Tag Archives: Mormon

Let Him Lead

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Dear Family and Friends,

Well it certainly was a great week. It was a temple week and we had a baptism. Which also made the week a very busy, and spirit filled week. The temple is such a wonderful place to to be able to be bless to go on my mission is such a wonderful gift. The only other place outside of temples that I have been able to feel the spirit as strong is at the sacred grove. The difference is that temples are dedicated homes to the Lord, and we are given promises and blessings and light and knowledge in the temples when we seek for it. What a great blessing for the mission to be able to receive light and knowledge for the areas that we are in.

Had a really cool experience this week with getting a haircut and taking the time to talk to her about the Plan of Salvation. There are some many moments in our lives that we have peoples attention that we can share simple and small truths about the gospel. The question is are we taking advantage of them all. It was a lesson to me of how easy it was to take advantage of the time that I had while she was cutting my hair to direct the conversation to the gospel.

Come to find out that her mom has recently passed away and she has been doing A LOT of researching into afterlife and what is really waiting for us. I was then easily able to share with her the wonderful truth that we know about the life to come. I also was able to share with her how we know this because we have prophets and God still talks to the world through them so that we know of these wonderful truths.
When are truly willing to take advantage of every moment that is given to share truths of the gospel and build up His children. Then He will be willing and able to guide even the plans you make and the steps you take to give you the moments to build his kingdom and his children. The willingness to give him everything is the price, and the reward is more then could ever be dreamed about.

Life becomes so easy when everything is guided by Him. So that is the question are we letting Him guide us everyday?

I Love You All
Thank you for everything that you have done in my life.

Elder S Cordon

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.

 

Red Rockets!!

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Dear Family and Friends,

Chinese New Year was a wonderful, wonderful experience here in Aberdeen. Last Year I remember the work really slowing down when the New Year rolled around but this year it was different, it did not seem to have any effect whatsoever other than the positive ones. We decided since everyone would be in their homes why not test our luck with knocking doors! What came of it was the greatest success I have ever seen from knocking doors. We ended up teaching a total of 3 lessons between 3 visits heading over there. 2 were to Chinese people one was to a Philipina who helped us understand that her employer (who was not home any time we visited) had actually been taught previously by missionaries and has a book of mormon. The two Chinese people were from the same family. From two different visits to the same house. We also met another man and his daughter which after talking to them for awhile earned their trust and he wants to bring his daughter to english class, we also ran into him later on the bus and he was happy to see us again. I have always love knocking doors because it takes me back to my summer sales experience before my mission. But the Chinese new year seemed to definitely work in favor of our plan because most people were home.

We also had the chance to meet with the Kwok family before they headed to mainland to visit some family and we focused on the importance of daily scripture study. We have previously committed them this was mainly just a follow up lesson. She has a really big desire to accept the gospel and we are trying our best to help her in teaching her kids, we will continue teaching the whole family of course but we have been really trying to help her understand that she needs to lead the way for her kids. It was funny she knew we had suitcases and she did not have enough for her and her kids so begged us to use ours, so right now I have one suitcase in mainland china!

A member gave us some radish cakes to give out to less actives and investigators and it was a huge help! It gave us a simple excuse to be able to meet up with a few. For example one is a recent Convert Helen who has not come to church in 3 weeks it was an easy way to meet with her to do our part, but mainly the ward has been very good about staying up on all the recent converts right now. It give me great peace if we were to help someone be baptized that the ward would take care of them.

The ward is doing great we are still waiting on the ward mission plan, but they have got some other plans they are executing. They are starting a rotating family home evening once a month on Sunday night at the church. Several families will plan and organize it and we can simple bring investigators so we will do our best to support their plans. Its something they came up with to create unity in the ward and provide ways to consistently have something we can bring investigators too.

RED POCKETS!! During chinese New year they have a tradition that those who are married will give red pockets to those who are not. Mainly just family and friends. Its basically a red envelope with some cool designs on it and it has money inside! Chinese people love money! yesterday I got quite a bit. I got $380.00 in red pocket money!

I love you all and Happy Lunar New Year!

The year of the Lamb or Goat (I kinda like the idea of lamb better because of its significance to Christ)

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Keep on Running

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Dear Family and Friends,

This past week was a wild one for sure. We had zone conferences, which considering the fact that they were 9 hour meetings it made for a long but a very fun week! The meetings we jam packed with great training’s on maintaining a balanced work, the atonement, public speaking skills, and then the training that we gave on finding people to teach. It is great to see all the missionaries that I was able to see all the missionaries that I have served around. This week we had a couple of miracles, but one in particular I would like to mention.

We were on our way to a dinner appointment and when we walked up to the apartment that the members lived in, it looked like the lights were off so, I doubted myself and thought that I must be at the wrong
building. So, we started running so we wouldn’t be late to one of the other buildings. We ran through one cluster of buildings and I still didn’t feel like that was it, so we ran over to another cluster of
buildings and as we got there we saw a dog running in the side walk, so we stopped so it wouldn’t follow us. We made some small talk with the owner until she grabbed her dog and then we were about the run off
to get to our dinner, but then I felt that I should at least see if she would be interested in hearing our message.

So I stopped and said, “We share a wonderful message about our Savior Jesus Christ that has blessed our own lives, could we share that with you?” Surprisingly she replied with, “Ya sure come on over and share
it with me.” 20 minutes later we had taught her about he Book of Mormon and learned that she is about to graduate law school, and she is engaged and plans to be married after she graduates. Even though she is active in the Methodist church she was excited to learn more and said we could come back. She is very elect.

Seeing as how we were then very late to our appointment we checked the address on the church app and realized that it was the first place we had gone to. Thank goodness we kept running though.

I love y’all!

Elder Joshua Cordon

Meet the Mormons!

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Dear Family & Friends,

We watched Meet the Mormons this last week. President surprised us by playing it after ending zone conference a little early. He is so powerful and it was so uplifting. He talked so much about looking towards the mark. Meaning we don’t settle for less. But We will have here shortly Elder Ballard, President Rasband, Bishop Gary Steven, Elder Gong, Elder Wong, and Elder Funk. Its such a blessing to be in a spot that has such a presence of these men.

We had a great week! These consecrated finds have always produced results and I have been realizing why: its because we don’t looking at those times as what we do when we have nothing else better to do but as a missionary focused activity. So we will keep those going because it helps with time management but we will make sure to have the same mentality towards any other finding opportunities. I believe the lord really is blessing us with these opportunities. Its just hard because these people are not seeming to have the same mentality the lord and us have for them. Another thing about finding is we had a ward find yesterday and it went really well, for some they gained a little more appreciation for the work, for others they got to see the joy of their labors. Our ward leader is great and has an awesome mentality because of his efforts he helped us find a man about his same age who has got some good interest and already has a fellowshipper.

This last while visiting a family in the ward it was great to hear about their conversion stories, and it was also interesting to hear them talk about the missionaries that baptized them because they loved them so much. But they also told me with much disappointment that he was less active. I asked how they knew that and they said they didn’t know for sure but they assumed because they see his Facebook and they said he doesn’t look or sound like he used to. It was a good reminder for me that we can’t go back to who we were, we need to become something new and keep going!

But also in that visit we kinda did some weekly planning with them and they were brainstorming all kinds of ideas how we could get better, then it was funny as the brother talked about how he has seen us on the streets a lot and how our work is really hard and it would be way easier if members just provided friends. I thought that’s a really good Idea. But they brought up some great ideas one being scouting. I guess this sister who has at least 3 families who would love to do scouting but Wanchai is too inconvenient. Apparently there is enough between out two wards that we could do our own down here and it would be a great missionary opportunity so we sent that to our bishop for some consideration.

We also had exchanges, I went to west point this last week and a cool miracle that happened while I was with Elder Gillis is that right as English was wrapping up a kid walked in looking for English helped so we talked to him for a bit then ended up teaching a lesson but just as he walked in so did a member randomly asking to join us. So basically a perfect lesson just fell right into our hands. He said he would go to church but I am not sure how that all ended up.

Great stuff is happening because we got the Kwok family to come to all 3 hours of church this week for the first time and they all seemed to enjoy it. Except the son he is having a harder time so we are working with the young men’s leader for a way to really bring him in. Its his first time at young men’s so we just need him to go more so he can start having some friends.

Elder Jared Cordon

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Selfies with the Selfy Stick!

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Selfies with the Selfy Stick!

 

Oh What A Beautiful Morning!

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Dear Family and Friends,

This week was full of miracles.

So we had two investigators at church and we had Monty accept a date to prepare to be baptized. Along with those two investigators their spouses Seth and Deedee also were there. So the two PMF’s (Part-Member Families) that I have been raving about for the last couple weeks is truely seeing miracles. I love watching it happen, it really throws me back to two years ago when it was all happening in my life. I swore that I would never be back in church and that I was never going to even look into it again. But I did look into it… and Boy did that change fast as soon as I realized that it was all true. That same thing has happened with Seth and Deedee, they have realized that it is ture and are jumping in head first. It is amazing to see the spirit in their eyes, and the miracles that are happening in their lives.

I am getting a look into how the spectators of my life where feeling and the things that they noticed. I know that I was sent on a mission to find specific people and these families where definitely on that list. I cannot wait to see these families sealed in the temple.

Thank you all soo much for the support that you give me.
I love you all so much

Elder S Cordon

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PS PATS TAKE IT AGAIN!!

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The Still Small Voice

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Dear Family and Friends,

Though prayer should be your first resort, sometimes it is also what you do when you have nothing left. Such was the case of our Saturday night.

I had tried my best to book our night with solid appointments that would keep us busy all day, but what often happens in this line of work, we had a few cancellations. At about 7:00 we had exhausted all our options save one. We made our way cross town to try a woman we had met a few days earlier in the parking lot. She was interested in what we had to say and said that we could come back sometime on the weekend. Once we finally got to her we were blessed in that we got a return appointment, but we still had an 11/2 hrs and no plans. We just stopped our car at the exit of the apartment and offered a simple prayer asking for inspiration. During the prayer a car pulled up behind us and so Elder Jorgensen pulled out and took a right. At the next apartment complex he pulled in, so we could finish giving our prayer. When we finished I realized that the person I had thought of lived in the complex that he had pulled into. We drove to the back and found a parking spot and knocked on her door. No answer. As we walked back to the car I was determined to find out why I have felt inspired to go see her. I saw a few men standing by their car and I so I tried talking to them, but the conversation was over before it started.

There weren’t too many lights on and nobody was outside, so we decided to head somewhere else. I was backing Elder Jorgensen when he backed the car in such a way that forced us to drive farther into the complex and turn around. I thought it was strange but didn’t think to much of it. When we got to the turn around spot there was a row of parking stalls, and next to that a row of trees, and behind that was actually the very far back of the complex we live in. It also happened to be the building where a lady we used to teach lived. I had remembered that there was a path through the trees, so we parked the car and made our way over. The light was on so we gave it a knock. She was excited to see us and were able to talk about how prayer can help us come close to God during trials. It was nothing short of a miracle that she was home and willing to talk. She works a ridiculous four jobs, and sleeps during the rare moments when she isn’t working. She had decided earlier that day to call and get the night off of one of her jobs though. She told us that she was moving to another apartment building and that once she moves that we could come by and see her more regularly. If we hadn’t seen her that night we would have been hard pressed to have found her in the future.

It is the moments when I see God’s guiding hand in my life that I really come to treasure on my mission. I know that my Heavenly Father loves me very much. I know that he is in control and that if we trust him that we will experiences miracles daily. As I finish this letter a scripture is brought to my remembrance, it is from the Old Testament.

“And he said, Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the Lord. And, behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the Lord was not in the earthquake: And after the earthquake a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice. And it was so, when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle, and went out, and stood in the entering in of the cave. And, behold, there came a voice unto him, and said, What doest thou here, Elijah?” (1 Kings 19:11-13)

You will never be disappointed if you can learn to listen to and trust the still small voice.

I love y’all!

Elder Joshua Cordon

Referrals!!

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Dear Family and Friends,

Well a wonderful week is under wraps. It was one of those weeks where you don’t see any of your usual people and it has lots of finding; which is ironic due to the fact that finding was our huge focus when we planned for last week, I guess you get what you plan for. One thing we did last week was take presidents advice and do consecrated finding. When we did weekly planning we prayed and picked two hour blocks everyday that we would not move for anything, and then we would pray about those days all week. Well we saw many many cool miracles happening every single finding time had something very unique to bring and we really saw the lord rewarding us for our faith. We also had our zone training this last week and its one of the best that I have ever had. So many things very specific for my needs.

Also personal accomplishment of my mission is I have finally mastered personally cutting my own hair. I got it down. Clippers on the sides scissors on the top and I even got thinning scissors mastered. It was hard at first but i got it down now.

I named this email referrals because this last week we received four referrals!! sadly none were from the ward but 3 are from investigators and 1 is from church headquarters which will be the first my entire mission! so that gives a lot to work with. One of the investigators was reading the tree of life vision and when he read the verse where lehi tastes of the fruit and then desires his family to partake he had a really strong feeling to invite his family so he introduced to his daughter and he shared that verse, it was really cool.

Today is also the second time I have finished the Book of Mormon on my mission and the second time really sincerely in my entire life. But I have applied the promise in Moroni 10:3-5 again for the second time after reading the entire thing and again like before it was so good. I don’t get an intense feeling or anything crazy but just a calm peaceful feeling of complete certainty that the book is true. This time I read the remake of the first edition that I have and highlighted when it spoke of christ and also his words. The miracle of the outcome is not only did I come to know about Christ but I come to know Christ more fully in ways that can only be experienced not explained. I know if anybody will follow that invitation they will truly come to know their savior.

I love you all

Elder Jared Cordon

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Live from the apple store!

Baptismal Date

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Dear Family and Friends,

First things first a run down for the last week and a half. We have made great progress with Sister Gwok. We gave her a baptismal date for March 3rd. Still the big concern is her son liking church so that he can join her. We are working with the ward council to help him out. Brother Yip and Brother Leung are both moving slowly but surely we taught really powerful lessons to them this last week and are just trying to get them to get into the scriptures. Both are getting better everytime we see them. We also were able to go Less Active finding with our new ward Mission leader. Its great working with him because he is very motivated and we are learning a lot from his efforts.

It was a long week but I have been learning a lot recently about spiritual patterns. I have noticed that as we start doing something we may see some quick blessing come but then we see what seems like no blessings coming our way but really its that the Huge blessing that come from consistent good choices usually come way after the little small ones we see immediately after making some life changes.

I just finished the masters Art and it has given me some great inspiration on how I can improve my teaching. It was a really really good I am grateful my mission president was willing to share. There is a few quotes that Have stuck with me. “the best way to rid a bad habit is to fix a good one” and a simple one that i really like “say clearly one thing at a time”. The first has given me some good insight into looking towards the mark and ridding myself of all the many bad habits I have is to fix some good ones. One habit I wanted to rid was being unfocused in the evening hours after planning. So I am fixing the habit of immediately writing in my journal after planning and its helping to rid many other bad habits.

Love you all and remember True Joy is not reaching a certain point but the continuous pattern of overcoming of imperfection.

Elder Jared Cordon

I Will Relish The Transition!

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Dear Family and Friends,

Sorry for a short one this week, but things have been non-stop crazy–that is normal though.

The biggest thing from this last week is that I got a new companion. This time with Elder Layton has been one awesome ride! I have learned so very much from him and I thank God for everyday I had with that good friend of mine. As much as I had to say goodbye, which no one likes to do, I get the chance a of learning from and gaining a whole new friendship. My new companion is Elder Jorgensen, he is an amazing person. He’s got the work-ethic of ten Idahoan farmers combined, and the intellect of eight amatuer chess players…. Okay I don’t really know what either of those are supposed to mean, but either way he is really awesome! He is from San Diego he has had one interesting life story. To say the least he graduated high school by home schooling himself at the age 15 and he read the Book of Mormon for the first time when he was 5. Even though that makes him look super nerdy also know that he played rugby in high school… I honestly feel like God knew just what I needed to progress in this next phase of life and Elder Jorgensen has got all I need to learn what I need to learn. We are already full speed ahead!

Anyhow, love yall!

Have a great week everyone!

Elder Joshua Cordon

P.S. I got a fortune cookie once that said, “relish the transitions in
your life they will happen regardless.”