Week 79 - April 27, 2015

This week was INCREDIBLE. Honestly one of the best working weeks in my mission. I dont know if I have ever felt such an incredible love for the work as I do right now. I love it so much that I am nervous and kind of scared to go back to the real world! 

This last Monday night we left Salto to go to Montevideo for a giant conference with Elder Dallin H. Oaks, one of the twelve apostles. It was incredible. I was chosen as one of the 10 Elders in our mission to be in the choir and I loved it. When we sang our song, Hermana Smith was crying and Elder Oaks said "that was absolutely wonderful" when I passed him on the stand! A couple things that Elder Oaks talked a lot about were that the mission is not the last goal of our life, that exaltation is. Then he went on a marriage tangent for a while :) I really loved how he highlighted the importance of obedience too. He talked about how we need to balance all of the responsiblities that we will have after the mission. But that is AFTER the mission. NOW IS NOW! We have to enjoy the mission and concentrate all of ourselves to this sacred calling. 

The bus rides to and from Montevideo were super fun! We went with Artigas and I got to talk to a lot of awesome friends that I have made during my mission. It was great to catch up! I talked to the Elders in Brasil too and I got excited about learning portuguese again but I doubt that I will head there now! I still have a goal to learn portuguese! 

The day after the conference the Hermanas in my district wouldnt answer their phone. I had told them to text me when they got home at 12:30 at night but they never did... I couldnt go out to see if they were out but I was really worried about them! The next day they still wouldnt answer so we went to their house during studies to see if they were alright. They were doing great but they had lost their phone. So we made a few calls and hooked them up with a new phone! It was quite a freak out moment though! 

Today we are going to the doctor again to see the results of a Ultrasound that they did on my comp on his back. They still have no idea what it is but we will see later today! 

This week was AWESOME in the work. We found 3 new people while we were with members and then we gave 3 people a baptismal date! Its going to be pretty awesome to have 3 baptisms! We had over 100 people in church again which was good! We are starting to do something else this week. We are contacting all of the members on the ward list and teaching all of them. That way we can get less actives back to church, complete part member families, and get a lot more references from different people all around! I hope keeps working because it worked AMAZINGLY this week! 

Seriously the mission is incredible. I can not think of anything better that I could be doing right now. 2 years is a long time but that is the only way that people can truly change! I love the gospel, my Savior Jesus Christ, and I love teaching that to EVERYONE! 

I love you all! Have a wonderful week! 

Week 78 - April 20, 2015

Hows it going everyone? This week has been pretty fun and I am super excited about this coming week too!!! 

I did divisions with three different Elders this week. All three were in my area with some Elders from our zone. The first one was with Elder Castillo from Peru and we had a sweet lesson with a family that we found and then we went to a barbeque that we got invited to by a member of another ward who loves me because Im from Texas! :) Then I went with Elder De La Cruz from Spain who took my spot in the offices when I left. He is a fun kid who knows how to work hard. I really enjoyed my time with him. Then I went with Elder McGuire from Utah. He is good friends with Elder Huntsman and we just had time for one quick lesson because we had an hour together. 

This week I got to do two baptismal interviews for a companionship in my district. One of them was an older man who is blind. It was very interesting but it was a great experience. Then I interviewed a nine year old girl who was so darn cute. She was really impressive with her knowledge of the gospel. Her parents want to get baptized too but they are trying to stop smoking first. 

My convert here in Salto, Agustín just got the priesthood last week and on Sunday he passed the sacrament. It made me feel pretty proud. Now I feel like I kind of understand what parents feel the first time their kids pass the sacrament! He is such a stud! 

Our ward mission leader has been slacking lately and two hours before coorelation I decided to call him and confirm it with him so he wouldnt ditch us again. He said he would see us in two hours at the church. We went there and waited for an hour but he didnt show up. So the next day all four of us missionaries went to his house to have a surprise coorelation meeting. It worked out and all was good afterwards! Then he didnt go to church on Sunday.... I think we are going to start to teach our ward mission leader the lessons... 

Well the most interesting but gross story of the week this week was about my companion. Elder Kelly on Tuesday saw something weird on his back. It looked like a small bite of something but it kept getting worse as the days went on. He tried to pop it on Friday and a bunch of puss came out. Finally on Saturday he decided he couldnt deal with it anymore. We called people so we could go to the hospital. When we got there they immediately let us in and took a look at his back. they squeezed more puss and blood out of it and then told us that they have no idea what it is and that they would hook us up with a surgeon. Then they just gave him antibiotics and sent us off! We have an appointment today at 4 with the surgeon. We will see how that goes. 

Tomorrow we have a conference in Montevideo with Elder Dallin H. Oaks!!!! I am super excited for it! We leave tonight at midnight to Montevideo with the Salto and Artigas zones. Its a conference in the morning with just our mission but in the afternoon is the conference with Elder Dallin H. Oaks with the two missions! I am excited to see everyone and meet Elder Oaks for the second time (if I remember right he came to our stake a while ago). I am super excited too because I got asked to be in the choir for the conference. There is only 10 Elders and 10 Hermanas from our mission and they called and asked me! 

This week we had a lot of success with less actives but we just cant get any investigators to go to church! Its pretty frustrating but its part of life! I am loving the mission and loving Salto! 

2 Nephi 5:27  "Vivimos de una manera feliz!"

BE HAPPY! LOVE LIFE! I love you all! Have a great week! 

Week 77 - April 13, 2015

This week was a building week. I was sick for most of the weeks. I have had that seasonal coughing and bronchitis type sickness that I used to get around lacrosse season. I literally lost my voice for about 5 days. Two of them I could whisper and that was it. That was rough as a missionary...

We had a zone barbeque right before the changes and it was super fun. Our old zone was awesome! The same night we went to another families house who also gave us asado! 

We went to the bus terminal late at night to tell everyone bye! We had four Elders going home and then a couple going to Montevideo for their changes. It was a really awesome goodbye. There were a lot of members actually too that were there to say goodbye! 

The next day something crazy happened. The ZLs told me that Elder Mori was going to get to the bus terminal at 2:00 so I got there around 1:40. A couple minutes later two hermanas showed up. We went to help them with their suitcases and then I saw an Elder come in another bus. I went and said hi and asked where he was going and when he saw my name tag he said, "Elder Cordy! Your my companion!" I was waiting on a Peruvian and he was a large blondie, clearly not peruvian. We went to the ZLs and started calling people to find out what was going on. Well, come to find out, Elder Kelly is now my new companion! Elder Mori is staying in his last area! So Elder Kelly is a big kid from Las Vegas. He just finished training. That makes my last 4 comps ALL gringos and ALL of them have less than 6 months in the mission. 

My district is now one group of Elders and one group of Hermanas besides us. I thought I wasnt going to like it but it was pretty sweet! 

This week I hit an official 18 months. The only thing out of the normal is that I lost my voice and when i climbed into bed at night, a wasp stung me on the shoulder! 

Crazy story this week: The Elders from my district called to tell me a story about a guy that they had talked too. They said he needed someone to translate English for him. I called the guy to see what was going on. He told me about some lady that he had met over email who had asked him for help. By the way this lady lives in Africa and is in like a refuge camp. After wondering, laughing and talking to my comp about it, we decided to go over and talk to him. We set up a time the next day to meet him. So the next day he gave us more details and I ended up called a reverend in Africa named Andrew to tell him that this guy Cesar was going to help this random lady in whatever way possible. It really doesnt make sense at all but we got a lot of good laughs about it because we arent sure what this guy wants to do. 

This week Agustin got the priesthood! I am really excited about him! He is such a stud!!! 

I am reading Jesus the Christ and reaching the end. I read about the trail and crucifixion this week. It is so humbling to read and study about the things that he went through for us. Its amazing that our heavenly Father knows that that sacrifice was worth it for all of his children that will one day become like Him! I am so greatful for that willing sacrifice! 

Thanks for all of your love and support! I really appreciate the emails! :) 

-- 

Week 76 - April 6, 2015

CHANGES! This week I am getting a new companion here in Salto. Sadly, Elder Huntsman is leaving and going to Cerro Casabó which is one of the best areas in the mission. Its pretty dangerous but I am getting him excited for it! I am going to be with 

Elder Mori from Peru. He has almost a year in the mission. I havent heard much about him but I am excited to see how it goes! This Thursday I will have 18 months as a missionary and I cant believe time is flying as it is. I am going to be DL (6 months and still going strong) still and I have only 6 missionaries now in my district. Elder Huntsman and I were not expecting to leave eachother but President told us that he felt that it would be best for us! I am excited to see whats in for us this change in Salto! 

This week was pretty interesting in terms of the work. We had a ward council meeting and our leaders were pretty lame. We are trying to help the ward so hard and we dont get a lot of help from our leaders. 

I did divisions this week with Elder Aphowriseth from Argentina. He is a new missionary who is finishing up his training. He is a super cool kid though. We had a lot of great lessons and I really enjoyed all of my experiences there except my cold shower in the morning! 

This morning we went to seminary. We got invited because the youth wanted to say goodbye to Elder Vargas and Elder Huntsman who are leaving. There was a good amount of kids there at 6am and I was really surprised! It was super fun to go! It was my comps first time in seminary though hahaha. 

We found a lot of new investigators this week and we are working with all of them to try and help them understand the importance of what we do! 

GENERAL CONFERENCE! Dang I love general conference in the mission. Its so ridiculously awesome. I had a couple questions that I had answered and I am so grateful for later day prophets and apostles that are called by our Heavenly Father! 

My favorite talks were these:

Jeffrey R Holland -  https://www.lds.org/general-conference/watch/2015/04?lang=eng&vid=4154894180001&cid=10

David A Bednar -  https://www.lds.org/general-conference/watch/2015/04?lang=eng&vid=4154660827001&cid=6 

D Todd Christofferson - https://www.lds.org/general-conference/watch/2015/04?lang=eng&vid=4153720783001&cid=7

Michael Ringwood - https://www.lds.org/general-conference/watch/2015/04?lang=eng&vid=4154406123001&cid=11

Linda K Burton - https://www.lds.org/general-conference/watch/2015/04?lang=eng&vid=4153387734001&cid=6

M Russell Ballard - https://www.lds.org/general-conference/watch/2015/04?lang=eng&vid=4154628103001&cid=3

Study Conference!!!! Seriously I got so much out of it! I hope you all enjoyed it as much as I did! I know that these leaders are truly called of God! The Gospel is so amazing and I am so grateful that I have been able to be in the service of the Lord for almost 18 months now! How great is my calling! I love you all! :) 

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