Letter #21 addtl. pics

Oh forgot the proof of staying up to ring in the New Year

 
Soeur Shirin Cannon

Letter #21 I have been a naughty girl

First letter of 2011
Letter #21
1/11/11 That is SO cool 1/11/11
Mission Home Office

Dear wonderful family,

How is every single thing? And every single one of you? I am a bad, bad girl. I have not written for three weeks. That is terrible. I am sorry but know I thought about you a lot. I hope this letter finds you in good health and good spirits. I am doing great today as yesterday I did find it necessary to leave the house once. I stayed home and worked at the office all day and that was a luxury. Today I  had only to go to the dry cleaner (who has now ruined a third item) and the bagel shop. I had a feeling the Challah (Jewish bread) was hot,so I stopped at the Jewish bakery, Renfell's, and Nels and I tore into the hot Challah for lunch. I wish we had one of these bakeries in SL...but actually when I think about it....best there is not one. I am "wearing" the results of what that bakery produces, on my person. We give them more business than the average customer as we feed the missionaries bagels at every breakfast as part of the menu, so we get along famously. My favorite employees there are Abraham from Jerusalem and Olga from Poland. Wonderful people to know.

The only reason I would not have written is because it has been a very busy three weeks. And now that I think about it, I have forgotten most of what we did except for the visit of Libby and Mark. And skyp-ing and face timing on the IPHONE. I have used face time with Sousan and Emy and the family. My favorite time was when Clara took the phone and had to show me something. She chatted to me the whole time as I was able to inspect the ceiling of our house. That is what I saw as she walked. It looked pretty good. It was heavenly to see the family and Sou and her fam. I have a distinct image of Acadia sleeping in Wynn's arms looking like an angel straight from heaven, Emy sitting by the fire petting Jamie the dog, Eli sitting in the high chair with his pacifier in his mouth all the while smiling a very large and gorgeous smile, Ben showing me his masterpiece snow chute in the back yard he built, Libby in the background reading to Clara, Dane and Tracie sitting on the leather couch in the living room and James for a nano second standing by Wynn. So good to have seen you all. I love you dearly and missed you this holiday.

We were so grateful for the visit of Lib and Mark. If it were not for them, we would NOT have made Christmas dinner, would not have invited the Elder over for dinner and by the way Elder Magre and Libby found the almond, would NOT have gone ice skating, would NOT have attended the magnificent fire work display Christmas day night, the fire on ice display down in Old Montreal and we would NOT have discovered the mammoth and I mean enormous underground mall in downtown Montreal. It goes for four miles and snakes around the entire downtown area. And there are two to three floors of shopping. It is overwhelming to say the least. I have not shopped for anything but food since I have been here and it was so strange to be out shopping. It was all a blast and we are so glad you came Mark and Libby. Thanks so much. WE love you. And we love the rest of you and hope your Christmas and New Years was wonderful.

Speaking of theNew Year, how about that date today? This is an historic day if you ask me. It is all 1's. But then so was Jan. 1, but I did not notice it that day. It is so hard to believe it is 2011. I feel it will be a great year for us all. I know it will.

I love the miracle hotline. I have mentioned this before but it is when the missionaries call me with their miracles and we talk about how the miracle happened. The other reason I get calls from the missionaries has to do with their health and OH MY has my phone been ringing. Usually when I get a call, at this point in the mission I can take care of it. But there are those times when I have no clue what to tell them to do and that is when I call our Area Medical Advisor, Dr. Mendenhall. He is my hero. He is the kindest, most competent Dr. I do not know what I would do without him. I can call him at any time of the day. Day in and day out. He is there always, whenever we need him. Can you even in your wildest dreams imagine having access to a Dr. 24x7? He and his dear wife have been called to do this full time and they are stationed in Conn. They live in Midway, Ut. I think but he covers many missions. His sweet wife embroidered all the mission presidents wives the sweetest apron. And she knit us each a beautiful scarf. Such sterling people. They are a delight to rub shoulders with and a blessing in our lives and the lives of our missionaries. We also have an office of three Jewish Dr's, with the last name of Abikher, two daughters and a father who all of our missionaries go to. They are wonderful as well. So the church provides us with so many wonderful resources with which to serve here in Montreal and make our lives a bit easier. I am grateful.

Speaking of the phone calls I got a call last night from an Elder who I just love. His name is Elder Leavitt. He is such a gem. He was not feeling well so I started with the normal onslaught of questions I usually ask them. One of those questions has to do with diet. I said, " Elder L. could it have been something you ate?" He replied "No Sister Cannon, (while checking with his companion Elder Andersen from Norway who I love and adore) I only had two chicken sandwiches,  pause....ohhhh yeah well I also mixed up some hot sauce and Mary's sauce (whatever that is and who knows how long it has been in their fridge) to go on my sandwich and I also baked a potato and put hot sauce and some other stuff on it and OH, because we did not have any butter or sour cream, I put some cool whip on that to add some dairy". That is when I burst out laughing. Cool whip! I love these missionaries. They are so creative, funny and wonderful. What a meal, I only wish I could have been there to see what really went on that sandwich that he may have forgotten to tell me about. I had another call today. An Elder said, "I am so sick, I have a stomach ache, and I was up all night going to the bathroom". I found out he had eaten an entire frozen pizza that had been in the freezer for who knows how long and had eaten it late in the eve. We have psoriasis, hives, bed bugs, eczema, stomach aches, colds, fevers, respiratory problems, skin rashes, plugged up plumbing which they always find difficult to discuss, acne, severe headaches and flu like symptoms. Oh I wish I had a nursing degree.

Speaking of severe headaches, I am so, so sad to have to report that our dear, sweet, faithful Elder Tehoiri had to be sent home to Tahiti to see if that will help alleviate his pain. He was in the MTC for 16 weeks as opposed to the normal 12 weeks in an effort to put him through every kind of test known to man to help him. He continued with the headaches and his visa would have been messed up had he not been sent to Canada. So we tried, but he just could not work very often so after four weeks of trying to go with and without medication, eating differently and even seeing a specialist here, the Missionary Dept. thought it would be best if he returned home as he was on a scale from 1-10....an 18. That was what prompted us to call SL for counsel. This has been hard on us and him as well as his companions. I pray for him and that he will regain his health. If he does regain his health he will be reassigned without having to go through the process again. They put him on Medical leave.We will miss him dearly and we hope the best for our sweet Elder Tehoiri.

I had a pretty tough experience this past Sunday. We were asked to speak, as we often are, in the Victoriaville Branch. It is about one and a half hours away from Montreal, maybe a bit more. It is French speaking. I had written a talk in English, then put it in Google translator and then looked up all the words I did not know how to pronounce and wrote under each word phonetically how you said the word in French. This was a very long and arduous process. It took me total, about 7 hours to do. I finished it the night before as I had not had much time to prepare ahead of time. It was a talk on the Book of Mormon and I felt is was something I was supposed to talk about. As I sat down to write the talk, it came so fast and furious to me, I felt that it was what was needed for that meeting. The other problem was, I had not had time to go through it as one of our Assistants who is from France, proof read it and made corrections where they were needed. He finished just before we got there. So, I thought I would have time to practice before but it turned out their Sacrament meeting was the first meeting of the day. It was so painful. It was slow going and I felt I did not get the message across. That is not what the members said, but then they are always so kind. But I felt if I would have had an hour to practice it before I could have done much better. Oh well, the Lord knows I tried and the great members of that supportive branch also know I tried. For that I am grateful. I really need to find a tutor.

Well the time has come to say farewell until next time and who knows when that will be. We have Zone Conferences next week as we go out and teach all the wonderful things we learned from Brothers Littlefield and Beck from the Missionary Department in SLC who came out and so kindly helped us refocus our work and helped us in so many ways. We are so blessed with much help and support from the church. We are so grateful for their visit. They were a joy to have.

I love each of you individually and collectively. I love and miss you and am grateful for you good lives. I am grateful you are engaged in good works and that you are strong and steady in the gospel of Jesus Christ. I love this work with all of my heart. It gives dad and I such great joy to be out here in this magnificent part of the world, meeting with amazing folks from every walk of life. WE love, love love our missionaries. They are the BEST, and I mean that sincerely. Make it a great week and leave things better than you found them.

love,

mom,Shir

Pictures: I will send three emails with four pictures on each. Picture 1. This is why my talk was 15 pages, you can see what a process this is 2. Our Mandarin Elders singing at a baptism last Sunday. From left to right Elder Jacquier from France, Elder Tam, whose folks are Cantonese and now he is learning Mandarin even though he learned French in the MTC, Elder Njowzibwami from Burundi, Africa but now lives in Alberta,Elder Harvey from the good ol U.S.A., and on the far right Elder Mathias who is from France. Aren't they amazing? Picture 3.Elder Tehoiri just before we departed for the airport for him to go home with his companion Elder Flores who speaks three languages to the left 4. Special training Brothers from SL with myself and the Pres. 5. A program from the baptism I just attended at the Mandarin branch 6. A program from the French ward we attended the same day 7. The Book of Mormon in Farsi of which I am giving to two ladies at the Persian restaurant who I just love, they asked me for a copy each! 8.Mark and Libby skating. They are both good but you should see that Mark on skates. He is a natural. 9.EVIDENCE that I actually made it to see the New Year ring in...yes I know that is a miracle and that you kids may not have believed this so I took a picture of the screen to prove I was actually awake. Yippee! 10. The four of us on Christmas Eve 11.This is a very typical sight in Montreal. Enormous mountains of snow piled everywhere. This is one in our local grocery store parking lot. They have no place to put it so they pile it up everywhere. 12. Mark and Libby after the Fire on Ice display in Old Montreal around 9:00 p.m. on Christmas Day. That's it for now.



Soeur Shirin Cannon

HAPPY NEW YEAR...Late

Dear All,

Hope it's not too late to add one more Happy New Year wish.
 
Love,
Shir


 

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Soeur Shirin Cannon

Merry Christmas!

Symposium pic

A picture of Pres. and Sis. Cannon at the religious symposium in Quebec City, Nov 2010

Thanks Bro. and Sis. Hawker for the great photo!

Merry Christmas Letter # 20

Hello and Merry Christmas to one and all dear family,

Oh what a week it has been. It is pretty outside with lots of snow so it will be a white Christmas indeed unless we have some type of bizarre heat wave. I should be in bed right now, but the Assistants are still here recording numbers for the week. which should not be very good as we had lots of missionaries traveling to get to and from the BIG Christmas gathering we had for them on Tues. and Wed.

Nous vous souhaitons tout qui un très Joyeux Noël et un Nouvel An heureux et prospère.

We wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a happy and prosperous New Year. We love and miss you very much but love what we are doing. I am so grateful for the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ and for the impact and influence it has made in my life.

It is now Monday the 20^th, TAY’s birthday, Happy Birthday my brother. Hope you have a very nice day. I love you. I will attempt to call but today is the first day of transfers which lasts three days.

Just a quick letter this week. We had two wonderful Christmas gatherings on Tues and Wed of this week for our missionaries. We all had such a great time together. Both days started with our mission Dr. administering Flu shots which by the way turned into a bit of a hassle for 6 of our senior couples as the Dr. while cleaning up scratched herself with one of the needles and she is pregnant and freaked out cause she thought someone might have a horrible disease so she asked each of them to go get a blood test at the hospital to calm her nerves. This was so kind of them to do as they are in busy mode. I know she appreciated their efforts and understand her wanting to take precautions. They all assured her they were healthy but she found it hard to believe that everyone had stayed faithful to just one spouse etc.

Back to the party. We moved into watching Toy Story 3 which by the way they voted on, had a wonderful full meal of turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, strawberry spinach salad, mixed veggies, rolls and butter and gravy. We also passed around appetizers during the movie which they loved instead of popcorn. We had brownies a la mode with a candy cane stuck in the ice cream for dessert.

Then came the entertainment. We asked each Zone to prepare a musical number or two. We have some real talent within the mission. So many play instruments, have beautiful voices and even acting abilities. That was a joy to hear them perform songs they had planned and practiced together.

After the entertainment we had a white elephant exchange which was hilarious. This is the way we did it with so many. Our decorated dining tables were set up in a big rectangle. We asked everyone to pick a gift. Then we played a game by reading a story with the words right and left in it. Every time I said the word right they would pass the gift right and so on. I read pretty fast so they were passing left and right and laughing as they tried to anticipate which way they would pass. After that we had them quickly stand and open their gift and show it to the group. Once that was finished the fun began as they were given the option to steal a gift from another. The gift could only be stolen twice. It was so fun. I ended up with a knit hat one of the missionaries knit by himself. His name is Elder Foster. He just became a Zone leader. He taught himself how to knit and he was also wearing a knit tie he knit for Christmas. There were some fairly funny things like old statues three feet high, a bottle of some type of food that legend says has been in a fridge for over four years, the bottoms of some cut off jeans along with a candy bar, an authentic Sombrero and so on.

We closed the Christmas gathering with a Christmas hymn and prayer. And then we had a surprise visit from Santa and Mrs. Claus. We had each companionship sit on the chair wings with Santa. Mrs. Claus snapped a picture with their goodie bag in hand. It was a perfect ending to a wonderful day. It was our gift to them for all they do. They do not ask for thanks but we wanted to show our love and appreciation for their goodness. Oh how we love these young people. They are so remarkable in every way. Going out day after day and experiencing the things they do both good and bad. I love them.

We also had a big Senior Couples dinner the night after the parties and three weekend guests, our first assistant with his father (Elder Pearson) and a young lady Josee Ann who is going to serve a mission and dad had to interview her. The night after that we had a special dinner at the house here for Elder Lionel Occolier who will be leaving us to go home to Martinique on Wed. We will miss him so much. He has been stellar in his work with dad and I. So responsible, so kind, so noble. He is one of the older missionaries and it shows in his behavior and simply the way he carries himself. He is a prince of a man. He will be such a blessing to his family and friends when he returns. I hope to be able to see him again some day. Maybe the pres. and I will have to make a visit to Martinique some day….sounds pretty good to me.

Well, I need to go cut up a ton of onions and mushrooms and start frying them and peel potatoes. It is stroganoff over mashed potatoes on the menu tonight for 18 for the main dish. I can leave it in crock pots to stay warm while we go pick up our new missionaries this afternoon. I have their snack bags ready as they come in exhausted, thirsty and hungry. They arise at 4:00 a.m. to make it here by evening. We take them directly to the office to collect visa’s and passports to put in the safe then we drive back to the mission home for dinner and sleep over etc.

I most likely will not have the time to write another letter before Christmas. So I want to tell you how much I love each of you. You are everything to me. As we serve here in Montreal, I work and serve, full well knowing the Lord will bless you in our absence. I work and give my all because of my love for the Savior. I love my Father in Heaven. I know they love me, they love each of you. We are all children of a loving Father. I am grateful for the gift of the Savior and his exemplary life. I only hope I can learn to be more like Him every day. The gift I can give Him for Christmas is to be a little kinder, help a bit more, reach out to those in need, be as the Savior would have me be. That is not always easy for me and I fail. And when I do, I am so grateful for the Atonement that enables me to repent, to be forgiven and still loved unconditionally, and allows me to pick myself up and try again. I love Christmas and this year has been filled with Christ as it should be.

Much love,

Mom,Shir, Mema

p.s. pictures of the week, visit with Santa with Elders Corbett and Occolier our assistants, by the tree with Sister Hamula who with the help of all the missionaries made us the most beautiful scrapbook of photos of all our missionaries. It made me cry. It is a labor of love. Then a pic of Elder Foster who knit the hat and tie, he is wonderful and lastly a picture of feeding time at the Christmas gathering