Tag Archives: Mission President

Special Witnesses of Jesus Christ

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Dear Family & Friends,

Well this was to say the least an extremely eventful week with moves calls more food than what is healthy and 6(+1 soon to be) Special witnesses of the our Lord Jesus Christ came to visit us and share their testimonies with us.

Starting from the top, moves calls: Well we basically new a lot was going to happen but then every single companionship in the zone changed so it was pretty big. Little Malaysian Wong moved to Ngau Tau Kok and my new Companion Canada Wong moved here to Aberdeen (I have to distinguish the Wongs because there is 3 of them here in the mission). I will miss my old Wong and am excited for the new Wong. We actually entered the MTC together so its pretty awesome to serve with him as two seasoned missionaries. We have already gotten off to a great start because he has an amazing way of connecting with these people way better than any of my Chinese companions he is very loud and very talkative and a very good finder. Also the very stereotypical Chinese nerd who loves gaming and science. I love him.

Because of Elder Wong leaving and Elder Wong coming our members and investigators were shedding tears and excited to welcome a new missionary. Because of that we ended up having a lot of meal appointments and man I feel like its gonna take awhile to get that all down! The best was one day we went to this Thai restaurant for lunch with 2 people and again for dinner with another person. Man and it was delicious!

But the crowing event of course was to be able to have a special visit and hear from An Apostle Elder Ballard, The senior president of the seventy President Rasband (again), The Presiding Bishop of the church Bishop Stevenson; Plus the Asia area presidency Elder Gong, Elder Wong, and Elder Funk; not to mention the soon to be seventy President Hawks. So 7 powerful men and we got the chance to hear from them two days in a row. Once by ourselves and the other with our investigators and members. Truly truly amazing, they ended up talking for over 2 1/2 hours and we were very much uplifted. Its amazing because as a mission we are very obedient so it was good because then we could hear about other things and this time was teaching skills. Which to cover a big part was in the first words spoken by Elder Ballard “we are all a little bit too shy” and another quote he shared from an experience with him and Legrand Richards, Legrand Richards saying “you know what the problem with this church is? we don’t have any more preachers” they gave us the call to be the best and be bold. I could go own with everything that was shared but it was moving and the Kwok family loved his message the second day were we got to see him apply all that he told us. All of them are very powerful and man I am so blessed because this is my 4th visit from a general authority not counting the MTC.

All of this excitement is happening at the right time to get me motivated. I am entering the 4th quarter of my mission and I have worked hard but its time to look where I have been lacking and step up my game!

I love you all have a great week!

Elder Jared Cordon

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Here is a dinner appointment at our bishops house with our investigator Eric and my new comp.

 

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Here is a dinner appointment at our bishops house with our investigator Eric and my new comp.

 

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Meetings Galore!

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Dear Family and Friends,

This last week was a bit crazy!! We had 3 zone conferences which are about 10 hours each, then we had a meeting with elder Suarez of the presidency of the seventy on Friday. After a week of that many meetings my brain was fried. I definitely know how a lot of ways that I can begin to change and improve for the better.

It was a really awesome experience being able to spend some time with Elder Suarez. We picked him up from the hotel and took him to the mission home which is about a 25 minutes away, so it afforded us some good opportunity to chat. He knows a Br Cordon who was a mission president in Brazil who lives in bountiful now. Sadly I have never met him but I said he was undoubtedly kin.

He met with us after our general meeting with him and he gave us some good council and commandments, it was stuff I really needed to hear. We left that day with an unconquerable spirit. The very next day we set a date for baptism on the 22nd of this month. Her name is Kristin. Her twin sister was baptized earlier his year. Her twins boyfriend goes to our ward so she started going recently. She is very excited and so are we. There is a new spirit about our work, and I can’t wait to see where we take things.

Love yall!

Elder Joshua Cordon

Arrival in the Florida Jacksonville Mission

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We received this letter from his mission today… with a picture of Elder Cordon with his Mission President, President Barry. We are so excited for him! 🙂

E. Cordon

Elder Joshua Cordon’s first day in the mission field. He looks so happy!

Dear family of Elder Cordon,

We are happy to send the good news that your missionary has arrived safely to the Florida Jacksonville Mission. What a great joy and privilege it is to greet each missionary as they come off the plane in Jacksonville. The smiles on their faces showed their excitement and readiness to be here.

It is very apparent to us that Elder Cordon has prepared very well for this calling in the Lord’s service. He has come to the mission field with such enthusiasm and love for the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Your son’s upbringing and additional training in the MTC have provided him with many wonderful tools to help him be an effective missionary. Now he joins us ready and willing to exercise his faith, testify of the truthfulness of the gospel of Jesus Christ and love the people of the South.
Your son arrived with 24 other missionaries and they have enjoyed a dinner together at the mission home, have been interviewed by President Barry and were trained by the assistants. We have taken pictures and we have attached a picture of him with President and Sister Barry. As you can see he is well and happy although a little tired. We also took a group picture which you can view later this week on our blog at: www.floridajacksonvillemissionnews.blogspot.com

You are welcome to check this blog often to catch a glimpse of your missionary and find out what is going on in this mission.

We encourage all missionaries to email home weekly on Preparation Day which is each Monday. He will let you know where he has been assigned to serve. Just a reminder … when Monday happens to fall on a national holiday, those who use the public libraries will not have access to a computer, therefore, they usually email on Tuesday instead. Also Preparation Day moves to Tuesday during transfer week which is every 6 weeks.

We trust you will write to Elder Cordon on a weekly basis also. Please send positive messages that will keep him focused on his work. We hope you will share faith promoting experiences, convey your love for him and describe the blessing you are receiving. Missionaries like to know that your testimonies are growing and that you are strengthening your faith in Jesus Christ. In order to be successful as a missionary, great focus on the work is required. The more he can “lose himself” in the work, the better prepared he will be to teach and testify. Your positive support in weekly letters will help him to do this.

Your missionary is about to make an eternal difference in the lives of others. We hope you will be encouraged and comforted by this quote by President Lorenzo Snow: “There is no mortal man that is so much interested in the success of an elder [sister] when he is preaching the gospel as the Lord that sent him to preach to the people who are the Lord’s children.”

We’d like to take this opportunity to thank you for all you have done to prepare Elder Cordon to faithfully serve a mission. We look forward to getting to know him as we serve our Heavenly Father here in the Florida Jacksonville Mission.

Please accept our love and gratitude for trusting him to us and more importantly to the Lord.

May God Bless You,

President James W. Barry and Sister Marilyn T. Barry