Dec 17th

DEC 17^th

Hello everyone!

         It was so good to call home last night It's so good to know that everyone is doing so well and that everyone is happy. I miss you all so much and I don't think there is anything else, but serving the Lord that I could be away from you all and still be sane. I love you all. 

   So this week has been so much fun! I was able to go to a baptism for someone that I taught in Livermore. It was so amazing to see the people you teach come up out of the water and see that glow on their face. WOW! This work is so amazing it truly is the work of the Lord. There is so much happiness that comes from doing this work. The happiness is a miracle in it’s self.

         We have been working nonstop with less active this week and it has really made me think about how we really need the teach children and help them gain that testimony of the truth and help them build that foundation so that when they are on theirown they can stand on their own. 

   This was prefect timing because I also have been reading the story of the stripling warriors. They had such a solid foundation that even when their life's were at stake they had a perfect knowledge that the Lord would be by their side.  I hope that I can do that for my children and that we can all make that our goal. 

 I love you all and hope that you have a great Christmas.

Love, Sister Cannaday   

  

Dec 10th

DEC 10^th

Hi everyone,

Here is the new address

315 East San Fernando Street 

apt # 22

San Jose, CA 95112

   I'm now serving in the Washington Square young single adult branch. It's a small branch, but there is a lot of work that can be done here. I have two companions I'm training Sister Craig, and Sister Yunack who is from "Vanuatu, which is a little island near Fiji." That’s what she tells everyone! They are really cute and both killer missionaries. I feel very blessed to be here with them. Being a missionary for a singles ward is just a little wired to tell you the truth! They are all people our age and well we get to have too much fun! I wish I could explain it, but it is true.  This area is going to have it's challenges just like my last area but I already love the people so much it's crazy. There wasn't much that happened this week but getting lost a lot! I'm sure that doesn’t surprise you much.  I love you all and hope everything is going well talk to you soon!  Oh shot out the all those it Livermore!  I love you and can't stop talking about you. Vegan, energy flow, cats, and, German is all I have been talking about. I miss you all already.

-Sister Cannaday

POEMS

Here are two poems that people have written about Jillian while she has been on her mission!

If there is one thing I can say,

It's that I know a missionary true,

whom is as beautiful and sweet and the morning due.

When she wakes up to a brand new day,

her smile and kick in her step,

gives even the lowest of men a little pep.

She preaches that "the Son is the way."

When the people hear the great words that she spouts,

it makes their whole hearts erupt with joyful shouts.

The woman I speak of, if I may,

and whom for, in our hearts, we continually pray,

is the fair Sister Cannaday of Mission San Jose.

-Alan Cannaday (Jill's Older Brother)

This one is written by someone on her mission

I Asked The Lord for an Angel

Lord, you brought me an Angel

She was the brightest of them all

For her light was guided unto me

Even before I made the call

I can still see her on that first day

As if she had descended from Heaven

She was gracefully placed into the lives of my loved ones

"Oh Lord, why can I not ask her to stay?"

This Angel we call friend

This Angel we call family

This Angel who's smile and laugh brightens a room

This Angel who's eyes shine your Light, my Lord

This Angel who speaks your Truth

This Angel who spreads your Joy

This Angel who radiates your Love upon Thy world

As if that weren't enough....

She brought the Angels' Song down to Earth

So that everyone may hear it....

And know Thy Presence

This Angel....

They named Jillian

She is incredible! My mom talked to her mission president last week and he said that she is the best missionary he has ever had and that she would be perfect if only she could spell! HAHAHA! For those of your that know Jill she is a terrible speller! : ) 

Love this girl!

Dec 3rd

Dec 3rd

I have heart-breaking news! I’m being moved out of Livermore into a new area I don't know where, but I just know that leaving this place has not been easy at all. I have loved my time here with Sister Billings it has been unforgettable! This last week we got a new baptismal date and rock the socks off of all the people we thought. I will miss this place a lot and all the people here so much! Livermore is always going to have a really big piece of my missionary heart. To tell you the truth all I can think about is having to pack still and saying good-bye to a big list of people. I love you all and I'm excited to write you all about my new area hope you all had a great week. -Sister Cannaday.

Nov 26th

November 26^th

Hi everyone! This week I really did have a lot to be thankful for.

   My Thanksgiving was wonderful I ate so much that I was in pain. There was this sweet big family of 8 that signed up to feed us months ago and three other families that wouldn't take no for an answer so we had 4 dinners. It was crazy, but so much fun and they all tasted so different but they were all very yummy. The people are so nice here they really love the missionaries.

     This week was great because we saw miracles happen. We have this one young man that has been coming to church for a while and has just started taking the lessons he reminds me of Joseph Smith. He is only 16, but he wants the light in his life so badly. He wasn't sure that his prayers were being answered, so this week we were going to fast with him on Sunday. Saturday he told us that he had had a answer to his prayers and that he wants to be baptized.

        We were also teaching this great woman who has a smoking problem. We have been praying that she would have a desire to quit. We thought a lesson from 1 Nephi 3:7 about how the Lord will help us keep commandments then we explained the word of wisdom and asked her to follow it. She told us she had already decided that day that she was going to quit smoking. I love this work with pray it always moves forward.

   I really want to tell my family how much I love them! Thank you for all the wonderful Thanksgivings that we had and thank you for all the traditions that we have together it really means the world to me now that I'm so far away. I really have found a lot of strength in that.  Mom and Dad thank you for giving us all those great traditions like of stuffing the turkey and making the pie I know that those are all thing that I'm going to carry over in to my family that I have.  

    Everyone there really is so much joy found in living to gospel and please don't take it for granted! Never just be ok with where you are spiritually. You should always be moving, make that movement closer to Christ. Spending time with family is part of the gospel that’s why this season lifts so many people’s spirits. Take advantage of this great gift. I love you all and hope you had a great Thanksgiving.

-Sister Cannaday

Nov 19th

November 19^th

Ok every one this week went by SO FAST!!!! Really I have never felt like time just went so fast ever in my life. It’s because we were working so hard and teaching so many people that! There were many days that we had to cancel dinner so we could teach everyone.  So Thanksgiving is this week so I wanted to tell you all what I'm thankful for.

1. The Gospel and it just being in my life.

2. Knowing that my Father in Heaven loves me

3. My family the one I have now and that family I will have in the future

4. Knowing that that family doesn’t end here that it will go on after this life

5. My Heavenly Father’s love for all those I meet

6. The yummy brussel sprouts I ate for lunch. It is such a blessing to have food to eat.

7. Being able to share this message with those that need it the most.

8. Being a missionary.

9. The spirit and how it testifies to all of us the truth and fills us with light

10. This wonderful body that I have been given so I can become more like my Father in Heaven.

11. Letters (hint hint)

12 .Our Savior and his atonement. Knowing if I will turn my heart to him all thing will be made right.

13. That those who don't have the chance to except the gospel in this life can in the next.

14. The scriptures so that we can learn the will of the father.

15. Knowing that no one else can take away my chance to return to my father. That I have my agency

16. The power of God being on the earth today.

   I could go on and on about the many many things I’m grateful for, but all of it is because I have a loving Heavenly Father that wants all of us to be happy here as long as we will keep his commandments we will be.

 Wow how blessed are we all that our Father lets us come down to this earth and gave us the opportunity to grow and make mistakes. I have been sent to a wonderful family here on earth and what a great blessing they have been to me here. I hope all of us take  the time to think about the things that we are thankful for and are truly eternal.  I hope you all have fun getting fat without me. Dad I miss the chocolate pie already. Happy Thanksgiving Everyone! -Sister Cannaday

Nov 13th

November 13th

Hello everyone.

This week so so so neat! We started teaching three new people. Which is really great for Livermore.  One of them is this great lady that has really reached the lowest of low. The cool part is that she sees how God may have put her in this place so that her heart could be softened enough to except the gospel and listen to us. We have been over there every night since we met her and by the second day she could tell that “there is just so much light” that has come in to her life and that there is so much power in the Book of Mormon.  It is so cool to me that the Lord is preparing people in so many ways. Some he gives so much light they can’t deny it and others it takes going to the drakes place to be able to recognize the light.

So right now I’m in Alam in my personal study and I wish it was longer. I love all the stories in Alma! There are so many people in this book that show such great faith and bear such great testimony that it is such a wonderful part of The Book of Mormon.  I just want everyone to know that I love The Book of Mormon. What a wonderful gift we have been given.   I hope all of us are reading from it every day because it really will change your life. It has changed this lady we are teaching in just four short days.

 There is a talk that has real struck a chord with me this last week about gratitude in it there is a great Quote by ElderJeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles ““No misfortune is so bad that whining about it won’t make it worse.” ¹⁰ Identify and list your complaining and ungrateful thoughts, and replace them with grateful thoughts and problem-solving strategies. We are prone to be more grateful when we recall how others have contributed to our success and happiness and when we focus on positive action rather than passive complaining.”

It also talks about how we find more joy in life when we are more grateful and I think this really comes down to having Hope in life and the world around you. We all need to look on the bright side and show our gratitude to all those around us. It will bring so much more happiness into our lives.

I love you all and know that we can all have more light in our lives as we fill it with the best so righteous things  we can. And then we can share that light with all those around us. SHINE FORTH! I love you all and will talk to you next week. –Sister Cannaday

November 5th

Hello Everyone!  This week has been super fun. On Halloween we had dinner and the family made the food look like kitty liter it was really gross. It didn’t taste bad, but it sure looked bad. After that we stopped by a family’s home that we have been teaching, The Faws, and went trick or treating with them. It was so much fun and Apryl, the mom, introduced us to all of her neighbors. It was great to spend some fun time with them. They really are some of the best people I have ever met. The great news is that they accepted the invitation to be baptized. Well the mom and the one of the son did the dad and the other son will soon. There is just no way that they can’t when they live in a home where the sprit in so strong. It is the biggest treat when we get to go over and teach them. Just a warning to my family, there are some new faces that you are going to have to make room for because you are going to love the Faws.  After that we went to another dinner with a less active family, I ate so much! I don’t this I have been that sick on Halloween since I was really little.

I also have a really cool story to tell you but first, I want you all to know that I have been doing my very best at being exact in my obedience!

On Friday I was just walking and I sprained my ankle really bad. After a little while I couldn’t walk so I iced it and once it felt a bit better I kept on going with our day. The next day it hurt a little to walk on so I raped it up and just went on with my day. We did all kinds of stuff, including helping with a really cool project called Living Bethlehem where they are putting together a live show of the Christmas story. While we were there we met so many great people who could have their hearts open to the gospel soon.  

Well not too long after we were just walking and I DID IT AGAIN! Man I really need to learn how to walk one of these days. This time I did it really well and it really hurt to walk on but of course I didn’t stop doing missionary work I kept going. After we stopped at three more houses and no one was home, Sister Billing and I decided that Heavenly Father was telling us that I need to go home and take care of it.  We went home and I put it up and I still hurt. So Sister billings called the elders and asked if they would come give me a blessing.  

They were there in no time. Now this has been one of the coolest experiences I have ever had with a blessing.  This is the first time that I have literally felt the power of the spirit.  The moment the elder put their hands on my head the spirit just rushed though my body and filled me from head to toe. I knew this could happen with and blessing but I think this was the first time I was in tune with the spirit in a way that I could really feel the power. Wow The priesthood really is a power and a wonderful gift.

The next morning I got out of bed expecting to be hurt and I was fine I could walk on it and bend it. It was so cool to see another miracle happen, as Elder Judd would say “ a tender mercy”.

One other cool thing that happened with my blessing is that the Elder called me Carol when he referred to me in the blessing. I thought it was really cool. When he did I was also filled with love and I know it was another tender mercy.

I love you all and miss you tons, but there is just so much to be done as the Lords servant. Keep working hard wherever you are at. –Sister Cannaday

Halloween Pictures

I got these cute picture in the mail yesterday!

 I just love Jill and miss her tons! : ) 

Look how much fun she is having while she works hard doing the Lord's work! 

Little Red Riding Hood, Grandma, and The Big Bad Wolf

Eating donuts off strings!

Having way too much fun with some of the kiddos!

These girls didn't want the Sisters to leave so they gave them a ride on the chair!

Jill was really cold while they were doing their planning! 

October 28th

      Hello hey every one HAPPY HOLLOWEEN!!!!  Man I wish I could be there to go trick or treating with everyone! Next year for sure I will be home wow... that’s weird to think about! I hope everyone had fun this year. I'm expecting pictures of everyone’s costumes! I will be greatly disappointed if I don't. Just saying. My companion and I dressed up for our ward Halloween party. We did set up a car to do trunk or treat. My companion was little red riding hood our car was a wolf and I was Grandma. It was so much fun and I really love dressing up for Halloween. I'm sending pictures home this week for you all to see.

We are teaching this great family The Faws, they came with us last week to the fireside and this week they came with us to the party. They have a son who really wants to serve a mission. Well he dressed up as a missionary! It was so cool and all the boys in the ward thought it was too. I love this family! I just can't wait for them to partake of all the blessings that the gospel has to offer them. They have so much all really but there is just so much more waiting for there family.

It really has been a great week and every thing has just fallen in the place as we have been working hard and not giving up us time get hard.

Something that hit me and hit me really hard this week is  Alma 26 And now behold, I say unto you, my brethren, if ye have experienced a ^achange of heart, and if ye have felt to sing the ^bsong of redeeming love, I would ask, ^ccan ye feel so now?

There are, I hope, many times like this where we can feel the spirit so strongly that we couldn’t even think of doing something that would displease our Father in Heaven  because we are so close to him. But I think the trick is to always feel that way. To never let ourselves start drifting away from our Father in Heaven and that is when we are going to find the most happiness. So when you are upset or low ask yourself "can ye feel so now?" then change whatever you need to because it really is that easy.

 I love you all and hope that everything is going well please stay strong and never forget there might be a miracle just around the river bend (I sang that in my head)  - Sister Cannaday

October 23rd

Wow what a week! This week has been so much fun and so wonderful. I feel like the joy of Christ is just flowing though my veins. To tell you the truth I might just have a heart attack for how full it feels right now. I had the chance to go do something called an outgoing fireside where all the missionaries that are going home get to bare their testimony about there mission. It was wonderful and Sister Taulogo my first companion was one of the missionaries that was going home and it just filled my heart to hear her bare testimony of the great spirit she has felt.

       We were able to go because we brought a family that we are teaching with us. Well more like they brought us :) but it was so great to watch their faces just light up as they listened to the words of these great missionaries. They were crying the whole time. This family is just great and if I could I would just move in with them and never leave. You know how you meet someone and you just know that you were great friends with them in the life before this well I have felt that way about this family from the first day. It was so great to spend the whole night just talking with them and feeling their love. It's really the neatest that their son who in 12 has decided that he wants to go on a mission and just dose everything he can to prepare himself. But the really cool part is that the parents of the family where asking questions about WHEN they can serve a mission and they aren't even members yet. IT WAS SO COOL.

         Another really cool thing happened that just made me cry. I got to see a family that I got to teach in Morgan Hill. We were helping them get ready to go to the temple. Which is one of the coolest things I have had the chance of doing on my mission. Last night the mom and daughter of the family came up to me and said "We have great news to tell you" at first I said "What?” but as soon as it can out I knew to ask "WHEN?"  This amazing family will be getting sealed on the 11 of November. They will be making to best choice that they could ever make. I'm so happy for them that just thinking of them all dressed in white bring tears to my eyes and I know that this is why we serve missions!

     I also got to see three people that I guess really love Nina Clymer and mam & pap Escobare, and many others. I was so good to see them all there it reminded me of what it has going to be like in heaven seeing all the people that you love and cherish coming up to you one by one give you big hugs and never wanting to let them go. But in heaven there is going to be so may more people that we have grown with in this life. 

     So I will be staying here in Livermore for another six weeks and I'm so glad that I get to stay here with these people that I just love so much! I feel spoiled. I know that this feeling I have in me right now is the spirit and this is truly what the scriptures mean when they say "Men are that they might have joy" This is pure joy and I know that everyone can have it and should and that is why I'm here sharing the gospel with all! This is the greatest gift I have to give. I love you all and I hope that you will always seek after these things. 

- Sister Cannaday

Oct 6th, 9th, and 15th

OCT 6^th        

         OK, sorry everyone that I'm writing so late in the week. We had our P-day moved to Friday to go to the temple. It was great! The temple is the best place in the world truly the feeling there is undeniable and so real I just want to run thought the halls I was so happy and at one point was jumping up and down in the dressing room. Wow I love the temple! 

   After the member that brought us to the temple took us out for ice cream at this place called Fenton's. It the ice cream place where the little kid and the old man go at the end and sit and eat ice cream and count all the red and blue cars at the end of UP it was way fun and I can't wait to take you all there.

    Can you believe that they moved the age that you can serve a mission? That is so crazy!  Jon that means you can serve a mission in a little over a year. 18 is so young and 19 for girls wow I would already be home when I left if I would have gone at 19.  This is so cool I can't wait to see all the sisters and elders that come out on their mission in the next few months. Truly my mouth was hanging wide open when Pres. Monson announced the change. Yah woo! Lets get this missionary work done.

       So this week in Livermore was great we had so much fun and got so much work done even with a lot of things taking up our days. We have a baptism this next week for a girl named Kaia. She is so wonderful and comes from a not so wonderful family, but has just risen above it all to become this wonderful young woman. We taught her a lesson this week and the spirit was so strong and just filled the room and testified to her of the goodness and truth of everything that we were teaching her. Being a missionary in the BOMB! It’s the neatest thing to see the light in people grow.

     We are also teaching a great family with a 12 year old that wants to already be a missionary and has started to write Elder J. Faw on everything he can. It's so cool to teach this family because they have already come so close to the spirit. IT'S SOOOOO neat to walk into a none members home and feel the spirit before we even open our mouths. They will be getting baptized soon!

       Life is going so great here on the mission I really don't think I could ask for anything more at this point. To be the Lords servant has been the most fulfilling thing I have ever done in my life! Make severing a mission a goal and then go do it!!!!

 Love you all keep up the great work and stay strong -Sister Cannaday

  

OCT 9^th 

     Hello everyone! This week was great! Happy Birthday Ethan! I'm so excited about you getting baptized soon. It’s really the best thing you can ever do! 

    This week or the last 3 days have been great. It always really throws me off when our P-day gets moved.  We have been working with this wonderful girl Kaia that is getting baptized this Saturday. It has been so much fun and she has asked Sister Billings and I to sing with her at her baptism, it's going to be great!

   We are have also been working with a lady that started come to church as soon as we started teaching her, months ago, but wasn't sure that she wanted to be baptized. Well yesterday we went over there for a lesson and she told us as she walked out of the room that she wanted to be baptized. Sister Billing and I sat there with a puzzled look, like "did you just hear what I heard?". She then came back and explained to us that she has been praying and thinking about it for sometime and just made up her mind. I was so cool and she can't wait to start working towards being baptized! Yah!

      We have also been teaching a man named Lloyd for sometime and he told us today that he wants to work towards being baptized also. And that he is getting answers to his prays everyday about the things we have been teaching him. He has a long road ahead of him but this is exactly what he needs.

         The Lord is truly waiting to bless us if we will just prove ourselves worthy to him. I feel a little like Pocahontas always wondering what coming just around the river bend (I really want to sing this as I'm typing it but I'm in the library so I can't). If we will keep going and hold strong just around that bend there is so much waiting for us. If it's a test of our strength or a time of peace it will be what we need on this river of life. 

    Everyone keep going the Lord is by your side he will never leave you even if you walk away from him. I love how the scriptures tell us that he will sucker us. The word sucker means to run to. The Lord is running to us, so stop running away from him. He loves you and so do I. - Sister Cannaday

OCT 15^th

Hello everyone!

This week was amazing! We had a baptism for a 15 year old girl named Kaia. She is so sweet and has been such a joy to work with. Her baptism was last Saturday night at 6pm and there were more people there to support her than there are in church on a good week! The chapel was full to the rim. They love in the room was so powerful that I couldn't help but cry. Kaia's whole family is LDS but her dad and mom had her in high school and fell away from the church and took her with them. But by a tender mercy of God this summer she end up living with an aunt and uncle that were a great example to her and she decided that she wanted to be baptized. Kaia, her cousin, Sister Billing, and I all got to sing at the baptism and it was great! The spirit was so strong! 

This Sunday was also amazing you know how sometimes testimony meetings turn into “thankimoy meetings” when something cool happens in the ward. Well this was the most powerful testimony meeting that I have ever been to there was this undeniable strong sprit the whole ward could feel. Even to the point that our investigator felt like he needed to bear his testimony about the Holy Sprit and it was only his second time at church. I wish I could bottle the feeling send it home to you all and keep it in my bags of tricks when someone has doubts or fears. IT WAS THE BOMB!!!!  I feel like I spent a Sunday and Saturday in heaven.

This week went almost without flaw it was amazing, sprit guided, and filled with so much hope and love. Oh... and yesterday was also my companion’s birthday so it was a part-ay...  I love you all and hope that everything is going great! - Sister Cannaday

Jenni congratulations on the new baby boy I cant wait to meet him he is one big baby!

Sept 25th

This week was like a good piece of peach pie. Hot, sweet, worth the work and I can't wait to have it again. It's been crazy cool and I would love to tell you all about every little bit but there is just way too much to tell you all of it. First I'm companion rocks! I love her so much already and she is fun and crazy just like me. It has made for a lot of fun! She even sings all the time just like me. (Jenni I think you would go crazy if you were with us!)

   It has been wonderful to be able to teach with her as well she in a great scriptorian, but the funny thing is that her whole mission she has been in the singles ward so working with little kids and old people is a big change for her. Going from teaching people that had an attention span of a few hours, to a few seconds, is a big change.

   We have taught a lot of really great lessons this week by following the spirit and listening to what people have to tell us. I did have a heart breaking moment this week when some one we had been teaching got dropped because it just wasn't time for him yet. I truly broke my heart. It is so weird how much you grow to love the people you teach and how their happiness means the world to you. The Lord really does open up your heart to them.

     I'm so excited for conference that is coming up! I'm so excited to share with all the people that we are teaching the words of the prophet of our day, and to watch the prophet teach. What a wonderful gift it is to have a prophet guide us today.

         Everyone, the Lord wants us to be happy!  He really does and he will stand by your side no matter what! I know that he will not only give us what need but also give it to us at the time that we need it the most.

        I had one of those great moments this week where things just clicked. We were teaching about the spirit and how we are feeling the love of God, and how we all feel it differently because we are all different. As I was teaching this the 5 love languages came to my mind and how we all feel love different. And it clicked, most of you know that you that I show love through physical affection, like hugs or biting people.:) Well in the times that I'm in the most need that is how that spirit talks with me. I get those moments where I get a big hug of love and a warmth that feels my body. Well I think once we know how we show and feel love we can better understand how the Lord talks with us. So the challenge this week… get online and take the love langue test and try to work on the way you feel and show love, to your Father in Heaven. As you do I know that you will become more in tune with the spirit, because "God is Love". 

 Talk to you all soon

Sister Cannaday.

September 10th and 17th 2012

September 10, 2012

Hello everyone,

I hope every thing is going well in Utah, or where ever you are reading this from. I cannot tell you how much the Lord blesses you when you are having a hared time, if you only ask.  I know that is what has happened to me. This last transfer hasn't been the easiest on my mission so far, or the one that I have felt like I have been helping people much. What this transfer has been is the greatest chance I have ever been given to lean about love, hope, and relying on my Savior. It hasn't been the easiest but I have grown the most, so that makes it the best.

       The biggest lesson I have learned that I want to share with you this week is that the Lord is waiting and willing to help if only we ask!  There are so many good examples of this in 1 Nephi. Here is one of them: After Lehi has the dream about the tree of life he tells his sons. Nephi wanting to know more about what this meant went to the Lord and ask and he was shown. Not only that but he was told what it meant, because he asked he was showed so much more. After Nephi was shown the vision he found his brothers thinking about what their fathers dream might have meant. Nephi ask them if they had asked the Lord? Their response showed their faith. They told him No, for the Lord dose not show such things unto us. Now Nephi knew better then his brothers, Heavenly Father loves them all the same. The only reason why they were not shown the vision was because they did not ask!

    How many times in our lives do we miss out on blessings or our load being lightened because we want ask? "Did you think to pray?" We need to ask in faith knowing that the Lord will answer our prayers. I know that with every bit of my testimony that the Lord hears and answers your prayers. The Lord will not remove our trials from us but strengthen us to bare them.

        I'm losing my companion this week. I have grown to love her so very much. Se is so full of spunk and energy. I know the Lord put us together for a reason and I'm very sad to see her leave.

  

         I want you to know that we are getting a lot of work done here in Livermore and that we are working our tails off and I will keep working this hard until the very end. There is so much joy in this work. Look around for an opportunity where you to be a missionary I promise they are there. I love you all stay strong or I will kick you booties when I get home.

 Love Sister Cannaday

September 17, 2012

Hello everyone! This has been one of the best weeks ever! I got a new companion that is from Orem Utah; she is super nice, kind, and talkative. It’s been a nice change up and we are getting a lot of work done. The Lord is also putting so many people in our path that are ready, it’s crazy. I have found more people that want to learn in this last week then in my whole time here in Livermore.  It has been great! If you can't tell I’m a little happy right now! : )  If I was there telling you this in person I would be jumping up and down. I know that there is so much to be done here I really hope that I will have the time now to do it.

    We started teaching a family this week with a great 12-year-old boy that wants to serve a mission more than anything and get baptized as soon as possible. He has been watching all the missionary movies that he can get his hands on and just can't wait to be an Elder. He is helping his whole family understand how great this gospel is. 

     One other miracle that has happened recently is with a man that we met last night wile talking with people on the street. He was walking by while I was talking to someone else and I just felt like I needed to talk him. At first he told me that he goes to another church. I kept talking to him and after a little while he told us that his dad was a member and that he would like to learn more! We set up an appointment to teach him and then kept talking to people. Not to far down the street he walked up to us again and without saying anything just handed me a cell phone. I didn't know what to do so a just said  " Hello this is Sister Cannaday" It was his dad I was so excited that we met him that he called his dad to tell him. His dad didn't believe him so he found us to talk to him. His dad was so excited that he was in tears when we said goodbye.  Not too long after we had left we got a phone call from him asking if we could move our time to meet to the next day he just couldn't wait. 

     I so happy to do the Lords work and find the people that are ready! I love being a missionary! : )

         I love you all, be good, and keep looking for the missionary opportunities where you are they are there don't be scared the Lord is on your side.

-Sister Cannaday 

September 4th 2012

September 4^th 2012

Hi everyone, sorry that I didn't email last week. Our mission president took my zone and the zone next to ours to the beach to play all day and there was no computer there so that means no e-mail. I would have warned you, but we didn't know until that Saturday night. It was a lot of fun we drove an hour south and spent the night in the mission home and then all drove to the beach in the morning. It was a lot of fun to see our mission president in his PJs eating ice cream right before he went to bed. There are only six sisters in the two zones so we all got to drive down with Sister Watkins and send a lot of time talking it was really fun. Last Monday was awesome mostly because we just laid around and did nothing. It was really nice not to have a thousand things to be doing or running around crunched for time. It was really just a good day.

      This week has been a long hard one full of ups and some really low down. One thing I have come to learn is that this is the hardest thing I have ever done and that I’m still really full of the love of God. When things get hard that doesn’t mean that that joy is gone but that it is when you need it the most!

 "The feeling of love from our Heavenly Father is like a gravitational pull from heaven. As we remove the distractions that pull us toward the world and exercise our agency to seek Him, we open our hearts to a celestial force which draws us toward Him. Nephi described its impact as “even unto the consuming of [his] flesh” (2 Nephi 4:21). This same power of love caused Alma to sing a “song of redeeming love” (Alma 5:26; see also verse 9). It touched Mormon in such a way that he counseled us to “pray … with all the energy of [our] heart” that we might be filled with His love (Moroni 7:48)" 

There have been so many moments here on my mission where I feel like my heart is so big that it is just going to leap out of my chest! I know that for the first time in my life my focus is helping others and my self come closer to God.

I want you all to know that I love you and miss you. Sorry I cant write you back right away but your letters do mean the world to me thank you for your support and your and prayers.

Sister Cannaday

Al and Brooke- I lost your address will you give it to me I want to tell you thank you for the photos.

Love you Jenni!