Dear Family and Friends,

I may have shared this already, but I got a fortune cookie once that said, “Relish the transitions in your life, they will happen regardless.” Well I am approaching one of those big transitions of the mission. A new companion. Spending 24/7, with a few exceptions, with the same person for 4 1/2 months can either create a great friendship or quite the opposite. I am lucky it was not the latter of the two. Elder Hamilton is one great missionary!! I feel like part of me is leaving. Indeed he will be missed! I wish him the best of luck as he finishes out the last two transfers of his mission. Fleming Island is blessed by the best to have him coming their way.

My new companion is going to be Elder Frazier, who just so happened to be trained by Elder Newbold just before he trained me. So basically we are brothers. I am excited for this next phase of my missionary experience!

This past Sunday was hands down the best Sunday of my mission so far! We successfully committed several people to come to church that day and most were able to come! Even Steven who said that he had to work that morning was able to get work off early to come!! It was so awesome! I can tell the difference it made on the ward, there was just a contagious excited feeling. In all we were able to share this wonderful experience with Bro & Sis Nesbit, Bro Colney, Steven Bryant, and Daniel. All of them seemed to thoroughly enjoy themselves!! What a blessing it was to have all of them come! The ward just wrapped their arms around every one of them and the love was tangible. They all have baptismal dates on for the coming month and I hope all the pieces come together that will allow them to join the fold.

Something strange that happened last week was that we were asked to do a baptismal interview for the YSA sisters. Not that being asked was strange, but rather the circumstances that surrounded the interview. We were sent to the large campus of UNF and had to somehow find this dorm which proved to be a challenge in and of itself. Upon finally locating the dorm hall we learn that the sisters wont even be there for the interview which is regular protocol. They told us to just wait in the lobby and she will come down to meet us. So here we are on a college campus in a dorm hall just sitting in the lobby waiting for a girl. It didn’t help that we were wearing suits and we appeared to be lost. We also had no idea what this girl looked like, so we just said high to every girl in the lobby– hoping each would react in such a way that let us know if she was who we were looking for. After a few awkward attempts, we decided to just take a seat and act like we knew what we were doing. No sooner had we done so that the awkward tension subsided and a sense of control over this situation returned. In a few short minutes the baptismal candidate arrived that interview commenced.

Moral of the above story and the lesson for you all this week, always act like you know what you are doing even if you don’t.

Love, Ya’ll!

Elder Joshua Cordon

Those with a second tie around their necks are the Elders being transferred.

Elder Hamilton and I