Exchange Week!

Posted on March 24, 2014 by shalesecordon9

Dear Family and Friends,

The highlight of this week was definitely the exchanges that we went on. We had one with one of our district leaders and the other with the Assistants. Exchanges are nice because they are good change of pace. It really helps to keep things from becoming monotonous especially when you don’t stay in your own area for it. For the exchange with Elder Jones, I stayed in the area and we had some great success! We were able to teach some good lessons, especially one to Jim who agreed to be baptized in May, and find some new investigators. He is a good elder indeed! They other with the AP Elder Huntington was pretty nice. Not to say I didn’t do anything, but it is nice to sit back and let someone else fully take the wheel for a day. We had some good success there as well! It was just nice to get to know both of the Elders a little better. Each time I like to engage in frivolous deep doctrinal discussions. We usually just end up more confused, but it is definitely a good mental exercise. They also both taught me a lesson or two on how I could become a better missionary. It is amazing how God will reveal to us one step at a time something we can work on, and if we can just muster the courage to always heed the counsel we receive than our growth accelerates! I have definitely felt that!

One thing that is interesting though that I have observed is that having a healthy amount of discontentment is essential to making progress. Somebody who is fully satisfied with their life will never have the desire great enough to evoke change. I am starting to see that in some of the people we are teaching, you can exhort with all the boldness and love you can muster to live life at higher and more joyful level, but if they have no desire to change any excuse they can think of is enough to stop them, and sadly, anyone can make an excuse to not do something. It is a tough and frustrating thing to witness in the life of someone you have grown to love so much, to know that greater joy and happiness could be theirs if they would only listen, yet they refuse to. I am sure I am just getting a sample of what God feels every single moment of every single day. However, it is days like that when you just accept that you have done all you know how to do, and if they don’t want to change than that is their choice. I am learning that it is not our job as missionaries to change anyone, nor should we try to make it our job, but rather we simply share the message and invite them to let it change their life. If they don’t want it then we must move on. Anyhow, so I hope that all makes sense! It is just what has been on my mind lately!

Have a great week!

Love Ya’ll!

Elder Joshua Cordon

That’s the news I have been waiting for!!!

Posted on March 24, 2014 by shalesecordon9

Hello Family and Friends,

Another successful week! With the news of my older brother whom has made the decision to serve a mission and received his call to the Washington Kennewick Mission. I could not be a happier person! He is such an example I am striving to get all our investigators to feel the way he does.

This last week we were able to make some great progress with 2 our investigators Tommy and Gary. The lessons we teach to people seem to always end to the same scripture. Moroni 10:3-5 its ether with commitment or a recommitting to follow this charge. Spiritual things can only be obtained through spiritual means. Such as math needs to be learned from studying math and history, history; Things of the spirit are reserved to be taught only by the spirit. Its been a new goal of mine to make sure every lesson is a spiritual teaching ground, not when how can we word it better to persuade them, but how can we help them feel the spirit.

We also ended the week with two new investigators on saturday who have great potential and are scheduled for next saturday. They are both tough and have a tendency to bible bash. since I have been here the 3 investigators we have picked up have all been ones with strong christian backgrounds and will usually attend church, my bible knowledge is good and could hold in any debate but thats exactly what I am working to avoid. So their is the new challenge.

We also had Andrew come to church his dad could not come cause he had to work, but he had a great experience. It was awesome to see him come all dressed up and we didn’t even tell him. It really stuck out to me the difference that made with how and the men in the ward treated him they just came flocking they all asked us if he was golden. It really showed me if we want the ward to treat our investigators like they have real potential getting them to dress up for church is a great way to do it.

Love you all have a wonderful week!

Elder Cordon

True!

Posted on March 18, 2014 by shalesecordon9

Well an exciting week this last week! The biggest being the amount of new investigators we got! We have a good teaching pool hoping to turn it into a great baptismal font soon. There has been a lot of sowing going on in Hong Kong for some time due to the amazing work of missionaries. I feel so blessed to be in an area were I have the opportunity to now to reap of their labors.

This last week we had stake conference. Elder Randy Funk who spoke in priesthood session, presided over the whole event as well as president Hawks on the stand. Due to the fact that they are stressing member missionary work so strongly. They have plans to have to new stakes by the end of the year. So that means that we need trustable priestholders to fill those spots. Member accountability here is unreal. God is making it clear that he does not only want sunday members. The plans an actions they are setting up and excuting have been making a world of a difference here.

Its so interesting that in a culture where there is by no means a christian background that the members are so amazing. When you can sit in a beautiful brand new chapel that has the overflow opened to the stage by the basketball court. It helps remind that the message and the saints are the same everywhere in the world. Its because they have all come to the very same conlcusion. That Christ lives, and he undoubtably leads this church. This church is consistent because it is lead of God not by the ideas and concepts and differing opinions of men. This church is true.

Love you all.

Elder Cordon
Tang Jeung Louh (chinese ping yam)

Literally and Spiritually Fed

Posted on March 18, 2014 by shalesecordon9

Dear Family and Friends,

I had a wonderful week this past week, which is not surprising because I always do. I is raining today though, it might clear up, but we will see.

One of the notable experiences of this past week was that I had the opportunity to go into a full bike area for the day to do an exchange with another Elder. It honestly was really nice to get on the bikes for a full day. Considering the size of our area here and the usually scatter plot of appointments that we have it would be unpractical most days in our area so I am glad to have had that chance. I knew that this area was struggling to find people to teach and that things had been slow for them so I was hoping that by some miracle that the lord would guide us to at least one person who is interested in learning about the gospel. Well he answered my prayers and then some because we found two, both of which were found by listening to spiritual promptings. God really is just so good.

Also we ate so much food this week!!! I will send a picture of the meal we conquered on Tuesday. alone ate 3/4 of Chicken Fried a big bowl of mashed potatoes, 2 bowls of coleslaw, 6 biscuits, and a helping of creamed peas. It was delicious! Having not yet fully recovered we doubled dinner on Wednesday. Sadly, I had forgotten about the second dinner until after I already was full. But with only an hour to recover I still was able to step up to the plate and bring it home.

We had interviews with President and Sister Craig this week. I will have to claim the title of the most blessed missionary in the mission though. In order to make sure everybody else got their interviews we had to gross our fingers and put ourselves at the end of the day on Tuesday, but because they were behind schedule a little bit we had to go before we had ours so we could dinner that chicken dinner with a less-active. I thought I was just going to have to have mine a month late like last time, but after calling president he suggested that we just come over to his house at the end of the day on Wednesday. Basically we had true one on one time and no pressure to meet a schedule. The spirit in that home and in President and Sister Craig reminded me of the temple. I am so blessed!

I wish I could tell you about all the wonderful experiences we are having but time is short! Needless to say, I am happier than I have ever been and I know it only gets better from here!!

Love Ya’ll,
Elder Cordon

God Answers Prayers

Posted on March 11, 2014 by shalesecordon9

Dear Family and Friends,

So, once again on preparation day we have beautiful weather. Makes it pretty clear that God is watching over us as he gives us these tender mercies. He truly does take care of us in every aspect of our lives. I have become ever more aware of his presence of my life this past week. I know that God answers my prayers!

Last night was crunch time for us. We had agreed and sustained a goal less than two weeks ago that by yesterday we would’ve found 11 new investigators. Coming down to our last available hour we still had to find 2. We were starting to get pretty downhearted when we kept running into walls at every turn. With about 17 minutes left we were faced with the decision to either see a recent convert who hadn’t come to church and to check up on him, or go see one more potential on our list. Having considered what Christ would do, and reasoning that he would be a man of his word and do everything in his power to accomplish that which he was said he would do, we decided to try the another former on the list we had been working off of. On the way there I was saying a prayer in my heart that I had not made the wrong decision, that we would be able to accomplish our goal, and that God would grant unto us a miracle in these last few minutes of the day. We arrived at the home which happened to be a duplex. There was a girl sitting outside of one of the doors, and so we asked her if this is the correct address and if the people by the names David and Christine lived there. She told us that it was her neighbors. She also informed us that she was a member of the Spanish branch after we had invited her to hear a message of Jesus Christ. Feeling a bit embarrassed that we had just invited a member of our church to learn about our church, went over and knock on the neighbor’s door. They were home, invited us right in, and had no problem with us coming back. It was strange because it was so easy and just fell in our lap. I knew that God granted unto us a small miracle, and helped us accomplish the desires of our hearts.

Another great experience was a member present lesson we had this past week. Since I have been in this area, we haven’t really been working with the bishop at all. He is a nice guy, but we were just doing our own thing. Considering the fact that the bishop holds the keys to missionary work in the ward we knew that this had to change. Finally, we resolved that the best way to do this would be to have him teach one of our investigators. We successfully had our investigators, Kevin and Laurie, taught in the bishops home with him and his wife. The lesson was the best lesson we have had with them yet, and the bishop did a terrific job of teaching to his needs with us. They became instant friends with Kevin and Laurie, and they even committed them to be baptized in April. The difference since then for our relationship with the bishop is like night and day. He’s called us several times and has already talked to Kevin four times since the lesson. They also want to have a weekly lesson in their home with Kevin and Laurie. The wide spread impact of that lesson is seen in the fact that I have not been to single ward Council or PEC meeting since I’ve been here, but this past Sunday Bishop asked if Elder Hamilton and I would come. Just from hearing him talk in that meeting I can tell that he has had a complete change of heart towards missionary work. I am excited for the wonderful things ahead for us!

I know that God is aware of us and of the desires of our hearts. I know that he answers our prayers. I have prayed diligently to find our goal of 11 new investigators, and to find a way to connect with the bishop and the Lord has provided a way for both righteous desires to be completed. I would encourage all of you this week to set worthy goals, make intelligent plans, and diligently labor to complete them. Make sure to include God in every step and trust that he will provide away. As you do so, you will become the incredible person that you want to be. I know that will happen because it’s happened for me. I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Have a wonderful week!

Love ya’ll!

Elder Joshua Cordon

That’s a First!!

Posted on March 11, 2014 by shalesecordon9

Dear Family and Friends:

Well its has been a good 3 days since we last talked! My last P-Day was awesome. We got to go the Beautiful Hong Kong temple! The peace of the temple is a special thing. Even when your a full time missionary you still feel a stronger spirit there than outside of it. After wards we woke up to real life by heading to Mong Kok, to help Elder Siebach his dying suit. Suits are something that hong kong does very well.

We had a crazy few days after that cause the next day we had zone training where the zone leaders and sister training leaders (which is weird they are both in my district again like in my last area, I think president is keeping a close eye on me haha) announced a new mission goal. Since it is the 65th anniversary of Hong Kong we have a goal as a mission to have 65 baptisms in the month on july(which is the official month) This is a large number for the mission since last month we had 26 baptisms, and about a 170 last year. But President feels this is truly revelation. So we went to work making sure our area does our part. Me and Elder Falk have plans to have a few baptisms before and another in July.

On Saturday, met our investigator Gary(fan hing daih) who we proceeded to set my first baptismal date of my mission. He is first one we have for the this companionship and his date is may 11th so good birthday present for me and Elder Falk.

We have seen a lot of miracles happening here, thanks to the help of such a great ward coordinator and members. In both less active work and new investigators the lord is blessing us with opportunities that havent been around for awhile.

Love you all

Elder Cordon

Elder Holland

Posted on March 6, 2014 by shalesecordon9

Dear Family and Friends,

Alright an exciting week and a Half!

Well as usual Elder Holland had some amazing things to say! That was for sure an all day even cause we were coming from forever away! We road a bus and got a sweet view of all of Hong Kong. His main focus in his lesson was for the first 45 min express his love to us, then ended by really hitting on the fact that God Speaks.

He was making it clear that our investigators need to believe in revelation. If they don’t then nothing else matters. Also he made an interesting connection to 1 nephi 1 and joseph smith. Lehi and Joseph have very similar stories. It started with a desire to know then lots of pondering, prayer, vision, diving beings, a book, revelation from the book, teach from that book, then every tries to kill him. A very interesting connection.

We have really been blesses this last week and a half we have been meeting a lot of prepared people and are really building up a lot of investigators, now the tricking part getting them to accept a baptismal date. So hopefully by next time I write I can send the good news.

We had a cool little miracle this week apart from the many others this one was very clear. We were finding and had been doing pretty good but nothing special, then we only had thirty minutes left, so we stopped and said a quick prayer asking to meet a prepared person. Well right after we stood up there was a guy standing there who was smiling at us and was more than happy to see us. we sat down taught him a great lesson and will see him again on saturday.

Also here is personal idea. Read Mosiah 23-24. You can see the necessary trials and growth the lord wanted for his saints, it also gives an interesting perspective on why we might have trials and how the lord is helping.

Love you All

Elder Cordon

Plan Ahead, Enjoy The Moment, and Count Your Blessings

Posted on March 3, 2014 by shalesecordon9

Dear Family and Friends,

I am not sure if I mentioned this already, but I have come to learn a thing or two about myself on my mission. Big shock right? One thing i have learned is that i like action. If i spend three hours in a meeting and I don’t leave feeling like I have just received instructions of how to put into action and realize the very goals we have discussed, then i feel like time has been wasted. Luckily for me though, when i spent 11ish hours in meetings this past week, I do feel that much of the time was used wisely, and that is was productive.

Nevertheless, the time that wasn’t used wisely combined with several weeks and months of thought I’ve put into goal setting and planning has caused me to give a training on it this week in Zone Meeting. Time is too short and too precious to waste it with action-less-chit-chat. On the contrary to not talk through things at all could be highly detrimental for it would open the door the premature and inappropriate action. As in all things in life a balance is required. I feel like that is how we have worked here in the Hendricks area over the past few months, we have accomplished much with a proper balance of talk and action. Hopefully, my much study and pondering, coupled with inspiration from the spirit will lead me to be able to say a few wise words on the subject tomorrow, I guess we will see.

Anyhow back to reality. So one interesting thing that happened this past week was a move that we took part in. We found out about Thursday we had to help a lady in our ward move from one apartment to another. At first we thought we were just being asked to be part of moving crew they had already assembled, But then we realized that we were the moving crew. Personally, I am flattered by the fact that they thought we had the energy, stamina, and means to do the entire project ourselves. They must really think very highly of us. As tempting as that sounded, we decided to take the selfless route and share this blessed opportunity with others, and thank goodness we did, for the load ended up being a full U-Haul truck, and two truck-beds worth of furniture boxes and odds-n-ends. While i say that in partial jest much good came from including others in this service opportunity. Our fully assembled amateur moving team was a motley crew at best, it included us, the senior missionary couple (Elder and Sister Andrew), our burly elders quorum president, Solomon (our recent convert who was one of the lost boys of Sudan), and Johnny (our Cambodian brother, also a recent convert). It got done in a timely manner, we had a great time, and all reported that they appreciated the much-needed boost in spirit that comes from losing yourself in the service of others. In the end, a seemingly overwhelming task resulted in a blessing in disguise.

Another crazy thing that happened Saturday was that when we came by Solomon’s to pick him up for the service project the whole parking lot and courtyard outside his apartment were taped off with police line. Inside the line were 6 squad cars, more than a dozen officers, and several men carrying what appeared to be M-16s. Luckily Solomon was fine and he said that the police had been their since 10 o’clock the previous evening. According to him, somebody died. It is just a hunch, but I am suspecting foul play, that is just me though, so take it with a grain of salt. In most cases including the move I unwisely failed to capture the moment in a photograph. I need to be better at that.

We managed this past week after hurdling many obstacles to find me a bike to ride and a bike hitch for our car, so we were able to hit the pavement and do some good street contacting, it was definitely a major blessing for we had much success in those few hours of biking.

So, everything is going great with the many families that we are teaching. Lily is still on track to be baptized by the end of the month, she also wants to go on a mission! Wahoo! She will be a great missionary. The Conseillants are great like always, and they even came to church on Sunday. We finally were able to have a lesson with Kevin and Lori in their home which is about 2 1/2 months in the making, but was totally worth it. We got Daniel (the son of Br. Fonseca who was baptized 2 years ago) to finally set a date for baptism? We had him pick the number, so April 20th it is. And then their are just so many others who are coming out of the wood work to hear this wonderful message. God has truly blessed us with a plate as full as the one I ate yesterday at dinner, and both are delicious to the taste. And the weather has been beautiful which is another big plus.

Count your many blessings this week and you will be singing as the days go by! (“Count Your Blessings,” LDS Hymn book #241)

Love Ya’ll!!

Elder Joshua Cordon

Improvement and Progression – Josh

Posted on February 25, 2014 by shalesecordon9

Dear family and friends,

So, it was the first preparation day since Christmas that there wasn’t any sunshine. It’s amazing what kind of difference weather makes on attitude. It is not that am not happy but I’m a little more relaxed when it’s dark and gloomy outside. We are going to take advantage of all the rain though and play some sports out in the mud. This should be a lot of fun!

Fun thing that happened last week was that the day of transfers I knew that my old ward mission leader and his wife would be driving the missionaries from the ward to the transfer building. So I arranged ahead of time for us to meet up and get some lunch while they’re here in town. It was great to see them again and hear about how Deepcreek is doing. It reaffirmed the fact that I really want to go back and visit that Ward shortly after my mission. I definitely have a lot of good friends there.

My mission trainee Elder Barcala got transferred here to Jacksonville, and he is serving in the area next to mine. However, it is across the river and it is not in my zone. I don’t know how often I’ll see him but I am happy that he was finally able to train, something he was really looking forward to doing.

While most of the missionaries in my zone stayed put we did however get a new district leader and new sister training leaders in the zone. In order to get the district leaders up to speed with the vision that Elder Hamilton and I have established we got lunch at chipotle with the district leaders. There’s something really nice about having a meeting outside over lunch. It just really makes things feel official, yet relaxed. I feel like there will be a lot of good things happening here in this in the next couple months.

We have been trying to get our companionship more integrated with the ward. After initiating some game plans we came up with to strengthen our relationship with the bishop and with ward members it feels like things are really starting to change. After having nobody sign up for dinner to feed us the first two months of February we filled our calendar for this week on Sunday. We also lined up several service projects throughout the week for the ward members. Some of the advice that we got from the stake presidents meeting we had on Sunday was to befriend ward members so that they could trust us with their friends.

We had already decided to initiate that idea so it was good to see that as we follow the spirit or vision was aligned with there’s just in time for us to see results the very week they suggested it. I hope that by the time I leave here missionaries will be begging to come to this area knowing the members will help them in all aspects of the work.

I guess one thing I never expected a mission would teach me is that of problem-solving and creativity skills. Truly you cannot just go through the work every day doing the same thing. You will have little success and you won’t be very happy. However, when you do your best to come up with good ideas and good ways to create change things really do improve, a lesson and A skill I hope to apply to everything I do for the rest my life. As Winston Churchill put it “to improve is to change to be perfect is to change often.”

More importantly, I have learned that true change comes from centering our lives on Jesus Christ and making an attempt to be more like Him. Not only is He the perfect example of how we should live, but He is also the way that we change. It was His atoning sacrifice that gives us that ability. What a blessing it is to be able to partake of that blessing each and every day! I Love my Savior Jesus Christ, and I know He loves every single one of us.
How can you change this week to improve your life?

Love,
Elder Joshua Cordon

Elder Holland!!! – Jared

Posted on February 25, 2014 by shalesecordon9

Dear Family and Friends,

Well this week has been pretty Great! Some of the Highlights are that Elder Holland was in Hong Kong last night and he did a fireside to all the members, sadly he is in my old chapel and I had to watch it from our stake center. But its okay I will be seeing him tomorrow. He is so powerful and he gave a wonder talk on how we are all pioneers. Also how amazing this dispensation is. Its the first time we are commanded not to run from Babylon and establish Zion or Jerusalem, But to face Babylon and conquer it with a promise that we can not fail. He also gave a good warning using Jesus’ own words. That God will come back and people will surround him saying they are his people but he will say he never knew them. God will recognize his church, but whether or not he recognizes each member is up to us. I pray he will recognize me.

Another thing that happened was this week did my first service project in awhile. At this place called crossroads its a place that takes donations and sends them to Africa! I got to work with bunch of Somalians! Very cool!

We had a district find and before they had this stage set up in the town center, this one kid was doing all these tricks with a Chinese yo yo. Well later in the day we saw him again! He preformed for us and he has a whole bunch a sick magic tricks, He also has really bad turrets so its awesome to see him develop talents that don’t conflict. Best part is got his number and plan on meeting with him again. I can see it now I’m a Magician, I have turrets, I’m A Mormon.

One of our investigators is in a wheel chair due to an injury, yesterday he told us how, let me share. He said he was seeing a doctor for some depression but he gave him bad drugs that messed with him and pushed him to suicide. He ended up jumping off of 19 story building, the next thing he knows he is hanging across the power cables for a light rail train, so he pushes himself off and falls and hits his head on the rail. So he has this huge bump on his head, and is stuck in the wheel chair, but somehow this man is alive and only ended up damaging his back breaking his leg and he didn’t get brain damage. A pretty crazy miracle , that was in 1997.

Well I got Elder Holland tomorrow that I will tell you about the middle of next week. I got temple coming up.

Love you all
Elder Cordon

Here is a picture from our apartment window, And me with Elder Chan rocking the little and big ties!