Tag Archives: temple

Temple

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Well last week was not the greatest week ever, I let stress get the best of me. It even started to get me a little sick. I was getting really caught up in stuff that doesn’t need to be my focus. I know that it was just Satan trying to distract me especially as things get close to the end, he doesn’t want me to finish strong. I am so grateful that it was our temple day today. What a spiritual recharge, I spent time thinking about others and really recharging the fire. I spent time picturing the people that we are working with at the temple and the people that I have worked with, I remembered the joy that filled me the day that the Brian and Katie were sealed. It was a spirit filled session at the temple. Turning outward is truly the fix and every time that I forget that I get right back on the roller coaster. I am so grateful that The Doctrine of Christ is always there, Eternal and Everlasting so that I can get back on track every time that I need to.

EASTER IS COMING!!

The video is soooo good! *Editors Note: Click link to video that Elder Cordon is referring to*

We are flooding pasco with that video, we have so many people have cards and are going to hand them out to their friends. We challenged the whole ward to show the video to their neighbors in their homes and then invite two people or families to church with them on Easter Sunday. We had a lot of people that were asking us for more cards. We have been using to video during our dinners and just in stopping by members. It is such a powerful video, I will never get bored of watching this one.

Discover is defiantly becoming part of my vocabulary.

Last week we had Cierra to a baptism and she loved it. She is also making great friends in the church, she is coming to our WML’s house tonight for a lesson. She has been sick the last couple of days and she was unable to come to church so we are making plans to have her there this coming week. Which is Ward conference so that is going to be a great time.

Well I love you and am grateful for you.
Love Elder Cordon.

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WHITE CHRISTMAS

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I am so looking forward to this week. what a wonderful time to be a missionary in the world. The Christmas season just brings a light into the world that isn’t always there, well ok it is there just hidden.

I am grateful to have the knowledge of the gospel and the knowledge of the Atonement. I have loved studying and pondering the Gospels as we have taken the 30 day challenge to read them. I love reading them and learning about the life of the Savior. What a great way to develop more love for him, study his life. I have gained a new sense of his love and compassion. His steady and firm laws coupled with His infinite mercy and forgiveness.

He truly has felt everything there was to fill in a human mortal life and knows exactly what to do to help us in our times of trouble.
This was a great week that we where able to put fourth our effort to find and came out with 6 new investigators. We are so excited to be out talking with everyone that we can. I love that as we bring fourth our efforts coupled with real faith the miracles from heaven rain down. God is truly leading this work and we have the amazing privilege of being able to help and be a part of it. What a wonderful time to be a servant of the Lord. The great part is that it never has to end and never should.

I truly enjoy the Atonement and the Doctrine of Christ. It has truly helped shape and change not only my mission, but the rest of my life. I am so very grateful that I have chosen HIM!

I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!!
ELDER CORDON

These two made this Christmas the best Christmas EVER!

These two made this Christmas the best Christmas EVER!

Oh what a WONDERFUL White Christmas it was!

Oh what a WONDERFUL White Christmas it was!

RollarCoaster

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Well another awesome, happy, sad, up and down, week.

We had a lot of things this week. New assignment does come with more to do, more to learn, and more growth.
This week was MLC and WOW what a great meeting that was. It was truly awesome to be ready to receive revelation at meetings, the Spirit is just ready and waiting to be the teacher to a willing heart. Then that night was stake correlation, having just spent all day learning from the spirit I didn’t want it to be anything like I have heard it being at times. Come in and sit down and just read over the report. So Elder Schulzke and I counseled together on what we needed to do to help make that meeting a revelatory experience. We decided that we needed to make sure it was just that, a counsel. So we went in and set the report aside and asked inspired questions. So no surprise there, IT WENT GREAT. We were able to use the report as a help to refer to instead of the dialog.

Friday got a sneak peek at the Christmas Conf. we also had to fit in Zone Meeting Planning, and Weekly Planning. So that we could have time to go out Saturday.

Saturday was a Miracle day. It was already a crammed week and we were already feeling hurt for time to find but we made sure that the time we did have we but all of our faith into. We were knocking at some apartments and found two doors right in a row of people that have met with missionaries before and been invited be members but there was no record of them and we had no idea they were there. We then were in the other building and found another lady that told us to come back next week, Tami.

So the only reason that we went to this place was that we wanted to contact a girl that had been taught before. We just didnt have the address so we went to this close apartment complex. Tami the lady that we found is the girls mother! We had no idea. MIRACLE.

Saturday was our Ward Christmas party and we got and investigator to it. Jessica and her two sons!!! We committed her to church, But she woke up really sick and didnt come.:( Nathan was are Sunday at 8:59 Miracle! He is a single dad and looking to really be able to guide his two girls in the correct path towards God. That is going to be a good family in the gospel soon.

The down part is that I found out that Mike Gilbert, Baptized in September, died this weekend unexpectedly. He was preparing to go to the temple when I left the area just 2 weeks ago. That was not something that I was expecting to have to deal with on the mission. Death really is an interesting thing. I am just so VERY GRATEFUL for the knowledge the gospel gives in regards to death and the part that it plays in our lives. It is necessary and an important part of the plan. I love that I know that I will see him again.

If you would be willing to say a prayer for his wife Brenda she is a wonderful lady.

The VERY UP SIDE.
Temple for the Oberweiser’s is tomorrow morning!!!!!!!!!!!!

Love you all so very much. You are all so awesome.
LOVE
ELDER CORDON

Temple!!

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This was a great week we are hitting the ground hard to find new people that are going to be ready to be baptized. We are striving for a baptism in November and acting in faith to make that happen.
We are working with members and recent converts to help us find. and for them to work on their family mission plans so that they can be actively involved in the work that God has in store for this area.

We are doing service and getting recognized in the community. We are having people talk to us and hopefully will result in some more people to teach.

It is such a wonderful time to be in the WKM. Really in the mission force at all God truly is harvesting only for this last time and to be a part of it it so wonderful! It builds my testimony each and every day.

Went to the temple today and had a wonderful time

I am very greatful for all that you do for me each and everyday.
I love you all so much and I keep you in my prayers.

Elder Cordon.

Pic 1- Temple pic


Pic 2- And the really creepy spider that I got from a member for Halloween!!

Bright Times Ahead

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Dear Family & Friends,

Well it was a sad weekend, but it will all work out in the end.

Arnoldo didn’t get baptized… that is the sad news. His grandmother didn’t feel that he was ready to. She wants him to wait a while longer to really see that he is taking it serious. So… the good news is that in talking to her, through the aunt cause the grandmother doesn’t speak English, she said that she would like to sit in on lessons to learn what he is learning. So we may have found our way into getting his whole family. We are going to be working with the Spanish elders to help with this family. He still came to church on Sunday and still loves Primary.

We have Damion getting baptized this weekend He had his interview last night and it went great he is so excited for it. Our WML is baptizing him.

We had to move some baptism dates that we have Abel and Kristina need to get married but Kristina needs to get unmarried first. O.O She has been separated from him for over 12 years she has just not done it out of fear. But we pushed that fear right out of here and DUN DUN DUN DUN!! We are also teaching her oldest daughter now too she is 17 and going through the “Im a rebel teen” phase but she is taking interest and she is starting to soften to us. Walls are coming down!! We are now working with them to getting baptized on July 25th.

What a wonderful day at the temple. It is always wonderful to get the spiritual recharge that you get there. Sometimes you just need it. The spirit was able to testify of some amazing truths and wonderful talents that have been given me, so that I may put them to good use.

I love the work that is happening here. I love missionary work all together but it is always great when you are just focused on the work.

I love you all so very much and pray for you. We are having a mission wide fast this weekend for our investigators if you would like to pray for some of mine you are more then welcome to. You are all fantastic people.

Love Elder Cordon

God is SO Good!

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Dear Family and Friends,

This past week has been one crazy week! It is transfer time again and the one thing that is guaranteed to accompany it is chaos. I wouldnt have it any other way. We got the opportunity to the temple again on Thursday which was an incredible experience. Even though I am constantly engaged in spiritual efforts there is still something so uniquely powerful with the temple. That is just another of the many testimonies that I have received that those buildings truly are sacred.

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Everything has been non-stop craziness since we arrived back from the temple. We have had some Elders staying with us since Thursday night, who need to be in Jacksonville for some doctors appointments. In order to keep them busy we have both just taken one and have been constantly covering twice the area with them. It was a huge blessing because we had meetings galore this weekend, so we were still able to get plenty of good things.

One of the major highlights of the weekend was the ward Chili Cook-off and Trunk or Treat on Friday. I got to be a judge for the chili along with some of the other elders. It was tough to choose a winner because they were all so good. We had some awesome turnout from our investigators though, we ended up having 9 people come that we invited which was awesome and they all had such a blast. 3 of them were a complete surprise though. We went to the home of one of our friends named Ty to invite him to come. He said he wasn’t feeling it, but his room-mate, Dean, and their friend, who just so happens to be the boyfriend of someone the sisters have been teaching, said they would come. There was another couple at the house at the time named Ray and Rose, but they didn’t seem interested in coming. About a half hour after the party had started, we see all 5 of them there! They ended up having a blast! Especially Dean who did not hesitate to work the crowd and meet as many members as he could. Though he wasn’t drunk, his breath definitely smelt of alcohol, but I was really happy to see how the ward members really didn’t care and they were so welcoming. We ended up teaching Dean and Ty the next day and though he has much more to learn he expressed to desire to be baptized and has agreed to work at preparing himself for the last week of November.

David loved the camping trip! His dad wasn’t able to make it, but they also came to the ward party on Friday and to mutual on Wednesday so they are really coming along, it has been amazing to witness. All of this came from just strengthening a recent convert, which is just a testimony to the importance of retention. Truly the growth of that family is a dream come true for Aileen who is their sister/daughter. She has a had to overcome so much to be where she is at, and she never in a million years could have imagined even the progress they have already made. On Saturday Aileen was with her all her siblings and her dad, so we told her to get them to all pray together. She texted us afterward and told us that they did, but it was her dad’s idea (we had just taught him about prayer last Wednesday). That is the first time they have ever prayed as a family. It was such a tender moment. I love that families can be together forever!! Jorge and David were both able to the ward party, and even all of church on Sunday, so it has been really awesome to how they are just really becoming part of the ward. It has been a very natural experience for them and the ward has done so well with wrapping their arms around them. David has truly become a part of the deacons quorum. We are going to have to get him a set of scriptures so he can start to put them to use on Sundays. The work is just going so well here and it has been amazing to see how people just are coming out of the wood work and things are coming together. I am so much happier now than i have ever been in my life, but I know that there are only greater joys in store for me.

I hope all of you have a wonderful week!

Elder Joshua Cordon

I even made my pumpkin be a missionary!

I even made my pumpkin be a missionary!

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It Is Nice To Know People Who Know People!

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Dear Family and Friends,

I had a pretty wonderful week! Last Monday I had the opportunity to do my first round of golf. It was on the beautiful green grass of TPC Sawgrass where the PGA championship is held every year. I felt like royalty! We had this pretty awesome caddy with us the whole time, we got our named engraved onto these medal bag tags that have the picture of the 17th hole carved in it, and then halfway through we had a guy roll up to us and give us cold towels to cool us off. It was the best secular experience of my mission so far! I am grateful for my companion he was the one with the connections to get us in. We brought two older gentleman with us who just soaked up every minute of the experience. Both are golf enthusiast and never thought they were going to have the chance to play such a course. They were one team and we were the other. We did a best ball scramble to keep pace. Since Elder Layton is really good we came on top in the end. I had a few really good hits. I definitely did better than I thought I was going to do.
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As far as the spiritual side of things, I got to go to the temple this past week. It was am amazing experience and I definitely had some pretty powerful spiritual experiences while in there. In order to get some of the missionaries down there we drove a van up to Kingsland, Georgia the night before, then left from there in the morning. After the day was said and done we did about nine hours of driving. It was worth every minute though and the whole trip was very enjoyable. I think my only regret was that I went for the large sandwich at firehouse instead of a medium. It is not the best thing to put in your system when you going to sit for several hours. Other than that though it was an amazing trip!

On our way back we had this cool little miracle that happened. About 20 minutes before we were and home and before we passed through
downtown Jacksonville, we passed this guy who had all these things strapped to the roof of his SUV. He had a law mower, a generator, a industrial fan, a ladder, and some other things all on the roof! Plus his car was full of a bunch of tools. We took a photo and continued on our way. When we got back to Jacksonville we had more time that we thought so we pondered on how we could best use it. We both felt that we should head to a particular complex to try a potential. As we pulled in we saw that exact same SUV with all the stuff ahead of us. We tried our potential and then walked over to his car to see if he needed help unloading. Turns out that he has to leave it all on there because it is for his work. He is self employed but doesn’t have enough money for a truck and trailer. If he were to take it off he would spend hours taking it off and on every day. He needs every minute he can after work to spend time with his family. He said that he his nervous that someone could steal all of his stuff but he has no where to put it. He said that he just says a prayer and trusts that god will keep it safe. He was open to hearing our message another day so we took his number down and walked away with a renewed sense of reverence for the humble and hard-working family-man.

His story coupled with a lesson I learned this week highlights the power of determination. If you want to succeed then you all it takes is for your determination to make it happen. I quote that comes to mind is “that it is never to late to be what you could have been.” In other words, despite every thing else, even your past, if you are determined you can be what you want to be.

Another lesson I learned was that of focusing on the present. You can learn from the past, and you should plan for the future, but if you are not living in the moment and embracing the situation that you are in, you are missing the most important aspect of this existence. If you are determined to change it will not come from the lessons of the past, or the plans of the future, it will come from simply just doing it right now in the present.

Just a few thoughts.

Have a wonderful week everyone!

I love y’all!
Elder Joshua Cordon

Sunday Blessings

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Dear Family and Friends,

I had the blessed opportunity of going to the Orlando Temple last week!! Nothing is quite as rejuvenating as a trip to the temple! I am grateful that God has provided a way for me to still maintain temple attendance despite my circumstances. We had a Q&A with the Temple President afterwards, and the only question I had afterwards was how do i ask a question that is worth asking haha.

After some long time of contemplation I believe I have arrived on some answers to that questions which ironically in this case is more questions 🙂

We were blessed immensely this past week! We had some powerful lessons Saturday night with some of our awesome investigators. One of them is a man named Madison. He is very thoughtful man. He was taught several months back but never progressed. Something changed in his life though and he was so ready to listen and to act. We taught him about humility and the importance of a having a strong relationship with God. Near the end of the lesson he just stopped us mid sentence and said, where is your church at? I need to go to church tomorrow. Sunday morning I got to see his smiling face come walking in the door with his girlfriend right behind him! It was so beautiful to see. God definitely provided.

On that same note of miracles. We are teaching a brother and sister, Shauna & Christian. We just started teaching them a week ago and they wanted to come to church yesterday. Shauna texted us at 8 in the morning though and said that she got called into work and wont be able to make it. We were rather disappointed to hear that, but we were at peace for some reason. Shortly after the meeting started we were surprised to see both of them walk in the door and grab a seat on the back row. I was so happy to see them there!! The ward just wrapped their arms around them and made them feel so welcome. We talked to Shauna after sacrament and she said that when she got to work she still wanted to come to church so she got someone to cover her shift so she could come. I know God will bless them for their faithfulness!

There is no greater work than this! I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!

Love
Elder Joshua Cordon