Tag Archives: priesthood

PASCO!!!

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I am so excited that I get to stay here in this wonderful place. Not gonna lie and say it was a little shocking when I heard Elder Whiting was leaving but I have already spent enough time building my faith about transfers that I knew it was from the Lord. Because then I got Elders Scott! He is a great companion to be around, plus I will get to learn a little bit more Spanish. I think I talk to more people a day that speak Spanish then English especially if you include the people that are Bilingual. So it is nice to be able to learn at least a little to be able to say hi. I am understanding a lot more but speaking it is a whole other level. I feel very grateful to have been called on a English mission. Not that learning a new language wouldn’t have been great it just would have been Really hard!!

The Pasco Zone had 5!!!! People baptized this week, Rosario, Rager, Rochelle, Santi, and Exavier. What a wonderful week it was! There was so much excitement happening! We had investigators come to them and had church tours afterwards. Members where helping to pick them up and take them. It was just a great week. We had dinner with a family with Non Member kids and now all three of the kids want to learn more. Rial, Rochelle, and Colt.

We also found are now teaching two other wonderful families starting last night. One of them is a PMF where the dad is the member but went less active as a teen, so about ten years ago. The wife is a non member, and last night was the first night that we have been able to catch them both home at the same time. We had a wonderful lesson and the committed to read and pray as a family and to come to church on Sunday, they also excepted to continue to meet and learn more. Right now Martin is out of work so we are going to help him find a job, but in the mean time we have lots of time to teach the family.

Ciere and her three kids is another family that we are teaching, she has studied with missionaries before over in Kennewick like 4 years ago. Last week she was praying for help and we knocked on her door just a few minutes later. She told us last night that every time she has asked God to send her help the missionaries always show up. MIRACLE She is going to be coming over to our WML’s home this evening for FHE.

We have 6 trainers in the Pasco Zone for this transfer, you can already feel the fresh fire that is brought into the area. Lots of them even got to do Ministering visits on their first night. 🙂 Baptism by Fire! We are so excited for all the great things that are happening here in Pasco what a great place for New Missionaries to come. God truly does desire that every one of his children come back to Him and He is allowing us to be able to help with that, we have to be able to stay worthy of that blessing and be willing to look outwards to others. Missionary work can never and will never be a inward effort the only way it can be done is to be humbly and look out past yourself and seek to help Gods children. The greatest work that we can be involved in in this life will always and has always been missionary work. Teach Repentance and Baptize converts! Just like the Priesthood, because it is a priesthood work, it cant be inward it only works in helping others, and by doing so it helps us.

I have spent some many times on my mission looking inwards when really it is so much faster, easier and better to look OUT.

I love you all so much and am thankful for your prayers and love!

Elder Cordon!

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#ForeverBlessings

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So this week was stake conference week, SOO good.

On wednesday they did a youth session, I had the great opportunity to be a part of that by being on a missionary panel.  There was a ton of youth there and that whole thing was completely missionary minded.  I love this about the Pasco Stake they are very missionary minded here.  I think it is that way in all of pasco, I talked with a family last night in the 11th ward and the wife told me that she and the other den leaders are going to the schools and recruiting for cub scouts. They have already got 9 non members to sign up.  What a wonderful way to give kids a chance to rub shoulders with non members and give them a chance to be a light house to others.  It all comes from a true desire to bless our brothers and sisters.

I love that it is such a focus because it should be, missionary work is one of the most important things that we can do. To be able to help with bring Fathers family back together that is what it is all about.

The best blessing of this work is seeing people change and come closer to Christ, to watch them become something better.  I had the cool expereince this week to see someone that I started teaching almost 2 years ago. She was baptized after I left to Wenatchee.  Her name is Peyton, she was the youngest daughter of a LA family and she was 14 at the time I was teaching her. She is still very strong in the gospel and sense has seen her older brother Gavin come back to church and receive the Priesthood. She is a light house and she still shines so bright!  What a great blessing it was to see her.

This week we had a lot of things that seemed to get in the way of the work, Satan was really trying to combat our efforts this week.  It was a powerful testimony to me that Gods power is always going to trump Satan and when you act in faith to access that power you are always going to feel confident in the presence of God.  Jason a new investigator came to church and is preparing for baptism on March 26th.  We are going to have to move Johns date, He is doing really well but he is just taking longer to teach then we thought, he has come to church 2 times and has liked it both times he would have been this week but he was really sick.  We also just found this wonderful family that is going to have their lives changed from the gospel.  The Mothers name is Cierra and she has three kids.

I love the people of this work, there are so many people that just get caught up in the world and it seems so dark such a blessing to see the Light of Christ bring them out of that.  AAAAAHHHHHH WOW    I love The Atonement so much.

I love you
Elder Cordon

Brenda Gilbert was baptized and so many missionaries worked with her.  She is so wonderful.

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PRAY!!

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So this week there was two exchanges that happened I had Elder Fabiano with me at the beginning of the week and the I had Elder Johnson with me at the end of the week. They both were great exchanges! On both exchanges we found new investigators and got to talk to a lot of people. I learned a lot from both missionaries, it is so awesome to be able to focus on PMG I haven’t really done that my whole mission so it is nice to be able to repent and do better. Don’t get me wrong I got distracted by good things, like the Book of Mormon, Jesus the Christ, or the New Testament, all great things but it took my out of PMG. I have been learning so much this week by turning my focus to PMG, I know that it will help me greatly have the best last six months that I can. We found Paul and Georgiana by talking with everyone and not missing an opportunity, especially with Paul.

Paul was in his BackYard behind his fence. Luckily Elder Johnson is the height of a skyscraper and could see over the face from across the road. He was able to say hi and get him to come up front to talk with us. Boy was it funny for me when he started talking to someone and I just started looking to who he was talking to and couldn’t see anyone. He was a very nice guy and was very sincere about his willingness to see if what we teach is true.

Sadly this week didn’t end on the best of note. We had three of our Recent Convert to the ward not take the news very well. They will not be coming to church anymore as of now. We have done all we can on our end and have informed the Bishop of what we know and have heard. Now all we can do know is pray.
I first heard about the news Saturday Morning at 11am, Satan immediately tried to bring doubt into my mind. I knew that I needed to receive a witness from God, I prayed. The first witness that came to me is that I knew that the church was true and that was enough for that small moment. But I kept a prayer in my heart want to knew that this exact thing was of God, I knew that as I would press forward knowing the knowledge of what I knew I would receive truth.

It didn’t come until later that night,7pm, after hours and hours of prayer and moving forward with faith knowing that I did know that the church is true and that God is at the head. That truly is the way that we need to move forward to receive the greatest revelation, we receive answers by the prayer of faith not the prayer of doubt and disbelief. Now that is not to say that you will never receive answers if you have any doubts at all, but the more light and greater knowledge comes to those that are moving forward towards the light not stepping away or turning from it.

I know that God is in control of His church, I know that Satan is in the world and trying to destroy everything good that he can. He is turning the world against God and making his laws look like they are old, out of date, not actually going to bring us joy, or hate others. Satan is increasing his work and pulling so many with him. Always know that God answers prayers and He loves His children. I love this church and the steps that they are taking to protect the laws and family of God.

Thank you for everything.

I love you all so much. Please Pray and know that God loves you and his Children.

Elder Steven Cordon

Progress

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Dear Family and Friends,

Progress, I like progress; it feels nice. I’m sure y’all probably agree with me. Here are some updates on some names that you probably remember.

Trevor: Trevor is really getting back in his groove and then some. He has come to mutual three weeks in a row now and he even came to church on Sunday. His friend Wittney Garçon (He is someone we have been trying to get back into contact with) also came with him on Wednesday and Sunday. We were blessed with some kind members who helped us give them rides so we didn’t have to walk with them there; however, we were willing to do that if necessary. They had a great time and hopefully we can step up the fellowship for them. The youth program here is really small so they are pioneers in many ways.

Michelle: She came to scripture class again and even surprised us by bringing her daughter, Victoria, and her daughters boyfriend, Chandler. Victoria was super engaged and participated a lot in the discussion. We are going through the Book of Mormon chapter by chapter and we were on 1 Nephi 15. The discussion really kicked off when we began teaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. Victoria had such a good experience that she came up to us afterward and asked, “can I keep this Book of Mormon?… Here take down my number I am going to have some questions… Alright so how do I read this and where should I start?” It was pretty awesome to see her jump right on board. A couple days later we went to see Michelle at her place and she made us breakfast for dinner. Chandler was there and we got to know him some more. He is about to start school to go be a doctor. The greatest news was that we found out that Victoria wanted to go to church on Sunday. She showed up with Chandler and they had a great experience.

It is good to see some people make those steps that we need to be seeing. We have some others that we are working with but these were the ones who made the most progress this week.

An awesome little miracle happened after a great experience at the hospital on Friday. We went to the hospital to administer to three afflicted members of our congregation. When we parked we realized that we needed $2 in cash to pay the toll, but we both only had our debit cards. We figured we would just not worry about it, and that we could take care of that after the blessings. Two of them were quick in and out visits, but with one lady we stayed and talked for almost 45 minutes. Her cousin was there and it sure was a hoot talking to them. It was nice to help her take her mind off the cancer for a few minutes. She was missing her son especially because the day before she found out she had cancer he was deployed over seas. She asked me to give the blessing and it was a great opportunity for me. During the blessing a very sweet spirit entered to room. She started to cry and said that it really helped and that it made it feel like her son was there. On Sunday she was able to make it to church and thanked us both again for the blessing.

After the visit we got off the elevator on the first floor and tried to figure out where we could go go get some cash. Right then one of the employees said, “Are you lost elders?” We responded with “You must be a member. What Ward are you in?” He told us that he was in the San Jose Ward (Spanish Ward). I had actually met him before when I was serving in Hendricks Ave. He opened up his wallet and he pulled out $2 and said, “It is all I have.” He smiled and then walked away. I looked down at the cash in my hand, just amazed about God blesses us in the most personal ways. That was a really good day!

I love y’all and hope you have a wonderful week!

Elder Joshua Cordon

#LETHIMIN

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Dear Family and Friends,

Monty was Baptized!!

It was such a wonderful experience, the spirit was so strong and everyone felt it. Monty, Deedee, and Seth all shared their testimony of the wonderful truth of this gospel. They witnessed of the divinity of this work and the truth that Joseph smith was called by God to be a prophet.

Then Sunday came and he was able to get the gift of the Holy Ghost through the priesthood. Then just a short 3 hours later he was given the priesthood himself and he asked me to do it. What a wonderful blessing it is to be able to hold such a wonderful gift in this life. God has brought the priesthood to the earth to bless his children and to build his kingdom, and it is such a blessing to know that it will never be taken away again.

So know that He has been baptized, has received the Holy Ghost, and received the Priesthood Monty and Deedee, and Brian and Katy are going to be going to the temple this Friday to do baptisms for the dead; best of all they are taking names from their own families. WHAT!! They are just on fire with the Spirit that they have let come into their lives and change them. They are truly letting God change their very natures and become better.
Deedee has decided at her work that she was going to start every day off with prayer and now everyone in the office gathers to start off with prayer in the morning. #prayerbringsblessings Not surprising at all that everyone in the office is starting to comment that work is dramatically improving sense that started to happen.

God wants to play a rule in our lives and not just on Sundays. He wants to help us in our jobs and in school. He wants to helps us raise our families or to make new friends. He truly wants to be in every aspect of our lives, and the more that we let him do that the more blessings we can receive. God can help with any part of our lives and it is up to us if we let Him.
Spring is in full effect right now we have Spring blossoms everywhere, and spring showers are here.

We had Zone Conference this week. Such a great experience to be able to hear from the mission president and the APs and to be able to learn so much through the spirit. That is the source by which true knowledge from Heaven is learned. It is only by the spirit that you are taught pure celestial truth.

I love you all so much thank you for every thing that you do.
You are in my prayers always

Love
Elder S Cordon

PS the pictures are the baptism and also at zone conference we took our 100+ pic with the mission president. the 100+ club is the four of us missionaries in the picture have over 100 years of life together. Basically we are all over 26 haha we are an elite group, and the four of us are in just 2 zones. oh ya.

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Tender Moments

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Dear Family and Friends,

This week was a wonderful week! I had a lot of tender experiences that really made things very enjoyable. I did an exchange this week on Wednesday back in my old stomping ground of Deep Creek. Luckily for me the plans had us going to the home of my old ward mission leader Br Strattan. I love that family so much they definitely have enriched me mission experience! It was like I never left when i saw them. After catching up for a bit Elder Francom who I was with got to work getting some info on some referrals while Sister Strattan had me add myself to a group for the Deep Creek ward that shows how everyone is related. I found out that Sister Strattan was my 8th cousin and that Betty Hicks, a black sister in the ward who was recently baptized is actually my 6th cousin. It was a funny moment to learn that, but really awesome at the same time. Betty was one of the first people I met when I got to Deep Creek. We had a great day there though and were able to get a lot of work done. At the end of the night we had a lesson with a girl that I met the last time I was there about 6 weeks ago. They had been struggling to get a solid lesson with her since then, but we were able to sit down and have a very powerful lesson with her. We laughed at the thought we would just have me come every 6 weeks and help teach her.

On Thursday I was in Georgia with the incredible Elder Welsh. He is one of the best Elders in the mission and I was grateful to be able to spend the day with him. We had an awesome experience after trying to contact a less active member. After noticing that the family who we had an address for had moved we began knocking on the neighbors doors. After a few doors a school bus showed up and dropped off some kids. These two boys were teasing these girls and one of them was crying while her sister was walking with her back to there house. Turns out that Elder Welsh knew these girls because they are the daughters of a member and the older sister had been to church a couple of times. They told us that the boys were teasing them and one of the boys took an old can of vienna sausages (which are gross to begin with) that he found on the ground and opened it up and threw it at one of the girls. Not too much got on her but nevertheless it was completely unacceptable. After showing the girls a quick video on Jesus Christ we walked over to the home of those boys to invite them to repent. One of them timidly opened the door, he was probably 15 and less than half my size. He wasn’t the major trouble maker though, his cousin who was hiding behind him who was 18 couldn’t even look us in the eye long enough to answer our questions. We proceeded to teach them how unchrist-like their actions were and if they ever wanted to amount to anything in life they would learn quickly to grow up and be real men. Hopefully, an ounce of that sunk in. As we finished up with that the girls mother had arrived home and had been informed of what we were doing. She was very impressed and was very open to hearing our message. Prior to this moment she was very against the idea of becoming a Mormon or even associating with Mormons. By the end of our lesson with her we had her and her daughters all excited about the idea of getting baptized and return appointment to teach them as a family the next day.

On Sunday we had Stake Conference. The building of the Hendricks ward is my Stake Center so I was able to go and say hi to all of my old friends. It is so nice to be able to maintain such a close relationship with my recent converts. In that meeting I had two recent converts in the Hendricks Ward, Solomon Deng and Jim Colney, be sustained by the stake to be ordained to the office of Elder. Solomon wasn’t able to be there that day but Jim was, and my old Bishop was so kind to think of me that after the meeting he went and found me so that I could help with Jim’s ordination. I had no idea that I was going to be able to have that opportunity, but it was definitely a very special moment for me. God has been so good and to give me many tender experiences this week and I know that he loves me very much. It never ceases to amaze me how personal of a relationship that we can have with our Heavenly Father. My mother pointed out in a letter a couple weeks ago that God will bless us very specifically and personally if we are ready to receive those blessings and I can testify that this is true!

I hope everyone of you can look for ways that the lord has specifically blessed you this week and make sure to give him thanks for those blessings!

I love y’all! Have a wonderful week!

Elder Joshua Cordon

Who Are You Representing?

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Dear Family and Friends,

I have come into an area that, for some time now, missionaries have not been truly teaching the people that they have been seeing. They have been building friendships but havent been really teaching. Not that we shouldnt be trying to form friendships, but that comes with teaching the restored gospel and seeing their lives change and their minds open to truth. So this week was spent going to everyone that has just been “visiting” and setting the expectations of why we are really there.

We have been called by a prophet to teach the gospel. We have been given priesthood to accomplish that call. We have the message of the restored gospel that gives the truths to this world and answers the questions of the soul. We have been tasked with that responsibility and if we are not doing things that could lead to teaching, or teaching when people are there to listen we are not doing what we have been called to do.

I am very excited for this new change in my mission. I have a companion that is 24 years old and we are learning so much from each other. We are gaining member trust back in the ward and showing them that we are missionaries that are living up to our call.

I am so grateful for your prayers and support. You are all in my prayers.

Thank you.
Elder S Cordon

Good Things to Come

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Dear Family and Friends,

First things first Aaron got the priesthood and it was an amazing thing indeed. Thats the part I really look forward in taking part in. Thats when he receives the greatest tool and blessing the of dear beloved Heavenly Father has to offer. Right now we are working with the ward to strengthen these recent converts and getting the Butterfly Ward prepared for the many more the Lord has in store.

We were worried about Gary this last week, he seemed really off and of course I get worried about him and the gospel. Its hard for me sometimes to think of a world outside of the gospel. It turned out to be just work and he is still moving a long like he needs to be.

We have been realizing the need to focus on the basics the need for new members and investigator to read and pray is everything. I have to come to realize that its our personal devotion to God thats everything. Thats what makes our church so special than what I have come to realize is typical Christianity. God really expects everything from us.

We have been blessed with some miracles this last week. We have been finding it hard to fit finding time in. So when we have it we appreciate it even more. But what we have seen is no matter the length of time the Lord has put a prepared person in our way. We have been able to meet two fathers whose main interest is in their families. How great will be my joy when they enter the waters of Baptism I could picture them in white when I saw them!

Now we are blessed with this opportunity to have summer missionaries. These are young men and women in hong kong who are willing to be a full time missionary for two weeks. So my companionship is split and now Butterfly has 4 elders. I have a great opportunity to influence this young man for the rest of his life. The great thing is he is actually a recent convert. We are gonna see miracles these next two weeks.

PS I say the word miracles so easily cause Its just a common thing you see when your on the Lord errand. Its also not restricted to missionaries. “The Lord is no respecter of persons”

I love you all.

Elder Jared Cordon