Week 75 - March 30, 2015

Hey yall! This week was great!!! We had Agustins baptism and it was amazing! He was incredibly prepared for it! It went very smoothly. We had good talks and then with the four missionaries in our ward we all sang Nearer My God to Thee and it sounded great. I had the priviledge to baptize Agustin and we just did it once so SUCCESS!! 

We also had interviews with President this week! My interview was so great, I love that President and I have such a great relationship because we talk about anything. He asked how Elder Huntsman and I are doing together and I told him we are the best of friends. He told me that Elder Huntsman says the same thing so we will probably be staying together another change! We will see for sure about that this week! 

We had a great week this week. The weather started to cool down a couple days and we even broke out the sweaters which was so nice! I love sweater weather. We met Yamila, who is a 29 year old member of the church. She is living with her boyfriend Gabriel who is 25. He is a carpinter and she is does workout camps (kind of like mommas camp gladiator workouts I assume) but she works out of her house. Gabriel is not a member and we are teaching him now. We can only meet with them once a week so thats kind of annoying but they are super cool. We are really excited to be able to work with them!

We had ward conference this week and the stake leaders dropped cane! They were talking about being worthy to get a temple recommend and paying tithing. I loved it though! We had 107 people at church and we keep raising almost every week! 

Elder Huntsman and I are both reading the book Jesus the Christ and getting to the end. We have really been able to understand a little bit more of what Jesus Christ went through and how voluntary his sacrifice really was. Its humbling to understand that sacrifice that he gave so willingly for us. I memorized D&C 20:37 this last week and studied it a lot. We need to be so much better as members of the Church!!!! 

Overall, we had a great week. It will be interesting to get changes this week but we are excited for them! I hope you are all doing great! I love you!!! 

Week 74 -March 23, 2015

Hey crew! This week was pretty darn awesome. We are going to have an even better week this week though! We are going to be having interviews with President Smith tomorrow and  a baptism on Saturday!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Last Pday was pretty fun. We have a secret room above our house and we decided to go explore. We snuck into it and it lead to three other apartments right by us. Then I cut Elder Hodges hair, which was a first! I got a good couple years of watching and learning by my dad though! 

On Tuesday we were on a trio with Elder Hodges because his companion was at concilio. We had a great time and we were laughing the whole time. Then he went on splits with a kid from his ward. He is a new elder and he struggled being with a teenager because they talk super fast but he got through it! 

We had a legit lesson with Dario from our ward. He has been inactive for a while but he has a calling in the elders quorum presidency. We taught him the doctrine of Christ and he asked us after the lesson when we had ward council. We told him that he had it tomorrow and he showed up the next day! He then went to our ward activity and to church on Sunday! Then he left with the other missionaries of the ward! The Doctrine of Christ works MIRACLES! 

In the district meeting this week I taught about the gathering of Israel and had an activity that had to do with throwing a football. The gringos killed it! 

I did divisions with Elder Bedoya this week, who is one of our zone leaders. He is from Colombia and wants to be an English teacher. He is a stud missionary and I loved my time with him. I was happy to go back with Elder huntsman though! We seriously get along so well and we missed eachother! 

Our ward activity this week was legit. We played jeopardy and we had about 30 people there. It turned out great and everyone had a great time! 

Saturday we had the interview for Agustin, who is getting baptized this next Saturday! It was an hour long interview and I played piano for an hour which was super nice! He passed the interview and we were super stoked about it! He is really really prepared. 

Saturday night the other Elders in our ward had a baptism so we went to that. I got asked to give a talk 10 minutes before it started but it went well! The baptism was very well planned and we hope to do something similiar this week! 

Big marker this week: I have six months left on my mission! Its crazy how fast time is flying by. I am loving it so much right now. Elder Huntsman and I are the best of friends and our area is doing amazing right now! 

Quote of the week: "Effort is required, but it is effort you will never

Week 73 - March 9, 2015

This week was rough at the beginning but it ended AMAZINGLY.

Today is my 17 month mark! 

We have played volleyball the last two pdays and its super fun. I still am too competitive but I am working on that. 

I taught the district meeting this week about love and it was amazing. I get a lot of good comments from the Elders in my district. 

For literally three days in a row we struggled for lessons. We were contacting, going to less actives, but no one would let us in. We met a lot of cool people but it was tough. Then on Friday we had a miracle happen. We met Agustin. He is a 14 year old kid who is friends of the bishops son in our ward. He came to talk to us and said he wanted to learn more. We have taught him two lessons now and he accepted the invitation to be baptized. We will do that in probably two or three weeks. 

Saturday we had another miracle. We finally were able to meet with Patricia who was their "golden investigator" right before the changes but then she had to study hard for her lawyer exams. The problem with her before was that she would go to church but as soon as we started the invitation to go to church she stopped us and said "I have already decided I am going to church tomorrow." We were stoked about that. She is amazing. She is a smart 24 year old who is about to be a lawyer. She speaks English fluently and she really wants to know more! 

So basically we have hopefully 2 baptisms this month! We are stoked about it. They both went to church and are loving it! I am loving my time with Elder Huntsman too. We are becoming amazingly great friends and he is an absolute stud. 

I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY! I love you all too! Have a wonderful week!

"Faith is best gaged by obedience and untiring service."

Week 72 - March 2, 2015

Hey everyone! I have sent out my Letter from Elder Cordy to a lot of people but I want to revise and know who wants a copy of it every week! Please respond and tell me you want a copy from here on out if you want my emails every week! Thanks! 

This week I left Rivera and headed to Salto! 

I had some pretty crazy travels. I went from Rivera to Santana do Livramento in Brazil. I took a bus from Santana to Quarai en Brazil. Then I took a taxi to Artigas and hung out with Elder Baggett for a couple hours until my last bus left for Salto. I traveled alone from Artigas to Salto! That was my first time traveling alone on the mission but luckily I behaved myself. 

I am in Salto Obelisco with Elder Huntsman. Elder Huntsman is from Utah but his family is living in The Woodlands Texas right now (Houston area). He just finished getting trained by famous Elder Caires Franca so he has about 4 months in the mission. They had a hard time together though and he was excited to get a new companion. He is seriously really awesome though. He is totally goofy and is a stud missionary already. We get along great. We live in a SUPER nice house with two other elders which is fun. Elder Johnson from Utah is in his last change and Elder Hodges from Arizona is in his second change and they are our house mates. They are super cool. 

One surprise that I got when I arrived to Salto was that I heard that I am district leader again! I have a bunch of studs in my district so I am super excited. 

Salto is super great so far. Its a pretty big city and the people here are the nicest I have met in this country! Our area is hard though. They have one progressing investigator who I still havent met so we have just been trying to find a ton of people. 

Our ward yesterday had 98 people. I played the piano and kept that streak going. Apparently its a big ward but most of the people are new and they dont have a lot of great leaders. We will see how it goes. After singing in a class, a sister in our ward invited me and my companion to be part of the stake choir. We went to the practice and they were learning If you could Hie to Kolob in Italian... Interesting but super fun.

So far I am LOVING Salto though! Its a great place and I love the group of missionaries here! I feel lost in my area after just a couple days but I am really enjoying my time and I hope that it stays like this! 

Quote of the week: "Father, Forgive them, for they know not what they do." - Jesus Christ. I believe this is maybe the most powerful statement in the Bible. After Jesus Christ was beaten, spit upon, mocked, denied, and took upon all the sins of the whole world, he asked that his heavenly father would forgive the people that were literally torturing him to death. What a perfect example.