Three Brothers… Two Countries… One Message

Three brothers have dedicated two years of their lives sharing one message, a message of hope and happiness, that's found in the gospel of Jesus Christ, to the people of Hong Kong China, Washington State and Florida State. They will be servings as missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Hard Work Pays Off!

Posted on May 20, 2015 by shalesecordon9

Dear Family & Friends,

It was very busy week. Probably one of the busiest weeks I have seen on my mission. But in a good way. I have seen that since moving to this area I hit my pillow at night being truly tired. There is a lot to think about and worry about, all in a good way of course. I really enjoy the feeling of hard work and truly I wake up with a smile on my face every morning to do it again. I am so grateful for the counsel that President Hawks offered us last week. One of the many things I like from what he shared was this “you don’t know how much you can do until you really need to do it” I feel like this sums up my mission for sure. As I contemplate on the weaknesses I have overcome and the ones I am still working on, I think how is it possible? Well its because the lord really needs us to work and work real hard, he needs us to be obedient and diligent. Well I feel like I am doing more than what I ever thought I could do and that’s because the lord really needs me to do it.

The ward really is awesome and we are seeing really cool miracles every week. For example this last Sunday two women walked into the church on their own. One lives in our area and the other in west points are on Ping Chau. They left before we could talk to them and we thought we lost our chance but luckily our amazing ward missionary stopped them and got their numbers for us and invited them to every activity that we have. We should be seeing more of them. I have been in this ward for 3 Sundays now and every week there has been new faces in the the Gospel Principles class.

We have also been able to extend 3 new baptismal dates this last week and already have a few people in mind that we would like to give them to this week. We are truly both being so blessed and I am so blessed to be able to enjoy and contribute to the hard work of my companion and other missionaries before me.

The meeting we had with the stake mission leaders last night was very very good! There was a lot of points being discussed that really needed to be brought out. Although we said very little that meeting we left with a big list on the ways the members and missionaries can work together better and we will be trying to sum those up and distribute that information to the other missionaries. I sometimes have a habit focuses only what we can do more and rarely stopping to appreciate whats already being done. I took a moment to stop yesterday as I sat with all the Bishops and ward mission leaders from the stake and to really appreciate their work, I felt this really cool feeling come over me of excitement and respect for these priesthood men and all they do to volunteer and support the church and the work of salvation.

This week the things we are going to focus on is finding new investigators we are making great progress with the investigators we do have and hope to be able to add more to the list this week! We are really good about talking to everyone and it seems like are best finds are the people we find in the non scheduled finding time. We are just working on getting better at rescheduling and calling.

Well I don’t know how familiar people are with the work here but it really is doing awesome! Macau officially became organized yesterday as the China Macau district. Here in Hong Kong we should be having another stake being organized in the next few months and several new wards. which would make 5 stakes here. We have a temple and 5 stakes it really is doing awesome here.

Well love you all and hope you take a moment every day to remember your Savior.

Elder Jared Cordon

TST!!!

Posted on May 5, 2015 by shalesecordon9

Dear Family & Friends,

It has been a wonderful Start to the next chapter of the mission story. It was amazing to have the opportunity to serve in Macau! Also now for the opportunity to serve in TST(which is the ward my trainee is from and my good man Elder Townsend served). It seems like God always sends me to the areas that I really want to go to! Although I did not necessary want to be Zone leader its here and I will do my best to be a leader and an example to the Zone. I know the best way to lead is by my actions.

My companion is one of the best if not the best the mission has! His name is Elder Williams and we started in the MTC living together so its a blessing to be with him now!

Macau had a great finish for the week we were able to meet up with a part member family and that was really cool they will be coming back to church and we were able to get the wife to agree to start meeting with the missionaries, we were also able to see Carson that new investigator again and be able to help a struggling Recent convert. A Wang one of the RCs has been struggling as we came to find out when we sat down with him. He was having some faith issues and it was awesome that he was willing to open up to us and the most important thing we got from him was that he want to improve his faith! So then we were able to help and gave his some assignments. His faith was struggling because he stopped reading praying and coming to church. The best part is we were able to help him just as the problem got started. So then Elder Chu can keep working with him. We were very busy with the finish and I was able to completely finish all the record books as well.

Now TST we had a ward BBQ is was a great chance to get to know the members right from the start and to meet a few a referrals from members so that was really cool! I really like the ward and the members and am glad I have already had the opportunity to get to know them I feel like I have been here for quite some time now, in a good way. Since Elder Williams and Elder Martinez met with all their investigators right before I got here we didn’t have any for the weekend but we had some chance to prep some stuff for MLC and get a lot of finding in. Elder Williams is an excellent finder and truly has embodied what Elder Ballard invited us to do. He talks to everyone and its just contagious so I have started to as well. I did before but, not like now. We have had a lot of really cool contacts and take advantage of every finding opportunity. Its interesting because its the culture here and as I moved in because thats just the way it is here thats what I natural started doing. I feel like if Elder Williams was with a new missionary he couldn’t help but just becoming like him as I just experienced.

One thing that we are working on is really getting up to speed as fast as possible with our teaching unity. Time is precious and we don’t want to waste any minute of it!

The zone is awesome and from it looks is every month they are getting better and better and we are going to do what we can to reach out the one and lift those who might be struggling we feel the zone will be the strongest once everyone can really start seeing the miracles!

Love,
Elder Jared Cordon

Here is some pictures for you all since I have been lacking. Don’t judge me cause i look bad, missionaries for some reason always look less attractive then when they get home I promise.

ps the whole squatting thing is a chinese thing

Here is a shot of me taking out the great and spacious grand lisboa with my cannon

Now I am in a roman coliseum

Also here is a car at the grand prix museum

Y(>_<) PEACE!

Back in MACAU!

Posted on April 21, 2015 by shalesecordon9

Dear Family and Friends,

Well We had a great week! We were able to add 3 investigators to our teaching pool. Good in that area although none were able to make it to church. We will be working on that. The 2 of the 3 came from Elder Tam and Ferrar so we are very grateful for their hard work. We also got another from a contacted referral from last week and he is really cool we got him to institute last week and he really enjoyed it then after taught him a quick lesson about the restoration to get him a book of mormon. He was supposed to come to church but he was not able to make it. We will see him again at institute though. The lesson they taught last week was about the word of wisdom and he really like it and enjoyed how our church compared to his last one is so clear about commandments and how we can receive blessings. He has good potential. The other two turnovers also have alright potential one is really talkative and the other is pretty quite the thing they have in common is its been hard getting them to read. One is facing a lot of opposition from his church, His Preacher is sayin straight lies to him, I am not sure how a man who expects to earn money talking about Christ can feel good spreading such plainly false things.

A hou the Instigator that we already had is going down hill a bit. We are loosing him to video games. He was so awesome but he is becoming more and more addicted and falling slowly away from the church. We are getting members to work on him. He has a good relationship with the ward so they have a really good influence on him.

We couldn’t get any meeting with less actives this last week. But we will keep working on that. I finished taking care of all our less active records they were such a mess but now they are beautifully organized and mapped out, I used a lot of personal time working on them because I just wanted to get them done.

Our finding is pretty good we are finding a lot of unplanned opportunities to share the gospel. A big focus for who we find is dads and potential priesthood holders and we sure find a lot but most a lot of them are Mandarin. We also find ourselves going to the same places far to often so we are going to mix it up this week and find some other good spots to go.

We just got a new Branch mission leader and we are excited to work with him. This last week we tried a lot harder and getting member involvement in our lessons and it was helpful. The younger members are pretty available to it makes it easy. Plus even the older ones are very willing as well.

For the up coming weeks we are really focusing on getting our investigators in the Book of Mormon and then of course focusing on finding. We have two branch activities this Saturday! So its a great opportunity to get people to. One is the Branch street display which will have some games and food and then after there is a music fireside. Both will be great activities for families.

Well had to head back to Hong Kong and come back to renew my visa buts it good to be back.

Sorry for no pictures the computer wont let me but I will be sure to send some as soon as I can.

Elder Jared Cordon

Stepping Stones

Posted on April 6, 2015 by shalesecordon9

Dear Family & Friends,

Hey well the work is moving a long nicely in Macau and I know that the long term benefits are going to come from the Baby Steps.

A big thing we have been working on these last two weeks is fixing the LA records. They were such a mess when I got here, there was a lot of them stuffed in a drawer and many just all over the place. lots of missing information as well. I am not sure why this is that way.. but we also found a pattern there were a lot of records that just had either 6 or 7 digit phone numbers. Apparently Macau used to have less numbers, so I figured out that if you just put 28 in front of the 6 digits and 6 in front of the seven digit numbers then they work. So its frustrating that a lot of the records got thrown away. Because we have been able to talk to a lot of people and we were able to meet with someone last week. His name is Micheal and he has decent potential for coming back if we stick with him, the branch knows and they will start helping him.

Our finding has been going pretty well. We are talking to a lot of people and we have been getting some good contacts and hopefully some reschedules. We are not holding back teaching on the street but mainly we are looking to reschedule people. A lot of the situations we meet people in are not enough time to teach or the place is too distracting to teach these people how to pray. Right now we only have one Investigator A-Hou who we meet with once a week. But mainly our work is we are trying to find families which definitely is harder but it will produce more lasting results. Overall I know the numbers dont show it but I really feel like we are fulling our purpose out here. We have found quite a few people to turn over, and many others to reschedule.

A cool thing that happened is this last week on saturday we went out morning finding and and it was not going so well but we decided to go to a different place then we planned and we ended being able to contact 2 different families. Both of which we were able to talk to for quite some time. I just really want to build up the primary and youth in the ward.

We have also been meeting with about two members a week ether family or Single RCs. Usually at the church to share the worth of souls and now we are about to start some follow up visits I know they were excited and after talking to some it sounds like its going well. Their has been a few successes from some but they are all women for the sisters. So we will keep working and see if some come our way.

I feel like Elder Chu and I are getting along great. I dont know if I filled you guys back home in on his background yet he is from Hawaii he is full chinese both of his parents are from Hong Kong and the only members in their families. He was raised in america and didn’t speak any chinese before his mission. He also studied at BYU for 2 1/2 semesters before his mission. He has been out for about 5 months in the field. He is the second companion that I have had who is younger than me the other was my trainee is also living with me right now so thats awesome!

Really the work is moving a long and I really hope the work that we do will make a lasting impact on the area.

Mainly the challenges we are facing is getting new investigators Its never been a strong point in my mission since I have not gotten one for quite some time. But i really I can over my weakness and we can do a great work here.

Love,

Elder Jared Cordon

Good Start

Posted on March 30, 2015 by shalesecordon9

Dear Family and Friends,

Well what a wonderful first full week in Macau! I really like it here the people are nice and from what we can see pretty receptive we were able to meet a lot of people and help a lot start having interest to be taught now while all may not be being taught by us they are still coming unto to Christ. But what goes around comes around because we were also able to meet a young man that the other Elders found.

We were able to meet with our investigator A-Hou and find out why he has not come to church for two weeks also why he stopped reading and praying. Now we have re-motivated him and he has started reading again and he came to church yesterday. Sadly his fellow-shipper has not come for two weeks who is also a recent convert so that’s another thing we are going to try and fix this week. Also we met with another Investigator who is the one we still need to turn over. Brother Mak, he is the man who was going to be baptized then last second found out he couldn’t because of the Elders not realizing where he lived. But I think this is really for the best because after meeting with him there is a lot he didn’t understand, for example he thought he could just go get baptized in another church, but the best reason for waiting is now he is working to get a new job and applied to have Sundays off. So we are praying really hard that he can have that blessing and then start to be able to attend the other branch. We wanted to turn him over but he said until he figures out his job situation he doesn’t want to meet the other Elders.

We now have some decent Less Active work. Yesterday a man walked into church with his family, he was active 10 years ago when he got baptized, after talking to him I found out that he came back because he realizes that his kids are growing up really fast and need the gospel. So after talking to the sisters we are going to work on helping him get back and active then once we get going with him then we can help the sisters to start teaching his wife. We feel like its best for us to work together on this one. We also had another LA man walk into church and he wants us to meet him so we will see what we can do. We also met with another Less Active who has a desire to come back we are just working to build his faith so he can make it happen.

We also were able to meet with a few members to share the Worth of Souls project that the Sister Training leaders and the Zone leaders came up with, its mainly with visiting members and helping them understand some ways they can do missionary work and then working to get a name. It went really well this week we will be following up with the families hoping to be receiving some names. they were all very receptive and want to share the gospel it might just take a few follow ups to really see some big results. We also had a young mens biking activity which went well we had 1 Recent Convert 1 Investigator and 1 Less Active. The activity went well and the young men enjoyed themselves that helped a lot in getting our investigator to church yesterday.

We have some other things we are working on with the Branch, one is a big street display coming up in April they want the whole ward involved. It will have some games and information about what the church offers. It will have primary kids singing songs and a lot of other stuff hopefully it really goes well. I know its really getting pushed by the Branch members which is awesome because the main target is families and they can find them a lot better than we can!

Here are some pictures.

Love you all!

Elder Jared Cordon

1 Word…. MACAU!

Posted on March 30, 2015 by shalesecordon9

Dear Family and Friends,

Well a lot of stuff went down last week we got a referral and it turned out to be Elder Wongs mom’s cousin and well she recognized him right away and it turns out she is a lost sheep from about 20 years back. She was anti’d by her family really bad and then went less active then fell off the radar and after having an amazing visit with her, she referred us to a bunch of others and I was very happy but even more than me elder wong is very happy because these are all his family! So we got the go from President Hawks and started working on them!

Well last night we had to head to Wanchai to do our turn at this welcome center thing the church is trying here (its like a visiting center). Well right when we were wrapping up we went and got some dinner and then we get a call from the zone leaders saying Elder Wong will be leaving to Macau!! This is crazy we have only been together 3 weeks and something must have happened because its only our companionship and the Macau companionship that are affected. I was pretty happy for Elder Wong but he was not to happy because we just found all his family and he is really the key to it all working out. Well we forgot something at the church so we had to head back and as we walked down some stairs we ran into President and Sister Hawks just before they walked into the Elevator so we talked for a minute then I informed them that Elder Wong got the news and President asked him how he was feeling about it. Well Elder Wong was not gonna say he was not happy but you could tell he wasn’t too pleased to be leaving.

Well we scheduled an appointment with his aunt so he could get a goodbye before he headed out and so hopefully I could get to know her better. Well when we were talking with her. We got a call from President and he asked what we were doing and we said we were in a lesson so he said okay I will call you back but when I call you don’t answer the phone (a little weird). Well he called and elder wong answered the phone anyway then president said I thought I told you not to answer the phone, but I am glad you did because I had the right companionship but the wrong Elder, Elder Cordon will be packing his bags.

We’ll it was Ironic because when Elder wong was talking to president I was talking to his aunt telling her how I would love to switch Elder Wong places then he hangs up comes and grabs my shoulder and says well thats what just happened. I was very very surprised because I thought I had no hope in going to macau. Only the Uk and Locals get to go there, but sure enough I am going so it won’t be for more than 2 months but its happening!

Well love you all!

Elder Jared Cordon

Just keep swimming! -Jared

Posted on September 9, 2013 by shalesecordon9

First and foremost the greatest thing that happened this week is I got to see my brother after a long 2 years! That may have been the quickest 30 minutes of my life! Also as far as the language goes I still kepted having thoughts that the language was growing really slowly.

Well I took some time this week and with another Elder and practiced baring my testimony! Well needless to say it is amazing how far I have come, I don’t think you realize how much you know until you put it to the test and I think my testimony could not have been a better way!

I have to say I really hope I get to serve in Macau because you get to go to bed at 11:30 and wake up at 7:30! Not to mention it looks so cool at night time!

I have started my adventure on the Character of Christ. It began one night while I read outside with the sound of BYU crushing Texas in the background! I have to say thought that It has helped me realize how much Christ has influenced the world with only so few verses about his ministry in the bible, we know very little about his minstry yet the world recognizes his life with such importance that our very year of living is based on the Years following his life. Its been ultimately decided that his existence is factual.

But non the less. I know Christ life was not easy and He was strong, so I have to be. Salvation wasn’t easy for him and it isn’t easy for us! Don’t give up do something more!

I love all of you!

Love Elder(Jared) Cordon

P.S. I am so bad at typing so my letters have been short but once I get to the field I will have more time to make this longer:)

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