Birthday celebration

I am doing really good.  My Birthday was really awesome. Missionaries gave me ties, President and Hermana Velez sang Happy Birthday and congratulated me in English, Members gave me cake or congratulated me. In church a lot of the members of Nueva Galicia also told me Happy Birthday.   I don`t know how they knew it was my Birthday but it really did make me feel special. I can`t wait to meet my new cousin Wyatt he looks like a great little baby. We are going to have some awesome Birthday parties when I get back. Speaking of getting back tomorrow I will exactly have one year until I go home. I cannot believe that I have been on a mission for a year.  It has been the greatest thing for me.  It has taught me and changed me a lot. We had a seminary training with President Velez, his wife, and all of the Leaders of the Mission.  It was a great training session and I learned a lot. His wife made us very delicious tacos.  I was grateful that I was able to attend. We are still getting to know the members of the ward and are doing all that we can so that they Preach the Gospel and help us in this work. One of our investigators speaks really good English.  H is really nice, humble, and lived in Utah for a few months, but he never heard about the church until he came to Culiacan. He has been to church about 5 times and he has a baptism set for the 10th of May.  I am really excited for him. We are trying hard to find New Investigators because we don`t have very many people to teach.  The work is hard but rewarding. I love this work and I know that God put me in this ward to strenghten it and to help it grow. I hope all is well back home.  Have a great week.

Love Elder Cannon  

New Area and Companion

This week was actually kind of hard for us because for almost all of the week everyone left their homes and traveled. A lot of people went to the beach, a lot of them went to visit their families. There was hardly anyone in the street and everyone that we saw or found were really old people. My new companion Elder Garibay is from Michoacan and is a really great missionary.  He has six months in his mission and we are going to work really hard together. He is a convert.  He barely has three years since he was baptized.  His hope is that for him being here his family is going to accept the Gospel. I was able to see the baptism of an old investigator (Beatrice) that we taught in Nueva Galicia, she is such a great person and I was so happy to be able to watch her being baptized. President and Hermana Velez came to the baptism and it was really a special moment for everyone. I made some trades with other missionaries and I now have a Canon camera. I really like it.  It isn`t the newest or anything, but it does have some neat effects. All of the missionaries in our ward gave talks.  I felt so good and am really excited to get the members excited about Preaching the Gospel. On Sunday I was able to talk to a lot of the members of Nueva Galicia.  They made me so happy and I am so grateful to still keep in contact with everyone I know in my old ward.   Even though this week was a little hard, there were a lot of blessings and I couldn`t ask for anything more. I was talking to my convert Humberto, he said that he really wants to get to know Utah and to see the Salt Lake Temple, and he wants to get know my parents.  I said that he is welcome in my house and that it would be awesome to have him there.  Maybe we will have guests in a few years.  You have to get to know his family. They are so special and I will never forget them. Humberto is working really hard with the missionaries and he is really courageous and bold to talk to less actives and ask them why they don`t go to church, and encourging them to go, he gets it done.   I feel so happy and blessed to have been able to teach him and watch how much he has progressed in the Gospel. This Gospel brings so many blessings and miracles, I can`t even begin to express the happiness that it has brought me.  This work isn`t easy, but it is worth everything and it means everything to me. I can`t believe that I am going to be 20 years old.  I think that next Tuesday after the District Meeting we are going to have a little party with birthday cake. I don`t feel that old.  I feel like I am changing a lot, but I still feel really young. Thanks for your letter, I talk to you guys next week, bye!

Love Elder Cannon 

 

P.S.  This picture is from the family baptized last week.

Surgery and Baptism

This week we saw a miracle.  Elder Porter had his surgery on Tuesday at 6 am.  We left the hospital at about 4 pm. We were there almost all day.  The doctor said that Elder Porter had to stay in the house all day for one week, he couldn`t leave the house. The operation went well, but his nose didn`t feel so good for a while. I have such a great District.  Just about every day they would come to my house and one of them would stay with Elder Porter in the house and the other companion would work with me. During the divisions I planned on contacting a reference that I received from another Elder. We went, found the family, taught the family, and baptized the family; they were so ready and excited to be baptized. She lived in Tijuana.  She has gone to church a lot of times, the missionaries kept trying to baptize her.  She wanted to get baptized where she was born in Culiacàn. She finally accepted to get baptized in Tijuana, she had the baptismal interview and passed it, then she suddenly left to Culiacan.  A week and a half later we found her. We contacted her on Wednesday, taught her on Thursday, had the baptismal interview on Friday, got baptized on Saturday, was confirmed a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and received the Holy Ghost on Sunday. It all seemed so fast, she was so ready and so excited, she got baptized with her son and her daughter. Elder Porter baptized the mother Fernanda. I baptized the daughter Daniela. Elder Martinez(was with me on divisions when we contacted the family) baptized the son Edgar. I was so happy for this family, my joy was overwhelming! I could not believe it! The baptism was very special and I will always cherish this experience.

The transfers came in and I am leaving Nueva Galicia. I will be going to the ward Huertas, it is right next to my area.  We even use the same church. I told everyone that I am heading out.  Everyone said, "Nooooooo, you can`t leave."  They got pretty emotional.  They asked me where I was going.  I said I am going to Huertas.  They all laughed really hard and said "we will see you on Sunday."  I already know a few of the members in Huertas and I am excited to go to work. I am going to open a new area, there are now going to be 4 missionaries in Huertas. I have never opened an area before.  I have learned so much on my mission about trying things that I have never done before.  I will get to know my new companion today.  His name is Elder Garabay and he has six months on his mission. My testimony has definitely increased from this experience.  My love for the work has grown and my excitement to serve. Thanks for all of your love and support.  I will have Elder Porter send me pictures of the baptism so that I can send them to you guys. I am going to miss Elder Porter.  He is a really good missionary.  He is still going to be in my District. I love you guys, have a great week!

  

Love Elder Cannon 

 

 

We had a Multi Zone Meeting, I am in the back row.

 

Conference Weekend

General Conference was so awesome.  They just keep getting better and better and end quicker and quicker. We missed the very first session because we were in the hospital.  This Tuesday at 6 in the morning we are going to the hospital and they are going to operate on Elder Porter.  We are really excited that they are finally going to operate on him. We had a good week, but we were a little occupied with doctor stuff. After the surgery and when he recuperates we are going to work so hard, becuase it might be my very last week in the ward.  It is so crazy, I can´t believe that I have been here for six months. I have one year on my mission! I am getting old. I thought that I was going home the 16 of March, Elder Hurt(was in my District in the MTC) told me that our missions are extended until the 29 of April 2015.   I was so happy. I felt a little sad, because I thought that I had less than a year on my mission, but right now I am so happy that it was extended. I received the birthday package and I loved it, it made me really happy. That picture holder looks really awesome, and that colored pencil is really awesome. In our next District Meeting we are going to celebrate my one year mark and last District Meeting together by eating  the twinkies you sent and having fun. Don´t worry we will have the Meeting, and then afterwards we will celebrate. I wonder what the transfers are going to be like, they are going to be interesting! I learned a lot this week and am loving my mission. I know that this church is true and that it is guided by Thomas S. Monson and his Apostles and I am so grateful for them. Have a fantastic week and don´t sleep during the Restoration.  Preach the Gospel to everyone. If you do so, I promise that you will receive more blessings than you can imagine and you will draw closer to God. Trust in God and in his plan. We don´t understand everything that God does for us, we need to be grateful with what we have and press forward, with a whole lot of Faith, that everything will work out just fine! I also recomend that you study Preach My Gospel daily and if you do your desire share the Gospel will increase and you will have oportunities to do it. Just Do It!

Love Elder Cannon