Tag Archives: Jesus Christ

Final Report

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Well this is the last Monday. I am truly blessed and honored to have been this set apart servant of the Lord. I have reached the end of this wonderful experience and am glad to report that I have served well. I have made a mountain of mistakes, I have not served perfectly (I wasn’t asked to) I have offended a lot of people, however, I am a changed person. I have used the atonement to change my life, I have watched the atonement change others. I have reached outside of myself and help the Father fulfill His Plan. I am grateful to have received the witness from the Spirit “You have done good, now go and continue to do so.”

I am so blessed to have learned the things that I have learned I have the knowledge and wisdom from this journey to continue onward with the wonderful work that is being done by and through Jesus Christ on the earth. Yes I am going home but I am not going back, back to what I was, who I was, is different. I have been changed and will continue to be changed. I cant go back, I cant learned all that I have learned and expect things to be even a little bit the same. I have made so many goals and I am going to to keep growing.

My wish and desire is that when ever or where ever you see me, you will be able to see the love of God. I cant wait to be able to continue to share this Love with everyone that I am able, to brighten their day if only for a moment, or all the way back to Heavenly Father! I desire to not just be a loved Son of God, but a Trusted one as well.

I know that I have served a faithful mission for the Lord.
I know that the work that I have been doing is the work true and good.
I know the gospel is the Key to true happiness in this life.
I know Jesus is the Christ and the God is Our Father.
I know we come from Godly parents and that we are from royal lines.
I end my service in the name of Jesus Christ

AMEN

Elder Cordon

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This week I have been able to receive so many different witnesses of the truth of the gospel and its teaching. I have witnessed the pure innocence of what happens when a soul recognizes truth that is being spoken to their hearts. I have been able to see what happens to even myself when I am reminded and reinforce that I am a son of God. I am of royal line and have the rights and privileges of that line, I also have the responsibility to uphold that line and to operate according to the meets and bounds that have been set by eternal laws. I am so grateful for the blessing of this knowledge and desire to hold fast to it for all time.

I love the power of testimony, when truth is spoken that the Holy Ghost can bear witness, that when listened with spiritual ears and heart, it leaves an impression on the very fabric of you soul and you know that it is eternal truth. That kind of testimony is so powerful and one of the things that is the most under used. (In my opinion) So often there is thank-a-monies that replace testimony; now this is not to say that never should you ever share the things you are grateful for the scriptures tell us otherwise, however, they do not have the same effect. They do carry truth and power and great emotion, yet yesterday during the testimony meeting I witnessed a great marvel, I witnessed one after another, wonderful powerful testimonies! I marveled as I listened with “hears to hear” as the spirit shared with my the truths of the gospel.

I have learned this in my mission that each of us have a powerful weapon against the world, we have our pure, simply, and foundational testimonies that we can share with everyone. I have seen time and time again where simply testimony has changed hearts and routed out evil. I know the gospel to be true, I know that Jesus Christ lives. You cant speak those words, truly speak them, without the spirit witnessing that they are true, however, it still requires “eyes to see and hears to hear” and then action taken in order for that spiritual witness to actually do anything at all to you as a person. God is always going to have to respect agency even if we don’t, He is bound by His laws. We must bring the spirit into ours hearts and act on what we know or it is all for nothing.

Pasco truly was a great area and I am grateful for all the miracles that I have seen. I am grateful for the companions that I have had and the people that I have served around. I have experienced so much joy and happiness here. I am grateful for the Pasco Stake Presidency, They truly are wonderful, guided leaders that are filled with love for the Lord and His work. I have loved serving around them and getting to know them. What powerful influences I have been around and examples I strive to be. Pasco has been blessed with miracles on top of miracles and I have been blessed to witness revelation from local leaders come to pass in a beautiful way. The Lord is truly hastening his work!

So that leads me to transfers. Yes I am getting transferred for my last two weeks, yet further proof that God knows how to laugh. I thought that I had it all planned out that I was staying in Pasco until I left I was telling everybody and then….. BAM I get the call I am getting transferred special assignment and I am assigned to……. NOWHERE yup you guessed it. I will have no area for the last two weeks just traveling around.

Love you all so much

General Conference

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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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OH BOY! 

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So there was an amazing miracle this week!

Elizabeth was found, which was an answer to her prayers. SHE IS AWESOME. She has a lot of family that is LDS and she was in the hospital last week that got her thinking about her life. She was talking to her aunt that is LDS and she wanted her to find Missionaries and get a blessing. SO Wednesday she prayed that she would be able to find them, Next day we knocked on her door!!! WHAT. She is working towards a date of Feb. 27th and is reading and praying. She is the fulltime caregiver for her father who is suffering from a lot of illness, working around that schedule is going to be our biggest road bump.This week we also had a Part Member family that came to church!  

We have our bishop that is getting really excited about missionary work and he went and talked to 2 Part Member families this week that we are going to start teaching, one of them is going to FHE at his house tonight. Miracles happen when the work is done in His way. I am so excited about the broadcast and striving to become a strict PMG missionary. Such a wonderful focus to Teach Repentance and Baptize Converts!  

We had a wonderful lesson with Nathen this week as well, he is dealing with a lot of stress in his life right now due to his job. He did however make the wonderful connection that in those stressful times is when you need to be reminded that God needs your attention. He really is a wonderful person and has wonderful talent. He builds custom guitars for a living 0.0 and they are beautiful! We have a few musicians in our ward that we are going to be bringing by, they also want to see if he wants to play with them at the church dance that is coming up for Valentines day. It always brings success when the Members wrap themselves into the work, and into the people. The wonderful law of Sacrifice for others, boy oh boy, such a wonderful way to live. 

I love that I have this time in my life to truly turn outward and learn this wonderful truth that this is the way to the most happiness, turning out to help those around you, that is the place where miracles are. I have such a testimony of this that I will be able to apply for the rest of my mission and life. When priesthood callings are magnified and selfless service is given that is truly the life that I want to model after.  

Thank you for all you do for me.  

Elder Cordon 

Let the Spirit Work Through You!

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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

LET IT BEGIN!

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I am so excited for this transfer! Things are just going so well. I am so grateful to have learned what I have throughout my mission and now being able to just hammer through till the end. This last week after transfers Elder Whiting and I were able to talk about some things that we wanted to focus on this transfer. Acting and not being Acted upon, is what we had decided was going to be a big focus for us this transfer. And wouldn’t you know it we got the chance to apply it right away.

Sense Wednesday we have been having a lot of appointments fall through, and putting our faith in God we ACTED. We knew that we had planned by the spirit and so we set out to find out why we needed to be there. We saw so many miracles come from just being willing to ACT in Faith and find Joy and Trust in Christ. We found in faith and that led to us getting in and teaching almost every door we knocked on. Not everyone but most. We were finding every day and that lead to 7 new investigators sense Wednesday. It was so awesome to see the very clear hand that was leading us in the work. We are so excited to carry this into next week. We are going to but a big focus on getting the members out with us, so that they can see all this amazing work that is going on.

I am also feeling very spoiled in who the Lord has put around me. We probably have the best Zone Leadership in the mission. We had a Zone Leadership Council and what an amazing time that was. We really focused on the need to really teach the Zone the true doctrine of repentance so that they can find the Joy in it and that they can have better faith in the great power of the Atonement. That really only happens through repentance. I truly do feel spoiled to be able to be around such great missionary fire at this point in my mission; The WKM is full of it, but I certainly feel blessed and wouldn’t trade any of them. Elder Whiting adds such and wonderful spirit and drive, Sister Christiansen has great faith and knows were to put it, and Elder Thompson is going to bring a great understanding of the Doctrine of Christ to the Spanish District. And that is just adding to the already great missionaries of Sister Bland and Elder Burton. How did I get so lucky!!!

I am grateful for the power of Repentance and the real change it can make to the very nature of who we are. I love Jesus Christ and will never be able to truly put into words what a wonderful blessing it is to be able to have the gift of the Atonement to shape me and mold me into someone that I would never be able to be without HIM.

I am looking forward to the blessing and miracles in store for this next week.

LOVE
Elder Cordon

Have Counsels in Your Life

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*Editors Note: Title is also referring to President Nelson’s Worldwide Devotional for Young Adult on Sunday Jan 10, 2016.

What a great week this was. A wonderful MLC!! I love those counsels, the spirit is there guiding and directing it every time. It is building my testimony of the power and strength that I counsel can have. I am understanding time and time again that God truly knows what he is talking about, with how we should run things in our lives. Every time those things are done things just seem to work out and everyone is on the same page.

This week we got to do an exchange with some other missionaries. Elder Burton and Elder Taylor, I went with Elder Taylor. We set a goal of making bold commitments and inviting people to repentance, and prepare for baptism. Wow what amazing miracles came out of that. In both areas we but investigators on date for baptism and found new investigators. There are bothers and sisters everywhere that are looking and being prepared for the gospel we just have to talk with them and invite them to act.

That is the miracle of this work is that we are just there as servants helping with a work that is already going and moving forward, this is His work and His glory and He will move it forward. I love that I am able to put my faith into the plan and help were I am needed.

We, in our area, but Alex on date for Feb. and we have two more that we are planning to have on date for Feb. as well. I am so excited for these people that we have found and excited for their eagerness. The ward is already to help out and to open up their homes for these wonderful people.

So excited for what the new transfer will bring.

I love you
Elder Cordon

Prayer Is Awesome

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WOW! A new area, new assignment, and a new companion! This is one week that I am grateful for prayer. To be able to truly talk to Father and receive direction. What comfort it is to know that prayer truly is communication with Father and that He hears and answers prayers.

I am also very grateful for the power of the Atonement. It truly gives us power to do things that are beyond our own capacity to do. Jesus Christ lifts us to where he needs us to be if we allow him to. the only way to do that is through the Doctrine of Christ. I took me a long time out to realize all of this but now that it has finally clicked I can continue to master this skill of “using” the Atonement and not just “needing” it.
I got here to the new area ready and excited to work. This ward is about the size of both my previous wards and LOTS of people to talk to. I got so excited about coming to Pasco ready to apply all the things that I have been learning in the last transfer. Elder Schulzke (new companion) and I got right to work, well after having two long days of planning and meeting with everyone that we needed to and going to another meetings, we got right out and talked with everyone that we could.

We found 4 new friends to teach and part of that is a family, the Mendoza Family. We first talked to there son and the taught the parents on Sat. We will be teaching the two sisters as well come Sunday. Crystal was another that we found and she told us that she is on a spiritual journey right now trying to have a better relationship with God. 🙂 Well we certainly can help with that.

SO CRAZY STORY TIME……

There was sister missionary that was in the other MTC district in the MTC zone that I was in that was from Kennewick and was called to serve in the Ogden Mission, later after the split finished in the Logan UT Mission. SO I was eating at Costa Vida for the last time while in kennewick right before transfer meeting and ……… That sister missionary recently, of 2 weeks, home from her mission is standing right in front of me. OUCH That was a hard reality check. She came in after me to the MTC and is now home and eating at costa vida with her mom and grandma 0.0 WOW where as the time gone.

AND IN OTHER NEWS.
SO NEXT WEEK IS GOING TO BE THE BEST DAY OF THE MISSION.
DEC 15th Converts are getting sealed in the temple. YEAH. I have been having butterflies about this day for so long I cant wait for it. 8 MORE DAYS!

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Elder Steven Cordon

What a Great Week

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Changes are going to happen to that ward soon, the WML is moving to SLC for a new job, so we will be getting a new WML here soon. So always brings a change. Last we heard was that is was going to be happening within a couple of weeks.

Nicole and Isiah had a wonderful baptism and confirmation this week. They had family that came, and lots of people from the ward. They are both full of light with the new conversion that they have in the Lord. Nicole is already sharing her testimony with her nonmember family members and is gladly reporting it back to us. We will hopefully be sending a referral down to Cali here soon. So wonderful to see that family coming together in unity in the gospel. WOW what a great day when they are sealed in the temple. I will definitely be there for that one.

I am so grateful to come to know Jesus Christ more and more each day. I love the strength that is given to me through him. There is no better way to go through this life then by and through Christ. He is the source of full and complete joy in this life, and He is there to help us grow and develop into the the person that we can be.

Well I love you all soo much thank you for everything that you do!

Love
Elder Cordon

Birthday Week

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So this week was so different then a year ago. What a difference to see what kind of missionary I have changed into. My birthday last year totally through me for a lope. I wasn’t focused as I should have been, I was not in a great place with the companion that I had, and my birthday made me really home sick; just wanting to spend a birthday with friends and families it was a real problem for me.

This year was 100% opposite.

I was focused on what I was doing with the work it never made me skip a beat, in fact it even made me think about how I could use it to help. As I was thinking about that for a couple of days a member family ask me at church if they could throw me a party that I could invite all those that we have been working with in the two wards to. Prayers were answered I got to use this wonderful moment on the mission to further the work to have people that are investigators meet member and recent converts. It was such a great environment to have them all to, even had Dallen thank me for the invite saying “we dont ever get invited out to things”. They really had a great time mingling with everyone that was there, and got to meet the most recent member of the ward. Got to share my testimony to each of them personally and even got the time after ward to have a lesson with Flor about the Holy Ghost.

The whole week it kept me focused on my purpose as a missionary, help bring people closer to Christ and Help them become converted to the gospel, and a part of that is helping them mingle and make friends with people in the church, and help members mingle with investigators and nonmembers, and teach in members homes. Which all happened in one event. VERY COOL.

I am also in a much better place as a missionary then I was a year ago. I am so grateful for the direction that has taken place in my life and missionary work with the absolute direct help and guiding hand of Jesus Christ and His Atonement. I am so grateful for the gift of repentance to be able to make changes in our lives and to become better and not the to change behavior but to be able to change our very nature. When that kind of change happens you never go back to who you were before, so little by little you can develop in the person that God needs. You are humble enough that God can work through you and with you to do miracles in the life that He has given you. Alma 19:33 …-that their hearts had been changed; that they had no more desire to do evil.

That is the heart that He needs. That is the heart that is applied to understanding the Holy Ghost and the direction that it gives you in your life. So that we can all be a lighthouse of the gospel to the world and to everyone that we come into contact with.

What a Great and wonderful week we have ahead of us to look forward to general conference.

Pray for answers to questions.

Love you all so much.
Elder Cordon