1 Down… 103 More to Go!

Posted on August 14, 2013 by shalesecordon9

Dear Everyone,

This first few days in the MTC! What an adventure they have been!

The food has successfully made me and my companion spend a lot of time in the Bathroom, more him than me! It is gonna be easy to cut back, I dont know how people eat so much here! But the learning is coming a long surely! The Language is truly amazing though my teacher has not said a single word in english since I have been here! I can tell you that the gift of tounges is real because of how much I have learned! The first investigator we taught was defiantly a humbling experience though! I couldn’t understand anything she was saying and she couldn’t understand me at all! I might have accidently said something offensive haha. But today it will be another test how that language break this last day has treated me!

Sundays here are like a Holiday going to church and hearing english is like music to my ears! Also speaking of music I will be in the october Conference Choir! But sundays are great Sacrement, Priesthood and Sunday School are broken up which is kinda nice then in the evening there is a Fireside and we then will watch a recorded fireside afterwards! I have some great notes from yesterday it was so great!

My companion here is really awesome he is a twin also! and he is from centerville so right next door! His twin also not learning a language and he will be here in a few weeks! They are not Identical though, they dont even look like brothers haha! Its interesting here though because there is only 13 people learning cantonese two districts mine has 8 the other has five 3 of the people are going to Sydney australia! I Had two guys whose flight got cancelled they were going to toronto so we had two many guys in my room tell 2:00 this morning I didn’t sleep much! but I loved both of those Elders I actually knew them from BYU so that was cool! The first two names on my flag! Maybe things wont be as crazy now that we are down to 4 in the room! But we have so much junk food! like 4 big boxes just pilled high so I wont be needed to spend my money we just got all the great leftovers from a bunch of Elders who just left!

Man its crazy that Its only been 5 days I feel like I have been here for 5 weeks! It seems like by the time lunch roles around it should be dinner and then we have a 5 hour class…. But I love this wonderful opportunity to learn so its all worth it! My zone is awesome! its us Cantonese and then a bunch of people going to the Phillipines! So its a great group there is a lot more elders in my zone than Sisters but the MTC over all right now its like 50/50. Its probably because there is no sisters learning Cantonese right now, So we are like a little band of brothers!

Its been amazing here and I will be sure to be a little more thorough once I get a full week! But if you feel like your life isn’t that motivated or you need a spiritual recharge or you think your doing well enough in gods eyes. Well then go watch or read the Character of Christ! I love everyone who read this! And ill be back next week!

Sincerely

Elder Cordon

Short one this week!

Posted on August 13, 2013 by shalesecordon9

Dear Family and Friends,

This past week was a terrific one. We stayed really busy and saw a lot of success. We managed to set 3 new baptismal dates and found 6 new investigators. The Lord truly is taking care of us.

I am all out of time though so I am just going to share a quick testimony.

I know with every ounce of my soul that this church is run by REAL Apostles and Prophets today. Men who truly do receive guidance and revelation for the world from God. I sustain these men and would serve in whatever capacity they asked me to do. I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God; that he truly did see God the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ. I know that Book of Mormon is the most correct book of earth. I know that if someone wants to experience true and lasting happiness than they need to live the commandments. I honestly believe that if people only knew about the happiness they could receive from living the Gospel that not a soul on earth would reject us at the door step. I also know though that God is working on everyone, and that our job as missionaries is to find those who are ready and direct them to wonderful gift that savior has given everybody.

I thought to myself this morning that the savior is like a father over a few month period has lost sleep and put all his energy into making some handmade gifts for his children to give them at Christmas. Each gift is personal and was made with love, and designed to bring great happiness to each child. On Christmas day this father offers his gifts to his children. The first child notices that the gift is in a small box and decides that it most not be that great and doesn’t open it. The next child opens the gift and sets it on his shelf where it gathers dust. But the last child takes the gift and cherishes it and allows it to make him happy everyday. Just like these children Christ has offered us a gift that will bring us ultimate happiness, but what are we going to do with it? What are we doing with it?

I know that our Father in Heaven and His Son, Jesus Christ love us and want nothing more than to see us be happy. I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

I love you all!!!

Elder Joshua Cordon

Jared’s MTC Address

Posted on August 9, 2013 by shalesecordon9

For those of you who would like to send Jared letters while he is at the MTC for the next 9 weeks. He would love to hear from anyone who is willing to send a letter!

From now until October 13th his MTC mailing address is:

Elder Jared Todd Cordon
OCT13 HONG KONG
2013 N 900 E Unit 78
Provo UT 84602

**Feel free to use the free delivery service of dearelder.com if submitted by 10am MST he will receive the letter the same day.

You will need the following information:

Unit #: 78
Estimated Departure Date: Oct. 13
Mission: Hong Kong China

This week was crazy!!

Posted on August 5, 2013 by shalesecordon9

Dear Family and Friends,

I don’t even know where to begin…

Last Tuesday after a great first district meeting as a new district, Elder Newbold and I put on the service clothes, grabbed a mower and got to work. We mowed 2 1/2 lawns in like 2 hours. The reason there is a half in there is because we started mowing and then the guy who the lady apparently hired (I guess she didn’t think we would actually mow her yard) pulled up and at first was annoyed because he thought we were stealing his yard. When he found out we were just missionaries doing service he relaxed and gave us some gatorade. He was a cool guy. He also finished the yard in 1/3 of the time haha. We tried to mow the Suttons yard without getting caught, but that is hard when they are home haha 🙂 So after we finished we had a lesson with them.

On Wednesday we had a slow day before dinner, but then during dinner we split up and just read the Book of Mormon looking for direction. I found myself in Alma 39 (great chapter), and we both left the apartment ready to go! We found two new investigators that night!! Also that day we went to the senior center to do some volunteer work and ended up doing a chair exercise with some old ladies called sit-down dancing haha it was really funny!

Let me tell you about one of them. We were about to pull away from a street because the lady we intended to visit wasn’t home, but the spirit told me that we couldn’t leave yet. So we decided to knock a few doors. When we were standing in front of one house this lady came out and asked us about Joseph Smith. We ended having a great conversation, gave her a Book of Mormon and got a return appointment. This lady told us that we should go see her sister though that lives on the other side of town, but her mom (Jeana Hutto) wouldn’t be interested because she is hardcore southern baptist.

When we went and contacted the referral we showed up with working gloves hoping it would soften her mom’s heart. It worked. We actually just had dinner with her family yesterday. The lady grew up baptist, but recently stopped going to church because of a some doctrinal issues she had a problem with. Some being that she believes that Godhead to be three distinct individuals and that there has to be more scripture than the Bible.

On Saturday though we went by for a return appointment with Jeana’s daughter. As we pulled up to her house though I felt like we shouldn’t go, but that we should just leave. We both agreed and just pulled away. Come to find out yesterday that she had been drinking all weekend and Saturday was the worst. The spirit really knows what it is doing and I am glad I listened.

Yesterday was also a terrific day! Kayliah got confirmed a member during church and we found some great investigators!

This hangs on the outside of our door.

Now to explain that sign on our apartment door. (The one that reads: Sleeping Children DO NOT knock or they will wake up, Thank You, Chelsey and Robert) So we may or may not have told a guy where we live and we are very confident that he may try to rob us. So we said a prayer that he would forget and we had the sister missionaries write this sign for us so that we could throw-off the scent. Apparently it has worked so far. haha I just wonder what the neighbors think?

Anyhow, Sorry for the long sporadic email! There is actually a lot more to share but I have to stop somewhere.

Love Ya’ll!

Elder Joshua Cordon

Chris and Kayliah’s Baptism

This young man just received the Priesthood

BAPTISM!! Whoot Whoot!

Posted on July 29, 2013 by shalesecordon9

Dear Family and Friends,

So the first awesome thing would definitely have to be that I had my first baptism on Saturday!! It was my first two actually 🙂 The two awesome kiddies were Chris and Kayliah, 12 and 10 respectively. We have been working with them for about a month. They are the grandkids of recent convert Sis. Hug. I got to baptize and Kayliah and Elder Newbold baptized Chris. It was truly a special experience. I feel like I can say that I experienced complete happiness during that baptism if only for a brief moment. A feeling that I will no doubt experience at many future points in my life. The baptism was beautiful though and I will make sure to send pictures next week. Sadly we can’t send any here at the library.

A bunch of other miracles happened on Saturday. The first is that I woke up knowing that we had to visit this less-active lady on the roster. We tried once before but she wasn’t home. When we got there, she had just gotten back the day before after having been gone for three weeks and she was about to leave for another week. That lady really needed us and we were able to chat a bit about the gospel and do some service for her then and we agreed to mow her lawn. She is still very heart broken about a divorce she went through and just really needs the gospel. Hopefully we can reactive her.

The next was that after the baptism we got three leftover pizza’s from an activity at the church earlier that day. At first I was like SCORE FREE PIZZA!! but then my comp had a different plan. We have struggling to see one of our awesome investigators Br. Sutton. So we swung by there place and just walked through the front door with the pizzas in hand. It ended up being an answer to their prayers because he had three hungry kids and was really stressed out. We were able to have a lesson with him and do a harvest blessing as well. The difference in the spirit before and after we left was really noticable.

Last week was a low numbers week, but we did find 5 awesome new gators. Also I feel like i really underwent so serious spiritual growth this past week. I have tackled some mentally tough gospel topics and have come out unscathed with a new found love for all the scriptures, and a stronger testimony in Jesus Christ as the savior of the world.

I know with every ounce of my being that our heavenly father knows and loves everyone of us (1 Nephi 22:25), and wants the best for us. I would die before I deny the testimony of Jesus Christ, and even more so I am living for that testimony by going on a mission. The best thing for us is to be tried and to grow. Like we always say here in the mission field, “there is no growth in the comfort zone.”

Some great scriptures from this past week include:
2 Nephi 1:13-23 (BE MEN!)
2 Nephi 1:27
D&C 101:35
Matthew 10:39
That should be good! Happy Studys 😉

Love Ya’ll

Elder Joshua Cordon

I have successfully completed a transfer!

Posted on July 23, 2013 by shalesecordon9

Dear Family and Friends,

Sorry for the Tuesday update, but that happened because of transfers. Luckily I get to stay here and continue to labor in the lovely Lake City, Florida zone! My comp was made District leader so I will be doing a lot more exchanges this transfer which is fine with me. It adds a little flavor to the weeks. Overall life is going great though!! One awesome investigator of ours is Sis. Singh, I don’t know if I have mentioned her or not, but she is just full of the most crazy questions!! It is great to ask questions, everyone should, it is healthy because so much growth can happen upon searching and finding answers, but it makes it frustrating when you are trying to make a lesson plan haha. Yesterday we had a lesson with her that went really well. We taught her the Plan of Salvation, with a little Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and tithing sprinkled in. She started out by asking some really odd yet insightful questions and was just really confused, but we asked her to wait till the end in case all of her questions are answered. When we finished and asked if she had any questions she said, “I love this so much! All those questions that I thought were important were either answered or the just don’t matter anymore!” It was awesome to hear that! She promised to read and pray, and come to church on Sunday!!

I have had an interesting experience with the scriptures lately. So for the first part of my mission I have had this frustration with the Bible only because there are mis-translations that have totally misguided and blinded so many people. So I would never use the Bible except for some memorized quotes from PMG scriptures. THEN we went over to member in our wards house who is in charge of the YSA in the Stake and we have a YSA we are working with. We were talking though and I asked about some essays he had written that use the Bible to explain the views in mormonism. After a very long talk and a lot of biblical examples I walked away with a new found love for the New Testament. However, it then took away from the fact that we want to focus our teaching on the Book of Mormon. So after a few days of being Bible bi-polar, I finally resulted in my current feelings. “I believe the Bible to be the word of God, as far as it is translated correctly, I also believe the Book of Mormon to be the word of God.” Sound familiar haha 😉 It is definitely good to know my Bible, and I do know it better know, but I will focus my efforts on the Book of Mormon.

We found this awesome couple last week doing some tracting! They are an elderly couple named Jim and Mary Hathaway that is in their 80s and they don’t go to a church regularly right now because Jim asks to many questions that don’t get answers! Of course this put a smile on our face because we know that we can give him the answers he is looking for! They also watch the BYU channel regularly haha. They are so ready! We had a really good lesson with them on Saturday and they agreed to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it! Whoot Whoot!

Life is good though!! I just need more energy, 8 hours isn’t enough! Br. Sutton last week said that he knows that everything we have taught him is true and he even came to Scripture Class last week, so did JC! JC was a big surprise though because we swung by his house to invite him and his sister said that he was really angry (so angry he just punched a hole in the wall) and didn’t want to talk with anyone, but we invited him a then went over to church. 10 minutes after we started he came walking in the door and stayed to whole time. What a

This saturday we have… drum roll please… A BAPTISM! It is Chris (12) and Kaylia (10) Gallagher. They are the grand kids of a recent convert Sis. Hug and they are such champions! They are both really excited and Elder Newbold is baptizing Chris and I am baptizing Kaylia. Also their parents are not members… can only else smell the sweet scent of potential in the air. Cause I CAN!

Anyway, Ya’ll are awesome!!

Elder Joshua Cordon

P.S. here is a conversation in Southern

M R Ducks
M R Not
O S M R
C M Wangs

Can anyone translate?

**Put your translation in the comments and I will send them to Elder (Josh) Cordon. :)** (His Sister)

Jared’s Mission Farewell

Posted on July 18, 2013 by shalesecordon9

Hi Everyone!

Jared’s farewell will be July 28th @ 11 AM MST.
Hope you are able to make it!

Here is the address!
965 Oakwood Drive
Bountiful, UT
84010-4433

See ya then!

Tried and Blessed This Week For Sure!!

Posted on July 15, 2013 by shalesecordon9

Dear Family and Friends,

It is interesting how much my mission can feel like a roller coaster ride. Last Monday we had a district bowling party which was awesome! I had a whopping score of 116, and beat my companion so he had to buy me ice cream. He makes all these bets with me and has literally lost every one of them. He would have had to buy groceries twice now if I wasn’t so nice.

So one of the highlight lessons this week was when we got our super awesome family, the Suttons, over to the home of one of our awesome families in the church, the Hergets. I was on trade-offs that day and Elder Newbold went with Br. Hand up to the North side of town and Br. Herget was my companion so I could be there for the lesson. They had dinner and the lesson went great! It was about how the Gospel of Jesus Christ (Faith, Repentence, Baptism, The Gift of the Holy Ghost, and [Enjoying] to the End) blesses families. They have kids that are the same age so that worked out really well and the spirit was very strong. Also I got the Hergets to teach most of the lesson, and I feel like they could be great friends. It is so great to work with members!

So I go from that on Thursday to the worst spiritual experience of my mission on Friday. We going to contact a potential on our records when we saw this guy in his front yard playing with his dogs. We decided to go and talk with them and as I was walking up I got this terrible feeling like something bad was going to happen. So I should have just got out of there, but I wasn’t sure of how to handle the situation. The guy invited us inside, and once again I had that feeling and I literally new exactly what was going to happen. I prayed for strength though rather than just getting out of there.

We talked to him for a little bit and got to know him better, then suddenly the spirit leaves and the guy changes the subject and begins pegging us with these ridiculously worded and annoying questions. Trying to get us tangled in our words. He failed and it got him obviously frustrated. Then he starts to tell us how he had this experience where he went to turn the page of his friends Book of Mormon and he felt a feeling that he hasn’t felt since he did sorcery. And tells us that we simply haven’t asked enough questions or else we would see that our religion is false, and that he feels bad that we are going to hell and that he loves us more than we could possibly comprehend and that is the only reason he does this. I bore a short testimony about how I follow the spirit because it testifies of truth and that he didn’t speak truth. And that if he wanted to know, he could find out if the Book of Mormon was true but he has to read first, turning pages won’t do anything for you. Elder Newbold shared a testimony as well, and then we shook hands and departed. What a waste of a solid hour of prime proselyting time!

Also if anybody wants to know what that feeling was that he felt when went to turn the page, it was the same feeling Joseph Smith felt before his prayer in the grove.

After that experience we were totally drained of the spirit, so we gave each other blessings that night, and I was felt one of the most peaceful feelings I have ever felt. And the blessing gave me some wonderful counsel.

The following day went really well. And then Yesterday we had a baptism in the Ward! It wasn’t one of our investigators, but it is always good to see some one change their life for the better and come into the fold of God. God is great and he takes good care of those who listen to his counsel! I know this to be true and I can feel the blessings in my life as I try each and every day to align my will with God’s. Then only way that can happen is through sincere and earnest prayer, something that I am very grateful for!

I love you all!

Elder Joshua Cordon

P.S. this is the sixth week of my mission in the field which means that transfers is coming up! Here is a picture of the current zone though. I wonder how it will change.

First Zone of my mission.

A Roller Coaster of a Week

Posted on July 8, 2013 by shalesecordon9

Dear Family and Friends,

This week another insanely busy one. I found it very difficult to share all that I want to in my emails, but I will try my best.

On Tuesday I had an exchange with the District leader. He is in the area just south of ours. It went really well and there place is what they call the “shack”. It really is one though. But missionaries have been living there for like 20 years. So it has everything you could want. There are big comfy recliners at the desks which was so nice! haha. It was a fun exchange. Elder Payne is a great missionary. I am sad to report that we did in fact have an hour long bible bash with some guys. It was a serious waste of our time and god’s time. I also learned from experience this time that the spirit cannot testify of the truth that we share in the a contentious environment. So never bible bash.

On other news we set 4 baptismal dates this week. One was reset because JC needed a new date. The other was the Grandson of a recent convert who is totally awesome! He is 12 and will be baptized on the 27th. The other was a man named Willy. One of our appointments fell through and so we saw him outside and asked his name. He just invited us right in and we taught the restoration and committed him to baptism. He has to get married first though, minor detail. The last one is the husband of a innactive lady that we have been teaching. They are great and he loves to cook for us. Since I love to eat we get along great!

Things are going really well here. I learning more and more each day that there is a lot that I need to improve on. Luckily the Lord will make weak things become strong!! Also I stepped on a scale the other day full clothed and I was 217. That is either all those push-up or the good southern cooking we are getting fed. It probably the latter #Fat&Happy 😀

Love you all!

Elder Cordon!!

Month Mark!!

Posted on July 1, 2013 by shalesecordon9

Dear Family & Friends,

This past week was incredible! So much has happened that I don’t even know where to begin. We had so much success this past week! The Lord has truly blessed us. We have these two great progressing investigators named JC and Mat. They are really making some incredible progress in changing their lives for the better. They are both 19 (i think) and are best friends. We are great friends with them to which is just terrific. They are both trying to quit smoking and dipping and I am very impressed with how willing and strong they are. Both are planning on getting baptized here in a few weeks!

Other than that the work is really picking up. We have a lot of people we know now and so planning our days is becoming a lot easier. I feel like I have been doing this work my whole life!

One small story to share. We were trying to find a less active on the church roster and when we got to their house they weren’t home. So we decided to knock a few doors before we left. The third house we went to just so happened to be the home of Br. and Sis. Sutton. Sis. Sutton was baptized into the church at 17 and hasn’t gone to church since. Which is even more incredible when she told us that she wants us to teach the discussions to her husband so they can be married in the temple! They were so fun to talk that we just chatted with them for probably 45 minutes. Also her husband is a terrific cook and he said he wants to cook us dinner. We have him scheduled for the 4th of July! ‘MERICA!

Anyhow, I am loving my mission. Even more so I am loving how I am more clearly seeing how the Lord blesses us each and everyday. I think if all of us really took some time each day to see how the Lord has blessed us we would all stop complaining and feeling entitled to any more blessings! I love you all and have a great week and 4th of July!

Elder Joshua Cordon

Here are a few pictures of my adventures so far.