Tag Archives: exchanges

I Didn’t Even Realize It Was Raining…

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Dear Family and Friends,

It has been a pretty amazing week and a half. The work is moving along great and it humbles me more and more everyday as I see the lord at work. We hard 3 exchanges happen and so plenty of learning has taken place! We have also seen some cool success with our investigators!

The first exchange: I went with Elder Anderson(we share an apartment) to his area in Kowloon City. At the start of the exchange we set some lofty goals in contrast to the numbers that they had been seeing. But we were determined. We had a six hour finding block and we wanted to have 3 lessons and 2 of those rescheduled. Well the first hour and half burned by real quick. But as we were passing through a pretty quiet estate we saw a street cleaner resting in the shade we said hello and he didnt respond so we keep going. As we walked away I had this really strong impression that we had to go back and talk and I questioned the thought at firs, then I had the thought “this is a test go back and talk to him”. Well we went back and talked to him and we sparked a really good conversation. We were not able to get him to interested in listening but it brought a smile to all of our faces. 

After him it was only about a minute and we already contacting, later teaching someone else. We couldn’t reschedule, then right after we said good bye there was another lady that we contacted who was a former from Tai Po, we got here number, then we needed to head to a new area just shortly after being there we met someone just getting off work and taught him a lesson, we rescheduled him. At this point its raining really hard but, we didn’t care we were gonna reach our goal. Just shortly later almost out of finding we were teaching someone else and we were able to reschedule him. This exchange was great for the both of us and we really learned a lot, also a great blessing is one of those people is still meeting with those elders!

The second Exchange: This was with the Assistants and it was great! The day we switched Elder Williams and I had already been fonged by 7 people(thats a new record for me), but just right before we switched we went out to make up for our losses and taught two lessons and rescheduled both of them. Putting us in a great mood for exchanges. Elder Ly and I were able to teach another lesson that night as well. The next day was mainly teaching which was really good we had some great lesson and I was able to learn and absorb his great teaching skills. He is really good at being simple, bold, and too the point!

The Third Exchange: This one was was with Elder Ah Mu over in Tsuen Wan. We were also able to have a lot of great success together, given only about and hour of finding time we made several great contacts and taught two lessons. That area is really a great place to find. It was great as well being reminded of what its like training and focusing on a district as well. Elder Ah Mu really knows how to focus on other people. He really has excelled in his assignments. It was also really cool to see how the apartment was so focused that night we all had a really great discussion on teaching skills and how we could improve our studies. Elder Ah Mu came up with a great plan, using President Hawks advice and preach my gospel, on how to improve teaching skills. I took a copy and I am going to try it out over the next couple of days.

These exchanges were all very beneficial and very focused. Another interesting note is everyone that i went with entered the MTC with me. So it was really cool to see how we all have been progressing and working so hard. Truly you can see how the lord has shaped us all so differently!

On another note we saw two of our investigators really start moving along. Emiley a new one we been able to see a few times has accepted a date. Edward another who has been seeing missionaries for several months has finally come to church, although he missed sacrament he enjoyed the other stuff. Things are really going well here and we hope they just keep getting better.

It was an exciting time I love you all and hope you all have a wonderful week!

Love Elder Jared Cordon!

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Exchange Week!

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Dear Family and Friends,

The highlight of this week was definitely the exchanges that we went on. We had one with one of our district leaders and the other with the Assistants. Exchanges are nice because they are good change of pace. It really helps to keep things from becoming monotonous especially when you don’t stay in your own area for it. For the exchange with Elder Jones, I stayed in the area and we had some great success! We were able to teach some good lessons, especially one to Jim who agreed to be baptized in May, and find some new investigators. He is a good elder indeed! They other with the AP Elder Huntington was pretty nice. Not to say I didn’t do anything, but it is nice to sit back and let someone else fully take the wheel for a day. We had some good success there as well! It was just nice to get to know both of the Elders a little better. Each time I like to engage in frivolous deep doctrinal discussions. We usually just end up more confused, but it is definitely a good mental exercise. They also both taught me a lesson or two on how I could become a better missionary. It is amazing how God will reveal to us one step at a time something we can work on, and if we can just muster the courage to always heed the counsel we receive than our growth accelerates! I have definitely felt that!

One thing that is interesting though that I have observed is that having a healthy amount of discontentment is essential to making progress. Somebody who is fully satisfied with their life will never have the desire great enough to evoke change. I am starting to see that in some of the people we are teaching, you can exhort with all the boldness and love you can muster to live life at higher and more joyful level, but if they have no desire to change any excuse they can think of is enough to stop them, and sadly, anyone can make an excuse to not do something. It is a tough and frustrating thing to witness in the life of someone you have grown to love so much, to know that greater joy and happiness could be theirs if they would only listen, yet they refuse to. I am sure I am just getting a sample of what God feels every single moment of every single day. However, it is days like that when you just accept that you have done all you know how to do, and if they don’t want to change than that is their choice. I am learning that it is not our job as missionaries to change anyone, nor should we try to make it our job, but rather we simply share the message and invite them to let it change their life. If they don’t want it then we must move on. Anyhow, so I hope that all makes sense! It is just what has been on my mind lately!

Have a great week!

Love Ya’ll!
Elder Joshua Cordon

Happy Chinese New Year

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Dear Family and Friends,

Well this was a pretty awesome week! We had the Chinese New Year which meant Deep Clean. Its the day when we all spend the entire day cleaning every crack and corner of the appartment! It looks so good now! Also to finish that day we watched the fireworks over the bay! Pretty Amazing.

Earlier in the week I also had the chance to do my first exchange but this one was the entire Zone mixing and matching. I got to have Elder McEwan who was in my MTC group. So we were both very new and also very blessed. We had to make a random trip to the airport even with all the delays we still managed to get a new investigator in my area which never happens! BABY POWER!

Also many other blessing came Elder Howells and my way this week although everyone is busy over Chinese New Year we were able to meet a few families and found a couple of guys who also live in our area. We felt prompted to go to this area we had never been and frankly we didn’t know what it was we just walked under the freeway and down this path to this beautiful bay side dog park! Way cool we ended up finding two people and teaching streets lesson, they both live in our area. So Cool!

Also today we got to go to Stanley its on the ocean side of Hong Kong Island and it had some amazing views. We decided to spend our P-Day with the ward for a great chinese BBQ!

I love you all have a great week!

Elder Cordon