Week 50 - September 29, 2014

This week was quite a week. Let me first off by saying that I decided that I need to be a lot more humble, so I prayed to be humbled. Let me testify that our Heavenly Father answers our prayers. 

This week in my district meeting I decided to talk about finding more people. My district is doing great but we can definitely find more people to teach. I felt like I learned a lot from preparing the meeting and I felt like I definitely needed to apply it. I taught all about talking in every second of the day. We have nothing to lose as missionaries, but so much to gain. I really set a goal to talk to more and more people throughout the week and this week we talked to more people than I have ever talked to in any other week. However, that little prayer came back to humble me every single day. We talked with a lot of people but we have not a single new investigator this week. We almost always have quite a few but this week, when I talked to the most people, we had no success. I felt very humbled because I realized that the work is ALL in the Lords hands. I needed to understand that and realize that I need his help, and I need to be humble and rely on His guidance to find people to teach that are already prepared. 

Apart from that, we had a ton of rain this week. We got stuck in a hail storm too and we ran to a bus stop to get some cover. We decided that it wasnt ending any soon and we were already soaked from head to toe, so we finished the nice couple kilometers to the house we were going to. We got to the house and they were surrounded by a moat of water. They let us in though and treated us nice. 

We worked one day this week with a stake counselor, and it went alright, but he left a lot earlier than what we had planned because he wanted to see his daughter, who lived close. 

To end a hard week, we got to go to the temple. I was able to confirm people and watch some baptisms. It was great. I loved it just because I was having a hard time and I needed to sit down and think for a while. There isnt a more peaceful than the temple. On Sunday we had the primary program and it was precious. I love the primary programs. One little 8 year old kid played the violin and did VERY well. He impressed me, but then he got shy and forgot the memorized music, and ran off the stage. 

Tomorrow we have interviews with President. I am excited to talk to President and he wants me to teach him the Doctrine of Christ lesson because we have had a lot of success with it. I am pretty stoked to learn from him. Its going to be great. 

The thing I am most excited about this week is General Conference. I cant wait and I hope we can get a lot of people we are teaching to go! I would love your help through prayers! 

I am doing great! Dont worry about me! I am just learning to submit myself to the hands of our Heavenly Father! 

I love you all a ton! Love Elder Cordy

Week 49 - September 22, 2014

Hey hows it going? I am doing pretty good. We had quite an interesting week. 

By the way, today I have one year left of service as a full time missionary. 

First, I have a couple stories. 

My Book of Mormon spine broke this week and I am hoping super glue can make it all work out. 

One night we had to run home to make it home on time. We had a couple people yelling at us from the high school as most people always do. The funny part about it is that one sister from church saw us from the bus and she sent  us a super nice message. She has a son on the mission in Argentina and she said she cried when she saw us running home and waving at the people yelling at us. 

My second District Meeting went super well. Awesome. I did an activity that everyone loved and there were a couple friends from a ward close to us that came because they are leaving on their missions soon. 

Divisions this week was with Elder Teloma. It was my first division as a DL. I loved it. It was super fun. Elder Teloma and I have been in the same zone since I was born. Every change for 8 changes. He is a super good teacher and I learned a lot. We had some bomb lessons. Its good to teach with people that are really good at teaching. Not everyone is just a good teacher for their time in the mission. 

I feel like we are making really good relationships with everyone in the ward now. We have a lot of member friends now and they are helping us work. 

Elder Morales and I had a really good week. We get along very well and we honestly can talk about anything together. He is a great kid. 

Interesting and scary story. This week we had service at Flor. I think last week I told yall that she said she was wondering about a doubt she had that she didnt want to ask us. She told me that she "sees me as a man but wants to wait until I finish the mission." I got pretty freaked out by that. I told her that we are missionaries who try and help people come closer to Christ and be baptized. If she doesnt want to change her life and become a disciple of Christ, we cant visit her anymore. She is like 45 years old. Needless to say, we dont go by her house as often. 

We had a couple blessings to give this week. Its pretty cool to be able to say a blessing in Spanish almost perfectly in "tu" form that we cant practice with people unless we are giving a blessing. It only took me about a year. 

This week we are going to the temple as a ward. We have permission because there is a sister that we have brought back to church after 30 years of not going who wants to go with us. 

I feel like I am becoming a really good missionary now. I feel like I can teach well and comfortably and I love the work. I need to talk with everyone all the time, but I am feeling like I have come a long way in a year. 

This week I feel like I have received revelation honestly. I have realized that I spend too much time thinking about home. I will write my family just the same amount, but my friends wont get quite as much detail in letters or emails. Im sorry but I gotta do it! This is what the Lord wants of me. 

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

Week 48 - September 15, 2014

This week was the first week of the new change! We spent Pday at the temple and that was super great. Today we played soccer in the morning. 

We had a conference with the leaders of our church yesterday about the Doctrine of Christ. I was in charge of teaching 3 returned missionaries, which was super fun, especially since I had some good feedback (what I thought at least). We have had a lot of success teaching the Doctrine of Christ lately, found in 2 Nephi chapter 31, 3 Nephi 11 and 18. Those are the three chapters I like to use, but many prophets testify of the Doctrine of Christ and teach it. I have been thinking I want to teach yall that lesson in English if I can, when we skype on Christmas! We had a couple lessons this week and we had quite some success. One lady, Sonia, came to church for the first time in over 30 years this week! Even though it was raining! You all may laugh at that but thats a real problem here. When it rains, there are many people that dont go to church. Its a true faith tester. 

Gross Story: If you dont want to hear it, skip to the next paragraph. This week we had lunch at a ladys house and I ate so much that I threw up. Literally. It reminded me of when the Hasketts took me to a Brazilian Steakhouse and we had the buffet. I threw up after eating so much, then ate some more! :) Maybe that is some wrestling blood or reactions... 

This week I taught in the district meeting as District Leader. I was pretty nervous but then when I started it got better. I talked about being a successful missionary and what that means. I tied that into the Law of Consecration, which I have been studying lately and I love it. I really enjoy talking to all of my district and getting to know each of them. Its pretty fun! Tomorrow I am doing divisions with Elder Teloma, who was in Colonia, then followed me to Oeste, and then we both came to Cerro. He has been in my zone with me since I started the mission! I love having Elder Baggett and Elder Devashrayee serving as leaders with me. Elder Devashrayee is still the only ZL and I think that will be that way the whole change. We have one new ZL, and two new DLs. We are all new, but we are excited to work hard and make the Cerro Norte zone successful! 

Joseline and Felipe. This week we had a great lesson with them. They accepted the compromise to be baptized but they didnt want to set a date yet. They want to go church but Joseline has conflicting work schedules. 

Valentina has decided she will come back after talking to us this week. We talked to the temple president about a doubt she had and she will come to church two weeks from now with us! 

Flor has a doubt that she wont tell us. Its really bugging us too. We are always able to help her but she has to ask us questions first! She promised she would come to church this week, but she didnt. I would like to think its because of the rain. 

That is about it folks! I am doing great and I am glad to be where I am today! I am loving being a leader and dedicating myself everyday! I feel like I know the gospel so well now and my favorite part of everyday is studying something amazing and then teaching it. The church is true. The book is blue. I love you all a ton too!

Elder Cordy

Week 47 - September 8, 2014

Today I complete 11 months in the mission!! Thats crazy. TIME FLIES 

The big news of the week is that this week is CHANGES! I will be staying in Cerro San Fernando with Elder Morales, and I will be serving as district leader. Big news of the mission is that we split 3 of the zones to make 13 zones in total! Our zone is called Cerro Norte. I will be serving with Elder Devashrayee as my ZL and the other DL in the zone is Elder Baggett, my BEST FRIEND! Thats pretty awesome isnt it?! I am super stoked to see the kid and give him a giant hug. 

This week was pretty good. Last week we played sand volleyball at the beach with the whole zone, the funnest pday that Ive had so far! Today we just got back from the temple! Our zone had special permission to go. 

The Hermanas had a baptism this week and it was really good! 

Mom found a pic of me and Elder Morales at our zone conference on the mission Facebook. That zone conference was awesome! We talked about the doctrine of Christ again, and I loved it, again. Its awesome to be able to teach the basics and really people understand it. We see the results in our area too. After the zone conference we went to the fortaleza in Cerro to take pictures with the zone and President. 

This week was harder with our amount of time with the zone conference and services. We painted the cielings of a home one day and it was super fun. Then that same afternoon I was called to be the Zone English teacher... yeah weird right? So basically whenever anyone from San Jose wants to come to my weekly English classes from the area, they can. 7pm on Fridays. You are all invited. I will be teaching basic and advanced English :) 

Fast Sunday this Sunday was especially awesome. I couldnt tell you exactly why, but it was awesome! Just a great spirit. 

Jonathan and Flor de Liz - Jonathan, Flors son, had a bad weekend. After not drinking for 4 months, he fell into temptation again and Flor was a mess. She didnt want to do much of anything. We helped her out a lot though and she is doing great now that Jonathan has asked forgiveness and they talked about it. 

Karen and Claudio - We visited Karen this week without Claudio home. It was a great lesson because Karen actually talked instead of just Claudio the whole time. 

Felipe and Joseline - Are progressing! They are praying and reading the Book of Mormon. They said they listened a bit to missionaries in Chile but they didnt understand much. They say they understand everything now! We are super stoked about them! 

I am super excited to serve as District Leader in the same zone as Elder Baggett, the other DL. It will be a fun change! We are going to have a baptism this change. I can feel it! We just gotta work harder and do more! 

Week 46 - September 1, 2014

Hey Y`all!!!!!!!!!!! 

This week was quite a week. We had some nasty weather until Thursday with the tropical storms. Now its been warmer. A couple big events have happened though this week that I would like to share... 

Flor De Liz. This week we went to her house and I felt inspired to teach a lesson JUST about baptism. WE read the story of Christs baptism and we talked about it the whole time. At the end, I extended the baptismal challenge and she said she would like to be baptized. We are planning the 20th or the 27th of September. SWEET EH? 

We didnt have many lunches this week planned this past Tuesday. Only one day actually. However, we were super blessed and we didnt pay for lunch a single day! We feel like we are being more obedient and working harder, and the Lord is blessing us! 

We also gave a blessing to HErmano Conde, who was in bed with a nasty cold and he couldnt breath. We passed by to visit, and we gave him a blessing. The next day, the wife called us to tell us that he was completely fine after being sick for 4 days! Miracle of the Priesthood. 

Sonia who promised to come to church didnt come this week. That was super bumming. She treats us like her kids, because she doesnt have any. She fed us a super good asado, which is a bunch of meat for lunch one day. 

We did a small service of putting in a fence this week. The thing is that we did it in white shirts and ties. It was super fun actually. Then we saw 10 piglets that our mission leaders pig had!  

We had a ward activity saturday which meant a bunch of soccer. We played for two hours and it was super fun! 

We have been working with quite a couple families that are less active who are now coming to church consistently! Its amazing to see them progress! 

We found a couple from Chile this week who have family livng in Utah and they are members. This couple is SUPER nice and I love hearing them talk because they have a funky new accent. We have a lesson with them tomorrow! 

This week I tried something new for studies. I went through reading each chapter heading of the book of Mormon and I wrote what I got out of it on a paper. I ended up with 10 pages of notes, basically a big time line of the Book of Mormon. IT helped me internalize it a lot and I would recommend doing it! 

Elder Morales and I are still getting along pretty well! He told me that he has gotten along better with me than any other companion! 

This morning we played volleyball on the beach. SUPER FUN! I have pictures but I forgot my connector cord! Next WEEK! 

This is the last week of the change! I will have the information about the next change next week! I am excited to see what happens and either way, I will be pumped to keep working in San Fernando, with whoever it may be with. There is a lot of work to do!