Hello all.

I'm writing a little late today. We had a pretty full day, and I finally have time to write. We'll be on our way to the apartment pretty soon.

This week was pretty neat. A few days ago we had the opportunity to work with some Elders from the CCM (MTC) here in Bogota. One cool bit of news is that the Missionaries from the States go for 3 weeks to the MTC in Provo, and then the other 6 here in Bogota. Neat, eh? So I got to work with an Elder from Mississippi and one from Argentina. It was a fun day. We worked hard. It's fun to have their enthusiasm for the work and their strong testimonies straight from the MTC. Not that the Elders in the field don't have the Spirit, or a Testimony, but coming directly from the MTC, they've got a kind of aura about them that just radiates energy and power. :) Fun stuff. That day, we invited 2 people to be baptized, and they accepted. Yeah! :D 

We've also been working with a girl named Carmen. She's 16 years old, and recently moved in with her Tia here in Bogota. She's from Barranquilla, and is very receptive. It probably helps that almost all her family are members of the church, but her mom has been inactive for a while. Luckily her aunt is very active, and has been bringing her to church since she got here. She has a baptismal date for the 23rd of this month, and still has a lot to learn, but we're working hard with her. Actually, today we made pizza with an hermano in our ward who's a chef. He has a daughter who's about Carmen's age, and she invited her to make/eat pizza with us, and she came. It's always wonderful when the ward members befriend our investigators. It makes the task of integrating and maintaining them in the Church much, much easier. :) Oh, and the pizza was delicious, btw's. 

This morning, we went to a park that's called Mirador de los Nevados. Apparently, if it's a clear day, you can see some mountains/volcanoes that have snow on them. There aren't many places in Colombia that have snow, so I thought it'd be really cool. Well, we woke up this morming, and it was raining...so we still went, us and a group of youth from the ward, but we didn't ever see the snow. 

Anyway, life is good. I don't have much more time. Bogota has been pretty great so far. 

Love y'all. 

Elder Joey

P.S. Let's wear our ninja stuff that looks really cool...

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Para mi family...

Aqui hay mas fotos. 

Enjoy!

Elder Cannon

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Hello my dear family!

So...you're probably all wondering why I didn't write on Monday. I have a good reason, I promise. We changed Pday to Wednesday this week, because the Bogota Temple isn't open on Mondays. We went to the temple!!! I was reading in my journal the other day, and I found the last day I had gone to the temple, while in the MTC. June 30, 2011. It had been almost a year since I had been to the temple. Wow. I'm going to attach fotos, fo sho. Anyway, it was a really amazing experience. Everything was in Spanish, but they were the same special, sacred ordinances as ever. I loved it. 

Novedades: Two of the sisters in my district left. One finally got her visa to Argentina, and another got transfered to Cucuta. So now we're down to 2 sisters, my companion, and I in our district. they will be missed, pero así es la misión. Now, the 2 sisters in my district are the Hermana Quispe, and Hermana Galvis. La Quispe I know from my district in Cucuta, and Hermana Galvis was a sister in my ward there, who had already received her call to Puerto Rico. She didn't get her visa in time, so she's here in my district until she gets it. 

Yesterday, President and Sister Hacking came to give us the last Zone Conference before they leave. :( I'm going to be really sad to see them go. It's been such a blessing to have them here. they gave us all a picture of them, and Sister Hacking told me that for when I get back, they're going to have a mission reunion every October. So I'll get to see them again. :) After the conference, I started playing the piano, and Elder Bogdan, who has an amazing voice started singing while I sang tenor. After a couple duets, everyone joined in, and we sang 5 or 6 songs. It was a really special experience. I felt at home. Haha. Everyone gathered around the piano, singing hymns. :) 

I'm about out of time, but I just want to say that I love you all, and I hope you're all doing well. Say hi to my dear Utah for me. 

Take luck. Love y'all.

-Elder Joseph

P.S. What are you stupid? Red eye flashes twice! Hehe...

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And then a whole year passed by...

Hello fam and friends. 

I've officially been out a year. Not that I'm counting, because I'm not, but it's kind of a big milestone. And yet another "hole cow, crazy how time flies" moment. Haha. Anyway, happy año to me. I still can't believe so much time has passed... 

So...remember that one time I didn't want to leave Tunja, because there were baptisms and a whole bunch of awesome investigators? Well...they transfered me. "Behold, the Spirit of the Lord has called me another way; I have gone to the land of Bogota to teach the people of San Andres" (Alma 22:4. You should really just read that whole chapter. It's all about asking inspired questions and following the Spirit in a teaching opportunity). Bogota is a lot like Tunja, but the sun doesn't burn as much, it rains more, and I am totally and completely lost. Haha. I'm with Elder Balabarca. He's from Peru and is from the same group as my son, Elder Valenzuela. This makes 4 Peruvian companions, a Colombian, Ecuadorian, and a Chilean. The Peruvians are pretty cool. Sometimes a little...flojo. But we'll see. We actually worked really hard this week. Felt good. We taught more than 20 lessons and did over 90 contacts. Tranquilo! So, the work goes ever onward. Elder Balabarca's last companion had some issues with his eye...I don't really know what, but they couldn't work every day , so we don't have a ton of investigators. But that's alright. We're always finding new ones. In fact, last night we were knocking a street, and we had just reached our goal of 20 contacts for the day. That's when a lady came up to us and asked us who we were, and expressed the desire to hear our message and come to our church and such. So we have an appointment with her on Wednesday. That's something I've seen a lot on my mission. Anytime I've done more than 20 contacts, someone cool turns up. But if we only do 10 or 15 in the day, we don't usually find anyone that progresses. Heavenly Father just wants us to push our limits. He could bless us mediocrity, but then why would we ever change or try harder? It's when we meet or surpass our goals that He really starts to bless us. :)

So...I don't really know what else to say. Oh, Paulina and Mayra are going to get baptized in a couple weeks. I've been in contact with Elder Valenzuela, and he told me last night that they commited them otra vez to be baptized. The coolest thing is that he's with Elder Romero, my old companion. They're going to baptize the whole city of Tunja. :) 

Anyway, life's good. I have to work with a suit now, which I don't really like. It's not as comfortable as using just a white shirt, or a sweater. My companion, on the other hand, puts on his sweater and his suit, and a scarf. Hehe... I enjoy this cool weather. 

President Hacking is leaving in a month... :'( It's going to be hard to see him go. Our new President is named President Andelin, and is from Emmet, Idaho, I think. He gets here on July 1st. It'll be an interesting change. I don't think it'll be a bad change, but...different. Presidents with different mindsets, different  thoughts and priorities, etc. But I'm excited to get to know our new President. 

I hope everything is merry and bright por ahi. Cuidense mucho, y estaremos hablando la otra semana. :) 

Love y'all,

Elder Cannon

P.S. Do the chickens have large talons?

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Hey the fam.

So...some good news and some bad news. And some...in between news.

We'll start with the bad news. Paulina and Mayra didn't get baptized. They're studying at the university right now, so they've both got crazy schedules and such. We didn't have time to teach them everything before the interview, so we had to reschedule. The good news is that they both still want to be baptized. They'll just have to wait a week or two. The in between news is that they haven't told us anything about the cambios. Who goes or stays. They'll tell us tonight. I really don't want to go, but I'm pretty sure President's going to transfer me... It almost always happens that when you train, you leave, and your son stays in the area with a new companion. I honestly would love to stay, but Paulina is more attatched to my companion anyway, so it's probably better that he stays. Not attached in a bad way, I just let him do most of the work with Paulina and Mayra. Planning lessons, calling them to schedule appointments, teaching, etc. So I'm actually hoping he stays. He deserves to baptize them both. :) I mean, really all of the success we have is from the Lord (Alma 26:27, last phrase). It's Him that gives us success, when we obey and do everything we are supposed to do. So yeah, I'll be a little disappointed if I get transfered and don't get to go the the baptism, but that's what happened with Camila in Cúcuta, and I still talk with her every now and again. She and her husband will hopefully be getting sealed next March. it's kind of a ways off, but I hope to be there in Bogotá when it happens. :)

So...life's good. It's hard sometimes, but always enjoyable. Today we said goodbye to Elder Godoy. He left to Bogotá this morning at 6 am. His plane leaves for Argentina on Wednesday. I can't believe he's already leaving. Incredible how time flies. I think that's going to become one of my most-said phrases. Time FLIES!!! Crazy. Anyway, he's such a good friend. We got here to Tunja at the same time, and have since become really good friends. :) I'm gonna miss him...

Other than that, I don't have much to report. President came for interviews this week. We also had our Stake Conference. It was a neat week. I guess I'll let you all know next week if I'm still in Tunja or not. Who knows where I'll be...

I love you all. Today I am actually attaching photos. Miracle, I know. Enjoy.

Take luck,

Elder Joey

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Happy Mother's Day!!!

In Colombia, a lot of holidays are different. For example, Valentine's Day is in September, and they celebrate Christmas more on the 24th of December than on the 25th. But Mother's Day is the same. :) So to all you wonderful mothers out there, Feliz día! :D

Basically the best thing about the week was talking to my wonderful family. Probably the day that all 52,000 missionaries look forward to. The only weird thing was speaking english. So much time spent speaking spanish, and to switch all at once to English is hard. Haha... I left the internet cafe with a sore jaw. Fun stuff. It was definitely worth it though. More than worth it. :) I basically love my family. And I'm so grateful for all of their love and support and prayers and such. It's really a blessing to have a family that supports me. There are a lot of missionaries that leave without the support (moral or monetary) of their parents. So thanks family. I love y'all. More than you know. 

So, if everything goes well, Paulina and Mayra will be getting baptized this Friday! But it's going to take a lot of praying, because we still have to teach them the law of chastity, and they need an interview with the zone leaders. So...any and all prayers said in their/our behalf this week will be more than appreciated. :) 

I wanted to attach pictures, but this computer doesn't have a USB port available... lamesauce. It'll have to wait until next week. 

Anyway, I love you all so much. Thanks for everything! 

Talk at you all next week. :)

-Elder Cannon

P.S. I just don't see why you guys get all the waffles...

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Tunja, Tunja...

I'm pretty much in love with Tunja. Aside from the sun that makes it seem like we're on the planet Mercury and the rain that literally sweeps away bridges, it's great. We were only without water a few days because of that disaster...

Life really is good. We've been teaching Paulina and Mayra and it's almost hard to keep up with them, they're progressing so fast. Mayra couldn't come to church this Sunday because of a doctors appointment she had in Bogota, but Paulina did come. They both have a baptismal date for the 18th of May, and we're praying and praying and working to prepare them for that day. We appreciate any prayers said in their behalf. 

Yesterday we went to Playa Blanca. That's why we're writing on Tuesday and not on Monday. It was a pretty fun activity. It wasn't as cool as the last time, because it was cold and rainy, and we couldn't start a fire to cook the meat we had brought, and in spite of the bad weather, I still managed to get sunburned. But we still had fun. Futbol and voleybol on the sand, we got some cool pictures (that I forgot to bring...sorry), and we ended up giving the meat to the lady at the restaurant there and she cooked it all for us for only $4,000 pesos. That's like $2. Then we got home at like 8:30, and basically just showered, planned and went to bed, because we were beat. I almost didn't wake up this morning. Haha. ;) 

This morning I read Matthew chapter 20. It's the one that Elder Holland talked about this past conference. It's a really neat parable. I had never really looked at it that way until Elder Holland gave his talk. He talked about how the Lord has lots of laborers in His vineyard, and that some come later than others, but that we all receive the same wage, because our commitment to the gospel, and the covenants we have made are between us and the Lord. We should be happy that a person comes to the knowledge of the gospel, not envious or bitter because they spent their lives doing worldly things and then when they repented, they have the same promises and blessings that we have. It might cause others to think, then why repent now? If that's the case, we can spend our lives drinking and partying and doing all sorts of "fun" things, and then repent before we die, and everything will be okay. The scipture in Alma 34:32-34 answers that very directly. "You cannot say, when ye are brought to that aweful crisis, that I will repent, that I will return to my God. Nay, ye cannot say this; for that same spirit which doth possess your bodies at that time that you go out of this life will have power to possess your body in that eternal world." That was one of my favorite parts of Elder Holland's talk. He said basically, Don't wait! Repent now! If you're not a member yet, get baptized now! The last line of his talk was, "Don't delay, it's getting late." Poder. Anyway, this life isn't about having "fun" and then repenting all at once and expecting Heavenly Father to let us into the Celestial Kingdom. It doesn't work that way. Part of our baptismal covenant was to be a witness of Jesus Christ in every moment until the end of our days. And maybe we're not perfect, but we always have to be working our hardest and doing our best to endure to the end. Always. That's how we can gain the greatest of all the gifts of God (see D&C 14:7). There's no other way.

Don't delay, it's getting late. 

Love y'all. Take care.

-Elder Cannon

P.S. Happy birthday Mariah!!! I love you so much! :)

P.P.S. Elder Romero finally sent me pictures of Camila's baptism. Remember...the one that was going to get baptized, and that same week they transfered me? Anyway, I'm attaching pictures so you can see. Also, a couple months ago Elder Romero called and said that they were at the wedding of Camila and José. They got married, and in a year, they'll be getting sealed in the temple! :) How exciting. Anyway...here're the pics. 

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