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....

The work is moving along

Well like everyone says in their missionary emails, I can´t believe it is another monday again. Time sure does fly when you are enjoying the work :) 

This week was great, we have been able to find a lot of new people that are interested in our message and that are willing to do the things we leave with them. I just know we got to make sure they feel the spirit while we are there and that is the most important part. We finally got to visit Flia Salazar again. They were a family that Hna Guevara and I found about a month ago and we only were able to have one appointment with them, and then all the following appointments kept falling through. But, this last monday we finally were able to meet with them, and they are great. The wife is really interested and doesn´t have many doubts, but the husband has a lot of doubts and is scared to change religions. We testified a lot and tried to focus the lessons on them. The second lesson with them this week was cool, because they invited his brother and his wife. The wife happens to be a member, just hasn´t been going for 3 years, basically since she moved to this ward. But, she seems really interested in having her husband listen to us and become a member, we just need to focus alot on her, because if he sees her doing the things, he will want to do it as well. We are excited to see where it goes with them, they are in my prayers and I hope to always teach with the spirit in the lessons to know how to teach them. 

Some members introduced us to a neighbor, the best way to do missionary work! This neighbor is going through a lot right now and could really use the gospel, I am so grateful for these members that willingly shared the gospel and helped their neighbor have a way to find comfort. 

We are working with a less active, Deyni. She is awesome, and from the Galapagos. She loves the church, but doesn´t have a lot of knowledge, because she was baptized little over a year ago. And her testimony was weakening, but we can see it starting to blossom again. She is always super willing to go out to visits with us, and we love her help! Yesterday she came with us, and she was in a very thoughtful mood all night, I think it is because we taught a lot of different things and she was learning a ton. I know her coming out with us will really help her to increase her testimony and really be able to become a strong active member in the church. We put a date with her to be an active member by the 27th of August. She seems really excited about this date, and started reading after we put this date, which was great! 

Jessica, another less active, started reading this week! She was sending us subjects and we sent her scriptures related to that subject, she is finding a lot of answers and is excited. Yesterday when we visited with her, she had a doubt about marriage, and why we have to get married. I love the reason, it is so that we can become gods. Once we started explaining about exaltation and read with her DyC 132:19-20, she really understood and walked away with a lot to think about and an understanding of why we need to get married, or better put why we need to be sealed in the temple for time and all eternity. I love this gospel and I love the opportunity I have to be learning with the people we are teaching, they teach me so much every week. 

This week I started feeling really overwhelmed with the amount of work we have to do in this sector and feeling very inadequate and incable of really doing what needs to be done. Really being able to help these people or not. Reading the emails of my friends on their missions, gave me an answer I needed. Forget myself, trust in the Lord, and get to work. I know if I just put my focus on Him and what He would do, I will do my best and the stuff that needs to get done in this area. And that is my goal this week, to completely forget myself. 

Thank you for your prayers I feel and love your support! I love you all and I hope you all have a fantastic week!!

Love,

Hermana Cordon

P.S. Oh I completely forgot! This week I ate Yaugarlocro (Blood Potato Soup). And the hermana that gave it to us, put the blood in a different bowl, and the soup apart. And we didn´t know that you were supposed to put the blood in the soup and that it is better that way. But, we finished the soup and then ate the blood, I only ate a spoonful, because the Hermana was super great and wasn´t offended for not eating it. But, here is the photo of the blood.. I don´t recommend it. It is literally fried blood.

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

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