I learned it there

a lot of crazy things happened this week, things that made me reflect.... (sop email im sorry... i will make fun of pictures for you at the end to make up for it)

in stake conference we were talking about how to raise a missionary. and it hit me hard.

you raise a missionary by having a strong testimony of the gospel of jesus christ yourself and from teaching your kids about jesus christ. when i think about what it takes to be here. i realized that it all came from growing up.

i learned to cook, i learned to change a tire, i learned how to work even if you do not want to. i learned to pull myself up by my bootstraps and not complain despite whats going on around me. all that i learned from back home, and all have come in pretty darn handy here in the mission field. 

but the stuff that hits me the most is the stuff that i learned at home that isnt a measurable skill. 

like, wanting to brighten someones day so i try to eat random things (mini oranges that in hindsight are just decoration..... war heads have a new competition on the sourness scale). i learned to take peoples mean words with a smile and wish them a good day. i learned to bear others burdens and be sincere as i speak to people.

but the thing i think i learned most comes in the form of a story,

so my parents and my siblings are HUGE role models in my life. and they always taught me to stop and try and help people, that is why i took emergency response, because i hate being helpless when someone needs my help. well, my fear came to life on Saturday. we were driving to stake conference when sister sprouse had a feeling to get into the next lane, and its a good thing that she did because a few seconds later a man on a motorcycle goes FLYING by, like he would have been considered speeding on a freeway, let alone on a small highway. he would have hit us if she had not moved. this highway a few... maybe a hundred yards up the road has a big bend, and the man goes completely off the road and we watch him fly. i  immediately tell my companion to pull over as i already start to take off my seatbelt and as soon as she stops i hop out and run to him.

he had a very large head wound and is in the middle of a broken bush. and i could do nothing. i had nothing with me to help him. so i sat and talked to him, trying to keep him calm and trying to keep him from moving his head or doing anything that might cause him to damage his spine more. luckily, he was really close to a hospital and the first responders and paramedics took care of him.he was (according to the policeman who took our statements) stupid drunk and chose to forgo his helmet. when i first was running up to him. i thought he was dead. and as soon as the police came my companion and i said a prayer, asking heavenly father to watch over him and the medical team.

i realized that i was helpless, in more ways than one. we all really are. no matter how much we try, how much we know, or how grand our skill sets are. without jesus christ we are nothing, we never will be good enough to make it back. but because we have him, if we choose to come unto him and to try to do as he did. try to follow him. we never will be enough, but with him we can be. isn't that cool? i think it is!

also, i learned to follow promptings from the holy ghost, if sister sprouse had not moved. that man would be dead.

so the question is asked, how? how can i know? how can i know if there is a God? how can i know what his plan is? how can i know the answer to any of my questions that really matter (sorry math... you dont usually count in my book) the awnser is to pray. the coolest thing about that experience is just how many people pulled over to help him. and the feeling of peace we had when we prayed. we still knew there was a large chance that man could die, but we received comfort in knowing that he was one of Gods children and that whatever happened, Heavenly Father had a plan for him.

i know that jesus christ lives!!

thank you to everyone who has taught me and helped me so much. you have made a huge impact on who i am, as a woman and as a missionary. 

Alma 26:

12 Yea, I know that I am nothing; as to my strength I am weak; therefore I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God, for in his strength I can do all things; yea, behold, many mighty miracles we have wrought in this land, for which we will praise his name forever.

docterine and covenants section 4

now behold a marvelous work has come forth among the children of men. therefore O ye that embark in the service of God, see that ye serve him with all your heart, might, mind, and strength, that ye may stand blameless before God at the last day. therefore if ye have desires to serve God ye are called to the work; for behold the feild is ripe and ready to harvest; and lo he that thrusteth in his sickle with his might, the same layeth  up in store that he perisheth not, but bringeth salvation to his soul; and faith, hope, charity, and love, with an eye single to the glory of God, qualify him for the work. remember faith, virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, brotherly kindness, godliness, charity, humility, diligence. Ask and ye shal recieve Knock and it shall be opened unto you. Amen.

signing off <3

sister (hermana, sestra, mckayla, whatever you want to call it) cordon​ :)

1 cant see too bright

2 elders trying to be cool

3 and failing

4 realizing they are failing

5 normalish

6 after temple french toast

7 soon to be a baby bird in a fan tree

more :)

1 my sisters need this sign

2 spring has sprung in AZ (it was close to 80 degrees)

3 elder romero cant do the 4 pieces of toast needed to break the record (i could not either)

4 this is a Kokopelli they are everywhere

when you do more dumbs

so you know that week when i told yall all the dumb things you should not do?

yeah this is one of those weeks again

so elder ashton our vehicle coordinator did not want to be switching designated drivers more, so he issued a policy a policy that made it so when my companion and sister allison went on exchanges it left me and sister donaldson without a car, (this has now been remedied by elder ashton for future exchanges) now, mind you, in most areas biking everywhere is possible, but here in this area it is not... but we did it.... lets just say many a back dirt road that could have quite possibly given me whiplash from the sure amount of bumps and carrying our bikes over train tracks :) my brain was shaken but there were so many miracles we got two new potential investigators!!

the second i did a dumb thing is very much a dumb...... so i really want to eat a cactus now that i know that you can. and i have been interested in catcus fruit.. (have not eaten it yet... im not that dumb) but we saw a cactus and decided to check out the prickily pear.... yup folks baloo from the jungle book was right. when ya want the pear you gotta use the claw!!

 i still have tiny miniscule catcus spines in my fingers!! yup and my comp did it too :) 

we are sooooo smart!!

its funny these little kids look up to me and i am just here

1 Illuminati......

2 adorable? yes!

3 pretty flowers who knew they would grow in AZ

4. crossing the train tracks (dont worry we were on a path by them when we stopped)

5 born and raised in the prison #wearebane #thebaneofsatan #sowegoodbanes

(florence is mission termed the prison because there are so many prisons in our zone)

6 this truck tho.... it trippin all the cool kids want it

​the zone!!

1... sister donaldson is learning fast the reaction to our antics

2 elder johnson is always judging everyone

3 SISTERS! SISTERS! never were there more devoted sisters! (if you dont know what this is from.. shame on you go watch white christmas, i dont care that it is almost march, go watch it now)

4 my district leader is now mike from monsters inc

5 this is what happens when you are bored and your comp is in zone leadership conference

6 elder johnson gets way too excited about zone sports

7 the birds here are nuts 

8 elder wilcoxs face says it all 

9 you saw it here first my comp is a superhero

10 sister donaldson doesnt know how to react to the intense action shots

11 lets play spot the hummingbird nest (its in there)

at the water! oh at the water! (Nashville tribute to the Redeemer soundtrack)

yup so we had a baptism this week!! kayla (9) and skye (12)

 and it was amazing! they are so sweet and the spirit there was so strong to be honest tears were shed!  

so this week has been just short of miraculous!! as we were starting to worry about our investigator pool dropping as kayla and skye get baptized we got two new awesome investigators!! escalator missionaries for the win!! (continuously moving up)

its crazy to watch what happens to the work as you do what the spirit prompts, really its great! also, its presidents day so we are emailing at an awesome members house!! just thought yall should know that as you go out and do fun things. I love being a missionary, even when things kinda get sad as people anti you or say that they are not interested in the greatest news ever, but then you also get to see some crazy miracles of people coming to Christ!!

its just awesome!!

sister sprouse and I are getting along great, really, our house right now is doing awesome, and so is our zone, we just support eachother a lot and it is great to see, we were playing speedball against another zone and one of there sisters put me in a fake headlock, and one of the elders in my zone yelled "no! let sister cordon go!" its awesome to see the comradeship that comes as we serve heavenly father, sister Allison and I have decided that since we only want to get married for temple blessings(#sanctifiedmissionariesaresanctified) for a while when we are both home we are just going to go live off the grid  in the mountains its great, we have a plan and everything! (dog sledding, boating, and snowmobiling are included) the gospel of jesus Christ (faith unto repentance, baptism, recieveing the gift of the holy ghost and enduring to the end... yall should know this stuff I write about it enough) is so simple yet it is so powerful and it brings people together like really, I never though I would be besties with these older couples in my ward (the petersons who are letting us email at their house and the gillises who are just awesome I will talk about them in a second) but because we are all growing closer to Christ and working together we are buddies!! the gillises rock!! like you know csi Miami? yeah brother gillis was literally like horatio before that was even a thing, finding serial killers? brother gillis did it! connecting the dots of and finding who committed murders, yup he did it! throwing it down sassily when a woman cop was saying a crude joke? yup he walked In and said its sad when the world has changed so much that a woman talks like that and a man is offended, YUP HE WAS THROWING IT DOWN!! and that woman, ended up getting converted to the gospel and is now his awesome wife!! he also was a state attorney for murderers, drives like a boss, and is an awesome young mens president and works in the temple, and drives missionaries (aka me and my companion) to meetings sometimes. yup the people in granite mountain ward are dropping the mic! even in their member missionary work they have really taken to the challenge of reactivating the 70+% of the ward!! (also brother gillis is on time magazine cover a few years back :) ..)

so you guys probably want to hear a bit from me (although I do not know why...) I am doing well, the mission is now officially threatening us with ipads, saying we just need first presidency approval , so that is awesome, I am getting some rocking tan lines that would make any farmer jelous. so yeah I am doing well!

love you all!

sister, Hermana, sestra, or whatever floats your boat,cordon!

soo many birds!

Kayla and Skye

All the Sisters that taught them... trio power!

Giant asparagus

this is really cute... until you think about it... he is holding heads... that look like his

me, Kayla and Skye

Kayla and Skye with their grandparents

Miracles? Yes.

so some really funny miracles happened this week, but i will tell them to you later because.. i have a new companion... who is actually someone who i have talked about in my emails before!
her name is.... Sister Sprouse!!!

yeah so they split up my sister training leaders, sister allison is training and sister sprouse is my companion! haha its fun she is really chill and i am chill so we get along great! its really cool so because she is an stl we are going to get to go on exchanges alot so sister donaldson or i will go to one of our areas and the stls will go on exchanges! so i get to hang out with a rock awesome greenie alot!!

haha its funny just how a new perspective can change things, sister sprouse and i are working on talking to every person we meet and it has been fun because we have gotten some awesome potential investigators now!! also, so sister wheeler gave the stls a traning on dress as a missionary, and sister sprouse was sad because she was trying to be obedient and her skirts were just too short, so the day she told me we were stopping by a potentials house elders had found a while ago, so we stopped by and his wife answered and immediately let us in so my companion and i were like " well she is either golden or she is a member" turns out she was neither, so she has alot of mormon friends, some that have kids on missions, and she claims the title mormon adjacent she says she loves everything about the church, except for some of the teachings :( any way, she works for an lds company called lularoe so she GAVE us each a skirt that we could pick out! she said it was because she hopes that someone would do something like that for her friends son. so #miracle even if she isnt interested it was crazy!

second # miracle is that i have this hymnbook that has a whole bunch of quotes in it, i made it when i left so if a bishop or someone randomly asked me to talk i would be prepared, but i lost it and was kinda sad, but i was like oh well and forgot about it, then i get a call yesterday from brother stoddard (basically one of my favorite families) in magma ranch ward. that a couple who were looking for a house met him and he told them to not go to magic ranch (its out of his ward) but they went, and got in a wreck, so they were just walking around and they found this hymnbook sitting on the ground (turns out it was in front of an awesome womans house who is a member) but they started to look through it.. and this is where it gets crazy, just a few days before i put a sticky note with brother stoddards name on it because he always says "one fight one team" and i really liked it so i put it next to the hymn we are all enlisted. so they gave him the hymnbook and then he was like "who would do this... sister cordon" so yeah it was too much of a coincidence to be a coincidence.... heavenly father really wants me to have that hymnbook for something.... its really funny because i havent even used it yet! #igotthemessage

its really cool to see how heavenly father looks out for his servants, just in the little things. he wants us to succeed! its like nephi in the book of mormon " And it came to pass that I, Nephi, said unto my father: I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them." 1 nephi 3:7

and its so true even just like.. you are trying to be obedient... heres a skirt, or, sister... why did you loose this, here have it back. he really does love his children!

oh so another cool miracle this week, we met with an investigator, mike, and he just sat down and was like here! this is all of my reasons why i am not on date to be baptized and then he answered his own concerns! he is not on date, but i think he will be soon, also, he has been struggling with smoking, but then he was like "i am going to be done smoking by next week" apparently he is taking this medication that makes cigarettes taste terrible because he was in the infantry in the army and he is sick of getting winded just from walking up stairs. so talk about crazy!

also the girls on date are awesome, their mom who does not want to be contacted by the church just wants them to write a 3 paragraph essay on 3 other religions... so yeah thats cool. they are sweet hearts, the oldest Skye is 12 and then kayla is 9 its really cool :)

so yeah that has been my week! I remembered to send pictures!!

whelp!

i love you each alot! just remember that i love you, Jesus loves you, Heavenly Father loves you.... and satan hates your face!!

Love,

sister (sestra, hermana, mckayla, whatever you want to call it) cordon :)

also my companion just showed me a meme of a dog wearing a cowboy hat with a confused expression saying "what in tarnation" that someone sent her

...

yup this transfer is going to be awesome :)

1 am i a dork, yes

2 wally world

​​3 hats!! (brother sidenstrickers son made them for us)

4 they are thug life.. i am not #storyofmylife

5 a members daughter gave these to us.. i got a pug #puglife #hisnameispugmire

6 the zone

7 sistas of the flo zone!

8 sistas!

9 another one of the zone

10 #dorks

11 the new house!! this transfer is going to rock! (also 3/4 of the people in this picture are beautiful.... guess who the one is? yup shes the one in the back by the blond :)..) but yeah sister donaldson is in front of me she is the new greenie and is a rock star!

also more pictures!!!

(arnt you just lucky ducks?)

1 we got zone t shirts

2 the back needs explaining so its a thing of solomon's temple. so the first box at the bottom is the temple alter that represents repentance, then the circle is the washing and anointing that they did which represents baptism then they pass into the first room that is like the  receiving the gift of the holy ghost, then they go into the room passing through a veil to the holy of holies where they can be in the presence of god, which is the end goal and why we endure to the end :) the arrow is our faith so it is Faith in the lord Jesus Christ,because thats what we have to start with, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the holy ghost, and enduring to the end goal of being with our heavenly father again :) which is the doctrine of Christ and what our focus is as a mission! and the wings are just to look cool, also, we were challanged to THRIVE

anywho we were challenged to thrive with the new missionary schedule so that is our goal, also the elders are dorks

3 this is the member girl (she has a learning disability so we are teaching her the lessons so they can be sure she knows what the church believes... its a long story but she isnt an investigator) who gave us the stuffed animals

4 this is bishop packards wife and three of his kids with my comps

5 and this is us with Billy, (the wife) brother sidenstricker (our ward mission leader in the back in the red shirt) and his son Phillip who made us the hats, he has an awesome story, basically, they rock

and another one bites the dust!

and another transfer is down!!! haha man this transfer FLEW by!!

like really it was crazy fast!! i guess the biggest spiritual highlight for the week was we got two over age youth on date to be baptized march 18th which is fun!! they are so sweet (one of their names is kayla gordon... can you believe that?) also we had a mini missionary!! who is rock solid and pretty much amazing (they are 16 year olds and older who are trying to decide if they want to serve a mission so they come with us for a weekend) but its was super fun!!!

so my funny moment of the week is this, so we stopped by this potentials house who is really interested, but his heart is not ready for the gospel yet. then we went to this crazy less active lady who make s me laugh so much, she said as we were leaving .... "my teeth are like the stars... they come out at night " yeah she is crazy, but its great to see the love heavenly father still has for her, she may be a few eggs short of a dozen but heavenly father still loves her and still wants her to come back to his fold. and i think that is how he is with all of us, how many people look at missionaries, in suits or skirts with helmets out biking around and knocking on random doors and think man they are nuts. or how many times do we look at someone and be like oh, they dont want to talk to us, or they do not need a friend, or a helping hand. we make those judgments, yet, heavenly father is like, no! stop it!! they are my child too and i love them! just look at all of the good things about them! heavenly father knows us each individually. not just me individually or you individually, but each and every one of his children! which is hard as a missionary, we want to just be like be baptized! and have them be like sure! tomorrow?  with a full conversion, but it doesnt work like that, the Lord is preparing his people, he knows them, and he knows that it may take them 4 years or 2 weeks to want to come to him, and we have to trust in his timing!

i just.... i just love this gospel i love how it makes me feel calm when i should be really really stressed. or just how it makes me happy!

i love people, like really i do, people are great. even when they slam their doors in my face i am just like, i am sure if i was not wearing this tag they would have been really really nice to me! and maybe one day they will listen. 

our ward mission leader brother sidenstricker had a heart attack, and now he has 4 heart bypasses, but when we went over to comfort him  i started to not feel well, so he and his son gave me  a blessing of healing i didnt even really want one, but then i got a prompting that said, why are you denying them the opportunity to serve and to use their priesthood. you know how much brother sidenstricker loves to serve people, yet you deny him this opportunity that is really all he can do now. anyway it was cool!

so that is all i have got for now, also both of my companions are being transferred away so.... thats going to be fun!

anyway, i love you all and i hope yall have a marvelous week. i know that seasonal depression is going on, but one thing i have learned is that the best way to get rid of the blues is to lose your self serving some one else, it may sound crazy, but trust me it works! 

also, i have a challenge for yall, because a happy missionary is a testifying missionary, the seasonal depression is setting in, and while i am not there, ask a missionary you come into contact with this week to bear his/her testimony to you. because i am not there, but that missionary is there, and that missionary and i share a purpose, we teach the same things and represent the same Christ and the same Church. so you will be vicariously through that missionary making my day a little brighter!! see how that works? (somehow it does)

anywho sorry for the tangent!!

i love you all!

love sister (hermana, sestra, mckayla, whatever floats your boat ) cordon