2 wonderful people coming to Christ

¡Hola!!

This week, Fernando and Patricia were baptized!!! Such a great week, but with a lot of little to dos to get everything organized good for the baptism, but it all worked out great, and it was a very wonderful service and the spirit was really present. 

Us with Fernando, in his white shirt and pant :)

Fernando was super excited and nervous all week, but just really was looking forward to be able to be clean. There was a baptism in the ward this week for a little 8 year old, so we invited Fernando to come and see what a baptism is like, he loved it! He really enjoyed it and I know that it helped him to be a little less nervous for his own baptism, knowing how a baptism worked. Then in the baptism, he was able to bring his mom, who we hadn`t met yet, and she really seemed to enjoy herself, this week we are going to be able to meet with her and get to know her as well. After he was baptized he said "I feel blessed." Hearing that just made my heart happy, he is such a humble and sincere person with a ton of desire to follow God and he just wanted to change, and when he said that I knew he had been able to make that change and came to know God on a whole new level, and really felt the effects of the Savior`s atonement for us.  Yesterday after he was confirmed we asked him how he felt about everything and he said he felt great, also he was super excited when we reminded him that the gift of the spirit helps him to overcome temptations. He is great, and is heading in a great dirrection.

Us with Patricia, in her white gown :)

Patricia, disappeared on us this week, and we weren`t able to find or talk with her much. But, we had an appointment planned for friday night to finish up the lessons and to keep up her excitement for her baptism. She told us that she was going to come to the baptism of the kid in our ward, but didn`t show up. Then we tried calling her afterwards and it went straight to voicemail.. we were super anxious to talk with her and we were worried that she was getting scared or something that she was avoiding us to not get baptized. At that point Hna Bench was getting super worried, and so we went and found a room and knelt down and said a prayer for Patricia to find her and to help her to progress to her baptism for the next day. As we were praying I felt a bunch of peace and I knew the Lord was aware of Patricia and of us as well. Right afterwards we called her, and she answered right away! She said that she was on her way down and that she would be there in 10 minutes. Seriously was a testimony to me of the love of God. He loves Patricia and also wanted her to be baptized, also He loves me and Hna Bench and was able to comfort us in a time when we were worried for Patricia. I am grateful for prayers and for answers to prayers as well. We were able to visit with her, finish her lessons, and keep her excitement for the next day. She loved her baptism and just looked super happy and content. Afterwards we asked her how she felt and she said that she felt really good, and just couldn`t stop smiling. She also told us that she felt great after her confirmation and is really a great person, I love her so much!

I really love both of these wonderful people, and I am grateful for the chance God gave me and Hna Bench to work with them and to guide them along this path. I am so grateful for their examples and I have been able to learn so much from them. I know that they are headed along the right path and we are going to focus on strengthening them to help them to keep going down the right path and always have the Spirit with them. 

Baptisms always remind me very clearly of my purpose as a missionary. The people as they come out of the waters of baptism are full of light and joy, and that is the effects of being with God and after baptism they are right there with Him. I know that every little thing we do as missionaries when sharing the gospel, brings everyone that much closer to God and to His kingdom. I hope to give it my all these next 2 weeks to more fully fulfill my purpose as a missionary.

I love you all!!

Con mucho amor,

Hermana Cordon

This is me with a giant book of mormon we found in our church, while waiting for the font to drain. 

It had pages and everything! It also weighed quite a bit.

Zooiogioc

¡Buenas Tardes! 

Today as Hermanas we went to Baños again and went to the zoo there! It was really cool! I especially enjoyed all the monkeys, they had some pretty cool monkeys and a lot of them as well. I enjoyed the morning with the hermanas and getting to know more of this beautiful country where I have the opportunity to live right now. I will include some pictures :) It is also really humid in Baños so my hair was going crazy!

Also it is "summer" here. But, there summer is when it is really cold and rains alot. I am not really quite sure how that works out, but thats what everyone keeps saying. But, it rained like everyday all day for the last 4 days, it rains a lot here, but not that much, and its been so cold!!! The only downside of wearing a skirt all day, is that when it is cold and windy, your legs are cold. But, gratefully I am always warm in my bed, with my 2 blankets, soaks, and sweatpants :) I feel like I am probably not actually in Ecuador.. haha 

beautiful Ambato

Mira Flores just likes to be a challenging area, but we keep going and working and we are giving it our all. It is a good thing we enjoy contacting. :) I am doing good and really a lot less worried about the numbers and that as a gauge of success, I have been starting focusing alot more on what would the Lord think about the effort I gave that day. I am not a perfect missionary and I have a lot to improve still, but I know that the Lord knows my heart and sees that I am trying to do my best. I just got to keep moving forward and doing whatever I can to help the people in my surroundings. We are doing a lot better at contacting every family, it doesn`t matter if we are running for an appointment or not. I had that goal before, but somehow it got pushed down on the list, I have reput it as number one, because that should be our focus finding families to help them to become an eternal family. So that is my goal this week, to talk to EVERY family. Maybe we might be running between every contact so that we can still get to our appointment, but I am really going to focus on this and ask in my prayers for help to really accomplish this goal.

This week we were able to talk to Stanley more about baptism. We committed him to pray about the date of the 18th and asking God for help to prepare himself for that day. He didn`t accept a date, but he is preparing himself, and he is reading in the BOM everyday and he has come to church the last 3 weeks in a row all 3 hours. We just have to teach more clearly repentance so he has a desire to be baptized and be baptized as soon as possible. He just wants to be sure he isn`t going to break a commandment after his baptism, so thats a good thing. 

We were able to visit with a member this week, who we have been wanting to visit since I have got here, we just haven`t been able to get a hold of her to set up an appointment. And she is the greatest! She has 2 years as a member, but has a lot of difficulties and is fighting with a lot of opposition from her kids, they are all grown up. And she said in her prayer after the lesson thanking God for sending us to her, because we were exactly what she needed in this moment. It really made me feel grateful for this calling and time I have to dedicate myself to the Lord, because we are able to be answers to peoples prayers and quite often. Sometimes I don`t think to much about that aspect, and then moments like this remind me that we really are servants and representatives of Jesus Christ in every moment and I can`t take for granted all these moments we have to be answers to peoples prayers. It really is a great blessing we have. 

We had divisions with the Hermana Leaders this week and I was with Hna Peralta. She is a really great missionary and I learned alot from her, one thing that she mentioned was testify more frequently in the contacts. I sometimes find myself wanting to teach the person so bad that I start trying to convince them, but that never works. I have put that in to practice and I always feel good and full of the spirit walking away from a contact, whether they said no or yes. Because, I know that I was teaching with the Spirit helping these people feel something from our message. Hopefully I don`t forget that again. I just love divisions, it is a time to learn something from the Hna Leaders and really reflect about the work that I am doing in my sector. We also were able to find some new investigators for them and they are really great and seem really prepared to hear this message. I was really happy to find them and I hope that the Hna Leaders can help them to progress. 

Also there is a less active here in our sector who has been less active for over 30 years, and we contacted her about a month ago and have been trying to visit with her. At first she didn`t really trust us and always avoided a lot of contact with us, but this last week we were able to visit her and were able to share a message about the importance of keeping the promises we make with God. Then a couple of times this week she thanked me for actually teaching her something and helping her to recognize that if she is going to make a promise with God, she is going to keep it. Hopefully we can help her to realized what kind of promise she made with baptism and help her to have a testimony of our church. 

Also I am on my way to Quito this week to renew my visa.. that means I have been in Ecuador for a year now. How crazy how fast time is flying by! 

I love this sector and I just keep working and doing all I can to help the people all around us. 

I hope you all have an amazing week and realize all the little blessings that the Lord is sending our way.

Muchísimo Amor,

Hermana Cordon

Here is a sign in Baños for all the gringos that are there, I thought it was really funny

Wedding and Baptism!

¡Hola Familia!

Well this was a crazy, but a really amazing week! Christmas came early for us! haha For those of you who don`t know, alot of people here in Ecuador do not get married, but live together and consider themselves married. A lot of people are scared to make the commitment, and then have to get divorced, because divorce costs a lot and no one wants to deal with that. And so that is one of the biggest things we have to deal with, with families is helping them get married, before they can be baptized. And so it always seems to take a long time for families to be baptized for that reason. But, this family, Flia Medina, had such big desires to be baptized and such strong faith that they overcome every obstacle that was thrown their way this last month and were finally married this last wednesday!!! And seriously the second that they were married you could just see a huge difference in them, because they now are completely with all the commandments of God. Then they were able to be baptized this weekend! And boy was that a special experience! It was the parents and their little boy who is 9. And after they were baptized they were able to share their testimonies. And the spirit was so strong and they were just saying how they knew that this was the true church, and that despite all the opposition they faced to be married they were able to overcome it all because it is the true gospel. And they were saying how that this gospel has given them a family more unified and they are so excited that in one year they get to be an eternal family! And this has strengthened my testimony of keeping the end in mind at all times. They are looking towards the eternities and for that they are so much stronger and so firm in their testimonies, because they want the eternal blessings of being able to go to the temple. I have learned alot about faith and the importance of obedience from this family and I am so very grateful for the opportunity I had to teach and help them in this path to accepting the gospel.

Today we had a fun pday! We were able to go a little bit out of our mission to a mall called Quicentro, to go bowling! It is seriously the nicest mall I have ever seen. It is like glistening clean and beautiful christmas decorations and everything. Better than all the malls in Utah. That is one thing about Ecuador, its pretty worn down in places, but has really nice malls. Its kind of ironic. And bowling was a ton of fun! I got really lucky today and got 144!! I am pretty sure thats the best I have ever bowled in my life. The only problem is my arm is going to be really sore, because the only ball that my thumb fit into was the heaviest ball and i don`t have a lot of arm strength. But, it was a fun pday activity! 

I have been focusing a lot on listening, and truly listening, in every lesson. And it has made such a difference. If I am focused on what I want to share rather than what they are saying I don`t ever say what the Spirit wants me to say. But with this new focus, I have truly noticed a huge difference in my teaching and that I am truly teaching by the spirit and saying what the people really need to hear, rather than saying what I want to say. And I have noticed big differences this week and felt the spirit a lot stronger in the lessons!

I hope everyone is having a jolly Christmas season and is remembering to serve and focus on the Saviour! 

I love you all! ¡Feliz Navidad!

Hermana Cordon

A picture with Flia Medina and their Wedding Certificate

Baptism of Flia Medina

The Family Car

¡Hola! 

Funny thing about Ecuador, did you know that a motorcycle is actually a family car? Here in Ecuador a motorcycle can fit an entire family, a mom, a dad, and 2 kids. Unless they have a baby then 3 kids. It takes a lot of talent to manage that and it definitely is one of the most interesting things that I see here. Can you just imagine 4 or 5 people piled on a motorcyle that is just speeding along the street? Its quite the sight. 

I hope everyone had a great thanksgiving and ate a lot of food!! Me and my companion decided to have a thanksgiving dinner, because we don`t have a pensionista for dinner so we usually just buy bread or make a sandwhich to eat later. But, this day we bought a chicken dinner for our thanksgiving meal! Definitely not the same, but a nice little celebration for us to have a little fun! 

This week we had the baptism for Nelly!! She has been such a great investigator to learn how to help someone understand that not only is this the true church, but its the ONLY true church. She was someone super interested in a lot of religions and when we started teaching her, she looked at it as just all the other ones and something good. With time and with a lot of prayers with her, she gained a strong a firm testimony and she knows that this is the only true church of God and she is going to be a strong member! We had fast sunday this sunday, because we have stake conference next week, and she had remembered without us reminding her and she payed her fast offering and everything! She is such an amazing person! It was such a great baptism too, very spiritual. 

Well, I am now with Hna Maldonado and she is from Chile, she seems like an awesome missionary and I am excited for the opportunity to be with her. We are going to work hard and help the people here in Conocoto! 

I hope everyone has a great week and enjoy the beginnings of Christmas!!! 

Love, Hermana Cordon

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving

Baptism for Nelly!

Faith is like a little seed

¡Hola!

First off.. I have a new companion! :) Her name is Hermana McGill, she has about 10 months in the mission, and she is also from Utah. She is a lot of fun, and we work great together! I am excited for this time to be learning from her and having different experiences. 

This week our investigators taught me a lot about how much power a tiny bit of faith can have. Every one of our investigators right now are progressing and have dates for baptism in the next couple of weeks, and so when they are at this stage we are looking for any problem they could have about the church to solve all of their doubts and to make sure nothing will prevent them from being active after they are baptized. Every single one of them we came up with one or two commandments that could possibly be a bit of a struggle for them to accept immediately. And so we taught them all these commandments this week, and every single one of them accepted all of these commandments without a hesitation, because they have faith in this gospel. The basis of why each of them accepted all of these commandments without hesitation is because each of them have recieved an answer and know that this church is true, and if this church is true each of these commandments is something that we need to follow for our benefit. They all have such amazing faith and I always walk out of the lessons repenting and realizing how I need to keep working on growing my faith and being stronger every day.

One cool experience this week was with our investigator Nelly. She is someone super interested in religions, but thought that all religions are great and from God. So last week we told her that she needs to read the BOM and to pray to know that only one church is true and that it is this church. Then when we went by monday, she hadn´t prayed so we asked if we could pray with her, because we knew that would solve all of her doubts if she would just recieve an answer in that moment. So we knelt down and she prayed and asked if this church was true. And when she paused and listened after about a minute she said "It´s true. He said it`s true." We then talked about it and she said that never in her life has she recieved such a firm and direct answer from God and that she knows that this is His path. It was such a remarkable experience for me and the spirit was so strong. I know that if we pray with a sincere heart and have faith that He will answer us we will recieve an answer and know how to follow God even more. I am truly grateful for that testimony builder. 

This morning I read in Alma 60 and 61 where Moroni is accusing Pahoran of a bunch of stuff and how Pahoran responds to the unjust and untrue accusations. I am not sure the exact words he uses in english, but in spanish it says that he responds and says that these things aren´t true but I am not annoyed, because he understands his intentions. Its a great lesson on how we need to learn how to put ourselves in the other persons shoes and understand why they are saying something and not take offence. Pahoran was truly remarkable and christlike at how quick he was forgive and to avoid offence. 

I love Conocoto and I am truly grateful for the experiences I am having here and the people I know and are helping bring to the gospel. 

Sé que la iglesia de Jesucristo de Los Santos de Los Ultimos Dias es la iglesia verdadera en todo el mundo. Sé que Jesucristo es mi salvador y redentor y Dios es nuestro Padre Celestial y el nos conoce y nos ama mucho.

Love you all!!

Love, Hermana Cordon

Last Photo with Hermana Molina

Hermana Cordon & Hermana McGill

Flia Medina

Christmas Tree

Colada Morada

Hola Familia!

The Colada Morada season is here in Ecuador and everyone is very excited about it. But you guys are probably like I was and have absolutely no idea what colada morada is. Well its some kind of warm drink that they make with a bunch of different fruits, but the main fruit is mora, which is like blackberry. Its a pretty good drink, and its a tradition here in Ecuador during these next couple of months and so I will be drinking quite of bit of it here in the next couple of weeks. But I am happy to say I finally got to try it, because people have been talking about me needing to try it since I have been in Ecuador. 

The rainy season is in full force and we are often finding ourselves outside in the pouring rain with a thunder a lightning storm. Thankfully I love lightning and thunder so that doesn´t bother me, but my companion is afraid and is clinging to me everytime, it´s quite funny and we are always laughing together when she screams because of the thunder :)

This week we had the wonderful opportunity to meet a family very prepared for this gospel. We were walking home quickly the other day, because it was dark, raining, and close to 9. We both saw a mom and her son up ahead and it would´ve been really easy for us to just keep walking by and hurry home, but we have a goal of talking to every family we walk by. So we stopped and talked to her, she said that she has been having a feeling that she needs to listen to the gospel, and that she needs to go to church to find what she is searching for. I am so glad that we opened our mouths so that we could get her information to teach her and her family. Last night we were able to go to her house and teach her. She is married and has 2 kids. Her oldest is 11, but special needs and is seriously the sweetest little boy and always willing to help his mom, and her little daughter that is 2. We weren´t able to teach her husband yesterday, but we have an appointment with them both tonight. She didn´t even hesitate to say yes, when we invited her to be baptized and I am so grateful that we have the opportunity to be bringing this gospel into their lives. I am just grateful we opened our mouths and shared our testimony so that we were able to contact her. 

I hope you all are having a wonderful week and are opening your mouths as well.

Mucho Amor, Hermana Cordon

Selfie with my companion!

Random picture of Ecuador

Random picture of Ecuador

Me and my companion in our favorite chicken place, that just gives us a fourth of a rostiseree chicken with fries.

Clarita´s baptism!

¡Hola! 

As the subject says, this week Clara was baptized! She is a sweet little old lady who has such a sweet and strong testimony of the gospel! It just brings joy to my heart to see how excited she was to be baptized! Especially considering she was a very catholic old lady a little over a month ago. She was very closed off to the church and would not give it a second thought, then after her grandson passed away he visited her in a dream and told her that he wants her to be baptized so that she can live with him again! Then she completely changed her heart and opened up to the idea of this church and now has such a strong testimony and listens to the audio of the book of mormon for 1-2 hours everyday! She is the best!

Also this week was a cool miracle from the Lord. We were in a different part of our area that I hadn´t been to before, because we had a appointment with a reference we recieved from other missionaries. But, we weren´t exactly sure where the house was and he wasn´t answering his phone. So we decided to contact for a little bit and call back after 20 minutes or so. We were walking down this street contacting houses and we started on one side. But while we were walking this lady called us over and asked us to come into her house. We went in, slightly hestitant, but not sensing anything bad. And we talked with her. Turns out she is a member, but hasn´t gone to church for awhile, and she is new to this area and doesn´t know where the church is. Also she lives with a daughter and granddaughter that aren´t members that want to be taught! It was a a sweet miracle for sure! I love the way the Lord works!

I also get to stay in Conocoto with Hna Molina for another transfer! Which is nice since we are both new to this area, and we have only been together for 3 weeks. I am excited to see what we are here to do for the Lord!

Love you all! 

Hermana Cordon

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

Temples!

Hola!

Okay, so this week was great! We had a member of the seventy, Elder Waddell, come and talk to us on friday in a multi-zone conference. It was such a powerful and wonderful talk! He stressed the importance of temples and how with missionary work, we are not working to get the people to baptism we are working to get the people to the temple. And baptism is an important step in that process. He also was saying that you need to get converts on the mission, that's the numbers you should be looking to. Not the number of baptisms you have. Because there is a lot of less-active work to be done and if you help bring these people back and get them to the temple then that's a convert and the same with a baptism. But, if through your work none of the people you baptize go to the temple than you didn't baptize a convert you baptized a person you convinced. Because, if a person is truly converted to the gospel their goal, along with yours, will be the temple. It was a great talk and I am truly grateful for that opportunity!

We also have been working with an investigator family, Flia Bagui, and they are awesome! They all came to church yesterday and absolutely loved it! They all left with huge smiles and feeling like they had a lot of friends in the ward. We truly have a great ward here in Solanda, because everyone is very aware of the less-actives and investigators that come and strive to make sure that they all feel very included in the church, which is truly awesome! But this family is really excited to learn more about the church and progress, we just have to lead them to marriage before baptism. Everyone here is not married, which makes mission work hard, but if we are bringing the spirit in the lesson they will feel the truthfulness and desire to do anything to accept the gospel. Which is what we are striving to do with this family. We are hoping they can get married by the end of this month so that they can be baptized on September 5th! Then we will make sure that they immediately start looking to going to the temple on September 5, 2016. :)

Ecuador truly is a wonderful place with some really wonderful and kind people :) I am so grateful for the opportunity to be here teaching these people the gospel that can truly bring them true happiness and MANY blessings big and small. Mission work is truly a wonderful thing, so don't hesitate to share the gospel with whoever you can! And if you can't seem to find an opportunity to share the gospel, pray and the Lord will bless you with an opportunity if you truly desire to share the gospel. So find an opportunity this week and share your testimony, it will bring you blessings! :)

Love you all so much! Thank you for the emails and the support! And for those I told that I can't email, I can email friends so send me an email if you would like! :) 

Have a fabulous week!
Love, Hermana Cordon

First Baptism!

Well as the subject suggests, my first investigator baptism was yesterday! Him and his younger brother were both baptised, he is 11 and his brother is 8, which now makes their whole family members and their parents are recent converts so the next goal is to get them to go to the temple and make the next step. We have them starting looking to that, but we got to get the dad more active. It was such a great spirit at the baptism and it was a cool experience for me to have someone that I helped bring to the gospel be baptised. That truly is the reason why I am here and it helps fuel the desire to be on a mission when you can see your efforts paying off and helping move the Lord´s work forward.

My spanish is truly improving and the Lord is definitely blessing me with the gift of tongues and interpretation of tongues. My first week in the field it would take me about 30 minutes to get through 5 verses in the spanish scriptures trying to understand them fully. But today, I read 3 full chapters in less than 30 minutes and understood the story line and only had to look up about a dozen words rather than every other word. It truly is a blessing from the Lord and I am truly grateful for my rapid progress. But, my spanish is still far from fluent and I still get lost in casual conversation, but I am taking whatever progress I can and I know that the rest will come with time through my efforts and the Lord´s blessings. 

The lesson I learned this week is that God answers prayers in His own way and in His own timing. I definitely am grateful for this lesson and the renewed testimony of prayers, because now I can testify with more power and trust in God when talking about prayer with an investigator. I also had a very strong renewed conviction of the Book of Mormon with an investigator lesson. I had her read Moroni 10:3- 5 and when she finished I started to testify and the Spirit just filled me and I could tell the spirit was in the room and that she could feel it. And that renewed my testimony of the veracity of the Book of Mormon and the way the spirit works. Open your mouth and testify and the spirit will add power to your words.

I hope everyone had a great week. Thank you for all the love and prayers you send my way. Trust God and everything will be brighter. 

Love,

Hermana Cordon