Tag Archives: LDS

Trio!!!! -Jared

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Well Another week in Hong Kong! Never really predictable! For instence yesterday I entered a tripanionship! With the now Lone Leader. His name is Elder Parker and he Is from LA. He is an awesome missionary. We have already been serving in the same area but now instead of 4 elders there is just 3. I will let you all know how that goes!

I have a cool story I would like to share: last week me and my companion were going over the Plan of Salvation lesson and we were figuring out what we needed to work on, and we decided on Adam and Eve. Why is it important were it fits in and how to say it. Well later that night during finding we had a guy ask us a very specific question. Why do we have to suffer and get kicked out of gods pressence because of Adam and if god loves us why did he let that happen? Well its a good thing the Lord prepared us, because we have a new investigator. haha

I know If we are worthy and we are doing all that we can the Lord will direct all of our actions. We may not realize until after or just not at all. As Ether 12 tells us, “Ye recieve no witness until after the trial of you faith”. Thats how the spirit works and its an amazing thing I am figuring out more and more every day!

This week was the first week we have gotten someone to church since I have been here. Our awesome old investigator and a less active came! It was such a great experience! The Elders qurom accepted them both with very loving arms! I know the best way to get the members involved is to bring people to church, because it gets the excited, believing and motivated! The work is truly progressing!

Love everyone

Elder Jared Cordon

People At Church!! Whoot! Whoot! -Joshua

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Dear Family and Friends,

It will have to be a short one this week sorry! We don’t have a lot of time. Not having a car makes things so difficult sometimes. Especially on government holidays when the libraries close haha.

Anyhow, this past week was a great week! We kept ourselves very busy!

The one experience I do want to share with you though is regarding Mati. She is one of the greatest people we have ever met and every week we don’t see her just pains me. So, because we haven’t seen her for a couple of weeks it has been very painful. However, we decided to just swing by on Saturday during a trade-off and SHE WAS HOME!!! We had a wonderful lesson with her and she even said that she was going to come to church tomorrow. We also had her daughter Amar pinky promise us that she would go too.

We found out that the next morning Amar went running into her mom’s room at 5:45 yelling, “We got to go to church, we are going to be late!” Needless to say that she was ready this week haha 🙂
They had a wonderful time at church and I was all smiles the whole time. It has been so hard to get people to church and to finally see her there was just incredible! She got welcomed by the ward in such a wonderful way and her daughter wants to go next week even though Mati has to work.

Also Thomas and Ashley came to sacrament which was also awesome!

Anyhow, sorry to be short this week! I hope ya’ll have a great one!

Love ya’ll

Elder Joshua Cordon

Wow that was fast!! – Jared

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Hello Family and Friends,

This might have been one of the fastest weeks I have ever had. Probably because it was just so good! A couple of firsts this week, we got our first investigator. We also will be seeing him again tonight. He is 84 and we can comprehend what he is saying! That is a miracle in itself! Also I taught my first street lesson yesterday in all Cantonese! The gift of tongues is real! Normally I just let my trainer do all the talking! I also went to a normal sacrament meeting this week, which was amazing because it has been 4 weeks since I have been able to take the sacrament. It was quite an amazing experience the spirit I felt to be able to feel the gift of the atonement and know that all those mistakes I have made I can be forgiven of!

The ward here is small but they are amazing! They are blessed to be one of the only wards with 6 missionaries! 2 Sisters and 4 Elders, President would love to see this ward grow enough to have to split!

This is the first week we have been able to have street lessons with people we will actually be able to teach! So far it’s been a lot of girls and non-Cantonese speakers. But we have taught 5 to Chinese men. That’s a miracle because this city is so crazy and everyone is so busy! So to get that kind of time from the men was pretty amazing! Our secret is to get over the lack of confidence and stop and asking people for the chance to teach them and just do it. When you’re really assumptive and assertive in a polite and kind way it really works. We were tired of people saying no, truth is they don’t realize what they are saying no to, so don’t give them the option.

I realize how much of missionary work is truly the work! You have to try your best to be the best missionary you can be and that is having the faith to talk to people and the diligence to grow. We have been struggling with boldness so this last week we really focused on it! For these Chinese men you got to be very confident and bold, something I struggle with in Cantonese because I am really insecure about the language. Yesterday though something hit me and we stopped in the middle of evening studies and went out and I was talking to as many people as I could and that’s what lead to the street lesson that I gave. The Lord is amazing. He can even help me speak Cantonese.

I love everyone and hope all is well! Thanks for all the support!

Elder Jared Cordon

Well I Am in Hong Kong – Jared

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Wow!!!

This has been an interesting two weeks!! I got to See conference twice I finally got to Hong Kong! Met my President, my trainer, my zone leaders, and the ward. So I had one of the hardest yet greatest weeks I could have ever had! Yet through all my trials the lord has been sure to take care of me!

Alright well first that last week was crazy. It was hard saying goodbye to the teachers and the Australian Cantonesies; but I got to leave seeing conference which was just amazing! I learned a lot and mainly took out of it to step up my game. I felt as if it was a call to prep up cause things are not gonna get easier. Man was that true!! I thought my Cantonese was alright… I can basically say hello, and thats the problem because then they start talking and then I pray they can speak english. haha I met my trainer Elder Howell super cool and very excited! He has been here for 4 months and his Cantonese is amazing! So that gives me hope.

So they moved us to Cause Way Bay which is in the best Area in the mission it’s right in the heart of Down Town on Hong Kong Island. Our area includes the Wanchie chapel which is amazing the second most expensive building the church owns! Check it out online or something our appartment is right next to it. Since we are both new and there is already two Elders in this Area we are starting from scratch. No investigators, So we go finding all day long… I cant speak for my life so its a very long day.

It was such a blessing because the last two days is when Hong Kong watches conference and all the missionaries can watch it in English! I thought it was good the first time, well not as good as the second time. I didn’t understand Elder Hollands talk until this time. I started getting that depression he was talking about and it was bad, I was having a hard time those first few days. Now I look at things differently. I can’t speak any better, but I realize this is the trial of my faith. Now I will doubt my doubts before I even think about doubting my Faith!

I have been able to look back at last week and realize how much the lord has blessed me and my companion! I may not be able to talk but I was able to listen to the spirit and the four big success we have had are because I said hi and got them to stop or by letting the spirit lead me to the most random places. I know this is the lords work and he won’t let me fail. We even have a meeting with this guy I ran into on the street, Also he Speaks English!!

I am in for a long ride but I love the people and this city is so unreal!! I am not a big fan of the humidity, but its cooling down. Also I am blessed to have some really cool Elders sharing my area and appartment its Eder Parker and Elder Passie. They are the Zone leaders and have both getting close to going home so they are a big help!

I encourage everyone who is going through any hard times that are really breaking you down. To change your perspective. Doubt your Doubts before you Doubt your Faith. You may realize how much the Lord has been really helping you, and your probably have something big you can learn from what your going through.

I love everyone and hope all is going so swell!

Elder Jared Cordon

A Very Crazy Week!! -Josh

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Dear Family and Friends,

This past week was very… Unique, to say the least. Monday and Tuesday were fairly normal I suppose, but then on Wednesday, another Elder I rode with a member down to Gainesville for a training meeting to prepare us to become trainers. It was great, a terrific way to put some spice into the week. BUT then on Friday morning we got a call from the zone leaders telling us to meet them at there ward building to pick up Elder largo because his companion just got called to be the next assistant to the mission president. Being in a trio is definitely a different experience. Elder Largo is a great missionary though, we were contacting a referral and the family was about to shut the door, but he spoke up and just bore his powerful testimony to them and they let us in and we had a powerful 45 minute lesson. The couples names are Lorenzo and Topeka. Lorenzo loves the Book of Mormon even though he is a deacon in his Holiness church. We will be back there soon.

Some wonderful miracles this week was that the Sutton’s came to church!!! Bro Sutton was supposed to work at 10 but he called his boss and told he is no longer working on Sundays because that is his day to go to church and be with his family! He is such a champion!! We had several powerful lessons with them this weekend. They even came to the sisters baptism on Sunday and Bro.Sutton said that he was so jealous that he couldn’t get baptized right then. He just needs to get married.

There are going to be a lot of changes starting tomorrow with a new companion, being on bikes, and smaller area and all, but I am excited. I will say that I am going to miss Elder Newbold, he was a great trainer and terrific companion. He is going on to bigger and better things though as he heads to Gainesville to be a zone leader.

Sorry for the short email, but things are crazy round here!

Love y’all!

Elder Joshua Cordon