Category Archives: Steven

Elder Steven Cordon is serving in the Kennewick Washington mission as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

#NEW

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Dear Family and Friends,

I am in a new area, with a new companion, and a whole new set of challenges. I am so excited for this transfer and everything that it has to offer. There is a lot of people here that are seeking after truth and are ready to make changes in their life to come closer to Christ. I love the people that I meet, what an amazing knowledge that we have to know that we are all children of our Heavenly Father and brothers and sisters in his family. It really brings it into perspective of why we share this gospel.

I have been sent to Wenatchee WA. what a beautiful area this is and I my even be here for Christmas, which would be just great. We already have snow capped mountains. SO BEAUTIFUL. Gods creation of this world is such a wonderful gift I am glad that we have beauty in this world that we can fill our surroundings with.

Sincerely,

Elder Steven Cordon

We Are Different!!

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Dear Family and Friends,

This last week was such a wonderful week full of the spirit and learning.

First I was able to go to the temple. WOW I miss being able to go as often as I want to, but I also cherish the times I get to go. (not that I didnt before.) I love the spirit that I am filled with every time that I go to the temple. It truly is the Lords house.

We found a new investigator name Jay he is so prepared to hear the gospel. He had a great boss who he looked up to that was a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. He knew who we were and we immediately offered to help him stack the wood that he was in the process of stacking. What a great example of how members just being great members can have such an impact to someones life latter on.
And then Conference happened!!

What an incredible weekend. I felt reminded Many times that as members of the church WE ARE DIFFERENT. Gods commandments are never going to conform to men. We are given a Prophet for that reason so that we are kept on the path of God. He is the person that is called and set apart to handle the affairs of God on the earth. He is the one that we look to for answers, not the internet, not the latest trend, not the latest law that is passed, the Prophet is the one that receives the answers we need for our lives.

I am so blessed by the knowledge that we have a living Prophet on the earth today. He actually lives and receives revelation for the world from Christ, this is The Church of Jesus Christ because it is his church not mans and it will always be that way.

I am so grateful for a Prophet to lead and guide us everyday. I know that Thomas S Monson speaks for God.

I seal this in the name of Jesus Christ.

Elder S Cordon

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P.S. Editors note- he is being transferred. He has enjoyed his first area on his mission but is needed elsewhere in his mission!

Shh… it’s Steven’s Birthday Saturday… send him your Love!

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Dear Family and Friends,

This week was a great week that was full of new things.

It was my first baptismal interview. That was great to be able to be a part of that families conversion to the gospel. What a way to be able to help them. Elder Ping (my new comp) also had his birthday that was awesome. We also got a training on weekly planning it now takes about 7 hours to do. My comp and I also just started a new way of tracting and finding and so far have had huge success. We are growing our teaching pool and lots of people are looking for the light and we just need to show them where to find it.

I love being on a mission and so excited for all it has to offer.

Elder Steven Cordon

P.S. (Editors Note)Saturday is Steven’s Birthday. He would love to receive notes of love and encouragement. Let’s fill his mailbox with love! Here is his address:

Elder Steven Allen Cordon
Washington Kennewick Mission
8202 W Quinault, Ste D
Kennewick, WA 99336

Change

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Dear Family and Friends,

So this was a great week! We had an investigator make the step of baptism. Tre has aloud the gospel to change his life in so many ways. He came from a very rough past but the gospel is such that the atonement covers everything. He has really come to know that God is truly our Father and that He loves and cares for us, also that we get to live with him again and that the Gospel makes that happen.

Tre at his Baptism

Tre at his Baptism

Seeing him grow towards God has really given me another witness of the glory that awaits us at the end of this life. We have this life to prepare to meet God lets not waste it.

We have another investigator Tim that is a husband of a member. He is letting his desire to know the truth grow inside him and it is wonderful to see. Funny story I almost met them in NY haha small world we live in.

So this week was my first week as District leader. What a GREAT opportunity I have to really come to know just how unworthy I am. HaHa I laugh because just how great it is that we are always going to be unworthy. This gospel is not a museum for the righteous it is a hospital for the sinners. We get to grow every day and perfect talents and abilities given to us to strength the kingdom of God. We are also given weaknesses so that we may humble ourselves to God and allow Him to shape us into who He needs us to be.

It was such a great experience at District meeting. The Spirit did so much teaching and confirming. The spirit will always teach to our understanding and in a plainness that allows testimony to be built on solid truth without any room to second guess. What a great blessing that we have, to be able to have to spirit as a guide.

Thank you for your prayers and support.

Love
Elder Steven Cordon

What An Amazing Experience!!

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Dear Family and Friends,

This week after spending 10 days with my new companion, he was called to a different zone and I got a new companion to finish training and was called as district leader.

It was a great week. Except for the part that I was deathly sick for two days. I felt really bad that my companion had to just stay home. Besides that it was a very good week with lots of miracles, we found three new people who have started to learn about the gospel and we have an investigator (someone learning about the Church of Jesus Christ from the missionaries) that is going to be baptized this coming weekend. He has made amazing changes in his life to come unto God and allow the wonderful atonement to change his life

We had Stake Conference this weekend. What an amazing weekend it has been. We had a new Stake President (similar to a superintendent in a school district the Stake President resides over several wards in a geographical area) called as the new Stake President. So because we had that happening we had two members of the quorum of the seventy come to speak at the stake conference.

We had Elder Larry R. Lawrence and Elder Craig C. Christensen. What inspired men they are, with the knowledge and wisdom that they were able to bring to the people here in Pasco we shall see miracles happen in the coming months I am sure of it. This is truly the time that the Lord is spreading the gospel throughout the world and we can either jump on or get left behind. We have the privilege of being able to help with such a wonderful work. He is not going to drag us along kicking and screaming and He is not going to wait for us. The Gospel will go forward and we have the opportunity to help and experience countless miracles from God. What will you do?

Something that was was told to us by Elder Lawrence that really stuck with me was his talk about Light. Light is truly what this life is about, gaining Heavenly Light. We all started with some light, The Light of Christ the world knows this as our conscience. We were sent here to expand on that light, we have been given the gospel to help us do that. We can use L.I.G.H.T. to helps us in this process.

L. Love is the quickest way to gain light, it is the greatest of all commandments. Love the Lord thy God and Love thy neighbor as thyself.
I. Invest time in the scriptures. They have been giving to us to use and to guide us, so use them.
G. Go and Do. When you learn truth go and do it. Don’t wait to make adjustments that you know you need to make.
H. Hearken to the voice of the spirit. As you listen to the promptings of the Holy Ghost you will develop that gift and not only will you be better at hearing that still small voice but you will hear it more often.
T. Tell the Lord you want more light. Don’t be afraid to ask for help for what you are trying to do. He loves you and wants you to succeed, He will help you.

The challenge that was extended to us during the conference was to pray to find someone that we could share the Book of Mormon with. It is a book that contains the truth of this gospel. Help the world find more light share the Book of Mormon with someone this week.

Love you all,

Thank you all for the blessing of your support and prayers
Elder Steven Cordon

The Best Guide

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Dear Family and Friends,

This was a wonderful week. It seems to be a divine truth that when you are feeling down, if you let God pick you up, in those moment you have the opportunity to learn some amazing things about what to do and where to go. I have had the amazing privilege to have three companions for my first there transfers. I am learning so much from my companions, I am able to refine myself and grow in ways that I didn’t think that I would have to.

I am so grateful to know that God is truly in our lives and knows who we are and what we need to grow to become who he knows we can be. We can try and shape our lives by ourselves or we can let God, who created the path that we need to travel. Why not let the maker guide us?

Everything that comes from God is made to build us and get us back to him. I am so grateful to be able to become who he needs me to be from this mission just as long as I let Him guide me and not try to do it myself.

Love you all so much. Thank you for your prayers and faith.

Elder Steven Cordon

#ThisStruggleIsReal

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Dear Family and Friends,

Satan is a real being, He has real power, and He will use everything He has to make sure that you do not succeed in what God wants you to do. We all have what he will never have and will never receive we have a birthright to glory. He wants to take as much away from us as he can. He has been able to perfect his tactics and tricks, he also knows us from before we were born into this world; He knows us to our very souls and knows how to personalize his attacks for us. He also knows how much He needs to focus on each person.

A quote I have received from a friend from the movie ‘Gods Not Dead’ is:

“Sometimes the devil allows people to live a life free of trouble, because he doesn’t want them turning to god, his sin is like a jail cell, except its so nice and comfy, there doesn’t seem to have any need to leave, the door is wide open, till one day time runs out, the door slams shut, and suddenly its to late.”

Satan doesn’t always hold you down by chains and shackles. Just like with an elephant that is chained and shackled as a baby, so that when they are an adult all they need is a piece of rope tied to their ankle and they don’t move.

Following the light of the gospel is the only way to stay out of his darkness. It is a every day choice that needs to be made; that you will follow Christ. If it is not made every day Satan can direct and will direct you away from reaching the Glory that is your birthright.

I know this to be true and I seal it in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Elder Steven Cordon

My Heart Is Full

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Dear Family and Friends,

I am so overjoyed with the changes that I have seen this gospel bring into peoples lives. Everyday I get to witness people making steps to come closer to Jesus Christ both members and non members alike. To be able to facilitate and guide that in any way at all is such a wonderful blessing that God would trust me enough to help in such an important work. This is work that is vital to the eternal salvation of His eternal family, and for us to be able to be apart of it just shows how much he loves us and wants us to learn and grow.

We all have such an important role to play in this life, and we all have so much at stake. We have been given the path to follow, laid out very clear and simply, all we have to do is follow. Christ’s simple words “Come, follow me.” He is the example. He is the way.

It is truly amazing just how simple it can be to just follow his example. Such evident of this to me is the example of a 12 year old boy in the area that is in a part member family he is not yet baptized but comes to church every week. He knows that the gospel is true and has a testimony there are times that he is the only one that comes and still he gets ready and comes to church. He lives the gospel and is such an amazing young man, He is such an example to me to never to for granted what I have and the amazing support that I have in what I am doing. He will be getting baptized soon and he knows that it is what he needs to do. He knows that he needs to live the gospel so that he can be happy and live with his Heavenly Father again.

So simple guidance “Come, follow me” and “Love one another, as I have loved you.”

I am choosing every day to follow these commandments I hope that you are too.

Short letter but these are the words of my heart and I seal it in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Elder S Cordon

What Would Jesus Do?

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Dear Family and Friends,

This last week was a very hard, wonderful week. There was a lot of service hours that we did for members and non members in our ward. Service is such a wonderful way to show love for another person to give of your time and energy selflessly is an amazing experience. Unlike donating money, or cloths, or food, or anything material (not that people shouldn’t do that because it needs to be done) which all of those things can be earned back. Your time can not be earned back once used it is gone. So truly the ultimate selfless act it to give up what cant be returned. Everyday when the service ended I felt so much love for the people I had just served. I got to see them in such a different element, then in their living room on the couch, teaching a lesson. Serving next to a person really lets you see who they truly are.

The part member family that we helped lay concrete this week was such an amazing miracle. We stopped by a week ago to talk to the less active member of the family to just say hi and find out if they needed anything sure enough they did so we got the time and date and showed up ready to work. The non member husband was worried that he was “going to have to tell us what to do the whole time” not knowing that we both had done concrete before was very impressed with our work. It was VERY hot so we had to make fast work of the job or the concrete would set wrong, it was a great challenge and great to work next to all of them. Two days later the less active wife came to church, she hasn’t been in over a year, and not only came but she took the stand in testimony meeting and told the story of this service and how that morning her husband (who is anti church) told her that she needed to go to church. WHAT!!! I know that giving up your time and servicing others rains down blessings. Charity is the pure love of Christ.

Christ spent his life in the service of others and in building peoples faith. What a wonderful example that we have to follow, to always be looking for someone or somewhere to serve and then when you find it, DO IT. Don’t wait thinking that hopefully someone else will help, or that you are to busy, or that maybe they don’t want it. (if they chase you off with a stick for helping them you still will get the blessing for trying, but only if you try) God wants us to be in the service of each other so the blessings that will come from ALWAYS doing what he would have us do will ALWAYS out-way any possible worldly satisfaction that would come from passing by the opportunity to serve.

I know the blessings that come from truly giving of yourself to another. I know that selflessly, without any other motive then to just share love, giving of yourself to another WILL ALWAYS touch your heart and there with the pure love of Christ. I love this work. I love being able to get up everyday and my soul purpose is to build the faith of Jesus Christ in the people around me. I cant think of anything that I would rather be doing. To bad a mission cant last forever.

Thank you all so much for your love, support and prayers. I am praying for all of you and love you all so very much.

UNTIL NEXT WEEK

Love Elder Steven Cordon

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Oh ya totally went to a wedding this week it was awesome!!

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Our Team

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Dear Family and Friends,

I am so grateful for the opportunity I had this week to teach the lesson in Sunday School class. The lesson was on the Final Judgment, which normally has a lot of deep holes that you can drop down, thankfully I prepared with a fresh mindset. I was able to learn so much and the spirit was truly able to teach me, as I was preparing to teach. It is truly amazing the revelation that everyone is able to get through the Holy Ghost, as long as you are willing to empty your glass and receive what he has to offer then you can have a direct link to the Godhead.

So this week as I made sure that I emptied my glass, I loved what I was able to receive. There is a section in the lesson that is titled Who Will Judge Us. For me this was the section that meant the most to me, sadly it was the smallest section of the lesson but luckily I had my glass empty.

It talks about how Jesus Christ and his Apostles, current and old, will be our judges. Normally, and really until yesterday, I always compared our mortal judges to our immortal judges. Our mortal judges here on earth are here to cast judgment to the criminals that broke laws, to decide how large their punishment would be, I always saw that they were justice minded and no mercy at all. What an unfair light that I was pointing at our immortal judges.

What I was able to learn is that instead of the Final Judgment being a time of great repruking where the bar of justice is being throw down to call out out our sentance. For many, those that chose to use there agency and fight against God and never bend their knee; which the number of those we are told are more numorous then the sands of the sea and the stars in the sky. For those that are in that group we are told that there will be nashing of teeth and whelings as judgemnt is cast.

For those that have chosen to follow Christ and tried their best it will be a day to rejoice.

The most wonderful part is who are judges will be. They will be the biggest adivcates for our case, these are our brothers. Jesus Christ gave every day of his life being perfect so that he could complete the atonement. His Apostals gave their lives to the service of the Lord showing pure love to the people that they served, their brothers and sisters of there family. What better people then they could we ask for to be there with us and to determine and help us qualify for our gift that is offered to us that we have been striving for during this probation.

Jesus gave his life so that his brothers and sisters would have a way back to Heavenly Father, so that we could partake in every blessing that God wants us to have. His life purpose was to bring to pass the immortallity and eternal life of man. (moses 1:39) So if it is his purpose is he just going to ignore that at the Final Judgment? No, he is going to do everything that he can do to be merciful and just to make sure that we all can have eternal life and life as an eternal family.

Just as we are all working to have our eternal families together Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ also want their family back again and they are just as, and probably much more so, wanting to have that happen.

There is no one that is more determined for our success then our Father. I am so happy that I am a missionary and am able to help others come closer to Jesus Christ. I know that we have our oldest brother on our side. He has given his life for us so that we can earn our life with Heavenly Father. I am so grateful for the knowledge that I have of this gospel. It gives me the ability to keep perfecting and becoming more like Jesus Christ.

We all need to make sure that we keep our glasses empty ready to be filled be the Holy Ghost with what he has to share with you. That is our open line to the Godhead let us not waste that gift.

LOVE EACH AND EVERYONE OF YOU
Thank you for your prayers and support
Love Elders Steven Cordon

pictures are of what a member did to our car while we were at a service project
and then what we did to them in return 🙂 I love members and the relationships that we build so quickly with them it is amazing.

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