a single mother who has passed through many hardships in her life. We met her when she contacted us, saying that she wanted to help her 5 year old son, Jefferson, to learn to andar en los caminos de Dios. She was working on Sundays, but just in time she was fired in a merciful act by God to help her to do what was really important, attend church and be baptized. This week we also had two other women attending whose husbands had just left them that week. The ward has also been an incredible blessing for us. I have never seen leaders and members work so hard and follow so exactly the guidelines found in Manual 2.

Personally, I have really been trying to purify myself and be more receptive to the Spirit. I think that has been one of the major challenges of my mission, how to follow the guide of the Spirit. I can work hard and be obedient, but the true miracles always come through the Spirit. This is one things I really admire in my companion. He has a great portion of the Spirit and is a great example to me.

The weirdest moment of this week is when the stake president asked us to go and inspect the mattresses that the sisters here in San Lucas were sleeping on. They were using the mattresses the elders had been sleeping on and apparently there were a bunch of fleas (something very common here in the mountains) and stains of a rather displeasing nature. We went and minutely inspected each mattress, smelling all of them to make sure they were adequate for the hermanas. Sure enough, there were two that we needed to replace. That moment when were smelling the first mattress is probably one of the memories of my mission that I will keep for all my life. It was priceless.

As far as pictures goes, I've included the photo of the baptism of Alicia and her daughters. They're doing really well and are continuing to progress very rapidly. It sure is a big difference in teaching her, a university professor, and teaching people who can't even read (which isn't as common in this area as it was in Comalapa or Patzy, but it does happen). Hopefully I'll be able to get you guys a pictures of the baptism of Isabel. The internet cafe we're at right now has so many viruses that I think I'm starting to get sick (ok, that was pretty bad. I will confess and forsake.).

 In all, I am loving my time here in San Lucas 3 so much. This is an incredible area, my favorite that I've ever had (although I do hold a special love Patzy and Zaragoza for other reasons).

Love,

Elder Cannon

PS yes, the shirts that the Alicia and Paola are wearing are immodest. That was rather embarrassing. They said they would bring their own white shirts and that was what they would find...

January 6, 2015

Well, Happy New Year! Wow, I can't believe that it is 2015. New Year’s Eve was passed as it always is in Gmala, with an incredible amount of fireworks that are illegal in the US. It felt like we were being attacked by aliens or something. Pretty exciting. 

It is unbelievable though. 2014 has just flown by. This was an excellent week and we have seen many miracles in our area and in the zone. Honestly, everyday as we work we are blessed with so many miracles that it really is a sacrifice when we have to leave our area to do some errand like baptismal interviews. Yeah, we've been running a lot of errands recently. To be honest, I'm not even sure what to write about this week because it wouldn't be very interesting to anyone else. Mostly, I'm just kicking myself for not having brought my memory card for my camera. It got a pretty tough virus and I finally found someone who would fix it. The problem is that the virus changed the name of all the pictures so now I have to go through thousands of pictures by hand and change the name of each one so that it ends in .jpg so they can be seen. The point is that I should have brought it today but I didn't know that I would have time to work of it. Now there's something interesting for you all.

Well, today we did have an excellent zone training on sanctification (i.e. justification is being clean from sin, all obedient missionaries will be clean when they come back, but sanctification is being free from sin, comes as we entregar nuestro corazon a Dios, something like yielding our heart to God. For example, of the ten lepers, all ten were justified because they obeyed, but only one was sanctified. The result of sanctification is the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost, Power in la obra misional, and being an instrument in the Lord's hands. For a long time I've seen very pilas missionaries who work hard and have success, but I've also seen other missionaries who are pilas but have something more, they seem to exude the Spirit. They just have to open their mouth and the Spirit fills the room. For so long I've wanted that but haven't know how to have the companionship of the Spirit to that extent. I've realized that a large part of that is this process of sanctification, trading our desires and thoughts or God's. I guess this shouldn't really have been put in parentheses, but asi es).

In all, I'm loving my time in San Lucas 3. I love this area, I love my companion, I love being a missionary, I love Guatemala and I love its people. I'm so happy to be able to bring them the Restored Gospel.

Love,

Elder Cannon

Christmas Eve, which we spent in the house of the stake president (the most pilas stake president I've ever met) along with the hermanas in San Lucas. Yeah, that's a giant leg of pork. 

 A supermarket that is in San Lucas.  The only other one in all the mission is in the area of the mission secretaries and assistants. Paiz is incredible, a little slice of heaven. It has things that I haven't seen in 18 months and since it's so upscale, we're even allowed to buy things like grapes, strawberries, lettuce, pork, and fish there, foods which otherwise are banned in the mission because they're so often contaminated. I did get a little baggy when I saw that they had our classic Sunday morning breakfast.