Tag Archives: Heavenly Father

Good Timing and Out-Growing

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Dear Family and Friends,

We had incredible miracle yesterday! Last week on Sunday we met a mother and daughter who were members of the church. Mother was in town for a couple of months and she works for the FBI, and her daughter was just visiting before she goes back to Idaho for college. We know it was a miracle that we even met them for because we followed a prompting that Elder Layton had to go and knock the other side of the complex we crossed paths 5 seconds before they walked into their apartment. Needless to say the time between them going to their car and the apartment is a small window of opportunity but God has great timing. Patti, the mother told us that she would come to church the next Sunday. We swung by to see her Saturday and she was still determined to come and after talking for a bit she opened up about her past and we were able to resolve many of her concerns. Yesterday she came walking through the chapel doors and filled me with joy. One of the sisters in the ward is practically a carbon copy of her (they even wear the same glasses) invited her to dinner on Tuesday. She had already signed up to feed us and figured she could bank on the opportunity. It is amazing how she is only in town for a few months, but God is taking advantage of this time to help her strengthen her testimony and get reactivated. Our Heavenly Father is one smart cookie.

We had a powerful Zone Conference this past week!! After it is all said and done, one of the things that my testimony has been strengthened in more than anything else is the power of personal revelation from the Book of Mormon. Among those that believe that the Book of Mormon is the word of God, it is something that I feel is not used nearly as much as it should. I testify that the Book of Mormon will answer the questions of your soul. Whatever it is! I know because it has answered mine. It has answered spiritual questions of “how do I access the power of the Atonement?”, and lately it answered the question of how can I help those I am teaching to come to church? Now, anybody who has read the Book of Mormon knows that there isn’t an obivious chapter which specifically lays out how a missionary gets those he is teaching to church, but I can testify that it is in there. You just have to have the spirit with you to find it. I found my own personal answer in Alma 50 which talks about how Captain Moroni maintians liberty among the Nephites. As I likened these scriptures to me the answer became very clear on what it was that I needed to do. I will make a promise to every single one of you, that if you pour your heart out in prayer to God for answers to a specific challenge and then you read the book of mormon actively seeking for your answer, by the power of the Holy Ghost you will receive that answer in a simple and powerful way. Then if you write that revelation down, it will develop and how you must act will become even more clear.

I know that our Heavenly Father loves us. I have felt his love for me and for others abundantly in my life, and the joy that brings is sweeter than anything else. I also know that Jesus Christ is my Savior, I know that he died for me and that his Atonement is active in my life. Through the Book of Mormon I have gained that faith in Christ, and not only that, but I have also learned why he died for me, and how I can access the enabling power of the Atonement in my life. Knowing these things has given me greater meaning in life and deeper and more profound joy. I meet many faithful Christians on a regular basis, and many who profess to be Christians, and while their faith is genuine God doesn’t want just a lip service from his children, he wants a personal relationship with his children and he wants us to out-grow ourselves. In the Prophet of the Restoration Movie, Alvin Smith tells Joseph of a small sea shell at his uncles home. He tells him that a small creature made that shell layer by layer until he finally out-grew it. God doesn’t intend to help us become content with ourselves as we are but rather for us to grow into our true selves. The Gospel of Jesus Christ tells us how we can do this, and Jesus Christ helps us do it so that one day we like Paul can say, “When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.” (1 Corinthians 13:11) I know that these things are true and I say them in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

I love y’all! Have a great week!

Elder Joshua Cordon

My Heart Is Full

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Dear Family and Friends,

I am so overjoyed with the changes that I have seen this gospel bring into peoples lives. Everyday I get to witness people making steps to come closer to Jesus Christ both members and non members alike. To be able to facilitate and guide that in any way at all is such a wonderful blessing that God would trust me enough to help in such an important work. This is work that is vital to the eternal salvation of His eternal family, and for us to be able to be apart of it just shows how much he loves us and wants us to learn and grow.

We all have such an important role to play in this life, and we all have so much at stake. We have been given the path to follow, laid out very clear and simply, all we have to do is follow. Christ’s simple words “Come, follow me.” He is the example. He is the way.

It is truly amazing just how simple it can be to just follow his example. Such evident of this to me is the example of a 12 year old boy in the area that is in a part member family he is not yet baptized but comes to church every week. He knows that the gospel is true and has a testimony there are times that he is the only one that comes and still he gets ready and comes to church. He lives the gospel and is such an amazing young man, He is such an example to me to never to for granted what I have and the amazing support that I have in what I am doing. He will be getting baptized soon and he knows that it is what he needs to do. He knows that he needs to live the gospel so that he can be happy and live with his Heavenly Father again.

So simple guidance “Come, follow me” and “Love one another, as I have loved you.”

I am choosing every day to follow these commandments I hope that you are too.

Short letter but these are the words of my heart and I seal it in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Elder S Cordon

Our Team

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Dear Family and Friends,

I am so grateful for the opportunity I had this week to teach the lesson in Sunday School class. The lesson was on the Final Judgment, which normally has a lot of deep holes that you can drop down, thankfully I prepared with a fresh mindset. I was able to learn so much and the spirit was truly able to teach me, as I was preparing to teach. It is truly amazing the revelation that everyone is able to get through the Holy Ghost, as long as you are willing to empty your glass and receive what he has to offer then you can have a direct link to the Godhead.

So this week as I made sure that I emptied my glass, I loved what I was able to receive. There is a section in the lesson that is titled Who Will Judge Us. For me this was the section that meant the most to me, sadly it was the smallest section of the lesson but luckily I had my glass empty.

It talks about how Jesus Christ and his Apostles, current and old, will be our judges. Normally, and really until yesterday, I always compared our mortal judges to our immortal judges. Our mortal judges here on earth are here to cast judgment to the criminals that broke laws, to decide how large their punishment would be, I always saw that they were justice minded and no mercy at all. What an unfair light that I was pointing at our immortal judges.

What I was able to learn is that instead of the Final Judgment being a time of great repruking where the bar of justice is being throw down to call out out our sentance. For many, those that chose to use there agency and fight against God and never bend their knee; which the number of those we are told are more numorous then the sands of the sea and the stars in the sky. For those that are in that group we are told that there will be nashing of teeth and whelings as judgemnt is cast.

For those that have chosen to follow Christ and tried their best it will be a day to rejoice.

The most wonderful part is who are judges will be. They will be the biggest adivcates for our case, these are our brothers. Jesus Christ gave every day of his life being perfect so that he could complete the atonement. His Apostals gave their lives to the service of the Lord showing pure love to the people that they served, their brothers and sisters of there family. What better people then they could we ask for to be there with us and to determine and help us qualify for our gift that is offered to us that we have been striving for during this probation.

Jesus gave his life so that his brothers and sisters would have a way back to Heavenly Father, so that we could partake in every blessing that God wants us to have. His life purpose was to bring to pass the immortallity and eternal life of man. (moses 1:39) So if it is his purpose is he just going to ignore that at the Final Judgment? No, he is going to do everything that he can do to be merciful and just to make sure that we all can have eternal life and life as an eternal family.

Just as we are all working to have our eternal families together Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ also want their family back again and they are just as, and probably much more so, wanting to have that happen.

There is no one that is more determined for our success then our Father. I am so happy that I am a missionary and am able to help others come closer to Jesus Christ. I know that we have our oldest brother on our side. He has given his life for us so that we can earn our life with Heavenly Father. I am so grateful for the knowledge that I have of this gospel. It gives me the ability to keep perfecting and becoming more like Jesus Christ.

We all need to make sure that we keep our glasses empty ready to be filled be the Holy Ghost with what he has to share with you. That is our open line to the Godhead let us not waste that gift.

LOVE EACH AND EVERYONE OF YOU
Thank you for your prayers and support
Love Elders Steven Cordon

pictures are of what a member did to our car while we were at a service project
and then what we did to them in return 🙂 I love members and the relationships that we build so quickly with them it is amazing.

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Atonement & Agency

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Dear Family and Friends,

What a wonderful strength it gives me to know that I am a son of Heavenly Father. To know that I have a Father that has that much knowledge and wisdom. To know that he loves me forever no matter the circumstances. He will always be there for us when we truly seek him in our lives, even sometimes when we don’t he is still there.

Just like my parents told me not to run in the road, or not to touch the hot stove. I didn’t know why, I didn’t know that a car moving 25 mph hitting me would lead to a lot of suffering, but they did. Heavenly Father has the knowledge to know that the way that I can find the least amount of suffering in this life is to follow the plan that He has created. Just like I didn’t know about the cars or what a hot stove would do to my tiny hands; I don’t always know why he has asked me to do things or what the out come would be if I disobey. However I do have the trust to know that if He has asked me to do it then it is for my benefit, safety, and salvation and is of the utmost importance.

Just like my parents want me achieve all that I am able. Heavenly Father wants me to achieve everything that I am able, which is more then we can dream of. I, and everyone that has ever lived and will ever live, am part of the lineage of Heavenly Father. I am a heir to a throne and kingdom, as is everyone, because we are children of a Heavenly Father. I have a birth rite to claim, but He has given us agency to choose. I for a long time in my life was using that agency to chose to not follow the path that Heavenly Father has laid out. I chose to wonder down paths of un-inheritance choosing to throw away my birth rite. The inheritance that He has to give is one of eternal happiness, full of our families and loved ones with the rites to an eternal family that will grow forever.

I have let this knowledge shape my life to what it is today, I have been able to use my agency to turn my life around from what it was to what it is; made possible through the atonement of Jesus Christ. Without that sacrifice there would be no way to receive the inheritance. I have been able to see and feel the change in my own life that has come from becoming like a child, and just trusting that Heavenly Father knows what I need and knows the way back.

To end here is a scripture to that sums it up very clearly
Mosiah 3:19 in the Book of Mormon

For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love,willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father.

I love all of you so much thank you for you prayers and love

Love,
Elder Steven Cordon

Slow Start, Strong Finish! – Joshua

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Dear Family and Friends,

Things went really well this week. We started the week off with some really low numbers, though we still experienced some great moments, but from Thursday on, things really took off.

One of the early miracles was with Mati. We have been working with her for about 2 months and in all that time have only had 1 complete lesson with her. We were in her area Monday night so i decided to shoot her a text asking if we could come over. To my great surprise, she said yes. We quickly made our way over there to have a lesson with her. She told us when we got there that she had no sooner finished praying for guidance and help when the phone buzzed with my text. I had no idea at the time that it was a prompting from the spirit to send her a text, to me it was just a good idea. Nevertheless it was a spiritual prompting and it got her into tears as she shared it with us. We then set a baptismal date with her for the 19th of October. The spirit was so strong in that lesson, and she kept saying how much peace she felt. I love this gospel!

The pivotal point this week was a humble moment of prayer. Thursday night heavily relied on the fact that one or both of the members who agreed to go on trade-offs that night would still be able to make it, which is why it was so devastating that they both called and said they couldn’t make it that night. Granted they both were pretty legitimate excuses, but it was nonetheless very frustrating. I was lost… I had no idea what were were going to do for the last 3 hours of the evening. It was at this point that Elder Barcala, offered the humble advice of biking down a side street, to do a kneeling prayer and beg for help. That is what we did. After standing up after the prayer, an incredible feeling of peace fell upon me. I still didn’t know where to go, but I knew that God was in charge. We got back on our bikes, and just started heading down the street. We talked to everyone we saw…everyone. And it paid off. We taught four great lessons, and got two new investigators in only three hours. Those are good numbers for a days work.

Another miracle we had this week was that on Saturday after two great sessions of Stake Conference, we decided to go and visit a former investigator. We happened to pull up to his house the same time he did, which was a miracle because he is never home. We talked to him for a bit and then he ended up offering us a ride home. We had a great conversation with him and he made several comments about how he was looking for a church that he was be comforted in. Seeing how he is a pretty bright guy, I am sure he had to have known what kind of reaction that missionaries would have to such a comment. Either he is pulling our leg or he is interested in investigating the church again. I pray it is the latter.

On Sunday, Nick and the Suttons were all able to come to Stake Conference and it made it such a great session. They all had great experiences and we are expecting to see their faces there quite frequently. It surprised Nick to find out how many Mormons he knew. He ended up talking with people for a solid 15 minutes after conference ended. We worked hard for the rest of the day and had two really great lessons with one of them resulting in a new investigator. Her name is Kim. She has two children in the military which was our original connection point. We went over there on Sunday and stood on her porch for an hour and one of the more spiritual lessons of my mission. She readily agreed for us to come back.

I have no doubt in my mind that Heavenly Father cares about every single one of us. He proves that by making time for everyone of us, so that whenever we want to talk to him through prayer, he is listening. Listening with pure understanding and love. I know Heavenly Father hears our prayers, and he proves it by answering every sincere prayer we humbly offer. He wants to hear from us, so talk to him tonight.

I love ya’ll!

Elder Joshua Cordon

Here are some updated pictures of Joshua from his missions’ blog.

Crazy! Can you spot Elder (Josh) Cordon?