Tag Archives: Baptisms

Family & Friends

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Dear Family and Friends,

As normal things went well. Last week had some more consistency than
others though. Rather than half the week be better than the other
half, it was rather productive from start to finish. God is really
helping to work move forward.

The highlight off the week was our lesson with the Estrella Family
which we had at the Nhiev’s home, they are a member family in the ward
that have been helping us fellowship them. On Friday we had the two
families together for dinner, a game, and a lesson. It was an awesome
time, and everybody lightened up and enjoyed themselves. The fun part
was to see everybody relax as the night went on. Before it was over
they were already planning their next get-together. The Estrella’s
weren’t able to come to church this weekend because of work situation,
but they are hoping to adjust their schedules to be there next week.
All in all, great success.

The other bonuses were that we got in to contact with some
investigators that fell by the wayside for a few weeks. Jeff was
silent for a few weeks but this past week he was stronger than ever
before. He wants to get baptized as soon as possible. And then Davie,
we went and saw him. He recognized he difference our visits made in
his life. And after only one lesson he read more than a chapter of the
Book of Mormon which is crazy considering that he didn’t read at all
before when we were visiting him. We talked to a member who was
willing to come fellowship him with us and that will be a great
connection if we can help them make it.

The ward here is great! It isn’t very big, but nevertheless I have
enjoyed getting to know everybody and hopefully we can do our part to
help grow it some more this month. We are doing a Mighty Miracle May,
where every single companionship is going to get a baptism in the
mission. It is going to be amazing! God bless y’all!

Love y’all!
Elder Cordon

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#LETHIMIN

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Dear Family and Friends,

Monty was Baptized!!

It was such a wonderful experience, the spirit was so strong and everyone felt it. Monty, Deedee, and Seth all shared their testimony of the wonderful truth of this gospel. They witnessed of the divinity of this work and the truth that Joseph smith was called by God to be a prophet.

Then Sunday came and he was able to get the gift of the Holy Ghost through the priesthood. Then just a short 3 hours later he was given the priesthood himself and he asked me to do it. What a wonderful blessing it is to be able to hold such a wonderful gift in this life. God has brought the priesthood to the earth to bless his children and to build his kingdom, and it is such a blessing to know that it will never be taken away again.

So know that He has been baptized, has received the Holy Ghost, and received the Priesthood Monty and Deedee, and Brian and Katy are going to be going to the temple this Friday to do baptisms for the dead; best of all they are taking names from their own families. WHAT!! They are just on fire with the Spirit that they have let come into their lives and change them. They are truly letting God change their very natures and become better.
Deedee has decided at her work that she was going to start every day off with prayer and now everyone in the office gathers to start off with prayer in the morning. #prayerbringsblessings Not surprising at all that everyone in the office is starting to comment that work is dramatically improving sense that started to happen.

God wants to play a rule in our lives and not just on Sundays. He wants to help us in our jobs and in school. He wants to helps us raise our families or to make new friends. He truly wants to be in every aspect of our lives, and the more that we let him do that the more blessings we can receive. God can help with any part of our lives and it is up to us if we let Him.
Spring is in full effect right now we have Spring blossoms everywhere, and spring showers are here.

We had Zone Conference this week. Such a great experience to be able to hear from the mission president and the APs and to be able to learn so much through the spirit. That is the source by which true knowledge from Heaven is learned. It is only by the spirit that you are taught pure celestial truth.

I love you all so much thank you for every thing that you do.
You are in my prayers always

Love
Elder S Cordon

PS the pictures are the baptism and also at zone conference we took our 100+ pic with the mission president. the 100+ club is the four of us missionaries in the picture have over 100 years of life together. Basically we are all over 26 haha we are an elite group, and the four of us are in just 2 zones. oh ya.

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Children of God

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Dear family and friends,

This week was an incredible week! The best part about it though was without a doubt the weekend. This is considering the fact that we had a powerful mission changing meeting on Monday, and that I got to go to the temple in Orlando on Thursday.

The best part about this week was that on Saturday at 5:00 Aniya, Cheyenne, and Marquez were all baptized. It was one of the sweetest baptismal services I have ever been part of. The turnout was great and the spirit was strong. I would like to just take a minute to tell all of you about the three beautiful children we entered into a covenant with their Heavenly Father.

Aniya:
I have been working with Aniya since the first week I got to the area. We never ceased to be amazed at how impressive she was. She was only 11 years old when we first started teaching her and she had a stronger and more doctrinal sound grasp on the gospel than many adults. She carried herself with eloquence and she stood up for what she knew was right among her peers. When she entered young women’s her talents were only magnified. Just a few weeks ago she taught the Family Home Evening lesson to a group of adult converts and she lead the conversation with grace and everyone felt edified.

Cheyenne:
While we were working to the lay the ground work for Aniya so that she could get baptized suddenly after New Years Cheyenne came into the picture. Cheyenne is Aniya’s younger sister. We started the lessons over with her to help her have a good foundation of the gospel and of other restored truths. After a few weeks of working with her we finally saw the light at the end of the tunnel and looked like their dad who was baptized 4 years ago last Friday was able to finally get things lined up for them to be baptized as well. Cheyenne in just a few short weeks has shown immense growth and an increasing level of maturity. By the time the baptism came around she was bearing a strong testimony in the Book of Mormon and in the truthfulness of the church.

Marquez:
We venturing into new neighborhoods about 5 months ago when we saw a dirt road that was off to the side that lead to some distant homes. There are not very many dirt roads in our area so it peaked our curiosity so we went walking down to find some people to share the gospel with. The first house we came to was the home of Ms. Betty, Marquez’ grandmother. We would visit Ms. Betty from time to time and about a month after we started visiting her we became acquainted with Marquez when we helped him get the Christmas lights out of storage for his grandmother. After talking for a bit I told Marquez about scouts on Wednesday night and asked if he would like to come and join the group. He seemed really excited by the idea. He came the next Wednesday and well the rest is history.

This final weekend was a battle to get everyone ready for the baptism, but miracles abounded and right prevailed. Aniya and Cheyenne’s father was able to baptize them, and one of Marquez’ young men’s leaders who has been a great example to him was able to baptize him. While they were all changing, Elder Jorgensen and I were able to stand in front of a large crowd of members and non members and the teach the message of the restoration while wearing our baptismal whites with the font as the backdrop. It was very powerful and probably the best setting I have been afforded to preach the gospel. I never thought that I would be able to say that I had done that. As we taught I felt the spirit speak very powerfully to my the heart that this message is indeed true and I hope that a similar witness was born to the those who sat in the congregation.

On Sunday in order for Aniya and Cheyenne to be confirmed by their farther he was sustained by the congregation to be an elder and then I conferred upon him the Melchizedek priesthood, and ordained him to be an elder. Right after that he stood up and confirmed his daughters by that priesthood. Then I was blessed to confirm Marquez. It was an amazing weekend! I am so grateful to my Heavenly Father that I have been able to be part of the 3 incredible lives. I also found out that I am getting transferred to another part of Jacksonville this week Wednesday so it was a wonderful finished to an life changing experience while I served in the mandarin 2nd ward. I am excited for the amazing adventure ahead.

Thank you for all the love and support you have shown me and I hope that you know how much I love and appreciate every single one of you.

I love y’all!

Elder Joshua Cordon

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Starting The Year Off Strong

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Dear Family and Friends,

This week I have a simple invitation. The invitation is to study faith, from what ever source you wish, specifically how to increase faith and then what can happen with faith. Do this every day this week. Included with study is to then take time each day to share with someone your testimony of a living prophet, whether that is on facebook or in person, but it has to be specific to that person not just a wall post. Then if they ask any questions to your testimony invite them to learn more from the missionaries. That is the invitation. Let me know how it goes.

This was a good week things are going well here in the Wenatchee area. Stake president set a goal of 201 baptisms this year, and in the next six months the amount of missionaries are going to double in this area getting ready for the split. CRAZY STUFF. We have all of our investigators reading the Book of Mormon. That is the start to knowing that is is true. Reading everyday brings a power into your life that cannot be obtained by any other means, it brings so many blessings.

I am always very touched at how God fills my heart with love the very instant that I start sharing the gospel with them. I know that it is just a fraction of the love that he actually has, which amazes me even more.

Thank you all for you prays and wishes I love you all so much.
I pray for you often

Elder S Cordon.

1 more down plenty more to go!

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Dear Family and Friends,

Well what a wonderful week we just had. We worked really hard to help Aaron be ready for his baptism and the rest of his life. His baptism was a success! After he was baptized he actually spoke and it was really good. He has an amazing testimony and you can tell he is on the road to conversion as all good members are. Teaching him this last week has really taught me a lot of lessons as we were focusing on the holy ghost and receiving personal revelation. I can look back at my life and realize how much stronger my connection with the spirit is now than at any time previously.

Were also able to see Mike twice this week. We taught him half of the plan of salvation on Wednesday and after he was so excited to learn more he was scheduling the next lesson himself. So we taught him again on Friday after English class. I am so blessed to have the opportunity to teach him the lord has been here for us. Every time we get someone close to baptism I ask the lord whose next and he always has another person ready.

A couple in our ward also had the idea to feed the young men and two of our investigators who are in their friend group and that went so well. Its becoming the cool thing to be part of church for them. We were also able to meet another one of their friends and get a 3rd investigator. It really awesome to see the young men getting in the excitement of missionary and having success doing it. We just teach the all together on Saturdays then play a little basketball. Sadly they were not able to attend church but they will be there next week.

Sister Lau and Sister Syu are doing awesome they are really excited to continue to hear more. We have found out more about there families and are really pushing to meet there husbands this next week, we realize the only way to feel the fullness of this gospel is to have the full family involved, so that is our focus this week. With them living in mainland the best way for retention is to get them all.
Well it was an amazing week and I can see that the Lord will continue to progress his work I am so grateful to take part in the Hong Kong peak service to be able to hear about all the sacrifice made by the Chinese people in building the gospel. This is a blessed to be serving.

Love you all

Elder Jared Cordon

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How Great Shall Be Your Joy D&C 18:15-16

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Dear Family and Friends,

As with all transfers, there are missionaries entering into the mission field and some headed home leaving two years behind them and taking a lifetime of experience with them. It gives you a chance to ponder and reflect as you see contrasting differences between the two groups.

Considering where I was at a little over a year ago when I stepped off the plane into the mission field in comparison to now, it caused me to throw my arm over the shoulder of some of those elders that looked more afraid then the others and tell them that there is no reason to be worried or afraid because you will soon come to find that if you put your trust in God, then despite anything that happens all things will work out for the best. For much of my mission so far I feel as if I have been carried on the wings of  angels from one challenge to the next. I felt the love of God so profoundly in my life that any fear that was there was burned out like the refiners fire. We told those missionaries that if they were obedient and followed the inspired counsel of their leaders than they would also have no reason to fear, and that god would make them into great leaders and teachers. It helped a little, but to be honest, a testimony of something like that will only come from living it.

At the transfer meeting the departing missionaries shared their final testimonies. It is interesting to see what each one has made of themselves over the past two years. Having worked around most of the elders, I knew which was ones were more diligent and which ones were not. Which ones lost themselves in the work and which ones merely did their time. The difference in the spirit that was brought by their testimonies was profound. While the words and the sentiments they shared were similar I could tell that the power of one was far greater than the power of another. I made a commitment right than and there that I would never quite improving and growing. That I would be fully engaged in the Lord’s work not only for every moment of my entire mission, but for the rest of my life. While it is true that the nature of the work changes quite dramatically when I eventually return home, but the spirit should not change. I am excited to see what I can make of myself for this second year of my mission. In the mean time I will just take it one week at a time.

I do want to take a quick moment and share how the lord has blessed us this week. We have been blessed beyond imagination this past week! Every time the knuckle hits the wood a miracles presents itself. We were able to find so many prepared people this past week! It seemed as if every single day we had someone come out of the wood work for us to teach. The lord is taking good care of us. One continuous miracle would be Tara. Teaching her is like teaching Jim if you remember me mentioning him. She is just beyond ready. We taught her the word of wisdom this week and she told us that she already knew it was a commandment and that she knew we were going to teach it to her, so she started cutting down the coffee already! Need I say more?! She makes it so easy. She came to church again and the whole ward just wrapped their arms around her–Literally and socially. She also is very much committed to her date of July 13th.

In other great news, Lilly finally entered the waters of baptism this past Wednesday. While it was hard that I was unable to attend, it brings joy to my heart that someone i had worked with for so long has finally made that step. To add even more to my joy, I was able to witness Alfred get baptized on Sunday. It was one of the best baptismal services i have ever attended because the love in the room was tangible. With being able to see so many people I have come to love and also being able to have Tara come and watch it as well, I thought I was going to lose strength like Ammon in Alma 26 from an overabundance of joy! I have a testimony that true and lasting joy only comes through living the gospel and being engaged in this work! I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen

I love y’all!

Elder Joshua Cordon

P.S. 15 And if it so be that you should labor all your days in crying repentance unto this people, and bring, save it be one soul unto me, how great shall be your joy with him in the kingdom of my Father! 
16 And now, if your joy will be great with one soul that you have brought unto me into the kingdom of my Father, how great will be your joy if you should bring many souls unto me! (D&C 18)