floods, rain and friends :)

Olá!

I hope you all had a great week! Thanksgiving is almost upon us which is crazy to think about bc that also means Christmas is also right around the corner!

F L O O D S

Yep, not lying at all with the title. We came home 4 days ago to a flood in our apartment... didnt think that was possible considering we live on the 3rd floor haha!😂 we had something happen with our sink so for a couple hours it was pouring water out onto our floors and out the door of our apartment. We discovered the problem when we walked into our apt and a cute little Brazilian lady was mopping up the floor in the hallway one floor below our apartment. She asked us if our's was the door on the upper left floor bc water had been pouring out from under it. Bless her heart, she turned off the water access for us but the water had already filled the elevator shaft and the floors below. We spent the next 2 hours mopping up lots of water, setting stuff out to dry, and making lots of calls. Woohoo! It was a quick throwback to our 2 floods in Iowa haha what a good time! But no water got into our bedroom and study rooms which have wood floors which was a literal miracle! 

We're all good now, still can't use our bathroom sink but the majority of the problem was resolved so no need to worry:) but man that was quite the adventure!

R A I N

And the rain continues here in Viseu. Constant rain everyday, but today we have some sun so thats a major blessing:)

F R I E N D S

Sandro gets baptized this upcoming Saturday!!! We're so excited for him. It's been such a blessing to be a part of this journey for him and his family. 

During a lesson with Sandro the other day, he said something that really struck me. We were talking about commandments and he said:

          I don't want to keep God's commandments because I'm hoping for something (blessings) in return. I want to keep them bc I love God.

That was a beautiful lesson that he taught us missionaries. Sure we get blessings in return for keeping God's commandments but our real motivation shouldn't be hoping for something in return.

W H A T   A M    I   G R A T E F U L   F O R:

The portuguese don't celebrate Thanksgiving, it's an American holiday. But I was thinking a lot this week about what I'm grateful for:

◇my wonderful loving parents

◇each and every one of my siblings

◇my twin, best friend ever

◇my call to serve here in Portugal

◇the portuguese language

all my friends and family back home

the people I've met so far here

the fact that we don't have snow here:)

gelato!

the opportunity to know the restaured Gospel of Jesus Christ

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving week! Love you all and eat lots of good turkey and stuffing for me... and jello of course;)

Bejinios bejinios

tchau tchau tchau

Sister Tay Cannon

 

short and simple :)

Olá! This week I just want to keep it short and simple...

Remember that you're loved by Jesus Christ♡

Praying for you all,

Have a great week

Atè jà 

Sister Cannon

Vaca :)

Olá!!

Yet another gorgeous, rainy week here in Viseu! I hope all of you had a great week, a wonderful Halloween, lots of candy, and some pumpkins to save for Thanksgiving pumpkin pie!

W H A T ' S   N E W

Not a whole lot happened this week. There was a giant parade, prank something outside our apartment the day before Halloween for all the newbies in the University. I had no idea what was going on so to me it looked like some sort of crazy political rally where people were dressed up in weird costumes and paint and pop cans. Definitely not something I've ever seen before. But I guess it's normal here, so yeah, that was exciting! 

P O R T U G U Ê S

Wow I've seen a lot of improvement in my Portuguese over the past couple weeks. Sister Ragazzo and I only speak Portuguese which I thought at first would be difficult. But it's such a blessing because the language has become much more natural. I can't take any credit though, the Spirit is 100% the source of it all. THe gift of tongues is SOOO real!

T H E   W O R K

We started teaching a family that just moved from Brazil 3 weeks ago. The wife is a member, but her husband didn't know a whole lot about the Church until they moved here. A couple members from our ward got to know them and invited them to listen to the missionaries. We had two lessons this week and taught the Restoration and the Plan of Salvation. Wow, the Spirit was so strong there and it reminded me of how grateful I am to know that there's something more in life, and that we have the ability to stay with our families for eternity. Wow! What a blessing. And to help someone else see those blessings in their own life is such an incredible opportunity. I love this family so much and I want more than anything for them to be happy!

V A C A

When new missionaries come into Viseu. We have the tradition of the vaca. One of our members, Irmão Miguel hosts us all over for pancakes. It's tradition to put laughing cow cheese on the pancake and then Irmã Nela's famous syrup, sounds a little different but I'm telling you, this stuff is HEAVEN. Then, we take the cow sticker off of the cheese wrapper and tape it onto the back of the missionary tag. So every single missionary that has ever served in Viseu has a cow (VACA) on the back of their tag. Welcome to Viseu!

S P I R I T U A L   T H O U G H T

During our lesson with the Brazilian family, Irmão Miguel, who was with us, asked them a question that has stuck with me. You want to stay with your family forever right? What are you going to do to make that happen? What are you going to do starting today to work towards that goal? In my family we have a saying - or a motto - which is "NO EMPTY CHAIRS". We don't want anyone to be left behind.

It's like the famous line of the classic Lilo and Stitch, "Ohana means family and family means no one gets left behind or forgotten." How do we want to live our lives each day to work towards that goal? What are we gonna do starting today to make that happen? I love that thought.

Well I love you all! And I hope you have a great week. Stay safe and stay in school! And please go try a pancake with cheese. I promise it's a good idea♡

Love,

Sister Tay Cannon