Tag Archives: General Conference

DAY OF VICTORY

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Dear Family and Friends,

Well this past week has been an interesting one. Elder Hamilton got shipped out and got replaced by Elder Fraizer. He is from Washington State and was actually trained by Elder Newbold just before Elder Newbold trained me. He just hit the ground running, and we never missed a beat. It is interesting to see that the longer I have been out the easier adjusting to a companion seems to be. We had a zone meeting the next day that went great, an exchange the day after, and then conference all weekend! We have been crazy busy since we drove away from transfers! After this weekend though it seems pretty solid that Kevin & Lori, Jim, Steven and Lilly will all be baptized this month! The ward is behind all of them 100% and it is just so incredible to see! It seems that every week my mission just gets better and better!

General Conference was amazing this weekend!! If you didn’t get the chance to watch or listen to it, check it out. I personally loved Elder Ballard’s talk a lot now that I think about that one. He has really grown on me since I have been a missionary. Before I could tell you who my favorite apostle was, now I am starting to appreciate them all!

So a good story from this past week was the lesson we taught to Steven about the health law of the church. After teaching the lesson we extended the commitment to him to live this commandment which includes no: Coffee, Tea, Alcohol, Tobacco, or Illegal Drugs. He said he would start it all as soon as he ran out of Tea. Honestly not wanting him to put off the blessings that could flow his way if he where to start immediately I invited him to start living it immediately and throw out all of his tea right now. After a brief moment of contemplation he said alright, if you walk with me to the dumpster. As we walked I sung “onward christian soldiers.” It was epic! I wish you could only know Stevo and you would realize how hilarious this was! As we walked he yelled, “Today, is a day of VICTORY”! Just before he dumped them I suggested that he say a prayer asking for strength to live the word of wisdom from here on out. He started the prayer by saying, “Dear Heavenly Father, today is a day of victory, victory over the demon of tea!..” It was awesome!! I love these moments on my mission definitely one of my favorite experiences!

Stevo (Steven) and Elder Cordon

Stevo (Steven) and Elder Cordon

I hope today will be a day of victory for all of ya’ll, a victory over your own personal demons!

Love ya’ll!
Elder Cordon

April Showers!!

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Dear Family and Friends,

Well April showers! We have been seeing plenty of rain this week! It defiantly makes it harder to street find when it is raining. But hey then if they do stop that makes it all that much better.

The best part of the rain was our service this week at Crossroads foundation. It was raining until we got there, then it stopped just in time to help them with there drainage system cause the building kept flooding. We were able to get all the work done just in time for it start raining right away! We got soaked!! Haha we had to track through a river to put the stuff away.

This week was fun though we had zone training. We were able to hear the good news that the numbers really show that everyone in the mission really wants this 65 baptisms to happen. So we heard great news talked about how we could do better then headed off for Zone 24S (When everyone in the zone swaps companions). I got the chance to head to Tin Sui Wai. Where there is not a building under 30 stories haha just tall tall tall apartment buildings. My companion was in my MTC group so it was great chance to work with him and see how others are doing that are at my same time level. We defiantly have been learning different things but both equally important as we found when we taught we had great unity! He is awesome missionary and he taught me some great things.

Then I came back to my area to have some great success this last Sunday by having a father and a daughter we invited to come to church came. That had a great experience so that’s good.

Looking forward to watching conference this next week, you are all lucky to have seen it already…
 
Well, love you all, have a great week.
 
Elder Cordon

Well I Am in Hong Kong – Jared

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Wow!!!

This has been an interesting two weeks!! I got to See conference twice I finally got to Hong Kong! Met my President, my trainer, my zone leaders, and the ward. So I had one of the hardest yet greatest weeks I could have ever had! Yet through all my trials the lord has been sure to take care of me!

Alright well first that last week was crazy. It was hard saying goodbye to the teachers and the Australian Cantonesies; but I got to leave seeing conference which was just amazing! I learned a lot and mainly took out of it to step up my game. I felt as if it was a call to prep up cause things are not gonna get easier. Man was that true!! I thought my Cantonese was alright… I can basically say hello, and thats the problem because then they start talking and then I pray they can speak english. haha I met my trainer Elder Howell super cool and very excited! He has been here for 4 months and his Cantonese is amazing! So that gives me hope.

So they moved us to Cause Way Bay which is in the best Area in the mission it’s right in the heart of Down Town on Hong Kong Island. Our area includes the Wanchie chapel which is amazing the second most expensive building the church owns! Check it out online or something our appartment is right next to it. Since we are both new and there is already two Elders in this Area we are starting from scratch. No investigators, So we go finding all day long… I cant speak for my life so its a very long day.

It was such a blessing because the last two days is when Hong Kong watches conference and all the missionaries can watch it in English! I thought it was good the first time, well not as good as the second time. I didn’t understand Elder Hollands talk until this time. I started getting that depression he was talking about and it was bad, I was having a hard time those first few days. Now I look at things differently. I can’t speak any better, but I realize this is the trial of my faith. Now I will doubt my doubts before I even think about doubting my Faith!

I have been able to look back at last week and realize how much the lord has blessed me and my companion! I may not be able to talk but I was able to listen to the spirit and the four big success we have had are because I said hi and got them to stop or by letting the spirit lead me to the most random places. I know this is the lords work and he won’t let me fail. We even have a meeting with this guy I ran into on the street, Also he Speaks English!!

I am in for a long ride but I love the people and this city is so unreal!! I am not a big fan of the humidity, but its cooling down. Also I am blessed to have some really cool Elders sharing my area and appartment its Eder Parker and Elder Passie. They are the Zone leaders and have both getting close to going home so they are a big help!

I encourage everyone who is going through any hard times that are really breaking you down. To change your perspective. Doubt your Doubts before you Doubt your Faith. You may realize how much the Lord has been really helping you, and your probably have something big you can learn from what your going through.

I love everyone and hope all is going so swell!

Elder Jared Cordon

Knowing the truth is like walking in sunshine when the whole world is covered in rain clouds.

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Dear Family and Friends,

I wish I could say that I came up with that line about the sunshine and all, but it is actually from a song on of my companions CDs. I totally feel that way though!. It seemed even more true when I considered that line as it has been raining these past few days.

To be completely honest this has been a very annoying week. We still have nobody that we consider a progressing investigator (someone we have had a follow-up appointment with). We meet all these great people who look so ready to receive the gospel and enjoy all the wonderful blessings it brings then they just either don’t call us back or are not home for the scheduled appointments. We still are finding many great people we just need to get some progress with some of them and then I will be jumping for joy! A great find happened on Saturday when we were walking through the park. We talked to these two guys and the one I focused on was from South Africa and he was interested and shared how he really wants the strength to quite smoking and drinking. I told him that if would read and pray about the Book of Mormon that he will find that strength that he needs. He said that he would only do it if I really believed that and I replied firmly, “No other book will give you more strength and guidance by bringing you closer to God than any other book.” He promised to read and pray about it. I hope he reads it!!

I was really excited for the World Wide Leadership Broadcast! I love how they emphasized that every member is a missionary. I’m eager to see how it jump starts the ward. Our ward is great about going out with us, but we are struggling to get any member referrals at all. Elder Newbold and I decided this morning that we are changing our entire strategy. Starting tomorrow we are now doing what we call the “Operation Less Active Attack, or Battle LA”. The ward here a has like 300-400 on the roster and only like 80-100 active. If we get some reactivation going or work with part member families I feel like we could really do some good work here. I am exited to see what happens.

I love you all and I know that God loves you even more. He truly blesses those that are faithful to his word. One of my focus topics for studying this past week was faith. Two of the most powerful discussions of faith I found was Alma 32 in the Book of Mormon and Elder Holland’s Talk from the last General Conference. Read them both! It talks about how the size of your faith doesn’t matter. It is all about how true you are to the faith that you already have.

God Be With You Till We Meet Again,

Elder Joshua Cordon