Tag Archives: Blessings

What an Awesome Week!

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Dear Family and Friends,

This is a week that is getting locked in the vault. We are seeing lives blessed by the gospel and them building a closer relationship with their Heavenly Father. One that I am really excited about is Alicia, she is just ready to have the gospel be apart of her life. She is someone that I know the lord has been preparing for a long time. When we first met her she didn’t even know if God was even there, she thought that there might could be a God but she didn’t know. She agreed to let us work with her and she is already seeing how much Heavenly Father just want her to have him in her life. She walked a mile to come to a members house to see us. THAT IS WHAT I CALL EXERCISING FAITH! She has such an amazing desire to know God and she is showing it, I am looking forward to all of the lessons to come.

We also have Phil he is a non-member father of a member family, he has five boys and a wife that comes to church almost every week. (it is sometimes hard for her to get all the boys there by herself) Phil however doesn’t know if Joseph Smith is a true Prophet. We talked a little about it and he agreed that he hasn’t really taken the time to pray about it though. He also has some questions about the priesthood, the great news is he has committed to take the time to learn and to pray to get his answers. Which is great because that is all we ever ask is to pray about it and to find out for yourself if what we are saying is true. what a blessing it will be to that family when he accepts the gospel.

The temple trip was today! What a great experience that was to go to the temple and bring questions to the house of the Lord about my investigators and about how I can be a better missionary. I know that the Lord answers prays but it is just so different in the temple. I was able to get a spiritual recharge and get direction on what gifts the Lord has given me to help in this work. I have found so much comfort in going to the temple and knowing that if I take a question and in faith know that he will help me I will always get an answer. Rarely the one I want but always the one I need.

This week was such a growing week for me in so many ways. I was able to have many moments where I knew that my steps were being guided and my words were being given to me. This work is moving forward at such a remarkable rate, the Lord is preparing so many people to hear the truth. We have had a commandment given to us, it is not a new commandment, that the gospel be spread to the whole world. It is one that more need to take as serious as any other commandment, the greatest commandment given to us was to love one another. We need to take that love for everyone and share with them what brings the most happiness in this life. THE GOSPEL. I challenge everyone that reads this to talk to a friend who can learn more and share with them your testimony about one of these four things. Jesus Christ is the Savoir of the world, Joseph Smith is a true Prophet, The Book of Mormon is the word of God, or the Priesthood has been restored. Then invite them to meet with missionaries to know more. You don’t have to teach a lesson, let the missionaries do that, just be there to testify of truth and share what you know and love.

I know that this gospel is true and I am so grateful that I get to share it for two years. I know that God answers prayers and if you will ask in faith he WILL answer you and give you guidance in your life. I have a personal relationship with my Heavenly Father and I know everyone can because we are all His sons and daughters. I seal this in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen

Elder Steven Cordon

Miracles!!

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Dear Family and Friends,

Well what another wonderful week on the Lords errand. Hong Kong has a rich pioneer heritage as all areas embracing the do. They have made a film about this very thing. Sometimes I find myself not looking at the big picture, but this is an amazing work being done here. Yesterday we watched the movie in church and the spirit was so strong. That video helped me realize the amazing sacrifice early members of the church made to build this gospel. The first chapel here is still standing and it was build by the bare hands of the early saints, then you put that in contrast to the building in Wanchi and that makes it really clear how much the church has grown and is still growing. Getting in touch with the pioneer heritage, really helps remind me that the Lord is serious when he says he is building in the 4 corners of the earth, these are the last days and I don’t plan on sleeping through the Resurrection.

On top of that, this last week President Hawks had come out here to the New Territories. He had a special meeting and during the meeting while the district leaders and the zone leaders met, that left three who didn’t fit in to go finding. So us three went out to do some finding and President was really excited saying miracles were going to happen and sadly nothing I could see happened and when we were done, President said maybe you haven’t seen a Miracle yet but they are coming. Well about 30 mins later we saw one. We met with an investigator Uncle Fighter an “Eternigator” *Editors Note: A term often used to describe someone that has been meeting with the missionaries for a very long time* our lesson started with him debating doctrine per usual, until the topic of the spirit got brought up. Suddenly everything changed and he asked us what does it feel like? Well after that we come to find out he has felt the spirit a lot and he knows that our message is true and he needs to be baptized. He also spoke of a talk at the “My Conversion Fireside” were a recent converts testimony had really resonated with him. Its interesting that this was the turning point, because just before the fireside we felt prompted to meet with him after not seeing him for nearly 3 months. We met and he wasn’t willing to come to church and we invited him to the fireside and he didn’t want to come. Later that week he called us and sad he wanted to go. So we went then after the fireside he hurried out and we couldn’t follow up on how it went. We assumed nothing happened well turns out that a lot happened. So next step is preparing him for baptism.

Another miracle is that at church we had 3 referrals!! With two more previously this week! That’s more referrals than I have had my entire mission. With a total of five! When we baptized Gary I was wondering whats next, well here they come.

Another miracle is Aaron this week he has had a total change of heart he said “I know I haven’t been baptized yet but I really want to serve a mission!” Man I can’t explain how good it is to help find not only one of the Lords sheep but one of his Shepherds.

Another miracle is when we were finding yesterday. Finding recently has been pretty tough but yesterday we contacted a family. I can already picture them in white already. But here is the miracle we were out finding when I felt prompted to go to a specific spot. While there we met a guy who was not too interested but we ended talking while walking so we ended up no where near where we had planned. But then we see this kid and start talking to him and he has a lot of interest. He tells me he wants to learn more can you wait here while I run into my house. We thought this might be a way for him to get away since people have done that before. But he comes back out and we teach him the restoration and he says that he just recently started thinking about God again and really wanted to know if he was real, then we came along. We will meet with him again next week.

Here is a few stories I thought you would enjoy, there is plenty more but my time is short.

I love you all and hope everything continues to be amazing!

Elder Jared Cordon

Baptism!!

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Dear Family and Friends,

Well, I wasn’t sure if this day was actually going to come. Butterfly Ward no longer has a curse. Those 2 1/2 years are over. It wasn’t by any means the work of me The Lord did it all. Gary starting interacting with missionaries over 30 years ago! It was a great day to see someone so happy to make the change. I haven’t seen someone so ready to change in so long. He was just glowing and kept saying this his new beginning!

It was a little stressful though cause on Saturday we went to confirm that Gary was still ready but, his phone was off the entire day we couldn’t reach him. Then the next morning we had tried to call him again and he wasn’t answering so our ward mission leader sent us to go get him. We went down and we wanted to go to his door but the security guard was being tough, so we tried the intercom. To our pleasant surprise he answered right away and he was actually heading down. He was more than happy to be heading to church. Before this since he is wheel chair bound he has always worn a loose shirt cause he thought it would be weird to wear sweats with a nice shirt, but today he had a white shirt and tie and was completely prepared.

Then to the other stressful part: we had planned for our other investigator Aaron and the sister missionaries investigator to play a violin duet and we had them practice once on Wednesday after that we couldn’t get a hold of him. So we were pretty nervous but thirty minutes before the baptism started they both showed up. MIRCALES!

Interesting enough, even with how stressful the situation seemed I never once really worried. I hard a strong confident feeling the entire time. Which is great cause I was just really happy and relaxed through the whole thing. What a blessing. Then after we celebrated with our recent convert and our investigator at a members house for dinner.

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That’s basically the best part of my week!

Oh and we had a really good Zone conference in the mission office! It was a combined one with the other zone so, it wast great to see some faces I haven’t seen in awhile!

Love you all

Elder Jared Cordon
Tang Jeung Louh

Don’t Forget Him!

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Dear Family and Friends,

When you do work on a Monday and your mind thinks its P-day weird things start happening everybody in the district has been a little goofy and District meeting yesterday might have been the funniest district meeting I have had. Yet we all learned some great lessons. I did the training and nothing really went according to plan, but it ended up teaching some very valuable unplanned lessons about power statements which we took to use yesterday.

Yesterday was interesting and its also funny how the Lord does little things to remind us who is really in charge. When we first started looking for people to share the gospel with after district meeting, I am not sure why, but the constant no’s were getting at me more than normal. I started having all these thoughts come through my mind;

“Is this message really true nobody wants to hear it.”

Or

“Man why I am even trying these people just don’t get it.”

So it was pretty sad the thoughts going through my mind after doing that for a while and still not having success me and Elder Au said a prayer, rethought our approach and found one kid, who we taught and set up an appointment to come and teach him more. So that was cool. Then that evening after dinner, similar thoughts started haunting my mind, but I tried to shrug it off and keep looking for the people I was suppose to find. The Lord put three amazing people in our path 2 of which are new investigators. The lesson I learned is how quickly I forget the Lord sometimes but He doesn’t forget us, He picks us up when we are weak. We had 3 new investigators the same day I was thinking of quitting. That’s about the same amount of new investigators I had in my entire time in my first area. The Lord is pouring out a lot of blessings here in the Butterfly Ward and if all goes right we should have 3 baptisms in June with a few more for July!

Much Love
Elder Jared Cordon

Double Dunks & Back Flips

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Dear Family and Friends,

Oh the simple joys of life! One of the happiest moments for a missionary is to see someone who you felt came into your life by divine intervention enter the gate to eternal life through the waters of baptism. I am a very lucky Elder to have been so richly blessed. I will take just a few minutes to describe my two brothers who were baptized this weekend!

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Jim, oh Jim. He is honestly the most prepared person that I have ever met in my entire life. Once he knew it was true, which didn’t take long, there hasn’t been anything that has been a struggle for him to give up. Every time we taught him a knew principle he immediately started doing it. He had to get work off for Sundays and his job wouldn’t comply, so he quit! He spends every day serving his neighbors and doing acts of kindness. He is one of the most kind-hearted men I have ever met in my life. It was an honor to be able to baptize him. Sunday after he was confirmed he also got the priesthood and went and did home-teaching right after church! This church is in dire need of more Jims.

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Then you have the good ole Steevo! This brother has made me laugh more than anyone else. He truly understands good humor. He, like Jim, has been so willing to make the changes in his life to come closer to God. His love and enthusiasm for the Gospel has been an inspiration. He just wants this more than anyone I know. He has no problem with telling everyone he meets about the church! Especially via facebook! He has the potential to be a great missionary! I am so grateful that I had the opportunity to meet him and that the spirit softened his heart so that he let us in to teach him.

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This week was just an unbeatable one with that great weekend coming to a close! I am looking forward to helping these brothers down the path of growth and progression in this amazing church! Sadly Kevin and Lori were unable to join them in the font on Saturday but when they get baptized in a few weeks the joy will be just as sweet!

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A quick word of caution for all yall! If you are going to be attempting a back-flip off of a swing at 6:45 in the morning any time soon, don’t tuck your legs too much or you will over-rotate and turn that back-flip into a back-flop. Trust me I know! It is okay though, the swings and I are still on good terms.

Love Y’all!
Have a great week!

Elder Joshua Cordon

Keep On Keepin’ On

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Dear Family and Friends,

Well A great week with my new companion and new district. I have seen a lot of blessings this week. We have one investigator who is really just taking off and progressing great! He should be baptized this next month. He was a former investigator a while ago and he reached out to us and we have been so blessed to teach him.

I got to really know our ward mission leaders family a lot better! I love that family! It is so nice to be able to sit at dinner with them and I can hold a great conversation about whatever in chinese! So much fun we got to eat with them yesterday while teaching a less active!

Also had an excellent young mens and young womens activity where we had an investigator and less active. I was worried that the games we planned would not be fun but man it was a blast! Kids are the same wherever you live!

This last week our ward mission leader came out with such a great energizing plan. Its a 21 day plan where all the members will be fasting and also making special commitments for the 21 days. Last time we did something like this was a 40 day fast and at the end the Butterfly ward saw a baptism after a 2 year drought. He has got a lot of faith and once we peace this all together I know its going to be big. It will start June 1st.

I have learned a great deal about faith from a lot of these members and seen the real importance and need to be acting as well as talking. Butterfly ward should be taking off here soon.

I love you all and hope all is well

Elder Jared Cordon

PS: Big buddha was really cool! I will send some pictures later on

Some Old Friends

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Dear Family and Friends,

Well this last week we saw a lot of change in the District and Zone. It was a pretty crazy moves call! I can say I was pretty surprised and also very excited about my new companion. His Name is Elder Au, he is a native from Sha Tin. He is super awesome I knew him before on the Island and told him when I left Cause Way Bay: “Hey you following me out to Butterfly next move”. Well that came true. Its so nice to have someone whose is fluent in the language. Even in the last couple of days my language has improved a lot. We have done some awesome things so far.

This last Saturday we went less active finding. We found a guy who hasn’t been in contact with the missionaries for over two years. So we knocked on his door and the parents where pretty mean and he wasn’t there so when we were heading back to the elevator, right when the doors where about to close, we saw him walk by and remembered him from the picture. So we jumped out after him and waited for a second in the hallway for him to come back. So we ended up stopping and chatting with him for a while, teaching a lesson and rescheduling another lesson with him. That was good timing! I know God puts us missionaries where we need to be, we also found out he can’t let his parents know we are meeting with him or they will disown him. So its perfect we met him outside of his house.

We have seen an abundant supply of miracles in such a short time together I thought I would share a little one.

Also speaking of friends, an even older friend an american in my district also in my apartment is Elder Connor Townsend we played football together back in the little league days. He is an awesome missionary and its gonna be fun living with him!

Love you all

Elder Jared Cordon
(Tang Jeung Louh)

Tang is my chinese last name and jeung louh means elder.

DAY OF VICTORY

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Dear Family and Friends,

Well this past week has been an interesting one. Elder Hamilton got shipped out and got replaced by Elder Fraizer. He is from Washington State and was actually trained by Elder Newbold just before Elder Newbold trained me. He just hit the ground running, and we never missed a beat. It is interesting to see that the longer I have been out the easier adjusting to a companion seems to be. We had a zone meeting the next day that went great, an exchange the day after, and then conference all weekend! We have been crazy busy since we drove away from transfers! After this weekend though it seems pretty solid that Kevin & Lori, Jim, Steven and Lilly will all be baptized this month! The ward is behind all of them 100% and it is just so incredible to see! It seems that every week my mission just gets better and better!

General Conference was amazing this weekend!! If you didn’t get the chance to watch or listen to it, check it out. I personally loved Elder Ballard’s talk a lot now that I think about that one. He has really grown on me since I have been a missionary. Before I could tell you who my favorite apostle was, now I am starting to appreciate them all!

So a good story from this past week was the lesson we taught to Steven about the health law of the church. After teaching the lesson we extended the commitment to him to live this commandment which includes no: Coffee, Tea, Alcohol, Tobacco, or Illegal Drugs. He said he would start it all as soon as he ran out of Tea. Honestly not wanting him to put off the blessings that could flow his way if he where to start immediately I invited him to start living it immediately and throw out all of his tea right now. After a brief moment of contemplation he said alright, if you walk with me to the dumpster. As we walked I sung “onward christian soldiers.” It was epic! I wish you could only know Stevo and you would realize how hilarious this was! As we walked he yelled, “Today, is a day of VICTORY”! Just before he dumped them I suggested that he say a prayer asking for strength to live the word of wisdom from here on out. He started the prayer by saying, “Dear Heavenly Father, today is a day of victory, victory over the demon of tea!..” It was awesome!! I love these moments on my mission definitely one of my favorite experiences!

Stevo (Steven) and Elder Cordon

Stevo (Steven) and Elder Cordon

I hope today will be a day of victory for all of ya’ll, a victory over your own personal demons!

Love ya’ll!
Elder Cordon

When the weather outside is frightful!

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Dear Family and Friends,

Well we have been getting lots of rain and beautiful display of lightning, so it keeps the work interesting for sure. WE started the week off right with Monday evening having a lot of success right out with two great street contacts. 1 of which is victor lau. The next couple of days were very slow with little to no success, and we had a lot of people lined up to teach this week it seemed really likely we were going to be hitting our goals but then it seemed like every option just kinda fell out. We got to teach Gary (he has the Baptismal date) and he continues to progress everytime and he has also committed to getting to church every week, which has keep the last two weeks. Even though our other options fell through we were also able to pick up two new prospects. So there is Victor we met on monday that was a really short contact but we met him yesterday at the church with his daughter and they have committed to coming to church next week. Also we happened to find another man in a wheel chair who loves america, Peter Lo, Him and Gary could be good friends. We met him two days in a row. We actually had seen him 3 times before the fist lesson he has a motor chair and he would always cruise past us and say something like: “Happy Hunting for Converts” haha. Well we finally got him to stop on the fourth occasion and looks like he might be one of those converts. Although a lot of options fell through in the that time we were able to find these other two I feel really blessed.

Love you all back home

Elder Cordon

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

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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