Changes

Hola!

Bye Hna Guevara :(

Once again it is changes, I swear the changes go by way to quickly, it feels like 2 weeks ago that me and Hna Guevara got here to El Recreo, but now it is the next change. Hna Guevara left after only one change here, and now I am with Hna Tapia, who also has the exact same amount of time as me, interesting, but I am excited to see where this change leads me. She is from Argentina and seems really nice.

We worked hard this last week. Miguel, who I talked about last week who was progressing, moved to Esmeraldas.. I am sending off the reference for him today and he is also commited to find the church there and go. We were able to learn a lot from him and his desire to learn more, and I am very grateful for the chance we had to plant the seed and I know we were placed in his path to start him on this journey and I am happy that he now knows this church. Dayana, our other investigator, came to church this week and really enjoyed it! Yesterday after church we really focused on getting to know her and gaining more of her confidence, because we felt her being a teenage girl we needed to just talk with her to get her to open up to us more and really be honest about her desires and her fears. It worked! We really were able to help her to open up and to be honest with us why she was hesistant about baptism. It was a big milestone and now we really have her confidence and we are going to be able to focus the lessons more for her and what she needs and how she can overcome this fear that she has.   We are working with other investigators and we hope to find more investigators this week that can really progress and are ready to hear this message of the gospel. We also were able to visit with a less active, Jessica. For awhile now she has been having a hard time reading the scriptures and she was honest and said that she really doesn´t have any desire to read. So we suggested her giving us subjects that she would like to know more about and we are giving her where to read to find her answer. Once we suggested that she started spurting out a bunch of questions that she has and that she would like answers, she seemed a lot more excited to be reading in the Book of Mormon knowing that it will give her more answers to her questions. We had a hard time finding everyone this week, but we are excited for this week and we are hoping to find everyone so that they can keep progressing in this wonderful path of the gospel.

Yesterday we had a appointment with our mission leader. As we were talking, a lot was mentioned about the ward and how members fall in temptation and how usually it is a surprise. It got me thinking about how we never know when our "moment" is. Meaning that Satan is waiting for just the right moment to catch us when we are off guard to really tempt us. No member is immune to his wrath, he doesn´t want anyone to be happy. Nobody is safe, and the only protecction we have is really LIVING the gospel of Jesus Christ. And by living it we need to really give our whole efforts. We need to be obedient to the commandments. We need to really read and pray everyday, but with our heart. And we need to go to church every sunday and worthily partake of the sacrament and really be in the classes to let the Holy Ghost teach us. If we are doing this and when our "moment" comes we will be prepared and we will stay on the right path, but that is if we do the right thing always. We need to be strengthening ourselves everyday. It was a moment of reflection for me and I realized a lot of ways of how I can improve this and really put my heart and effort into the little daily tasks of being a member. I love being able to visit with active members and have gospel conversations that everyone leaves with goals of how to do better, it is awesome.

Something cool, today I was buying some food in the grocery store and the people behind me in line were 2 gringos. They saw my nametag and asked me where I worked. So I started talking to them and presented myself. 1. It is so weird presenting myself as a missionary in english, it doesn´t come out naturally. 2. They didn´t understand me when I said I was from Utah.. so I take that as a compliment meaning I am saying things in the spanish way not the english way. (I am going to have a problem when I get back to the states..) 3. They were really nice. 

I love this gospel and I am love being His representative. I know that this is the true church, of such I have NO doubt. I know that we need to continually strengthen ourselves to make sure we stay worthy to get to the Celestial Kingdom and I know that is possible through the nutrition of the word of God and really knowing our Heavenly Father and renewing our covenants. I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

I hope you all have a fabulous week and remember that this is the way to true happiness!!

Mucho Amor,

Hermana Cordon

A recent convert made us shoes and gave them to us as a gift. Seriously he is so great!

My Shoe!

Flia Bravo, the father made us our shoes :) It was his birthday so we bought him and little cake and it made his day. I am so grateful that we thought to do that for him.

Last week for lunch we went to a cool mexican food restaurant, it had a really good burrito :)

El Recreo (The Recess)

¡Hola!

Me and Hna Guevara

Well this week was changes, and both me and my companion left MIra Flores, and they closed our sector and now that ward only has one companionship of elders. I was sad to be leaving everyone without either one of us, but I know that the Lord knows what is best for this sector and that He will guide the Elders. I am now in El Recreo, the ward that touched my sector before, so basically I just stepped onto the other side of the line. Here there hasn`t been Hermanas for over 15 years, so the members are probably going to be really excited to see Hermanas here again. And so, as you probably guessed, I am opening a sector with Hermana Guevara. She is from Peru and really nice! She has the same time as me and so it will be really great to just get out and work and get things moving along here. Today we spent a lot of time organizing our house, because elders were here and a elder that just finished his mission was here, so it isn`t very clean. Hopefully by the end of this week we can clean it up and get it all organized. 

We were helping Gabriela alot this week, by sending her chapters every night to read, and she has been reading them all! She really does have a great desire to follow this gospel and to have a strong testimony. I know that with the Elders help she can be guided to baptism to recieve all these blessings. With our other investigator Stanley, I think it is going to be really great that there is going to be elders teaching him now. I am sure they will be able to relate to him more and guide him to baptism. We also found a new investigator this last saturday, Cecilia, and she is really great and really open to hearing this message, she even came to church! She came by herself and on time, it was awesome! The elders should be passing by tonight to visit her, hopefully they don´t forget. We were able to get something rolling along here and I know that the Elders will only be able to keep working and helping this area and this ward. I really fell in love with this ward, the members that come every week are really faithful and really willing to help us missionaries in every aspect of the work. The bishop is really involved and always looking for more ways to help us and everyone just supported us and helped us. I really do love that ward and really appreciated all that they did for us. 

The US beat Ecuador in soccer this week and the day before the game we were joking with our pensionista and her husband that the US will win and then we made a wager with them that the losing team has to buy the others ice cream. So they bought us ice cream!! (Picture included). Everyone was mad with us, but we were happy! haha I was sad and happy at the same time, they are both my homes. 

We tried doing a weekly scripture study class with the ward so they could bring their friends, and only the bishop and his family showed up.. hopefully this week more people will show up to that class. 

Yesterday me and my companion taught the primary class for kids 8 and older, it was a great practice for how to teach really simply and keeping their attention. It was fun!

I am excited to see what this next change will bring, I love being here and being able to work for the Lord, the best job there is! :)

I love you all!

Hermana Cordon

Me and Hna Vicky, she is the president of the primary and she was always willing to go to appointments with us, she is the best! 

My zone last thursday, we are crazy

This is a photo  I took in my last sector and I had taken a picture of my new sector, everything on the other side of the river is my sector now.

Totto we are not in Quito anymore

¡hola!

Well.. first things first I am not in Quito anymore!! I finally left!! haha My mission is half of quito and the outskirts of south of quito. There are 4 zones in quito and 4 zones out of quito. I have spent the first 9 months of my mission in Quito and there isn´t a lot of difference between my 2 sectors. But today was changes and now I am the farthest from Quito in our mission. I am now in Guaranda!! I am here with Hermana Varney who has one transfer less than me and is from Wyoming! She seems really great and I am excited to be working with her!

An interesting experience happened today. So for transfers, if you are in Quito you go to Quitumbe. And you wait for people who are going to the same place as you to travel together. As  I was waiting the other Hermana wasn´t showing up. And I was going to go to Riobamba, that is close to Guaranda first and then meet my companion there and then travel to Guaranda. But, as we were waiting my hermana leader and a zone leader were thinking that it probably would just be better if I just go straight to Guaranda and they will tell my companion to meet me there. Well, they put me on a bus by myself and I went to Guaranda. It was a 5 hour bus ride and I felt weird being alone so I wasn´t really able to sleep or focus on reading or anything. Then I got here to Guaranda, not knowing where I was or what I was doing. The bus dropped us off in what seemed like a random parking lot. And so I got off in the pouring rain and struggling to take all my luggage to a canopy thing that was close by. There was a couple of people hiding from the rain there and they were all laughing at me as I was struggling. It probably was funny to see a lost gringa struggling with her bags.. haha Then I asked someone if they knew where a pay phone was and they told me that it was inside the terminal. And I realized that they had dropped us off in the parking lot of the terminal. So I went there and there was no one waiting for me... so I went and called the asistents to ask where my companion was. And they were like "You´re all alone??? Ya don´t worry Hermana we will send them to you right now." I then sat down and waited. Then after about 20 minutes came running over 2 elders and they were like "Hermana, hi we are going to take you to the wife of the district president here to wait with her while you wait for your companion who is in Riobamba still" So then I ended up traveling in taxi with these elders to find this hermana and when I got there after about 5 minutes my companion showed up. I have no idea if this made any sense, but I am just really happy to be with my companion and to not be alone anymore :) hahaha it was quite a funny experience!

Yesterday was a sad day saying goodbye to people! 5 months in one area you get pretty attached to some people! The hardest goodbye was my converts the Flia Medina! They are so amazing and they were really sad to see us go, because both me and my companion left and two new hermanas are coming in. But, they knew that my birthday is this week, so they had bought me a cake and sang me happy birthday and it made me feel so loved!!! They are so amazing!! We had finished our lesson and Enny ran to the kitchen and then the next thing I knew they turned off the lights and brang out a cake with candles and started singing happy birthday in spanish and then in english!! It was so sweet of them!!! They seriously are my family here in Ecuador and it was hard to say goodbye, but I know that they are going to stay strong and be able to go to the temple in december! I have photos, but I left my camera in the house so next week I will send it!

With my birthday coming up I have been thinking about what has happened since my last birthday and who I have become and now who I wish to become this next year. I cannot believe that I am going to be 20 years old, but I am so happy to be spending my birthday on the mission serving the Lord. This will be a birthday I will never forget and I am excited to keep growing and learning on my mission to become an even better person and more like God wants in this next year. I just have to put my trust in God and then He will lead me and mold me to His will.

I love you all and I hope you have an absolutey amazing week and thank you all for the birthday wishes!!!

Mucho Amor,

Hermana 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