So I am guessing all of you are wondering how our Christmas was since we weren't able to email last week... well get excited because here you go.
Christmas Eve we started out our day with our studies like we always do and then we headed out to deliver frames that we made for the Recent converts who were baptized earlier this year. The sisters that were before us did an amazing job this year at bringing people into the gospel we are fortunate to finish up their work. After we finished delivering those we went to the Workman to see the older people we play BINGO with. We brought them the bags that S. Allen's mom made. It really made their day when we went and talked to them. It is so sad to see them sit there all day and not do anything. Later that night we were able to go to Marks house to have dinner. We drove there with the Tillinghasts and when we got there we were able to enjoy the "feast of the seven fishes". Yes, I went to a feast where all they had was fish. Dad, you would be so proud of me! They had raw tuna, calamari (SICK) that was one food I couldn't choke down. As I was trying it Bro. T said to S. Allen, "Sister Allen can you feel it still moving around in your mouth..." that is when I lost it. It was really fun over there, Mark is the only one in his family that is Mormon and so it was a good teaching opportunity for us. We ended the night over there and headed back home with the Tillinghasts. On the car ride home, I thought it would be fun to start singing the 12 days of Christmas so off we went. When we got on the fifth day we all went off on our own note and I was able to let my star singing shine. S. Tillinghast was a little shocked because my voice was rockin... I sang like the muppets do, yes it was awesome...
Christmas morning was the highlight of the year!!! The alarm went off at 6, but I woke up at 545 with so much excitement I couldn't wait! While S. Allen was praying, I hooked up the Christmas tree, and when she was done, I yelled, "MERRY CHRISTMAS" in her face!! She wasn't too happy. She told me to give her five minutes so she could wake up a little bit. While she was in the bathroom I turned on music and said, "Lets open them! We opened our HUGE stockings from the ward and man do we have enough lotion to last us the rest of our mission!! We got all the beauty supplies we could ever ask for. We also got a plethora of gloves and scarves. Once again we are so spoiled. After we were done we headed over to Dean and Susan's to watch them open gifts. We walked in and the kids were so excited to open their gifts, they are foster kids so they have never had a Christmas like that one. Susan bought us gifts, my favorites from her was stamps (can't ever have enough of those) and this really nice window scraper that you have to buy from a special car dealership, its nice because it doesn't scratch the car. After the gifts we started watching Toy Story 3 and Susan made us breakfast. We had buttermilk pancakes, eggs, sausage and bacon it was so good. We headed home after breakfast got ready for the day and headed out to Steve Green's house. We love going to their house because their whole family comes over and they all sit down and eat together. We had our second breakfast that morning which was also really good. Amy's son is serving a mission in CA and so he called that morning and got to talk to everyone. Amy wants me to marry her son so she gave me the phone so I could talk to him. He seemed really nice I told him that his mom wants us to get married he just laughed and kept saying sorry. I tell you the women out here are really trying to get rid of their sons. After the Green's we went to the Tilinghasts. Sister T took us with her to pick up Monique. We were all a little nervous because if you remember she had the HUGE breakdown a few days before so we didn't know how she would act. It turned out to be really nice. Dinner was really good, we were super full but you have to be nice and eat. I won't be surprised if I come home 20lbs bigger. Around 5 we went to Brenda Greens house to have dinner. We love going over there because she is always so nice to us. She said a prayer on the food and started crying when she was talking about how grateful she was that the sisters were there. She also thanked our families for letting us come out here. It meant so much to us to hear that. After the finishing out last meal of the night we headed over to Angelo's. He gave us two gift bags and in it was some really nice gloves, tights, scarf and a $50 american express gift card. Our mouths we on the floor we told him we couldn't accept that and he just told us to enjoy it. It was so nice of him! He is seriously so cool.
Christmas Eve we started out our day with our studies like we always do and then we headed out to deliver frames that we made for the Recent converts who were baptized earlier this year. The sisters that were before us did an amazing job this year at bringing people into the gospel we are fortunate to finish up their work. After we finished delivering those we went to the Workman to see the older people we play BINGO with. We brought them the bags that S. Allen's mom made. It really made their day when we went and talked to them. It is so sad to see them sit there all day and not do anything. Later that night we were able to go to Marks house to have dinner. We drove there with the Tillinghasts and when we got there we were able to enjoy the "feast of the seven fishes". Yes, I went to a feast where all they had was fish. Dad, you would be so proud of me! They had raw tuna, calamari (SICK) that was one food I couldn't choke down. As I was trying it Bro. T said to S. Allen, "Sister Allen can you feel it still moving around in your mouth..." that is when I lost it. It was really fun over there, Mark is the only one in his family that is Mormon and so it was a good teaching opportunity for us. We ended the night over there and headed back home with the Tillinghasts. On the car ride home, I thought it would be fun to start singing the 12 days of Christmas so off we went. When we got on the fifth day we all went off on our own note and I was able to let my star singing shine. S. Tillinghast was a little shocked because my voice was rockin... I sang like the muppets do, yes it was awesome...
Christmas morning was the highlight of the year!!! The alarm went off at 6, but I woke up at 545 with so much excitement I couldn't wait! While S. Allen was praying, I hooked up the Christmas tree, and when she was done, I yelled, "MERRY CHRISTMAS" in her face!! She wasn't too happy. She told me to give her five minutes so she could wake up a little bit. While she was in the bathroom I turned on music and said, "Lets open them! We opened our HUGE stockings from the ward and man do we have enough lotion to last us the rest of our mission!! We got all the beauty supplies we could ever ask for. We also got a plethora of gloves and scarves. Once again we are so spoiled. After we were done we headed over to Dean and Susan's to watch them open gifts. We walked in and the kids were so excited to open their gifts, they are foster kids so they have never had a Christmas like that one. Susan bought us gifts, my favorites from her was stamps (can't ever have enough of those) and this really nice window scraper that you have to buy from a special car dealership, its nice because it doesn't scratch the car. After the gifts we started watching Toy Story 3 and Susan made us breakfast. We had buttermilk pancakes, eggs, sausage and bacon it was so good. We headed home after breakfast got ready for the day and headed out to Steve Green's house. We love going to their house because their whole family comes over and they all sit down and eat together. We had our second breakfast that morning which was also really good. Amy's son is serving a mission in CA and so he called that morning and got to talk to everyone. Amy wants me to marry her son so she gave me the phone so I could talk to him. He seemed really nice I told him that his mom wants us to get married he just laughed and kept saying sorry. I tell you the women out here are really trying to get rid of their sons. After the Green's we went to the Tilinghasts. Sister T took us with her to pick up Monique. We were all a little nervous because if you remember she had the HUGE breakdown a few days before so we didn't know how she would act. It turned out to be really nice. Dinner was really good, we were super full but you have to be nice and eat. I won't be surprised if I come home 20lbs bigger. Around 5 we went to Brenda Greens house to have dinner. We love going over there because she is always so nice to us. She said a prayer on the food and started crying when she was talking about how grateful she was that the sisters were there. She also thanked our families for letting us come out here. It meant so much to us to hear that. After the finishing out last meal of the night we headed over to Angelo's. He gave us two gift bags and in it was some really nice gloves, tights, scarf and a $50 american express gift card. Our mouths we on the floor we told him we couldn't accept that and he just told us to enjoy it. It was so nice of him! He is seriously so cool.
Well, to no surprise, last Sunday the backeast storm hit with an incredible force which led to all mission vehicles to be grounded and we could not leave our apartments. UGH!!!! So, all Sunday night we did missionary work at the apartment. But S. Allen and I had 2 appointments, so we walked to those in the blizzard. As soon as we walked out of the house, the wind blew my umbrella backwards, and we almost got blown to the ground! S. Allen yelled, "Can't we just drive???" It was so hilarious because we probably looked so funny. Luckily our appointments were close that we walked to. It wasn't the worst storm I have ever seen, but everyone just goes crazy out here when they see snow! Its pretty funny.
Since we didn't email last week, you can probably guess the storm continued through the next day so we stayed in for a while and then went crazy! So Susan drove us to the post office to get my packages and then to lunch for my birthday. She is so sweet. It is incredible how members will do anything for us. This ward is so awesome. We then had birthday cake at LaMonica's and all the brothers kept saying "Happy Birthday Sister Cannon!" Throughout the entire week. They are all so nice to us, I love it! The Skor Bar cake that mom sent was soooooooo good and perfect on my birthday!
Tuesday was exchanges and I went to Southbury with Sister Barben. We met the new sister, her name is Sister Baker and she lived in New York and knows Chet. Pretty cool, and she is so legit. It is funny because sisters in this mission are the exact opposite of the stereotype of sister missionaries, so it makes it so much fun. SHe was a hairstylist in NY so she gave me bangs because she said my ends were not looking good haha but ya my hair looks tons better. I am getting the hookups out here!
So we have a new investigator, Linda, she is a member in the ward's mom. She said she walked into her husband's work and there was a quad sitting on the shelf and she knew it was her answer that it was time for her to join the church. She has been fighting it for a while and she has received her answer. So ya, she is all ready and will do whatever she needs to be baptized. Haha ok that makes it pretty easy for us!
So we went street contacting and met a guy that goes by the name of "Dread" (he had dread locks and he was Jamaican). That was quite hilarious! He told us that we shouldn't add to the Bible because it says so in Revelations. We then explained to him that that means don't add to the book of Revelations, not the Bible and then he told us that we were sheep being led to the slaughter. He told us he was going to keep the card of the temple but he won't take "that book". Haha gotta love these people.
So S. Allen and I went to visit a lady and she had called for us to come at 12. So we go at 12 and she answers the door in her underwear saying she just woke up but wanted us to come in. Wow... Ummm ok? So we talked with her for a while, and she committed to come to church. We felt pretty awkward the entire time... People are pretty open out here!
So for New Year's Eve, we ordered some pizza and ate it with Angelo at his restaurant. It was way fun!
We went to an open house for a guy in our ward and it was fun! We helped with the wedding and I was more than happy. I love weddings, I told Sister Allen I am planning her whole wedding and doing her photography. She is more than happy with that so we are all set.
Ok, here is your Sunday update. Don't worry, it was one of our more eventful ones! So we got a call from Monique crying so we went over there and I guess she was at the park with her dog and he bit someone because he got excited and it barely bruised the kid, so the girls dad came and chewed monique out and called the cops. So they came and took her dog away because it didn't have any tags. So she was freaking out because she didn't have any money to get the dog out of the pound and doesn't know why God did this to her again. We comforted her and she kept saying how she wanted to go to church.
So at church the next day after sunday school, she was acting wierd, and wanted to talk. SO I took her in another room and she said she didn't understand why God abandoned her and let another bad thing happen. She then went on to say that ever since she joined the church her life has gotten worse and worse and she is "done" with the church. Wow. So S. Allen said, "so that's it? You are just going to give up and let Satan win?" She then went on to say she is done and doesn't care anymore and wants life to go back to the way it was. UGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. Luckily the bishop and first counselor, whom she LOVES came in and talked to her and she listened to them and calmed down after that. He came in and said, "Monique, what is wrong?" She said, "My life sucks." Then B. Prenoveau said, "ya, well so does mine." B. Prenoveau has been trying to adopt a child from Africa for 18months now and they haven't been able to. There are so many things going wrong in his life, and he didn't say a word to her about what he is going through which is ten times worse than what she was going through. It was such a lesson to me about humility and about why Heavenly Father gives us trials: TO MAKE US STRONGER. At the end of this long discussion, she is better and is going to work things out with the bishop. At this point, the ward is going to step in and take over because we could be potentially leaving.
To top the whole day off, Angelo said he would come to church because his restaurant wasn't open on Sunday, and he didn't show. It is incredible how him not coming to church broke my heart. I become so attached to these people out here and when they disappoint us by not keeping committments, not coming to church, telling us they don't want to meet with them anymore, or saying they won't be baptized anymore, it literally breaks my heart. All we want is for them to have the gospel which brings HAPPINESS! It is hard when people just don't see that. We went and saw him after church and after talking to him for a while, we came to realize that his conversion is not going to happen while we are here. It is just not his time yet which is so sad for us. It is so comforting to know that Heavenly Father has a greater plan in mind and we have been able to plant a seed. Although we may not see what that seed does, we did set an example.
Since we didn't email last week, you can probably guess the storm continued through the next day so we stayed in for a while and then went crazy! So Susan drove us to the post office to get my packages and then to lunch for my birthday. She is so sweet. It is incredible how members will do anything for us. This ward is so awesome. We then had birthday cake at LaMonica's and all the brothers kept saying "Happy Birthday Sister Cannon!" Throughout the entire week. They are all so nice to us, I love it! The Skor Bar cake that mom sent was soooooooo good and perfect on my birthday!
Tuesday was exchanges and I went to Southbury with Sister Barben. We met the new sister, her name is Sister Baker and she lived in New York and knows Chet. Pretty cool, and she is so legit. It is funny because sisters in this mission are the exact opposite of the stereotype of sister missionaries, so it makes it so much fun. SHe was a hairstylist in NY so she gave me bangs because she said my ends were not looking good haha but ya my hair looks tons better. I am getting the hookups out here!
So we have a new investigator, Linda, she is a member in the ward's mom. She said she walked into her husband's work and there was a quad sitting on the shelf and she knew it was her answer that it was time for her to join the church. She has been fighting it for a while and she has received her answer. So ya, she is all ready and will do whatever she needs to be baptized. Haha ok that makes it pretty easy for us!
So we went street contacting and met a guy that goes by the name of "Dread" (he had dread locks and he was Jamaican). That was quite hilarious! He told us that we shouldn't add to the Bible because it says so in Revelations. We then explained to him that that means don't add to the book of Revelations, not the Bible and then he told us that we were sheep being led to the slaughter. He told us he was going to keep the card of the temple but he won't take "that book". Haha gotta love these people.
So S. Allen and I went to visit a lady and she had called for us to come at 12. So we go at 12 and she answers the door in her underwear saying she just woke up but wanted us to come in. Wow... Ummm ok? So we talked with her for a while, and she committed to come to church. We felt pretty awkward the entire time... People are pretty open out here!
So for New Year's Eve, we ordered some pizza and ate it with Angelo at his restaurant. It was way fun!
We went to an open house for a guy in our ward and it was fun! We helped with the wedding and I was more than happy. I love weddings, I told Sister Allen I am planning her whole wedding and doing her photography. She is more than happy with that so we are all set.
Ok, here is your Sunday update. Don't worry, it was one of our more eventful ones! So we got a call from Monique crying so we went over there and I guess she was at the park with her dog and he bit someone because he got excited and it barely bruised the kid, so the girls dad came and chewed monique out and called the cops. So they came and took her dog away because it didn't have any tags. So she was freaking out because she didn't have any money to get the dog out of the pound and doesn't know why God did this to her again. We comforted her and she kept saying how she wanted to go to church.
So at church the next day after sunday school, she was acting wierd, and wanted to talk. SO I took her in another room and she said she didn't understand why God abandoned her and let another bad thing happen. She then went on to say that ever since she joined the church her life has gotten worse and worse and she is "done" with the church. Wow. So S. Allen said, "so that's it? You are just going to give up and let Satan win?" She then went on to say she is done and doesn't care anymore and wants life to go back to the way it was. UGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. Luckily the bishop and first counselor, whom she LOVES came in and talked to her and she listened to them and calmed down after that. He came in and said, "Monique, what is wrong?" She said, "My life sucks." Then B. Prenoveau said, "ya, well so does mine." B. Prenoveau has been trying to adopt a child from Africa for 18months now and they haven't been able to. There are so many things going wrong in his life, and he didn't say a word to her about what he is going through which is ten times worse than what she was going through. It was such a lesson to me about humility and about why Heavenly Father gives us trials: TO MAKE US STRONGER. At the end of this long discussion, she is better and is going to work things out with the bishop. At this point, the ward is going to step in and take over because we could be potentially leaving.
To top the whole day off, Angelo said he would come to church because his restaurant wasn't open on Sunday, and he didn't show. It is incredible how him not coming to church broke my heart. I become so attached to these people out here and when they disappoint us by not keeping committments, not coming to church, telling us they don't want to meet with them anymore, or saying they won't be baptized anymore, it literally breaks my heart. All we want is for them to have the gospel which brings HAPPINESS! It is hard when people just don't see that. We went and saw him after church and after talking to him for a while, we came to realize that his conversion is not going to happen while we are here. It is just not his time yet which is so sad for us. It is so comforting to know that Heavenly Father has a greater plan in mind and we have been able to plant a seed. Although we may not see what that seed does, we did set an example.
Although we have many hard times on our mission, the moments that are spiritual outweigh the bad by so much. During testimony meeting, the theme was Jesus Christ and what He has done for us. So, I want to bear my testimony about Jesus Christ.
I know that He is my Savior. I am so grateful for what He did for me and I know he suffered a moment in the garden just for me. Sometimes we look at His suffering as a whole for the entire world, but He suffered for each of us individually. He knows EVERYTHING we have gone through. So when we go through these hard times in our lives, it is then that we must remember that He knows how we feel. I know that He died for us so that we could return to our Heavenly Father. And although He did die for us, I know that He LIVES! I am so grateful that we can be resurrected as He was so that we can return to our Heavenly Father. I know that as we strive to be like Him, we can be happier and as we serve like He did, we can make others happier. I am grateful for the gospel we have been given to know what He has asked us to do here on earth. Let us remember Him always and remember what He has asked us to do.
We loved Christmas here it was full of joy, love and lots of memories!!!! Now bring on the new year!!!!!!!!!
We loved Christmas here it was full of joy, love and lots of memories!!!! Now bring on the new year!!!!!!!!!
I love you all!
Love,
Elizabeth
Love,
Elizabeth
TAWANDA!
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