Three Brothers… Two Countries… One Message

Three brothers have dedicated two years of their lives sharing one message, a message of hope and happiness, that's found in the gospel of Jesus Christ, to the people of Hong Kong China, Washington State and Florida State. They will be servings as missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

PRAY!!

Posted on November 9, 2015 by shalesecordon9

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

TST!!!

Posted on May 5, 2015 by shalesecordon9

Dear Family & Friends,

It has been a wonderful Start to the next chapter of the mission story. It was amazing to have the opportunity to serve in Macau! Also now for the opportunity to serve in TST(which is the ward my trainee is from and my good man Elder Townsend served). It seems like God always sends me to the areas that I really want to go to! Although I did not necessary want to be Zone leader its here and I will do my best to be a leader and an example to the Zone. I know the best way to lead is by my actions.

My companion is one of the best if not the best the mission has! His name is Elder Williams and we started in the MTC living together so its a blessing to be with him now!

Macau had a great finish for the week we were able to meet up with a part member family and that was really cool they will be coming back to church and we were able to get the wife to agree to start meeting with the missionaries, we were also able to see Carson that new investigator again and be able to help a struggling Recent convert. A Wang one of the RCs has been struggling as we came to find out when we sat down with him. He was having some faith issues and it was awesome that he was willing to open up to us and the most important thing we got from him was that he want to improve his faith! So then we were able to help and gave his some assignments. His faith was struggling because he stopped reading praying and coming to church. The best part is we were able to help him just as the problem got started. So then Elder Chu can keep working with him. We were very busy with the finish and I was able to completely finish all the record books as well.

Now TST we had a ward BBQ is was a great chance to get to know the members right from the start and to meet a few a referrals from members so that was really cool! I really like the ward and the members and am glad I have already had the opportunity to get to know them I feel like I have been here for quite some time now, in a good way. Since Elder Williams and Elder Martinez met with all their investigators right before I got here we didn’t have any for the weekend but we had some chance to prep some stuff for MLC and get a lot of finding in. Elder Williams is an excellent finder and truly has embodied what Elder Ballard invited us to do. He talks to everyone and its just contagious so I have started to as well. I did before but, not like now. We have had a lot of really cool contacts and take advantage of every finding opportunity. Its interesting because its the culture here and as I moved in because thats just the way it is here thats what I natural started doing. I feel like if Elder Williams was with a new missionary he couldn’t help but just becoming like him as I just experienced.

One thing that we are working on is really getting up to speed as fast as possible with our teaching unity. Time is precious and we don’t want to waste any minute of it!

The zone is awesome and from it looks is every month they are getting better and better and we are going to do what we can to reach out the one and lift those who might be struggling we feel the zone will be the strongest once everyone can really start seeing the miracles!

Love,
Elder Jared Cordon

Here is some pictures for you all since I have been lacking. Don’t judge me cause i look bad, missionaries for some reason always look less attractive then when they get home I promise.

ps the whole squatting thing is a chinese thing

Here is a shot of me taking out the great and spacious grand lisboa with my cannon

Now I am in a roman coliseum

Also here is a car at the grand prix museum

Y(>_<) PEACE!

A Week of Miracles!!

Posted on November 26, 2014 by shalesecordon9

Dear Family and Friends,

I had something come to mind, an experience in my life that is rather simple, but it is a wonderful analogy of what it is like to come into the fold.

When I was about 10 it was finally resolved that I needed to get some contacts. Up until this point I had worn neither contacts or glasses, so it was definitely a new experience. I was thoroughly convinced that I could see fine, and I am sure that if someone were to even imply that I was blind would invoke in me a very defensive response. Nevertheless, my parents who cared for me and who knew what was best insisted that I get them anyway. After getting those on for the first time it was like I had become part of a whole new world. There were so many things I had not noticed before. I remember staring at the blinds on the window and being amazing at how distinct the separation was between each panel. The smallest things of life took on a whole new level of interest for me. I remember going home and grabbing a pair of binoculars and just sitting on the porch for what felt like hours taking in the breath-taking scenes of which I had been entirely unaware and unable to behold. Simply enough, (with the pun absolutely intended) my eyes had been opened.

For me this is what it is like when someone finally allows the gospel to be part of there life. While the experience of gaining a testimony and increasing in spiritual knowledge is not so instant, nor can it be captured in one simple moment, the reception of the Gift of the Holy Ghost and the opening of your spiritual eyes can be. When someone receives the gift of the Holy Ghost the scriptures are unfolded before them in a way that they never have experienced before. They will learn things and see things that they were completely unaware of. Even Joseph Smith who by the power of God was translating the Book of Mormon made the following comment after receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost, “Our minds being now enlightened, we began to have the scriptures laid open to our understandings, and the true meaning and intention of their more mysterious passages revealed unto us in a manner which we never could attain to previously, nor ever before had thought of.” (Joseph Smith–History 1:74) I can bear testimony that this is true. For I have had personal experiences that have born witness to me of this fact.

I thought of this story when we were preparing for the baptism of Kristin this weekend. It was such a special opportunity to be part of that baptism and to see her make the steps in preparation for that wonderful day. She began her journey many months ago when her twin sister came into contact with the missionaries. She was studying with them and had even planned to get baptized back in April/May sometime. Something happened with the baptism though and she got stressed out to the point where she called it off. On top of that she still had a lot of questions and felt like it was too early for her. Her and sister then went back home for the summer and when they returned to Jacksonville for school in the fall. When they returned. Her sister wasn’t actively attending any more and they weren’t really in contact with the missionaries anymore. They are really good friends with two of the recent converts in our ward though and they started coming to the Family Home Evenings that we have each monday. Then they started to come to church with their friends as well. We called the missionaries that had been working with them and asked if we could begin teaching them. They hadn’t met with them but a few times and they were coming to church with us so it worked out. In only a few weeks Kristin was ready to get baptized and now her and her twin sister, Kaitlin, is back active in the church. It was a beautiful service on Saturday. Chirag, their friend, baptized her, and Kaitlin gave the talk on baptism. I am so very grateful that I got to be part of her story, even though this was all member work that brought these girls back and into the church. I would have pictures but they were on someone else’s camera and I am still waiting to get those.

On Sunday we had the awesome experience of having Amelia and her son, Tyrell, join us at church. Tyrell has down syndrome so we got to spend the day at church walking around with him as he introduced himself to everyone. Children with down syndrome just prick your heart in a special way that you just cannot help but love them. The bishop found Amelia through an interesting chain of events. She just got to town trying to get away from a bad situation. She was staying at an extended stay here in Jacksonville and the previous tenet had not erased the voicemails on the phone. She thought they were hers so she listened to them. One happened to be from the Bishop of our ward. A while later she was planning on going to the parade, but she wasn’t able to make it so they went to the beach instead. Some young adults were there playing volleyball and taking pictures. She admired how well groomed and well mannered they all were. She noticed that they had written something in the sand, but it wasn’t until she had walked to the water and back that she noticed that they had written “MORMONS” in the sand. It was then that she felt prompted to call the bishop. They had an amazing discussion and we were there teaching her the next day. It is an amazing miracle. God works in miraculous ways to bring people to the truth.

I love y’all! Have a wonderful week!

Elder Joshua Cordon

Tyrell with the Ward

Tyrell with the Elders

The Small & Simple Things

Posted on September 30, 2014 by shalesecordon9

Dear Family and Friends,

It seems like it was only four days ago that I was writing y’all… o wait… So it was a wonderful weekend. A lot of really good things happened as usual. One notable event of this past weekend was going to a party on Saturday. So we have a recent convert that we have been working with and she is just wonderful! She has been a member for about 4 months now and has grown so much in that time. She made some dramatic changes in her life in order to get baptized and still has been battling with some of the lasting effects. One of those is her relationship with her family. Because of who she was before she has spent the last little while repairing those relationships and building the family she wishes she always had. It was her birthday this past weekend so we got together with her and another one of our recent converts to celebrate and have a lesson with them. It was a really great time and we even took a fun picture to commemorate the event. After the lesson she had plans to go over to her uncles house to have a family get together for her birthday. She really wasn’t looking forward to the event because it potentially was going to be a really awkward get together. After encouraging her to still go to the party and giving her our two cents of advice, the idea came to me to just have us go with her and take some of the focus off of her so that it wouldn’t be awkward any more. It was more of a facetious comment at first but then she loved the idea so we decided to go for it. The party ended being a really fun event. We got to see her dad and brother who are investigators of ours and to get to know the rest of her family. One of her cousins had even flown in from Peru (which is where her family is from) to be there and had fun getting to know all of them. She ended up having a wonderful time and really felt like it helped to make it one of the best birthdays that she had had.

It was such a simple thing that we had done, but it really brought about amazing results. On top of everything else we also got to expose her whole family to fact that Mormon Missionaries are normal people behind the shirt and tie. I wouldn’t be surprised if this could open up the door to some more baptisms in the future in her family. “By small and simple things are great things brought to pass” (Alma 37:6) is the principle that I learned from all of this. Never underestimate the powerful impact of simple expressions of love and kindness. There is a wonderful Mormon Message that just came out that illustrates this principle rather nicely and touches those who view it in a variety of ways. If you want the link, here it is http://www.mormonchannel.org/video/mormon-messages?v=3792885561001.

Another wonderful thing is that we found out that one of our investigators will be able to get baptized sooner than we had expected. Her father wanted to baptize and confirm her, but was living with his girlfriend so he wasn’t going to be able to, and her mother wouldn’t agree to let her get baptized, so we had expected for it to be a much more distant event. However, her dad just split up with his girlfriend so he could be worthy and he is going through the court system to get full custody back. It is amazing how what seemed to be a very difficult and near impossible task has become a reality almost overnight. Truly there is no commandment that God won’t provide a way for a us to accomplish (1 Nephi 3:7) if we simply just try our best.

I love this work so much! The wonderful thing about the gospel is that whenever you give it away you always get more of it, whether it be love, joy, or even yourself, it doesn’t really make sense but that is what is so wonderful about it.

I hope every one of you takes advantage of the opportunity to watch general conference this weekend. I am stoked! It is like the super bowl for missionaries!

I love y’all!

Elder Joshua Cordon

Good Things to Come

Posted on July 21, 2014 by shalesecordon9

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

Plan Ahead, Enjoy The Moment, and Count Your Blessings

Posted on March 3, 2014 by shalesecordon9

Dear Family and Friends,

I am not sure if I mentioned this already, but I have come to learn a thing or two about myself on my mission. Big shock right? One thing i have learned is that i like action. If i spend three hours in a meeting and I don’t leave feeling like I have just received instructions of how to put into action and realize the very goals we have discussed, then i feel like time has been wasted. Luckily for me though, when i spent 11ish hours in meetings this past week, I do feel that much of the time was used wisely, and that is was productive.

Nevertheless, the time that wasn’t used wisely combined with several weeks and months of thought I’ve put into goal setting and planning has caused me to give a training on it this week in Zone Meeting. Time is too short and too precious to waste it with action-less-chit-chat. On the contrary to not talk through things at all could be highly detrimental for it would open the door the premature and inappropriate action. As in all things in life a balance is required. I feel like that is how we have worked here in the Hendricks area over the past few months, we have accomplished much with a proper balance of talk and action. Hopefully, my much study and pondering, coupled with inspiration from the spirit will lead me to be able to say a few wise words on the subject tomorrow, I guess we will see.

Anyhow back to reality. So one interesting thing that happened this past week was a move that we took part in. We found out about Thursday we had to help a lady in our ward move from one apartment to another. At first we thought we were just being asked to be part of moving crew they had already assembled, But then we realized that we were the moving crew. Personally, I am flattered by the fact that they thought we had the energy, stamina, and means to do the entire project ourselves. They must really think very highly of us. As tempting as that sounded, we decided to take the selfless route and share this blessed opportunity with others, and thank goodness we did, for the load ended up being a full U-Haul truck, and two truck-beds worth of furniture boxes and odds-n-ends. While i say that in partial jest much good came from including others in this service opportunity. Our fully assembled amateur moving team was a motley crew at best, it included us, the senior missionary couple (Elder and Sister Andrew), our burly elders quorum president, Solomon (our recent convert who was one of the lost boys of Sudan), and Johnny (our Cambodian brother, also a recent convert). It got done in a timely manner, we had a great time, and all reported that they appreciated the much-needed boost in spirit that comes from losing yourself in the service of others. In the end, a seemingly overwhelming task resulted in a blessing in disguise.

Another crazy thing that happened Saturday was that when we came by Solomon’s to pick him up for the service project the whole parking lot and courtyard outside his apartment were taped off with police line. Inside the line were 6 squad cars, more than a dozen officers, and several men carrying what appeared to be M-16s. Luckily Solomon was fine and he said that the police had been their since 10 o’clock the previous evening. According to him, somebody died. It is just a hunch, but I am suspecting foul play, that is just me though, so take it with a grain of salt. In most cases including the move I unwisely failed to capture the moment in a photograph. I need to be better at that.

We managed this past week after hurdling many obstacles to find me a bike to ride and a bike hitch for our car, so we were able to hit the pavement and do some good street contacting, it was definitely a major blessing for we had much success in those few hours of biking.

So, everything is going great with the many families that we are teaching. Lily is still on track to be baptized by the end of the month, she also wants to go on a mission! Wahoo! She will be a great missionary. The Conseillants are great like always, and they even came to church on Sunday. We finally were able to have a lesson with Kevin and Lori in their home which is about 2 1/2 months in the making, but was totally worth it. We got Daniel (the son of Br. Fonseca who was baptized 2 years ago) to finally set a date for baptism? We had him pick the number, so April 20th it is. And then their are just so many others who are coming out of the wood work to hear this wonderful message. God has truly blessed us with a plate as full as the one I ate yesterday at dinner, and both are delicious to the taste. And the weather has been beautiful which is another big plus.

Count your many blessings this week and you will be singing as the days go by! (“Count Your Blessings,” LDS Hymn book #241)

Love Ya’ll!!

Elder Joshua Cordon

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