El Recreo Round 3

¡Hola!

Great news, I am staying in El Recreo with Hna Bench to finish out the mission!! I am super excited to be able to be here for the next 6 weeks and to keep working with these wonderfully amazing people here in El Recreo. Also I am stoked to be able to keep working with Hna Bench. It also means I will have about 7 months here in Ambato, but thats okay, cause it is the best!

We went with Jessica and her Mom to feed
their animals, we forgot our cameras.
Her mom gave me her shall to put on,
because it was super windy, and she put it on
the Ecuador Way.

Jesica, our less active, is doing good. She has never come to the first hour, but has been coming to church for awhile now. So we talked to her about why we need to go to the first hour, mainly for the sacrament. She thought you had to be basically perfect to take the sacrament, so she didn´t go, because she didn´t feel worthy enough to take the sacrament. So we cleared that right up, and testified to her that the sacrament is for the imperfect people who are trying to do better. I love the sacrament, and here on the mission I have been really able to understand it on a whole new level. 

This week was sad, because we had to drop two of our investigators. I come to love every one of our investigators and I am able to learn so much from them. But, there comes a time when the person isn´t progressing and is not doing what we are asking them to do, we have to love them enough to let them go and to allow them to come back, when they will progress. I am just super grateful for the chance we had to meet with them and for all that I was able to learn from them. 

We had a service project this week, and we painted. It was fun! Fun fact: Ecuadorians think you need to put half water and half paint, so we basically painted the wall with water. And it was a white wall, that we sanded last week, and so we were putting a new white paint on it. But, it just ended up being gray.. It was kind of funny, just painting the wall and just finding gray in our paths.

Use with Deyni, a less active we are working with
that goes to appointments with us.

The members here are great, and we have been able to work with so many here. Hopefully we can just keep working with them and finding more people to work with.

Not much to share, but I love the work and I love the mission. Just keep on keeping on :)

Love you all!!

Con mucho amor y cariño,

Hermana Cordon

Our District, Elder Paiz left, but everyone else is staying

Beautiful Ecuador, the view from our front door.

Our Zone

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  

6 Months!

¡Hola familia!

Time is really flying by here in Ecuador and the fact that it`s monday again really gets to me every week, because it always feels like yesterday the last time I wrote. And the fact that I can say I have 6 months in the mission is so crazy, it feels like yesterday that I stepped off the plane here, but yet not at the same time. I have had so many experiences and have met so many people these last 6 months and I am excited for the next year to keep growing and learning and meeting even more people to share this gospel with! Make the most of every second, because before you know the seconds will have passed and you haven`t changed. Make sure you are always changing and growing!

My thoughts on the policy change: I know that we have a prophet called of God guiding this church, and I know that we will never go astray if we follow and trust President Monson. Don`t doubt your testimony of this amazing church, because it`s not the popular opinion according to the world. 

This week was an interesting week, but great!! Here is an interesting story for all of you: This week 2 different investigator families told us that after the first visit with us that had an interesting experience with evil spirits. This family that I have been talking about, Flia Medina, had one of these experiences. They said that in the middle of the night something threw 4 pens really hard from one end of the house to the other end of the house. And they said that they knew it wasn`t from God, and that they weren`t scared. I am so happy that they weren`t scared and that they recognized immediately that it wasn`t from God. Satan is really trying and the people here in Ecuador are so perceptive to spiritual things both good and bad, that they have these experiences so insane with evil spirits. But, we were able to bring an Hermano from the church with us so that he could bless their house so that they can have protection from these spirits at all time. I am thankful for the power of the priesthood and the knowledge that the evil spirits can`t do anything if we don`t let them. 

Also something really cool, Flia Medina and Flia Aguiler, (our 4 progressing investigators) all have really old BOM that they recieved from someone a long time ago. That is just evidence to me that the Lord has been preparing these people for some time so that they would be receptive and open to this gospel at this time with me and Hna Molina. And these BOM are really cool the 1980 and 1960 versions of the BOM :) 

Ecuador is very predictable in the weather here. It is always really nice and sunny in the morning and then really rainy and windy in the afternoons. Every day. And the rainy season here is their winter. Everyone is saying how this is winter and it`s so cold, yet I am always perfectly comfortable with a light cardigan. They just don`t understand what a true winter is here in Ecuador. haha :) 

I love you all and I hope you all have an amazing week! 

Hna Cordon

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

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

How are you looking at life?

I realized this week in a big way, that my attitude and my outlook are what can make or break me. Being in a completely new country, with a different culture and a different language is hard, and it's hard having a companion that doesn't speak the same language as me. But though it is hard it is not impossible, nor is it horrible. I realized to make a day better or brighter I need to make it better or brighter. I need to focus only on the good and how the Lord has been blessing me, and through that outlook I can make it so much more better and brighter. Once I started doing that and focusing on how I can make each day better, I found myself happier and more easily able to participate in a lesson with our investigators. I was more easily able to accomplish the things the Lord needed me to accomplish by having a positive outlook and moving forward with faith. As many people reminded me this week, the Lord doesn't give anyone a trial they cannot overcome. So the lesson I want you all to learn is to change your outlook and to see the good rather than the bad. And focus on the people around you that you can help rather than focusing on yourself.

We have started teaching 2 new investigators. One is Santiago who has seen missionaries several times before and his girlfriend accepted the gospel and was baptized a while ago, but he never could accept the message that the missionaries were giving him. His girlfriend told us though after the first lesson, that there was a different spirit in this lesson then she has felt before and that we were actually able to help Santiago feel the spirit and to recognize something different about the same message he has heard several times before. Which to me was a huge blessing because the Lord was reminding me that I needed to be here and that I was taking part in helping someone understand the truth.

The other new investigator is Martin, who lives with less-actives and is not a member. He accepted the offer to sit down and listen to our message, and I doubt he had any idea what to expect. And through the lesson he had lots of questions and was intrigued the whole time through. It was awesome to see someones interest piqued on a message that they had never heard before. He has been keeping commitments and is excited to learn more everytime we set a new date for another lesson. I am excited to see where they gospel is going to take these two investigators.

This work is true, the Lord is amazing and I have been blessed beyond belief in my short time here in Ecuador and I can only imagine how the Lord is going to bless me more in the months to come. I love the people here and I love the opportunity to share the gospel with all of them. I am grateful for trials and learning experiences, because it makes you a better person and brings you closer to the Lord. The scriptures can bring so much comfort if you truly seek comfort from them. 

Love you all and thank you for the prayers and support!
Love, Hermana Cordon

¡QUITO!

I officially made it to Quito! The city is absolutely beautiful and I already love it! It was weird, the second I was off the plane, I felt right at home. It didn´t feel unfamiliar and I know that´s because I am supposed to be here! My mission president Presidente and Hermana Christensen are really nice and they came and picked us up from the airport. It was a very warm and friendly welcome which immediately made me feel loved. 

I find out tomorrow who my companion is and where I will be serving, which I am so excited about, and slightly nervous because of my limited spanish ability, but with trust in God I will learn all that I need to. 

Love, Hermana Cordon

Skip Frustration and Go to Work

Learning a language is hard work, and my brain gets so overloaded with Spanish everyday, that I don´t even know what`s going on by the end of the day.. haha :) But at least I get little english breaks here, whereas in the field it will probably be entirely Spanish all the time, until I have a companion that speaks English. But I am honestly looking forward to when I am forced to speak Spanish all the time, because I definitely will learn a lot quicker when I don`t have a fallback option. I definitely found myself getting frustrated this week with spanish and not really being able to understand it, but I just have to remember that learning a language takes time. Hopefully this week will be brighter and I will remember that I just need to work hard and to not give up on myself or the Lord. 

Well, not much has happened since the last time I emailed, except that every latin missionary left this morning and we are getting a whole new group tomorrow. I am definitely going to miss all the Latina Hermana`s though, because they are all so sweet, but I am sure the next ones will probably be just as awesome! Oh and 9 more norte Hermana`s are coming in this week, which will be fun helping them to adjust to life at the CCM!

On Sunday my MTC President shared a really cool devotional with the Norte missionaries in our english meetings. It was by Elder Bednard to missionaries a couple of years ago. But the main message of it was that you need to know the doctrine before you can understand the principles or apply the applications. So basically, you need to understand the doctrine of the atonement, before you can truly understand what repentance is, and once you understand both of those you can actually understand how to repent. I thought it was a really good reminder about how we just skip to the applications and not really explain the doctrine of why. It was a good thing to hear as a missionary, to remind me of what I really need to be teaching investigators. If you understand the doctrine, then you have a real desire to actually follow the principles. 

Well this week my district switches rooms and instructors and basically it will be spanish in every class the whole time, except to tell us what a word means if we don´t know it. It will be interesting, but it will increase my spanish learning so I´m excited! And it also means only 2 more weeks with my current companion, because the final 2 weeks I`m with a latina companion, so I`m gonna enjoy these last 2 weeks with someone that is struggling with spanish just as much as I am!

I hope everyone is having a great week and thanks for all the support and prayers! Love you all!

Love, Hermana Cordon

Call home for "Mother's Day"

Editors Note: The rules have now changed and missionaries in the MTC during Mother's Day or Christmas are able to still call home but might be on a different day. So Micaela was able to call home today on Skype. It was great to be able to talk to her and see her enjoy the MTC. She is also enjoying her companion and district. She is loving learning Spanish and is trying the best she can and is learning ALOT!