Commandments Are A Gift of God

¡Hola! ¿Comò estan? Estoy muy bien :) 

There is a little spanish splurge for you guys :) Today for our pday we had a zone activity where we went to this thing called TelefèriQo, it´s a cable car thing going to a top of a mountain. And then from the top of that mountain you can start a hike to go to the top of a volcano. I didn´t get to go up all the way to the volcano (Don´t worry it´s dormant :) ) but, I was still really high up and got to see a beautiful view of the city of Quito. The Lord really has blessed us with a gorgeous world. And I get this amazing opportunity to be in Ecuador and seeing new things and having new experiences! Hikes really just rejuvenate me and just really help me to appreciate just how gorgeous Quito really is! The only downside was it was FREEZING, because we were probably at 13,000-15,000 feet and it was really windy and cold. Gratefully I thought to bring a jacket! And I am adjusting well to the altitude difference, because I am really not struggling a lot at all with it, and so I am really grateful for that!

This week we focused a lot on our investigator family, who was deciding on whether to get married or separate to accept this gospel. And the dad said something that made me really happy. He was like I am okay with whatever decision she makes, as long as we follow this commandment so that I can be baptized. He has recieved an answer that this church is true, and because of that he wants to follow the commandments at whatever sacrifice he needs to. The commandments from God are not to punish us, but to uplift us to become better people. And he understands that so much that he just wants to follow the commandments. When we follow the commandments of God we recieve so many blessings, so much so that we can´t even recognize every single one of them. If you have recieved a witness that the church is true, then what is stopping you from living every single one of God´s commandments? Like Elder Holland said obedience is the first great commandment, and we all need to be obedient. And if you haven´t recieved a witness that the church is true, listen harder and have a real desire to know that it´s true. And then you will recognize your answer. 

Mosiah 2:41 -- Consider on the blessed and happy state of those that keep the commandments of God

Love you all and thank you for your prayers and your love!

Les Amo, 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

Love and Laughter

¡Hola familia y amigos!

First off me and Hermana Greer get along great! We are always laughing and both have a lot of goals to get the work moving along which is awesome! Laughter is seriously the cure for anything, if you´re frustrated or down in anyway just laugh! But it has definitely made a difference and it is continually strengthening our relationship! One funny thing is the public transportation here. There is one thing called an eclovia (I have literally no idea how to spell this word) but it´s basically kind of like the trax in Utah, but 5 billion people use it. So when you want to get on you basically are crammed up against everyone else and have literally no space to even take a step in either direction and you´re all moving with the car and so people are falling on top of people and when me and Hermana Greer had to get on it, we were basically dying of laughing. It was quite the experience and I realized that in that moment I could have been annoyed about how crowed it was or found how humorous it was that we were falling on top of each other. And laughing about things are always a better option! So my advice just laugh!

One huge blessing from the Lord this week is that we were able to find and contact two families, which added 12 investigators to our teaching pool! It definitely was a huge blessing and hopefully we can do all we can through the spirit and our willingness to work hard to teach these people and help them to accept the gospel and recieve all the blessings that it has! And the fact that is families is awesome! Because families help each other to progress and families stay so much stronger in the gospel, because they have a good support system!

One big lesson I learned this week is the importance of loving everyone that you are teaching, whether it be the first lesson with this person or the tenth lesson. Because when you love them the spirit is so much stronger in the lesson and you are able to be guided more by the spirit to know what to say to help these people exactly for their specific needs! This trait is definitely a gift from God and something that doesn´t come with no effort, so I am working and focusing day to day to just love everyone I come into contact with, and basically everyone in Ecuador so that I have a desire to talk to everyone and to teach everyone.

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

Love, Hermana Cordon