Feliz Dia de la Madre!

¡Hola! 

Well it was really awesome talking to my family yesterday and hearing from my big crazy family! Technology is so amazing that we were able to have 8 different connections on our skype call, pretty cool :) Thank you for always dealing with me and sending me your support, I love you all!

Well, I have to say that this was a really long week in the mission for me. I am sad to say that yes at times I got a little discouraged and thinking that I must be doing something wrong for all of our appointments to be falling through. But, I was able to keep moving forward and I am excited and looking forward to another week. I am really happy that me and Hna Stoneking will be staying together and we are going to be able to keep putting our efforts into this sector and we hope to start seeing some fruits of our labor! Now, don`t get me wrong, I still love the mission, I love the work and honestly I am so grateful for these trying moments that I have in the mission, because it keeps me growing and improving. I learned a lot about focusing on the Spirit and learning to keep moving forward even when the disappointment comes. I was reading a talk about the Fourth Missionary again this week, and it mentions a lot about a 3rd and 4th missionary. They are both obedient, righteous missionaries, but the 3rd one does it out of obligation and the 4th one does it out of desire to do the right thing and out of love for the Lord. Though at times I was discouraged I kept going, because I wanted to do the work I was called to do. I wanted to keep giving people the chance to accept the gospel, even if they kept repeatedly rejecting us. There is a quote that I really loved from this talk; "Just give up. Surrender your will to Him. Unconditionally. Withhold nothing. Turn it all over to Him; all of your desires, wishes, dreams and hopes. Be true and faithful in your head and in your heart, not just in your behavior. Trust in Him. Trust Him who knows all thing. Trust Him who has all power. Trust Him whose love for you is perfect. Trust Him, who alone suffered, paid and atoned for you sins, and for your weaknesses as well. Trust Him that He will make of you, immeasurably more, than what you will ever, ever, in all eternity, make of yourself. He will create of you a masterpiece. You will create of you only a smudge. You will create an ordinary man. He will create a God." (Anyone who would like to read this talk, just shoot me an email and I will forward it to you :) ) And the best thing about this quote is it applies to anyone and everyone, whether you are a missionary or not. If you give it up to Him, He will shape us into the person we need to become. I truly love this.

A cool experience was yesterday we had a lesson planned with a family that we contacted a couple weeks back. In the contact the husband was very contentious and just kept telling us that all churches have been formed to confuse people and that unknowingly we are following Satan. We testified to Him that are purpose isn`t to confuse but to help people to understand and we never try to convince only help people to know for themselves. After a little conversation we were able to set up a time to come back. That time kept changing, but yesterday we finally were able to visit them. I was really worried yesterday morning for this lesson, because I didn`t want a lesson where he is fighting and we are desperately trying to get him to understand our point of view. I kept a prayer in my heart as we went into this lesson making sure that the spirit was going to be teaching that lesson not me or my companion. A couple of months ago I would have gone into that lesson, ready to whip out whatever scripture I had that would prove him wrong or whatever point I had that would should him what he needs to change, but I would have walked out of that lesson feeling frustrated and drained from not having the spirit. But, yesterday we testified simply instead of trying to prove. We testified that this gospel is a gospel of truths and enlightenment and through this gospel we don`t have the confusion from the world anymore. Now we didn`t even get to really teach a lesson, but we let him feel the spirit and we were able to set up a second visit. That strengthened my testimony that if we testify rather than prove we are going to help the lost sheep more than if we tell them they are wrong and they need to change now. We need to guide them to change we can`t push them to change. It was a faith strengthening moment for me the importance of focusing on the spirit. 

I hope that you can all take a minute to think about how you can even more give up your will and surrender to the Lord. We can all work on this together. I know that this is the way of the Lord and that this is the way to true happiness. Don`t let the world convince you that giving in and surrendering yourself to His will makes you weak, because in reality it makes you strong. I love the Lord and I am so grateful for the patience and love that I know He has for me.

I hope you all have an amazing week and know that I love you!!

Hermana Cordon

Photos: My pensionista family, they are seriously the greatest family and my family here in Mira Flores. We even bought our pensionista a mothers day gift and they always call us their daughters :) I love them!

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  

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