Tag Archives: Elder Cordon

Final Report

Posted on by
Reply

Well this is the last Monday. I am truly blessed and honored to have been this set apart servant of the Lord. I have reached the end of this wonderful experience and am glad to report that I have served well. I have made a mountain of mistakes, I have not served perfectly (I wasn’t asked to) I have offended a lot of people, however, I am a changed person. I have used the atonement to change my life, I have watched the atonement change others. I have reached outside of myself and help the Father fulfill His Plan. I am grateful to have received the witness from the Spirit “You have done good, now go and continue to do so.”

I am so blessed to have learned the things that I have learned I have the knowledge and wisdom from this journey to continue onward with the wonderful work that is being done by and through Jesus Christ on the earth. Yes I am going home but I am not going back, back to what I was, who I was, is different. I have been changed and will continue to be changed. I cant go back, I cant learned all that I have learned and expect things to be even a little bit the same. I have made so many goals and I am going to to keep growing.

My wish and desire is that when ever or where ever you see me, you will be able to see the love of God. I cant wait to be able to continue to share this Love with everyone that I am able, to brighten their day if only for a moment, or all the way back to Heavenly Father! I desire to not just be a loved Son of God, but a Trusted one as well.

I know that I have served a faithful mission for the Lord.
I know that the work that I have been doing is the work true and good.
I know the gospel is the Key to true happiness in this life.
I know Jesus is the Christ and the God is Our Father.
I know we come from Godly parents and that we are from royal lines.
I end my service in the name of Jesus Christ

AMEN

Elder Cordon

Advertisement

#SHARE

Posted on by
Reply

This week I have been able to receive so many different witnesses of the truth of the gospel and its teaching. I have witnessed the pure innocence of what happens when a soul recognizes truth that is being spoken to their hearts. I have been able to see what happens to even myself when I am reminded and reinforce that I am a son of God. I am of royal line and have the rights and privileges of that line, I also have the responsibility to uphold that line and to operate according to the meets and bounds that have been set by eternal laws. I am so grateful for the blessing of this knowledge and desire to hold fast to it for all time.

I love the power of testimony, when truth is spoken that the Holy Ghost can bear witness, that when listened with spiritual ears and heart, it leaves an impression on the very fabric of you soul and you know that it is eternal truth. That kind of testimony is so powerful and one of the things that is the most under used. (In my opinion) So often there is thank-a-monies that replace testimony; now this is not to say that never should you ever share the things you are grateful for the scriptures tell us otherwise, however, they do not have the same effect. They do carry truth and power and great emotion, yet yesterday during the testimony meeting I witnessed a great marvel, I witnessed one after another, wonderful powerful testimonies! I marveled as I listened with “hears to hear” as the spirit shared with my the truths of the gospel.

I have learned this in my mission that each of us have a powerful weapon against the world, we have our pure, simply, and foundational testimonies that we can share with everyone. I have seen time and time again where simply testimony has changed hearts and routed out evil. I know the gospel to be true, I know that Jesus Christ lives. You cant speak those words, truly speak them, without the spirit witnessing that they are true, however, it still requires “eyes to see and hears to hear” and then action taken in order for that spiritual witness to actually do anything at all to you as a person. God is always going to have to respect agency even if we don’t, He is bound by His laws. We must bring the spirit into ours hearts and act on what we know or it is all for nothing.

Pasco truly was a great area and I am grateful for all the miracles that I have seen. I am grateful for the companions that I have had and the people that I have served around. I have experienced so much joy and happiness here. I am grateful for the Pasco Stake Presidency, They truly are wonderful, guided leaders that are filled with love for the Lord and His work. I have loved serving around them and getting to know them. What powerful influences I have been around and examples I strive to be. Pasco has been blessed with miracles on top of miracles and I have been blessed to witness revelation from local leaders come to pass in a beautiful way. The Lord is truly hastening his work!

So that leads me to transfers. Yes I am getting transferred for my last two weeks, yet further proof that God knows how to laugh. I thought that I had it all planned out that I was staying in Pasco until I left I was telling everybody and then….. BAM I get the call I am getting transferred special assignment and I am assigned to……. NOWHERE yup you guessed it. I will have no area for the last two weeks just traveling around.

Love you all so much

OH BOY! 

Posted on by
Reply

So there was an amazing miracle this week!

Elizabeth was found, which was an answer to her prayers. SHE IS AWESOME. She has a lot of family that is LDS and she was in the hospital last week that got her thinking about her life. She was talking to her aunt that is LDS and she wanted her to find Missionaries and get a blessing. SO Wednesday she prayed that she would be able to find them, Next day we knocked on her door!!! WHAT. She is working towards a date of Feb. 27th and is reading and praying. She is the fulltime caregiver for her father who is suffering from a lot of illness, working around that schedule is going to be our biggest road bump.This week we also had a Part Member family that came to church!  

We have our bishop that is getting really excited about missionary work and he went and talked to 2 Part Member families this week that we are going to start teaching, one of them is going to FHE at his house tonight. Miracles happen when the work is done in His way. I am so excited about the broadcast and striving to become a strict PMG missionary. Such a wonderful focus to Teach Repentance and Baptize Converts!  

We had a wonderful lesson with Nathen this week as well, he is dealing with a lot of stress in his life right now due to his job. He did however make the wonderful connection that in those stressful times is when you need to be reminded that God needs your attention. He really is a wonderful person and has wonderful talent. He builds custom guitars for a living 0.0 and they are beautiful! We have a few musicians in our ward that we are going to be bringing by, they also want to see if he wants to play with them at the church dance that is coming up for Valentines day. It always brings success when the Members wrap themselves into the work, and into the people. The wonderful law of Sacrifice for others, boy oh boy, such a wonderful way to live. 

I love that I have this time in my life to truly turn outward and learn this wonderful truth that this is the way to the most happiness, turning out to help those around you, that is the place where miracles are. I have such a testimony of this that I will be able to apply for the rest of my mission and life. When priesthood callings are magnified and selfless service is given that is truly the life that I want to model after.  

Thank you for all you do for me.  

Elder Cordon 

Birthday Week

Posted on by
Reply

So this week was so different then a year ago. What a difference to see what kind of missionary I have changed into. My birthday last year totally through me for a lope. I wasn’t focused as I should have been, I was not in a great place with the companion that I had, and my birthday made me really home sick; just wanting to spend a birthday with friends and families it was a real problem for me.

This year was 100% opposite.

I was focused on what I was doing with the work it never made me skip a beat, in fact it even made me think about how I could use it to help. As I was thinking about that for a couple of days a member family ask me at church if they could throw me a party that I could invite all those that we have been working with in the two wards to. Prayers were answered I got to use this wonderful moment on the mission to further the work to have people that are investigators meet member and recent converts. It was such a great environment to have them all to, even had Dallen thank me for the invite saying “we dont ever get invited out to things”. They really had a great time mingling with everyone that was there, and got to meet the most recent member of the ward. Got to share my testimony to each of them personally and even got the time after ward to have a lesson with Flor about the Holy Ghost.

The whole week it kept me focused on my purpose as a missionary, help bring people closer to Christ and Help them become converted to the gospel, and a part of that is helping them mingle and make friends with people in the church, and help members mingle with investigators and nonmembers, and teach in members homes. Which all happened in one event. VERY COOL.

I am also in a much better place as a missionary then I was a year ago. I am so grateful for the direction that has taken place in my life and missionary work with the absolute direct help and guiding hand of Jesus Christ and His Atonement. I am so grateful for the gift of repentance to be able to make changes in our lives and to become better and not the to change behavior but to be able to change our very nature. When that kind of change happens you never go back to who you were before, so little by little you can develop in the person that God needs. You are humble enough that God can work through you and with you to do miracles in the life that He has given you. Alma 19:33 …-that their hearts had been changed; that they had no more desire to do evil.

That is the heart that He needs. That is the heart that is applied to understanding the Holy Ghost and the direction that it gives you in your life. So that we can all be a lighthouse of the gospel to the world and to everyone that we come into contact with.

What a Great and wonderful week we have ahead of us to look forward to general conference.

Pray for answers to questions.

Love you all so much.
Elder Cordon

Acting In Great Faith

Posted on by
Reply

Ok so there are miracles happening, well duh because when faith is being used miracles follow. And right now there is a ton of faith that is going up to God! Tiffany is so strong in her faith that this is what she needed to do and pushing forward knowing that God would help her, AND HE IS. Her husbands heart is being softened in huge ways, we are meeting with him (yet) 🙂 but he is asking her about church and he asked her about stake conference, and he even said that David their son could come to church if he wished and go to primary!!! He might even come to the baptism! That has all happened in like 5 days. It is crazy to watch the Lord really work in someones life that is willing to act in such great faith, what a great example to just go and do when you get and impression from the spirit. Which is something that I am trying to work on.

We had another amazing miracle that happened with a Part Member family, that is living with the active Rind***** family. So we had scheduled a time with them to help give them some boost start on there family mission plan and show the video that was given to us by the Zone Leaders. So we went to the home and taught about missionary work and the purpose for it and the doctrine behind it, all while Fleur the nonmember is seating in the room listening to everyone and even her less active husband answer questions about the gospel and why it is that we would even want to share it. And then we did the activity and we didnt leave Fleur out. She wrote down names of non members that she knew and then even circled, after the prayer people that came to her mind to share the gospel with. So once we were done we asked her if she would like to learn about this gospel before she shares it with those people and she said that she would like to.

It was funny because she looked at the family that was all sitting there and said to all of them, “I was waiting for one of you to ask me” It was really awesome, the spirit was strong and we were able to give an example of an invitation right after the challenge to them.

That happened just last night to what a great way to end our week.

Thank you all so much for everything that you do. And just know that GOD LOVES YOU.

Elder Steven Cordon

    

 

The Converting Power of the Scriptures

Posted on by
Reply

Dear Family and Friends,

What a wonderful week we had! I know I say that all the time but , it’s true! How can it not be we are working in the Lords vineyard to bring souls unto him! The world is a crazy place with lots of negativity, loneliness, anger, pride, and suffering; its also a place that we can find peace, joy, happiness, love, comfort, and support. God is there to help us find the things that makes us happy. So as I get to watch people come and find Christ and find the happiness in all the darkness and chaos, it brings such a joy to my life. So ya I know that I say “what a wonderful week” all the time but that is because it is true!

This week did end a little different then last. Last week we had a lot of people at church and it fired us up to have it happen again. Sadly it didn’t, BUT…. We did have Jennifer accept a date to be baptized we will be helping her prepare to be baptized on July 18th. She is excited to come to know the truth that is here and she felt the spirit during that church tour.
I am gaining more and more a testimony of the strength and power that comes when we use the church buildings. These building that are everywhere have been built and dedicated to the Lord for his purposes and they carry a powerful spirit with them. Every time that we have a lesson in them and I fell of the spirit that is present it brings a peace to my heart that this is his work. We are using the church for tours with as many as will accept and we are using it for lessons, separate from a church tour, on occasion as well.

We have been working forward with an eye of faith know that as we desire to teach the Lord will help us find. We are focusing our efforts on helping those that we teach gain a witness of the Book of Mormon. We had investigators that weren’t daily reading, they have a very difficult time reading, and we have also noticed that it is hard for them to but themselves into the stories of the Book. So we have been reading it with them one chapter at a time, we have been picking the chapters that talking about the principles that we have been guided to for them, and helping them put themselves into the scriptures.

I love the scriptures and the power that comes into my life because of them, and the testimony that I get to gain by seeing that same strength come into other peoples lives as they start to study and learn from the scriptures, are the small things that I get to have every day that strengthen my testimony and conversion to the gospel.

I am so grateful that I am able to come out on my mission and not only help others find their faith and hope, but help find my own as well. I am so grateful to all of you for the things that you have helped me with in my life and for the examples that you have been for me to look to.

Love you all so very much!!

Elder S Cordon

Hard Work Pays Off!

Posted on by
Reply

Dear Family & Friends,

It was very busy week. Probably one of the busiest weeks I have seen on my mission. But in a good way. I have seen that since moving to this area I hit my pillow at night being truly tired. There is a lot to think about and worry about, all in a good way of course. I really enjoy the feeling of hard work and truly I wake up with a smile on my face every morning to do it again. I am so grateful for the counsel that President Hawks offered us last week. One of the many things I like from what he shared was this “you don’t know how much you can do until you really need to do it” I feel like this sums up my mission for sure. As I contemplate on the weaknesses I have overcome and the ones I am still working on, I think how is it possible? Well its because the lord really needs us to work and work real hard, he needs us to be obedient and diligent. Well I feel like I am doing more than what I ever thought I could do and that’s because the lord really needs me to do it.

The ward really is awesome and we are seeing really cool miracles every week. For example this last Sunday two women walked into the church on their own. One lives in our area and the other in west points are on Ping Chau. They left before we could talk to them and we thought we lost our chance but luckily our amazing ward missionary stopped them and got their numbers for us and invited them to every activity that we have. We should be seeing more of them. I have been in this ward for 3 Sundays now and every week there has been new faces in the the Gospel Principles class.

We have also been able to extend 3 new baptismal dates this last week and already have a few people in mind that we would like to give them to this week. We are truly both being so blessed and I am so blessed to be able to enjoy and contribute to the hard work of my companion and other missionaries before me.

The meeting we had with the stake mission leaders last night was very very good! There was a lot of points being discussed that really needed to be brought out. Although we said very little that meeting we left with a big list on the ways the members and missionaries can work together better and we will be trying to sum those up and distribute that information to the other missionaries. I sometimes have a habit focuses only what we can do more and rarely stopping to appreciate whats already being done. I took a moment to stop yesterday as I sat with all the Bishops and ward mission leaders from the stake and to really appreciate their work, I felt this really cool feeling come over me of excitement and respect for these priesthood men and all they do to volunteer and support the church and the work of salvation.

This week the things we are going to focus on is finding new investigators we are making great progress with the investigators we do have and hope to be able to add more to the list this week! We are really good about talking to everyone and it seems like are best finds are the people we find in the non scheduled finding time. We are just working on getting better at rescheduling and calling.

Well I don’t know how familiar people are with the work here but it really is doing awesome! Macau officially became organized yesterday as the China Macau district. Here in Hong Kong we should be having another stake being organized in the next few months and several new wards. which would make 5 stakes here. We have a temple and 5 stakes it really is doing awesome here.

Well love you all and hope you take a moment every day to remember your Savior.

Elder Jared Cordon

Miracles Abound!

Posted on by
Reply

Dear Family and Friends,

A miracle that happened on Sunday was that a man we had met at the bus stop the previous Sunday whom we invited to church ended up showing up. I was in the foyer waiting for our investigator when he came walking up to the door. He clearly was there for the first time from the uncertain look on his face and he had in his hand a crumpled pass along card with the church address on it. He really enjoyed himself, and the best part was that the sisters investigator who came for the first time was his cousin. So they sat together in Sunday school and really enjoyed themselves. We still don’t have any contact information for him, but when he said that he would come back, I really do believe him this time.

Another Miracle we had was that Wittney, a wonderful young man from Haiti, has accepted the invitation to be baptized on May 23rd. He has been very active for the last month and he is more than ready for this step. I am happy to see how this will bless his life. Hopefully we can find him a bicycle so he can bike with his friend Trevor to church and back. That would be a real cherry on top.

All in all thanks for all the love and support!

Love y’all!
Elder Joshua Cordon

Week Full of Miracles!

Posted on by
Reply

WE HAD 6 INVESTIGATORS AT CHURCH!!!

It was such a good day to have them all at church. We had such an amazing miracle happen. Arnoldo a little 10 year old told us that he wanted to be mormon and asked if his grandparents needed to sign him up. We told him that we would need to talk to them and so he took us right over to his house. They told him that if he wanted to it would be his responsibility and so we asked if he could come to church the next day. He said yes and so we got him a ride and he loved every minute of it. He asked if he could come back every Sunday, and the blackhurst family said they could pick him up every week. So at the end of the night Sunday we stopped by the house and to our greatest delight he was blasting the primary song CD that was given to him through his house. He said that he is going to try and learn all the songs this week. WHAT!!! He also went and talked to his 11 year old brother and told him all about how awesome it was and so Alex is going to learn and come to church next week as well. SO crazy !! Life is great, God is good. This is the best work ever!!

We also had Donna and her grandson Damion at church.

If you have not seen Joseph Smith the Prophet Of the Restoration Film WATCH IT!
It is such a wonderful film, and tells the story in such wonderful simplicity. The technology that is available for us to use to learn and to share.

Love,

Elder Steven Cordon

The BIGGEST DOG EVER!!

The BIGGEST DOG EVER!!

So let me explain the pictures. We stay in a Duplex and so we have do a play on words and took the quote "This is the Place" by Brigham Young And Changed it to "This is the Plex" So every transfer we take Plex Pics And using Play on words to come up with all the Pics. So this transfer we did this one!!

So let me explain the pictures. We stay in a Duplex and so we have do a play on words and took the quote “This is the Place” by Brigham Young And Changed it to “This is the Plex” So every transfer we take Plex Pics And using Play on words to come up with all the Pics. So this transfer we did this one!!

#SSB

Posted on by
Reply
Dear Family & Friends,
What a great week to end off the Transfer! We made the goal to MAKE SURE we talked to everyone! It was rocky at the first of the week with lots of service to do and needing to deal with the car, but by the end of the week it brought miracles. Talking to everyone is not always easy, there are some many things that get in the way, but I think that is why is brings so many miracles. It increases our faith and power in the work. The miracles don’t always come from right then, but it does allow the Lord to increase our spiritual power to be able to speak with the power of the Lord.
We spent a lot of time in Butte Ward this week we really want to help that ward blossom into what we know it can be. With that added effort we got 3 new investigators in that ward, and we put Nick OnDate for Baptism. Using the Book of Mormon Invite! The Church has been restored and The Spirit witnesses to that one people have a open heart and mind and wanting to listen. The Spirit will always testify of truth but God wants you to Want To listen, without that real intent you will probably miss it. Well Nick didn’t miss it. He felt the Spirit and knew that it was different then anything he had ever experienced before.
He has been to many churches and has had a relationship with God, but knew for himself that this was different, that it was more.  AWWWWW IT WAS SO AWESOME. The spirit was so strong and was teaching him the whole time.  He is on date for May 30th and we will be taking him on a church tour tonight with his sister Sandra, and their kids. Our plan is to also get her to make to goal for that date as well.  Sacrifice Brings Blessings.

So another Transfer as come and gone. where has the time gone I really don’t understand.  I will hit my year mark this transfer. CRAZY

I love you all so much
Elder Steven Cordon