From Biking in the Boonies to Combing the City Blocks -Joshua

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Dear Family and Friends,

So this last week mixed a lot of things up for me. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but needless to say I haven’t been disappointed at all. Saying goodbye to everybody last week was hard, but change is always for the better. I get the wonderful pleasure of serving with one of the best Elders in the whole mission Elder Hamilton. He has been out a whole year longer than me and I am looking forward to the many lessons that he will undoubtedly teach me. We get along great which is perfect because we have too much on our plates to be worried about resolving petty arguments.

Being a Zone Leader isn’t as taxing on my time as much as I thought it would be, which is wonderful because we got to spend a lot of our time over the past couple of days in the act of finding. As a result, the Lord pored out blessing from on high and we found 4 new families to teach in only a matter of a few days. There is a lot of great work to do in this area and I am more than ready to hit the pavement to get things rolling. I am grateful for the work that has already been done here because I get the blessed opportunity of seeing one of our investigators get baptized this weekend. His name is Solomon and he is from Sudan. He is very humble and very excited to get baptized this weekend. He was inviting a bunch of people at church yesterday to his baptism.

Some of the good changes that I have experienced this week include: upgraded from crappy apartment to super nice one, upgraded from biking to car, upgraded from no gym to a gym every other day, upgraded from trailer park/ ghetto tracting to tracting in tons of apartment complexes. Those are just a few, but I appreciate every one of them. Luckily for me one of the fears I had was not realized which was that we would not be fed on Thanksgiving because we got fed twice.

I have big hopes here. There is a lot to do and we need to grow our teaching pool a lot more, but I have no doubt that as we labor diligently the Lord will bless us. He has been doing that my whole mission. We truly have a Father in Heaven who knows each and every one of us personally. My testimony of that has grown so immensely since the start of my mission. Another aspect of my testimony that has grown is that of the power that can be felt from reading the Book of Mormon. Every time I read it, I feel like I am getting a big hug from God, and Boy does that feel good!

Have a wonderful week! I love ya’ll!

Love,

Elder Joshua Cordon

Big News and Big Changes!! – Joshua

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Dear Family and Friends,

So I got a little teaser last Monday about whether or not I would be leaving and it didn’t come as expected. I thought that we were going to get a call from the Mission President asking Elder Barcala if he would be willing to train a new missionary, but instead he asked to speak to me. The fact that he wanted to speak to me was a shocker enough, but then he asked me to be a Zone Leader. I almost fainted. I was so stunned I almost forgot to reply to the President and tell him that I accepted. After he asked me all he heard on the other line was a……. wo…………………… o uh ya I would be honored President. I hope my reaction gave him a good laugh. He also told me right then I would be getting transferred which was nice to know because it gave me time to say goodbye to all my wonderful friends that I now have here in Lake City.

It truly has been a great adventure serving here in Deep Creek and I have met some truly amazing people that have made a lasting positive impact. The ward as become a family to me and I have no doubt that I have met some of my friends that I knew in the the pre-mortal existence. I wish everyone here the best and I plan to return after my mission and see them all again. The beauty of this world of technology is that it is very easy to keep in touch with people. Gotta love Facebook 🙂

As far as the next chapter of my mission, it will be spent in the beautiful and nice area of Mandarin, Jacksonville. It is a great area that not only has the Assistants to the President in it, but also the Mission Home. Looks like I get the blessing of seeing President and Sis. Craig more regularly. I also get the wonderful privilege of serving with Elder Hamilton. I have heard great things about him and I am looking forward our adventures together. Fun fact about him is that I worked with his older brother in college and he told me to look for him when I got here. He was hoping that he would train me, well he gets to be my Zone Leader Trainer haha.

Anyway, lots of Great things have happened hear that I will will praise the Lord forever for being able to experience. I definitely feel as if I have come here for a reason. But now that I am getting sent somewhere else I am embracing the wonderful advice I got in a fortune cookie once, it said, “Relish the transitions in your life, they will happen regardless.”

I love ya’ll! Have a great week!

Love,
Elder Joshua Cordon

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I’m lovin it!! -Jared

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Hello Family and Friends,

This was a fast but very amazing week!

Our 1 investigator is starting to see the difference in his life after he started meeting us and is showing a lot more desire to accept our message. He said you and your companion are always so happy! I believe its because of your faith. I want that. Well he will get it, he knows he needs to give some things up and thats the first step.

We also added another number to the list of invetigators another old man who we met in the park taught a lesson, then again the next day, and brought him to church and I think he is really liking it. So we got two underway and if we can meet with four other very awesome people we had taught last week then we can be seeing some real growth.

A big lesson I learned this last week is the true need to have the spirit in all you do, the teaching, the finding, the studying and especially the planning. This last week at one of our nightly plannings we were pretty lazy about where we should go and kinda just picked. Well the next day we really felt the effects of that. We had a couple experiences and just really were not feeling the spirit and we didnt know what was wrong. Well we prayed to have the spirit and kept working but that didn’t seem to work. So finally we decided that maybe we should go where The Lord wants us to go. So we prayed, looked at the map book, and went to a new spot we both felt good about.

Well we then ended up having two very good street lessons to people who really needed it and we should hopefully be seeing them again this week. It taught me a lot about really and truly relying on the lord in all that we do!

I have a quick thought for you all.

You become what you think about.

Read Mosiah 4:30

“to a great extent we accomplish what we think about. Your life is influenced more by your own thoughts than anything else. How could a person possibly become what he is not thinking? Nor is any thought when persistantly entertained, too small to have its effect. The divinity that shaped our ends is indeed in ourselves” Spencer W. kimball

“A mans’ character is the complete some of all his thoughts, you can know a man soley on what he thinks about, when he doesn’t have to think.” Can’t remember

Just a good reminder to keep your thoughts on what’s most important in life!

Love you all!

Elder Jared Cordon

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It’s About the Little Things -Jared

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This was another fun exciting week! We had our trio for a couple days and and now we got a sweet Bundeih (means a local missionary). Its a great benefit to helping me with the language.

Well I would like to share a quote that a great man told to me recently:

“At least I can walk, at least I can pray, at least I can learn.” -Jay Riding

Thats a great way to remember all the little blessings The Lord gives me in my life to act on my own agency everyday. Every week I can walk more, I can pray better, and I have to the ability to see more of what the Lord wants me to learn. Remember the little things and they surely will become great things.

The work in Hong Kong is progressing we are meeting amazing people everyday who are all being brought just a little closer to Christ. We also got another progressing investigator who during our lessons starting recalling how often the lord has reach out to him to accept this message in his life. He recalled after hardships he had met Elders and before a great miracle in his life he had met Elders, and now when he realized life wasn’t what he wanted he met some more Elders. The Lord does this work in his own way and his own time. Just keep walking praying and learning.

Elder Cordon

Do I Stay or Do I Go?? -Joshua

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Dear Family and Friends,

So this is the first transfer where I am actually completely uncertain as to whether I will stay here in the wonderful land of Lake City, or if I will go. I am personally okay with either option. If I stay I would probably be able to baptize my favorite investigators, seeing has how they are ripe for baptism here soon, but also I would welcome a change seeing as how this is the only place I have been thus far. I will get a teaser tonight if Elder Barcala gets a training call or not.

This last week was a fairly good week though. There are two highlights that I wish to mention.

The first is the surprising cold that hit us last Wednesday. Believe it or not, we had to bust out the gloves, coats, and scarfs in Florida haha. I was kinda looking forward to wearing my pea-coat the so I was happy. My companion on the other hand did not bring any cold weather clothing thinking that all of Florida was like Miami all the time haha. Luckily a merciful sister in the ward took us to the store and bought him a very nice coat, and some gloves and scarfs for the two of us. It definitely made biking around a lot better.

The other event was our Zone Conference. I thought we were suppose to rotate between Gainesville and here for Zone conference but seeing as how 3 in a row were in Gainesville that doesn’t seem to be the case. I don’t mind it though. We had to get flu shots while we were there and I think it made me a little sick, but it won’t stop me. The Zone Conference was great and I heard a lot of inspiring words. I just feel like this mission is one big family!

Something that I loved from my personal studies this past week was all the talk about how God will empower us with strength to overcome our weaknesses as we are obedient. That came from the talk that Elder Richard G. Scott gave in the latest general conference. SO GOOD! I would encourage all of you to read it 🙂

Have a wonderful week!

Love Ya’ll,

Elder Joshua Cordon

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Trio!!!! -Jared

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Well Another week in Hong Kong! Never really predictable! For instence yesterday I entered a tripanionship! With the now Lone Leader. His name is Elder Parker and he Is from LA. He is an awesome missionary. We have already been serving in the same area but now instead of 4 elders there is just 3. I will let you all know how that goes!

I have a cool story I would like to share: last week me and my companion were going over the Plan of Salvation lesson and we were figuring out what we needed to work on, and we decided on Adam and Eve. Why is it important were it fits in and how to say it. Well later that night during finding we had a guy ask us a very specific question. Why do we have to suffer and get kicked out of gods pressence because of Adam and if god loves us why did he let that happen? Well its a good thing the Lord prepared us, because we have a new investigator. haha

I know If we are worthy and we are doing all that we can the Lord will direct all of our actions. We may not realize until after or just not at all. As Ether 12 tells us, “Ye recieve no witness until after the trial of you faith”. Thats how the spirit works and its an amazing thing I am figuring out more and more every day!

This week was the first week we have gotten someone to church since I have been here. Our awesome old investigator and a less active came! It was such a great experience! The Elders qurom accepted them both with very loving arms! I know the best way to get the members involved is to bring people to church, because it gets the excited, believing and motivated! The work is truly progressing!

Love everyone

Elder Jared Cordon

People At Church!! Whoot! Whoot! -Joshua

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Dear Family and Friends,

It will have to be a short one this week sorry! We don’t have a lot of time. Not having a car makes things so difficult sometimes. Especially on government holidays when the libraries close haha.

Anyhow, this past week was a great week! We kept ourselves very busy!

The one experience I do want to share with you though is regarding Mati. She is one of the greatest people we have ever met and every week we don’t see her just pains me. So, because we haven’t seen her for a couple of weeks it has been very painful. However, we decided to just swing by on Saturday during a trade-off and SHE WAS HOME!!! We had a wonderful lesson with her and she even said that she was going to come to church tomorrow. We also had her daughter Amar pinky promise us that she would go too.

We found out that the next morning Amar went running into her mom’s room at 5:45 yelling, “We got to go to church, we are going to be late!” Needless to say that she was ready this week haha 🙂
They had a wonderful time at church and I was all smiles the whole time. It has been so hard to get people to church and to finally see her there was just incredible! She got welcomed by the ward in such a wonderful way and her daughter wants to go next week even though Mati has to work.

Also Thomas and Ashley came to sacrament which was also awesome!

Anyhow, sorry to be short this week! I hope ya’ll have a great one!

Love ya’ll

Elder Joshua Cordon

Here It Goes Again- Jared

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Dear everyone!

I have another crazy week! The living situation with the 6 in the apartment has been a bit crazy but also fun, plus apparently Americans can develop a Hong Kong allergy haha. Don’t worry I was able to beat the system and find a cure. Its issues with wearing contacts and the bad air here. So all the missionaries have just resorted to wearing glasses, well given my eye situation I can’t wear glasses so after being blind for 2 days I was able to find the cure which was in these eye drops! Hooray I can see and the work can move forward.

This week we were able to get our first member present with our investigator, since he is 84 we got a man in the ward who is about the same age. They were best friends from the start, I love listening these 2 old Cantonese guys chat back and forth. I had no Idea what they were saying but I feel like it was helping haha. Also we have been blessed this week in being able to find a lot of Chinese men we could teach lessons to! It was great and we have a couple new investigators scheduled! I love being able to enjoy the fruit of my labors and not having to pass them off that was so hard! But this last week we were able to have dinner with a part member family and they have 2 little twin girls! Her story is amazing!

When she was married she found out she could not have children and that was something that was hard for her, but when she met the missionaries and started receiving lessons she was able to meet President Anderson and he told her she would have kids, well sure enough after she was baptized it wasn’t much longer until she was pregnant with twins!

This gospel is amazing and I love the change it has been able to make in families here and the lives it has truly blessed.

I love you all

Elder Cordon

Mission Conference with Elder Zwick!! – Joshua

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Dear Family and Friends,

This last week was definitely an interesting one! I don’t think it really got good until Thursday though. In order to keep missionaries out of trouble on Halloween they made a rule that we all had to be inside someone where by 6. It through and interesting twist into the scheme of things. We managed to stay busy for most of it. But we ended up getting a free hour in the apartment, at the end of it. We spent the time going through a Halloween gift basket that a wonderful sister in the ward put together for us, and I tied the first few notes of my paracord scripture case that I am making for Stefan (who had his baby this week!) as a baptism gift. It is going to be sweet! haha

Friday was simply amazing! We had the blessed opportunity to go to Gainesville for a spectacular Mission Conference that was very much enlightening. It was put on by Elder Zwick. He is the executive director of the Missionary Department. He is a very powerful speaker and he gave some very insightful comments. I got the opportunity to participate with Elder Barcala, by doing a brief training on listening to the spirit. It was a wonderful opportunity for me and I hope that it also helped somebody else. Besides being able to meet Elder Zwick, I got to see President and Sister Craig which is always a wonderful thing, as well as Elder Newbold! We got to chat it up as I filled him in on the latest and greatest that is happening in Deep Creek.

One of the highlights of the conference was the talk by Elder Zwick on sanctification. He taught that sanctification begins by living the Law of Sacrifice. He defined the Law of Sacrifice for missionaries as a perfect use of the Lord’s time. I did a lot of reflection about how I could use the Lord’s time in a more productive and effective way. He also showed us one of the fully loaded Ipad-minis that we will be getting very shortly which will be super awesome!

After the conference and before the evening devotional we got to go procelyting on UF’s campus! We had some good success actually. 2 new gators in only 1 1/2 hours 🙂

My miracle is that on saturday we were trying to contact a potential investigator, but his house was empty and apparently he had moved out only a few days before. We went over to talk to the neighbor who informed us and it turns out that he is a less-active member. He is actually one of the 3 Ensey brothers who we have ran into bumped into randomly over the last month. His brother Thomas actually just moved into the that he was at, and so we talked to them and met his fiance and her daughter. We also were able to give Thomas a blessing of healing for his ankle because he sprained it. We went back on Sunday and had a great lesson with them! and then they came to the CES dinner and broadcast at the stake center with us! We have another lesson with them today! Finally another family to work with! I love families! Plus their little girl Nevaeh is possibly one of the most darling 5 year olds I have ever met! God definitely put us in their path and they are so ready for the Gospel right now!

I love this work so much! I know that true happiness and peace in this life comes from living the gospel. I know from experience that this is true. I know with my whole heart that, “I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. I have been called of him to declare his word among his people, that they might have everlasting life.” (3 Nephi 5:13) I love you all and I hope that you have a great week!

Love Y’All

Elder Joshua Cordon

Service Helps! And So Does Chili :) – Joshua

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Dear Family and Friends,

I had many great experiences this past week. This first one I wanted to mention is about a less-active sister in our ward. We went by her house two weeks ago and at the end of the lesson we asked if we could have some more of her amazing cooking. She loves to cook (and we knew that) so she readily accepted. The result was DELICIOUS! Southern cooking is a hoot! (that means it is really good in southernese) I have come to find that one of my favorite southern dishes though is creamed corn, and acres peas. It is probably on the healthier side of the southern cuisine, which is good for a guy who eats as much as I do. (After my performance at a members home on Thursday I have received several comments haha.) Also the dinner gave us a good chance to invite her to church and talk some gospel with her.

On Wednesday I had an exchange with Elder Lake from Price Creek. During our trade-off with another member in our ward we found ourselves stuck in a pickle after striking out on all my plans. While praying silently for some direction I felt that we should visit the Greens. Upon arriving it seemed like their daughter was going to chase us off, but I stood my ground and insisted on doing some service for them. Once they realized that we were serious, they accepted. We proceeded to till and rake their garden for the next hour. The result was a gift bag of microwave meals and frozen deer leg, dirty hands, and softened hearts. They asked if we could come back Saturday and help finish the project. After that service project we part of the family according to their 38 year old daughter Michelle. They experienced some real hard ship two nights ago with the passing of their grandson/nephew though so if you could keep them in your prayers that would be great.

Lastly, we had some awesome success with the Fall Festival this past week. By the grace of God we were able to get Nick there are Camekco(who brought her sister). They both had a great time as we enjoyed some great conversation with great people, while eating great chili. Seeing things come together so well is such a great feeling!

All in all it was a terrific week and I hope it was for the rest of ya’ll!

Have a great week and don’t forget to pray. One simple prayer opened the doorway to some great service and new friends!

Love ya’ll!

Elder Joshua Cordon