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  

Another Update!

This week it rained a ton! It´s the rainy season now, so I need to always leave with my raincoat or I will end up being soaked and unable to return home until the night, because our house is far away from all of our appointments. So don´t worry I always have my raincoat with me! But I love the smell of the rain so it always smells really nice here! 

This week I have been focusing a lot on improving my pronunciation with my companion, because I am making the most of having a Latina companion! And I am finding that Spanish is a lot more difficult then I ever realized and my accent is terrible! But, little by little I may be able to say the 'dr' and 'tr' combinations! I just have to trust in God´s power with the gift of tongues and interpretation of tongues to understand what´s important and that what I say in lessons will be understood by the spirit. 

We focused a lot on the importance of going to church this week, because a lot of our investigators don´t understand. The church is the most important thing to do every week, because we need to take the sacrament every week to make sure our lives are in line with God´s. Make sure you put that as a priority in your life to get the most out of it! 

I love you all and the scripture I "ponderized" this week was 2 Samuel 22:2-4. It´s a great scripture about trusting in God.

I know that God is there and has a plan, and that we need to trust Him and He will guide us to where He needs us to be. I know without a doubt that He is my Heavenly Father and that He knows me and every one of you personally. He loves us so very much and wants us all to succeed in this life. Trust God and make Him the rock of your life and you will never falter or fail. I love you all!

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

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

First week is DONE!

¡Hola!

The MTC is hard work, learning Spanish is hard work, and focusing when you´re tired is hard work. Though most things about the MTC is hard work, I´ve enjoyed it! My district is a lot of fun, it´s all Norte´s (North Americans) and all of us are always laughing about how we don´t understand anything, it makes the frustration of not learning spanish not so bad when there are other´s struggling with you! :)

My favorite day this week was sunday, because besides sacrament meeting and relief society all my meetings were in ENGLISH :) We were able to go in depth in doctrinal subjects and we combined with the other Norte district and got to have really good conversations. It was a good reminder why I am on a mission and why I want to share the gospel, because I just love the Gospel so much! Especially when I can understand what they are talking about. haha :)

I can definitely feel the Lord´s hand in my time here, because I understand more than I probably should being here for only and week, and I can remember a lot more words that I only learned once or twice. It´s wonderful. The Lord truly is remarkable and I truly love this Gospel!

Oh I got to go to the Colombia, Bogota temple today and that was cool! I truly love going to the temple and I´m gonna miss being able to go once I get to the mission field. But, I am doing a different kind of temple work :) 

Thank you for all the love and prayers! Have a great week!

Amor, Hermana Cordon

P.S. this picture is me and my district