General Conference

What an Easter, Spirit filled.

This last week was a wonderful time to share with everyone the blessings of Easter and what it means to me. The Easter Bunny is cool and all but the best gift that was ever given to us, really the only gift that truly matters, is the reason why we truly celebrate this Holiday. It was wonderful to deeply reflect on the wonderful blessings of the Atonement in my life and to really see who I have been able to become because of the Savior Jesus Christ and the wonderful Gift that he gives us. I love Him so much.

He truly has become a friend to me, he is on my thoughts and in my heart and will always be someone that I go to for safety and council and direction. I am so grateful for him.

I have loved seeing what he does for people around me, and not just investigators of the church but members and other missionaries. Watching the gospel work in their lives is wonderful and brings such joy into my heart. Some of my favorite moments have been to watch my companions grow, to see the Atonement work in them and then to watch how in reaching out to others it changes me as well.  I truly have had a life changing mission, one that has set my path for the rest of my life I now can truly see how the Mission is the MTC for life. There are things in my Blessing that would have never been able to be fulfilled had I used my agency and not gone on a mission I am so glad that I made that choice.

These last couple of weeks while reflecting on the questions that MyPlan asks I have really been able to see how the mission is going to effect every part of my life to come. WOW so great!

This week we had Cierra and John at church. We also had two of the LA that we are working with at church as well, Ryan and Jacinda. What a great sunday for them to be there. The spirit was so strong and the all loved being there and celebrating Easter!

GENERAL CONFERENCE here we come!!
LOVE YOU
ELDER CORDON

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Let the Spirit Work Through You!

What a week we had.

It was a very humbling week, I am beginning to take the humbling a little bit faster now. I am working on trying to just be humble and then this wont happen 🙂 Something that I really learned this week is how easy it is to slip into doing this mission on my own “flesh”. Not that I forget about god but I lose focus just a little, and then I become a cap on the Holy Ghost. He is the real teacher and I am just here to be able to be worked through, and this week I got in the way. I didn’t notice until the end of the week. But we are going to be able to repent, change, and do better. That is the wonderful story of the gospel, it is a gospel of change and progression, recognizing the things that can be worked on and using the Atonement to change the very nature of where those things come from. What wonderful and beautiful doctrine that we now are able to access in full, because of the restoration of the Priesthood.

WOW this was such a crazy week!! We had an investigator who died, we had a PMF that broke up, and we have an investigator that we found out has some crazy hallucinations. We had Alex that dropped off the face of the earth. 0.0 SO MANY CRAZY THINGS! I am excited to go out and be the conduit for the Spirit this week and not get in the way. I am grateful to be able to learn these lessons and learn them well, that I will be able to be a strong life long disciple of the Lord.

I love you all so much!!

Elder Cordon

WHITE CHRISTMAS

I am so looking forward to this week. what a wonderful time to be a missionary in the world. The Christmas season just brings a light into the world that isn’t always there, well ok it is there just hidden.

I am grateful to have the knowledge of the gospel and the knowledge of the Atonement. I have loved studying and pondering the Gospels as we have taken the 30 day challenge to read them. I love reading them and learning about the life of the Savior. What a great way to develop more love for him, study his life. I have gained a new sense of his love and compassion. His steady and firm laws coupled with His infinite mercy and forgiveness.

He truly has felt everything there was to fill in a human mortal life and knows exactly what to do to help us in our times of trouble.
This was a great week that we where able to put fourth our effort to find and came out with 6 new investigators. We are so excited to be out talking with everyone that we can. I love that as we bring fourth our efforts coupled with real faith the miracles from heaven rain down. God is truly leading this work and we have the amazing privilege of being able to help and be a part of it. What a wonderful time to be a servant of the Lord. The great part is that it never has to end and never should.

I truly enjoy the Atonement and the Doctrine of Christ. It has truly helped shape and change not only my mission, but the rest of my life. I am so very grateful that I have chosen HIM!

I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!!
ELDER CORDON

These two made this Christmas the best Christmas EVER!

These two made this Christmas the best Christmas EVER!

Oh what a WONDERFUL White Christmas it was!

Oh what a WONDERFUL White Christmas it was!

Halleluja

Well I am off to see the miracles that God is putting in the path of these righteous children of his. Nicole IS AMAZING! We are also teaching Isaiah as well! The 11 year old son of Adam, he is also very excited to be baptized. Both are being baptized on October 24th. WOW. I am so glad that we followed the impression of the spirit to go to that house. Nicole is so prepared and is following and keeping all of her commitments and noticing how much happier she is in just the short amount of time. God Blesses us right away he doesn’t wait once we have had our change of heart. Adam is coming along as well he hasn’t gotten his answer yet but we are still working with him. He met with the bishop last week and we are working to see if…. he might be able to baptize Nicole and Isaiah!! The biggest thing that is keeping him back is the same thing that is push Nicole forward so fast. That change of heart. The difference is that Nicole has had it and Adam has not yet. During my fast this last week I included him in to be able to have the Holy Ghost touch his heart and for him to listen to it.

Linda is also ondate. There could be a bump there her husband decided that he didnt want to meet with us anymore, decided he wants to stay catholic. But she wants to keep meeting with us and wants to get baptized she just doesn’t want to have it cause a problem if she does so we will see what the outcome of that is. We will probably be doing a special fast with her, hopefully soften the heart of the husband and to help her increase her faith. WKM is the Promise land!

I love being able to use to atonement every day to improve on things every single day to improve and become better some that I dont ever become Comfortable. BOY OH BOY what a great mission conference so much to study on and restudy. I Loved the spirit that was there. Such a great couple of weeks with General Conference and then the Mission tour with Elder Johnson WOW So much of a spiritual recharge!

LOVE YOU ALL
ELDER CORDON

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Hello!

2 Years

Dear Family & Friends,

Another week of trying to focus on members at our lessons more then half of our lessons were with members at them.

I am focused on teaching from the Book of Mormon and helping others build a testimony of that. The Book of Mormon is truly the keystone of our religion and a conversion to that book is vital to a lasting conversion in the gospel.

So this week came with a lot of reflection time, it has been two years sense I received my witness of the truth of this gospel. I put God to the test and now I get to help others do that very thing. It caused me to reflect on how I did it, and what caused my change of heart.

I also have become very aware of the fact that even with the dramatic witness that I have receive that this is indeed the Church of God on the earth, I can loss that testimony if I do not work at it everyday of my life. Just like so many people in the past and still will continue to happen to others because they do not make the conscious decision to never take their eyes off of the prize for a second. Those who do “…lose their way..”or “…[fall] away into forbidden paths and [are] lost.” Nephi 8:23;28

I love the lessons and insight that I get from the BoM, those insights truly come from Heavenly Father are will effect my life to be directed down the path that is going to lead me were God wants me. I just have to listen and act.

So as I look forward with an eye fixed on God I know that I need to work every day to keep my conversion.

I love this work and this gospel and cant wait for the new lessons that I will learn.

Elder S Cordon

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Happy Birthday USA!

Dear Family & Friends,

Well it was another great week. HOT HOT HOT I don’t believe it has been under 105 during the day all week.

But that has been great encouragement to get into peoples homes and teach them about the gospel. It brings to my mind what Jesus taught that those who drink of him shall never thirst. So I have been trying to keep my mind focused on Him and the reason why I am out here to begin with. Jesus Christ is the reason! I love the Gospel and want to share it with everyone that I can. So when I keep that focus the heat doesn’t seem to bother, it is when I have lost that focused that it does. SO when the heat comes it is a nice reminder that I am in need of a change of my state of mind.

I am grateful this week for the Book of Mormon again.

I thought last week about what I had wrote about and it help us have several great lessons with the Book of Mormon. The investigator had a question in there mind and said a prayer to be guided to the answer and the just opened the book and started to read, AND NO SURPRISE AT ALL, they found their answer. THE GREATEST PART was that it didn’t always come by what was written on the page, sometimes it came by just they feeling they got or by what they “thought” it meant. That is why the scriptures are so powerful, and you can read and reread them over and over; it all about where you are at in your life at the time you read it.

So the 4th of July is over and done with I am now at the point in the mission that everything is now my last. WHICH IS SO WEIRD. It is so crazy that the time is just flying by, it really makes me think a lot about how I am going to use the time that I have because clearly I don’t have as much time as I thought I did, I never expected that the time would fly by as it has. It helps put it all in perspective.

Thank you all for everything that you do. LOVE YOU ALL.

ElDeR S CoRoDoN

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The Converting Power of the Scriptures

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

Starting The Year Off Strong

Dear Family and Friends,

This week I have a simple invitation. The invitation is to study faith, from what ever source you wish, specifically how to increase faith and then what can happen with faith. Do this every day this week. Included with study is to then take time each day to share with someone your testimony of a living prophet, whether that is on facebook or in person, but it has to be specific to that person not just a wall post. Then if they ask any questions to your testimony invite them to learn more from the missionaries. That is the invitation. Let me know how it goes.

This was a good week things are going well here in the Wenatchee area. Stake president set a goal of 201 baptisms this year, and in the next six months the amount of missionaries are going to double in this area getting ready for the split. CRAZY STUFF. We have all of our investigators reading the Book of Mormon. That is the start to knowing that is is true. Reading everyday brings a power into your life that cannot be obtained by any other means, it brings so many blessings.

I am always very touched at how God fills my heart with love the very instant that I start sharing the gospel with them. I know that it is just a fraction of the love that he actually has, which amazes me even more.

Thank you all for you prays and wishes I love you all so much.
I pray for you often

Elder S Cordon.

The Christmas Season Has Begun

Dear Family and Friends,

Well December is underway. With comes new miracles. This week we added two new people to our teaching pool. One is a turnover from the sisters. She was found through an english find that we organized. Her name is stephanie and this week we have seen her three times. But the coolest thing is last sunday she went to church with the sisters and then in the evening we got to know her better at and FHE activity and had an amazing experience. Well that night her house apparently got in quite a dispute over her being involved with our church her father had found tons of anti stuff on the computer. She had a hard time believing all the anti she heard because she felt too good when she came to church. So late that night she called up the Sisters who couldn’t get back to her tell the next day but when they did she wanted to meet up immediately to talk. So we went with the sisters and then we ended addressing her concerns and taught a really strong restoration lesson. She said she loves the feeling of the gospel and is willing to work pass the anti and opposition.

The coolest thing is this got started because of the Elders quorum president in our ward he wanted to help boost the work so he made these really cool english class flyers and we had quite a few people show up, one being stephanie. Also his wife is getting involved as well because she made cupcakes we could take to less actives and investigators. We were doing less active finding and just going down the list of names and addresses we ended up giving one out to the dad of a less active. Later that less active who has not been in contact with the church in years called the bishop thanking him for the gift. Thanks to this families efforts we are seeing blessings in both investigators and less actives. We were sure to let them know of their help. Its amazing what happens when members and missionaries work together.

Now we are working with ten plus investigators all of which were found with the help of others.

One big lesson that I learned from Preach My Gospel that I have been working to incorporate in the work is helping investigators gain a sincere appreciation for the scriptures. I trace the lack of that appreciation to a big reason people go less active so we are really working to make sure our investigators are reading and receiving revelation for themselves. We really want a december baptism and we know that scripture study is key for getting them there.

This last week I had the chance to go on Exchanges with Elder Tse over in the Ngau Tau Gok area. I have never been over to that part of Hong Kong so it was cool. They have really good steamed bread over there and its really cheap so I might have eaten a lot of those. We area able to add a new investigator to their teaching pool and Elder Tse really taught me a lot of simple lessons about how I can improve my teaching. He does an amazing job and setting really clear expectations for lessons and the entire experience. He really knows how to apply the how to begin teaching skills.

On another note I have been trying to improve my cooking of oriental foods. I have successfully invented my own dish and with other missionaries confirmation its pretty dang good. It also fits into the Chinese food category.

Things are really good here in Aberdeen we got miracles coming we have already seen plenty and we have plenty I am sure.

love you all

Elder Jared Cordon

Who Are You Representing?

Dear Family and Friends,

I have come into an area that, for some time now, missionaries have not been truly teaching the people that they have been seeing. They have been building friendships but havent been really teaching. Not that we shouldnt be trying to form friendships, but that comes with teaching the restored gospel and seeing their lives change and their minds open to truth. So this week was spent going to everyone that has just been “visiting” and setting the expectations of why we are really there.

We have been called by a prophet to teach the gospel. We have been given priesthood to accomplish that call. We have the message of the restored gospel that gives the truths to this world and answers the questions of the soul. We have been tasked with that responsibility and if we are not doing things that could lead to teaching, or teaching when people are there to listen we are not doing what we have been called to do.

I am very excited for this new change in my mission. I have a companion that is 24 years old and we are learning so much from each other. We are gaining member trust back in the ward and showing them that we are missionaries that are living up to our call.

I am so grateful for your prayers and support. You are all in my prayers.

Thank you.
Elder S Cordon