Tag Archives: Book of Mormon

A Good Week

Posted on by
Reply

Dear Family and Friends,

Alright another week down… :). With less teaching this past week it has been a good time to look at who’s next now that Bro Fan is baptized. It has been unusually hard to teach lessons on the street this last week and after almost a week without teaching any I realized I wasn’t relying on the enough on the Lord. So I was a lot more specific in my prayers, and we met and taught a really prepared individual. Then we followed the same pattern for the next day. The same thing happened. I think the Lord wanted to remind me that I can do all I can do, but If I don’t ask Him for help He won’t fill in the rest.

Also this week I had a chance to head on back to Tsin Siu Wai to do an exchange with the other half of the companionship Elder Lam. He is awesome he is from Hong Kong and we knew each other back from the time on the Island. But we had a cool experience together. Last time I was with Elder Groeberg and we had met this less active family it was actually the only time they met this family so Elder Lam never met them, but while we were finding we ended up running into one of the sons, then taught him a good lesson about the Plan of Salvation.

Another cool thing that happened this week is we were eating dinner with our investigator Aaron(who should get baptized soon) and some guy came up and asked us to teach him and while were talking Aaron jumped in and shared a great message about the spirit world. So overall that was just awesome. He is already a missionary.

But hey love you all and hope you have a great week!

Love,

Elder Jared Cordon

Lightening, Cameras, and…. Snow

Posted on by
Reply

Dear Family and Friends,

How is it possible that week after week things just get better and better? You think you should just get to a point where you would just stop progressing and you are as happy as you can be… Except that would be false doctrine and the exact opposite of what I teach people, so it makes perfect sense actually. I love truth!! It is just so… motivating!

This past week at Zone meeting we had one of the most inspired goal setting sessions i have ever experienced in a Zone Meeting! I have struggled to get a goal that everyone embraces and one that unifies, but I think we finally did it. It started with a spiritual epiphany I received several weeks back, and one I have been praying about ever since. I realized that God wants his sons and daughters baptized more than I want them baptized. No duh right? Well it definitely changed the way I pray. Then I realized that he spends everyday preparing people to received this message and that there are prepared people out there and we just need to find them. Now I kinda knew all this already, but it finally hit me in a different way, the kinda way that leads someone to change and to act. My companion and I then came up with what we knew was a inspired plan. We decided that if we pray and fast and work our tails off, that every single companionship can find and baptized someone in the month of June. When we first introduced it we had a lot of doubting eyes staring back at us. So we pulled out our secret weapon, the faith building pep-talked we prepared. Before we were even done the spirit was very thick in the room and every single missionary jumped in excitement for our goal which is twice as much as a number we thought was impossible the month before. Good things are coming 🙂 #raiseyourexpectations

So if you haven’t seen our video on Facebook yet, I pity you. I would also invite you to repent and go and check it out. We are forming an amazing group and we need your help! It was a lot of fun to film and it was definitely interesting scenery. I hope you enjoy/enjoyed it!

I also had the opportunity to go on exchange last week to required me to hop on the bike again for a whole night! Before we even finished our dinner it was raining. I decided to go without a raincoat though because I new that if I wasn’t wet with rain water than I would be wet from wearing a non-breathable coat in the thick humidity. As we biked around we enjoyed natures natural firework displays. I was hoping that people would take pity on us considering, but it didnt seem to work too well! haha

Another amazing experience was that this past week Alfred opened up that he was still unsure of Thomas S. Monson being a prophet. We decided to help him out by watching the move about him called “On The Lord’s Errand.” Before we were even able to finish the movie he said that he knew that it was true! He is such a champion! He will be interview this week for baptism so we will see how that goes!

Oh ya and about the snow comment. We were about to go meet some less-active members at an apartment complex when we saw a pile of snow on the other side of the fence. I had to look to twice to make sure I wasn’t seeing things. I made a snow ball!!! In Florida!! OUTSIDE!! How is that possible!?! Well… it helps if you are next to an ice rink haha. Nevertheless, it was awesome!

Once again everybody join the Facebook group Called To Share and invite all of your member friends. Then tomorrow (Tuesday) post a picture of you holding the Book of Mormon just under yours eyes with #discoverthebook and with your testimony of how you know it is true!

Love Ya’ll!!

Elder Joshua Cordon

Bring on the rain!!

Posted on by
Reply

Dear Family and Friends,

Well, Hurricane season is officially here. The wise old patriarch of the ward strongly urged all of us to be ready. Don’t worry though, we are. We have been stocking up on food for the last little while. The cupboards are full and we have food for at least three months. Also, if anything does happen, what a great opportunity it will be to serve those around us. It will also make it easier to baptize if the streets are full of water. Of course I am only slightly joking! It did storm rather heavy every single day last week! We even had nickel sized hail several times.

Moving on.

Some really good things happened this past week! Not the least of which is the mission leadership council meeting that we had in which a lot of good things are coming about. I really love where President Craig is moving the focus and I am excited to exoerience all the good that will follow. For me personally, that meeting was very inspiring. I left with my expectations raised and my vision expanded. I realized I hadn’t been stretching myself enough, but that is going to change! Starting with my online proselyting, which is something that I have completely neglected these past few months. I have been looking for ways to improve and now I finally feel like I have concrete direction on how I am going to do that!

An exciting thing that happened this week was that Alfred had a change of heart. A week ago he was pretty down and he wasn’t his normal cheery self. He didn’t come to church last week because he was so down. He started to have a lot of doubts in what we were teaching because he still hadn’t had a spiritual witness of the Book of Mormon. We set out this week to help him have one. On Wednesday we talked a lot about prayer with him, we knew that if he could understand how prayer works then getting an answer will be easy. Near the end of our lesson he seemed to have a really good understanding of prayer. We then challenged him to pray right then and there and ask god if the Book of Mormon is true. He was a bit hesitant, but he agreed. After praying we had us just sit in silence for a few minutes so he could pay attention to the way that he felt. Needless to say, Alfred finally can recognize what the spirit felt like! It was pretty incredible! This Sunday at church he just kept saying, I feel the spirit and I can’t help but smile!

And on that note I want to end by saying, if you are looking to smile a little more in your life, then do something that will invite the spirit, and soon enough, I promise you, you will be smiling! It happens to me every single day!

I love y’all!!

Elder Joshua Cordon

One step at a time!

Posted on by
Reply

Dear Family and Friends,

This last week was complete craziness! Which is just the way I like
it. Perhaps I say that a lot, but it is true. We started the week off
right by having a wonderful FHE at Br. Ortega’s home, he is the ward
mission leader and he does a phenomenal job at fellow shipping. There
was a wonderful spirit there as we talked about the Book of Mormon and
overcoming different fears in life. That is when Steve chimed in with
an innocently hilarious comment. Now mind you, this room was mostly
full of women. He told us how he recently had a chuckle moment when
reading the Book of Mormon, it came when he read the line, “the fruit
of thy loins saith.” He followed that up with the question, “do loins
talk”? Haha oh man that was hilariously awkward, but more hilarious
than awkward. We later explained to him what that meant and he felt
slightly embarrassed.

That night we picked up President Craig’s nephew and he stayed with us
for the next 2 days/3 nights. He was a lot of fun! Needless to say, we
laughed a lot. He is leaving on his mission to Ecuador next month.
Probably one of the best experiences we had with him was when we were
contacting a family who was fishing on the St. John’s river and while
teaching the mans wife, we had to chase a crab around that he caught
that got loose. Then her husband pulled out two grabs at the same
time. There is a reason for that. It was a really fun time and a good
experience.

image (1)

We had zone conference the next day that was really inspiring despite
the fact that it was ten hours long. I received a lot of revelation
for myself, my area, and my zone. I am excite to see what comes of
these new plans.

The rest of the week was just dandy!

I also learned that more than ever I need to take life just one day at
a time and one week at a time. The rest will take care of itself.
Maybe you could try that too!

Love y’all!

Elder Joshua Cordon

Elder Huntington

P.S. Elder Huntington says “Hi”.

A Rebirth For Some and A New Decade For Me

Posted on by
Reply

Dear Family and Friends,

Well two more wonderful children of God have entered the waters of baptism!! Kevin and Lori have come a long way since I first met Kevin in a parking lot back in December. I am excited to see what they can make of this wonderful opportunity. A big shout out to Bishop and his wife who were so instrumental in getting us to this point. They opened to their home up to lessons several months ago and that definitely solidified the testimony kevin and lori already had. It is just amazing to see the change that comes into people lives as they begin to accept the gospel!

photo (2)

Thank you to all who helped to make my birthday last week a special one! I was definitely taken care of here in the Hendricks Avenue ward. At the end of the night on Thursday my companion had organized a small surprise gathering of cake and gifts. Some of my favorite people in the ward were there so it was definitely a wonderful moment. Sis. Laskis also fed us that night and gave me another cake haha. There are so many wonderful people here. The Lord definitely gave me a great week seeing as how we had one of my most productive weeks yet! (Matthew 7:11)

All in all it was an incredible week. We started teaching this wonderful young man Alfred again! I taught him a few months back with Elder Hamilton, but he was lacking that real intent so we parted ways. A couple Sundays ago, his Sister (who is an active member) told us that her mom wanted us to go see Alfred again. We went by the next day. As we sat down with him he just got quite and said, “Elders, I am going to be honest with you…” as he paused I braced for what I thought was bad news, he then continued saying, “I really want to change my life now and I just want you teach me whatever I have to do to have what you have.” Talk about music to a missionaries hears! With maybe a little too much enthusiasm we proceeded to unfold before him the truths of the gospel. We have met with him every single day since and each time he has read from the Book of Mormon and taken notes on what he read. Can I just mention how great god is! His power to soften the hearts of people in their time is amazing!

Inspired by my amazing sister Shalese, Elder Frazier and I are going to take a picture everyday of something we are grateful for/makes us happy! It should be good. Perhaps I might share a few with you next week. If you are lucky haha.

Love, Y’all!

Elder Joshua Cordon

Double Dunks & Back Flips

Posted on by
Reply

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!

20140429-203945.jpg

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.

20140429-203939.jpg

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.

20140429-203951.jpg

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!

20140429-203933.jpg

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

When the weather outside is frightful!

Posted on by
Reply

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

Causeway Bay!!!… that’s my ward!

Posted on by
Reply

Dear leihdeih(you all),

Well one more week down! This was great minus the water heater, for the shower, being broken… But hey I had a lot faster showers which gave me more time to get ready in the morning!

Things have really been picking up. We have a baptismal date with another shortly on the way and some others with potential. Its been a fight in this area but I feel like it has really been picking up nicely!

There is a really cool thing that our mission does! Its called My Conversion Story Fireside. Its when all the missionaries who are going home at the end of each transfer pick one of their recent converts who tell their conversion story! It was a great tool we used for our investigator who was trying to receive a witness and was wondering how it might come!

We also had a huge meeting with all the ward and stake leaders in the surrounding area about how the members and the missionaries can work together better. It was really good for both of us. We have been able to see the the success of one ward with less actives. The secret is really with the members on less actives we missionaries may have got them there but they will only stay if the ward will make an effort. Less actives are a huge problem here. One ward took the initiative with the members and they have about 20 LA’s at church a week and that’s a constant number even with them becoming and staying active again.

I also learned a great deal of importance about commandments. Never be scared of the commandments this church has, their no better way to know if Joseph Smith was a prophet then to partake of his fruits, like the Book of Mormon, or the word of wisdom. If you follow the words of wisdom and you receive one of the specific promised blessing of that commandment then there is a witness that Joseph Smith was a prophet.

John 7: 17 “If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself.”

We used this with our investigator and it went great!

Also at the End of the Month Elder Holland will be coming so that should be awesome!

Love,
Elder Jared Cordon

Daily Miracles :)

Posted on by
Reply

Dear family and friends,

This past week was a good week.

Seems like every day we felt like we had experienced a miracle. That is always a great feeling! Some of the highlights where some lessons that we had with the conseillant family. They are an awesome family from Haiti, we have been working with them for about a month and a half now. Their names are Gabin and Emmanuella, they have three beautiful children, Alayna, Nala, and Gianni. They are like our best friends. I will definitely be keeping touch with them for the rest of my life. They would be wonderful members of the Church. Gabin is Apostle material. A huge step was made with them when we were talking about the disciples in 3 Nephi 19 in the Book of Mormon. Emmanuella was confused about something and we were struggling to help her understand it. That is when Gabin turned to her and in a perfect way explained it to her in a way we never could. It was a huge step because he has never tried to help explain some of our doctrine like that before. They give us marriage advice all the time, mostly for Elder Hamilton because we are predicting that he will be married by the end of the year haha. It is some really good stuff! They really know what they’re talking about.

I am loving every minute of my mission so far! I feel as if my morning studies have improved and I’m really loving the opportunity to tear apart the book of Mormon and just find so many nuggets of wisdom and truth. I have truly grown to love that book as I focus my studies around it. I really don’t care to read anywhere else right now. The Spirit it brings into my mornings alone is worth it. I feel as if anybody who doesn’t take time to study the book of Mormon every single day is missing out on a wonderful opportunity.

A fun thing that happened this week was a friendly competition that we had. On Saturday the assistance called us and asked if we could have lunch so we could talk about a few things. On our way to the restaurant Elder Hamilton and I were trying to guess what they were going to rebuke us for. Unable to think of anything that would give them ammunition we were curious as to what they wanted to talk about. About halfway through lunch and folded the plan before us. They told us that Sunday night from 5 to 9 we were going to compete to see who couldn’t score the most points. You could score points by knocking on doors, contacting people, getting new investigators, and setting baptismal dates. The prize was a golden eagle trophy they had found in the mission office. The Lord bless us with great success and they are going to give us the trophy sometime today. 🙂

I know that God is aware of our lives, and that he really does care about each and every single one of us. His hand is always extended, and we just have to reach out. We will find success and happiness in life as we turn everything over to him. It isn’t easy, but it’s not that hard either, and it is most definitely worth it! Have a great week!

I love ya’ll!

Elder Joshua Cordon

“An unseen power will aid me and you”… Electricity or WiFi anyone?!

Posted on by
Reply

Dear family and friends,

Things got pretty exciting this last week when I was able to receive
my iPad mini. These things are awesome! It is definitely a huge bonus
to serving here in Jacksonville, Florida. To answer any questions,
these are not full functioning iPad. The church has modified them a
bit to upgrade security and so that there are no any games or anything
on them. We have access to all the churches apps and Google translate,
Skype, and Facebook, but that is about as much as we get. It is also
all we really need. There’s so much information in gospel Library
alone, has everything you could possibly imagine as far as missionary
work is concerned. I’m excited to see how I can use this to grow the
work in this area.

A cool miracle from this last week shows how we used the iPad in a
creative way that opened doors we wouldn’t have had otherwise. Last
Sunday when contacting in an apartment complex we met a man from
Albania. He couldn’t speak any English, so we gave him a pass along
card and wished him a good day. As I was walking away I just found
myself wishing that I could just speak to him because he seemed like
such a wonderful man. The next day we went to pick up some French
copies of the book of Mormon from outside of the mission office that
sister roads left for us when in the stack we found an Albanian copy
of the book of Mormon. We asked her why it was there and she said it
was an accident. I immediately thought of the man that we the day
before and I felt that this was no coincidence. We didn’t exactly know
where he lived, but we went to the same complex and said a mighty
prayer and began wondering hoping to find him. We knocked on a few
doors and did a regular approach and then asked if they knew any
Albanian people in the area. We were continually sent down several
dead end leads. However, we felt the spirit was with us,guiding us. As
we walked we felt that we should talk to some young man we saw sitting
at a picnic table. After having a short conversation with him and
giving him a Book of Mormon, we started to make our way back to the
car. Right then we saw the same Albanian man that before walking into
his apartment. We ran after him and knocked on the door just after it
shut. He opened it and as he saw us a big smile came across his face
and he invited us in. We held out the book of Mormon like we are
giving him a gift. He took it and you could tell from his facial
expressions and body language that he was very grateful that we had
given it to him. After using the translation book of Albanian to
English on his table to communicate we set up a return appointment for
Sunday at 5 o’clock. We did this keeping in mind we would have our
iPads by then and that they had a translation app. After receiving the
iPads be translated a listen into Albanian. Yesterday we went to his
house and we held out the lesson we had translated and pictures that
went along with it. While we could not communicate to know how he felt
we could see he understood very well. We agreed to teaching English on
Saturday if he came to the church so we can use the Wi-Fi. One amazing
gift is iPad!

Check out my new iPad mini

Check out my new iPad mini

Josh 2

Josh 3
I hope you liked the story. I’m very happy here and I love my mission.
I know this gospel is true, I know God is part of this work, and I
know that if we do what he asks we can have the spirit as a guide. I
love this gospel so much! Have a wonderful week!

Love ya’ll!

Elder Joshua Cordon