Tag Archives: Miracles

I’m finer then a frog’s hair split four ways :-) – Joshua

Posted on by
Reply

Dear Family and Friends,

Sorry for the scare last week, I always forget to mention when the following week is transfers. No promises that I will remember in the future though.

Everything is going great though! I am filled with a very sweet spirit today, which is a direct result of my comp and I growing closer as a companionship. For the first transfer and well for the first week of this one we would but heads all the time. Though we managed to temporally let it go for lessons, the spirit we brought was nevertheless affected by the friction that was so obviously there. This weekend we finally worked things out though.

It started with a serious talk where I finally established my role as the leader of the companionship, which should have been there the moment I became his trainer, but he wasn’t used to not being incharge. After we came to an agreement it still didn’t entirely eliminate the contention and finally Sunday afternoon we were both tired of it. We were doing a Revelation Sequence (Pray for guidance, read the Book of Mormon, write down spiritual impressions, and pray for confirmation) in 3 Nephi 12 and the part about forgiving thy brother hit us both very powerfully. For me is was verse 25. The agree with thine adversary to me was interpreted to mean, “You don’t have to win every arguement or always be right, just agree with him.” We openly talked about the issues we had been having and now we are good. A weight has been lifted off of both our shoulders, and there is much more powerful spirit between the two of us. Not to mention we are actually good friends now. Two cheers for the Book of Mormon anyone?

I felt like sharing that in case anyone else is looking for guidance on conflict resolution. And because it explains why I can be so dang happy regardless of the fact that no investigators came to church and that we have no baptismal dates. But hey that just means that miracles are just down the road.

We did have some really great experiences this week though. We managed to administer the sacrament to two sisters who are confined to their homes because of illness, and to be able to see Nick. Nick came to church twice back in September, but it had been over a month since we had a lesson with him. I was finally tired of it so we went over there on friday just hoping to catch him. Well it worked 🙂 We sat and talked for a few minutes before he had to leave. Then we went back–uninvited– to his house last night with the bishop and we ended up having a terrific lesson with him. He shared with us a few of the sermons he gave when he was pastoring, but once he finally talked himself out we got down to business talking about his concerns. The spirit was very strong and we know that he is so very close to accepting the invitation to be baptized. We will definitely do that the next lesson we have with him which will hopefully be tomorrow.

The week was full of many other miracles, I just don’t have time to share them, but trust me they happened.

I have made some good changes to my blog this week so that will be really nice. I am hoping to have another post up here in a few days so check it out at arippleoflight.blogspot.com.

Anyway I love ya’ll!

Elder Joshua Cordon

My worst week of finding since week 2! Other than that not too bad haha :) – Joshua

Posted on by
Reply

Dear Family and Friends,

Contrary to popular belief, Florida does have enjoyable weather. WHO KNEW? It caught me surprise, I can tell you that. I actually love biking now. Not only does it feel great, but it means that more people are outside. Which is weird now that I think about it because well as my title suggests, we didn’t find much.

On other news, we did an exchange this last week and I went down to Price Creek which is out in the country and my companion stayed in Deep Creek. The best part about all this is that the elder who served with him for the day was his MTC companion which means they both had only been out for 4 weeks or so. The thought of the two newbies wandering the streets trying to figure out what they are going to do made me laugh. Not surprisingly they had interesting experience, but not in the way I expected.Here is what happened to them while I was down in the country. They started there day by helping with Bingo at the senior center, and then after they left they didn’t bike 300 feet before the elder who was borrowing my bike (which is a loaner bike from his companion) managed to cause the back sprocket to practically explode and render the bike unrideable. They walked about half a mile to the house of our ward mission leader who is currently in Vermont. They waited there for a ride for about 3 hours and then managed to get a ride for the rest of the night. I just feel bad for them.

Until my bike gets fixed I have been riding a bike that a sister in the ward loaned me. Luckily it wasn’t too girly and it is actually pretty nimble.

My miracle that I wanted to share this week comes from last Monday night. We hadn’t used our time very wisely and with a only an hour left in the night we felt like we had accomplished almost nothing. Recognizing that by our own efforts nothing would be accomplished we decided to say a prayer, begging for forgiveness and asking for direction. After the prayer ended I felt prompted to go and visit a referral nearby. When we got there this guy was standing outside waiting for a ride. We decided to verify with him if this was in fact the right house. He confirmed that it was, but that the guy we were looking for was in bed. Just then he asked what we were doing. We told him a little bit about the logistics of missionary work and how it all happens. Then he asked us for our information–which never happens! We exchanged information and he said he wanted us to come by and teach him. Then we got a text from him an hour later saying you will be hearing from me soon. So pumped! God is good!

Then we were finally able to get in touch with the lady who gave us her info at the library. Her name is Camekco and after a great first lesson she committed to be baptized on the 26th of October! 🙂 It was awesome 🙂

Just remember that prayer actually works!

I love ya’ll!

Elder Joshua Cordon

I Love my Mission – Jared

Posted on by
Reply

Family, Friends, Mormons lend me your ears!

Yes the weeks are long. Yes I wish I was in Hong Kong. Regardless I am still loving it here!

First with the interesting news, they are shipping us over to Wyview for the last two weeks of the MTC. This is kinda nice I wanted to experience the other campus because then we would have apartments, and we can go eat at restaurants near by. Downsides the gym time facilities are not that great okay, they are all outside, need I say more.

Also I gave the prayer for the devotional yesterday which was cool! There where 4000 missionaries but if you close your eyes, its no big deal. Where I was sitting made it so that I was in the screen the whole time Brother Jon Tanner was speaking. (Yes he is related to the very Jon Tanner the movie is after which was cool and he produced the movie Jon Tanner, The Stone Cutter, 17 miracles, and the new one Ephraims Rescue). I thought it was cool that he is an identical twin, because me and my companion both are twins. It was a pretty good devotional although not that mission motivating!

The one I saw after that for the Sunday evening films was, Elder Bednar’s “Becoming a Missionary”, It was super good. It was mainly about how to become a lifetime missionary, so even though my mission may be up in two years. It should be weird coming back.

Also I started reading Jesus the Christ this last week. Man even though I only have a little time that I can read it. No book has ever been so compelling I am on page 225 out of 800. I feel like I have already grown so much closer to Christ. I have never looked at his Ministry in such a way. I suggest all who are not sure how to increase their faith to read Jesus the Christ (Which was written in the celestial room, by an Appostle, so I consider it scripture).

I have not had the chance to recieve amazing miracles in the same my way my brother has but, I am walking testimony of God’s miracles in how I can speak as much cantonese as I can, with honestly as little effort I have put in. I know once I get to Hong Kong it will remind me how much more I have left to learn and how loving God will be to bless me. Cantonese is really really hard, but not to hard for The Lord.

Everyone I love you, stay tuned for the good stuff, its coming in 3 weeks;)

Elder Jared Cordon

A Very Crazy Week!! -Josh

Posted on by
Reply

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

ER TRIP!

Posted on by
Reply

Dear Family and Friends,

Luckily we didn’t go for me. We actually got a call that woke us up yesterday morning from the mission mom and she told us to go straight the ER to go give the two sis. missionaries in our ward a blessing. After getting ready (shirt, tie, tag, and a part in my hair) in 5 minutes, we noticed that it was 1:20 in the morning. It was a neat experience, though. The poor Sister has kidney stones. I sealed the anointing, and the blessing I pronounced was focused a lot more on her mission than on the sickness which was very interesting to me. By the time we got home, both Elder Newbold and I were wide awake and it took like 45 minutes for us to fall asleep. But despite the sleep deprivation it was a great sunday!

This past week was pretty rough until Friday. We had great member support with a lot of member lessons, but our afternoons were very unproductive. We only had 5 other lessons until Saturday. Luckily when i was on a trade-off with Elder Jensen in my district we worked really hard and got a terrific 7 other lessons. A lot of them being from tracting. They say tracting is the least effective way to do missionary work, but if it is all you have to work with the Lord will bless you. I think our area is a perfect example of that.

We had two great lessons this weekend with two different pastors. One was a non-denominational one and the other was a Nazarene. I will say that the promise from the Lord that known will confound you is very true. Not to say that they tried to twist our words, but we always had a sound, doctrinal answer to reply with. One after a long engaging conversation said that he enjoyed it, but we were never going to convert him, but the non-denominational one became a new investigator and wants us to come back!

Also, one of our investigators, William, is just such a character. I love the kid though. He is 18 and has moved over 7,000 miles, has been married, had a kid, divorced, and now he lives at his Sisters place. We have been meeting with him for a couple weeks now and just out of the blue he cut is long hair and looks a lot sharper. He also just has such an incredible understanding of the things we are teaching him. Before we even explained it, he knew what the baptismal covenant was, and what he had to quite doing before he was baptized; it makes it really easy. He agreed to try to quite smoking, but he has never tried before. I believe in him!

Anyhow, I transitioned my study to help me build a stronger testimony of Christ, and the principle engine for that is James E. Talmage’s, Jesus The Christ. I read a chapter every morning and then record my thoughts. It is just incredible how much my image of the savior has matured in just a week. I have been brought to tears several times and I am only his baptism. I can say with complete certainty though that I know that Jesus IS the Christ. I have no doubt in my mind that he lived, and he that he suffered and died for each and everyone of us. He did it because he LOVES and our Heavenly Father asked him to do it because he LOVES us. Christ made it through the trial of this life, but none of us can do it alone. That is why he reaches his hand out to everyone of us and offers the gift of his atonement which will lift everyone of us to be better and do more. I experience the blessing of the enabling power of the Atonement each and everyday! I know that without Christ life would be hopeless, and I know that because of him we can have hope! I love you all, but God loves you more!

Love,

Elder Joshua Cordon

Month Mark!!

Posted on by
Reply

Dear Family & Friends,

PictureEJC 014
This past week was incredible! So much has happened that I don’t even know where to begin. We had so much success this past week! The Lord has truly blessed us. We have these two great progressing investigators named JC and Mat. They are really making some incredible progress in changing their lives for the better. They are both 19 (i think) and are best friends. We are great friends with them to which is just terrific. They are both trying to quit smoking and dipping and I am very impressed with how willing and strong they are. Both are planning on getting baptized here in a few weeks!

Other than that the work is really picking up. We have a lot of people we know now and so planning our days is becoming a lot easier. I feel like I have been doing this work my whole life!

One small story to share. We were trying to find a less active on the church roster and when we got to their house they weren’t home. So we decided to knock a few doors before we left. The third house we went to just so happened to be the home of Br. and Sis. Sutton. Sis. Sutton was baptized into the church at 17 and hasn’t gone to church since. Which is even more incredible when she told us that she wants us to teach the discussions to her husband so they can be married in the temple! They were so fun to talk that we just chatted with them for probably 45 minutes. Also her husband is a terrific cook and he said he wants to cook us dinner. We have him scheduled for the 4th of July! ‘MERICA!

Anyhow, I am loving my mission. Even more so I am loving how I am more clearly seeing how the Lord blesses us each and everyday. I think if all of us really took some time each day to see how the Lord has blessed us we would all stop complaining and feeling entitled to any more blessings! I love you all and have a great week and 4th of July!

Elder Joshua Cordon

Here are a few pictures of my adventures so far.
One of our temple trips while at the MTC.

One of our temple trips while at the MTC.

In the south there are signs directing you to the different chapels.

In the south there are signs directing you to the different chapels.