Just Working Hard

¡Hola!

At the service project

Well time is flying by and I cannot believe that it is september already. People are so kindly reminding me of how little time I have left, but at the same time it is really helping me to use every moment I have left. I love the mission, I love this time I have to focus on the Lord and on His work and to really dedicate my time and talents. I just want to be able to completely focus on the work and give it my all, and I am so happy to be with a new missionary in this time to really keep me focused and to feed off of her new missionary energy and diligence. Hna Bench is amazing, I really do love her. I have learned so much from her and her diligence and I can see myself getting better with her example. She was sick a bunch this week, and we weren`t able to work as much as we wanted to, but we kept a positive attitude and we are excited to get out and work harder this week. Seriously I think I am learning more from her, than she is learning from me. 

This week we had a service project with our zone, and so we sanded some walls for about 4 hours. We were sanding off white paint, so we got covered in white chalk, and it looked like christmas in the rooms! haha It was fun, but I ended up coughing all day :) Pictures attached, we look great. Our zone is great and we always have such a great time together, and we are all super diligent in the work and are supporting everyone together.

Us with 2 hermanas and the cookies

Also today for Pday we learned how to make donuts from an hermana that has a bakery, and the trade off was that we taught her how to make cookies. No one here knows how to make good cookies, and so she now knows and is going to start selling chocolate chip cookies :) It was a fun afternoon.

Though we didn`t work too much this week, we worked hard and did our best. We were able to visit with 2 member referrals this week. And they are great! It really makes such a difference in the work when the members get involved and really share the gospel. All of our progressing investigators right now are member referrals, so thats cool. 

One of the new investigators is Patricia, she has gone to church 2 times in a different ward with some family. She has a little girl and she really wants to change so she can give her daughter the best life possible. She has loved what she has seen in this church and what she has seen in her family as well. She is super receptive and just loves this gospel and I love her sweet spirit and the love and patience she has for her daughter. She is really seeking to know the truth and is really searching it out in her mind. I just know that she is going to find the changes she wants to see with time, because that is true conversion: A change in your heart and mind.  

The other is Marisol, she is super nice and really likes this message as well, we only shared the first lesson with her and then she was going to come to church, but had an inconvenience so she wasn`t able to come, but we are excited to keep working with her and to see where it goes. 

Jesica, our less active, finally accepted and had an interview with the bishop, it was a big step for her and she looked a lot happier and a lot more at peace yesterday when we visited with her, she is super close to being saved! I just love her and I have been able to learn a ton from her in our time visiting with her and helping her, the spirit is super strong in every one of the lessons that we have with her. 

I love you all! Thank you for your prayers and support!

Mucho Amor,

Hermana Cordon

After the service project

Hma Bench and I at the service project

our two donuts

Me with my donut

Everyday a New Day

¡Hola!

At the verification meeting, 2nd day as companions!
Woohoo, emergency changes :)

Big news! We had emergency changes! haha :) The Lord is good at keeping us on our feet at all times here in the mission. Well I am still here in Ambato in the same ward (Wohoo!!!) but, now I am with Hna Bench, she has only 3 weeks in the mission, so I will be training her. She is so awesome and sweet and I am excited to be working with her, she is from Utah as well, so we are going to be great friends! I am excited for this new experience ahead and for the opportunity to be staying where I am :) That just means today I spent traveling and meeting up with my new companion here in Quito and we are going to be staying here till tomorrow night, because we have verification meeting tomorrow for the new missionaries. Every week there is a new experience ahead!

The work is moving along here in El Recreo, we are working with some amazing people with such big desire to know the truth. Mauricio keeps moving forward and what I love about the lessons with him, is that he always has a ton of questions, and a true desire to really know the truth. When someone has questions it is because they really want to learn, and it is really evident in Mauricio. Yesterday we taught him the plan of salvation, and something that was really new for him and hard for him to grasp was the fact that we lived with our Heavenly Father before this life and we were only spirits, that surprised him. And we testified to him, but it still kept with him a doubt, so we invited him to pray and ask Heavenly Father if he lived with Him before this life, and he was so excited to be able to do that and recieve an answer. He is learning for himself that God really does hear and answers our prayers.

A new investigator we found this week, was a reference from her twin brother who is a recent convert in Riobamba, Veronica. She is really looking to change her life around and to come closer to God and is really searching for the truth. In the second lesson with her, we verified if she had prayed, and she did! And she said she felt good and that she took it as an answer. She was willing to accept everything afterwards, and when we asked her to pray specifically about the Book of Mormon, she told us, that it doesn´t matter if it is true or not because she is going to go forward with blind faith. It was an interesting comment, because it is true, faith we can´t see we are blind to the things, but because God loves us so much he gives us a way to know if these things are true. It starts with interest and a sincere desire to know, then as we act and pray for an answer God blesses us with knowledge, line upon line. Like it says in Alma, it will keep growing, but it will keep growing until we no longer have faith, but perfect knowledge. We explained that concept to her and then she commited to praying and asking God if the Book of Mormon is true, so that she could keep increasing her faith.

Along the same principle of faith, we met with Jessica, a less active, and the discussion was led to faith and how she can have her testimony again. She knows that before she knew the church was true, but over these last couple of years when she has stopped doing the things she knows she should be doing, she has come to really forget her testimony, in the sense she know doesn´t feel anything. That is the interesting thing about a testimony, we can know that we knew, but no longer know if we stop doing the things and we now no longer have the spirit with us. We were able to have a very spirit filled lesson with lots of testimonies of the importance of doing the little things, to make sure to have the spirit with you to nuture your testimony, like reading, praying, and going to church. I had testified to her that it can change her life to start doing these things, because it has changed my life, and she then asked me how it had changed my life. It stopped me and gave me a minute to reflect, on really how it has changed my life, and more than anything, it has put my life with God´s will. I have realized that a continual reading of the scriptures, sincere prayers, and going to church with the intent to learn, we put ourselves where the Lord can work on us and truly guide us. I realized in that moment that, that is what has happened over this last year that the Lord has been able to shape me even more, because I am continually doing the little things that put me in line with His will. I am grateful for the mission for that, because it is scheduled into our day studies so that we study the scriptures everyday, we create the habit to pray at many times during the day, and we are constantly thinking and talking about the gospel, and it really aligns us with His will. She commited to start doing those things, but a commitment that really showed a desire to change and have those blessings.

Just Us!

We finally were able to meet with a recent convert that we have been trying to get a hold of since we got here, but this week we finally met and visited with her! She is great, and is the only member in her family, but when we went and visited her we met her mom and were able to visit with her as well. She made a comment about how she is happy, because she knows her daughter will be saved, but she won´t be, but she was happy for her daughter at least. It got us thinking and we were able to testify to her and really have a really spirit filled lesson about the plan of happiness, which includes being an eternal family, because true happiness isn´t being alone, and that she wouldn´t ever be happy, even if her daughter was saved, if she wouldn´t be able to live with her daughter. We commited her to start reading the book of mormon again, because she was reading before, and to really come closer to God so they can be saved together. I love God´s plan of happiness.

I love the mission, I love this work. I know that this is the true church and I know that the Lord guides this work. I am so happy to be here in Ambato, in this ward, and with these wonderful people. This beautiful country will forever have my heart.

Con mucho amor y carino,

Hermana Cordon

The Most Important Work!

¡Hola!

So this was a very exciting week, because Elder Holland is here in Ecuador and we had a conference with our whole mission on saturday. And boy was that a very special experience. We had an apostle yelling at us for over an hour, but yelling at us with the spirit and a ton of love. We could just feel the love he has for the Savior, for missionary work, and for missionaries. It was a privilege to sit and listen and be taught by him and the Holy Ghost. He was very firm on the fact that we are engaged in THE most important work on the planet, and that is bringing the gospel of Christ to the sons and daughters of our Heavenly Father. He was emphasizing how we take our calling very lightly, and don´t realize the importance of what a mission really is. He also was saying how when Christ suffered for us so that we could have the atonement, he was COMPLETELY alone. Now we, as missionaries and members, enjoy the blessing of the Atonement. But, we should never leave Christ alone again. And we can stay by His side when we help others know about this gospel. and thats the most important thing. We should not leave Christ alone again, we need to make sure we stay with Him. I also liked something he said about missionaries are shepards. We guide His sheep back to Him, and a shepard CAN NEVER LEAVE THE CHURCH. We made a lifelong commitment to stay faithful when we signed up to be a missionary, and we made a covenant when we went through the temple to go on a mission and we expect people to change on the mission and so we need to make sure we change and we stay changed. We cannot leave the church, because we have to show the importance of the church to the people we are teaching here. When a missionary leaves, they tell their converts that the gospel doesn´t matter. But it does, its THE MOST IMPORTANT THING. He also emphasized how the Book of Mormon is the evidence and the most important tool that we have right now! We need to use it and to testify of it and to always strengthen our testimony of it.

I hope all that made sense, because I am trying to type really fast, but really was a huge blessing we had to listen to an apostle of the Lord share his testimony and to really be blessed and edified by him. 

I know that this is the true church, I know without a doubt. I know that this is the most important work, and I realize I have a lot to change to show the Lord that this really is important to me. 

Also this week we started exploring a new area that´s called Ontaneda, its on a mountain and really high up! It has an amazing view and it´s gorgeous!! And we have found some really interested people and have found a couple of new people from exploring up there!! 

Funny story: I was saying, when we were talking with some members, how if missionaries don´t get to the house on time at night, we turn green (like shrek) and then this member replied, and he said ¡Claro, por eso se llama gringo!-Of course, that´s why they are called gringo! (Pronounced green-go) I thought it was a pretty funny joke, and I hope you guys do too :)

I love you all and sorry that this letter is kind of all over the place!!!

Mucho Amor,

Hermana Cordon

My group from the MTC, first time we were all together again, since verification meeting in June!

Carnival

¡Hola!

Well its carnival season here in Ecuador. Its been quite the experience. This saturday as we were walking down a street we got covered in carioca (like shaving cream) and it was all over our back. 

And it was perfect timing, because right where we were happened to be a less-active family and they started laughing at us and then the mom came and put the foam on our face, because it was only on our back. They thought it was very funny and it was :) Luckily the foam disappears and doesn`t leave any mark! Then as we kept walking my companion then randomly "Hermana we need to cross the street" and we quickly crossed the street. I was confused at what happened and why we needed to cross the street and then she explained that there were people throwing water balloons off the top of their roof at the people on the street so we crossed to hide. And as we were making a game plan to not get smacked with a water balloon and get soaked, a car passed by and threw water at us and completely soaked us. So we gave up and just went, and they didn`t throw any water balloons at us, which was nice. And then like 20 minutes later as we were still walking on the street a car pulled up to us and seemed like they were going to ask for directions (because people a lot of the time stop and ask for directions from us). But, the guy kept hesitating and I saw his had move and I knew he was going to throw or shoot something so I quickly dodged just in time and got foam on my arm. But I looked back around and my companion was looking at me with her face completely covered in foam! And so I had to help her clean off her face, but I was dying laughing and she was as well after she could open her eyes again :) But, I was content that that was going to be the worst of stuff, foam and water. Its fine, but the worst was yesterday. We left the house where we ate lunch and as we were walking down the street we passed by a bunch of people playing with water and foam for carnival. But someone noticed us and yelled "Get them!" So we started running and the people ran up to us with a tub of PURPLE WATER! They put purple paint in the water and threw it on us. I was completely soaked and my clothes were all stained purple! Hopefully it comes out of my clothes. 

Covered in Purple Water!

Later today we are going to scrub our clothes and everything to hopefully get it all out. This is the tradition of Ecuador, it doesn`t matter who you are or if you know the people or not, you will get attacked with purple paint water. For that we are going to be in our house for today and tomorrow to avoid carnival, because it is officially today and tomorrow, so more days in the house! Yahoo! :) haha I am sure we will work at some point :) But, I am happy we won`t have purple water thrown at us again, hopefully!

We went back and contacted on that street that I mentioned last week and we ended up finding 4 new investigators and 2 are from the same family and we just need to meet the other peole in the family now! They are seem like they have desires to know the truth, we just haven`t been able to have a second visit with any of them yet, so we will see how they progress this week! And we also found 2 other investigators this week and when we contacted the mom she told us her spouse had passed away a couple of years ago and so we shared with her about the Plan of Salvation and how she can see and be with her husband again. And when we asked if we could share more of this message with her, she got super happy and told us she really would like to hear this message. I know that the Plan of Salvation really is the plan of happiness and through this plan we can find dirrection and the knowledge we have of this plan, makes us really blessed. I know God´s plan is perfect and sometimes we don`t plan on the way things work out, but if we are always focused on following God and obeying His commandments everything happens for a reason. So we just always need to ask, what do I need to learn in this situation? So that you can experience and grow through your trials, not suffer. 

A cool experience that happened this week: Our mission has a goal for this month to have 15 contacts everyday. And so me and my companion put that goal and wanted to do everything we could to complete it. One night we went into an appointment at 8, and we had only 13 contacts. So we were there, we shared our message and we were ready to leave at 8:45. Then the husband invited us to dinner, but they hadn`t prepared it all the way yet, and so we tried to ask if we could accept another time, because we need to go. (Because this house is about a 15 minute walk from our house and there are never any taxis either) And they wouldn`t accept a no without being offended so we decided to stay. As we were eating I remembered that we only had 13 contacts and I really wanted to complete the goal we put, so I said a little prayer that we could find 2 people together on the street to talk to them and to share our message. Because here at night, hardly anybody is on the street and if there is someone it is almost always one person. So we finally were able to leave there house at about 9:10 after we had finished eating and everything. And we were ready to leave and start basically running for the house. And as we left we started walking and saw two people about 5 feet from us! So we were able to talk to them and share with them our message! They didn`t accept the invite to listen, but we were able to let them here about the gospel. And we even got to our house with 3 minutes to spare for 9:30! God really does answers prayers and really wants you to be able to complete your goals, when you prayerfully make your goals. 

Well this is a long letter this week, but it was an exciting week! The mission is full of brand new experiences! :) 

And this week I officially completed 9 months in the mission! I´m halfway there! It is crazy to think that I less time left than that I have, I still feel like I just started the mission.. I just have to make the most of the next 9 months!

Editors Note: When a sister missionary reaches halfway through the mission they do a nine month pregnancy picture (weird and funny all at the same time).

I love you all and I hope you all have a fantastic week!!!

Mucho Amor,

Hermana Cordon

La Primera Vision

¡Hola Familia y amigos! 

Espero todo está bien con todos! 

Today for pday we had a zone activity to play some group games; dodgeball and ultimate frisbee! It was so nice to just be able to run around and spend time with the missionaries! I love the activities where I get to wear pants :) The little things such a pants on the mission make me so happy! And the pictures are me and the other hermanas in my zone. In the photo with everyone on piggybacks is the companionships, and on bottom is the gringas (hermanas from the US) and on top is the Latinas. Each companionship is a latina and a gringa it´s pretty cool :)

This gospel is simple and we should be so quick to just follow the commandments and know that the commandments are not hard to follow and nor should they be. Yesterday we had a lesson with the family that we found last week, and they weren´t able to go to church because of their jobs. So we decided to have a lesson about the sabbath day and how we need to keep it holy. And in the lesson we always start with explaining the commandment and then we tell them the blessings and the blessings are always to comfort the people that they won´t suffer if they follow this commandment, but yesterday was a completely new experience for me. When we explained the commandment, before we even mentioned the blessings, the father said "I need to follow this commandment, so I need to find a new job so that I can go to church every sunday and not work on sundays." Hearing that made me so happy! It really should be that simple! We shouldn´t even have to hesitate to be obedient to the Lord´s commandments and his desires! 

This week the Lord has really blessed us with putting a lot of new people in our paths who want to listen and are open to following God in a different path than they are currently on. I had many opportunities to share my testimony with a lot of new people this week and I love being able to share my testimony and helping others know how to come closer to Christ. It truly is a blessing to me that everytime I share or listen to my companion share the first vision, the Spirit that I feel everytime confirms to me that this gospel is true. I know that this church is true, I know it without a doubt. I know it´s true, because EVERYTIME I hear the first vision the Spirit is so strong and I cannot deny the feeling that is testifying to me every single time. Joseph Smith was a prophet called of God, and he restored the gospel of Jesus Christ. He didn´t create a new church with his own opinion on the things of God, but he was a humble boy who sought the will of the Lord and recieved an answer that has affected my entire life. Because I am a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints I have been guided in every moment of my life. I am who I am today, because of this gospel. I am a missionary here in Ecuador, because I know that this is the true church of God on the earth and I have a divine mission to share my testimony and let others know about this gospel and give them the opportunity to accept this gospel in their lives. And that´s the wonderful thing about God, we have our agency. And with our agency we CHOOSE to live with God again or we CHOOSE our own path with our own desires. God doesn´t have different opinions and with that we know that their is only one way to follow God the way God wants us to follow Him. And I know that this is the way and their is no other way that can bring the true happiness that everyone is looking for! With this gospel we can have never-ending happiness! (Mosiah 2:41) I know these things are true and I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

LOVE YOU ALL!! :)
Mucho Amor, 

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

The Spirit Is A Grand Thing

This week was a really great week! The Lord is really blessing the work in Solanda and guiding me and Hna Greer´s steps to where we need to be and who we need to teach. Out of all the areas in my mission, Solanda is definitely my favorite! haha ;) But it really is a such a great area! And the ward is so great and so eager to help move the work forward here!

Yesterday we got to visit with this less-active family for the first time and it was such a powerful lesson. The son, who is about 22, has cancer and is really sick right now. So we, with the Bishop and two others in the ward, went to visit to see how we could help out. This guy has such a strong testimony in God and His plan and we could just feel it in his room. His one desire right now is to have an opportunity to go to the temple. And he has a very pretty picture of the temple hanging up and he loves this picture because he said that he can´t go to the temple right now, but he can at least look at this picture! His faith and his desires are so inspiring and his hope when everything seems to be going downhill is something to look up to. The spirit was so prevelant in this lesson and I hope the ward can help find a way for him to go with the ward to the temple in October. 

I am truly grateful to the Lord for giving me opportunities to be in lessons that are spiritually uplifting and that I get the chance to be spiritually edified several times a day. The greatest thing about missions is being so close to the spirit, when we are obedient, and getting to see so many miracles! 

¡Les amo mucho cada de ustedes! Tienen un buen semana y hablo con ustedes la proxima semana

Amor, 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