SJ Week 16 – Last Month – Elder Tate Cannon

This has been a fire week.Hope you all are doing great! I’m doing super well and loving my time here in San Jose. It’s pretty crazy to think that there’s one month left in my time here as a missionary. But, I’m making sure to make my time count, and not just count the time.

We had some incredible miracles this week, and have been so blessed in the work. I’ve been trying to focus my prayers and efforts more on seeking the miracles that I desire, and I’ve seen that the Lord has blessed us so much. One of our many big miracles this week was with Facebook. Last week, I wrote about Jessica, this 16 year old girl from Colombia who had connected with us on Facebook and who was a huge miracle. This week has been incredible with her. She received her answer from the Holy Ghost that the Church is true, we got her in contact with the missionaries in Colombia, and she and her family are preparing to be baptized and she later wants to serve a mission. It’s been incredible and just has shown to me that there are chosen people that God is preparing everywhere.

Another miracle we had was yesterday. We’d invited a family that we’ve been teaching for a while, Familia Cruz, to come to the church building to watch the ward Zoom call (kind of a Sunday School lesson for the whole ward) with us on the Family History computers. We weren’t sure if they were actually going to come, but we got a text saying they were outside. We walked to the door and the WHOLE family (7), even those we had never even taught, were there dressed in their Sunday best. It was such a cool miracle. They loved the zoom class, and then we gave them a tour of the church building which they loved. They also met our awesome Bishop (Obispo) Hidalgo. It was awesome, and such a cool miracle to actually have people come to church again haha. Earlier in the week, we went over to teach them and we had a great lesson. Two of them are progressing towards their baptismal date of September 26th, so we are super excited for them.

But anyways, as we were leaving, this guy calls us over and he had like 30 beer cans laying around him. He was obviously super drunk, but he asked for us to pray for him. We did and he shook our hands and stuff. As we were finishing up there, their crazy next door neighbor came out and was just acting crazy about a little bit of overgrowth that’d happened in his yard because of some plants. It just took me back to Argentina being surrounded by drunk and crazy people hahaha, San Jose is a crazy place.

Today, I actually played basketball for the first time in almost two years. It was so fun, I’d missed it so bad. We just played 2v2 at our church building, but it was such a party. Still can’t dunk lol.

Also today, we went to the mission home to pick up some stuff, and one of the Senior Missionaries in the office goes “Elder Cannon! You’re going home this transfer right? You’re the one I’ve been looking for!” which normally would have been fine, but we’ve been keeping it a secret that I’m going home from two Elders in our apartment. So I was ready to confess and for the joke to be over, but somehow, they weren’t listening and didn’t hear what she said. We’ve had plenty of close calls this week, but we are still in the clear. I can’t wait to surprise them haha, we are trying to make it until Zone Conference next week. Let’s hope it turns out well.

I love my Savior. I’m so grateful for Him. I want you all to know that I KNOW that this is His Church on the earth. As we do the things that He’s asked us, we will have peace and be blessed. I know that He died for all of us, which includes YOU reading this. He understands YOUR pains, trials, and difficulties. He loves you, and just wants to help you return to live with Heavenly Father. Seek to grow closer to Him this week, through prayer, reading the scriptures, and keeping the commandments. I promise it will make you a happier, better person. I love you all. Thank you for everything. September is gonna be the best month yet.