Sister Petrisor

Sister Petrisor in front of the Tower of London on P-Day, February 28, 2007. Sister Petrisor is from Romania. Abby is her trainer.

Baptism

Brother Cinedu Egbunike's baptism on January 22, 2007 at the Ilford Chapel.

Sister Cobbinah

Sisters Cannon and Christensen with Sister Cobbinah on New Years Eve at the Ilford Chapel.

Christmas

Sisters Cannon and Christensen by the fire at Christmas in the fleece blankets that mom sent.

E-mail - February 28, 2007

"We had a really amazing experience this week with a referral we got from a missionary in Stratford. We received the referral about a month ago and for whatever reason we never got an appointment. THIS IS TRULY THE LORD'S WORK. Sister Petrisor finally made it up to the northern end of Ilford (hardly ventured) and far from our familiar warm spot of Dagenham and we were greeted by Emelia. She had been waiting for a copy of the Book of Mormon for ages "I need to be reading this book everyday!" and the wonderful part is that she has 3 children and a husband! I love it.

We also had some service opportunities including bringing a delusional and distressed old woman to the hospital, helping a blind man cross the street and speaking in church. I won't say it was much better than my farewell talk, but I think at least I had the Spirit. "

P-Day at Tower Bridge

"Ta, that means thanks. It has been a really long P-day. The Zone decided to go to the Tower of London and Sister Petrisor and I were wonderfully invisible with a pack of upstanding clean-cut missionaries that morph into crazy teenage boys as soon as the tag comes off. Sad, but true. You can't really blame them. It was fun but I admit I didn't really like being a tourist. I love being a missionary too much to enjoy rooms full of armour and sparkly scepters. It was a strong reminder that I am 3000 miles from home, but it was good. I love England."

This pictures is of the Romford District in front of the Tower Bridge. From left, me, Sister Petrisor, Elders Hernandez (Utah), Zone leader Davis (Edgemont Stake - went to Meridian), Zone leader Allred (Vernal), and District Leader Lucherini (Logan).

E-mail - February 21, 2007

"It has been a really crazy week including some really awesome appointments, missed appointments, finding lessons, a sick day, a spiritual district meeting (those Elders sure try hard) and a failed British driving theory test.

To answer Mom's question: We don't really do regular service here in Ilford. In Milton Keynes we were always (three hours on Friday morning) at the MK Museum of Urban History. We did odd jobs like paint fences or dust. We met one man named Bill who worked at the museum.
the last time I saw him, I was with Sister McKeen. He is a wonderful unbaptized future Bishop that loves the missionaries and got very teary eyed when we left. We didn't know that would be our last time there but moves were coming and Sister McKeen asked him to pray we would stay together. He got a shocked look on his face (I don't think any missionary had ever mentioned God before to him). I hope he didn't, because we didn't. I can't believe that was three months ago!

I would like to share one of the miracles this week. We received a missionary referral from Sister Bley. She had met a young man on a bus that lived in our area named Miguel. We met at the church where there was activity going on. They were showing "Praise to the Man". We taught Miguel who has very little Christian background the first lesson. The next appointment we had with him was last night and there was a Youth activity, pancake day. It was Shrove Tuesday which is the day before Ash Wednesday and I guess there is a tradition to make pancakes (crepes). At least he knows that there are young people in the church. I feel really good about him, really good. The miracle part of that is that it has really made me ponder on the "seeds I plant" every person I talk to.

Another miracle happened on Sunday when a middle-aged couple walked into church having found the address on the internet. Janet and Peter. Janet has never felt comfortable in any church but Peter loved his church. She loved every minute of church and he seemed OK. I loved her as soon as I saw her so much, just to find out that they live in Strattford area (just barely outside our boundary). When I introduced them to the Strattford Elders, Peter recognized Elder Ogunleye from him just saying Hello in front of the station, he didn't even try to teach, just a hello. Peter warmed immediately. It was a miracle.

Sister Petrisor has been sick and it has really made me appreciate the good health I have enjoyed while being out. The Lord's Priesthood is powerful and I have been really blessed with the promise of good health. We did have to stay home one day. It was a mixed blessing. I got to read the Book of Mormon all day, so lovely.

I'm sorry about the lack of pictures. Sister Christensen was supposed to send you a CD we made on our last day together. It will come soon. I love you all, Sister Cannon"

E-mail - February 14, 2007

"Wow, it's amazing the love I feel this Valentine's Day. Yesterday was Zone Conference. It always give me exactly what I need to keep going and improve on the things that are called to my attention. I love it. It also reminds me that I speak with an accent to these people. Elder Barber (Bahba) is an Assistant and he said "The moment you decide, you can have success. He is just waiting for you to make a decision." Sister Petrisor gave her "new missionary" testimony and I was filled with love for her. If that even comes close to how parents feel when their children perform, it was amazing. The problem is that I was so happy and giggley, we had to sing the musical number right after and I led. I just laughed the whole way through "Numara Binecuvantarile", or Count Your Blessings" in Romanian. I was laughing so hard it turned out to be a disaster especially to a bunch of Elders that just sat there with blank faces. I had flashbacks of my Farewell talk. (I shudder) I even think I winked at one of them (how horribly awkward and embarassing).

Things are going well. We have a family. The Gumbos are preparing for baptism in a few weeks and the ward seems to be really hyped up for missionary work lately. Prayer is so powerful. I love it."

E-mail - February 7, 2007

"I wish I could tell you all the miracles I have seen this week. I don't remember if I told you about the sisters we are teaching, Nicola and Lucy? Lucy requested a Book of Mormon from the website because her sister had been looking for a church to have her son christened in and was "drawn" to this one. She (Nicola) couldn't find a Book of Mormon anywhere so she bought one on Amazon for 7 pounds! (that is about 14 dollars -- someone is making money on regular mission copies of the scripture). and she told Lucy to get her own. Sister Christensen and I delivered the Book and they even came to church but it kind of fizzled. Until I thought of them again with Sister Petrisor and we have taught them 2 times and they are keeping commitments. It's incredible the way the Lord does his work. There are so many blessings for those who trust. I can't believe how excited I get when an investigator shares what they read in the Book of Mormon or when they come to church. I didn't anticipate feeling like that for what seems like little things.

Here is another one. Yesterday our morning appointment didn't show up but we got to teach a sister in our ward who is lovely and then we caught a late bus back home for lunch. We took our seats seperately (of course) and I was prompted to talk to the young man across the aisle. He didn't even blink when I explained about a living prophe and the restored gospel, but he jumped at the opportunity to preach to me. For 20 minutes and miles passed our stop for food and home. I got angry at his cement ears and the Spirit left, but for some reason I kept listening, trying to appear patient. I could finally take no more and I shoved him a pass along card and got off the bus in the middle of a crazy unfamiliar part of Ilford. Sister Petrisor was upset with me because I let it go so long (I usually don't, I'm not here to be preached to) and we were murmuring about not getting our lunch and going away from our plans and getting really lost. When out of the corner of my eye I see a young woman nearly getting hit by a car and arriving at our side of the street and all she said to me was "you know where is church?" I didn't really know what was meant but I recognized the accent from somewhere and was thrilled that she was asking about the church. While Sis P messed with the map, I started teaching her and then she asked "Christian? Yah, I know but you where is Church?" so maybe not, different question, I said "Where are you from?" and she said one word that made everything make sense. "Romania." (Sister P is from Romania). Heavenly Father is so good. We walked her home and got to know her a bit. She is very excited about coming to church and she already identified that there were spiritual reasons for coming to England (six months ago). We still got lunch and all of the afternoon apointments went amazingly well. I love this so much. Thanks for everything. Love, Sister Cannon"