October 27, 2014- Lots of Food and the Ward Party

Hey family and friends!!!

This week has been a slower week for my companion and me. We had 9 member present appointments fall through this week because when we arrived for the appointment the investigator wasn't there. Many of our investigators are starting to become a little shaky so this next week we are going to try to find more investigators.

Every month we are allotted a certain amount of miles on our car. Elder Remund and I have been really low on miles so we couldn't go very far on p-day. On Monday during p-day, our Zone leaders and Elder Remund and I decided to go thrift store shopping. In one of the stores, we found matching wise man oil containers. One of them is white and the other looks like a guy from India. Elder Remund bought the Indian guy and named him Dom and the Zone leaders bought the white guy and named him Tom. Both of us have our little wise man sitting on top of our stoves in our apartment. Now for the story behind the statues, a month ago Elder Remund and I were tracting on a street and trying to talk to everyone. This was an Indian guy that we talked to whose name was Dom and he had the classic Indian accent. Well, he said he wasn't interested by saying, "same god, different religion." As he walked away, he said, "May Dom bless you." We were thinking, “What??” because his name is Dom. Well since then, that is a phrase that we like to joke about. When we told our Zone leaders about it they thought it was pretty funny. When we were shopping in the thrift store and we saw the Indian oil container, it reminded us of the experience.

The Latinos here really like Chinese buffets, especially single Latino men. Elder Remund have been taken to Chinese buffets for dinner twice this week.

On Wednesday, we had interviews with President Baker. Every few months the missionaries here have interviews with the Mission President. This was my first time having an interview with him since I came in the first day. It went pretty well!

There is a sweet little Ecuadorian woman in the ward who invites us over once a week for lunch. My first lunch experience at her home in early September was an interesting one. She first served us a drink called Quaker, an oatmeal and pineapple drink. Elder Remund told me the key for Quaker is to drink it really slowly because as soon as you finish drinking the Quaker she says, "Tome mas Quaker." which means, “Drink more Quaker." She gets really offended if you tell her that you don’t want any more. I don't know how I got away with only having to drink only one large mug of Quaker. She kept asking me if I didn't like her Quaker because I was drinking slow, and I just responded that I was a slow drinker but that the Quaker was good and she seemed pretty content with that. Then she served us a big bowl of soup filled with chicken, vegetables and two boiled eggs floating in it. The soup was actually pretty good except for the boiled eggs. I don't know what she did with those boiled eggs but they weren't good at all. Once I finished the Quaker drink and the large bowl of soup I was stuffed. We were then served a huge plate filled with rice, beans, chicken, and plantains. It was such a struggle to finish all the food. I barely made it. I was basically stuffed for the rest of the day. That evening our ward mission leader took us out to dinner at a steak house. I think that I ended up gaining 10 pounds that day.

One week we got to take the food home with us because of a new mission rule that says that we aren't allowed to teach anyone or even be on the doorstep for an extended period of time with a member of the opposite sex. In the past we would just sit on Abuelita's porch to eat but since we couldn’t do that anymore, that day I was saved from having to stuff my face. #tendermercy Since that week, the sister has rescheduled our time to meet her for lunch to coincide with when her son is there. As a result, we have switched our time with the Hermanas. We now eat at noon and the Hermanas eat at 1 p.m. So taking the food home with us was just a one-time thing.

As I said, the sister who feeds us lunch once a week gives us a lot of food to eat. We try hard to eat what she gives us because she is very offended if we don’t. It is a struggle sometimes. This week she served us something different than the norm- we had breakfast for lunch! There still was a ton of food. She made a huge waffle covered with strawberries and whipped cream, fries and potato patties, eggs and hot chocolate. I was super full after I ate.

I love to eat pupusas, an amazing Salvadorian food that consists of handmade tortilla that is rolled up into a flat ball shape with space inside for the beans and cheese. My companion loves pupusas too, actually all the Spanish missionaries here do. Elder Remund and I are lucky enough to be able to eat pupusas almost every week at Edwin and Miriam’s home, a couple from El Salvador who are getting married December 20 and baptized in early January. Elder Remund and I decided to make pupusas with the zone leaders during one of our lunch hours, and man they were amazing. They weren't as good as Edwin and Miriam’s, but they were still really good.

On Saturday, the Bishop of the Gloucester Virginia ward invited the Spanish Branch to come to his home for a ward party. Elder Remund and I asked President Baker if we would be allowed to go and he said Yes!! He said that all 6 missionaries in our district could attend. Gloucester is completely out of our zone and missionaries rarely get permission to leave their zone for a party, so it was really cool!

All the Latinos in our branch met at the church and then we caravanned up there. The Bishop owns a huge property. He had a huge open field for us to park in, and we had to walk down a road through the forest to get to his house. His house is huge and he had a huge backyard located in the middle of the forest. There were a ton of people there and a lot of food. After dinner they had a trunk or treat and a huge bonfire. Apparently the bishop and his family build a large bonfire every year. They spend the whole year cutting and stacking a huge stack of wood to burn.

There was some confusion about our investigator Jeff. His sister in law told us that he had been cigarette free but apparently he had a cigarette last Sunday. When we went to see him on Tuesday he said had been cigarette free since Monday, so we had to move his baptism to from November 1^st to November 8th. Hopefully he will be able to be baptized then. We continue to encourage him and I will continue to keep everyone updated on his baptism date. Hopefully, he will be strong!!

Tomorrow, I am going on an exchange with the zone leaders. Elder Remund is leaving to go to the zone leaders area and Elder Geddis and Elder Terril are coming to our area to work with me. Elder Terril is an English-speaking missionary, so that means I will be the only Spanish-speaking missionary during the exchange. Basically, I will be the only one teaching the lessons and talking to the Latinos. Hopefully, my Spanish can hold up. I'm pretty excited though because it will be a good learning experience. I'm excited because this experience will force me to talk to Latinos a lot. I already know my Spanish is pretty good, I just can't wait to see how good.

Hope everyone has a great week!

Love Elder Cannon