Holaaaa

I have come to find out that each day here in La Plata, Argentina is literally an adventure. Let me tell you about this week´s adventure.. 

Tuesday- We sent a baptism date with one of our investigators!! It is crazy, I know that we are put in the exact places at the right time becuase this whole week I have been able to share personal experiences about my life or my family´s that I haven´t shared in years or have never shared out loud! Her name is Rumilda and she has the cutest family! Ah I´m a sucker for the little kids. But we just hope that she is already married so she can skip that step and go straight to baptism. That has been our theme for this transfer, getting people to the altar! 

Wednesday- INTERCAMBIOS (exchanges) with the very beautiful Hermana Browning from Utah. aka Yankee-ness round too! I got to go to their area again and probably had too much fun with her in City Bell. 

And on Wednesday I huge miracle happened for me. So before I left I thought I had packed a huge bottle of my favorite lotion (the same lotion I have been using my whole life). Anyway but when I got here I found out that I had brought fash wash instead of the lotion. But when I was in my exchange, in the lunch with a member, I saw the brand of lotion that I loved and had forgotten at home. The sister who we were eating with saw the look on my face and when I told her how much I loved this kind of lotion gave me a whole box full of samples, without hesitation, enough to last me my whole mission! Turns out that her husband works for the same company of the lotion and they get them for free all the time. I know this may sound vain and like a lame miracle, but for me it is huge and just a HUGE testimony builder and eye opener that God cares and understands that smallest of details in our lives and if living right, will answer and provide for the tiniest of things that you may need. Prayers work people! God is so good! 

Friday- Was a blast! We had our Father´s Day activity went so well! So many members, less actives, and investigators showed up! It´s true in any country, if you want people to show up just say free food and games! My game of real life fusball was a hit and all the dads loved it! 

Monday- My favorite and cutest Mexicana made me tacos today! And I baked a cake but there´s no skill in that! Sorry United States but these tacos were WAY better than any of the tacos there. 

My sister training leader, Hermana Small gave me this quote which I love! 

"Good timber does not grow with ease. The stronger the wind the stronger the trees." -Thomas S. Monson 

This next week is going to be crazy because it is finally crunch time!! By this weekend I will find out my fate, if I´m in the new east mission, or going back to the south. How sad but exciting of a time this is. So stay tuned for next week. So nervous! 

Shoutout to my dad for Father´s Day. I love you dad! 

Have a great week and enjoy for the sunshine and summer for me while I FREEZE in Antarctica! 

Love the Arizona girl who is so not used to the cold,

Hermana Cannon (Colchone) 

Holaaaa from the freezing Argentina! 

This week has seriously flown by and it´s the weirdest thing to be this cold in the middle of June (Summer!!). Just to get a picture of how cold we are here .. me and my comp study in all our winter clothes, jackets, and all, and even our gloves! To sleep, I literally sleep in every piece of clothing that I have, from fuzzy socks to a hoodie over my head. Anything to keep buddled up. 

Besides the freezing cold this week has been a week of miracles and progress for our investigators!! Last Monday was the anniversary of our investigators, Carlos and Angelica, who have a date set for both their marriage and baptism!! They have never had brownies before so I told them I´d bake some and they were so good! I put dulce de leche on top (which everything is better with dulce de leche) and oreos on top. They were de diez!! But most importantly, Carlos and Angelica loved it! 

Wednesday, I had my first intercambio (exchange) again! I was with the Hermana Small from Pennsylvania! It was so great to see new things and meet new people. But I have come to find out that it is bad when two Yankees get together because we end up bringing out the Yankee-ness in each other. Like talking about all things American lol. 

Then the greatest thing ever happened on Saturday! Our other investigator, Erica, in our lesson with her told us that she knew that The Book of Mormon was true. We just barely sat down to start the lesson when she couldn´t help but jumping up and opening up her Book of Mormon to show us what she had read and learned. And when we talk about her baptism, there is no hesitation and it is a serious yes. This is so night and day difference because the very first lesson with her she was very timid and told us many times that she just wasn´t interested. But the Gospel and the Holy Ghost works in wonderous ways! It has been the greatest thing to watch her life, everything change for the better. These are the moments I live for in the mission. 

We are so pumped for Father´s Day because the ward and us are planning a huge activity. We are in charge of the games and I am stealing a game I played in singles ward once, human real life fusball! It is actually like how it sounds. Theres long poles that everyone holds one to. But no one can move forward or backward, only side to side. Just like the table game of fusball. I´ll be sure to take tons of pictures!! 

For a boost of spirituall coolness I found a super awesome quote by the super awesome President Monson that has pretty much summed up my life the past 4 months. It says...

"Our Heavenly Father, who gives us to much to delight in, also knows that we learn and grow and become stronger as we face and survive the trials through which we MUST pass... Such difficulties allow us to change for the better, to rebuild our lives in the way our Heavenly Father teaches us, and to become something different from what we were- better than we were, more understanding than we were, more empathetic than we were, with stronger testimonies than we had before." 

Trials are a blessing! Life is way to short to be miserable. A motto that I have for my mission this time around is to be happy everyday! To find something that makes me happy, every single day. In the midst of trials or not. Smile because God is in control! 

Have a happy week! Love you! 

Hermana Colchone

Hola!!

   I can´t believe I´m almost at my one month mark, again! This transfer is flying by but it also feels like I never left and that I´ve been in this area forever! I first just wanted to say happy birthday to my little trev trev. I can´t believe that you´ll be 7 this week!! Words cannot express how much I want one of your little hugs right now. I love you! oh and Ellie too hahahaa. 

This week has been crazy! And lots of things unexpected and out of the ordinary. And dont worry I have plenty of funny stories (well I think they´re funny). 

1. Baja La Caña 

The first has to do with a family of the ward that we eat lunch with every Wednesday. As missionaries of Romero we were planning a Jeporady activity for the ward game night. And the question of how many continents got brought up. Well in the ward theres me and Elder DeYoung who are from the States, and my companion from Mexico and the companion of DeYoung is from Chile. Me and Elder DeYoung said that there are 7 continents (obviously) BUT the other two, Hermana Ramierz, and Elder Torres both thought that there are only 5 and that South America and North America is just one continent, one big America. So I was curious to see if this was just a latin thing and if they taught the same thing here in Argentina. So I asked this one member who was a returned missionary and long story short he made it into an hour long lecture, which they call it "baja la caña" here. He went on to explain to me why theres only 5 and then went off way into World War 2 and crazy politics stuff. And even longer story made short, I will NEVER bring up continents here again and if someone asks me how many there are I simply will say "I don´t know". 

2. Crazy Domingo 

Yesterday, Sunday we had stake conference at the stake building in La Plata. We were all set and ready to go, a family was going to drive us in their van BUT they called us and told us that their van had just broken down. So we ran to catch the bus and waited forever because buses don´t run too much on Sundays. Anyway so after 30 minutes of waiting we finally got on a bus, and not 10 minutes later our bus broke down!! So we were just going to be 5 minutes late but we ended up arriving almost an hour late!! We snuck into the back and then President Thurgood in his talk, asked for all the missionaries to stand up. It was super embarrassing because we were way in the back away from all the other missionaries! And then after the conference a family in the ward invited us to eat lunch with them. We couldn´t say no to free food so we got in their car and we ended up at a restuarant! More specifically a buffet! It was too late to leave now and it would´ve offended them so there was nothing else to do but stay. So yesterday we messed the sacrament and ate out. Such sinners but what can you do, the life of a missionary. 

For spiritualness.. We are still working hard with the few investigators we do have! We have a couple that has finally agreed, after 6 months of listening to the missionaries, have set a date in August to get married so that they can both be baptized! 

And we have just started teaching this one young girl, Erica. She has a baby and lives with her boyfriend. And the past 3 times we´ve taught her she has told us that it just isn´t clicking for her yet. She loves what our church is about but she doesn´t see the need for it in her life. So this past lesson, after we were done I asked her to say the closing prayer. So we all knelt and she said the sweetest and the most heartfelt prayer. By the time she had finished praying we were all crying. And slowly but surely we are seeing huge changes in Erica. The power of prayer is so awesome! 

The Church is true, the mission is the best, and not gonna lie, this is wayyyy better than being at home. #sorrynotsorry 

love you all! have a great week! 

Hermana Colchone

Hollaaaaa!! 

Oh my goodness this has been the craziest week of my life, again. I arrived back to Argentina on Tuesday and what an adventure it has been since then. So right now I am in a city called La Plata but my area is called Romero. It is a tinnnnyyyy town in the countryside. They call it campo here lol. I already love it. Just so you can get a picture of how small town it is, the closest grocery store is 40 minutes away! The chapel is way nice and my apartment is behind a members house, again. lol. But they are the sweetest and cutest little family ever. Being back in Argentina has brought back SO many memories and I´m SO excited to be back here and to be a missionary again. I forgot how much I missed it and how precious this time really is. I am  100 percent content that  it was the right choice to come back because I know I have work to do here.

My companion is Hernama Ramiez and she´s from Monterrey, Mexico! She is the cutest little thing! I call her fiesty all the time because that pretty much sums her up. She knows completely nothing in English but I love it because I get to speak Castellano (Spanish) all day long. It´s the best. I am so surprised that I am able to understand and speak for being home for so long and being way new in the mission. It´s true what my stake president said in my setting apart, that I would be able to return and pick up right where I left off. I am still nowhere near fluent but I have time. I am able to express myself and show my real personality which I´m happy with. But my companion helps me out a TON and has so much patience with me which is what I hoped for. It´s like I´m I get to start my mission over again, except this time it´s a little bit better lol.

This time is also super crazy because in just one more transfer, so in June, the mission is going to split! So as of now I am in the east mission, which is the new mission, so if I stay here or move back to the south mission, that´ll be the mission I stay in! So crazy! I don´t know much about the new mission but my mission president right now, President Thurgood told us that the new mission president for the east mission is from Chile. I´m excited to see what happens! But what will be neat if I stay in what will be the east mission, we will technically the very first missionaries ever in that mission! 

So technically, I´m still considered as being "in training" even though I was only a week or two short from finishing my training. Which I don´t really mind because I´d rather take things slow instead of moving full speed ahead. I got to see some of the hermanas that came to the mission with me from the Provo, MTC, and they are all already TRAINING for the first time or second. So in just 7 months in the mission and they are already training someone else. So I am just fine with where I´m at. But it´s fun because Hna Ramierz and I have almost the same time in the mission from before I left, she has three months and I had four before I left so it´s almost like we´re new together. 

Either Heavenly Father has a ton of trust in me or He is really testing me because our apartment is two stories and the stairs are so small and sketchy! It literally is the tiniest staircase ever and looks like it should be for midgets. And since I´m in the countryside we have bikes! They are so fun and is so different from Burzaco, which as wayyy more city like than where I am now. Almost all of the members and the people that live here aren´t even from Argentina. Half the ward are from Bolivia and Paraguay so now I have to get used to not hearing the Argentine accent! 

Oh I have a funny story. So theres this dog that lives with the people that live in front of us and whenever he breathes, it sounds like he´s coughing up a hairball and a million other things. And this goes on all day and all night non stop. Even when we´re having the most spiritual of moments in the pench, we just hear that dang dog coughing up his lungs just trying to breathe. Poor thing. Anyway so one day this week I can´t remember I sorta told him sternly to stop breathing like that and he did for a few minutes and started back again. Well that night I left my boots outside because they were all muddy and I couldn´t bring them inside. The next morning one of my boots was gone! I found that same dog carried my boot away and chew out the sole. So I learned my lesson to only speak nicely, even to dogs that sound like their dying 24/7. 

And on a more spiritual note, I just can´t believe how happy I am. It´s like a dark cloud hovered over me when I was home. I am way happy here than I ever was at home and I truly am so glad that I chose to come back and that I can finish my mission where I started, in Argentina!! The first night here I was lying in bed and I just started balling. Not because I was frustrated or overwhelmed, but because I was truly happy. And when I thought about how much The Lord has blessed me already, I couldn´t help but cry. He literally has been there every step of the way and has given me exactly what I need exactly when I need it. The Lord´s hand in my life was so evident that I couldn´t help but be grateful, and even know I see it still, everyday. And for that I am deeply grateful. 

Well I just scratched the surface but that´s been my first week in Argentina, AGAIN. You truly do love me if you do end up reading all this and I apologize that it´s so dang long. And no pictures today. I forgot my cord, but next week expect lots! Love you all 

Hermana Cannon

HOLA MI FAMILIA ! 

Ah I cannot believe that I am in my 10th week here in Argentina. Where does the time go? Just two more weeks untill another transfer and then I figure out if I´m staying in Burzaco or leaving! Today for P-day was the best. We got to play sports with the whole zone and a hermana from Mexico made homemade tacos for everyone!! For being in South America, this was only my third time having tacos and from all the pasta and pizza, it feels like I´m in Italy. 

My comp and I have been working so so hard this week because we have 4 investigators with the same baptismal date, February 21st! And we´re also having a fiesta!! Or a ward activity which is going to be a Luau! Hermana Toala and I are planning the whole thing and the members and all our less actives are really excited about it. So we have A LOT to do these next couple weeks. 

My very favorite moments are when we have lessons and the Spirit is so strong. We had one of those this past week with Emilse and her god-daughter, Sol. We asked them if they could feel a difference when we were there and we left and they said that they notice a huge difference. They both said that they feel peace and harmony very strongly when we are there. They trusted in us enough to then confide in us with their worries and trials. The scriptures are the ultimate comforter. Like my 30 day challenge. I know that anyone can find all the answers that their soul hungers for in the scriptures. The patriarch in the ward who we eat lunch with every Friday told us this really cool analogy. The church is like one big hospital and we are all sick. We attend church and partake of the sacrament because we are all in need to be healed. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the ultimate cure. With reading the scriptures and praying is the power of that cure. I know that peace, comfort, and pure joy comes from doing those things. One of our other investigators, Simon, said the best quote, ¨Dirty scriptures, clean heart.¨ It sounds better in Spanish but mark up those scriptures, and treasure them! 

LOVE AND MISS YOU GUYS! TAKE CARE! 

Love, 

Hermana Cannon 

Temple Trip!! First two with Hermana Meeks and the other with mi compañera! and the other with my 

Hi Family!! 

This week has been so much more crazier than the rest but FILLED with miracles! 

I found out that my old lacrosse friend from high school, now Hermana Meeks is not only in my mission but in my zone! So I get to see her all the time! A little piece of home:)

Wednesday after our zone meeting I was feeling super sick so we headed to the clinic a couple towns over and we walked in and the security guard was asked was what was wrong, and neither of us really knew how to explain it in Castellano so I was just like my throat hurts, fever (the few phrases I did know). He sent us to a little doctors office and lucky for me my doctor was fluent in English! Turned out I had strep! 

And then Friday we got to go to the temple!! Oh how I missed the temple. I took for granted being so close to so many temples and being able to go often! But the Buenos Aires temple is so gorgeous and was so worth the 3 hour bus ride! 

Then right after the temple we had another exchange! But this time I was staying in Burzaco and my comp was leaving. That meant that I was the one that had to be in charge. And man is it stressful but I was able to do it! Sometimes I underestimate myself but I have learned to press forward and just to have faith that The Lord will guide me every step of the way and that difficulties and problems come along the way for us to learn and grow. 

The work is progressing so fast here. I am so happy that I get to be here at this time and have the investigators that I do have. As of today we have four people with a baptismal date! Simon, a man we met on the street from Columbia who read 9 chapters in the Book of Mormon in one day and came to all of church the next day. Emilse, a mom of two little girls who started crying when we started to talk about eternal families and our purpose here on earth because that is what she had been searching for. And Monica and her nine year old son, Pepe, who in just the second lesson asked us if she could be baptized. I am so grateful that I am able to be there too in the lessons becasue I know that the Holy Ghost who is the one who teaches, not me. This is the gospel of peace, of comfort, change, and miracles! God is good! La Iglesia es verdadera! (The Church is true) 

love you! I´m always praying for you and keep me and our investigators in your prayers!