Jan 28th Feb 4th and Feb 11th

Jan 28th

Hello everyone, I hope that everything is going well with you and with your families. I have had a great week! It has been crazy a full of everything that you could think of! AAAAAAaaaaa.....! Life is great! Sister Livingston and I have been having so much fun! We were told yesterday that we both are a great example of a real life Disney princess which we both took as a huge complement. We just really have had a great week spiritually. Man I love being a missionary! 

Wednesday was one of those days where nothing seemed to go right and you could tell that my greeny was starting to get a little down buy the end. Then on the way home we meant a man that wanted to meat with us and learn more. At that moment she learned that, that's what missionary work is all about, the one person that is waiting to hear what we have to share.  

So funny story on Thursday our branch president signed up for dinner and something came up and so he snuck us some money and told us to take ourselves out some where fun. So we went to this place called The Boiling Crab, it a place where you order your food and then they cover the table with paper and pore it right there in front of you like you are in the south and then you eat it all with your hands.  It was so much fun and really funny. When they brought the food out my companion picked up one of the shrimps with the funniest face and said, "It's head is still on! What do I do?" I picked a shrimp up and said, "You rip it off" then ripped off the head and started to pull the shell off. I will never forget her face it was so funny. After eating the first two very slowly, she was good to go. It was fun and super yummy! (Sorry Apryl it was a lot of meat :) Just so you no I have been eating less and less though.)  

The highlight of the week was last night. That morning we didn't know what to plan after dinner, so we wrote in a "?" and went about our Sunday. After dinner we decided to stop by some peoples homes that we didn't know yet. One name stuck out to us that life far way but we felt like we needed to go. We couldn't find his address but we found one for someone with the same last name. We decided to go check it out. When we got there a little boy answered the door jumped up and down and yelled yah! The missionaries then run in the other room and out came this huge man behind him. He told us that the person we were looking for wasn't home and to come back that he would love you see us. I thought to my self "we should leave a message", but as I thought that he told us that his wife was putting the kids to sleep, So I didn't want to bother them. We went back to out car and stared to drive away. We looked out the window and that huge man was in the street trying to flag us down. We made a big U-turn and went back. He told us " please will you share something with my family?" we said “Sure!” parked our car and run back. When we came inside the wife was sitting just sobbing. He explained that they had just moved in with their mom and had just been married. They had two kids and were working on getting sealed, but they were having a hard time and a really hard day. The Sister then looked up and said, “I was just praying when you came that God would let me know that it was going to be ok and that I was going to get better. You knocked only a few minutes after I had ended my prayer. The moment I heard your voice the spirit entered into my heart and I know God was there!  I was crying too much to ask you to stay." Wow I'm so glad that we were there! We gave a great lesson where the spirit was so strong that.... I can't put it into words! I'm so glad that we were willing to listen. THE BEST THING BY FAR ABOUT BEING A MISSIONARY, IS BEING A TOOL IN THE LORDS HANDS!!! 

Sister Cannaday

Feb 4th

Hi everyone we went on to a really cool hike this morning that took a lot of time! I just want you all to know that we are doing great!!! We are having fun and the Lord is blessing us for our obedience. Thank you for all your prayers! I feel them every day. YAY........ MISSION !!!! I love the Lord!  I love you all!  -Sister Cannaday.

Feb 11th

Hi everyone this week was great!  Sister Livingstone and I are living it up here. We worked so hard and we get the best numbers of my mission. : )  We are doing so much so fast some how our brains just can't remember all of it! Well it might just my brain but....! So this week has been all about teaching with the spirit!  All our lesson this week were so strong with the spirit that it almost knocked off my socks. : )   

Sorry that this letter is going to be short again we just had one of our investigators come bake from India and we just talked with him about his adventure. He ran into a bull and knock him self out, went to the dentist and they gave him the wrong shot and made his face swell up, and then he was playing on a swing over a river and just as his cousin told him that there was crocodiles in the water the rope broke and he fell in. It was really funny and even better in an accent. Man I love this work and can't wait for this next week I know that it is going to be even better. I'm out of time I love you all see you soon. Sister Cannaday 

Dec 31st, Jan 7th, Jan 14th, and Jan 21st

Dec 31st

Ok everyone; Things are going great here it was so nice to hear from my family and to talk with them. I wish there was a ton of stuff to tell you, but to tell you the truth the only thing that we did after Christmas was stay home. My companion Sister Craig has been sick. She has been sleeping so much it blows my mine. She was feeling better on Sunday, which was a really good thing. There aren't many people in our branch and most of them were gone home for Christmas. We were teaching Sunday school the third hour. It was a great opportunity to look at really what my parents have done for me. My mom had to except the gospel and my dad came back to the gospel. There are so many people that only come back half way or leave the gospel and neither of them have left it. Wow I’m so grateful that they stayed with the gospel and that they showed me this great path of happiness, Thank you so much for being the great ensamples that you have been to me. I love you all and hope that you had a great Christmas and thank you so much for the letters and prayers. I love you all so much. And thank you so much for the gifts you all rocked my socks this year.

-Sister Cannaday




Jan 7^th

Jenni!  Thank you so much for the E-mail that you sent it meant the world to me! I haven’t had any mail from anyone including the love of my life, so that email was like manna the pictures worked and it was grand! Your Baby are so CUTE!!!!!!!!!!!    

OK everyone; This week has been one of leaning to let go and let the Lord take the reins. Nothing never ever went as planned and at moments it left like everything just fell apart. That’s really the life of a missionary. We plan, we pray, and then the Lord changes it into what it needs to be. It's truly crazy how things workout in the Lords way. I feel like that might just be what the Lord wants me to learn from my mission. Is to do all that I can, but to let him take control. I hope this makes sense to everyone and that I'm not sounding crazy. I am crazy I just hope that I don't sound like it. 

So on Saturday I got to go back to Livermore again to see a dear Sister that I thaught get baptized. Wow! If you ever need a boost go to a baptism. I'm always ten feet off the ground after I go to one. There is no doubting the feelings that are there and the change in the person after. They are just oozing with happiness and light. Wow! It was so cool! I'm also going back again for two baptism next week. I'm so grateful that I get to go back and see these people I love so much make their first steps towards their Father in Heaven. I just feel so blessed to have been a part of Gods plan for these people.  Wow I love being part of missionary work. I'm so grateful that Troy and I listened to the sprit and understood that this was the plan God had for us, to go and serve his children. To leave those we love for a short time so others can be with the ones they love forever! I love you all. 

Sister Cannaday

Jan 14^th

This week was full of heart ache and happiness! So this week I found out that I will be training again, also that my two wonderful companions will be being transferred. Man! I love these girls and was hoping to have at least one more transfer with the two of them! We just get along too well, so it was time for us to part from one another. I will truly miss them! I also feel like I don't know this area very well yet but I know the Lord can make my weaknesses strengths I just hope he doesn't take his time on this one. : )

This week was also full of so much joy! I had the great opportunity to go to Livermore and see two of my dearest friends step in to the waters of baptism. Wow my heart was so full!!! I wish I could put in to words how it felt to see them in white and enter into the beautiful waters of baptism. I can't wait to see them next in the temple.  Wow this week just blow me away! 

 Ok so short funny story… One day we were leaving our apartment and I went to lock the door it’s one that you lock from the inside and I had already stepped outside and tried to just reach around with my arm to lock it well…I'm not sure how or why, but as I reach around I closed my eyes and smacked my head into the wall scraping my nose chin and forehead. I looked a little silly for a few days. Leave it to me right? Well I love you all so much! See you soon! 

Sister Cannaday 

Jan 21rd

   Hey everyone! Wow this week has been crazy and to tell you the truth it has gone by a little slow. Not slow in a bad way but in a way that there was just so much stuff that happened that we didn't really fall into the missionary flow of things until Friday. I'm going to give you a brief break down of last week. 

-Monday was crazy trying to get my companions packed and helping say goodbye to all the people that they love. It was really hard to see those two go! We weren’t together very long but I felt like my little sister were leaving me and going out in to the big bad world. oh.... how sad. 

-Tuesday morning we had our transfer meeting and had to help my companions load and unload the car, which was such a feat that I like I might start listing, car packing as one of my super powers. I'm not sure what was in their bags, but I think it might have been a body or two. After that I was with 3 other sisters that were waiting for their trainy to come on Thursday too. We really didn't stay with just one person but swapped around all the time trying to get as much done as possible in the four areas. 

-Wednesday was a blur until that night when I got to go with the Spanish sister and teach some Spanish lessons. It's crazy how the Lord can help you when you need it and I was able to help teach those lessons with her and understand almost all of it. The best part was the prompting of the spirit that I was given. He told me to say and do things that didn't always make sense to me like when I was a little lost in the conversation and as I listened to them I could help those that we were teaching. Crazy cool how the Lord will help us you if you are willing. 

-Thursday. I got to pick up my new companion. WOW this girl is great and is so much like me! We have been having fun since the moment we met! Her name is Sister Livingston. She is from American Fork Utah and knows the Allen’s, she is friends with Nicole. She is also a great teacher and I think I might need to learn more from her than she needs to learn from me. She is hard working and ready to serve the Lord. Man this time with her is going to be so much fun! Oh ... She also sings all the time and we sound great together. 

-Friday was back to the flow of things more and we just had a blast serving and teaching! 

I Really love being a missionary, it's the best thing I have done so far in my life. To anyone that is thinking about severing a mission DO IT!  If you and contemplating if you should go, YOU SHOULD! And if you and a missionary KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK! The blessings are out there go get them.  I love you all hope you have a good week. 

 -Sister Cannaday  

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