Special Witnesses of Jesus Christ

Dear Family & Friends,

Well this was to say the least an extremely eventful week with moves calls more food than what is healthy and 6(+1 soon to be) Special witnesses of the our Lord Jesus Christ came to visit us and share their testimonies with us.

Starting from the top, moves calls: Well we basically new a lot was going to happen but then every single companionship in the zone changed so it was pretty big. Little Malaysian Wong moved to Ngau Tau Kok and my new Companion Canada Wong moved here to Aberdeen (I have to distinguish the Wongs because there is 3 of them here in the mission). I will miss my old Wong and am excited for the new Wong. We actually entered the MTC together so its pretty awesome to serve with him as two seasoned missionaries. We have already gotten off to a great start because he has an amazing way of connecting with these people way better than any of my Chinese companions he is very loud and very talkative and a very good finder. Also the very stereotypical Chinese nerd who loves gaming and science. I love him.

Because of Elder Wong leaving and Elder Wong coming our members and investigators were shedding tears and excited to welcome a new missionary. Because of that we ended up having a lot of meal appointments and man I feel like its gonna take awhile to get that all down! The best was one day we went to this Thai restaurant for lunch with 2 people and again for dinner with another person. Man and it was delicious!

But the crowing event of course was to be able to have a special visit and hear from An Apostle Elder Ballard, The senior president of the seventy President Rasband (again), The Presiding Bishop of the church Bishop Stevenson; Plus the Asia area presidency Elder Gong, Elder Wong, and Elder Funk; not to mention the soon to be seventy President Hawks. So 7 powerful men and we got the chance to hear from them two days in a row. Once by ourselves and the other with our investigators and members. Truly truly amazing, they ended up talking for over 2 1/2 hours and we were very much uplifted. Its amazing because as a mission we are very obedient so it was good because then we could hear about other things and this time was teaching skills. Which to cover a big part was in the first words spoken by Elder Ballard “we are all a little bit too shy” and another quote he shared from an experience with him and Legrand Richards, Legrand Richards saying “you know what the problem with this church is? we don’t have any more preachers” they gave us the call to be the best and be bold. I could go own with everything that was shared but it was moving and the Kwok family loved his message the second day were we got to see him apply all that he told us. All of them are very powerful and man I am so blessed because this is my 4th visit from a general authority not counting the MTC.

All of this excitement is happening at the right time to get me motivated. I am entering the 4th quarter of my mission and I have worked hard but its time to look where I have been lacking and step up my game!

I love you all have a great week!

Elder Jared Cordon

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Here is a dinner appointment at our bishops house with our investigator Eric and my new comp.

 

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Here is a dinner appointment at our bishops house with our investigator Eric and my new comp.

 

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Meet the Mormons!

Dear Family & Friends,

We watched Meet the Mormons this last week. President surprised us by playing it after ending zone conference a little early. He is so powerful and it was so uplifting. He talked so much about looking towards the mark. Meaning we don’t settle for less. But We will have here shortly Elder Ballard, President Rasband, Bishop Gary Steven, Elder Gong, Elder Wong, and Elder Funk. Its such a blessing to be in a spot that has such a presence of these men.

We had a great week! These consecrated finds have always produced results and I have been realizing why: its because we don’t looking at those times as what we do when we have nothing else better to do but as a missionary focused activity. So we will keep those going because it helps with time management but we will make sure to have the same mentality towards any other finding opportunities. I believe the lord really is blessing us with these opportunities. Its just hard because these people are not seeming to have the same mentality the lord and us have for them. Another thing about finding is we had a ward find yesterday and it went really well, for some they gained a little more appreciation for the work, for others they got to see the joy of their labors. Our ward leader is great and has an awesome mentality because of his efforts he helped us find a man about his same age who has got some good interest and already has a fellowshipper.

This last while visiting a family in the ward it was great to hear about their conversion stories, and it was also interesting to hear them talk about the missionaries that baptized them because they loved them so much. But they also told me with much disappointment that he was less active. I asked how they knew that and they said they didn’t know for sure but they assumed because they see his Facebook and they said he doesn’t look or sound like he used to. It was a good reminder for me that we can’t go back to who we were, we need to become something new and keep going!

But also in that visit we kinda did some weekly planning with them and they were brainstorming all kinds of ideas how we could get better, then it was funny as the brother talked about how he has seen us on the streets a lot and how our work is really hard and it would be way easier if members just provided friends. I thought that’s a really good Idea. But they brought up some great ideas one being scouting. I guess this sister who has at least 3 families who would love to do scouting but Wanchai is too inconvenient. Apparently there is enough between out two wards that we could do our own down here and it would be a great missionary opportunity so we sent that to our bishop for some consideration.

We also had exchanges, I went to west point this last week and a cool miracle that happened while I was with Elder Gillis is that right as English was wrapping up a kid walked in looking for English helped so we talked to him for a bit then ended up teaching a lesson but just as he walked in so did a member randomly asking to join us. So basically a perfect lesson just fell right into our hands. He said he would go to church but I am not sure how that all ended up.

Great stuff is happening because we got the Kwok family to come to all 3 hours of church this week for the first time and they all seemed to enjoy it. Except the son he is having a harder time so we are working with the young men’s leader for a way to really bring him in. Its his first time at young men’s so we just need him to go more so he can start having some friends.

Elder Jared Cordon

JAred Selfie 1

Selfies with the Selfy Stick!

Jared Selfie 2

Selfies with the Selfy Stick!

 

I <3 HK

Dear Family and Friends,

Well I have had a good eventful week and a half since I last got on!

For starters picking up from the beginning of last week. President Hawks (mission president) called a special district leader meeting. He was a professor at BYU before his mission. He has influenced my life in so many ways! But because he was a professor, teaching means everything to him as it does to me. A missionary had introduced some videos (a link to 1 of 24 videos) by Elder Bednar and other general authorities, Teaching No Greater Call (a link to the website with ALL the material), to him and President Hawks is a man who is quick to observe. He felt every missionary needed to see these videos so he called the district leaders together to introduce the new district meeting plan for the next three months. After that truly mission changing meeting we were able to have a mission changing district meeting. Which set off a fantastic week where we were able to add two new baptismal dates to the teaching pool. They are both friends of a young man in the ward! He has introduced so many people to the church he is awesome!

Then this week we had a last minute meeting with a powerful group of men. Elder Rasband president of the seventy, Elder Allen Director of the missionary department, and the Asia Area presidency (Elder Gong, Elder Wong, & Elder Funk). So we were able to hear from five general authorities and there wives! Very powerful.

The the next day all the members in Hong Kong and all the missionaries got together in a stadium for an all day race event! It was fun I won one race!

Today we have the chance to attend the temple always one of my favorite things to do! Its such a spiritually uplifting experience!

Love you all,

Elder Jared Cordon

Another Week Down

Dear Family and Friends,

Well This has been a really fast week! But a fantastic one. This week we were honored to have a mission tour with Elder Funk and Elder Wong. Elder Wong is the new the general Authority from the first quorum of the seventy. His talk was pretty awesome I even got water poured on my head haha. But he is so powerful and I can’t wait to hear his talk next general conference! Elder Funk, Elder Wong, And President gave amazing motivational talks on some very basic and well needed things like the book of Mormon and the message of the restoration. We were also blessed to hear from Sister Hawks, Sister Wong, And Sister Funk. They gave amazing insightful talks on the same topics.

Training has been going really well. We get along awesome and there is plenty of laughter which makes it much easier to talk to people when your smiling all the time.

This week though we really focused on Less Actives and made some great progress with some less actives that we have not seen in a while.

Things are going fantastic and with our new invitation for all the members in the ward to find one person to give a Book of Mormon a lot are taking the challenge. We should be seeing the referrals pouring in.

Love you all
Stay amazing!

Elder Jared Cordon