October 22, 2012

First I want to make note that I'm only sending this to my parents and Keri, and not to Kyle, because he apparently doesn't have time to read my emails! If he wants it though... mom I guess you can forward this to him, and everyone else that has time for my long nonsense ramblings!!! hahahaha

Dear friends and family,

This week has been... hard! Everyone has told me how hard missionary work is, and I guess I always assummed it was hard because you wake up early EVERY day, and you are busy all the time, and teaching can be intimidating, and knocking on doors isn't the most fun thing in the world... but this week I really learned what it means that missionary work is hard. We had 5 progressing investigators in the area when we got here, and now we are down to 1. One got baptized last week, and after that everything has kind of gone down hill. We had a lot of drama with one investigator. I don't know if drama is normal for all missionary work or if sister missionaries just cause it... but holy cow drama! It ended with the sister telling us that she didn't want to read in the Book of Mormon anymore... and it just kind of broke my heart. But we ended on really good terms, we still love her and are friends with her, we just aren't going to be teaching her anymore. She is so great though, and we knew going into the lesson that it was probably going to be the last appointment... so we weren't surprised about it, just really sad.

Our other investiagtors either just can't make time for us anymore, or are so SO set on their old ways that they just like meeting with us for the educational aspect of what we teach and are not interested in becoming converted. I guess its just hard because I KNOW that this gospel is true, and that the church that Christ established when He was on the earth is on the earth today! We have the authority these people need to return to their father in heaven, and they just don't believe it or won't listen!

We did get two new investigators this week though, but one had to reschedule his first appointment to next week, and the other one we had to reschedule with him because we have a training in Peru this week and won't be able to make it when we first scheduled it. Its a little frustrating when all you want to do is teach people and appointments and things keep getting in the way of our teaching them, but I am still fairly certain these people are interested and will want to hear. One of the new gators is a dad of 4, all under the age of 5, and I took the lead when knocking on his door. I told him that we were missionaries for the church, and that part of our message helps families grow stronger together. We talked about his family and I also told him that families could be together forever... He said that is what he wants!!! So Solid! He said he was looking forward to us coming, and that he invited his gf (soon to be wife), mother and sister to hear us teach, but an hour before he had to cancel... But he said he still wants to meet with us so we rescheduled for next week! I hope he is still interested because it will have been almost 2 weeks from the time we first saw him to the time we meet with him. But I can see a marriage, baptisms, and a temple trip in the next year for this family! So if you will keep the Grey's in your prayers that would be AMAZING!

So the week was hard, and Friday was when our investigator told us she was done... but everything did turn around on Saturday. We had the opprotunity to go to Indy (thats what the natives call Indianapolis) and hear from Sister Burton, the general Relief Society President. Her message was on temples, and being Heavenly Homesick! Oh man it was so good! As much as I loved her message, the best thing was that all the sisters in the mission were there, and I got to see my MTC companions again! Sister Pitcher is in Peru and I will see her twice this week, and Sister Palmberg is in Bloomington (where I was origianallly going to go!). The three of us had so much fun catching up, and I just love those girls to death, so it was so great seeing them. We have the training in Peru this week and then we are going on exchanges with the sisters in Peru as well. So tomorrow we will drive up there, and then I will come back to Lafayette with Sister Pitchers companion (Sister Donaldson) and her and I will work together for a day, and then Sister Stanford (my comp) will come to Lafayette with Sister Pitcher and we will exchange back. Basically I am so excited for this, but really nervous. I am going to be the one taking a new sister around Lafayette, so I should probably figure out this missionary work thing we do!

I love Lafayette though, and I'm finally starting to know my way around the town. Our little Toyota Corolla is not as much fun as Christine is, but she'll do. We are slowing becoming good friends. Oh, another thought, I am also becoming pretty good friends with the canine population here in Lafayette. I decided that dogs are like humans in the way that you don't hate all of them. Some of them are actually pretty great! There is a sister in our ward and we help her walk her 3 big dogs once a week. And there is something kinda fun about being dressed up in a skirt and blouse with tennis shoes on walking dogs around the park! I think I kinda like it!!!

Okay, last few thoughts... Don't think that I'm unhappy because I said its hard work! I'm still as happy as can be, but I've been sad and frustrated at the work a lot this week. But I know that missionary work is a cycle, and we are really focusing on finding new and solid gators this week so I'm excited about that. Yesterday was Stake Conference and the Chicago Temple President was there with his wife, and they talked about preparing for the Indy temple to be built. It reminded me a lot about you fine people in Gilbert and how you can prepare for the G-Town temple! Prepare for the new temple by going to the temple! Lucky for you the Mesa is close enough, these people are traveling all the way up to Chicago, so you can go to Mesa! Go a few times for me too, because I really miss attending the temple regularly! Also my mission Pres and his wife were at conference and they spoke to everyone. They are pretty much the greatest people in the world, so it was so fun to see them. President Collins asked if we think there might be a problem with having sisters and elders out on missions at the same age.. I think he's a little worried that missionaries are going to have a harder time locking their hearts! lol

No pictures this week because, well I just didn't take any! Sorry! Maybe this week I will be better. I love the restoration, I love the plan of salvation, and I love the Gospel of Jesus Christ! I love everything about this church, and I know that I don't just love it because the bishop is nice, and the people are cool... but the doctrine is true! ITS SO TRUE!!! Man I love it!

If you could, I would love to hear from anyone about how daily scripture study has been a blessing in your life. I love teaching this and sharing my experiences with people, but I would love to hear from you. Mom, Dad, Keri... can you send me your thoughts this next week, and anyone else of course!!!

Sister Cordner

October 15, 2012

Hola friends and family,

This week has been one of the best weeks of my entire life! And I'm not just saying that! Lets start with the highlight of the whole week. Bryan's baptism! It was Saturday at 11, so me and Sister Stanford got to the church around 8:30, set up the chairs, filled the font, copied the programs, and got ready for everything! The baptism itself was amazing, and the other Elders in our zone came and brought their investigators, so that was awesome! Bryan is so solid, and he is meeting with Bishop this week to get going on receiving the aaronic priesthood. When we taught him earlier this week about Priesthood he was just saying how great that sounds and how he was excited! What an awesome guy he is! I'm so excited for him! And then on Sunday when he got confirmed was absolutely amazing! We had another investigator named Amber come to church on Sunday, so that was a great time for us to teach her more about confirmation and the gift of the Holy Ghost. She seems really awesome too, but she's going to Law School right now, so she couldn't stay all three hours because she had so much homework and things to do, but still... it was an amazing experience to see him get confirmed and to have her there!

Another girl we are working with is probably one of the sweetest girls ever! She's 26, and just really amazing. She didn't want to pray out loud or in front of us earlier this week, but we met with her on Friday and talked about prayer and she totally said the closing prayer! It was such a great prayer too! Sometimes I still think about her and just smile because of how amazing she is! We are meeting with her tonight and I honestly cannot wait. As much as I love p-days, I just want it to be over so we can meet with her! 

We have a few "eternal investigators" that have been meeting with missionaries for years and are still not baptized. Its a little bit frustrating because I feel like everything I want to teach them they've already heard, and I don't know how I can teach it better or different than the last set of missionaries, but we are working hard. One of them is married to a great member, and I think he will eventually get baptized, he just needs to know for himself that it is right, and the other is an older lady who just is more interested in reading the Book of Mormon and asking us random questions than she is actually seeking answers from Heavenly Father about the truthfullness of the book. She has been doing it for a long time, and she is in 3rd Nephi 28. Last time we visited we talked about the 3 Nephites. Theres a lesson I never thought I'd give on the mission. It was hard because she cared so much on the details, and I just had to tell her that we didn't know much about them, other than what is in this chapter. We encourage her to pray about it, which she likes because the other churches would tell her "its confusing because it got lost in translation" and we tell her to ask God about it... but I don't know if she really is.

We have a new investigator this week. She is a member referral and her sister recently passed away, so we are thinking the Plan of Salvation is going to be a great lesson! Also she is native american, and I cannot wait to teach her about the Book of Mormon. She's really into history though, so I'm afraid that she won't accept our opinion on where her ancestors came from, but she is really great and I can't wait to teach her. She also has the best dog in the whole state of Indiana. Its a little chiwawa that just climbed on my lap and just sat there while I petted it. I love that dog! (And dad, I am starting to love the dogs here!)

During our morning studies we always role play how we would teach a certain concept or invite someone to something. This past week I asked Sister Stanford if we could role play us as a companionship talking to someone instead of just Sister Cordner talking to someone, that way we could work together as a companionship. So we pretended to talk to someone whilst just looking at the wall, and then the brilliant Sister Stanford came up with the best idea ever! We made Jackie, our own personal eternal investigator. We stuffed an old BYU shirt and sweatpants with plastic bags, blew up a balloon and drew a face on it, and put a beanie on it. We named her Jackie, and we use her to help us teach lessons together! Basically we are just really cool people who talk to a balloon placed on clothes to help us be better missionaries!!!! lol

One more story before I end! There is a really great baptist women that Sister Stanford and Sister Hill tracted into before I got to Lafayette. She called us a cult and explained that she was not interested, but said they could come back to discuss it a little more. They had one lesson with her and told her she could always contact us, but she wasn't interested. Well last week she texted us and asked us if we would help her fill bags with cotton candy for a carnival she was volunteering at. We went to her house Friday morning and she had breakfast for us, and then as we made cotton candy we had a great discussion on Christ, and then on our prophet, the organization of our church, the plan of salvation, and other questions she had about our church. Even though she isn't interested in joining, she now knows that we believe in Christ the same way she does, and that we are not the same religion that has the show about Sister Wives. She totes thought we were poligimists! Crazyness!!!

Okay, basically I can't wait until elections are over and we do not look like we are inviting people to vote for Mitt Romney. I love the man, but people need to realize that we as missionaries are not out campaigning for him, but are inviting people to Christ. Its crazy how many people want to talk politics with us! We just want to talk about religion! 

Also, I know I said I would end earlier but I'm not... if you have not read the book "Our Search For Happiness" I would suggest you read it. I am reading it on my breaks now and it is SO GOOD!!! I just love it!

The weather here is basically amazing, chilly fall days. We were talking to someone on their porch the other day and started to pray with them when it started to downpour on us. Nothing like praying in someones doorway while being rained on! I loved it! It rained pretty crazy yesterday, like I thought we were going to be in a tornado warning because the wind was going cray cray too! But today is a bright sunny day and I love it. Before we came to the library we stopped at the mall and hit up Bath and Body Works. So wonderful!!!

I love you all, thanks for your prayers in my behave. Send me letters, I love hearing from everyone! 

Sister Cordner

October 8, 2012

Friends and Family!!!!

Do you like the title, it was on a fortune cookie I ate my second day in the field, I thought it was pretty relevant! Well I hope you are ready for this, because I have a novel coming your way!

First of all, I'm just going to jump ahead to conference! THE NEW AGE IS TOTALLY AWESOME!!! We were watching conference in the church building, and it was only me and my companion and the 2 spanish elders, and the 4 of us were just freaking out! We are so so so excited for the new opportunity for more sisters to serve as well as for young men to get out here faster! I can't wait for all the young teenagers we are going to be working with! I just think that this is truly inspired, and am so excited for the more sisters we are going to get because of this! I'm thinking with sisters being RMs at 20, there is no stopping what we can do! I'm so so so excited about this!!!

Okay, for the real stuff you all want to know. I got to Indiana on Tuesday and we had a great night at the mission home. Then on Wednesday we went to the Fishers building (just a church building they call Fishers) and had transfer meeting. Here I am watching all of these missionaries get called to new companionships and new areas, and I'm just sitting on the stand waiting for them to be done so they can introduce us and assign us to our trainers. Finally it gets to us newbies, and I am the last sister to be called. I am put with Sister Berrett, and we are assigned to go to Bloomington! So naturally I'm super excited to be born in Bloomington, just like mom was, and I am really excited to get to know my companion. All of us sisters go out to lunch and get back for another training meeting before we head to our areas. Before the training starts however, the president needed to see me and Sister Berrett, Sister Palmberg and her new comp Sister Stanford. Sister Stanford was in a car accident a year ago, and doesn't have driving privileges, and Sister Palmberg never got her drivers license, and they were a companionship... so we had to make an emergency transfer right then and there. Sister Palmberg is now in Bloomington with Sister Berrett, and I have been in Layfette with Sister Stanford! And before you get really bummed out that I'm not in Bloomington, I need to tell you just how amazing Layfette is! I'm in Layfette 3rd ward, which I'm convinced is the greatest ward in the state of Indiana! And I am super close to Purdue, so naturally I'm a huge Boilermakers fan now! The area is so nice, a little bit cold for my liking, but beautiful. Its actually a big nice city with a WalMart and everything! I just really love it here and even though I was sad at first that its not Bloomington, I know this is where I'm supposed to be!

The first week has just flown by! Its so weird how it has been working. Our first day we had three appointments and I'm already jumping in and teaching people! I love it! We also went tracting on my first day, which was probably the best fun ever! Some people are not interested, well most people actually, but just meeting people and talking about Purdue, or their children, or whatever we notice about them we can start a conversation about has been so fun! Not so much fun is when we knock on the door and three huge pit-bulls come running out and chase us... We thought they were stuck on us since no person came out, so we just walked away with these dogs running all around us, and the lady finally comes running out asking us to grab her dogs for her! Um, excuse me, your dog almost killed me, and now you want me to catch it! AHHH!!! That was literally my 5th house that I knocked on! I love missionary work! lol

But seriously, everybody in Indiana has dogs! Its pretty insane. President Collins joked about it on our first day here, but he wasn't kidding. I'm not sure if I'm allergic to dogs, cats, or the entire state of Indiana, but I have been having pretty bad allergies. Yesterday my eyes were so red and I started sneezing so much my companion thought I was going to die, okay not die, but she was freaking out more than I was. But no need to worry about me, I bought some claritin today and I'm feeling good! 

We have a baptism this Saturday. They have been teaching him for a while and he had his interview yesterday... and he passed!!! We are so excited for him and the covenant he is about the make with our Father in Heaven! I can't wait for the baptism, I think about it everyday, and we talk with him everyday and he is excited. Tonight we are going to be teaching him about the priesthood and how he can have it soon after his baptism. I hope he is as excited as I am, because this is the real deal, and I'm STOKED!!!

We have been eating with members in the ward almost every night. One of our first nights we went to the bishops and actually taught a lesson to Bryan there (Bryan is the one getting baptized). The bishops family is great! He is so funny, and their kids are just relaxed and sweet! Their oldest son is serving in Mexico and he went to BYUI, and so they are always talking about him. We watched conference at the church building for the first three sessions, but then for Sunday afternoon we watched it at the bishops, and they fed us snacks, dinner (at half time, as the bishop called it) and a huge brownie with ice cream on it for desert. Oh thats another thing, the members love to feed us desert! YIKES!!!

We tracted into a lady named Amy two nights ago, and I just really like her! Her daughters were outside playing and they talked to us so much! They were so cute, and they asked us if we were really sisters, and then told us how beautiful we were and how we look like we could be sisters. The girls said they loved Jesus Christ and believed in God, but haven't been to church in a while. Their mom, Amy, works a lot and is too tired on Sundays to bring them to church, so we are going to be meeting with her soon, and I can't wait! She has been to a lot of different churches and I think she just hasn't chosen one because she somehow knows that ours is the true church and she has just been waiting for us to come find her! Anyway, just keep Amy and her family in your prayers!

Lets see... what else! My zone is so awesome, we had a zone training on Friday that blew my mind. Like honestly, one of the most spiritual moments of my life! I was just so happy leaving that training. Sometimes I'm just smiling and I have no reason other than the fact that this gospel brings so much joy to my life!

My companion is probably the coolest person in the world! Me and her are SO SIMILAR! She is from Fullerton California (and she is REALLY happy that I'm not from Utah). We get along so well because we have the same ideas on so many things. I love studying with her because she is a spiritual giant, and I love teaching with her, because she is just so good at putting the investigator at ease and just talking! We have 4 investigators right now, and I have only met 1, but we have appointments to meet the others later this week! 

I told you I would be writing a novel. I just am going to end by saying that I love being a missionary! I love this gospel, and oh man, did I love conference! The doctrine of Christ was in every single talk given! I loved it!!! One of my favorites was Elder Bednars talk on conversion, its so true that testimonys can fade, but conversion is different. We are out here to convert people, not to just give them a small testimony that might fade a year or two after they join! And of course I also loved Elder Nelson's talk! Ask a missionary, because apparently we know everything! It made me feel so good to listen to him promote us like that! President Uchtdorfs talk was also mindblowing, and I related it to missionary work of course. I am not on a mission just to wait for the end to happen, I am enjoying every moment of it! And Sister Burtons talk about observing and serving was amazing. She is going to be in Indiana in a few weeks so I'm pretty excited to go to that!

Thanks for your letters family! My P-days are always on Monday's up here, so I will be writing you weekly at this time from here on out. I'm going to be in Layfette guarenteed for the next two transfers, but then after that Sister Stanford goes home, so unless they transfer both of us out (which I doubt) I will be here well into Feburary at least. My real address here is 

3111 New London Ct. #529

Layfette, IN 47909

If you write to that it will come straight to me instead of going through the mission home in Carmel first. I am off now to play some frisbee with the spanish elders. I challenged them to some ping pong, but I think we are going to take advantage of the fall weather now before it gets to winter, and then bust out the ping pong battles at the institute once its freezing. 

I love you all so much, sorry for the novel! GO BOILERMAKERS!!!

Sister Tara Cordner

p.s. Mom, Sister Collins wants to know where you got my bag, because she has the same bag, but she got it at goodwill, and wants to get a new one because hers is really old! Thanks!