Hello there family,
Well, I don't remember the last time I wrote. It was probably somewhere between here and some other city. We are home now, having arrived in Montreal from Ottawa. We do a lot of traveling to visit the missionaries and today is the first day in what seems likes months, I have been home, other than the few days you kids were here visiting for Thanksgiving.
Speaking of that, I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We did with all the help from James and his amazing pies, Libby and her amazing pumpkin cheese cake and Wynn and Mark's help with everything else. Acadia was the biggest help as she provided the most joyous entertainment of all. She was the center of attention and actually the center of our table. She could have been because she has gained so much weight, she weighs in at 10 pounds now and is 22 inches long. She is a little Butterball. And because she is such a little chubster, her mom made her a Turkey suit complete with brown hat for Thanksgiving. We placed her very gently in a big roasting pan (this is sounding strange) and she looked scrumptiously adorable. It was so cute and she was very patient with us as we snapped pictures of her very cleverly made (by Wynn) Turkey suit. I will attach pictures of her in this email. So thanks for coming and thanks for all the help and joy you provided. Oh we missed Dane, Tracie and Jessie, Ben, Em, Clara and Eli our precious kids.
Our very sad news is that my dear, sweet, loving, guileless, wonderful mother in law passed away the day after Thanksgiving early in the morning. She always made me feel so loved. Everything I did was good...to her anyway. She was a cheerleader in every way. I always felt so important around her. That was a great gift of hers. She, with her angelic smile, always took an interest in what I was up to and genuinely wanted to help with anything. I can with all my heart, I feel so privileged to have been loved by her. I feel it was an honor to be a very small part of her life. I will miss her sweet voice on the phone and I will miss her when I return to find her gone...for the time being. I am so grateful for the gospel and the knowledge I have that we will see each other again. I am grateful for the peace of knowing this is not the end for her but a new beginning of the eternities. She lived such a remarkable, wonderful life.
Right now I am in the middle of a number of things. First, I have wanted to get this letter out now, for a few weeks. Next, I have a new lady here by the name of Valentina from Moldova who is training to take over for Sister Morais who helps me in the house once every two weeks. I am allowed 20 hours a week for help in the home. I can't even imagine how heavenly that would have been to have that kind of help through the last 3-4 transfers of 20 missionaries. Now we will settle down to 12 or so at a time. Until 2 years from now and we will repeat the same difficult process. But next time I will have Valentina to help me. I think I will have Valentina come 3-4 days a week for fewer hours so it is not so taxing on her. She is an accountant by trade but could not bear to live in crime ridden, corrupt Moldova any longer. It must be pretty bad to want to leave your country, career and family to work for 12$ an hour. She is so grateful to be here. So grateful to be working. I am grateful to have her. We do have a problem communicating however. Her native tongue is Romanian. She speaks Russian. She speaks a bit of English and more French. My dear Sister Morais speaks Portuguese, French, English and something else. I live in a world of talented people. Smart and courageous...all of them. I am so blessed. And so we communicate via google translator. If I need to ask her something, I will attempt first in French and when that fails, which is every time, I run to the computer and write something, she runs over, puts her glasses on and reads it, then sits down and types out, with two fingers, her response. I think we will get it down pretty quickly, don't you think?
I was in the kitchen attempting to finish up some yummy caramels I made a few days ago. I did not have time to cut and wrap them in wax paper so I brought them in from the garage where it is nice and cool and dumped them out onto the counter. I cut the whole thing in two big strips and began cutting thin pieces about two inches long and wrapping them. There have been many questions and oh so many phone calls since, so I left the caramel logs sitting there. Now the caramel has spread out and I must gather it up and roll it into another log. I have repeated this four times now. I just need to get in there and finish it. My favorite saying "just do it" is something I need to tell myself.
OK, I am back and am finished with the caramels. The other thing I have going right now is trying to get some Christmas gifts online purchased. I am feeling a bit pressured by time as we have so much planned for the next three weeks that I hoped to use today to complete this task. You my kids, have been helpful by giving me ideas about what you might want. Thanks family.I think the most difficult to buy for is mom, dad and grandpa. I tried however to order Acadia (shhhhh, please don't tell her) some books from a website Wynn told me about but they would not let me order them as I am living in Canada. Even though the card is from the U.S. So I will have to figure out something else. I have never exclusively shopped online for Christmas before but it seems like it will be very convenient. Except for the out of the country, no you can't buy from us thing. I could get used to this, maybe.
The other thing I should be doing at this very moment is compiling a recipe book for our missionaries. They always complain about not eating decent meals because 1. they don't have time 2. they don't have money for expensive ingredients 3. they don't have recipes and 4. they are too tired by the time they drag themselves in the door to eat. HENCE, the crock pot. Oh I love the crock pot. I have made sure that every one of them has a crock pot in their apartments. So, they can take inexpensive ingredients, it takes one minute to throw stuff in the pot and turn it on and they will have a meal waiting for them when they walk in the door. Voila! Yes, that is French! Imagine walking in the door each night to the smell of food. At this rate, any kind of food would do for them. You could dump a couple of cans of beans and heat them up and that would smell good. Love that crock pot, now I just need to get all those recipes together. Emy, I think you gave me a cookbook now that I think of it. I will go find that and share a bunch of those with them. I wish I had the energy and time to feed them all every day. Not going to happen. Nels and I eat cereal or a sandwich when we don't have the missionaries around. I have never cooked so much in my life, but I love it as the recipients are the most grateful I have ever encountered. I love "feeding time" at the mission home. It is a delight. And they are always so helpful. I love the mission.
And the last thing is the Christmas card. Now, as you know, we have not sent out a Christmas card for 3-4 years I think. The last year was the year Turpy was alive. Now that she is dead, have we nothing to write about? Me thinks not. We have much to write about. Like the amazing, wonderful Elders who hit black ice and rolled their car three times and landed in a ditch and the car started filling up with water or possibly sewer water. Or the sweet Elder who fell asleep at the wheel because he had to get us so early to attend zone conference and had been up all night coughing. Or the Elders who help a members non member husband collect dead beavers from traps only to become the recipients of their very own beaver hide or fur...skin. Or stories of missionaries who are fed so much they are forced to use their imaginations to concoct ways of sneaking out excess food they can't possibly consume without the member knowing it. Or any of the other myriads of stories that come in from day to day. The missionaries have miracles that are worthwhile sharing. I had one call me last night so excited I found out he did not get much sleep. But he had been reading a missionary book about miracles that happen, every day simple things that happen to missionaries each day. This got him to thinking. I will pray for a miracle. So he said his prayers and while in the shower, the Bishop of the local ward called about someone who wanted to be taught. They went and taught this guy and he wanted to be baptized. He was so golden, as they say. He committed to baptism the first lesson. This area has not seen a baptism in a very long time. This was his miracle and he and his companion were so happy. I am so happy for them. The Lord sends tender mercies, miracles, blessings and good things our way each day....it is up to us to recognize and acknowledge them. And show our gratitude for them as well.
Well, my heart is full. I feel so grateful for you. I love you, each of you. I am so blessed. I do not deserve all that I have. I know that. I am in His debt. I will continue to give my all. I will wake up every day and do my best for my Father in Heaven, for His Son and for the good of this mission however small an impact it makes. I am so happy to be serving here in this amazing mission. I love the gospel for what it has given me and my family. I love the truths that guide my life every day I live. I love the scriptures and in particular the Book of Mormon. I cannot sleep without first reading from it each night. I am grateful for our present day prophet. He is a good and kind man. He is a prophet who is God's mouth piece on this earth. Joseph Smith was and is a prophet, the first prophet in this dispensation. He, by the Hand of God, restored Christ's church on the earth today. I want to share the plan of happiness with all I meet. Because I love others, because I want them to have the blessings I enjoy. I am so happy to be a missionary.
Where did that come from? I just felt like telling you all that. Oh and we found out this morning that Grandpa fell while on his walk today and injured his shoulder. Clint came to the rescue and took him to the VA Hospital where they told him they would need to replace his shoulder? Or maybe it was replace something in his shoulder. In any event it is not a good thing. I hope that goes smoothly. Hope you feel better Grandpa, you have had a tough year. Please know you are in our prayers.
Know that I love you and miss you but I am so busy...it is not as bad as it could be. Make it a great week and I will do the same.
love,
mom/Shir/Soeur Cannon
Well, I don't remember the last time I wrote. It was probably somewhere between here and some other city. We are home now, having arrived in Montreal from Ottawa. We do a lot of traveling to visit the missionaries and today is the first day in what seems likes months, I have been home, other than the few days you kids were here visiting for Thanksgiving.
Speaking of that, I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We did with all the help from James and his amazing pies, Libby and her amazing pumpkin cheese cake and Wynn and Mark's help with everything else. Acadia was the biggest help as she provided the most joyous entertainment of all. She was the center of attention and actually the center of our table. She could have been because she has gained so much weight, she weighs in at 10 pounds now and is 22 inches long. She is a little Butterball. And because she is such a little chubster, her mom made her a Turkey suit complete with brown hat for Thanksgiving. We placed her very gently in a big roasting pan (this is sounding strange) and she looked scrumptiously adorable. It was so cute and she was very patient with us as we snapped pictures of her very cleverly made (by Wynn) Turkey suit. I will attach pictures of her in this email. So thanks for coming and thanks for all the help and joy you provided. Oh we missed Dane, Tracie and Jessie, Ben, Em, Clara and Eli our precious kids.
Our very sad news is that my dear, sweet, loving, guileless, wonderful mother in law passed away the day after Thanksgiving early in the morning. She always made me feel so loved. Everything I did was good...to her anyway. She was a cheerleader in every way. I always felt so important around her. That was a great gift of hers. She, with her angelic smile, always took an interest in what I was up to and genuinely wanted to help with anything. I can with all my heart, I feel so privileged to have been loved by her. I feel it was an honor to be a very small part of her life. I will miss her sweet voice on the phone and I will miss her when I return to find her gone...for the time being. I am so grateful for the gospel and the knowledge I have that we will see each other again. I am grateful for the peace of knowing this is not the end for her but a new beginning of the eternities. She lived such a remarkable, wonderful life.
Right now I am in the middle of a number of things. First, I have wanted to get this letter out now, for a few weeks. Next, I have a new lady here by the name of Valentina from Moldova who is training to take over for Sister Morais who helps me in the house once every two weeks. I am allowed 20 hours a week for help in the home. I can't even imagine how heavenly that would have been to have that kind of help through the last 3-4 transfers of 20 missionaries. Now we will settle down to 12 or so at a time. Until 2 years from now and we will repeat the same difficult process. But next time I will have Valentina to help me. I think I will have Valentina come 3-4 days a week for fewer hours so it is not so taxing on her. She is an accountant by trade but could not bear to live in crime ridden, corrupt Moldova any longer. It must be pretty bad to want to leave your country, career and family to work for 12$ an hour. She is so grateful to be here. So grateful to be working. I am grateful to have her. We do have a problem communicating however. Her native tongue is Romanian. She speaks Russian. She speaks a bit of English and more French. My dear Sister Morais speaks Portuguese, French, English and something else. I live in a world of talented people. Smart and courageous...all of them. I am so blessed. And so we communicate via google translator. If I need to ask her something, I will attempt first in French and when that fails, which is every time, I run to the computer and write something, she runs over, puts her glasses on and reads it, then sits down and types out, with two fingers, her response. I think we will get it down pretty quickly, don't you think?
I was in the kitchen attempting to finish up some yummy caramels I made a few days ago. I did not have time to cut and wrap them in wax paper so I brought them in from the garage where it is nice and cool and dumped them out onto the counter. I cut the whole thing in two big strips and began cutting thin pieces about two inches long and wrapping them. There have been many questions and oh so many phone calls since, so I left the caramel logs sitting there. Now the caramel has spread out and I must gather it up and roll it into another log. I have repeated this four times now. I just need to get in there and finish it. My favorite saying "just do it" is something I need to tell myself.
OK, I am back and am finished with the caramels. The other thing I have going right now is trying to get some Christmas gifts online purchased. I am feeling a bit pressured by time as we have so much planned for the next three weeks that I hoped to use today to complete this task. You my kids, have been helpful by giving me ideas about what you might want. Thanks family.I think the most difficult to buy for is mom, dad and grandpa. I tried however to order Acadia (shhhhh, please don't tell her) some books from a website Wynn told me about but they would not let me order them as I am living in Canada. Even though the card is from the U.S. So I will have to figure out something else. I have never exclusively shopped online for Christmas before but it seems like it will be very convenient. Except for the out of the country, no you can't buy from us thing. I could get used to this, maybe.
The other thing I should be doing at this very moment is compiling a recipe book for our missionaries. They always complain about not eating decent meals because 1. they don't have time 2. they don't have money for expensive ingredients 3. they don't have recipes and 4. they are too tired by the time they drag themselves in the door to eat. HENCE, the crock pot. Oh I love the crock pot. I have made sure that every one of them has a crock pot in their apartments. So, they can take inexpensive ingredients, it takes one minute to throw stuff in the pot and turn it on and they will have a meal waiting for them when they walk in the door. Voila! Yes, that is French! Imagine walking in the door each night to the smell of food. At this rate, any kind of food would do for them. You could dump a couple of cans of beans and heat them up and that would smell good. Love that crock pot, now I just need to get all those recipes together. Emy, I think you gave me a cookbook now that I think of it. I will go find that and share a bunch of those with them. I wish I had the energy and time to feed them all every day. Not going to happen. Nels and I eat cereal or a sandwich when we don't have the missionaries around. I have never cooked so much in my life, but I love it as the recipients are the most grateful I have ever encountered. I love "feeding time" at the mission home. It is a delight. And they are always so helpful. I love the mission.
And the last thing is the Christmas card. Now, as you know, we have not sent out a Christmas card for 3-4 years I think. The last year was the year Turpy was alive. Now that she is dead, have we nothing to write about? Me thinks not. We have much to write about. Like the amazing, wonderful Elders who hit black ice and rolled their car three times and landed in a ditch and the car started filling up with water or possibly sewer water. Or the sweet Elder who fell asleep at the wheel because he had to get us so early to attend zone conference and had been up all night coughing. Or the Elders who help a members non member husband collect dead beavers from traps only to become the recipients of their very own beaver hide or fur...skin. Or stories of missionaries who are fed so much they are forced to use their imaginations to concoct ways of sneaking out excess food they can't possibly consume without the member knowing it. Or any of the other myriads of stories that come in from day to day. The missionaries have miracles that are worthwhile sharing. I had one call me last night so excited I found out he did not get much sleep. But he had been reading a missionary book about miracles that happen, every day simple things that happen to missionaries each day. This got him to thinking. I will pray for a miracle. So he said his prayers and while in the shower, the Bishop of the local ward called about someone who wanted to be taught. They went and taught this guy and he wanted to be baptized. He was so golden, as they say. He committed to baptism the first lesson. This area has not seen a baptism in a very long time. This was his miracle and he and his companion were so happy. I am so happy for them. The Lord sends tender mercies, miracles, blessings and good things our way each day....it is up to us to recognize and acknowledge them. And show our gratitude for them as well.
Well, my heart is full. I feel so grateful for you. I love you, each of you. I am so blessed. I do not deserve all that I have. I know that. I am in His debt. I will continue to give my all. I will wake up every day and do my best for my Father in Heaven, for His Son and for the good of this mission however small an impact it makes. I am so happy to be serving here in this amazing mission. I love the gospel for what it has given me and my family. I love the truths that guide my life every day I live. I love the scriptures and in particular the Book of Mormon. I cannot sleep without first reading from it each night. I am grateful for our present day prophet. He is a good and kind man. He is a prophet who is God's mouth piece on this earth. Joseph Smith was and is a prophet, the first prophet in this dispensation. He, by the Hand of God, restored Christ's church on the earth today. I want to share the plan of happiness with all I meet. Because I love others, because I want them to have the blessings I enjoy. I am so happy to be a missionary.
Where did that come from? I just felt like telling you all that. Oh and we found out this morning that Grandpa fell while on his walk today and injured his shoulder. Clint came to the rescue and took him to the VA Hospital where they told him they would need to replace his shoulder? Or maybe it was replace something in his shoulder. In any event it is not a good thing. I hope that goes smoothly. Hope you feel better Grandpa, you have had a tough year. Please know you are in our prayers.
Know that I love you and miss you but I am so busy...it is not as bad as it could be. Make it a great week and I will do the same.
love,
mom/Shir/Soeur Cannon
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