December 15 and December 22, 2014- Two Posts in One

December 15, 2014

Hey family and friends!

Christmas is drawing nearer and nearer! It's crazy how fast time is flying out here! Its been getting really cold here. Every morning before we leave for the day, Elder Morgan and I go outside to our frozen car. We sit in the cold car with the heater on and wait for the windows to defrost since you can't see anything out of them, or if we are in a hurry we just use a debit card to scrape the ice off the windows. It’s definitely not something that I'm used to handling since it is never cold back home.

We are still handing out "He is the Gift" cards to everyone that we see and people really seem to like the message!

This week we had a mission conference for all of the missionaries in Virginia. Elder Snow, from the Seventy, spoke as well as President Baker. It was a really good conference. It was interesting because President Snow called on a few of us to give talks about faith. After each person talked we were asked to publicly analyze the good and bad points of the talk. He explained that public speaking is just like teaching and then he taught us how to improve our teaching.

Elder Morgan and I don't feel like Iris will be ready to be baptized on January 3rd so we moved her baptismal date to February 7th. Because of her old age, it is hard for her to understand what we are teaching her unless we teach her slowly and teach things over again.

For the past couple of weeks we have lost contact with Ramon and Belkis and their daughters Madeline and Dyana. We haven't had a lesson with them for two weeks because they keep canceling our appointments and they haven't been to church in like a month. But it was such a miracle because last night, one of our appointments fell through, and Elder Morgan and I felt like we should drop by Ramon and Belkis's house and just see if we could talk to them and see how they are doing. When we showed up and knocked on their door, Belkis answered and she invited us to come in. However, since Ramon wasn't there we couldn’t come in. This was the same reason why previous appointments had to be canceled. As we were getting ready to leave, Ramon pulled up in his car. We were able to go in and teach them a lesson after all. It was more of a good talk with them than a lesson, but I'm glad we were able to meet up with them again. After our lesson last night, they invited us to come over for dinner tonight, a lesson on Tuesday, and some food on Christmas Eve.

I encourage you all to continue to invite friends and family members to view the video "He is the Gift" as Christmas comes closer because around this season people are more receptive to hear messages about Jesus Christ. I can promise you that the true spirit of Christmas will enter your home this Christmas as you strive to share this wonderful message about Jesus Christ with others.

Edwin and Miriam are getting married on December 20th. Elder Morgan and I have been invited to their wedding, and then they will get baptized on Jan 10.

-Elder Cannon

All of the missionaries in my Zone

December 22, 2014

Feliz Navidad everyone!

I'm actually pretty excited to experience Christmas in Virginia. Missionaries here have told me that Christmas on a mission is amazing because you are serving the Lord.

This past week has been a pretty good week. We had a really good lesson with our investigators Ramon and Belkis and their daughters Madeline and Dyana.

On Tuesday we had a really good lesson about la santa cena (the sacrament) with a less active member named Valerio and he committed that he would go to church.

We had our mission Christmas Conference on Thursday. It was super good! We watched the movie Polar Express and then ate some yummy food and then a bunch of missionaries sung some Christmas songs.

Saturday was the highlight of the week! Edwin and Miriam, our investigators from El Salvador, got married! It was an amazing boda (wedding) and the food was so good. They asked us to pick up the food for them before the wedding and deliver it to the church. When we arrived at Edwin and Miriam's house, there were two huge coolers as well as a huge container of Horchata, a rice and vanilla drink. It took a ton of rearranging to get the coolers to fit in the car, and we had to scoot both of our seats in the car all the way up. Elder Morgan had to drive with his chest against the steering wheel and I was trying to hold the Horchata on my lap even though there wasn't any room for my legs. The Horchata kept spilling every time we hit a bump, so we had to pull over. I squeezed into the back and then had to hold the Horchata that was in the front seat from the back seat. Both Elder Morgan and I were pretty uncomfortable and we kept cracking up about it as we were driving but luckily we made it to the church in one piece.

Well I hope everyone has an amazing Christmas! And I encourage everyone to really think of Jesus Christ this Christmas and remember the things that he was done for us.

Love,

Elder Cannon