Be Bold, Be Obedient

Posted on March 10, 2015 by shalesecordon9

Dear Family and Friends,

It was great this week and the first full one with my New Elder Wong. We have been tearing it up and being very bold. We had a couple of lessons this week which were really really blunt and they were needed. The sad thing is all the people we have been working with have all become very lazy and dependent on us. The problem with the world and especially Asian school systems is they don’t want people to think for themselves they just want them to take what they are told and believe it. Since this also is primarily what must churches do too, they thrive here, but as for the Church of Jesus Christ we want people to have their own experiences and testimonies and to go and search truth for themselves. The quest for Happiness and the quest for Self Mastery are one in the same. God wants up to be the best us and to start improving now and keep improving. I have said this before and I will say it again happiness is not a state that is a achieved but it is the way we live our lives!

We have done well about applying the counsel given to us by an Apostle of the Lord and we are seeing great blessings coming from it and we should be seeing some big things happening here in the coming weeks. A lot of companionship’s have been seeing miracles pouring in. We never know what the lords timing will be when he wants to bestow blessings, usually right after being tempted by Satan to not be obedient, but always be worthy that way your timing and the lords timing will always be the same.

I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week.

Elder Jared Cordon

Special Witnesses of Jesus Christ

Posted on March 3, 2015 by shalesecordon9

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

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

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

Red Rockets!!

Posted on February 23, 2015 by shalesecordon9

Dear Family and Friends,

Chinese New Year was a wonderful, wonderful experience here in Aberdeen. Last Year I remember the work really slowing down when the New Year rolled around but this year it was different, it did not seem to have any effect whatsoever other than the positive ones. We decided since everyone would be in their homes why not test our luck with knocking doors! What came of it was the greatest success I have ever seen from knocking doors. We ended up teaching a total of 3 lessons between 3 visits heading over there. 2 were to Chinese people one was to a Philipina who helped us understand that her employer (who was not home any time we visited) had actually been taught previously by missionaries and has a book of mormon. The two Chinese people were from the same family. From two different visits to the same house. We also met another man and his daughter which after talking to them for awhile earned their trust and he wants to bring his daughter to english class, we also ran into him later on the bus and he was happy to see us again. I have always love knocking doors because it takes me back to my summer sales experience before my mission. But the Chinese new year seemed to definitely work in favor of our plan because most people were home.

We also had the chance to meet with the Kwok family before they headed to mainland to visit some family and we focused on the importance of daily scripture study. We have previously committed them this was mainly just a follow up lesson. She has a really big desire to accept the gospel and we are trying our best to help her in teaching her kids, we will continue teaching the whole family of course but we have been really trying to help her understand that she needs to lead the way for her kids. It was funny she knew we had suitcases and she did not have enough for her and her kids so begged us to use ours, so right now I have one suitcase in mainland china!

A member gave us some radish cakes to give out to less actives and investigators and it was a huge help! It gave us a simple excuse to be able to meet up with a few. For example one is a recent Convert Helen who has not come to church in 3 weeks it was an easy way to meet with her to do our part, but mainly the ward has been very good about staying up on all the recent converts right now. It give me great peace if we were to help someone be baptized that the ward would take care of them.

The ward is doing great we are still waiting on the ward mission plan, but they have got some other plans they are executing. They are starting a rotating family home evening once a month on Sunday night at the church. Several families will plan and organize it and we can simple bring investigators so we will do our best to support their plans. Its something they came up with to create unity in the ward and provide ways to consistently have something we can bring investigators too.

RED POCKETS!! During chinese New year they have a tradition that those who are married will give red pockets to those who are not. Mainly just family and friends. Its basically a red envelope with some cool designs on it and it has money inside! Chinese people love money! yesterday I got quite a bit. I got $380.00 in red pocket money!

I love you all and Happy Lunar New Year!

The year of the Lamb or Goat (I kinda like the idea of lamb better because of its significance to Christ)

Meet the Mormons!

Posted on February 11, 2015 by shalesecordon9

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

Selfies with the Selfy Stick!

Selfies with the Selfy Stick!

Happy Monday

Posted on January 26, 2015 by shalesecordon9

Dear Family and Friends,

An interesting quote from C. S. Lewis to inform your day that My Mission President shared:

“Repentance is not something God demands of you before He will take you back, and which He could let you off if He chose; it is simple a description of what going back is like”

Well the last week was awesome! Since we saw you last we have seen a huge boost in our finding. We have been working on making the adjustment to short power statements and right to reschedule for a sit down lesson. Its been hard changing our habits and our approaches at first it was awkward we wondered if it was better but, we persisted and now it feels a whole lot better. Our struggle for a long time has been new investigators but just within the last two days we have rescheduled 3 people. We do realize that everyone that schedules wont always show up but, unless you reschedule someone no one will show up. This has been a good change and it came from pray and practice. The Kwok Family is really moving a long we went to dinner with bishop last night and brought them along. They really enjoyed it and then after we had everyone bare their testimonies it was powerful and Sister Kwok commented how she always feel so happy whenever she is at church or with members. She is moving along great and we committed them to family prayer and scripture study. As soon as they can make the necessary changes in their lives they will be great members. Sadly the dad is not involved they are not divorced but they are separated. If we were to move towards baptism would we need the fathers permission?

We have been working on some plans to really build more unity in the ward from the similar Idea of what the Pok fu Lam Elders and Sisters have been doing. Sadly we are finding it quite difficult to schedule members, not sure why but besides about 3 families it doesn’t seem like we can schedule a visit, we also made it clear that we dont need a meal appointment just 20 mins to sit down. So we are working on some ways to figure that one out.

I have really seen the blessings of using my language study everyday it has been a huge improvement and characteristic of my time here in Aberdeen and the biggest blessings are after the consistency over a long period of time.

I said I would make a prayer journal and take ten minutes in the evenings to ponder how the lord has answered my prayers. Doing this has really increased my awareness to his blessing. It just seems like my simple ones that I have always asked for I have been taken for granted. The little blessings are sometimes the most miraculous.

Elder Jared Cordon

Baptismal Date

Posted on January 21, 2015 by shalesecordon9

Dear Family and Friends,

First things first a run down for the last week and a half. We have made great progress with Sister Gwok. We gave her a baptismal date for March 3rd. Still the big concern is her son liking church so that he can join her. We are working with the ward council to help him out. Brother Yip and Brother Leung are both moving slowly but surely we taught really powerful lessons to them this last week and are just trying to get them to get into the scriptures. Both are getting better everytime we see them. We also were able to go Less Active finding with our new ward Mission leader. Its great working with him because he is very motivated and we are learning a lot from his efforts.

It was a long week but I have been learning a lot recently about spiritual patterns. I have noticed that as we start doing something we may see some quick blessing come but then we see what seems like no blessings coming our way but really its that the Huge blessing that come from consistent good choices usually come way after the little small ones we see immediately after making some life changes.

I just finished the masters Art and it has given me some great inspiration on how I can improve my teaching. It was a really really good I am grateful my mission president was willing to share. There is a few quotes that Have stuck with me. “the best way to rid a bad habit is to fix a good one” and a simple one that i really like “say clearly one thing at a time”. The first has given me some good insight into looking towards the mark and ridding myself of all the many bad habits I have is to fix some good ones. One habit I wanted to rid was being unfocused in the evening hours after planning. So I am fixing the habit of immediately writing in my journal after planning and its helping to rid many other bad habits.

Love you all and remember True Joy is not reaching a certain point but the continuous pattern of overcoming of imperfection.

Elder Jared Cordon

The Ward is AWESOME!

Posted on January 12, 2015 by shalesecordon9

Dear Family & Friends,

Well this week might be short I am really short on time. But it was a really good week we have seen some amazing success with the efforts with the ward and growth with our investigators, its one of those weeks where I feel like you can take a sigh of relief that maybe your efforts are paying off. We had ward council this week and with the first one for the year the ward was very enthusiatic with many different ideas to step up there efforts. It was great to see that this time was much more focuses on missionary efforts. Especially the Relief Society president. She is such an example and that goes for all the women in the Relief Society here they are so awesome. They have made our investigator feel really welcomed and they are all so observant that without us even saying anything come and greet her and friendship her, invite her over for dinner, exchange numbers tell her all about the activities, make her kids feel welcomed. They are awesome! Our investigator is going to have her sister come to an activity soon, we met her before now its just bringing her in. The Elders Quorum is starting to follow there example they have really gotten so much better. Our investigators father came to church my himself even though his son didn’t come he said he is too busy to take the lessons but he loves elders Quorum so we will keep working with him. Referrals are the way to go for sure. Things are great I am great I am changing for the better everyday.

Love Elder Cordon.

Happy New Year!!

Posted on January 4, 2015 by shalesecordon9

Dear Family & Friends,

Well what an awesome week! Could not have thought of a better way to start 2015! I have been becoming the best missionary of my mission which is I guess what should be expected, but even more than I thought.

Talks that changed my life this last week were two A consecrated missionary and one by my mission president when he spoke at BYU. Both are just awesome and have really changed the way that I work. One thing the consecrated missionary talked about was the commandment to open our mouths and find by the way. Whether its on the elevator, parking lot, grocery store, the ferry finding by the way is the best way to find. I have been taking this to heart and it doesnt matter the setting I have been opening my mouth I feel like fear of contacting anyone any place any time has almost left me completely there is still work to do. I also went singing in public which is something I never thought I would do in a million years. But hey I think singing everyday to start comp study has done wonders for my voice plus when you learn a tonal language its helped me to be not so tone deaf. Basically we got some slow but solid work moving we are not looking for dramatic spurts that look good but dont retain but the solid consistency of the line upon line approach. I got a lot of time left in my mission still but I am treating every week as the final stretch.

Plus a quote that I came up with for you all to think about is:

“Salvation is as hard as your heart”

Love you All
Elder Jared Cordon

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Posted on December 29, 2014 by shalesecordon9

Dear Family and Friends,

What a wonderful week! I truly felt the Christmas Spirit and I will never forget these experiences!

We wanted to see miracles this week and so preparing for Christmas we did a special fast on wednesday. We asked to truly feel the love that Christ feels and to be able to find people that need our help. So Christmas after talking to family we went out to work and despite that fact that it was raining we met some really cool people who have had pretty hard lives! A ward member had given us these little christmas goodie bags to give to investigators and Less Actives so thats what we used. These people really enjoyed them and we also found other little ways to serve people. I think the greatest miracle I felt though is the pure love of Christ that filled my soul that whole day! We also saw some other miracles while doing some less active finding one ladies recorded said she did not want anybody to contact here ever again but we knocked anyway and she opened the door and said: “Elders I haven’t been to church forever, wow its been awhile since I have seen you, hows the ward…” She was so happy to be in touch with us again and we will see her next week. We also were able to see and give presents to some others as well. Also the ward Christmas party was this week and we were able to have a kid we met last week come who really enjoyed it then we taught him again the next day. Also another lady who we are working with drove from a mainland family vacation got to come then headed back after, and she loved it!

We also saw many other miracles this week and although most of everyone we are working with were too busy to meet up we were able to see some great success!

I have learned so much from these goals of 65 that just by pushing a little harder when you don’t want to go anymore and by just using every minute you have it really can make a huge difference!

Love you all and keep improving life is to precious and to sweet to stop!

Sorry for my poor english, my chinese is just getting better.

Elder Jared Cordon

Merry Christmas

Posted on December 29, 2014 by shalesecordon9

Dear Family and Friends,

Merry Christmas!!

We had a really good week this last week. We were only able to meet with one of our investigators, and had our lowest week of teaching lessons. But we also had a week were we probably met more potential than any other previous week. One cool miracle is we planned to go finding out to Lamma island. Right as we were walking up to the ferry it was leaving, barely missed it. Well that gave us another 2 hours so we said to ourselves there must be someone we need to find, and that there was. We met a really prepared kid and taught a powerful lesson and rescheduled him for this next week. Later in the week when some lessons fell through we took advantage of the extra time to find well, finding went really well we found three really prepared people (one who has met with missionaries previously), finding was going so well we only took a ten minute dinner. During enlgish class, a mom we have been working with was not able to come but, instead she sent her sister to come for her with her kids. Her sister loved the spirit of the church and has a lot of potential and then the mom with her kids showed up to church for the first time and were able to see the Christmas devotional. Christmas time brings miracles I can attest. Another miracle that happened–which shows the effects of the holiday although its mostly secular here–we were finding in a place that is known to be a bad finding place and, I am trying my hardest to break that mentality because there is no such thing as a bad area, we taught a pretty cool lesson. We saw a guy way off in the distance and felt impressed to talk to him, well turns out that the first time is his life he has ever pondered the thought of Jesus Christ two missionaries from his very church decide to contact him. It was really funny he just kept saying over and over again that this must be a sign from god, And it really is I know he leads us to those who are ready.

I love Christmas and the reality of Jesus Christ our Savior its amazing time of year to ponder the most amazing man. I know he still lives and I know each and every one of us can know that for ourselves.

Elder Wongs style has taught me a lot as I have tried to take the follower role we have seen an interesting thing happen. Less lessons but more quality lessons. He delights in simplicity as is quick to discern when we are wasting our time talking to someone who is not ready. These two principles have helped improve our finding this last week. We taught less but we taught better.

Me personally I have seen such a huge change on my mission in my testimony in my behavior in my desires. Its hard to see the change sometimes because I feel like who I am now is who I have always been, but maybe thats because I am finally becoming who I am supposed to be.

We have been contemplating the words of our mission president about making this the most memorable christmas and with just finding scheduled on Christmas right now we have some plans in the works to make this the most memorable spirit filled find we have had thus far. We will fill you in on the miracles to follow.

By the way my chinese has been getting a lot better. Also I am becoming more versed with soon being able to contact in mandarin and chinese sign language.

Love you all and have a very merry CHRISTmas!

Elder Jared Cordon