Letter # 30 August 10, 2011 7:14 p.m.
In the Acadia (I like saying that) driving from Ottawa to Petawawa
Dear family who I love and adore,
At this very moment we are driving down the Hwy.17, just passing Miller road on our way to Petawawa to interview our wonderful Elders. We have interviewed three sets today in different cities around Ottawa. It is a beautiful city but visiting with our missionaries surpasses anything we could see here. We just passed through a very dark and foreboding rain storm only to emerge into this end of the day light that makes all color exquisite. The farms are clean and well organized. There are very stringent laws pertaining to this. There are huge rolls of feed hay in the fields, tons of soy, potato and corn fields. This is a very hilly part of the drive covered with old log cabin like buildings. The trees are plentiful and so green in this perfect light. The clouds remind me of those in SLC , so puffy and white. We pass river after river and small lakes and ponds as we go. It could not be more glorious. I love the farmers. They work so hard to provide for us. Their work never ends. I don't think I could do it. The cows are grazing, swishing their tails from side to side. Many of the rolled hay has been covered in white plastic. We think of them as oversized marshmallow farms. That is what it looks like. Imagine the smors you could make with those. The blazon colors of bright purple, yellow, white and green are our constant pleasure to behold. I love those colors together. It is a perfect time for photos taking. Another time maybe. I must admit however, I am constantly on the watch for deer and moose. They are plentiful. I have only seen two moose and many deer on the hillsides grazing.
We were hungry so we stopped along the way in a tiny town called Comden, On. There was a tiny shack called the Chip Pit where we had a bite to eat. They were supposed to be famous for their fries, which turned out to be pretty good. They eat them here with vinegar. But just before that we stopped at the lake just below the Chip Pit, which is the same exact lake we stopped at during one of our wintery drives in the dead of Canadian freeze. At that time, and I sent a picture of it then, we drove out onto the iced over lake, with the rest of the town who were sitting on camping chairs alongside their shacks, doing some ice fishing. But today there was no one on the lake. It was still and beautiful. Out on the dock as the sun was setting were two little boys who were casting their lines into the water from the end of that rickety dock. Neither of them had fishing poles but that did not seem to bother them. They fished on…cast after cast in the still of the sunset. I jumped out and caught of few pictures of them. It was so sweet to watch them. It was fun to see the same lake and area no longer dressed in white. We are almost to Petawawa and are passing the "Prettiest Little Town in Canada", Pembroke. It is very quaint, cute and little, but the prettiest….I don't know about that.
I wanted to tell you a little about one aspect of what I do every day. I answer my phone all day long with calls meant for the wonderful miracle hotline or field questions for the Dermatologist/ Nurse/Dr./shrink/Ophthalmologist/laundry specialist/and culinary consultant (I am apparently all of these). At times I have requests for anything from locations of vacuum repair stores to how to use the crock pot or how to get rid of hundreds of fruit flies. But yesterday I must admit, among all the health related calls I have thus received, I was notified of one incident that tops them all. Yesterday morning, early around 7:30 I answered the phone only to be informed that a certain Elders companion had swallowed something dangerous. The phone call went something like this…" Sister Cannon, this is Elder ?, I am calling you to tell you my companion has just swallowed a needle". I then responded, "excuse me, did you say he swallowed a NEEDLE?" Affirmed!!! After many questions to make sure this happened and attempt to identify where the needle was I asked him to tell his companion to speak as little as possible and try not to swallow or move his throat. Then I sent them to the nearest walk in clinic but they ended up being sent to the emergency room which means a six hour wait. I immediately called James to make sure I did the right thing as I was not able to get a hold of the Area Medical Advisor who is a physician. They called me from the E.R. stating they were waiting for an X-Ray. After many hours they determined that he had indeed swallowed it and they discovered it in the stomach. That was a blessing that it did not enter his lungs. There were other places the needle could have ended up that would have caused my trouble and a need for surgery. So they sent him home and told him to come back every day for an X-Ray for the next week. This would put them out of work for a week. I felt impressed to tell him, after he called to tell me, to go eat a really big meal. I also was impressed to tell him a story about one of our kids who swallowed a ring…you know who you are. And how that was resolved. In order to keep this letter discreet, lets just say "seek and ye will find". The Elder took my advice and this morning called me very early and said, "Good morning Sister Cannon this is Elder ? I asked how he was and he responded with unusual enthusiasm, "I am doing great". My response was, "may I ask why you are so great" and he said " I found the needle". End of story. No more details. I was so happy and relieved that he was ok and that he would not require surgery. The Lord is good and watches out for these wonderful missionaries. The Sisters were praying for him, we were praying for him and he asked for a blessing from some great and faithful Elders. He also is an Elder of great faith. Heavenly Father knows exactly who he is. Tonight, I will sleep peacefully. All is well in the Canada Montreal Mission…..at least for right now.
I wanted to talk about divine rendezvous here in the mission but I am too tired. We are now at the hotel and it is late. Next time I will talk about the many divine rendezvous the Lord orchestrates for us each day. There are so many stories about missionaries who were "smurfed" only to turn around and find a person who was searching for truth. Smurfed means that people don't show up for the appointments they make with the missionaries. Like today. Two of our Elders were smurfed and so they decided to go door tracting. Knocking on doors. They prayed over the map to know where to go and they felt they should go to a certain area. They ended up at a large apartment building that was always locked. You had to have a key to get in. But they tried the door and it was opened. Elder Woods felt that they should go to the fourth floor. So he pushed the button for the fourth floor but it would not work. He tried it four or five times but the elevator would not respond so they tried three. That worked. They walked down the hall and knocked on the first door. Not interested. They knocked on the second door and the woman who opened the door was so surprised as she had literally been praying to speak to someone about religion. They were all pretty surprised and grateful for the guidance of the Lord in this woman's behalf. She was very willing and excited to hear their message and they have a return appointment with her. She wanted to read the Book of Mormon, come to Church and pray. This is amazing. This is what we refer to as a divine rendezvous. I am grateful to see Heavenly Father's Hand in this work every day. I pray I will never take these things for granted. I am so grateful to be a part of this wonderful work. I love it. I love being a missionary. I love this mission and most of all I love these missionaries, every single remarkable one of them. We truly have the most incredible, faithful, hard working missionaries.
It is that happy time….when I will lay me down to sleep and pray the Lord my soul to keep. I think that is how it goes. Sounds good to me.
I love you all so dearly. I cannot express how deep my love runs for each of you.
Make it a great week and I will do my best to do the same!
Love,
Mom/Shir/Mema/Soeur Cannon
1. picture of dad and I after a visit to the dentist. It has been fourteen months since our last visit. Glad to report no cavities.
3. look at the clouds here, they are enormous
Click below for pictures of our life here in Quebec/Ottawa
http://www.flickr.com/photos/canadamontrealmission/
Soeur Shirin Cannon
Sister Shirin Cannon
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