Tag Archives: Mormon

Catch A Vision! A Day of White!

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Dear Family and Friends,

Wow… What a week! How is it that things just get better and better? Will it ever stop? Well, according to my belief in progression, nope! Oh how miserable life would be without that knowledge. To literally think that what you have is as good as it gets.

The truth is this, we can always have better, be better, and do better. Our work is never done. Even when we die someday, thanks to Christ, we will still continue to grow and learn if we so desire.

This is essentially the message that I try my best to share with non-members, members, and missionaries. It is a process, but the first step is to help create in them a vision of the future they would like to realize. Proverbs 29:18 reads, “Where there is no vision the people perish.” To create a vision you need to open your mind to the possibilities of what can be, or in other words, you need to raise your expectations. In this vision creating process you should include our loving Heavenly Father. He knows far better than us what we can become and what potential we have. If we heed the promptings of his spirit he will help us raise our expectations. A man may accomplish much in life, but if they do not include God in the creation of their vision they will find at the end of their life that they have still fallen far short of what they could have accomplished in that time. God can make a lot more out of my life than I can. I know from personal experience that that is true.

Once we have grabbed hold of an inspired vision we need find out what it will take to realize that vision. Where are we falling short? As you ponder and discuss what it will take, you need to make goals. You should make enough goals so that if you were to reach all of your goals then you would find yourself reaching your vision.

And then finally the part that I believe is most crucial is the plans. Weston told me in an email a while back the following quote, “A vision without plans is just a dream, and plans without vision is but a nightmare.” We should make detailed plans for how we will accomplish every single goal. Once again, let the spirit of God be present during this process for he will guide you in every step as you make these plans. God knows all things and as we listen to his spirit we may make provision for things we have never considered. Excellence is in the details! So many people in this world have done the first two steps of creating vision and goals, but they never go as far as making specific plans. It is of no surprise to me that these people never reach that original vision they have established for themselves. Plans translate into action! Plans are what allow us to go and make it happen! Plans are what separates the dreamer from the achiever.

But anyway that is what has been on my mind lately.

On to the miracles!! We had a baptism this last Saturday! It was probably the most spiritual baptism I have ever attended. The feelings of love and kindness that where in the air where so thick and tangible that you could cut it with a knife. We had terrific support from the ward and everything could not have gone smoother. We combined our baptism with the sisters missionaries. They had a family of 5 getting baptized and we had the incredible Tara. Just simply recollecting the event has filled my soul with a burning joy that is coursing through my veins. This is what is all about; seeing the change that people have undergone over a life time to be ready for this moment only to begin their new journey of growth in the love and warmth of the family of Christ. On top of that, to see a family baptized and united together in their faith is something truly special. That is one whole family that will be able to be together forever now! This gospel is so good!

A quick note on Tara. She is one of the most amazing women that I have ever met. Her love and appreciation for this knowledge and spirit is unlike anyone I have ever met. Being around her honestly make me question whether or not I fully appreciate as I should the blessing of having the gospel in my life. She has a light about her that brings joy into the hearts of all who interact with her. This ward must be doing something right to be able to receive in its midst such a choice spirit. I still haven’t figured out what it was that I did to deserve the blessing of being her conversion story. I am excited to see what she is able to do from here.

I hope all of you will be able to reach your own potentials by constantly using the process of vision, goals, and PLANS. If you can master that process you will truly be able to experience constant and lively joy in your life. The very joy that I experienced at that baptism, which happened through the very process that I described. GO THE DISTANCE!!

I love y’all! Have a great week!!

Elder Joshua Cordon

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1 more down plenty more to go!

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Dear Family and Friends,

Well what a wonderful week we just had. We worked really hard to help Aaron be ready for his baptism and the rest of his life. His baptism was a success! After he was baptized he actually spoke and it was really good. He has an amazing testimony and you can tell he is on the road to conversion as all good members are. Teaching him this last week has really taught me a lot of lessons as we were focusing on the holy ghost and receiving personal revelation. I can look back at my life and realize how much stronger my connection with the spirit is now than at any time previously.

Were also able to see Mike twice this week. We taught him half of the plan of salvation on Wednesday and after he was so excited to learn more he was scheduling the next lesson himself. So we taught him again on Friday after English class. I am so blessed to have the opportunity to teach him the lord has been here for us. Every time we get someone close to baptism I ask the lord whose next and he always has another person ready.

A couple in our ward also had the idea to feed the young men and two of our investigators who are in their friend group and that went so well. Its becoming the cool thing to be part of church for them. We were also able to meet another one of their friends and get a 3rd investigator. It really awesome to see the young men getting in the excitement of missionary and having success doing it. We just teach the all together on Saturdays then play a little basketball. Sadly they were not able to attend church but they will be there next week.

Sister Lau and Sister Syu are doing awesome they are really excited to continue to hear more. We have found out more about there families and are really pushing to meet there husbands this next week, we realize the only way to feel the fullness of this gospel is to have the full family involved, so that is our focus this week. With them living in mainland the best way for retention is to get them all.
Well it was an amazing week and I can see that the Lord will continue to progress his work I am so grateful to take part in the Hong Kong peak service to be able to hear about all the sacrifice made by the Chinese people in building the gospel. This is a blessed to be serving.

Love you all

Elder Jared Cordon

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This is a Beautiful Place!

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Dear Family and Friends,

This is such a beautiful place they have taken a desert and turned it into a very beautiful place.

This week there was so many reasons to be grateful. It is remarkable everything that needed to happen so that the gospel could be restored. All of the details that God directed to bring this world out of apostasy is incredible to me. I know that God has his hand in the details of the affairs of this world and his plans and works will progress. The question that we have to ask ourselves is whether we are going to be apart of the work that is happening. I am so grateful to be able to be apart of this work “full time” and am taking down notes on how I can be for the rest of my life.

We are continuing to have wonderful blessing. I am growing in testimony every day, that is easy to do when you study as much as we and talk about it even more. I never tire of feeling the Holy Ghost every time that I testify of truth. I am so grateful for the area that i am in and the people that i get to meet every day.

Phil and Alicia and both moving forward with their faith in finding out for themselves their relationship with God. We gave a church tour to Alicia and what a wonderful experience that was we invited her to be baptized and she is very committed to building her testimony to build her to that moment. She is so good at recognizing the spirit and letting it guide her to make changes in her life.

Phil still has a lot a questions which is really good and he is praying about all of it. I am so excited to see him grow in his faith as we answer the questions he has and show him how he can find his answers through pray and scripture study.

I am almost done with my first transfer, and if feels like just yesterday that I got off the plane with the sun glaring me in the eyes. I am so glad every day that I made the decision to serve a mission. I know that this is where I am supposed to be. I challenge everyone to decide what you can do to be apart of Gods team and DO IT.

ELDER S. CORDON

What an Awesome Week!

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Dear Family and Friends,

This is a week that is getting locked in the vault. We are seeing lives blessed by the gospel and them building a closer relationship with their Heavenly Father. One that I am really excited about is Alicia, she is just ready to have the gospel be apart of her life. She is someone that I know the lord has been preparing for a long time. When we first met her she didn’t even know if God was even there, she thought that there might could be a God but she didn’t know. She agreed to let us work with her and she is already seeing how much Heavenly Father just want her to have him in her life. She walked a mile to come to a members house to see us. THAT IS WHAT I CALL EXERCISING FAITH! She has such an amazing desire to know God and she is showing it, I am looking forward to all of the lessons to come.

We also have Phil he is a non-member father of a member family, he has five boys and a wife that comes to church almost every week. (it is sometimes hard for her to get all the boys there by herself) Phil however doesn’t know if Joseph Smith is a true Prophet. We talked a little about it and he agreed that he hasn’t really taken the time to pray about it though. He also has some questions about the priesthood, the great news is he has committed to take the time to learn and to pray to get his answers. Which is great because that is all we ever ask is to pray about it and to find out for yourself if what we are saying is true. what a blessing it will be to that family when he accepts the gospel.

The temple trip was today! What a great experience that was to go to the temple and bring questions to the house of the Lord about my investigators and about how I can be a better missionary. I know that the Lord answers prays but it is just so different in the temple. I was able to get a spiritual recharge and get direction on what gifts the Lord has given me to help in this work. I have found so much comfort in going to the temple and knowing that if I take a question and in faith know that he will help me I will always get an answer. Rarely the one I want but always the one I need.

This week was such a growing week for me in so many ways. I was able to have many moments where I knew that my steps were being guided and my words were being given to me. This work is moving forward at such a remarkable rate, the Lord is preparing so many people to hear the truth. We have had a commandment given to us, it is not a new commandment, that the gospel be spread to the whole world. It is one that more need to take as serious as any other commandment, the greatest commandment given to us was to love one another. We need to take that love for everyone and share with them what brings the most happiness in this life. THE GOSPEL. I challenge everyone that reads this to talk to a friend who can learn more and share with them your testimony about one of these four things. Jesus Christ is the Savoir of the world, Joseph Smith is a true Prophet, The Book of Mormon is the word of God, or the Priesthood has been restored. Then invite them to meet with missionaries to know more. You don’t have to teach a lesson, let the missionaries do that, just be there to testify of truth and share what you know and love.

I know that this gospel is true and I am so grateful that I get to share it for two years. I know that God answers prayers and if you will ask in faith he WILL answer you and give you guidance in your life. I have a personal relationship with my Heavenly Father and I know everyone can because we are all His sons and daughters. I seal this in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen

Elder Steven Cordon

Miracles!!

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Dear Family and Friends,

Well what another wonderful week on the Lords errand. Hong Kong has a rich pioneer heritage as all areas embracing the do. They have made a film about this very thing. Sometimes I find myself not looking at the big picture, but this is an amazing work being done here. Yesterday we watched the movie in church and the spirit was so strong. That video helped me realize the amazing sacrifice early members of the church made to build this gospel. The first chapel here is still standing and it was build by the bare hands of the early saints, then you put that in contrast to the building in Wanchi and that makes it really clear how much the church has grown and is still growing. Getting in touch with the pioneer heritage, really helps remind me that the Lord is serious when he says he is building in the 4 corners of the earth, these are the last days and I don’t plan on sleeping through the Resurrection.

On top of that, this last week President Hawks had come out here to the New Territories. He had a special meeting and during the meeting while the district leaders and the zone leaders met, that left three who didn’t fit in to go finding. So us three went out to do some finding and President was really excited saying miracles were going to happen and sadly nothing I could see happened and when we were done, President said maybe you haven’t seen a Miracle yet but they are coming. Well about 30 mins later we saw one. We met with an investigator Uncle Fighter an “Eternigator” *Editors Note: A term often used to describe someone that has been meeting with the missionaries for a very long time* our lesson started with him debating doctrine per usual, until the topic of the spirit got brought up. Suddenly everything changed and he asked us what does it feel like? Well after that we come to find out he has felt the spirit a lot and he knows that our message is true and he needs to be baptized. He also spoke of a talk at the “My Conversion Fireside” were a recent converts testimony had really resonated with him. Its interesting that this was the turning point, because just before the fireside we felt prompted to meet with him after not seeing him for nearly 3 months. We met and he wasn’t willing to come to church and we invited him to the fireside and he didn’t want to come. Later that week he called us and sad he wanted to go. So we went then after the fireside he hurried out and we couldn’t follow up on how it went. We assumed nothing happened well turns out that a lot happened. So next step is preparing him for baptism.

Another miracle is that at church we had 3 referrals!! With two more previously this week! That’s more referrals than I have had my entire mission. With a total of five! When we baptized Gary I was wondering whats next, well here they come.

Another miracle is Aaron this week he has had a total change of heart he said “I know I haven’t been baptized yet but I really want to serve a mission!” Man I can’t explain how good it is to help find not only one of the Lords sheep but one of his Shepherds.

Another miracle is when we were finding yesterday. Finding recently has been pretty tough but yesterday we contacted a family. I can already picture them in white already. But here is the miracle we were out finding when I felt prompted to go to a specific spot. While there we met a guy who was not too interested but we ended talking while walking so we ended up no where near where we had planned. But then we see this kid and start talking to him and he has a lot of interest. He tells me he wants to learn more can you wait here while I run into my house. We thought this might be a way for him to get away since people have done that before. But he comes back out and we teach him the restoration and he says that he just recently started thinking about God again and really wanted to know if he was real, then we came along. We will meet with him again next week.

Here is a few stories I thought you would enjoy, there is plenty more but my time is short.

I love you all and hope everything continues to be amazing!

Elder Jared Cordon

Week 1– Elder Steven Cordon

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Dear Family and Friends,

Well it is my first week in the mission field, and it has been pretty crazy. My trainer is 19 has been out for 3 transfers and is training as the new district leader and we are both new to the area that I am starting in. (they call it being doubled in) so it has been really crazy.

I hope that it calms down a little bit by this week so i can start getting into a regular schedule, like actually getting personal study in the mornings. (crossing fingers) The two wards that we cover are great, very friendly and we have a full feeding calender. but i think just like everywhere they could be doing more missionary work to help us out. The ward leadership has spent a lot of time coming up with some really good ideas but it is getting the members to really get those ideas moving that is falling short. I am really excited to find ways to get the fire moving with these members if they could all be as focused as the mission leaders this place wouldn’t even need missionaries except to teacher lessons and baptize.

I am currently trying to come up with new ways of getting ourselves into new investigators homes because i feel that tracting is not the most effective way of doing things. So if anyone has ideas i am open to hearing them.

The area in which i am serving (the Tri-Cities) has quite the history that i had no idea about. This whole area started from a military compound that was one of the sites of the Manhattan Project. (made the bombs dropped in WWII) And they are pretty proud of it, a nearby high school has the mascot of “The Bombers.” I got a really good laugh when I heard that, and with graduations this weekend banners of the Richland Bombers were draped all over town. Well hopefully next week I will have more to say I will have been here twice as long so hopefully.

Elder Steven Cordon

A Good Week

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Dear Family and Friends,

Alright another week down… :). With less teaching this past week it has been a good time to look at who’s next now that Bro Fan is baptized. It has been unusually hard to teach lessons on the street this last week and after almost a week without teaching any I realized I wasn’t relying on the enough on the Lord. So I was a lot more specific in my prayers, and we met and taught a really prepared individual. Then we followed the same pattern for the next day. The same thing happened. I think the Lord wanted to remind me that I can do all I can do, but If I don’t ask Him for help He won’t fill in the rest.

Also this week I had a chance to head on back to Tsin Siu Wai to do an exchange with the other half of the companionship Elder Lam. He is awesome he is from Hong Kong and we knew each other back from the time on the Island. But we had a cool experience together. Last time I was with Elder Groeberg and we had met this less active family it was actually the only time they met this family so Elder Lam never met them, but while we were finding we ended up running into one of the sons, then taught him a good lesson about the Plan of Salvation.

Another cool thing that happened this week is we were eating dinner with our investigator Aaron(who should get baptized soon) and some guy came up and asked us to teach him and while were talking Aaron jumped in and shared a great message about the spirit world. So overall that was just awesome. He is already a missionary.

But hey love you all and hope you have a great week!

Love,

Elder Jared Cordon

Baptism!!

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Dear Family and Friends,

Well, I wasn’t sure if this day was actually going to come. Butterfly Ward no longer has a curse. Those 2 1/2 years are over. It wasn’t by any means the work of me The Lord did it all. Gary starting interacting with missionaries over 30 years ago! It was a great day to see someone so happy to make the change. I haven’t seen someone so ready to change in so long. He was just glowing and kept saying this his new beginning!

It was a little stressful though cause on Saturday we went to confirm that Gary was still ready but, his phone was off the entire day we couldn’t reach him. Then the next morning we had tried to call him again and he wasn’t answering so our ward mission leader sent us to go get him. We went down and we wanted to go to his door but the security guard was being tough, so we tried the intercom. To our pleasant surprise he answered right away and he was actually heading down. He was more than happy to be heading to church. Before this since he is wheel chair bound he has always worn a loose shirt cause he thought it would be weird to wear sweats with a nice shirt, but today he had a white shirt and tie and was completely prepared.

Then to the other stressful part: we had planned for our other investigator Aaron and the sister missionaries investigator to play a violin duet and we had them practice once on Wednesday after that we couldn’t get a hold of him. So we were pretty nervous but thirty minutes before the baptism started they both showed up. MIRCALES!

Interesting enough, even with how stressful the situation seemed I never once really worried. I hard a strong confident feeling the entire time. Which is great cause I was just really happy and relaxed through the whole thing. What a blessing. Then after we celebrated with our recent convert and our investigator at a members house for dinner.

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That’s basically the best part of my week!

Oh and we had a really good Zone conference in the mission office! It was a combined one with the other zone so, it wast great to see some faces I haven’t seen in awhile!

Love you all

Elder Jared Cordon
Tang Jeung Louh

It’s Getting Close

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Dear Family and Friends,

This was a pretty exciting week here in Butterfly Ward. After 2 1/2 years and no baptisms, we got one lined up for this Sunday. Gary passed his baptismal interview with flying colors. With us trying to make sure he is truly ready we had to see him about 2 times a week outside of church. Its just so awesome to see the change made in people when they are truly eager and ready to take that next step into a life of discipleship. I have been blessed to help Gary reach this opportunity for him to make special covenants with God and recieve the wonderful gift of the Holy Ghost! He is wheelchair bound so its gonna be interesting on how we will execute it.

Also this last week Aaron came back into the mix and He also has a baptism for June. But I really love this kid. This week I got him to play his violin for us, he is pretty amazing! We are going to try and get him to play it for Gary’s baptism! We are waiting on a response to that one.

But all is well here in Hong Kong. There is a lot of energy in the mission and we are seeing a lot of success in all the areas, everyone is getting really excited for July for us all to reach our goal!

Hey love you all hope all is well!

Elder Jared Cordon

Alligators, Snakes, and Trios

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Dear Family and Friends,

Sorry I was silent last week, the pictures are of what I was doing instead of emailing. I hope that you agree it was time well spent, and if you don’t well too bad it already happened.

St. Augustine is a really cool city. It has some really neat attractions, definitely some of the coolest stuff I have ever seen on my mission. I got two items checked off of my bucket list, I saw huge gator, and I held one. Next task is to find one in the wild and poke it with a stick. A really long stick mind you. Okee Fanokee Swamp here I come! haha oh man that would be cool. 

Along with seeing the gator farm we got to see the Fort they had there and it was really cool. It was definitely a lot bigger than I thought it would be looking from the outside. Needless to say it was a really awesome trip! It all could not have happened without Elder and Sister Christensen though, they help finance all us poor missionaries and made the itinerary. I am very thankful for kind people like them!

Another interesting thing that happened this past week was that Elder Frazier went to the temple and I was in a trio for the day. It was an interesting experience. Luckily I got to pick were we go for the day, so I was able to stay in my area and keep the work moving along. Both of the Elders I was with are in full bike areas so they appreciated the break. Exchanges are nice because they mix up the monotony and you learn so much from serving with other missionaries. 

We got a call from President Craig yesterday and Kevin and Lori can get baptized this week so that is incredibly exciting! Also, we had transfer calls last night and every companionship of elders in the zone got changed except for us, and all the sisters in my district got changed, and 2 sisters in the other district. It was a massive change that I did not see coming! That just means that I get to build a friendship with a lot more missionaries though which is very exciting! Wohoo! Friends!

Love ya’ll!
Elder Joshua Cordon

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