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 Casa

¡Hola! 

Well after 5 days in the house I was going a bit stir crazy and really excited to get out and finally work, but we ended up only having 1 full day of work, because we would work and then went back to the house so my companion could rest, because of the walking she started to hurt. But, I just was happy to work!

We kept ourselves busy by watching movies, reading Jesus the Christ, playing uno, and making cookies. We made no bake cookies, which were delicious! I did get a little sick though from the amount that I ate... oops. I just didn`t have much else to do so I ate a lot :) haha which was bad, because we weren`t doing anything either... but so worth it :). We also made the cookies again and took it to our zone meeting and now all of the missionaries love us, because they said that they were delicious. One funny story is that I still don`t have good spanish so during the days that we were in the house we were talking and I said "It smells like cangrejo (crab)" when I wanted to say cangill (popcorn). And my companion died laughing and this was monday night and she still had a lot of pain and so laughing really hurt so she was laughing and crying at the same time. And then she was getting mad at me for making her laugh, and I didn`t mean to do anything I just don`t know spanish and she finds it funny... it got pretty complicated because this same thing happened several other times and she always ended up crying from pain and me sitting their confused how I had made her die laughing. It was an interesting week :)

We had set up an appointment with an old investigator this week and he had told us his address, but we had never heard of the street that he lives on before. And there are a lot of little random streets here in Ecuador that they don`t even show up on google maps and this street was one of them, because our mission leader couldn´t find the street on google maps for us. So we were a little worried about finding this street and all the references he gave us were other things that we had never heard of as well.. but as we were contacting saturday morning (and our appointment was scheduled for saturday evening with him) we walked by a street and I remembered to look at the street sign and it was the street we were looking for!! We were so happy that we were able to find the street! We then ended up contacting this street and found a new investigator from contacting doors! It was a good morning and we know that the Lord guided us to find this street and we still have like 50  more houses on this street to contact so we might find even more new investigators!

We also visited some investigators that we have and this week we discovered that the wife really doesn`t want to change her religion, because she loves the Catholic church. So as we were talking and explaining to her that God isn`t religion, but He has a specific way for us to return to Him and that´s only through His true church that he established through a prophet that has His authority. And we asked "If God told you that this is the true church, would you accept it?" And she replied "I don`t know...". It is so easy for us to put our fear of change or are fear of something different in the way of the path of God. We need to always be very careful that we are not putting anything in this life before God, even if that means choosing God over your family. She ended the lesson with a little bit more willingness to pray and ask God what the truth is. Hopefully we can help her to see that this will of God is the best thing that can happen to us.

We also taught some members yesterday to ask for some references and we shared with them a promise of 21 days. And this promise is that by writing down the names of some friends or family that they want to share the gospel and then for the next 21 days include them in all of their prayers and start inviting, by giving pamphlets, pass along cards, and a book of mormon. By inviting them to a FHE and introducing us and a bunch of other stuff. They also have a list of scriptures for 21 days that they read one a day that they can find help from the Lord. And the promise is by doing this effort that at least one of the names that they have on the list will accept the invitation to listen to the missionary discussions. THey got super excited to try this new thing, because they have been sharing and no one had been accepting their offer to listen. So through if they have faith the Lord can help them, they will finally have the opportunity to have someone accept the invitation to listen to us missionaries. It was cool to see how excited they were and hopefully we can help them to keep up this excitement and help bring their friends to the gospel :)

It truly is a blessing to be able to share my testimony day after day to many different people, and though many people reject the opportunity to listen. We have people that accept and listen to us and pray and read and really do all they can to know the truth. And when that happens it is such a cool experience and a blessing to invite people to accept the blessings of this gospel into their lives. I invite you all to just keep opening your mouths and keep sharing and praying for your loved ones and you will all have this opportunity as well.

I love you all and I hope all is well in all of your endeavors!

Mucho Amor,

Hermana Cordon

1- we were really happy with our cookies

2- the main street by my house in conocoto

3 -We found a random horse tied up in the middle of the street, and it is like the only dirt road here in concoto. 

4- Purple coal that we had for a salad for lunch. It was delicious!

Emergency Room

¡Hola!

First off don`t worry, it wasn`t me :) My companion decided she didn`t want her appendix anymore and so she had an operation to take it out :) haha no she got appedicitis and so we had to go up to the hospital thursday night. And we left the hospital saturday in the afternoon and hung out in the house all day saturday and only left for church on sunday and now today we only left to write and we are going to be in the house for 2 more days so she can recover. I am going a bit stir crazy in the house, but luckily the nurses gave us a dvd player and we have been watching a bunch of movies. I am just excited for when we will finally be able to work again :)

This week we had a broadcast from the General Mission Council of the church for every missionary in the world. And fun fact that are over 76,000 missionaries serving right now! How cool is that?? But, it was a really awesome broadcast that focused on teaching repentance and baptizing converts. It also talked a lot about finding when you teach and teaching when you find. That in every moment you can be doing everything and not just finding in one moment teaching in the next. Which is something I liked, because at times I thought that there isn`t time for everything, but if we do everything at the same time then there is plenty of time :) It was a really cool broadcast and I really enjoyed it! 

Our investigator we had that was progressing pulled away again. I think he has a ton of fears of losing family and a bunch of other stuff that the idea of baptism scared him, even though just 2 days before he was anxiously waiting for the day that he was going to be baptized. We haven`t been able to really talk with him the last couple of days and we were hoping we were going to be able to do divisions and meet with him tomorrow, but we haven`t set up the appointment yet, because we haven`t been able to talk with him. Hopefully we can get a hold of him and help him to keep progressing. Just the opposition in this world gets to people, we just have to remember that there is opposition in all things. If the path was easy, what does that show to God? We need to have opposition to really show God that we are in it for the long run and that we have the faith necessary to follow Him always. And if we read the scriptures daily and pray daily and go to church every sunday (with real intent) than we will have the spiritual strength to stay strong with the opposition comes along. Just remember what Helaman 5:12 says when satan throws his fiery darts (or something like that I am translating from memory :) ) it doesn`t say if it says when. So we need to be prepared when the temptation and opposition come to stay strong and not falter. Remember to always trust God.

I love you all and I hope all is well!! 

Hermana Cordon

Me and my companion in her hospital bed

The view from the Hospital Room

Chistosa en Ecuador

¡Hola!

Well this week wasn´t a very exciting week but I will share some funny stories: 

During companionship study, I think wednesday, we were talking a then my companion asked if a black dot on the wall was a spider. I didn´t think it was, but I told her she should check to be sure so we wouldn´t be focused on it. She got close to it and screamed when she realized that it was a spider. I jumped up and ran to the other side of the room and was telling her to kill it, and she wasn´t too happy, but ended up doing it for me, because I am a bit more scared then she is :) hahaha it was a funny experience afterwards thinking about what are neighbors probably thought when they heard us screaming and yelling ¡MATALE! which means kill it! haha I am just glad it is dead now.

The other funny story was we were visiting some recent converts and we had finished the lesson and we were talking and then I asked the dad if he could pray for us, and it got quiet and everyone looked at me funny then started laughing! Literally about 1 minute before this he had finished the closing prayer, I literally completely spaced and forgot that he had prayed. It gave them all a great laugh and I was laughing pretty hard too, because I was pretty confused. The gringas are always good for a good laugh :) 

I have been studying charity this week, and focusing on really trying to develop it. It says in Corianthians that charity is the most important of all christlike attributes. It also says in preach my gospel that the only way to develop this gift is by God giving it to you, we just have to do our part and put in all our effort to do everything humanly possible to develop this gift, pray and ask fervently for it, and then God will bless you with this heavenly trait. Charity means Christ-like love and really love is the most important, through love we can really truly help bring people to christ. If we don´t love people they won´t feel our sincerity and won´t have the desire to accept our message, but if we show love then the people know its something important and we truly want to bless their lives. I have felt this christ-like love for my investigators when they have been baptized and I was so happy, because they were finally accepting the gospel and they were going to be able to recieve even more blessings from God. I am so grateful for this time that I have to truly focus on developing these christlike attributes and that I have this time devoted to Christ and God and their work. It truly is a blessing and I need to make these next 10 months the best ones yet. 

I love you all and I hope you are all having a wonderful week!!!

Les Amo MUCHISIMO!!!

When we went to the basillica a couple of weeks ago. 

Rain

¡Hola! 

All of december was really dry and really hot, but this week the rain started back up again and it has cooled down a bit! Its been a welcome change, but it makes for an interesting time when we get caught outside in the downpour and we get soaked through, whether we have our rain jacket or not :) haha I have learned to love the rain and make the most of it, this rain storm that happened this last week we were completely soaked, but I had my water bottle with the filter that the church gives to us and so I just took the cap off and tried filling up my water bottle with the rain, but I never ended up drinking it, because it grossed me out when I saw dirt and stuff floating in the water. The filter would have been able to handle it, but my mind wasn`t able to :) haha My companion was making fun of me the whole time I was filling my water bottle, because she kept saying how gross it was!

We finally were able to locate an investigator again this week! We haven`t been able to teach him for almost 3 weeks and he was progressing really well, but then we weren`t able to teach him. But, when we finally were able to teach him this week it was a great lesson! He has been having a lot of problems and difficulties and that is why he was hard to find. He told us how he felt completely alone and how his only comfort during this last couple of weeks was the Book Of Mormon which he was reading everyday. This lesson we were able to explain to him the power of the Atonement and how Christ truly knows how he feels and he never needs to feel alone, because Christ always understands. I truly felt the Spirit testify the truth of this to me, which was something I needed to hear as we were teaching it to him. It was a little aha moment for me where I was able to truly feel the love a Christ and really begin to truly understand the power of the Atonement. I read a talk the other day, The Atonement: Our Greatest Hope by James E Faust, and he explained that this is something that we need to focus on learning and understanding everyday of our lives. It is a power greater that in its fulness is greater than our comprehension, but everyday we can focus to understand it even more and truly apply it in our lives. This is something that I want to focus on even more to truly let the Atonement into my life to become an even greater person.

Thank you for all your love and your support and remember that Christ loves you!

Les Quiero Muchisimo!

Hermana Cordon

Aftermath from the Rain Storm

A Bunny and a Cat eating Corn Together

¡Feliz Año Nuevo!

¡hola!

So this week was Año Viejo (New years eve) and Año Nuevo (New Years day) it made for an interesting week. Ecuador has some different traditions with this holiday. The two most prominent is viudas and viejos. Viudas are cross-dressing men that wear really short skirts and dance very interesting in front of cars in the middle of the street and the cars are forced to stop and then they ask for money and they don´t let cars pass by till they give them something. It is quite interesting, but luckily we were in the house the whole day and we did not have to deal with any of them. We did go up on our roof at one point and there was one a little bit down from our house and a line of about 15 cars that he was just filing through, so I am sure he got a ton of money. Then the viejos are just stuffed giant dolls, that are called viejos (old people) because it is the Año viejo and they all burn them at some point during the night, but they put them out right at midnightand everyone walks around to look at them all and then after they burn them. Those are a couple of the interesting traditions that they have :) We were in the house the whole day that day, and it was a good break, to get back out and working to give it your all. Sometimes you just need a tiny break to keep working, and mondays don´t seem to give that break. 

I have a lot of goals that I am hoping to see through this year, 2015 was a year of many experiences that I am so grateful for and that I have changed for the better from and so I am excited to see what 2016 brings and who I can become through the gospel and atonement of Christ. Just remember that God has a plan for every one of us, and if we make our goals with Christ in mind then we will find success and truly be the people He needs us to be. 

Then on New years day it was like a ghost town in all of Ecuador and there were drunk people on every corner basically, and every house we went to and talked to someone was drunk and still drinking from the night before. A funny thing a drunk person said to us this week was "se va al cielo o la luna?" (Are you going to heaven or the moon?) I don´t know about you guys but the moon sounds pretty cool :) hahahah I just didn´t know that those were the options we have :) The interesting minds people have when they are drunk. 

We have been able to find a couple of great families this week and hopefully we can help them to progress and really accept this gospel! Next week is changes so we shall see what happens :) 

I love you all and I hope you have an amazing week and a great start to your new year! Good luck to everyone that is starting up classes again! 

Mucho Amor, 

Hermana Cordon