Week 57 - November 17, 2014

This week was super good! We have quite a great things that have happened in San Fernando!

First of all, I did divisions with Elder Mendoza Jimenez this week, who is from Colombia. He is a super cool missionary and I enjoyed my time with him. We did service and we had to dig a ditch so water could go through the yard easily. We got working and I ended up breaking the shovel and maybe I hit a water pipe... Im not quite sure! Then we had a CRAZY lesson with this guy named Heber. Heber believes in extra terrestial people. He doesnt believe in God or anything like that. He says his brother saw a UFO that was Giant and that NASA was so interested that they came to visit them and talk to them about it. It was a crazy lesson and I feel for Kade who will be teaching in Thailand to people who dont believe in God. Its tough. 

We also did a service this week and we had to dig a lot and then smash concrete to make a driveway. My comp had a bunch of blisters quick! Then we ate two lunches that day. 

On Thursday we had a conference with Elder Christensen from the 70. It was with all of the missionaries in Uruguay and it was awesome to know all of the missionaries from our mission still! The conference was awesome. Elder Christensen talked about how we can be better missionaries and love the people more. My favorite part was when President Smith talked though and then they did a Question and Answer for all the 500 something missionaries. It was crazy cool to see the two mission presidents and a member of the 70 just answering with scriptures and what they have already taught us! We just dont understand everything yet! 

Saturday we had a MIRACLE. Absolutely ridiculous miracle. We were walking to contact a reference we had just received and we got a text that said "Elders we hope everything is going great. Its been a while since we have talked. We want to get our birth certificates because we are urgent to get married to be able to get baptized that way we can follow the Lords plan for us." I literally stopped in the dirt road and just said "WHAT!? NO WAY!?" It took me a while to read it again and make sure I read what I actually saw. I called the number and we talked to the couple. It was legit and they said they would go to church the following day! They went to church and we will be visiting them on Wednesday! 

Sunday we had quite a good amount of less actives and investigators in church! I feel like we are working hard and seeing the Lords hand in the work! 

Sunday after church we went to the 16th ward for a choir practice. Then I went on divisions with Elder Baggett and we slept the night at their house. It was super fun! Then today we went and played volleyball at the beach but we went to a grass field because there was too many temptations at the beach. Then we went to the World Trade Center in Montevideo and had Frozen yogurt at a ridiculously nice mall! 

This week we are changing the mission schedule! We wake up at 7 and get to be outside until 10 at night! Its mainly because of summer. We study at mid day because its ridiculously hot. 

I cut my hair this week with a 1 on the sides. Dad would be proud of me. I cant send pics this week though! 

We had a good week with quite a lot of good lessons! We are just trying to get more people to go to church so they can get baptized! 

Cool scripture that I have been meditating this week: Mosiah 15:7. In English it says that Christ swallowed the will of God but in Spanish it says he Absorbed the will of God. Whats the difference? I like the Spanish way better :p 

I love all of you! 

Week 56 - November 10, 2014

This week was AWESOME! 

It started of weird and pretty bad on Monday though. After we got off the computers, we found out that an hermana had gotten robbed in the same place we were at while she was writing. Someone stole her backpack and she didnt even notice. It was raining hard too so that just adds a good effect. Then after our day, we were getting followed by two guys on a moto that kept passing us. Then we went to buy milk and one of them followed us around the store. We made sure he was following us and then we took a good speed walk home. Nothing happened but it scared the heck out of us haha. 

This week I also did divisions with Elder Salomè from Perù. He is super cool and he wants to go study at BYU after the mission. We had a great time and I love doing divisions with other missionaries. I studied Italian for language study that day too. While I was there, I did a baptismal interview for a girl that was getting baptized. She is young and her parents havent been active, but hopefully she can help them get all back to church. She was awesome. 

One day we got called by some Sisters in our zone and they asked us if we could go to their area to give one of them a blessing. It was really humbling to be trusted by this hermana and to be able to give her a blessing! Always gotta be ready! 

We had a Family Home Evening with the Smith family. The whole Smith family came. All the kids, spouses, and grandkids. It was quite a festival. We invited Flor to come with us and she came. It was with all the missionaries in Montevideo. I was in the choir and we performed High on the Mountain Top. It was awesome. It was a great activity about the restoration and families. Then it was fun to talk to a bunch of Smiths when it was all over. 

Saturday we had the BAPTISM of Virginia! I was able to baptize her and it was so awesome! It was a pretty well prepared baptism and everything went very well! She also asked me to confirm her on Sunday. That was really cool too. On Sunday I was running all over the stage. I was playing piano, confirming Virginia, and then I gave a talk. I gave a talk about the Doctrine of Christ. The mission leader and bishop told me I dropped cane but they liked it a lot. The mission leader told me that it was one of the best talks ever because I just read and explained the scriptures. I didnt have anything written down, I just read DOCTRINE. It was a pretty sweet Sunday. 

One of the cool things that happened is after the baptism, we went to one more lesson before the day ended and we gave the investigator a baptismal date for next month. We need to keep finding people though! 

Overall, pretty awesome week. I feel so grateful to be a missionary. Its super weird to think I have been here for over 13 months now. I love all of it though!

Week 55 - November 3, 2014

Hello!!!!!!!! This week the biggest news is that on Saturday we will be having a baptism!!!!!!!!!! I am super stoked! Virginia is super excited and we cant wait for her to get baptized! 

This week Elder Cline had a roller coaster of a week. He had some stomach problems which we think was caused by the water. We had to stop in a couple fields a couple times. He has been trying to talk a lot more though and he has a great attitude. 

The work here in San Fernando is exploding. We are talking to lots of people and finding many. We just have a problem of getting people to church for the first time. Our area is far away from the church, so its not easy for people to just go by themselves. 

This week we will have a family home evening with all of the missionaries from Montevideo put on by the Smith family. We invited Virginia and we will see how it goes! I am in charge of finding a bus for us to use for the whole San Jose part so that will be fun... 

My district is doing awesome too. We have some awesome missionaries and everyone is figuring out how to work hard! 

The weather this week was weird. Sunday and Monday was HOT HOT HOT but now we are in sweaters and jackets because we have had rain and cold wind for 3 days straight now! 

I am doing great and super excited about the baptism! We just need to keep trying to find people and get them to church!

Elder Baggett says hi! 

I love you all! Have a great week!  

Week 54- October 27, 2014

Hello to everyone!!!! This week was the first week as being a trainer!

Lets see... My companion is Elder Cline from Utah. He is pretty awesome honestly. He is one day older than me but he just graduated this year. He is excited to be here and work hard. The trip to Montevideo to go pick him up was great. I took a bunch of pictures and we had a great time with all the trainers. When we met eachother, we just took a quick pic and then headed to the temple. It was great. We had a full session. President and I had a good talk in the temple too. I totally admire that man. My kid is doing great for the first week in the mission. Not home sick or anything. He definitely needs to learn Spanish though. After the very first lesson he said "Yeah we definitely need to speak more Spanish." I am glad that he recognizes it. I like it honestly. I get to teach a LOT and its cool to see someone get here and totally depend on me and the Lord to get through. We have done quite a lot of talking to people on the street too. I want him to be the best missionary ever and I am doing what I can so he can be it! 

I am still serving as District leader. I have ten missionaries in my district. Its super fun. I love the district. Its weird though because all but 2 are older than me. We have quite an old district. 

This week with our investigators... 

Virginia is super stoked about her baptism. She asked if I would baptize her and of course I was more than happy to! We are still planning on that on November 8th. 

Angelina is having a surgery this week to drop weight. So she will be idle for a couple weeks. 

Felipe and Jocelyn are doing great too. They just need to go to church.

ABSOLUTE THROW BALL of the week was that we had votings for President in the country. Apparently some times it gets bad, so therefore we had NO church and President Smith told all the missionaries to stay in our house ALL DAY on Sunday. It was super weird and I felt like such a bad missionary just sitting in the house. We ate a lot of food though so that was great. We played soccer and catch with a tennis ball all day and that kept us busy. The funny thing is that there is many parties in the votings. To win, a party has to have 50% or more of the votes. There are two parties that are now going to the finals the 30th of November so we might have to stay in the house again that day. 

Pretty awesome week though! I have missed Speaking spanish all of the time and honestly I have realized how many spanish words I use even when i speak english. I have used my dictionary more to look up english words than Spanish words this week. I love being a missionary. Its pretty dang awesome. 

Week 53 - October 20, 2014

Good morning to everyone!!!!! This week was AWESOME! 

I have been informed this past week by President Smith that I will be training a new missionary (aka oro) this change! Elder Morales is headed to Rivera and I will pick up my son tomorrow in Carrasco!!! I am SUPER STOKED. I dont know if you guys really understand how pumped I am! The other wonderful part is that I will be training the same time as Elder Baggett! Elder Baggett and I will head to the mission home tomorrow morning to meet our kids! We will be making Cerro one zone once again, and I will be one of the other District Leaders with Elder Ramos and Elder Clark. I am SO PUMPED! 

Alright so this week... we had Virginia come to church! She has a baptismal date for November 8th and she is super excited to be baptized! Angelina is progressing well but next week she will have a surgery and we wont be able to visit her as often and I doubt she will be able to go to church. This week is the votings for President of Uruguay and its a law that we cant have public meetings on Sunday so church is cancelled. Yeah its weird... Felipe and Jocelyn are doing great. They want to get baptized and are working on finding new work opportunities so they can go to church! They are awesome. 

This week we had a lot of good byes for Elder Morales and we ate a lot of food. We made tacos one night that were bomb and Elder Morales and i were the only ones that ate the spicy salsa we brought. Elder Morales has been bad mouthing me lately and so I challenged him to a wrestling match. He boxed so he had a high head and hopes. I have a video of me and him wrestling. Lets just say any wrestler beats a boxer in a wrestling match. 

This week we taught the Doctrine of Christ three times in one day. It was one of the coolest days ever. I want to teach you all the Doctrine of Christ lesson when we call in Christmas. Other cool thought is you will get to meet my son from the mission and talk to him a bit! We will see if he is latino or gringo tomorrow! 

This week I gave a lot of blessings on short notice. It was super cool to just be so trusted by many people to change and bless people. We blessed one man who is about mid twentys. He is a drug addict. He cant walk, talk, or do anything right honestly. His mother is a strong member and she has another son on a mission. It was a giant testimony to me of the gospel and the difference it makes in lives. Other experience this week, we were walking and this man on a moto crossed the busy street and headed right toward us. He was slowing down. He started to fall over and I ran over to catch him. He thanked me a lot and I could immediately smell that he had been drinking. We talked to him for a while and he told us all about his sad life story. We got his address and we will visit him some time! 

The gospel is so true. It makes me sick to see the people that are so blessed to have these truths right in front of them and not be able to understand and love the teachings! Alma 5:7 has been one of my favorite scriptures on the mission. I only know it in Spanish though. It says that Jesus Christ is the one that changes the hearts of men. I could explain the rest in English but I think it sounds better in Spanish so I wont. Many people are sleeping. Members, less actives, people who dont know about Jesus Christ, etc. We need to wake up. We have the truth. SHARE IT! 

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

Love Elder Cordy

 

Week 52 - October 13, 2014

Hey everyone! This week was pretty tough but I have loved it too. I really have grown a lot here in talking to people. I didnt talk to that many people in the offices but this change I have really changed the way that I work as a missionary and I think it will help out in the long rong, even though we arent seeing immediate results. I have been studying diligence lately too...

This week was very humbling. We had quite a bunch of AWESOME lessons. I felt like we were going to have a lot of people in church. Investigators and less actives. However, we hardly saw anyone, even though they promised. I talked to a returned missionary after church because he realized I was down. He helped me out a lot. I have realized how awesome returned missionaries are in this area.. Its been pretty tough to see that our hard work doesnt do much. It just has to be the right time for the people and the Lord. I did do divisions this week with our ZL Elder Devashrayee. He is from Utah and is a stud (Weird how that happens haha). No but he is awesome. We had two new people that day that were both awesome. Miracles happen on divisions. I feel like I can speak pretty darn well when I get around other gringos. Hopefully my Latino comp trend can keep going. 

I have grown my testimony about the atonement and prophets this week after really studying general conference. I feel like there is so much we can repent for everyday and we can only become better and truly be clean through the atonement of Christ. 

My One year mark wasnt anything too crazy. I woke up to my alarm at 6:30, prayed, and then I got a call from Elder Brown. It was fun to talk to him after a while. The only other thing we did for the year was make pizzas after we got home. They turned out super well. 

This week we had crazy weather. Its getting super humid and its been all over the place in terms of weather. We had rain, super hot heat, hail, and super crazy wind. I am getting pretty dark now and I still have all of summer to come!!! I love the missionary tan on the neck too. Its pretty sweet. I bought a white watch this week for super cheap and I will be rocking it too. It looks good with short sleeve shirts :) 

This is the last full week of changes! Next week I will talk to you on Tuesday and have the information about my changes! I dont want to say what I am wishing for to jinx it but I will say that I am super proud of my boy Elder Libby in Juiz de Fora, Brasil! What a babe. 

I have had a lot of fun with Elder Morales. We have become super good friends. He actually might be the first comp that can ligetimately visit me after the mission, and maybe it will happen! 

I want to thank all of the Texas Longhorn fans going to the game and supporting my boys. What troopers. 

I also want to wish Eli Cordy a happy birthday tomorrow! I love you stud! 

Thanks for all your support and prayers! I could use them again this week! :)  

I love you all! 

Elder Cordy

Week 51 - October 4, 2014

Hey everyone! This week was a pretty good week, especially compared to last week! 

We had interviews with President and they went great. He asked all of us to teach him the Doctrine of Christ lesson and I taught a part that was the most shaky for me. I told him that too and after he said, Elder Cordy, you teach great! I dont know why you dont feel totally confident. He also complimented my hair and told me I looked handsome. The man is an amazing President. 

Then after the hard week last week contacting and not having any luck, we received a call from a member who said he wanted us to visit his ex wife who wants us to visit her. She has received all the lessons but couldnt quit smoking. We went to visit her this week and she was super awesome. I felt like we walked into a miracle. She told us her whole story and then to make it all awesome, she told us that she didnt get baptized because she couldnt quit smoking for so long. Then she told us about a month ago, she quit smoking. HECK YEAH BABY Miracles happen! We want to give her a baptisimal date this week but I want her to go to church a couple more times. 

I had divisions with Elder Larrea this week, who has about a year and 5 months in the mission. He has been a district leader before, and he is a stud. I was super excited to do divisions with him, and it was great. He taught me a lot and we did some awesome work. We ended the last two hours of the day on divisions with older men from the ward. I went with the ward mission leader and we taught two lessons. It was super fun. 

While I was in Playa Pascual with Elder Larrea, Elder Morales and Elder Chuyes were in my area working hard. Elder Chuyes has a change less than me but man this guy is a heck of a missionary. They found a new investigator that is apparently amazing. I still havent met her but she went to a different church to watch general conference. 

The highlight of my week though was general conference. I loved the talks about sustaining the prophet and really doing the small things to have a strong testimony that is constantly growing. I loved the conference talks about the sacrament. That is the main focus with the Doctrine of Christ lessons that we are teaching and it really has made an impact in my life and my mission. I arranged some special divisions with Elder Baggett for conference so I could watch the conference in English and work with Elder Baggett. We were together for Saturday and Sunday and it was awesome. It was crazy to be with him almost a year after the MTC and see how much we have both grown. We stayed up way too late the first night talking but it was worth it. 

Other big news in the mission... We are opening new areas in BRASIL and ARGENTINA. We will have 4 Elders and 4 Hermanas in Argentina as well as 4 Elders in Brasil (Speaking and Learning Portuguese of course). For now, I am not one of the chosen ones, but hey ya never know! 

This week I will officially hit a year as a missionary! Its crazy to think how fast this year has gone by and how much I have learned and grown as a person and servant of my Heavenly Father. 

I love you all! Have a wonderful week!