Hugs for a Smile

¡Hola!

Drummer

Well a funny experience this week was we were walking with a member to go and visit another member, and as we were walking we saw 4 men in suits sprinting down the sidewalk. We went to step out of there way, when they stopped and said "un abrazo por una sonrisa" (hug for a smile) and came in to give us a hug, and me and my companion both quickly stepped back and quickly explained that we couldn´t hug them, because we are missionaries. They were slightly confused and were hopping we would make an exception for them. We didn´t and I am sure the real reason why they were sad is because they weren´t able to hug the two gringas. I promise you we are probably the most popular people here in Ambato :) haha About every other car passes by and honks and the guys inside are waving like maniacs... it is quite funny and we just smile at each other and say "look, more friends!"

The Girl with a  Skirt

We went to go and visit a less active this week, she is less active because she isn´t married and lives with her boyfriend and he isn´t a member. I hadn´t been able to meet the dad yet and this week he was there!! We were able to get to know him better and to really gain his confidence, and it has been a year since he has listened to the missionaries so we are hoping that this time around he really opens up to the gospel and can become an example for his daughters. They have two little daughters and one was baptized in our church a year ago. We asked him what he likes about our church and he was saying how he likes the difference he sees in his daughters. He likes the way they pray and how they have a relationship with God and all that stuff. We then explained that those things he likes about the gospel can only be amplified if he accepted the gospel and showed his daughters the correct path. He really opened up to that when we said that is daughters would learn and grow even more if he would just show them the correct path. Hopefully we can help him and that they can become an eternal family at one point. 

Drummer

We visited another less active and she is awesome and really wants to be active in the church, just doesn´t understand alot. Her daughter, who is like 21, is inactive and is always there when we are talking to her mom, but hides in the back. This time we were able to get the daughter to join us and she was super open and accepted the invitation to start learning about the church again to gain a testimony. That was an awesome experience as well.

We were able to find a couple of new people this week, hopefully we can help them to progress and to really relate to this message and to change their lives. Stanley is still progressing, he was able to go to all 3 hours of church yesterday which was awesome!

Our ward has planned an activity for this friday for all the couples in our ward that aren´t married so that they can get married. Hopefully we have success with this activity. It is a lesson focused on families and the temple, it should be cool.

Today we went to a park close to our house that has a bunch of hedge scupltures. Enjoy the pictures :)

I love you all and I hope you all have an awesome week!

Mucho Amor,
Hermana Cordon

Jumping for the Stars 

Hidden in the Maze

Me and My Companion

Trusting in the Spirit

Today was a great Pday! We went as a zone to Baños! It is a cool tourist place here in Ecuador, and I haven`t had the chance before to get to know it, so it was cool to be able to finally go! We went to a waterfall called El Pailon del Diablo (The Devil`s bowl) and it was so cool!!! When we got there it was raining, so we knew the waterfall was going to be huge, but it was a lot bigger than we expected. When we got to the waterfall there is stairs to go down to get down to the bottom of the waterfall and we started walking down and within 2 seconds a huge wave came crashing down and we were drenched!! And there was a way to go up behind the waterfall and it was so cool!! Seriously so pretty and a cool experience, and we were drenched from head to foot. Also as we were taking our district photo all of a sudden a giant wave crashed in a soaked us again, we were very surprised! And the problem was, was I was wearing a sweater (Because they didn`t tell us what we were going to do in Baños, and it wasn`t raining in Ambato) and it got super stretched out and now I am going to have to wash it by hand.. Lets see how that works out for me :) But, everyone was laughing really hard and screaming about how cold the water was and because we did not expect to get soaked.. haha just a cool experience! Ecuador is such a pretty country!!

We had a really cool experience yesterday with a less active, Miquel. Our appointments that we had planned yesterday afternoon fell through, so we decided to call the Flia Baus (some members) to visit them and to get to know them better. When we got there, Miquel was there as well. He is the brother of the Hno Baus, and he is a member as well, but hasn`t gone to church in over 39 years (he was baptized 40 years ago). We were talking and then we ended up starting our lesson and we had asked him if there was a reason why he wasn`t going to church, he said that it is because he never felt the spirit and that he was expecting to feel differently, so he left, because he never felt the spirit. Then he told us a story of how he had gone to a christian church service and just had a really overwhelming feeling of happiness and he was like that was the Spirit, I know that is what I felt and it is what I didn`t feel in your church! I then shared how growing up in the church I always had the doubt that I never felt that I had felt the spirit, because everyone always explained it as a burning in your chest, but I never felt that, so I was convinced it was just because the spirit wasn`t talking to me. But, over time I began to recognize the way it talked to me and how he testified of the truth of the gospel to me. We then explained how everyone feels the Holy Ghost differently and it is different for everyone. Then the granddaughter of Hno Baus was able to share her experience as well, and she explained how she had the same experience as Miquel. She felt great in another church and she was convinced that she had never felt the spirit in our church, and she was confused. But, as she kept explaining her story the spirit just filled the room and we were all developed with the spirit, honestly the strongest I have felt the spirit in a lesson, and we all were crying. And she was saying how she began to look back at her life in the church and realized the many moments that she had felt the spirit and didn`t put much importance in it, and she had just forgotten. She explained how there were many moments that the Lord had completely lifted off her burdens when she was weighed down and she had just forgotten. It was a really powerful experience and you could feel the spirit literally confirming what she was saying was completely true. Then we were able to testify to Miquel that what he felt why she was talking was the Holy Ghost confirming that it was true. He then started crying and saying that he has always been looking for Christ and has just wanted to follow Christ. He said that what she had said really got to him and touched his heart and he felt really good. When we testified again that that was the Holy Ghost, he was like Really?? That is the Holy Ghost?? And he really changed, his whole demeanor and his outlook changed. We commited him to keep listening to the missionary discussions and to come to church this sunday. He doesn`t actually live in our ward boundaries, he lives in a different ward. But, I am so grateful for the experience to have felt the strength of the spirit and the importance of having the spirit testify in a lesson, because we can talk all we want, but if they don`t feel the spirit than it won`t change them.

We were guided to three new people and were able to visit them this week! One is Monica, who doesn`t believe alot in religions, but God is the most important thing for her. Hopefully we can keep helping her to enjoy and love even more God and realize that His was is an organized way. Also we met with Ruth on tuesday and she was really receptive and had lots of questions, then on friday when she came to our second appointment she brought her son as well!! He seems really receptive as well and wants to know the truth of all things. Hopefully we can help them to keep growing in faith and to feel the spirit. 

We contacted a lot this week, but really I enjoy contacting and I just remind byself that whether we visit them or not we are planting seeds for when missionaries come around again they will be more receptive. I love this work and I know that this is the Lord`s work so I need to make sure to give it my all and to trust in Him and give myself over to Him. I just need to forget myself and get to work!! 

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

Mucho Amor, 

Hermana Cordon

The Hermanas

My District

Me of course!

My companion and I

My Zone on the bridge

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  

La Semana

¡Hola!

Seriously cannot believe that it is monday again, every week just goes by faster and faster. But, I guess that is a good sign, I am enjoying the mission! I am seriously loving this work!

We have a progressing investigator! Wohoo!! His name is Stanley and he came to church yesterday and really seemed to enjoy himself! We are going to visit him today and see what questions he has for us! He seems really interested in knowing the truth and really following God. He is also always making fun of my very gringa accent, it is just a friendly reminder that I still have room to improve :) Haha 

The volcanoes we can see from ambato - Tunguragua

We also visited this really sweet old lady named Esther! She has a special needs daughter and they are the sweetest! She accepted a bapstimal date, but wasn`t able to come to church yesterday, because she had the anniversary mass for the death of her husband. He died about 18 years ago. She is the sweetest and we are going to visit her again this next tuesday! She just brightens my day.

Tuesday we came home and we didn`t have any lights... the my companion was like, "oh right, we need to pay the lights" :) So we had an adventure of planning with our flashlights and both of our flashlights were having problems, and then we didn`t have any hot water to take showers, because we have an electric shower. So then we went on wednesday to pay the lights. We had to go to a light place and pay it, it looks like I am growing up, because I am paying light bills :) 

On friday as we were contacting my companion asked me what time it was and said 5:10? I thought I heard her say 5 to 10? And I was like no... its 10 to 5, how could it be 5 to 10. And then she said, no I said 5:10 and I had no idea what she was referring to. I thought she was talking some kind of slang or something. I am forgetting english.. haha I hope that made sense.

An adventure, I think I got food poisoning on saturday: I wasn`t feeling so well and we were in the street trying to find someone to visit, and my companion started contacting someone. I wasn`t feeling so well, but I just kept a smile on my face during the contact. But, like the middle of the contact, I had to step away and throw up. Luckily the ladies we were talking to were really nice and just were really worried about me, not disgusted :) haha A very interesting experience, but don`t worry I am really healthy today! 

The volcanoes we can see from ambato - Cotapaxi

This week I was reading a conference talk from last april, I don`t remember what it is called, but it is by Dale G Renlund. I really liked something he said and I have the quote in spanish "Era yo, mas no soy" Which means that was me, but now it`s not. I really liked this talk about how we can become a different person through the atonement and we can look back and say that I was that person, but now I am not. Through my time here in the mission I have become a different person. I have had my personal challenges and have had some of my lowest lows here on the mission. But, thanks to those moments I have grown and become a better person. I have a lot of room to grow and improve still, but thanks to the atonement I can do just that. I am so grateful for this time I have to learn and to grow and to focus on the Savior and His atonement. It truly is a marvelous thing.

This letter was really kind of all over the place, I apologize. That´s just how my thoughts have been this week. :)
Thank you for all the support you send my way and I love you all!!! 

Tengan una maravillosa semana!

Mucho Amor,

Hermana Cordon

Before Haircut

After Haircut

Terremoto en Ecuador

¡Hola!

First off I am all good, don`t you guys worry :) No damage happened here where I am. Only about 3 different parts in Ecuador weren`t affected at all, and one of those places is the province of Tunguragua and that is where Ambato is. Some damage to buildings and house happened in other parts of my mission, but nothing too big. My mission doesn`t reach the coast really where most of the damage and problems happened. Ecuador is tiny, so the earthquake was felt by everyone and most places were affected. I am praying for everyone that they recieve comfort during this difficult time. 

My experience with the earthquake: well we were in the church because we had an activity with our ward and the floor just started moving, It was the weirdest feeling, it felt like it was like a rug being shook out, it was like waves in the floor and my legs felt really weird. It lasted for almost 2 minutes and I just felt super weird afterward. But, we didn`t even feel that much, because the church is anti-seismic, apparently all the house were rocking back and forth and the cars were shaking and everything. If it was like that here and nothing was damaged I can only imagine what it was like on the coast.. my prayers are going out to all of them. I have never experienced an earthquake before, and I am grateful it was a mild experience for such a big earthquake. 

I have found that the people have been a lot more receptive these last couple days during our contacts, because everyone is pretty spooked by the earthquake and really grateful that nothing happened here. I am hoping that we can help people to come closer to Christ and our Heavenly Father through this gospel with this experience. We have been talking a lot about that we never know what will happen tomorrow and we always need to make sure we are ready for whatever comes and the best way to do that is do what the Lord expects us to do. I am so grateful for this gospel and the comfort we can recieve in times of stress and disasters. Even though it was a pretty big earthquake and alot of the members that we were with were really spooked, I was able to stay really calm and didn`t have fear, and I know that its because I understand God´s plan and that if we are doing what He wants us to be doing His will will be done. I am so grateful that this is His plan and His hand is in all things.

Yesterday we had a multistake conference, with everyone from Colombia, Ecuador, and Venezuela. We were able to hear from and couple of general authorities and also Dallin H. Oaks talked to us. He talked alot about the importance of paying tithing and how we recieve a lot more blessings when we as members faithfully pay our tithing. They talked alot about the blessings we recieve when we pay our tithing, but the biggest one that I think stuck out to the members here is the blessing of being able to go to the temple. There is now going to be a temple here in Quito and the members need to prepare themselves and a big thing that we as missionaries need to focus on is helping people understand tithing so that they can recieve all the blessings of the temple. On the mission I have learned a lot about tithing and the importance of it and how much it truly has blessed my life. I am grateful my parents taught me about tithing growing up, and that they showed me that we just always need to pay our tithing to recieve the blessings of God. 

Today we had a zone activity and we went to a park on the top of a mountain, so it had a really pretty view of Ambato. I am so grateful for this time to get to know such a beautiful country. And I enjoyed being able to run around and play sports with my zone.

This week was a bunch of moments of reflection to make sure that we are doing the Lord`s will and preparing us for whatever is to come, because we can never be sure what tomorrow will bring. 

I love you all and remember always the God loves you as well and wants us ALL to return to Him.

Muchísimo Amor,

Hermana Cordon  

My Zone

Me and my companion with the other hermanas here in Ambato

Ambato

¡Hola!

Honestly can`t believe that it is monday again, I swear that monday was yesterday. But, I guess it means I am enjoying the work when the time is flying by. 

This week was a bit of a rough week, we had everything fall through and there also weren`t a lot of people to contact as well, I swear everyone disappeared from Ambato this week. Normally this kind of week wouldn`t bother me and I would just keep moving forward, but as a trainer you hope for the best experience for your companion, because those first 12 weeks in the mission are rough, and anything I can do as a companion to make it better for her is what I want to do. So when things fell through and it got difficult it stressed me out, because I didn`t want my companion to get discouraged. I now understand why people say that training is so difficult and stressful. This area needs a lot of work, but we are ready to work and we are ready for a new week. There are always a bump in the road kind of weeks in the mission, but if we move forward with diligence the Lord will bless our efforts and guide our steps to where we need to be. 

This week we had divisions with the Hermana Leaders and I was with Hna Willson for the day!!! She was my latin companion for the last 2 weeks in the CCM. It was so much fun to be able to be with her again for a day and to see how much has really changed and how much we have progressed in that time. It was a ton of fun being with her and this time around actually being able to use spanish. Any time she talked to me in spanish in the CCM I didn`t understand a single thing she was saying, this time around I understood everything she was saying. Even in one contact I corrected what she heard about their dirrection.. it made me realize at how much spanish I actually know. It was a ton of fun being with her and being able to reminisce in the CCM times and to really just see how much has changed and realize at how much I love the mission now. 

Hna Wilson & Hna Cordon

We are working with two families here specifically. One family all of them are investigators and the other, all of the kids are members and the parents aren`t. The reason that they all aren`t baptized is because they are not married. We focused a lot on eternal families and the importance of following God to recieve His blessings. We are hoping to help them all to move forward and be baptized by the end of April.

This week I learned a lot about just trusting in the Spirit and being diligent. As a trainer there are a lot of moments that I have to make the decision,and a lot of times I feel like I actually don`t know what I am doing. But, when I focus on the Spirit and when I focus on doing the will of the Lord we are able to keep moving forward and seeing little miracles. Though a lot of things fell through this week we had a lot of little miracles that kept our spirits up. One cool story is last monday night when our appointments fell through we decided to start contacting so that we can find out why we were there. The first door we knocked on the lady let us in and we were able to teach the first lesson. We still haven`t been able to have a second lesson, but it was really cool for Hna Stoneking to see the hand of the Lord in His work. She really was happy when we left and I was really grateful for that experience.

We have a lot of work in store for us to prepare Quito for a temple and to help more and more people be ready to enter the temple and work there when it is finished. I am so excited for the people here and the blessings that are in store for them!

Though the work can be hard sometimes, I truly am blessed to be able to be a missionary here in Ecuador. I love the mission and I love being able to share my testimony with everyone.

I love you all so much! Have a great week!

Mucho Amor,
Hermana Cordon

Ambato is really pretty