Tag Archives: LDS

Record Setter!

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Dear Family and Friends,

Well what a wonderful week in Aberdeen. This was the first full week that we had together here and it really shows that we work well together. I don’t think I have had better unity with any companion previous. We set a mission high for both of us at a good 16 other lessons (editors note: lesson without a member present) which is about twice as much as what people call a good week. I am not saying this to gloat but only to glorify God because this is also 4x the high for lessons in the last 5-6 months for the area. We had a pretty crazy schedule this last week with three trips to the north side of the island during the week for activities and missionary meetings & a birthday party at a mental rehabilitation center. Still with time being short throughout all this we often filled those random gaps of time with some great finding and the Lord always put someone in our path who was ready to listen. I have not done really anything different with people than I normally do. Just the Lord felt it was time to really do some work.

With that we also made great progress with Simon who before was really confused and not motivated to being focused and eager to learn more. He really likes speaking English which is good and all but there is a reason the Lord called me Chinese speaking I have a hard time keeping things simple in my native tongue. Although we overcame these barriers and did well. We are also working with two potential families which is so great! next week they should be at church. Also with hope of a third on the way. Things are so good here in Aberdeen! My area is just almost all predominant finding.

We see boats for days and plenty of huge yachts here in Aberdeen, which finds me having a desire to live in a yacht.

Here are some pictures of my last two p-days in butterfly I will get some of Aberdeen soon.

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Love you all,

Elder Jared Cordon

The Work!

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Dear Family and Friends,

We have put our heads down in prayer and our feet forward in faith and it has, as it always does, created amazing results. We found 4 new investigators this week, and looking for 4 more this next week. We are teaching a lot of people and the ward is seeing it. We had a family that we made contact with last week come to church this week. It was so wonderful to see them make that step towards God. We found a couple that live at the very edge of our boarders, we have to drive 1 hour to get to them, it was a referral from a missionary serving in the Salt Lake Central mission for us to go see his brother. It was a great lesson and they want us to come back. It kinda holds a special place in my heart to be able to teach this couple, he is a less active member and she is a non member.

So this last week I got to go on exchanges with my MTC companion. He is serving in a wonderful place called Leavenworth. If you haven’t heard of this place you need to Google it. I really hope that I get to stay around here for the holidays, so that I am able to see this place at Christmas. I met the best member missionaries up there, they talk to everyone about the gospel. It was a wonderful place that I will 100% be going back to.

I am so grateful to all of you that are supporting me on my mission.

I keep you in my prayers daily.

Elder S Cordon.

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God is SO Good!

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Dear Family and Friends,

This past week has been one crazy week! It is transfer time again and the one thing that is guaranteed to accompany it is chaos. I wouldnt have it any other way. We got the opportunity to the temple again on Thursday which was an incredible experience. Even though I am constantly engaged in spiritual efforts there is still something so uniquely powerful with the temple. That is just another of the many testimonies that I have received that those buildings truly are sacred.

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Everything has been non-stop craziness since we arrived back from the temple. We have had some Elders staying with us since Thursday night, who need to be in Jacksonville for some doctors appointments. In order to keep them busy we have both just taken one and have been constantly covering twice the area with them. It was a huge blessing because we had meetings galore this weekend, so we were still able to get plenty of good things.

One of the major highlights of the weekend was the ward Chili Cook-off and Trunk or Treat on Friday. I got to be a judge for the chili along with some of the other elders. It was tough to choose a winner because they were all so good. We had some awesome turnout from our investigators though, we ended up having 9 people come that we invited which was awesome and they all had such a blast. 3 of them were a complete surprise though. We went to the home of one of our friends named Ty to invite him to come. He said he wasn’t feeling it, but his room-mate, Dean, and their friend, who just so happens to be the boyfriend of someone the sisters have been teaching, said they would come. There was another couple at the house at the time named Ray and Rose, but they didn’t seem interested in coming. About a half hour after the party had started, we see all 5 of them there! They ended up having a blast! Especially Dean who did not hesitate to work the crowd and meet as many members as he could. Though he wasn’t drunk, his breath definitely smelt of alcohol, but I was really happy to see how the ward members really didn’t care and they were so welcoming. We ended up teaching Dean and Ty the next day and though he has much more to learn he expressed to desire to be baptized and has agreed to work at preparing himself for the last week of November.

David loved the camping trip! His dad wasn’t able to make it, but they also came to the ward party on Friday and to mutual on Wednesday so they are really coming along, it has been amazing to witness. All of this came from just strengthening a recent convert, which is just a testimony to the importance of retention. Truly the growth of that family is a dream come true for Aileen who is their sister/daughter. She has a had to overcome so much to be where she is at, and she never in a million years could have imagined even the progress they have already made. On Saturday Aileen was with her all her siblings and her dad, so we told her to get them to all pray together. She texted us afterward and told us that they did, but it was her dad’s idea (we had just taught him about prayer last Wednesday). That is the first time they have ever prayed as a family. It was such a tender moment. I love that families can be together forever!! Jorge and David were both able to the ward party, and even all of church on Sunday, so it has been really awesome to how they are just really becoming part of the ward. It has been a very natural experience for them and the ward has done so well with wrapping their arms around them. David has truly become a part of the deacons quorum. We are going to have to get him a set of scriptures so he can start to put them to use on Sundays. The work is just going so well here and it has been amazing to see how people just are coming out of the wood work and things are coming together. I am so much happier now than i have ever been in my life, but I know that there are only greater joys in store for me.

I hope all of you have a wonderful week!

Elder Joshua Cordon

I even made my pumpkin be a missionary!

I even made my pumpkin be a missionary!

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Aberdeen, Hong Kong

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Dear Family and Friends,

Well its happened 8 months in Butterfly are over… That was fast I already feel like it was a dream… But its all good because I am in a new area with wonderful potential! I moved to Aberdeen!! This is the best area in Hong Kong in my opinion. It covers the whole southern half of Hong Kong Island which is money and beautiful evening finding. I have an ocean view no matter where I go. Its cool cause we also live on an island that we need to ferry to our area each day.

But to give you the low down of the week! We had a great last P day in Butterfly with a trip over to this reservoir it was a ton of fun and we saw a bunch of wild goats and not a building in sight just mountains trees and water! But that was great fun then moving onto to Tuesday with district meeting. It was a cool to find out that me and Elder Townsend would be leaving together because it wouldn’t be the same without him he is heading to an international branch English speaking. Later that day I got to do my last baptismal interview as district leader and it was to the coolest kid in the world. He has changed so much, he had to battle a lot of anti and opposition from family and friends and after all is said and done he is not shy to still brings friends to church he might be the most mature 15 year old I have ever met. Then lots of packing heading into the moves. Plus some great night finding on the pier with Elder Townsend. Wednesday was sweet with a great last day at crossroads with doing a huge metal grind project! You couldn’t see us amongst all the sparks. We also got these shorts the Oyoo made for us! Oyoo is our mongolian friend who is the most manly man ever is also an amazing seamstress so he made us both a pair of jean shorts!

Then came over here to Aberdeen on Thursday we started it off with some great finding. then on Friday met the only real progressing investigator who is a turn over from some senior missionaries and he is super cool. He reminds me a lot of Gary. I know he will get baptized for sure. We actually saw him on saturday again at a cheng out and the bishops house. So it was great to meet bishop real quick as well! Gary then came to church on Sunday! He is great and so is the ward! This ward is amazing my first Sunday here we do a ward find after church and we got a good amount members to take part in the find it was a huge success and we had refreshments after while everyone shared their experiences. That went so well that next time we will have a bunch more people taking part!

Well I am off to go do some good work in this ward love you all!

Elder Jared Cordon

Who Are You Representing?

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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

Without Charity I Am Nothing

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Dear Family and Friends,

This last week was one of the best weeks we have had in months!! It was just full of miracles!! After a slight tweek to our approach this week we suddenly saw a lot of things come together. As I reflect on what happened though, I found it interesting that almost none of our scheduled appointments happened… However it seemed that whenever each appointment cancelled we were able to be led to someone who was interested in hearing are message or someone we hadnt thought to plan to see. It was amazing how everytime something fell through the lord was able to guide us to where we really needed to be at that time.

Some exciting things that happened this week is in regards to a family that we have been working with. Their names are David and Jorge. They are the brother and father of a Aileen who is a recent convert of a couple of months. I am pretty sure I have mentioned them before. David made some huge steps in the right direction this week. We have been trying to get him integrated into scouts, but it has been difficult to get him there. We learned on Thursday that he had gone to the activity the night before and that his dad brought him and talked to the Elders Quorum President for a good hour. That made my day when I found that out. Then we found out Friday that David was going on the camping trip this weekend with the boys. He is just making all this progress and we arent even doing anything! It is great! haha. On Sunday David and his dad were there at church with Aileen. They had a great time there and David is already part of the group with the other boys, so we didnt even have to worry about him. Also we got his dad to be a judge for the dessert competition at the ward party on Friday. Everything is just falling in place for that family! It is really awesome to see.

I was pondering the principle of Charity yesterday and a scripture really caught my attention. It was, “Therefore, if ye do not remember to be charitable, ye are as dross, which the refiners do cast out, (it being of no worth) and is trodden under foot of men.” (Alma 34:29) Considering the fact that Charity is usually grouped with Faith and Hope as the three most important characteristics to have, I began to wonder the role that faith and hope play. The conclusion that I came up with is that Faith and Hope are focused on ourselves. They prepare a person to then obtain and retain the attribute of Charity. Faith is the first attribute that we must have. When we act on our faith it leads us to repent. When we repent we develop hope through the atonement of Jesus Christ. As we grow our faith we develop hope, and as we gain hope it helps to sustain our faith. At this point, having cleansed the inner vessel first we are now able to reach outward and help others do the same thing. As we then reach out and lose ourselves in service of others our faith and hope will grow effortlessly and we will be filled with the love of God. This last step is vitally important, for someone who never reaches out will eventually lose all of the faith and hope they have gained. Consider the scripture, “He that seeketh to save his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.” (JST Matthew 10:34)

I love y’all!! I hope you have a wonderful week!

Elder Joshua Cordon

Ice Cream!!

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Dear Family and Friends,

Well another amazing week. This week we did some fun stuff, we helped Gary wash and clean his dogs its kinda hard for him being in a wheel chair. So a great chance to serve! Serving people is the simplest and most powerful way to bring happiness.

We also had the big multi ward activity that I ended up planning and arranging and basically everything. It was supposed to be the ward but then somehow it kept landing back on me. But after all was said and done it was a great success! The young men were all hesitant and weird at first they did not want to mesh. We also had this huge black man show up and wanted to play so he joined my team we totally dominated after that. But all the kids loved him and kept wanting to get autographs thinking he was in the NBA this man will hopefully start his path of investigating shortly as well. But once we got everything going they had a blast and afterwards all the investigators and kids from all the wards were all just in one big group! Also we had plenty of ice cream that they ate as much and then we still had leftover so we saved the rest and ate it after the baptisms that happened yesterday after church. Which ended up working out perfect because usually people leave immediately after, being all hungry and tired, but since there was all you can eat ice cream everybody stayed behind and talked and mingled making it a much more effective event!

I kinda set that all up to so now that I have done a lot of stuff my goal is now to just show them that these ideas that before they were not willing to do turned out so great and hopefully they can make a habit of doing these or something better.

But all is good in the neighborhood I have learned a lot about communication hard work and accountability through this process that will benefit my life forever also it helped make great progress with an investigator that we have been working with for awhile we were able to get him a new and more committed baptismal date!

Hey love you all!
Elder Jared Cordon

Conference!! Sadly it’s only twice a year

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Dear Family and Friends

Conference I love it! It’s something that I feel I have wasted my entire life. So many hours staring at the TV with the words coming in one ear and right out the other. Now it’s a spiritual roller coaster. It’s so cool to take and learn the message they are sharing but also to be learning at the same time another lesson by the Holy Ghost. There is the things everyone needs to hear then there is the things that I (you) need to hear. Their words are truly scripture in the modern days while reading one talk can inspire you for one topic the entire conference altogether will tell you another.

This week overall was full of a lot of success! There is two people on the street that are seeming to stick and after 8 months it appears that its the right time to bring in new investigators. I think its because my overall goal has been to build this area and leave it better than I found it. With two baptisms to drain the teaching pool new people had to be on their way so as to keep the work going. The Lord has decided now I guess to bring them out. We now have 4 people with great great potential and a few others who are on the turning points. I would love more that anything to stay another transfer but it’s looking that next week may be my last in the Butterfly Ward. The Lord seems to do that, once we are on top and things are going great He takes us out of the situation probably to remind us that its all because of Him and we need to stay humble because if He chooses we could have nothing.

I have been so blessed to see the Lord work miracles during my time here.

Conference was so good because in Hong Kong everyone in the stake just goes to the church and watches it. So of course all the missionaries come and we all watch the English session together. President joined us for the sunday morning and an amazing sister prepared food for all us missionaries. Conference weekend is a holiday to be celebrated full of spiritual and physical feasting.

I love you all, take luck.

Elder Jared Cordon

We Are Different!!

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Dear Family and Friends,

This last week was such a wonderful week full of the spirit and learning.

First I was able to go to the temple. WOW I miss being able to go as often as I want to, but I also cherish the times I get to go. (not that I didnt before.) I love the spirit that I am filled with every time that I go to the temple. It truly is the Lords house.

We found a new investigator name Jay he is so prepared to hear the gospel. He had a great boss who he looked up to that was a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. He knew who we were and we immediately offered to help him stack the wood that he was in the process of stacking. What a great example of how members just being great members can have such an impact to someones life latter on.
And then Conference happened!!

What an incredible weekend. I felt reminded Many times that as members of the church WE ARE DIFFERENT. Gods commandments are never going to conform to men. We are given a Prophet for that reason so that we are kept on the path of God. He is the person that is called and set apart to handle the affairs of God on the earth. He is the one that we look to for answers, not the internet, not the latest trend, not the latest law that is passed, the Prophet is the one that receives the answers we need for our lives.

I am so blessed by the knowledge that we have a living Prophet on the earth today. He actually lives and receives revelation for the world from Christ, this is The Church of Jesus Christ because it is his church not mans and it will always be that way.

I am so grateful for a Prophet to lead and guide us everyday. I know that Thomas S Monson speaks for God.

I seal this in the name of Jesus Christ.

Elder S Cordon

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P.S. Editors note- he is being transferred. He has enjoyed his first area on his mission but is needed elsewhere in his mission!

The Power of Prayer

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Dear Family and Friends,

Well this was an amazing week! A lot of great things happened! To start the week right I went on splits with my MTC companion because he is in my district. Its crazy how far we have come! It was cool to see how we have both changed so much. But some great things came of this experience.

We were both quite thirsty and while searching for water in a park we ran into a man who we just jumped right into a gospel discussion. We found out quickly that he was out pondering because he had really taken his life downhill through bad decision making. He had many drugs problems in the past and after going through the prison system of Hong Kong he is now in a probationary state, but will need to check into a prison soon for his last 2 months then he is done. So he had some time to visit friends and we had caught him on his ponder through the park. He was so prepared and he sincerely wanted to change. One thing he said was he has not been in contact with his family for many years because he has no means to contact them and has no idea where any one of them are. Well after explaining more about God and prayer we invited him to pray. He was a little hesitant not knowing what to pray about so we invited him to pray and ask God for him to reunite him with his family. He did and it was a powerful faith filled prayer of a son longing for love. He said he felt amazing and so did we.

Well that was my role in his conversion to the Gospel, because I headed back to my own area. But the next day when they saw him again (because he was heading back to prison soon they wanted to teach him as much as possible) He was overcome with Joy! That morning his mother had come knocking on his door and it was an amazing reunion. He then took the missionaries to his house to meet his mom. He expressed answers to other prayers about the gospel. He had 4 more lessons and a chance to come to church before he heads out today. He has gained for himself a burning testimony of the work. He will be baptized after he is out. Also the missionaries can visit him while he is in prison so they can keep teaching him.

Another great thing is I was able to see my recent convert who dropped off the map. He is doing great, however he has a tough family life but he will be back into activity shortly. It just breaks my heart to see someone so changed and blessed turn-away from their perfectly loving Father. But he is back.

Another great thing was during the second set of splits that went down this week I had a chance to go with Elder Beal. He is a district leader and Elder Townsend the zone leader went with Elder Nestman the other district leader so we had all the district leaders with 1 zone leader in the appartment. So we took advantage of the situation and had a meeting. What came out of this meeting was pretty awesome. We have all gained new motivation and resolutions. We were able to establish some new plans and actions to increase accountability for goals and inspire and motivate our districts. We all realized we need to be the examples of the change we want to see so we are turning up the heat. New Territories will be number 1.

Taking that motivation I took it to the ward. The sisters wanted to meet and talk about receiving more referrals and with the inpsiration from the district leader meeting we came up with a great plan to jump start the ward. We planned a Teaching No Greater Call seminar for the ward using the same module president has set up for our district meetings, we cleared it with the bishop and then took the idea before the ward council and it was accepted. So we will have great things coming! They are working on some translations and hopefully we can do this in the next two weeks.

Amazing things are coming!

Love you all! God really does live.

Elder Jared Cordon