NOVEMBER 26, 2012

Dear... everyone who want to read this...

My week has been fantastic, well.... Thanksgiving was fantastic!!! They pushed P-Day from Monday to Thursday, so Monday-Wednesday my companion and I were pretty much dead. Its really hard to work 10 days in a row without a break. We were very beat, but it was all worth it on Thanksgiving! We spent the morning running our normal errands, Walmart was all sorts of madness with the workers bringing out huge things getting ready for the Black Friday sales! (Which started on Thursday night, and I think that is weird). We then went home and caught up on some letter writing, and then went to the Gardners for dinner. Okay, how do I describe the Gardners to everyone at home. Basically they are the most amazing people in the whole world! She is so cute, she is probably around my mom's age, they have 4 kids, only two are still at home, a 16 and a 13 year old son. Brother Gardner is an engineer at Catipillar, and she is a flight attendant for US Airways. She started doing that only about 4 years ago when she moved here, her family was mostly all grown up, and she had just gone from being the RS President in her last ward that kept her very busy, but here she didn't have a calling, looked into jobs that could keep her busy, and became a flight attendant! Dad... her name is Elizabeth Gardner, and she said she's going to be asking every Southwest pilot if they know you, she wants to find you! Haha!

So dinner was in their basement where they had three tables set up, it was there family, her parents, his parents, their friends the Allens (cute young couple who just moved here from REXBURG to work at Cat as well) and the Allens parents (also from Idaho!) and us! There was TONS of food, and she asked us if there was anything that we are used to getting at home that wasn't laid out on the counter, and she was full on ready to get us anything that would make us both feel more at home! She is honestly the sweetest! Then we were going to go home and rest before our next family to visit, but they brought out desert (homeade pumpkin pie) and then we sat around and talked with Sister Gardner for a good two hours! It was one of the best Thanksgivings I've had! For not being at home or with family, I felt very surronded by family, and it was just really all around great! And then we went to another ward members house who had a lot of other families over, so we got to see about 4 of our favorite families, and we had desert with them. And oh.my.gosh was I full by the end of the day. Like super duper sick to my stomach full.... I love Thanksgiving! 

Friday was a really good day to get us back to working after a wonderful day off, we had one of the most amazing District Meetings I've ever gone to about the Atonement. You should know... the Atonement is powerful. It kinda sorta blows my mind just how amazing everything that Jesus Christ has done for us! Literally, my mind is blown! Then we met with Phoebe, and she was having a really hard day. I might have told you about her last week, but she has had a really hard life. She didn't believe she is a child of God, and we decided to sing I am a Child of God to her during the lesson. When we sang "parents kind and dear" she yelled WRONG! Ouch... honestly being on a mission has really opened my eyes to what a wonderful way I was raised. Mom and Dad, thank you for not being hippies and raising me like a gypsy with no home and spending all of our money on drugs. I really REALLY appreciate it.

Church was fantastic yesterday. We had 3 investigators come, and Sister Carver was there even though she was supposed to be out of town. She came home early and came to church. AND she told everyone in Sunday School and in Relief Society how she is getting baptized in Januray. When we first committed her to the date she said yes but she was hestitant, not sure if she could do it. But now she said its on her calendar and she's been living the word of wisdom for weeks now and she even told her Catholic mom at Thanksgiving that she would be getting baptized in Januray. She is SO AMAZING!!! 

The work is basically fantastic. I can't pick a favorite thing we do, because all of it is so fun! I love being in members homes though, its just really cool how people can hardly know us but they love us. Oh, the Bishop in the ward loves us so much. He tries to have dinner with us every other week, but sometimes other people sign up too fast, and so we haven't seen him in 2 weeks but we have dinner with him next Sunday, and he texted us, "I'm having sisters withdrawals for dinner!" We had to reassure him that we would be over soon! And in his talk at Ward Conference last week he talked about us TWICE! What a great man! I kinda never want to leave Lafayette! Good things are happening here! I think I'd be cool to stay here for the rest of my mish, in fact I think I will email President Collins right now and tell him that! 

Anyway, I love being a missionary! I love everything about Indiana, even the dogs are starting to grow on me! 

<3 cordner="cordner" p="p" sister="sister">

November 19, 2012

Ok... where do I start for this week...

First I want to say thanks to everyone who wrote me, not that I'm super homesick... but there is a lot of talk about the holidays and families, and I do miss ya'll, so thanks for the letters! Bri... you are the greatest, I loved your email... I will write you back a real letter soon... if I can remember the address to the Ivy! (If someone wants to look that up for me and send it my way that would be great, probably you Bri, so I can write you back!)

Okay, this week has been absolutely fantastic! We invited Sister Carver to be baptized, and SHE SAID YES!!! She will be getting baptized on January 19th! (This is the lady who's house I threw up in, if you forgot!) When we invited her on Tuesday to be baptized, she asked... what do I need to do? We read the interview questions and she just smilied because she knew all of the answers to them. And that day she committed to living the word of wisdom. So when we came back on Saturday to teach her the official Word of Wisdom lesson, she had already gone a few days without coffee. She told of a great story about how she watched birds in her backyard being super cute in the little bird fountain, and how it was a special treasured moment in time, and if she was still drinking coffee she would have been on the couch drinking and not have ever seen it. It was such an amazing spiritual moment when she was telling us how only after days of living the word of wisdom she is already seeing blessings in her life. It is people like her that make me LOVE the work! Honestly, its so fantastic!!!

Speaking of word of wisdom.... we have been in quite a few interesting homes out here in IN. Like all my life I knew that there were such things as drugs, but I have talked to a good number of people here who have been involved with them, or had children involved, or people they loved shot because they were involved... or... the list could go on an on. Don't worry mom, I'm safe... but it is quite crazy just how prevelant drugs are! I guess my little sheltered life in G-Town and then Rexburg didn't prepare me for some of the homes that I'm in. 

I am amazed everyday at how amazing people are. The people in my ward are absoutley amazing. They may not have much, but they still give so much to us as missionaries. Its so cool how people can hardly know me, but because I am a missionary they love me so much and are so willing to help out. We met with a lady who has been inactive for YEARS and she met up with us at a restaurant, bought us lunch, and asked if she could do anything for us... we were like... hey now, thats our question for you! Members or not, people are just so kind. Even the people at doors who aren't interested just smile and say, I'm not interested, I'm going to close the door now... have a good day! See, they are so nice! Its so fun!

Also, dogs... we have started playing a guessing game when we are tracting. The game isn't whether the house has dogs or not, but its... "How many dogs do you think live here?" And then when we ring the doorbell we try to distinguish between all the different barks. Its been quite fun! And the weather hasn't been bad at all, its nicer than it is in Rexburg at this time of the year, I'm kinda loving it here... except my hair still doesn't know what to do with the humidity... aw well! 

So today isn't P-day, they moved it to Thursday, but they did let us hope on for an hour today to write home because the library will be closed on Thanksgiving. And not having P-Day today has been kinda hard, we work really hard all week and that one day to relax is very VERY needed out here... and today we had to get up and work, and its been hard, but on Thursday we will have a sweet day, and then the next p-day will only be days away. We are having Thanksgiving at a members house. We have ate there once before and I just love this family. They are so amazing, so I'm sure the day will be great, and the Spanish elders will be joining us too so that will be fun! They kinda crack me up! 

Did I tell you that I'm killing my trainer. She goes home in a month, and the closer it gets the harder it gets. She is thinking about everything that she needs to do to get home, and I'm still trying to figure out how to be a missionary! Mostly though it will be hard when she leaves and I won't get to see her at trainings or transfers or ever out here until I come home. She is basically my best friend and its going to be hard to not have her, but I'm sure my next companion will be great too! Its just hard to imagine it can get better than this! I just love Sister Stanford! 

I think thats all for today... I am so excited to hear that Shaun got her mission call to Texas, Spanish speaking!!! How sweet is that going to be! GO HERMANA CORDNER!!! I'm really excited for her! 

Love, Sister Cordner

November 12, 2012

This week has FLOWN by... wait, I take that back... this transfer has flown by! Today is exactly 2 months since I went into the MTC, and its also the first day of my second transfer. How crazy is that. I honestly feel like I just got here! We got the call last night that we are both staying here, which we kind of already knew because I am still in training and they usually always keep you with your trainer for 2 transfers, but you still never know what President is thinking, so it was good to get the call to reassure us that we were staying in good ole Lafayette! 

This week we did another exchange, this time with the sisters in the Lafayette 2nd ward, so we didn't have to travel that far... and no one got sick so that was a bonus! Its funny how you can be only ten minutes away from your area but feel so far at the same time. I went to West Lafayette for the exchange and Sister Stanford stayed here. After a little over 24 hours we reunited and we ran and hugged each other, and we had a lot to catch up about. Its funny how when you are with someone all day everyday and then all of a sudden you aren't, you feel like one day is a long time not to see each other. It helps that Sister Stanford and I are like the best of friends! The exchange was an interesting one. Usually sisters do one a transfer, but President called us and asked us specifically to go on a transfer with these sisters. They didn't know that he asked us though, so it was kind of a secret mission we were on to see if we could help them out anyway. The thing that was interesting though was that the sister I was on the exchange with came out to Indiana with me. So here you have two missionaries that have both been out only 6 weeks taking over an area for an entire day by themselves! We managed to do pretty well though!!!

I am getting used to the cold weather, it snowed a tiny bit this morning, but its sunny now. (Still cold though). And I'm getting used to the schedule. I'm getting used to the challenges, and I'm getting used to missionary life. The thing I am NOT getting used to is the smell... Lafayette smells SO BAD! They have some factory where they do something with corn, and it smells up the whole city. Its quite horrible. Also our neighbor/neighbors are always smoking something that smells a lot worse than any regular cigarette smoke I have ever been around... so that makes our apartment smell fantastic! (NOT!) Something the President told us one day one about Indiana is that everyone has dogs, everyone has a church, and everyone smokes... and I have come to know that is so true. Everyone has smelly dogs... and smelly smoky homes. I can't tell you how great it is to have dinner in a members home after being in yucky smoky homes all day long. I'm thinking the spirit doesn't really like smelly homes so much... but we are trying our best to bring it to them!

Remember the sisters house that I threw up in... well she is progressing very well! She was at church yesterday and when someone asked if she was just visiting she told them she was hoping to become a member soon, and that she was studying with us. She said, "these are my missionaries" and hearing that made my day! I'm someones missionary! How cool is that... We introduced her to Bryan, the guy who got baptized on my second week here, and they talked a bunch! We are going to invite her to baptism this week, so be praying for her! We are so excited!!! 

We also got a referral this week from HQ, and she seems really solid. We have an appointment with her tomorrow that I'm SO EXCITED about!!! Basically... missionary work is exciting! Smelly... but exciting! 

Thanks for your prayers and letters, I love you all so much!

Sister Cordner

November 5, 2012

Friends and Family!!!

I woke up this morning excited that it was P-day, and then realized I didn't have a ton to write home about... but I have come up with a few stories to share! 

Tuesday we had a zone conference, the three northern zones all came together and we had a very powerful training from President Collins. He is so amazing and I love hearing from him when we can. I was a little sad because everyone from my MTC district that I love so much are all in southern zones, so I didn't get to see everyone, but I did see my companion Sister Pitcher, so that made my week! 

Wednesday was halloween! The day was normal, just another day of work as a missionary, but the night was obviously different. We were not allowed to be driving when it was dark, so we had the Bishops wife come pick us up and we spent the evening at their house, and then she drove us home. We had pizza with them and then helped them hand out candy. I dressed up like Sister Stanford, and she dressed up like me (and by that I mean we traded name tags for a few hours! lol) It was a pretty fun night, but the Bishop kept forcing us to eat candy, so needless to say we were a little sick that night, as most kids are on halloween!

We had kind of an off week with members being able to come to our appointments. We had a goal of 4 member presents this week, and we didn't have any! We could have gotten I think about 7, but every appointment fell through! It was quite ridiculous! But on Friday night we prayed really hard that we would know which street to tract, because we had our Saturday appointments fall through, and we had a chunk of time to find. So we felt really good about this one street. Then we started our fast Saturday afternoon, and we were fasting for finding, because the area has been kinda dry since Bryan's baptism on the 13th. Our FIRST house on that street we picked was kind of a miracle! We ran into a young married women who was super cute. She is studying at Purdue to be an elementary teacher, and she just kind of looked like an el ed major! Anyway, she said she had to get going soon, but she kept having things to say to us. Here is the reason... she knew a mormon growing up who she thought was an amazing guy, who also served a mission so she could relate to us on that field, and she said she knew our Bishops daughter! One of the first things she said to us was that she thinks people can be religious without going to church, and then by the end she said she might have to come to church with us one day! People knowing members of the church is huge! I'm so thankful that guy was such a good example to her, and that people aren't afraid to let their friends know they are mormon. Like the conference talk, I'm Mormon, I know it, I live it, I LOVE IT! We all need to be more open about it so when the missionaries are praying to know where to tract, they will meet people who are already open to the church. She didn't come to church with us, but she is a potential and we have high hopes with her!

Miracles! We meet some other people that day, and Saturday night we meet a couple who are both interested in having us back, so we met our goal of having 2 new investigators for the whole week on Saturday night! It was almost a week of no goal meeting, but we did finally meet that couple! 

Those are the stories I thought I would share with ya'll this week! Its getting quite cold here, no snow yet, but its officially ice scraping season! I got really warm boots and some other warm clothing and I think I am prepared (although the people keep telling me I'm going to need more clothes! Yikes!)

We had 2 of our investigators come to church yesterday, and one was the one who's house I threw up in, so luckily that little incident didn't stop her progression! She left after sacrament meeting because she was fasting and feeling a little light headed and needed to go home and eat. WHAT?! We didn't even invite her to fast, she just knew that it was the first sunday so she fasted! This girl is solid! We are just waiting for the day that we come over and she says, "So when can I be baptized!" She is there, she just has a really hard time with the fact that women in our church don't have the priesthood, and it looks like the women are looked down upon in our religion! I think that is so crazy that people think that way, but I understand that its hard for her, so we are working through that.

Want to know a little secret... I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!!! Everyday I wake up just happy and excited that I am in Indiana and that I am sharing the Gospel. I don't think there is a better feeling in the world than being on someone doorsteps and sharing with them the first vision. I love being in homes and bearing my testimony on modern prophets. I love giving someone the Book of Mormon and promising them that if they read and pray about it, they will receive and answer about the truthfulness of it! MAN, life is good! President Collins said it was a great time to be a missionary, and with all the baby boomers coming out soon (thats what I decided I'm going to call the youngins that are coming out) the mission needs leaders! My DL said I probably will be training at the end of my second transfer, and I told him not to even joke about that! How scary would that be! But seriously... missionary work is great, and I love the gospel SO MUCH!!! 

Keep writing to me, I love hearing from everyone! 

Sister Cordner! 

October 29, 2012

Dear friends and family...

Remember that girl who's dress slipped down while she was teaching Relief Society. Or how about that girl that fell while walking up to give her farewell talk in church. Well that same girl is now on a mission, doing some pretty horrifying embarrassing things out here in Indiana. (and the reason I'm talking about this girl in 3rd person is because I'm still too embarrassed to admit that it is me!) People have mentioned how long my emails are... well get ready for another long one... but I promise you it is worth the reading...

To tell the story we have to go back to Tuesday... We had a training for all the trainers/trainees in Peru, about an hour away from my area. We were also going to go on exchanges with the Peru sisters, so it made sense that after we were done with training, we would start the exchange. My trainer is the one in charge of exchanges, and thought that it would be a good idea to leave me in the area to take care of Lafayette 3 all by myself while she went to Peru. So after the amazing training by my mission president, the dear Sister Stanford gets in the car with Sister Pitcher and leaves me. (We have become really close, so being away from her for 24 hours was quite sad.) But Sister Donaldson seems nice enough and the two of us go back to Lafayette. That night everything goes well, we teach a family who I LOVE! Part member families are so great, I think I told you about him, he's basically a dry mormon, but we had a really good lesson with him. They asked if missionaries were allowed to go in the temple on their mission and S. Donaldson says we only get permission if a family we taught goes to get sealed. He (the dry mormon) noticed how I perked up and commented on how he should probably get baptized soon so I can attend their sealing! 

We came in that night after our lesson and dinner appointment and planned. Then the next day we did study together, and then we went out and tracted. So at this point we have covered all the things we were supposed to cover during an exchange, and we had about 2 hours before we were going to exchange back. We were at the YMCA doing our weekly service when we heard the news. Sister Stanford had gotten really sick and had been throwing up all day in Peru. She was so sick she wouldn't be able to be in the car for an hour to come home to me, so the exchange had been extended for another day. So here I am, having to take over Lafayette for a whole day longer than expected, and I start to freak out a little! We had two appointments set up for that night, we still had to find a member to come to the appointment in the morning, we had things to do and people to see and my trainer wasn't here to help me know what to do. So after our service we went home and regrouped. I made phone calls, got a member to come to the appointment, verified our things for the next day, and kinda ran the show! I got everything put together for the two lessons we had that night, and I was going to make Sister Stanford proud of me. 

Right before we are about to leave for our next appointment, I start to feel sick to my stomach. I keep telling myself its just nerves, here I am without my trainer doing everything on my own, I ought to be a little nervous, right?! We were about to go teach a part member family where the husband is LA and the wife is an investigator, I had never met them, I didn't know how she would react to two new sisters showing up, and I'm missing my companion. But I pray and tell myself that I'm being a baby and go to the appointment. 

Sister Carver is this really sweet lady who has water for us to drink and just dives in with questions about where we are from and what we did pre-mission, and then she dives into how much she loved conference and President Monson. To introduce myself I happen to say that I'm new at all this and have been out here for only about a month. She was saying all these wonderful things about the church, and my stomach starts to hurt more and more. I sip on the water she gives me, but I'm hurting pretty bad. I start to look around to see if I could see the bathroom anywhere. She is a nervous talker and she didn't give me a chance to say anything, she just kept going and going. Finally I had to go, and I just inturrupted her and asked if I could use her bathroom. She started to show me where it was, I cover my mouth, and start throwing up all over her house. I make it to the bathroom but I can't even turn around to get to the toilet. I threw up all the way down her hall way and then into her sink, that isn't draining at all. I do this a couple more times, and my companion that I hardly know is putting my hair up and rubbing my back. I'm about as embarrassed as they come. I asked her if I could help clean up and she said no. I sat there in the bathroom just sick as a dog while her and her husband and my companion cleaned up everything. She asked me if I needed to lie down and I told her we better just reschedule for next week. Seriously this lady was so nice, and she was so understanding. She asked me if I was just really nervous to teach them because I'm new and she saw me looking around during the lesson. I told her I just wanted to talk to her about conference... In the past she has been really hard to meet with, hence meeting her for the first time on my 4th week, but we were able to get a follow up appointment just a week later. 

When we get home I hop in the shower because I, like Sister Carvers house, am kinda covered in barf. When I get out I hear my companion on the phone with the mission presidents wife, who was saying that we should stay in the rest of the night. So we cancelled our other appointments, and I put my PJs on and just laid down in so much pain. I threw up a couple more times that night, but luckily in my own apartment I was able to make it to the toilet. Not that it would have mattered at that point because I didn't have anything left in me to throw up.... 

So my companion is in Peru as sick as ever and I am in Lafayette as sick as ever. We closed down 2 areas for 2 days because we got sick! How horrible is that. We finally got back together on Thursday, and the two of us just laid in bed all day long. Sister Collins (the mission presidents wife) is also a nurse and she was checking in on us throughout the day with phone calls. We didn't eat anything all day except for a few crackers and had some sprite that a member brought to us. We had to cancel everything and we were completely useless... talk about a good way to spend the Lords time as missionaries, right?! It was pretty much horrible.

Friday we slept in because we were still really sick and were told to take it easy. But we didn't want to miss district meeting, so we got up just in time to get ready to go to that. After our meeting we had the DL and his companion give us both blessings, and then we went home. We had a dinner appointment and a teaching appointment that night, and it was about noon at this point. So after our blessing we went home and ate some lunch, just a little sandwich, and then I slept for another 3 hours. When I woke up I was completely better. And so was my companion! We know it was because of the blessing too, we were so sick, we shouldn't have been better that quickly after, but Heavenly Father needed us and wanted us to get better, and the Priesthood is real!  

Was that long enough for ya....So ya, you all have my permission to spread that story around. Hopefully everyone will have forgotten it by the time I get home so I don't have to hear about it again... but I think this is going to be a story for the record books. I hope I shared enough details so you can see how horrible it was, but not get grossed out at the same time! 

The rest of the week was just a normal missionary week. Its the end of the month and since we didn't do much traveling when we were sick we have tons of miles we can use on our car. So we went to the country and did some country tracting and found formers and tried LA's when we were out there. The ward had a Halloween party, with a trunk or treat and a haunted trail in the woods. The YM put it on, and I'm not gonna lie, I thought the trail was pretty scary. I screamed a couple of times, and then the next day at church people in Ward Council and just random people told us that they heard that we got really scared! Apparently the ward here has been gossiping about how easily the sisters scare! I think the YM really got a kick out of it. 

I sure do love being a missionary though! Its getting colder which I don't like, and all the leaves are pretty much gone, also don't like that either. But we have really great things planned for this upcoming week. We met a referral on Saturday who seems really golden and I cannot wait to start teaching him, and we picked up a former who is really sweet and she's excited that sisters are in the area and wants to be taught again! I love this work and I love Indiana! I don't so much love getting sick, but I love the priesthood. I also love choir, here's a surprise to everyone... I have been participating in choirs since the MTC. I sang there and I have been in the ward choir here. We sang in church yesterday and it was amazing, and we are getting ready for the Christmas show, and since I'm training and guaranteed to be in Lafayette until December 16th, we will be here for the show! Christmas songs are just the BEST! I love them.

Anyway, thats about it. I love you guys,

Sister Cordner