The Lord Has A Plan

¡Hola!

The kids in the Bagui Family were baptized this weekend! There are three of them, ages 9, 13, and 14. And that service was such an amazing baptismal service. The kids were so happy and they just glowed with the Spirit, being perfectly clean. And when they bore their testimonies after they were baptized they all said that they know this to be the perfect church and they feel so good and so much peace and happiness. Hearing that just made me so happy and I am so grateful I had the opportunity to work with them and help prepare them for this major step that they just took. The Lord definitely guided us to them, and I know that me and Hermana Greer were supposed to be here for them to help them be baptized. I just love this family so much, and I know that the parents will follow their kids example and be baptized in the next couple of weeks. They have a strong desire to be baptized, they just don´t have a strong desire to be married (which I don´t quite understand, but they´ll have the desire for both soon). I am so grateful I got to be a part of this baptism!

We also now have a new investigator, who is a mom of a girl who is 17 who has been a member for almost a year, and she is so ready! She listened to the discussions when her daughter was being taught, but she never had a desire to be baptized or even consider joining this church. But now, she was telling us that she just wants to know the truth and she wants the happiness that she believes this church can bring her! I know that before it wasn´t her time, but the Lord put us in her path again when her heart is open to give her the opportunity again, because now it is her time. I am just happy that she wants this now so that she can be a member with her daughter and her daughter can have a strong backing to help each other go to church! This family is really awesome, and we have only been to their house like 2 times, but we already love them!

The Lord truly knows what he is doing and has a plan for everything. I know that if we are being righteous and we are always trying to follow God, whatever happens, happens for a reason. Trust God and let Him guide you. His will is the right way, and we just need to let go of our own personal will, and follow God. I was transfered today, and though a bit abrupt I am excited for the change and to have new experiences! I know that transfers are a prayerful decision, and God doesn´t make mistakes. I am so grateful for the opportunities I have had with Hermana Greer and I am excited for the journey´s ahead. I am just really going to miss the people of Solanda. It´s crazy how much I love the people here! 

Love you and all and trust in God!

Mucho Amor, Hermana Cordon

So Much Rain

This week has had a couple days of complete downpours here. The first time it downpoured this week we were walking to the church with some investigators for a family home evening and it just started coming down so hard! We just started sprinting to get to the church, but we were still a good 10 minutes away from the church, so we got there soaked.. but we were all laughing so hard and no one ended up coming to the church because of the weather so we just taught our investigators a lesson and left :), so we ended up running through the rain for no reason.. The other time it just downpoured was on sunday during the third hour, relief society. And it was coming down so hard and pounding on the roof that we were literally inable to hear anyone except the person right next to you. So it made it a little difficult to have a lesson, but after a good 10 minutes of a straight downpour, it finally let up a little bit and we were able to hear and they taught a great lesson on the dangers of pride. The rain here is crazy, but makes for good stories :) Also everytime I wear my rainboots, people make fun of me. Because no one wears rainboots here and most people think I look like some irrigation person, but it keeps my feet dry so that´s nice :)

The Lord really blessed our work last week. We have been working hard since the beginning of the last change trying to find new investigators and people to teach and haven´t had much success, but this last week the Lord guided us to 3 new families who are all really prepared to hear the gospel and are really interested in our message and are excited to hear more. The Lord really has his hands in all things and really has helped us with the work here. I am just so grateful for the watchful eye the Lord has in his work and the opportunity to that we have to be teaching these new families and introducing the gospel into their homes. I am seriously so blessed to be able to help these families and to share my testimony everyday. 

I love you all and never be afraid to share your testimony!!

Love, Hermana Cordon

The Power Of The Spirit

¡Hola!

Well a cool thing I learned this week was how to tell the difference between a real $10 and a fake $10, one of the kids in my pensionista family quized me and then when I failed the test he taught me :) That´s the thing about ecuador, there are so many fake bills floating around here, but luckily I hardly ever use bills. I have never used so many golden coins until I got here. But, everything is so cheap and most places don´t even accept a bill bigger then $10, luckily the grocery store does so that I can have smaller bills for everywhere else. Also another thing about Ecuador, that America needs more of, is bakerys. There is a bread bakery on literally every street here in Ecuador and the bread is DELICIOUS. I don´t know what it is about the bread here, but it´s my favorite I have never eaten so much bread in my entire life, and I loved bread before my mission. 

The power of the spirit is amazing, and I have seen it play out immensely in the family we are teaching right now. They aren´t married and they have had a lot of problems since we´ve walked into their home, yet they notice such a strong difference when they do the things we tell them to do and when we are in their home. And they are willing to do whatever they need to do to accept this gospel. They are experiencing a lot of trials, but because of the spirit they know that they need to press forward and do the things that are required. And on saturday the mom, who before said no to baptism this month because she wanted more time, said that she is going to do whatever she needs to do to be baptized on the 26th because she feels something so peaceful when we are giving a lesson. And when we talked about temples it touched them in a way that we could never have done without the spirit.  They have such a strong desire right now to go to the temple as soon as they can, and we left a picture of the salt lake temple with the date september 27, 2015 written on it. Exactly one year after their goal date for their confirmation. And they want to do all they can to enter the temple on that day :) 

Through this experience my testimony of temples grew immensely, because that is the purpose of this life. To go to the temple. If you have gone through the temple, go back as often as you can, if you haven´t make sure to live the way you need to to be able to go to the temple when the time comes. The spirit in the temple is amazing and you get to know your Heavenly Father so much better through the temple. And what better blessing then obtaining a eternal family can we recieve in this life? I can honestly tell you none, because family is the most important thing we can have and I am truly grateful for the wonderful family that I have been blessed with. To my family, I love you all so much and thank you for your love and your guidance. Knowing I get to be with my family for eternity is my greatest source of joy in this life! 

I love you all and make sure to let your family know that you love them this week!

Love, Hermana Cordon

The Spirit Is A Grand Thing

This week was a really great week! The Lord is really blessing the work in Solanda and guiding me and Hna Greer´s steps to where we need to be and who we need to teach. Out of all the areas in my mission, Solanda is definitely my favorite! haha ;) But it really is a such a great area! And the ward is so great and so eager to help move the work forward here!

Yesterday we got to visit with this less-active family for the first time and it was such a powerful lesson. The son, who is about 22, has cancer and is really sick right now. So we, with the Bishop and two others in the ward, went to visit to see how we could help out. This guy has such a strong testimony in God and His plan and we could just feel it in his room. His one desire right now is to have an opportunity to go to the temple. And he has a very pretty picture of the temple hanging up and he loves this picture because he said that he can´t go to the temple right now, but he can at least look at this picture! His faith and his desires are so inspiring and his hope when everything seems to be going downhill is something to look up to. The spirit was so prevelant in this lesson and I hope the ward can help find a way for him to go with the ward to the temple in October. 

I am truly grateful to the Lord for giving me opportunities to be in lessons that are spiritually uplifting and that I get the chance to be spiritually edified several times a day. The greatest thing about missions is being so close to the spirit, when we are obedient, and getting to see so many miracles! 

¡Les amo mucho cada de ustedes! Tienen un buen semana y hablo con ustedes la proxima semana

Amor, Hermana Cordon