18 Meses

¡hola!

2 Bananas in 1 :)

Selfie with Companion

We didn´t really get to have many lessons with any of the investigators we already had, they were either super busy or not home. And so we had a bunch of time to visit with less actives and converts and find some new people that seem to have a lot of potential. A cool experience was that while we were knocking doors one afternoon. We had gone to a new place to try and find a contact, and we didn´t find her, so we decided to knock doors until a bus came to go to another part. And as we approached the first door, a bus came, but we decided it would be better to knock this door and we would catch the next one. We knocked, and a lady came to the door, she was hesistant, but as we kept talking she accepted to listen and let us in to share short message. After asking her a couple of questions about her, she opened up and told us how recently her husband had passed away and how she is now a single mom struggling to balance everything in life all the while fighting off depression. We then asked her why she allowed us to come in, she told us that she had just been praying asking God for help and guidance and as soon as she had finished her prayer, we knocked on her door. As she said that, that spirit just filled the room and testified to me that the Lord truly knows and loves everyone of His children and He knew that our appointment would have fallen through and He had put us in her path that night. We were then able to share about how the Atonement of Christ can lift her up and find joy and peace in this life. It was a really powerful experience and I am so grateful that I can be an instrument in Gods hand and be a literal answer to someones prayer. We are hoping to meet up again with her this week to keep sharing this wonderful message.

Pretty sunset with Chimborazo

Fernando and Patricia are transitioning really nicely and are just really great. Good news, Fernando recieved the Aaronic Priesthood this week, and the bishop has assigned him to bless the sacrament next week, so last night we reviewed the sacrament prayers with him. He is so great and is super excited to be able to be an instrument in God´s hands to bless other people.

We are working with 2 less active families, and if all goes well and we find them, they all will be saved by next sunday. They are all meeting with the bishop and have plans to go to the temple. It is great! I am so excited for them and I am so grateful for the chance that we have had to have been working with them.

Well the time has come, though it has seem to come by really quickly and at the same time seems like I have been a missionary for many years, my last week as a full time missionary is starting. Here we go! :) I am just grateful I at least have one more week.

I have learned alot on the mission. 

1. I´ve learned that God loves each and every one of us, with our weaknesses and everything, He is patient as we work to overcome those weaknesses, and I have seen and felt the promise that He gives in  Ether 12:27 that He will make our weakness strengths, when we allow Him to work on us.
2. I have learned that the best medicine to having joy, is forgetting yourself. When I have been the most focused on my investigators, less actives, companions, etc.. I have felt the most peace and have truly enjoyed the mission. For a good amount of time I focused alot on myself and on my weaknesses, but once I changed that mindset, the mission changed completely as well. It was a joyful ride, rather than a stressful, overwhelming ride. My weaknesses didn´t just disappear nor did the trials, but I was able to enjoy it alot more.
3. I now know for certain that this is the church of God, the only true church on earth. I know that Thomas S Monson is a prophet of God, and his words are just God´s words. I know that the full power of God is here on earth and through it we can see miracles and just really feel the full extent of God´s love. I know that Jesus Christ is my Savior and Redeemer and that because He loves us so much, He literally gave Himself up and suffered and died FOR US. I know that God is my Heavenly Father and that He loves me. 
4. We are truly here to be happy and to have joy, and through the Lord we can. 2 Nephi 2:25
5. I know that the most important thing is going to the temple, and being able to be sealed as a family for time and all eternity. This needs to be EVERYONES goal.

I have learned a lot more and I am so grateful for these last 18 months I have had to experiment and learn so much. It was truly a life changing experience that I will forever be grateful for.

I love you all and thank you all for the love and support!

Con Mucho Amor,

Hermana Cordon

We went bowling today as a district, I won :) (sorry it is a dark photo, hopefully you can see it)

We found a dog with no front legs, he was able to walk by bouncing on his stumps.. and he just stood straight up as well.

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.

"We are not judged, we are admired"

¡Hola!

A funny thing about Ecuador is, there are not many white people walking around the none touristy parts of Ecuador, aka everywhere I have worked. And so when there are 2 gringas walking together we turn heads, and a lot of heads. So today, we were carrying a giant bag of boxes, and I said that we probably look funny and people were probably judging, but then I was like, no, we are not judged we are admired.. haha anything that we do just will become the trend here, because we´re white. :) The bonus of being white here. Also a member told us today, that because we are white more people will listen to us and we have more success then the latin missionaries, not really sure if that is true or necesarily a good thing, but it was funny :) I am sure this was a lot funnier for me and my companion, but enjoy :)

This sector is moving along great, we have some really marvelous people that we have had the blessed opportunity to be working with. Fernando, Patricia, and Veronica all had their interviews this week. Veronica, is going to be preparing for the 23rd to just keep increasing her faith, she is awesome and came to conference and really loved it. The only thing is now she is back to going to school and she is super busy, so we are hoping to be able to find her this week at least twice, but we have planned to work out a time with her that would be a good time to call and be able to have a little conversation and give her an inspirational message to keep her excited and progressing. Fernando passed his interview and will be getting baptized this weekend, as well as Patricia. Fernando had asked us, when we explained the interview, or the conversation he would have with Elder Miza, he asked us "What do I need to do to prepare? Should I read all the pamphlets again? What should I read?" He got super nervous and thought it was some sort of test, we explained it wasn´t and that he would be just fine, he was just super worried that he wouldn´t pass, because he wants to be baptized so bad. So he was super happy when he left and that he had been told that all was okay and that he could get baptized this weekend. Patricia was also super happy and loved conference, and really enjoyed the part about having joy. She just wants to be happy, which is the most important. She is excited for her baptism as well. If all works out, we are going to have their baptism Saturday, and we are super excited for them, and I just love the change that I have seen in them as they have accepted the gospel, it really is a marvelous thing when people accept the Savior and His gospel into their lives. 

They are really enjoyed conference, and I am so grateful for conference and the opportunity that we all have to listen to God´s servants here on the earth. What called my attention was the need to pray from your hearts and not just from your lips, because it is easy to get in a habit with your prayers, and also to really know and love the doctrine of Christ. The second coming is nearing and we need to be prepared for what is up ahead.

This week we started meeting with the Chimbo Family. They are 2 sisters and their kids, one has 3 kids the other has 2 kids, and 4 of the kids are over 8. They are all really great, and were able to come with us to Conference yesterday and really enjoyed it and loved listening to it. We are going back tonight to talk about it and see how they felt being able to listen to God´s Prophet. They are a great family and we are excited to be working with them. 

Something I am so grateful for is the baptism interviews. They really help the investigators to keep progressing and really make those final steps of repentance, if they hadn´t been taken, and to really feel the love God has for them. Everytime one of the people I have been working with has gone into an interview, they are always super nervous, but as they come out after having been able to talk to my district leader, they are full of light and joy and really just want to keep following God, and you can just see in them the love of God. I am so grateful for the opportunity I have had to be working with so many wonderful people, and that I will be able to be present in their baptisms as they take this important step to come closer to their Savior and Redeemer and enter into the kingdom of God.

I know this church is true and I am a grateful for the chance I have to be a representative of God during this time.

Shout out to my sister who got her mission call to South Carolina!! Woohoo!! 

Con Mucho Amor,

Hermana Cordon

Beautiful Ambato:

Baños round 4

¡hola!

Well today as a zone we went to Pailon del Diablo. It is a REALLY STRONG waterfall in Baños and seriously it is so pretty and really just puts me in awe about nature and about the creations of God. I seriously love this beautiful planet, and especially beautiful Ecuador and its wonderful waterfalls. We got completely soaked again, and so we came back super cold, so we were happy to put on nice warm clothes. Just my hair has a nice after effect of the humidity of Baños and being soaked :) 

This week I kept focusing on focusing on the spirit and really noticed a difference. This week a ton of appointments fell through, everyday. And we were found where all of our appointments, including backup plans, were null and we weren´t sure what to do. But, this week I noticed alot more of the hand of God in this work, and I am convinced its because we turned to Him more. We found ourselves praying to Him, letting Him guide us, and really trying to focus on what the Spirit was saying. And I know that if we keep doing that, we will see a huge difference. 

One miracle was that we were walking in the rain going over to try and find someone we had contacted a couple of days earlier. While walking there, we noticed some kids huddled under a poncho running to their house, and then they noticed us. They all started waving, and we waved thinking it was probably some little kids that wanted to wave to the two gringas, but then one of the kids asked us if we remembered him, and then it clicked in my mind that it was the kids of the person we were headed to. So we said yes, and we asked if they were going to their house and if their mom was home, they said yes, and then they showed us to their house. Their house was really complicated to get to and so we never would have found it if we hadn´t had run into them. They are a cute little family, and we haven´t been able to visit with them again, but we are praying that we find them this week. We were really grateful for that little "coincidence" or better said miracle from God. 

We also were able to visit with 2 other new families this week that are really great and seem like they have a lot of desire to follow God and to learn more about Him, we have been praying to find a family and we were able to find 3 this week. I know that families can help each other progress and really come to God, so I am grateful for the chance to be teaching them and helping them to know the way that can bless their family. 

We have 2 progressing investigators right now, and they are really great! One is Fernando, and he is a 18 year old boy and has a ton of desire to know God and to follow Him. One thing that really respect about him, is his prayers. He really has such sincere prayers and pours his heart out to God, and with that desire we have seen him grow over the last 2 weeks and really have come so much closer to God. The other is Patricia, she is great and has been really doing all she can to follow God and to change her life for the better. She loves what she sees in the church and she wants her daughter to grow up in the atmosphere of the church. We are excited to be working with her as well and to really see the change in her from the gospel. They both have baptism dates for the 8th of October, and we are praying for them.

Hermana Bench and I are getting along great as well. We work hard and I love her desire to work and her desire to just do that much more. She is great and I love working with her.

It was a great week and I really love this work and these people.

Con mucho Amor,

Hermana Cordon

Me with Fernando (our investigator), Gaby (a member, and his girlfriend), and Jessica (the less active we have been working with). I love them!

Us with a member that came with us for the afternoon

We had divisions this week and I was with Hna Loayza, she is great

Everyday a New Day

¡Hola!

At the verification meeting, 2nd day as companions!
Woohoo, emergency changes :)

Big news! We had emergency changes! haha :) The Lord is good at keeping us on our feet at all times here in the mission. Well I am still here in Ambato in the same ward (Wohoo!!!) but, now I am with Hna Bench, she has only 3 weeks in the mission, so I will be training her. She is so awesome and sweet and I am excited to be working with her, she is from Utah as well, so we are going to be great friends! I am excited for this new experience ahead and for the opportunity to be staying where I am :) That just means today I spent traveling and meeting up with my new companion here in Quito and we are going to be staying here till tomorrow night, because we have verification meeting tomorrow for the new missionaries. Every week there is a new experience ahead!

The work is moving along here in El Recreo, we are working with some amazing people with such big desire to know the truth. Mauricio keeps moving forward and what I love about the lessons with him, is that he always has a ton of questions, and a true desire to really know the truth. When someone has questions it is because they really want to learn, and it is really evident in Mauricio. Yesterday we taught him the plan of salvation, and something that was really new for him and hard for him to grasp was the fact that we lived with our Heavenly Father before this life and we were only spirits, that surprised him. And we testified to him, but it still kept with him a doubt, so we invited him to pray and ask Heavenly Father if he lived with Him before this life, and he was so excited to be able to do that and recieve an answer. He is learning for himself that God really does hear and answers our prayers.

A new investigator we found this week, was a reference from her twin brother who is a recent convert in Riobamba, Veronica. She is really looking to change her life around and to come closer to God and is really searching for the truth. In the second lesson with her, we verified if she had prayed, and she did! And she said she felt good and that she took it as an answer. She was willing to accept everything afterwards, and when we asked her to pray specifically about the Book of Mormon, she told us, that it doesn´t matter if it is true or not because she is going to go forward with blind faith. It was an interesting comment, because it is true, faith we can´t see we are blind to the things, but because God loves us so much he gives us a way to know if these things are true. It starts with interest and a sincere desire to know, then as we act and pray for an answer God blesses us with knowledge, line upon line. Like it says in Alma, it will keep growing, but it will keep growing until we no longer have faith, but perfect knowledge. We explained that concept to her and then she commited to praying and asking God if the Book of Mormon is true, so that she could keep increasing her faith.

Along the same principle of faith, we met with Jessica, a less active, and the discussion was led to faith and how she can have her testimony again. She knows that before she knew the church was true, but over these last couple of years when she has stopped doing the things she knows she should be doing, she has come to really forget her testimony, in the sense she know doesn´t feel anything. That is the interesting thing about a testimony, we can know that we knew, but no longer know if we stop doing the things and we now no longer have the spirit with us. We were able to have a very spirit filled lesson with lots of testimonies of the importance of doing the little things, to make sure to have the spirit with you to nuture your testimony, like reading, praying, and going to church. I had testified to her that it can change her life to start doing these things, because it has changed my life, and she then asked me how it had changed my life. It stopped me and gave me a minute to reflect, on really how it has changed my life, and more than anything, it has put my life with God´s will. I have realized that a continual reading of the scriptures, sincere prayers, and going to church with the intent to learn, we put ourselves where the Lord can work on us and truly guide us. I realized in that moment that, that is what has happened over this last year that the Lord has been able to shape me even more, because I am continually doing the little things that put me in line with His will. I am grateful for the mission for that, because it is scheduled into our day studies so that we study the scriptures everyday, we create the habit to pray at many times during the day, and we are constantly thinking and talking about the gospel, and it really aligns us with His will. She commited to start doing those things, but a commitment that really showed a desire to change and have those blessings.

Just Us!

We finally were able to meet with a recent convert that we have been trying to get a hold of since we got here, but this week we finally met and visited with her! She is great, and is the only member in her family, but when we went and visited her we met her mom and were able to visit with her as well. She made a comment about how she is happy, because she knows her daughter will be saved, but she won´t be, but she was happy for her daughter at least. It got us thinking and we were able to testify to her and really have a really spirit filled lesson about the plan of happiness, which includes being an eternal family, because true happiness isn´t being alone, and that she wouldn´t ever be happy, even if her daughter was saved, if she wouldn´t be able to live with her daughter. We commited her to start reading the book of mormon again, because she was reading before, and to really come closer to God so they can be saved together. I love God´s plan of happiness.

I love the mission, I love this work. I know that this is the true church and I know that the Lord guides this work. I am so happy to be here in Ambato, in this ward, and with these wonderful people. This beautiful country will forever have my heart.

Con mucho amor y carino,

Hermana Cordon

Amor para las personas

¡Hola!

Me and Hna Morán

We had divisions this week, it was great :) I got to be with Hna Morán, she is gringa, but her dad is mexican so she looks latina. We had a great time in there sector, and we visited a family that I had visited with the Hna Leader about 3 months ago, and they remembered me :) There are 3 cute little girls that are super sweet, one wanted to brush my really snarly hair (Thanks to the wind and dust and walking everywhere :) ) haha It was fun to see them again, and I was able to learn alot, it was great.

Well three weeks ago our mission leader informed us that someone was at church that wasn´t a member and that he had been going for a long time, but he didn´t get any of his information and he informed us after church. So we had to wait a week until we got to church again, and we were grateful that he came again :) And this week we finally were able to visit with him, he is great! His family goes to the Jehovah Witness, but his mom is the only one baptized there. He has gone there his whole life, so he has studied a ton and knows alot, which means a lot of questions, but he really listens to our answers and has a lot of faith and is really open to knowing for himself. When we taught him about the restoration and invited him to pray about our message, he responded quickly saying yes. Since he has been coming to church for awhile, I then thought to ask him if he had ever prayed about it, he then responded with a no, because he didn´t know that you could pray and actually recieve an answer. I just love the knowledge we have of God and prayer, knowing that if we pray He listens and He answers us. I know that is true, because I have recieved answers from Him, in many different moments in many different ways. We testified to him and he left with a lot of desire to find out for himself and he accepted a baptism date for the 3rd of September! We are excited to be working with him and to guide him along this path, I just love how humble and open he his and we can see that he has a true desire to follow God. 

Dayana opened up with us this week and let us know what she is truly going through, and the obstacles she will have to overcome so that she will be able to be baptized. Thursday we had commited her to be baptized for the 26th of August and she had accepted and we were going to fast with her to help her to recieve an answer from God, but we weren´t able to find her saturday when we were supposed to start with her. And then she also didn´t come to church. When her grandparents got to church, we asked about her, and they responded saying she now doesn´t want anything and doesn´t want to be baptized... My heart dropped, I almost started crying right there in church hearing that, but I convinced myself that they were mistaken and that there was just a miscommunication and she just didn´t feel good to come to church. After church we went and passed by for her to talk to her to see what was up. As she was telling us why she had decided to not be baptized and stuff I felt my heart break, knowing that the decision she was making would prevent her from recieving all the blessings the Lord has for her. While listening to her I felt an overwhelming sense of love for her and a desire to help her. A love I know that God blessed me with to help her, and we began testifying and explaining to her the consequences of not being baptized. We testified a lot and she opened up to the idea again of really seeking an answer from God and doing a fast with us this week. I am praying for her and I want the absolute best for her. I know as a missionary the Lord has blessed me with a love for these people that would be impossible to create in such a short amount of time knowing a person. I love Dayana so much and I know how happy she can be coming closer to this gospel and I hope and pray that she makes the right decision so that she can have this happiness. But, it also helped me to realize how Christ feels when we make bad decisions, when we move away from Him. His heart breaks, He wants nothing more than to bless us, and we are choosing another path. But, for that He suffered and died for us, so that we could come back to Him, and that brings Him the greatest joy imaginable when we have come back into His. The joy we feel as missionaries when people make that step (come to church, read, pray, are baptized, etc..) is a small part of what Christ must feel, and that joy is something very difficult to describe, it really is true joy. I am so grateful for the opportunity to be working with Dayana and that she really is seeking to know for herself and to come closer to Christ.

This week went well, and we got some good work in. I have been stressing a bit, feeling like I can´t do all that I need to do, and not wanting to finish the mission, because I am not ready, but I just keep changing my mindset and focus on what I am doing, and focusing on always seeking the help of God in every situation. I just have to keep reminding myself to do that, and then I am good. :) I love the mission and I love the help that I recieve from God in every moment.

I know this is the true church, I know that we pass through trials so that we can become more like our Savior, Jesus Christ. I know that I am a representative of Jesus Christ and for that reason I proudly put my nametag on everyday and boldly claim that I am a representative of His true church. I don´t doubt it, I never have. I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

I love you all and thank you for your prayers!! :)

Mucho Amor,
Hermana Cordon

Me and my companion

My companion, Deyni (a less active that always goes to appointments with us), and me 

Me and my companion with a rainbow 

Lunch at the mall with Hna Morán and Hna Loayza

Caldo de Pata aka cow foot soup again. This time I tried the cow foot. It was really, really chewy....

Trip to the Volcano!

¡Hola!

I am doing good. I am loving the work! For our pday activity today we went to a volcano, called Quilotoa!! Well.. It is a lake in the pit of once was a volcanoe, but is now dormant. It was super pretty!! The old bad thing was we didn´t have enough time to go down to the lake, because it is quite the hike, but we got some really cool pictures!! I love this beautiful country and the cool places there are to get to know! 

This week I focused my studies on the Atonement, and focusing on teaching it as well to help the people have a reason to do the things. Through the Atonement we can find real peace and comfort. Also I read alot about how Christ was the only one that could do it, and that He WILLINGLY sacrificed His life for us. I have heard that many times before, but reading that this week really made me feel the love that He has for me and for the other people. I realized that as I am teaching people, when I am really focused on their needs and their concerns I can feel the love that Christ has for these people, and I truly develop a sincere love for them. I am so grateful for Jesus Christ and that He sacrificed himself for us and that through Him and this gospel we can find true peace and happiness.

Well this week was good. In our lessons we focused alot on teaching with the commitment in mind and being more specific about what and why of the commandments to get people to commit, and we saw a change. Just no one came to church.. we were a little sad about that. It is always hard being in church and no one had come.. 

Our investigator Miquel, commited to be baptized this week, really we could see a difference in him and a bigger desire to follow God and be baptized. He came to a baptism on saturday of a kid in the ward to see how it was, and he said he liked it, he was just hesitant with the goal we put with him. We commited him to pray and ask God about the 6th, and he said he would. Then we didn´t come on sunday, even though saturday he was saying he would be there. He doesn´t have a number that we can call, we just have a number of his friend that he is with alot. So we weren´t able to call him in the morning. We are planning on visiting him tonight, and we are hoping we find him. Also our other investigator that had a baptism date, was Dayana. Dayana is the granddaughter of some recent converts who is 18, and she has really been affected by the change she has seen in her grandparents that she wants to join the church as well. She is reading and praying and is commiting to all the commandments that we teach her. She also came to the baptism on saturday and was super excited to come to church. We called her sunday morning, and she didn´t answer, and she didn´t come to church. In the afternoon we called again, and she slept in.. so we are going to be seeing what we can do to help her not to sleep in. They are both great and the faith and desire they have to follow God is awesome and I am learning a lot about seeing the blessings of being a member of the gospel and having a desire to learn.

We had a really powerful lesson yesterday with a less active, Jessica. She has been holding in a lot of feelings of guilt for the past mistakes she has made, and she is so close to really coming back strong, the only thing holding her back is forgiving herself. We shared the scripture in DyC 58:42-43, and we testified to her that God has forgiven her, and as we said that a strong feeling came over me that God truly loved her and that He had forgiven her for her past mistakes, and that He was just waiting for her to come back to Him. We testified that the power of the Atonement really allows you to feel peace that you can recieve a complete forgiveness. At moments the only thing holding us back from feeling this peace completely is ourselves and our unwillingness to let ourselves be forgiven. But, if Christ has forgiven us, why can´t we forgive ourselves? We left her with the commitment to pray and ask for help to forgive herself, and she seemed a lot more hopeful :) I love this gospel and I love the Atonement! 

Yo sé que a través de la expiación de Jesucristo podemos sentir un paz y gozo inmenso, podemos sentir el amor que Él tiene para cada uno de nosotros, y podemos perdonar a nosotros mismo. Yo sé porque he sentido esto en mi vida y sé que es para todos. Y lo comparto en el nombre de Jesucristo. Amen. 

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

Mucho Amor,

Hermana Cordon

More pictures of our visit to the volcano:

The Volcano!

Me and my companion

Me and my companion

My district, they didn´t tell us about the need to wear those shirts.. 

The Volcano!

a part of our sector, I love it!

a part of our sector, I love it!

We always have to have a crazy photo, and me and my companion fell.. hahaha 

My zone, we made zone t-shirts

Sleep Contacting

¡Hola!

Well my brother came home from his mission and my other brother got married this week, a lot for my family. And with a bunch of things going on, I kept doing the same thing here, and I couldn`t be happier. I am so grateful for this time to serve the Lord and I wouldn`t trade it for anything else. It was a good week and I am grateful that I was able to stay focused and wasn`t distracted thinking of my family and home.

Indigenous Statue at the Market

Well first off my companion told me one day that I had woke her up during the night, because I was talking in my sleep. Apparently I was contacting someone and it was in spanish! I guess that is a good sign that I am spanish sleep contacting! haha I thought that was a pretty good sign! And back that up with the husband of our pensionista is always giving me a hard time about my gringa accent, but I am secretly grateful, because it is helping me to improve my spanish! My accent still has a lot of room to improve.

My companion was sick this week, so we lost of little of working time, but I just kept animating my companion and making her feel bed. It is so hard to be sick on the mission! And she has been sick like really bad 4 times already and she is still in her second transfer.. so difficult, but she is awesome and keeps pushing through! During this week trying to help my companion realize why the mission is so awesome, because sometimes it can get hard, it just makes me love the mission even more. It is a great time to learn and to grow and to become like Christ. I won`t have another time like this, this time completely to focus on how I can become more like the savior and to really put all my energy in His work. It is quite the blessing. My companion is so awesome and I am learning so much from her about being really diligent and truly giving the work your all!

We went to the Market for P-day and I found
 this cool hat... I didn't buy it though!

We were blessed with a bunch of little blessings this week from the Lord and He was guiding our footsteps. I am really trying to focus on truly following the spirit as I teach and for everything that I do really. Sometimes I just get in the habit of being a missionary and forget to really focus on what He is telling me to say and do, I just need to remember whose work this really is and that without His spirit I am not going to have much success. I know that it will be a huge blessing if I can learn how to follow the spirit in everything I do, and this has been my focus this last week and will be for the rest of my mission I believe. I am also learning that I need to think less about myself and my needs and a lot more about the people around me and my companion. I am here to serve and sometimes I think to much about myself and my personal struggles. I still have a lot to work on, but when I focus on the work and the people, those things will come as well. The Lord blesses us a lot more, when we forget ourselves. I really love the quote from what Gordon B Hinckley´s dad said, "Forget yourself, and go to work." I just need to forget myself even more and to really just focus on the work and the service I am here to do for others. 

I found myself in a lot of moments of reflection especially with the last email from my brother, I began thinking about where I want to be and who I want to be when my time has come to a close, and as I started thinking about that I realized that I still have a long way to go. Gratefully I still got time, I just have to use it wisely. 

Selfie with the Statue

I am so grateful for this work and the love that the Savior has for me and every one of you guys. I know that this is the true church and it doesn`t matter how many times people try to tell me why we are wrong or confused or ignorant it just makes me love this church more and know with a stronger assurance that this church is true. We have so much opposition, because it is the true church. It wasn`t easy for the Savior so it won`t be easy for us, that`s what Elder Holland has said many times. Today a guy in the mall, as we were eating lunch, was trying to argue with us about how the Book Of Mormon contradicts with the bible and all that fun stuff, but as he was talking I just had a strong feeling, that okay if you want to find mistakes and contradictions, you`ll find them. Because, you won`t understand what it is trying to say and you are going to find what you are trying to find, you`ll make anything work. I know without a doubt that the Book Of Mormon is the word of God and is a compliment to the bible. And with them both together we have everything we need!

This is the work of Jesus Christ and I am so grateful to be His representative and to be working in it.

I love you all!!

Tengan una maravillosa semana!!

Mucho Amor,
Hermana Cordon  

La Primera Vision

¡Hola Familia y amigos! 

Espero todo está bien con todos! 

Today for pday we had a zone activity to play some group games; dodgeball and ultimate frisbee! It was so nice to just be able to run around and spend time with the missionaries! I love the activities where I get to wear pants :) The little things such a pants on the mission make me so happy! And the pictures are me and the other hermanas in my zone. In the photo with everyone on piggybacks is the companionships, and on bottom is the gringas (hermanas from the US) and on top is the Latinas. Each companionship is a latina and a gringa it´s pretty cool :)

This gospel is simple and we should be so quick to just follow the commandments and know that the commandments are not hard to follow and nor should they be. Yesterday we had a lesson with the family that we found last week, and they weren´t able to go to church because of their jobs. So we decided to have a lesson about the sabbath day and how we need to keep it holy. And in the lesson we always start with explaining the commandment and then we tell them the blessings and the blessings are always to comfort the people that they won´t suffer if they follow this commandment, but yesterday was a completely new experience for me. When we explained the commandment, before we even mentioned the blessings, the father said "I need to follow this commandment, so I need to find a new job so that I can go to church every sunday and not work on sundays." Hearing that made me so happy! It really should be that simple! We shouldn´t even have to hesitate to be obedient to the Lord´s commandments and his desires! 

This week the Lord has really blessed us with putting a lot of new people in our paths who want to listen and are open to following God in a different path than they are currently on. I had many opportunities to share my testimony with a lot of new people this week and I love being able to share my testimony and helping others know how to come closer to Christ. It truly is a blessing to me that everytime I share or listen to my companion share the first vision, the Spirit that I feel everytime confirms to me that this gospel is true. I know that this church is true, I know it without a doubt. I know it´s true, because EVERYTIME I hear the first vision the Spirit is so strong and I cannot deny the feeling that is testifying to me every single time. Joseph Smith was a prophet called of God, and he restored the gospel of Jesus Christ. He didn´t create a new church with his own opinion on the things of God, but he was a humble boy who sought the will of the Lord and recieved an answer that has affected my entire life. Because I am a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints I have been guided in every moment of my life. I am who I am today, because of this gospel. I am a missionary here in Ecuador, because I know that this is the true church of God on the earth and I have a divine mission to share my testimony and let others know about this gospel and give them the opportunity to accept this gospel in their lives. And that´s the wonderful thing about God, we have our agency. And with our agency we CHOOSE to live with God again or we CHOOSE our own path with our own desires. God doesn´t have different opinions and with that we know that their is only one way to follow God the way God wants us to follow Him. And I know that this is the way and their is no other way that can bring the true happiness that everyone is looking for! With this gospel we can have never-ending happiness! (Mosiah 2:41) I know these things are true and I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

LOVE YOU ALL!! :)
Mucho Amor, 

Hermana Cordon