Tara: 2013

Monday, December 23

December 16, 2013

So this week was full of... cold. The weather was... cold. My feet were ALWAYs... cold. My nose was frozen cold. Everything about the week could be summed up by the word COLD!!!

We did two exchanges this week. One in Plymouth on Wednesday where it snowed ALL day long. I was with Sister McDowell (from Gilbert Arizona!) And the two of us WALKED in the snow for over 4 hours. Their area is really small and to save miles we walked, but ALL of our appointments weren't home, and none of the people we tired to just stop by were home... and I was so tired at the end of that exchange from walking in the snow...

And another exchange was on Saturday in Warsaw... and guess what happened... it snowed!!! Of course it would snow on only the two days of the week that we have exchanges scheduled. Saturday's snow was bad, so we just assummed everyone would be home, who would want to drive in this horrible weather. Well guess what... NO ONE WAS HOME! I'm just not sure where everyone goes in snow storms... lets be honest though, there were probably pleanty of times when people were home and they chose not to answer their doors. Okay... for any of you reading my email and somehow in the future you decide you no longer want to go to church for some horrible reason... please, for my sake... ALWAYS let the missionaries in, even if its just for a minute to tell them you aren't interested. We would so much rather be inside and hear that from you and stand outside on your cold porch in -10 degree weather... please please please just think about me next time missionaries knock on your door!!! Its just the nice thing to do! Okay, enough of my crying... but really it was cold!

A few miracles happened this week... as they always do to missionaries who are obedienlty outside in the FREEZING weather... 1st. we met this man named Todd who invited us in but because he was a single guy we couldn't go in. So we told him we could come back another time with a female with us or he could come outside and talk to us. This man come outside in -1 degrees and starts to listen to our message. He says that it is beautiful that we do this and share this message. He pauses our message and runs inside to make us hot chocolate, and then comes out and listens to us some more. We gave him the Restoration Pamphlet and he looks at the picture of Christ holding a lamb and begins to sob. This full grown man is crying on his porch because he knows the goodness of God and our message! He talks to us for a long time considering the weather, we finish our doorstep lesson, set a time to see him for next Tuesday (TOMORROW) and say a prayer with him. He then refers us to his neighbors because he knows how everyone needs this message. It was SO COOL!!! We had been knocking on doors for about an hour and a half in the freezing weather and he talked with us. That luckily was here in Rochester so I get to keep teaching him. I feel like a lot of my miracles happen when I'm on an exchange in someone elses area... so I'm excited that that happened here!!!

Another miracle... and this one is definition MIRACLE!!! Saturday afternoon it was snowing a ton and we were in Warsaw. We got to the sisters apartment around 4:30 to exchange back so that Sister Barrett and I would have time to drive home in the day light and avoid the bad weather and the dark. We get in the car and she starts to tell me about a text we got, and then she realizes she can't find the phone. So we go find the other sisters as they were pulling out, and the phone isn't in their car. Maybe the phone was left in the apartment, maybe it fell out somewhere else... maybe in the snow... we prayed that we would find it, and the thought starts coming, it had to have fallen in the snow when she was getting out of the Warsaw sisters car and into our car. But while we were exchanging back... a HUGE snow plow was coming and going up and down the street creating a 20 foot tall snow pile. The thought dawns on us... our phone has been dropped in the snow and it is somewhere in this huge snowpile... never to be found again. We call the President on the other sisters phone and he tells us not to drive back to Rochester without a phone, if anything happened on our drive in the bad weather we would have been in BIG trouble without a phone. A few other details to the story, the day before when I was packing, I had the impression to pack extra clothes... but I didn't. And Sister Barrett told me later she was feeling really nervous about driving back in the bad weather, but kept avoiding the feeling because she wanted to be diligent and get back to work in Rochester. So we lost our phone as a sign from God that he did not want us driving back. The plan was to stay in Warsaw, go to church there, and President was coming up North anyway and so he was going to bring us a new phone and we could drive back once we got that. Well Sunday morning comes along and we leave the Sisters apartment for church. As we are scraping the ice off our car, the other sisters ask if that was our ringtone. We didn't hear anything, but the sisters walk towards an empty parking spot (where they had parked yesterday) dug in the foot of snow and pulled out our fully functional phone. The alarm was going off for the last time at the very minute we were outside. The phone had been IN the snow for over 18 hours and it still worked completely fine. We let our leaders know, went to the Warsaw ward, and then after church when the sun was out and the roads are now clear, we drove back to Rochester...

Here's the thing... we needed that phone for God's work to move forward. We prayed with full faith that we could find the phone and that it would work, and because our will was aligned with His will, He made it work. There is no way that our phone should be working, that it didn't get snow plowed or run over by a car in the parking lot, or that the alarm should be going off. But God wants His work to move forward in Rochester... and if that included keeping a phone working when it really shouldn't... He will make that happen! It was all apart of His plan anyway. And something else really cool happened in this whole experience. Being in the big Warsaw ward made me miss my tiny branch!!!! I realized how much I love the Logansport branch!!!! That filled me with so much joy because I have been Carmel homesick for a long time, and although I still miss those people so much, I LOVE Rochester!!! Its a whole new kinda love, but its been great!!!

This week is going to be so great! We have Christmas Conference this Thursday! Last year that was the best thing I went to, so I'm really excited for it again, its mission wide which means I will get to see all of my dear mission friends!!! I can't wait to see Sister Pitcher!!! I love this mission, I love being a missionary! I'm so happy to be in Rochester, and I love Christmas time!!! Have a great week everyone!

December 9, 2013

I loved reading everyones emails as you all wished me well and telling me to have the Best day ever of the Best week ever!!! Its like I say this a lot or something? Everyone in the mission says that to me all the time. An elder who was trained my one of my elders in the MTC hardly knows me but every time he sees me he high fives me and says, "Best day ever!!!" Its pretty funny, and that elder is from Queen Creek so he's pretty cool! Anyway, it was a very long week... but it had some best qualities about it, so I will focus my email on those...

I'm going to start with yesterday because as I wrote last night in my journal, yesterday was the definition of BEST DAY EVER! It started with church and having my investigators come. The whole branch just jumped on that opprotutnity to welcome new people. They did an amazing job, and I feel like they felt very welcome. Sister Barrett and I gave talks so I got to sit on the stand and observe my cute tiny branch! It was so great. I spoke on talents and gifts of the Spirit. It was a really great talk (wow that sounds prideful...) I guess I mean I felt the spirit very strongly as I talked, and the elders investigator approached me afterwards and told me that my talk answered a lot of questions she has had and helped her out a lot! I love being the means for someone else to feel the Spirit. There is really no better feeling in the world!!! Both Sunday School and RS were on Joseph Smith... I'm hoping that my investigator doesn't come away thinking we worship him, we sure did spend a lot of time talking about him, but I just prayed the whole time that she would feel the Spirit during it. Some random member asked if they can see them next week, and she didn't say no!!! We have a lesson with them tomorrow and we are so excited! The only thing is that this couple are snowbirds, and they are headed to Arizona come Jan 1. So we have to work fast and teach them this month, and then I will make sure that missionaries in AZ baptize her, and reactive the husband... and then I will take them to the Gilbert Temple Open House and my parents will give them a tour and then she will get baptized right after that! Thats the plan anyway, I love them so much! They are such a cute couple!!! She is Apostalic Pentacostal and has some fun ideas about God... but we are slowing helping her see the truth! Oh man its been so fun!!!

After church we just stopped by a LA family and they let us right in and served us lunch! That was great because we didn't get a lunch or dinner break, so that was a small answer to prayers! haha. And then after their lesson we got in the car and drove to the most glorious city ever... CARMEL!!!!

Sister Miller got baptized yesterday!!! It took me back to one of our first lessons when she said she didn't believe in Christ... that he was a good person to study and live life after because he taught good things, but she couldn't wrap her mind around Him being the Savior of the world. With the help of my two wonderful companions SIster Donaldson and SIster Pitcher, and the ward memebers, we worked with Sister Miller until she FELT the Atonement, and she felt forgiven. We walked her through having Faith in Christ, and then knowing that Joseph Smith was a prophet, and now she is a baptized and confirmed member of the church with only 364 days until she can go to the temple and create an eternal family with Brother Miller!!! Oh my gosh it was the best baptism EVER! The Sister Missionaries sang Nearer My God to thee, and I almost couldn't finish I was crying so much... Sister Miller is SO MUCH MORE neared to God then she was when I met her last July! She has completed my mission in a way no one could have ever imagined. She was so glad that I could come, and I was so glad I could be there. That was the best baptism I have ever attended!

Then we came back to Rochester and I watched the Christmas Devo. What a beautiful way to explain what I have been feeling. Elder Nelson talked about peace... and that is what I have! Jesus Christ is peace... His Gospel is the only way we can have everlasting peace, and I LOVE being able to have that peace and share it with everyone I talk to! I love being a missionary. I have had hard times this week, but yesterday made them all worth it. I will probably keep having hard times as I try to transition into being a Rochester missionary, but I know that I am here for a reason and I am determined to figure out what it is! I love being a missionary!!! I love my Savior Jesus Christ and I know that he truly is my Savior.

Have a great week everyone as you continue to think of Christ and all that he has done for you this Christmas season! Please do me a favor and share the Gospel with everyone you know! Make it a goal to bear your testimony of Christ to a few people, wether in person or over the internet.... invite people to listen to the message the missionaries share of peace this Christmas. Invite the missionaries into your homes and have them share with you a message of peace! The message is true, and we have the opprotunity to share it. I love you all, have a great week!

December 2, 2013

Rochester is slowing growing on me! I feel like I take 1 step forward and 2 steps back trying to love this tiny town. I just have so much love for Carmel. This week we got to go to Carmel on Thursday night. I loved seeing Sister Pitcher and hearing about our investigators there. Then we spent all day Friday in a Mission Leadership Council. Not how I would have chosen to spend my black friday, but it was still fun nonetheless. The mission has changed, leaders are younger than ever. We made 12 zones this last transfer, meaning there are 24 zone leaders and now 10 sister training leaders... we hardly all fit in the mission home! It was a fun meeting. Sister Pitcher and Elder Syrett where there, thats all of us that came out from the MTC together. The rest of our group is in the other mission. So it was fun for the three of us to catch up and talk about how over a year ago we were in the MTC! I got to see some other friends of mine so that is always a good time. We are going to be sining a musical number at Christmas conference. I feel liek maybe they choose leaders who had a good voice this transfer because the song sounds beautiful. But then I think if that was the real case they would have released me! hahaha! Sister Barrett is so funny, she likes to sing Alto, and I tell her every day that I can't sing and I need someone else to carry the note for me so I can match it, but she insists on singing low. So I'm trying, and struggling every day to sing the melody line of the hymnes we sing for our companionship study, and she just laughs at how horrible I am at trying to carry my own tune. I try to tell her I need her to sing melody with me, but she insists on singing low, so I don't really like to sing this transfer... hahaha. The Christmas Conference is going to have a talent show, we are trying to think of something "talented" that we can do that doesn't involve music, because we are sure that everyone will be doing musical numbers, so we are trying to be creative and do something else!!!

This week was weird because it was inturrupted by Christmas and a meeting in Carmel, but we still managed to have a really succesful week. We found 4 new investigators and have some solid potentials. We have met a lot of the less actives in our town and they are okay with us coming over and teaching them. Our goal is to get as many temple worthy people in this branch as possible in time for the Indy temple to be open! So we are trying to baptize and bring back everyone we can! Our work is cut our for us but we love it!!!

Thanksgiving was great. We had two dinners, one around lunch time and one at dinner. We had some great food and lots of good company! We really enjoyed being with the members here! They are really amazing people who work and serve so hard. In a tiny branch the active ones have to carry the load, so the family that had us over for dinner, between the two of them hold about 7 callings. Two of which are RS President and HPGL. They are some of the greatest people I have met on my mission! They do so much for the church! I love them!!!

This week looks like it will be a good one! We are working with our new investigators and hoping to get even more! We are also going to Carmel on Sunday to see Sister Miller get baptized! My last lesson with her she said she would choose a date, and she did!!! And its this Sunday and President said I could come back! Its going to be so wonderful to see her and everyone I love so much in Carmel again!!! I can't wait!!!

November 25, 2013

Hola friends and familia! (sorry I don't know the word friends in espanol!)

Sounds like some of you have heard by now from the funny old man in my ward that I am serving in Rochester Indiana. If you want to know where that is, find Gary on the map, and then go South and East a little bit... and find a ton of corn fields and there I am!!! I'm in the Northwestern most part of the mission (almost) and I am in the middle of no where... literally. We are serving in the Logansport Branch, the largest area in the whole mission. There are three of us companioniships covering the area. Logansport has 2 sets and Sister Barrett and I are all alone in Rochester. We are 30 minutes away from the other set of Elders and the church building. I have been to the church buidling 3 times since we got here last week, and let me tell you, that 30 minute drive and back is going to be the death of me. I'm not a fan of living so far away. My heart just goes out to the members of the branch here... they do so much. We have 1 Priesthood holder in the city. He is the HPGL, married to the RS President. There are about 2 other active people in the city... they are single sisters (literally they are sisters). The rest in this place are all LA. Maybe because there is poverty here and the price for gas just to get to and from church is too much. Our goal is to have a branch in Rochester by the time I leave this place!!! We got our work cut out for us, thats for sure!!!

My stewardship has been cut down a ton because they called 4 more Sister Training Leaders. I only have 4 companionships I am over. The cool thing is that once I go on exchanges with them I will have covered the whole mission. I will go up to the South Bend stake a few times and then I will have been in every stake in the mission!

One of the new Sister Training Leaders is Sister Mumford who was trained by the one and only... me! haha. And another one is my great grand-daughter, Sister Roundy. Trained by the sister who sister Guy trained after I left Lafayette. I was hoping to serve with her because we had Lafayette in common... but curve ball, I got Sister Barrett, whom I just LOVE! We did an exchange together on her first transfer, and she and I are very similar! She may be the funniest sister in the mission... yes, funnier than me! I just love her so much!!! We were pretty excited to serve together! And so far its been really fun. She thinks we are in Rochester for her, she loves cows and old people and everything else that you find in Rochester. I'm having a bit harder of a time loving it all the way she does. I just miss Carmel a lot. Going from big city (Indianapolis/Carmel) to tiny tiny teeny town has been quite the adjustment. The branch is hardworking, but so small. I've never seen anything like it.

I did have a really sweet experience at church yesterday though. I was being stubborn... only thinking about the differences. I prayed a ton for my heart to be softened and for charity for this area. During church it hit me... the branch might be WAY different than my other wards, but the church is the same. The Spirit that I felt during Sacrament, Sunday School, RS (and even in the Primary of 8 kids) was the same! Branch Council was great, the Branch President really cares about the people here and assignments were made and people were held accountable. The cool thing about the branch is EVERYONE (except I think 2 people) are converts to the church. That makes it interesting when we get to social aspects because these people were raised differently than I was, but they have strong testimonies. Its really cool. We just need to work on using their strong testimonies to help us find more people and reactivate the hundreds or so who aren't coming.

We got to the area with 1 investigator. She has a date of December 28th (which is one of my favorite days because it happens to be the birthday of two people I love very much!!!). Then on Sunday we went to a former investigators house and started to teach a couple again. They are really sweet and we are sure they will be members before you know it! I have a lot of big goals for this area. It will be great!!! Keep praying for me, I need it here!!!

I totally forgot to tell you about the cool experience I had. This week we had 4 zones come together in Kokomo to do clean up from the tornado that hit. I had a helping hands shirt and everything. We were on the news and we just cleaned up debris and broken trees and broken houses for hours. It was terribly sad but really rewarding. I was glad I got to help. It was a memory I will never forget, I will have to tell you more about it in person, its hard to write down everything I felt that day!!!

November 18, 2013

This has been such a fun week for me, and there have been a lot of things this week that I've experienced for the first time. Hopefully I will be able to remember all of them...

First first: First time being in a mansion in Carmel. When I say mansion, I'm not referring to the overly large homes of the ward members, but I mean legit mansion. Scott Jones, inventor of Chacha, is a LA member of the ward. He owns this mansion and has a lot of people that work for him in the mansion. There is a sweet active member who is from some island country like Guam or the Phillipeans or something... and she is the live-in nanny for Scott Jones. She invited us to come see her and teach her a lesson. (We have been teaching members lessons to invite them to build their faith and also do missionary work!) So we go to see her, we go through the huge gates and down the long drive way. We walk in and the mansion seems to be a normal house size, until you step in the back... then you see it. He has the HUGE grand room, I'm talking huge, with the biggest grand piano I've ever seen, an aquarium, not just a fish tank, but a huge, wall size aquarium, ceilings as large as they come with windows the whole way up into his backyard forest area. Pool table, huge fireplace, tons of fancy nice furniture.... and then you look behind you.... there is a dinosaur skull, like a legit T-Rex skull that he found on a dig and because he donated millions of dollars they let him keep it... and behind that, a movie theather. Like a legit 20 seater movie theater, projector, huge wall with a red thing in front of it. Popcorn makers, movie posters.... everything was so legit. Then you get on the elevator and go to the top floor and see the little boys Dinosaur museam... thats what he called his play room. He had more dinosaur toys than I have ever seen in any Toys'R'Us combined. Then we go to his other play room that had a huge fake tree in the middle that looked like Tarzan's Tree house from disney land... and I could go on and on about how amazing this mansion was. I felt like I was in Hertz Castle again, but this person just lives in Carmel and walks among me... yea... thats the kinda city I live in! Holy cow....

The other firsts aren't as cool as that one...

But this week was also the first time I went to lunch in my jeans as a missionary. Before you judge me as an apostate person, read the whole story. We were helping a LA family move and they wanted to take us out to lunch and because we were doing service we were wearing our jeans and then we didn't bring a change of clothes... so we went to a restuarant in jeans... it felt SO weird. I'm going to be a weird RM I just know it!

This week was also the first time that I ever used a leaf blower... those things are SO COOL! Saturday morning the ward had a leaf raking day, and we all met at one house and raked the leaves of widows in our ward and other people who couldn't do it on there own. The members all came out and we had a super fun time together. The kids even helped rake too! I love this ward!!!

This was the first week that I had 10 meal appointments on my mission. And a bad week for that to happen too. We have SO much food in our apartment and I know I'm leaving this week so I wanted to eat it all, but the members decided it would be nice to feed us every day and almost every lunch... the lunches we didn't have an appointment we had about 10 minutes to run inside and grab something to eat... needless to say I still have a ton of food! I sure do love this ward though!!!

And the biggest thing that happened this week, that I'm surprised no one mentioned in their email to me... was the Tornado warning we had yesterday. It wasn't my first Tornado watch, we have had a few of those on my mission, but this one was a warning, as in... there were tornados touching the ground in different parts of the state and some real close to us in Indy. The sirens were going off and it was a legit tornado warning!!! We had a lesson at 2:00 and during the lesson the husband kept looking outside to check the weather. He has lived in Missouri and has been through a lot of them, so he told us we are okay unless the sun comes out. As soon as we ended that lesson we get in the car and the sun came out. We start to freak out a little and decide to go to the family close by who told us at church that they had a basement we could hide out in. By the time we get there the wind is really bad and the sun was out and the sirens were blaring... we rang the bell and they opened up and had us run in to the basement! They had a weather radio that would update us on the storm, and we stayed down there for about 2 hours as it passed over us. I didn't want to leave because they were just pulling out Settlers of Zarahemla to play... but we had a dinner appointment and the storm was gone so we felt like we should go to the dinner appointment. I did win at Candy Lane though, and I almost beat the 7 year old at Chutes and Ladders... but she sneakily got up there right at the end!!! They took a picture of all of us down there and put it on their facebook page! Hiding out with the sisters in the storm!!! It was a scary but really fun experience!!!

And yup... it was a good week. Our one investigator is finally choosing a date, just as I leave... but she needed to take her own time, so its okay that its taken some time. Our other investigators are mostly on the fence still... so that has been the same. We did a lot of service this week so our numbers weren't as high as usual, but thats not what its all about. We had a great last week together, and Sister Pitcher and I have had a GREAT 3 months together... now here I go into my next and probably last area with my next and probably last companion... I'm praying for YSA but who knows where I will go! I'm sure I will be happy regardless!!! Love you all,have a great week!

Sister Cordner

Tuesday, October 22

October 21, 2013

Every week that you have a baptism is a good one! This week especially! We started doing exchanges again, so we had sisters staying with us for 2 nights. Its weird to do the exchanges in our area, but its nice because I don't have to spend so much time traveling the state of Indiana. I can just stay in Carmel and work and have them come to me! Its been fun. We had some lessons fall through but we had some other miracle lessons happen. Things are going really well with the work.

Sister Kelly's baptism was wonderful. It was kept on the down low because if word gets out to her daughter in Virgina that she joined the church then she will be cut off from the family and her grandchildren. She thought getting baptized first and asking for forgiveness was better than first asking for permission and not being able to get baptized. It was her idea, not ours, but it worked! The service was incredible. President Cleveland baptized her. He had to do it 3 times because her toe kept coming up. She finally said right before the 3rd time... "JUST PUT ME IN COACH!" It was pretty funny, this fiesty old 69 year old who hates water and has been nervous all day, she finally did it correctly, and the two of them hugged and the doors closed. I love seeing people make covenants with their father in heaven. How much cooler can life be? Sister Kelly is now cleansed from her sin and is living life with the Holy Ghost. Her blessing was really neat, she is going to be very happy for the rest of her life! She said that she will never forget us. I'm thankful for the time I have had in Carmel getting to know her and her family. At Sister Stielgers baptism last month our ward mission leader turned to Sister Kelly and just said, "You're next!" Now the whole family here has joined! It started earlier this year when Sister Helbling sent in a mormon.org request for missionaires, she got baptized, then her daughter got baptized, then we showed up in Carmel and taught her sister, Sister Stielger and her mom Sister Kelly! These three women have changed my life and it has been such a blast teaching them and being apart of them joining the church!

Now we are in the... "What next?" phase of missionary work. We have a lot going on this week actually... but without an investigator who has a baptism date I'm a mess. I just want everyone to have a date. We are going to try really hard to invite someone this week, so we will see how it goes!!! Also we have mission leadership council this next week and I'm excited about that. Anytime we get to get together with the mission is a fun time. We had a zone service project this last week cleaning up the streets of Indy. It was in the Crossroads ward... aka, super sketch part of town! But we had a great time cleaning the trash and pulling weeds and making the alleys look. The best part of the day was when the Assistants gave us there truck and put us in charge of picking up people's trash bags and giving out more. It was raining and we were so excited that we got to be in their truck in the coldest part of the whole morning. Everyone gave us a hard time because we were in the Assistants truck... but we quite enjoyed it!

Thats about all I have for ya this week. The temple here is coming up very nicely, and I heard the Gilbert temple will be having its open house the week I get home, so life just couldn't really get much better than this!!! I love being on a mission, I love Carmel!!! I love my companion, and I love the Lord!!! Hope everyone has a great week,

Sister Cordner

p.s. facebook.com/indymission

thats our missions facebook page and you will probably see some pics of me on it! Check it out!!!

Monday, October 14

October 14, 2013

I don't even know how this week of miracles occured... but it did. It started with us having a goal of 8 member present lessons, and on Thursday we only had 2... but guess what, we met our goal! We had 3 on Friday and 3 on Saturday!!! I love member present lessons, the members are the best at fellowshipping and bearing testimony! I love it so much!!! But besides having good numbers and teaching a lot, we saw even cooler things.

We have new roommates... these sisters were together last transfer and they were actually in my old area, Indy 1. They were struggling a lot, and President didn't know how to help them, so he transferred both of them, together, to Westfield, and now they are our roommates. He thought that being roommates with Sister Training Leaders might motivate them to get out of the slump they both were in. It has been... interesting... to say the least. But we will see as the transfer moves on who things go with the roommate situation. But its really not that huge of a deal because we rarely see them. yesterday we left our apartment at 6:40am and didn't get home until 9:30pm... Most days aren't like that, but Sundays usually are! But we will see!!!

Okay, so transfers happened, we got 1 new area in our stewardship, and it is Sister Guy's first trainee Sister Hain, I'm so excited to work with her because she is amazing! We have basically figured out exchanges for the next transfer, so after this nice 2 week break of no exchanges we will be jumping in again this week with our normal 2 exchanges per week. The difference this transfer is we are bringing all the sisters to Carmel. President wants the missionaries to go on an exchange in a leader area so they get the feel of what a good/busy/dilligent area is like. So we are preparing to have all these sisters come to our place. The best part about this is instead of only have 5 days a week in our area to work, we will have 9! Both Sister Pitcher and I will be working in our own area, building our teaching pool and helping our investigators progress, so we are pretty excited about this! President didn't like the idea of "taking his best players out of the game." You can tell he is a coach, right?! So we are all playing harder this tranfer than ever, he wants all of the leaders to have baptisms... which leads me to my next point....

Sister Kelly will be getting baptized this Sunday!!! Once she received her answer that it was true, all the other things she had a problem with melted away. She stopped drinking coffee and tea, met with us and told us she was ready, and we prepared the service for her! President Cleveland is going to be baptizing her, so thats pretty sweet!!! I have been working with her since about my 2nd week in Carmel, and I love her so much!!! Pictures to come next week!!!

We have a part-member family too that we will be teaching soon, Victoria is 10 and she just LOVES us sisters. We asked her to ask her mom (the non member) if we could teach her and she came to us at church SO happy and excited to tell us she can. I just love pm families because its so much easier to bring into the church when they already have the support system of the family! So we are really excited to get her going!!!

I love it here so much! Its been the best 13 months of my life! I am so hapy for the chance I get to serve here, and I hope it never ends!!! I hope everyone is having a great week doing whatever you are all doing, remember to keep up the missionary attitude! its not a one time thing, you need to continue to talk with everyone and to share the gospel to as many as will hear you! I love you all,

Sister Cordner

October 7, 2013

Where do I begin?!?!?!?! Do I tell you about my week first or call you all to repentance first?

Haha, jk... kinda! This conference weekend made me realize how important member missioary work is. Since conference I have had a few ward members ask for the names of our investigators and offer to have us teach in their homes. The ward here is great and we really do have lots of member missionary work going on. We are teaching one sisters good friend in her home (we actually had a lesson this morning because the rest of the week didn't work for her.) And then she also told us about another friend of hers and we are teaching her too. There is a young couple who have taught there friend a ton about the church and we will be giving that friend a tour of the church building soon and invite her to church. Another member brought her friend to church this last week. One of the youth has invited her friend to seminary and she comes every single day. The work is going SO WELL in Carmel, and a lot of it is because of the members!!! So I am here to call all of you members back home to repentance (just like Elder Bednar called all non-tithe payers to repentace, that was SO SWEET!!!!)

Its SO easy to be a missionary. 1st... talk with everyone. Dad, you are so good with that, you were always stricking up conversations with our waiters, people standing in line by us, random people on Disneyland rides... talking with people is not hard. And if you talk with more people, you can befriend more people. And obviously I'm talking about people who aren't members or maybe are LAs. I know most of my families friends are members... so its time we branch out and meet people outside of the church. There is a sister in our ward (and we are teaching 2 of her friends) who has a Bonko group and for the last 20 years has had 1/2 members and 1/2 nonmembers in her group. What a great way to do missionary work. The nonmember has become such good friends with all of these LDS women and she sees how the gospel makes there life so great, that right there... is missionary work... and now, 20 years later, she is taking the lessons becuase of the great example of her friends. If the member had made her game group only members of the church, there would be no growth. We can't be clicky, we need to branch out! Other ideas: You all have a friend (or a daughter or sister) on a mission right now. How easy is that to bring up into conversation with strangers, and then start talking about why our church sends missinoaries out and give them a Mormon.org card with your profile name on the back of it so they can read your testimony. It seems like a hard one but its not. 1st, make a Mormon.org account. 2nd, talk to the missinoaries in your ward and get mormon.org cards. 3rd. Right your profile name on them. 4th... GIVE THEM TO PEOPLE! If you are afraid of losing a friend over sharing the gospel, then you aren't even that good of a friend with them to begin with. If you love these people, you will desire for them to have the gospel... because that is where true peace and happiness comes! We do this because we love people. They are all children of God.

Okay, more ideas to come next week. The funny thing is I was thinking about sending this home Saturday morning before I heard that talks... and after I heard the talks I was sure I would send this ya'lls way. You can do it! Missionary work is fun, and the second coming is soon! The Lords work is hastening because the Lord's coming is hastening... and we need to be ready!!!!!!!!

you are probably all tired of reading my email by now. So I will just end with the exciting news. I am staying in Carmel with Sister Pitcher. When you have a companionship going this well it would be silly to split us up! We are on fire. We have a baptism scheduled in a few weeks and we are so excited, and we are thinking after conference we will have a few more. President Uchtdorf just laid it down, why would anyone want to join this church... because its Christ's church... thats why!!! Everything in Indiana is just perfect, just like it was a year ago when I got here. I got a birthday/anniversary package for my 1 year in Indiana from my mission mom Sister Stanford. And so did both my MTC companions from there trainers! I don't think there were better missionaries in the world than the sisters that were out here when I got here. And some of them are reading this email thinking, Sister Cordner get off your soap box about member work and just go to work... maybe she's not thinking that! But I don't know...

Its been a great week, we had a ton of lessons and we have a great week ahead! I love being a missinoary and I love it when people get baptized. We have a goal for 3 people to be baptized in our area before the end of the year, and we only have one committed... so if you all want to pray for that, that would be great! Also ask the missinoaries in your wards for the names of the investigators there.... and pray for them! I love you all, I love being a missinoary! And I love the prophet. Conference was the best! I dont like the idea that next conference I will be home. I talked with President about extending but he said its not possible with the amount of new missinoaries coming out. DANG IT! I'm holding on tight, these next 3 transfers will be the fastest of my life! AHHHH!!!

Love you all, have a great week!

Sister Cordner

September 30, 2013

How does week 6's keep creeping up on me. Its so weird... SO WEIRD!!! I don't even know what happened this week... um... okay, lets go.

Tuesday and Wednesday were spent in Plainfield, Indiana. There are two sets of sisters in the ward there so we crashed with them and did two exchanges in a row with them. Then we came back on Thursday to an area that hadn't been worked in for 2 days... so we had to work hard to meet our goals. We had a mission leadership council on Friday that was a full day thing, and then on Saturday we spent most of the afternoon at the church at a Womens Conference thing before the RS Broadcast was one. And then on Sunday we went to our church and then the next wards sacrament meeting because 2 of our investigators couldn't come until the 1:00 ward. So all week we didn't have 1 whole day to work in our area, but we still managed to get a good amount of lessons, met most of our goals, and we had 5 investigators at church! So that was pretty sweet.

Its been a crazy kinda week, sometimes I wish I could be a normal missionary and just work in my own area everyday without special meetings or exchanges. But I just keep reminding myself that my mission right now isn't just the Carmel ward, but all the sisters in Indianapolis... We only have one more exchange this transfer and then I have a little bit of a breather between transfers.

We are pretty sure that we will be staying together next transfer. We gave a training to all the Zone Leaders and President liked it so much he said he wanted us to give the same training to all the District Leaders next transfer. I keep doing this, I have a small idea and then I am put in charge of carrying out this big training that just keeps getting bigger... I should learn to just keep my mouth shut. But anyone who know me knows that I can't do that.

The main thing that is keeping me going right now is the people here. I LOVE THE PEOPLE IN INDIANA!!!! Oh my goodness, I love the people I'm working with so much! They make my life. I don't know what I would be like if I didn't know some of these members and investigators. They have changed me, and I will forever be grateful.

The RS broadcast was... AMAZING! I had studied Covenants on Saturday morning, and then what did every member of the Presidency speak on... covenants!!! I think being a covenant keeper is the best blessing we could ever have. Think of all the people who have ever lived, and how many of them had covenants with their Father in Heaven. How small a percent we are, and how blessed we are! I am bound to my Father in Heaven because of the covenants I made when I was 8, and the other ones I made when I was 20 in the temple! Its just mind-blowing to know that I was trusted enough to make covenants, and those covenants are valid as long as I am obediant. Statiscally speaking... we are a VERY small group of humans to make have temple covenants, and I am forever grateful for them!!! I love my Father in Heaven more than anything, He has helped me so much this past year. I love that I can tell him EVERYTHING, He never judges me or makes me feel down, I do that on my own. When I have big goals I can ask for His help to accomplish them, and He helps me EVERYTIME! More people need to know about Him... everyone reading this email... help get the word out! God is alive, Christ is His son, and He lives too! The Gospel has been restored and we are led by a prophet of God. (HE IS SPEAKING TO US THIS WEEK!!!!!!) The temple is where we can find true peace and happiness. (I miss it so much!)

I love life right now. Its hard, but life is hard! I'm not the only person struggling right now, and I have God on my side... so really I can't complain about my struggles. I need to focus on finding other people who are struggling and help them! So thats what I'm going to go do this week! Wish me luck, and by wish me luck I guess I really mean pray that I will have success as I open my mouth to proclaim the good word to the Hoosiers here in Indiana!!!

Love,

Sister Cordner

September 23, 2013

I love baptisms!!! At zone conference last week we were reminded that our purpose as a missionary is to baptize!!! And this last weekend, Sister Stiegler got baptized!!! It was a fast week, we had 2.5 exchanges, and we were SO busy every day. We left Thursday night for an exchange and didn't get back until Saturday around 2, and then we had to teach a few lessons and go to the baptism. Luckily our ward mission leader is amazing and he did most of it so we didn't have to worry to much. President Cleveland was there and thought it was really good. Its always so scary putting on a baptism because you want EVERYTHING to be just perfect, but even if its not perfect, the Spirit will be there. How can it not when someone is getting baptized! Its so great. I love this work so much!!!

Sounds like everyone at home had really great weeks. I knew that Keri would love school. Its weird that she has a class with Amy's husband though... weird!!!

I'm trying to think of things to say about this week... it was really just fast and the baptism was the best part. We met some really great people that we will be teaching soon (hopefully). Now that we baptized someone it feels like we have nothing to do. Not really, but we work so hard with her and then its like... what next?! Her mom is still going to be meeting with us. She is having a hard time accepting the message because her other daughter has told her that if she gets baptized she won't be able to see her grandchildren. Thats pretty rough... but we are hoping to work through it.

We had an exchange with Indy YSA this week, and I'm not going to lie.... I LOVE YSA!!! We had some time to go on campus and we just said hi to this 18 year old walking across the street and we starting talking with her and before you know it we were sitting down at a table teaching her the entire Restoration! It was one of the best expereinces of my life. She is Christian but has never been baptized, she prayed about it just this last summer and got the answer that it just wasn't the right time. When we taught her about Joseph Smith and invited her to be baptized, she said yes, and that this was the answer she was looking for. Seriously, how come someone that awesome has to be in an area thats not mine! haha, I think we have decided to just do exchanges with the YSA sisters every other day. Poor Carmel... it keeps getting ignored by us going on exchanges, maybe we should just stay in Carmel... I'm sure there are more people here that will listent to us, we are just having a harder time finding them here. But YSA is seriously so great. President did tell me at my last interview with him that he would put me on campus before I die. I'm thinking one more in Carmel and then I could end my mission with two transfers in Bloomington! Thats the hope anyway! Lets see what really happens.

Last night our lesson fell through, so we went to a park and contacted some people. One lady was power walking her kids and we started walking with her, she asked if we were missionaries before we introduced ourselves and she tells us how she has recently been having a lot of doubts. She asked if we would walk with her, so we did. And let me tell you, I can teach the Resto to someone while I'm sitting on their couch nice and comfy, but power-walking around a park in my Sunday shoes (not my nice tracting ones) was quite challenging. Luckily Sister Pitcher has LONG legs and she could keep up and continue to teach. In the end the lady decided it was something she needed to learn about on her own without us. I don't think people understand that our roles as missionaries is to be their guides to help them do it on their own! Aw well...

On the brightest bright side, my trainer has a boyfriend!!! GO SISTER STANFORD!!! The whole mission will know about it in less than 3 hours probably!!!! Even though there aren't many missionaries left that still know her... I think last transfer President said we have over 100 missinoaires who had been out less than 13 weeks.... Our mission is SO young... and we just keep getting more babies. But those who do know the legendary and famous Sister Stanford will know that she is dating a cute new reporter! WOOHOO!!!!

Well, I think thats about all I have to say. The work is going well, we are keeping ourselves overly busy, but thats the best way to be a missionary! We have been asked to give a training at Mission Leadership Council in front of President, the AP's and all the Zone Leaders and other Sister Training Leaders, I sure hope it goes well! I love you all so much!

Sister Cordner

September 16, 2013

Sometimes when you have really big and pakced weeks the time just seems to fly. Wasn't the case with this week. I feel like last Monday was a year ago and SO much has happened in that time. I don't even know where to begin. I'm like a whole new person this week than I was last... okay not really, but kinda. Anyway, lets begin....

Last Monday we had a sweet FHE with a PM family. Their son loves us because we did an awesome experiment to teach him about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Afterwards we played a game called Pop the Pig with them. It was just a silly game where you role a dice and put that many pieces of food in the pigs mouth and randomly the pig will pop. It poped on the dad twice, so the boy yelled, It popped on pop!!! It popped on pops!!! Also, did I mention that the dad is a clown, like by profession! So their son is also pretty hillarious. The mom is doing so well. She was atheist but now she believes there is a God, she believes in Christ, and this week we will be focusing on Joseph Smith. She is preggers right now so she is living the Word of Wisdom, but she thinks the idea of it is silly, so once she gets a testimony of Joseph Smith, it will be easy!!!

Tuesday is one of those days you just will never forget in your whole life. We had 6 lessons, and a district meeting, and we traveled to Avon for an exchange... Lets just say every minute of the whole day was packed. We didn't get a lunch or dinner break, just a quick stop to grab something to eat. But thats not what made that day memorable. When we arrived for our 2:00 appointment there was a policeman outside of Robert's apartment. We walked up to him and he asked how he could help us. We explained that we were missinoaries and had an appointment with someone in apartment B. He was on the phone and just said, "I need to talk with you." This big black police officer finishes his phone call and as I am trying not to easedrop I hear words like "homicide" and "suspects" and other scary things. He finishes his call and walks up to us. First thing he does is look Sister Pitcher up and down and asks her how tall she was, she is taller than him... I think he was intimidated!!!! hahaha! But we tell him how we teach people about Jesus Christ and had an appointment with Robert in apt B, and he told us that Robert had just passed. The police had only been there about 10 minutes before we arrived. I never in a million years thought that I would have an investigator die. It was a hard thing to manage. We talked with the officer for a bit and helped him out as best we could. It was just a heartattack, I guess he was saying on the phone that he didn't think it was a homicide. Everything seemed to be of natural causes. Robert couldn't have been older than 50. We met him at a LA's house, and he was the coolest guy ever! We were so excited to teach him. He was so ready to learn too. So that made for a hard day.

Wednesday we were on exchanges and I was back with a sister I used to exchange with when I covered the South part of the mission! We had a blast being back together and we had a good day. That night there was a pinterest relief society activity and some of our investigators showed up! That was very successful and fun! And it fixed my desire to be on pinterest for another 5 months!!! haha.

Thursday we had Zone Conference. President wanted us to role play teaching someone in front of the whole group. He didn't tell us were would be the last thing though, so for the entire zone conference I was just thinking about our role play and didn't focus a ton on the conference. There was some things I got out of it. But then President had the Sister Training Leaders come up and he talked about how great we were, making our heads a little too big in front of the 2 zones... and then we had to contact the AP and start teaching him. He acted like a kid who loved sports, so I asked him how it would feel to be on the winning team in real life (God's team) and told him how prophets are like the worlds best coaches, and how when you quit listening to the caoch your team starts to lose and you eventually are without a coach because the team is no good (Apostasy). I was making it up as I go and I really didn't have the best sports analogies but I tried. Everyone was laughing at us but it was a good role play. Hopefully I taught some missionaries some good contacting skills, if not I made for a comedy show at the end of Zone Conference. Later that day we saw some less actives and taught some good lessons. Friday the 13th was just weird... We had a huge to-do list, and we were supposed to be doing weekly planning but things kept coming up for our assignment and also for the baptism next week, and we never did get around to our planning. That makes this the 2nd week in a row that we haven't done planning. I feel like a chicken with my head cut off running around Carmel, but we just don't have the time to sit down and plan, we are too busy! AHHH!!!! That night we had a ward ice cream party and the clown did a magic show. I love this ward so much! I feel so at home here.

And then Saturday was a day long service project in Indy helping out with the Special Olympics. We were score keepers/ announcers at the softball tournaments. Imagine me on a mic, "Up next to bat we got the KILLLER.... KIM.... JONESSSSSSSSSSSS" This little tiny girl with down syndrome starts to clap and cheer as she walks up to bat! It was the funnest day of my mission. We gave all of them nick names and just had lots of fun watching their games, cheering them on, and announcing for them! What a special opprotunity that was to be with them!!!

Yesterday we had meetings starting at 7:00 a.m. and just kept going all day until 9:00. It was busy, but great.... and today... I did something I have never done in the history of my life!!!

I went to early morning seminary!!! Class started at 5:55, and it was the earliest thing in the world. I am so in awe at the students that do this every day. I thought having a 0 hour was hard in highschool... early morning seminary is EARLY!!! We are teaching on Thursday and decided we should come and observe class to get a feel for it before we teach, also there is a nonmember who has been coming with her friend, so we met her today and it was great. I am so tired though... like, my eyes are closing while I type this email...

luckily its P-day and maybe I can squeeze in a nap later! Like I said... big week! Sorry if the email was just way too long! I love you all and love hearing from each of you! Have a great week!

Sister Cordner

September 9, 2013

Talk about the best transfers in the world!!! Sister Donaldson went home and that was sad and weird, she is at school today... even weirder! But that meant we needed a Sister Training Leader called to fill her place. Last transfer they put a great sister on Purdue campus with a trainee, and I thought that was weird to put a trainer/trainee on a campus when usually its been Zone Leaders and now Sister Training Leaders will be there. Anyway, I found out she was going to be one, and that the sisters up North were both getting double transfered out. So the new area open was Purdue and that was going to be the North Sisters Area. I was staying in Carmel, and the sisters at IU weren't at the meeting. So I know that my companion will be either of the two sisters coming from up north, Sister Whalin, or Sister Pitcher. When Sister Whalin got called to Purdue YSA, I KNEW I WOULD BE WITH SISTER PITCHER!!! Oh man, we just looked at each other and almost squealed! Nothing like becoming companions with your best friend. I got my stuff ready and as soon as he called Carmel I stood up and ran over to her (in the most reverent way possible!) We hugged and sat down and the rest of the meeting just zoomed by. I didn't even pay attention because I was so excited to be with my MTC companion again! And it has just been the best week EVER!!! It takes a new companionship some time getting used to each other and how we work together... but we already did that a year ago, and even though a lot has happened since then, we are still the same people, and we still love each other, so we have just jumped into what is the best companionship EVER! We have been making some amazing plans for this transfer, and I can already tell its going to be a great one!

Sister Steigler is doing fantastic. Her baptism in on the 21st, and she is so solid. She stood up in Sunday school to introduce herself (we had a new teacher and we all did) but she introduced herself by her first name and said, soon to be Sister! She is so excited to be baptized. She is already seeing the blessings that come from living the word of wisdom. She has had a hard time giving up tea, but then she got the highest score on her nursing exam, and she knows it is because the Word of Wisdom promises us knowledge. Oh man, teaching other people has built my testimony so much. Some of these commandments I have been living my whole life and therefore have been recieving the blessings from them my whole life, and I don't know if I have ever realized that. Until someone who hasn't lived it starts living it and notices the difference.... thats when you know God is truly there. He is blessing people for living the commandments!!!

We are also teaching this young women named Vanessa. She knows the Book of Mormon is true and that Joseph Smith is a prophet. But she hasn't come to church yet, and I think its because she is doing it on her own. She has friends in the ward that we have brought to lessons, but her family won't sit in with us during the lessons. So please everyone pray for Vanessa's family to also enjoy the great blessings that this church brings. Brining a person into the gospel is great, but bringing a soon to be eternal family would be so much better!!!

Lets see, what else has been going on... Yesterday was Labor day so the libraries were closed, hence the email today. We spent what would have been our library time deep cleaning the apartment. We finally live in a clean place where the Spirit can truly dwell. When the Elders moved out last transfer they said they cleaned it... but Elders clean and Sisters clean is a different standard for sure! Once we were done cleaning we went to the Stake Center and had a huge zone dodge ball game. It was really fun because people actually showed up. Last transfer we kept talking about doing it but no one would come. So I'm glad that we have a cool zone this transfer!!!

We haven't met with Sister Miller this week, so hopefully we will touch bases with her soon and invite her to be baptized. She is so close! I know she can do it this transfer, if we could actually meet with her!

Sister Pitcher is just amazing and I am so thankful to be with a companion that I love so dearly. She has blessed not only my MTC expereince but now my mission work. Its going to be the best transfer EVER! I love you all, have a great week and I will talk to you all shortly!

Sister Cordner

September 3, 2013

Sister Cordner

August 26, 2013

Transfer number 8 has come and gone... can you say fastest transfer ever!!! Oh my heck, its been so great! We have had some amazing miracles here in Carmel. Sister Steigler is doing so great, we taught her the Word of Wisdom and the only thing that will be hard for her is tea, but she knows that Joseph Smith is a prophet and she is ready to start living the commandments. We have been teaching a PM family and I KNOW that Sister Miller is SO CLOSE to being baptized, its been so great teaching her and having her explain the feelings she has been having as she has been repenting and feeling relief! Just wait until you're baptized, she's going to feel SO GOOD!!!

This has been a fantastic week. We worked SO HARD! We had 11 lessons with members present, that hasn't happened to me my whole mission. It helped that we didn't have exchanges to go on and we could spend the whole time focused in our area. Sister Donaldson wanted to work hard up until the end, and by golly we did! Its been an emotional week full of lasts for her, but she's been doing great! I don't have a ton of time to write today because we still need to get a ton of things done so she can head off to the mission home. I've been thinking a lot about Sister Stanford all week since the last companion I killed was her... and now she's been home for months and did a whole semseter of school and is basically running the MTC and just rockin it in Provo! Where did the time go, it feels like it was just Decemeber 17th and we were spending our last day together, rocking out to Christmas music. Sister Donaldson and I have been rocking out to The Work! Its been great!

This weekend we had a special treat. Somebody that Sister Donaldson tracted into at the beginning of her mission was baptized in Lafayette. So we got permission to go, and earlier that day Lafayette 3rd ward had a baptism and some of the missionaries told one of my favorite members that I was coming that night, so she was there when I got there!!! It was so fun to see a familiar face and think of all the great times in my old area. I loved Lafayette so much, it made me so Lafayette homesick when we were driving in! Oh man it was such a great area (minus the smell... that city smelled so bad!)

Carmel is so beautiful though. I could spend the rest of my mission here. I won't though, I had an interview with President Cleveland this week and he said he would put me on a campus before the end of my mission! So I have that to look forward to! Can't wait!!! But I have to stay in Carmel to see some of these great people get baptized!!! I love it!

Maybe I will have more time to write next week, I love you all, have a great week!

Sister Cordner

August 12, 2013

Thank you to everyone who sent me birthday love! Its been a really great day! This morning I was awoken by my roommates coming into my room singing "You've Had a Birthday!" They are so great, and all over the apartment are little sticky notes that say cute things about being 22! Also I have had 2 people now tell me... "I don't know about you, but I'm feeling 22" apparently its a song and I will understand it more later... I feel so out of the loop! haha! We went to the mission home this morning and my companion and I picked up Sister Cleveland ( the mission presidents wife) and the three of us went to get pedicures! It was probably the best birthday present I could have ever gotten myself! Then Sister Cleveland took us out to lunch, and we had a fun time talking with her about how crazy the life of a mission presidents wife is! Lets just say it didn't make me want to marry a mission president ANY time soon!!! haha!

This week was amazing! It started out long, we were going to have 3 exchanges, but we ended up moving one becasue of a baptism, so we only had 2. And on one of the exchanges I had a little surprise visator. During companionship study there is a knock at the door, and because we are missinoaries and the only people that come see us are other missionares, I just expected it to be the APs or one of the office missionaries... but I open it and there is only 1 person there instead of two, and he starts laughing, and I realize its Ty. My first thought was.... YOU CANT BE HERE!!! And then I thought.... hey.... why are you here?! He had a trip and was staying in Carmel only a mile or so away, so he thought he could just knock on my door! When he left I called President Cleveland to see if we could get lunch together and he told me we could. So he took us to Bubs (an amazing and famous burger place behind our apartment) and we had a fun time together! It was such a surprise to see him!

Then we had some of the best lessons of my mission this week! One was super intesne actually... and all the concerns still haven't been resolved yet, but Sister Moore is still working on praying and receiving an answer. She just had a bit of a blow up last week with a member telling her she shouldn't take the sacrament and now she thinks, "Why would I want to join a church that condemns me." We have reassured her that she is not condemned for taking the sacrament and that it is okay that she does, but now she doesn't want to come to church because she might see that guy who told her that there. Oh the drama. Today a member of the 70 is coming, and he will be staying all week, and we are going to have a lesson with President Cleveland in his home, and Elder Switzer of the 70 will join us, hopefully everything will get resolved there...

But we had another lesson with Sister Kelly and SIster Steigler this Friday night that was so amazing. It was in the mission home and oh man, President Cleveland is the man! I love both of my mission presidents so much! We haven't been able to finish the entire Restoration with them, so we had this lesson and we taught the whole 1st lesson, and President Cleveland jumped in when Sister Kelly was having concerns and he just laid it out for her. He told her how pray. And when I mean told her, I really mean coached her! Coach Cleveland! He's so great! And we invited both of them to be baptized in September and they said yes! The next day they came with us to a baptism in our ward and Sister Kelly said she prayed last night... and she just smiled from ear to ear! OH THE CHURCH IS TRUE! Its was so great! Her daughter Sister Steigler told us in the lesson how she felt it. She joined the Catholic church a few years back, and she said that she went to school and hours of learning to becomne Catholic, and how after she was done she felt like she knew it. She read the first part of the Book of Mormon like we asked her to, and she read it again, and again, she said she just kept going back and reading it, and she said she FELT it was true! Unlike anything she has ever felt in the Catholic church!!! Oh man what a sweet lesson! They are the greatest family, and I have loved teaching them so much!!!

We have a lesson with them tonight in the Bishops home! We will be teaching the Plan of Salvation, and I AM SO EXCITED!!! Its going to be the best! I love being a missionary so much! It hit me yesterday that I only have 6 more months... worst realization ever! I am going to work so hard the next 6 months its insane! I can't wait!!! I love being out here more than anything in the whole world! I love doing missionary work, and I love being a missionary!

Thanks again for all the birthday love! Being 22 feels so cool, but kinda old next to the 18 year old elders and 19 year old sisters. (This one sister told me she graduated high school in 2012 and I told her that was when I graduated college... to that she responded, "HOW OLD ARE YOU!?!?!" Hahahahaha!)

Have a great week,

Sister Cordner

Monday, August 12

August 5, 2013

We met a family last night who has a 3 year old girl and she said she couldn't remember when her birthday was. I told her it was okay because sometimes I forget when my birthday is too... when her mom told her that her birthday was August 12th I got really excited! Guess what?! Thats my birthday too! So now me and her are best friends!!!

My dad asked some questions this week so I thought I would answer them...

What's been going on this week?

Oh you know, missionary work! We have had a busy week with Mission Leadership Council, exchanges with other sisters, and helping other sisters do their weekly planning sessions. We are working with an investigator who has epilepsy and just moved into a new place, and her house hasn't been straightened up yet. We told her that her physical environment affects her spiritual one, so she finally let us come and help her. So we spent an hour a few days helping her get her house straightened up! That was pretty fun! And then the usual, missonary work! We taught a lot of great people this week and are planning on having some more great lessons this week! People in Carmel are just eating this gospel up! I LOVE IT!!!

Are you traveling much?

This sisters that I am over are basically all in the Indy area. We have 2 sets of sisters in Fishers, which is only 15 minutes away from us, we have a set of sisters in Westfield who live with us... so we don't travel a ton for those. We have my last area, Indy 1st, so I went down to South Indy just last week and worked with the sisters there. And then we have sisters in Downtown Indy who are over the Indy YSA branch, and we have sisters in Avon, which is just west of Indy. So I don't travel too much, and actually this week we have 3 exchanges and SIster Donaldson will be going to all of their areas. We just figured out who we should exchange with and then if they should stay in their area, and it just worked out that I stay in Carmel a lot of the time! I'm not complaning though!!!

Do they call the area you work in a zone?

Yes. I'm in the Indy North Zone. Its also the Indy North Stake. The mission is split up into 6 stakes which make up our 6 zones.

How many sisters are in your mission now?

I don't even know anymore! When I got out there was I think 18 of us... but now there is over 40, and we get 10 more next transfer, and we are only losing 1... we will have up to 60 here really soon!

Tell us a bit about your new companion. I know she's on her last transfer, so how did you meet her and become such good friends even before serving together?

Remember WAY back in the day when I was in Lafayette and I had that lesson in Sister Carvers house where I threw up while I was on an exchange... Sister Donaldson was the sister I was with! She trained my MTC companion, so I knew her that way, and then we have gone on 2 exchanges before we became companions. When I was training 2 sisters, she was the only other sister in the mission who was training 2 sisters. I remember President Collins telling me, Sister Cordner... I know what you are doing is hard, not everyone can train two, but Sister Donaldson is doing it, and you are doing it, and I know that you can do it!!! So to have my mission president say I could do what Sister Donaldson was doing was such a compliment, because she is just the greatest missionary (besides my trainer Sister Stanford who was the greatest greatest!!!)

But yea... hope that answers your questions dad! This week has been great! We are totally taking missionary work and twisting everything up. President Cleveland just laid down the law in our last mission leadership council and told us we were changing things. We won't be tracting as much and we will be working with members a lot more. Last night we had two lessons with active members just to help their faith grow and to encourage them to do missionary work. The Lords Work is Hastening, and members need to catch on, or else the whole mission age change lowering is just going to go to waste. With all of the missionaries out here... we need to use them effectively, and President Cleveland thinks that us teaching members is the way to go! So that is what we will do! We had a sweet experience all ready where the 1st counsilor in the bishopric told us about his friend who has gone through a ton of sets of missionaries and never gained a testimony. He needs missionaries who will be bold and loving when extending committments, and he thinks we are the perfect pair to teach him. He is going to be invinting him to hear our lessons in his home this week! Oh I love it when members take an active role!!! FAMILY! You should invite the missionaries over and help them! Don't just give them a name of the neighbor, have the neighbor come to your house when the missionaries come over! Then they can meet and have lessons in your home! There is nothing better than the spirit of sharing the Gospel! I love it so much!!!

This week is going to be kinda crazy. We have 3 exchanges and a zone meeting to prepare for. We will be training on working with members! Kinda cool huh?!?! I just love being a missionary! Have a great week, and I will talk to you all when I am 22!!! Hahaha!

Sister Cordner

July 29, 2013

Oh my goodness, I LOVE THIS WORK!!! This week was filled, and I mean FILLED with miracles! Let me see... where do I start...

Tuesday was the Miracle day to start this miracle week. It started like this, a full day planned with lesson and service and good things... but then slowly EVERYTHING started to fall through. Appointments would fall through, service fell through... it was bad! But becasue of this we were able to do Plan B... or what we call Plan G. (Plan God, His plans are so much better than ours!)

We started the day trying a HQ referral (Which was a miracle in and of itself. Sunday night we prayed for a Headquarters referral, and on Monday we got one!) She wasn't home so we stayed in the area, and when we should have had a lesson, we started to leave, but then we saw the garage was open and a car was there, so we tried her again, and she was there that time! She let us in and we had a sweet lesson with her. She isn't interested in progressingly meeting with us, but it was still a super sweet experience.

We tried a Former Investigator that day and we were so excited to meet with them but they weren't home. We just found their teaching record at lunch and felt very prompted to go. But they weren't home.... later that day we tried to find a family who just sent their son on a mission and the Bishop wanted us to stop by them, and we just happened to be close because of where we were, and Sister Donaldson needed to use the restroom, so we didn't plan on it but we decided to go see this family. A beautiful black lady answers the door and we are pretty sure she isn't the member we were looking for, and she wasn't. But she started to talk with us, and she seemed pretty interested, she used to be a JW, and now she doesn't go to church. We had a sweet lesson with her right then! I know we were led to her.

After dinner we had a missed call and a voicemail. The voicemail was this lady who was asking if we could call her to set up a time to come over, she said, "Hi Sisters, you came over about 5 weeks ago and I was really busy but I would love to have you come over now, things have calmed down...." Turns out she is the Former Investigator we had found earlier that we felt so strongly to go visit!!! Honestly, Heavenly Father was just dropping us in exactly the places He needed us to be.... one more miracle on Tuesday...

We had an awkward 20 minutes where we didn't have solid plans and we were looking for a place to park so we could knock on some doors. The neighborhood we choose had no place to park, so we went behind the neighborhood and parked at some apartments. We just decided to knock there... and at the last door someone finally answered and looked kinda shocked. We did our whole... "We are missionaries for the Church...." and she said, "Yes, I'm a mormon..." Oh... you are?! She told us a little about how she joined but hasn't been in 2 years and has moved and hasn't heard from her visiting teachers and lots of things... but just last week her mom (Non member) asked why she doesn't go to church anymore, and she told her mom when missionaries knock on my door I will go back to church!?!?!? SERIOUSLY! It was nuts, we just looked at each other and almost started to laugh! Holy cow... God is SO GOOD!!!

We went on two exchanges this week and they were kinda hard, but good. I have been SO tired lately, more tired than I have been my whole mission, and exchanges don't help because its hard for me to fall asleep in a new place. But when we got back together we were ready to work hard. Sister Donaldson prayed yesterday morning for a miracle at church. Our progressing investigator has been REALLY sick, so we didn't think she would be there, and we just wanted to see a miracle. Well... Heavenly Father answeres prayers. He gives us HQ referrals when we ask for them, and He gives us miracles. A member pulled Sister Donaldson aside after Sacrament meeting while I was talking with someone else and said, "This is my daughter, she's a catholic, and she wants to learn more, and this is my X-Wife, her mom, and she too wants to learn more. Can you come teach them?" Sister Donaldson asked them and both of these people are honestly interested in learning more, and they were already at church, so we know its not just the dad saying you have to learn! And in RS they were particiapting and it was such a good lesson! So we saw another miracle, not what we were expecting, but its just so good!!!

I love it in Carmel SO MUCH! This area is beautiful (did you know it was voted the Number 1 place to live... look it up, its the truth!) The weather has been amazing, mid 70's with a slight breeze, the people are so rich but still so nice, and humble too! Honestly, its wonderful! I'd be fine finishing my mission here... I love it so much!!! My companion is the best, and we work together so well! I just love everything! And that was a super long email but we just had a super amazing week! I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!!!

Sister Cordner

July 22, 2013

This has been the best Transfers week ever! I got double transferred into the Carmel Ward. It takes all of Carmel and a little of North Indy. I still live off the 31, but now I have to drive South to see the Skyscrapers instead of driving North. Its such a nice part of town up here. The library I'm in right now is like an airport. No joke. SO FANCY! We have actually been spending a lot of time in Indy because we don't feel like we fit in in Carmel. We need to hit up the Goodwill to get nice Carmel appropriate clothes! haha. But really, its such a great area. We pass the temple site on our way to the church building. The members all seem so great. We have a ward mission leader who is on the ball! (Like all of mine have been, its just great to keep getting great leaders!) We have a sweet set up where we live on the same street as 4 other sets of missionaries, so its fun to see them out and about. We live by the office couple the Baileys, the AP's, and another set of elders and the sisters in another ward live with us. Its been so much fun! I'm with Sister Donaldson who is basically the rockstar missionary that everyone looks up to. When we found out we were going to be together we got so excited, and everyone was saying how we were going to blow Carmel up! We are so excited. We just hit the ground running, met with a ward missionary who gave us the 411 on the ward, and started meeting people. We live right around the corner from the Art District, so we walk down the street and PC people all the time! Its so much easier than knocking on doors, because when people are out and about they are more welcomed to listening to you than if you inturrupt their at home time. We have one SWEET investigator who we have met with or talked to almost every day since we've been here. She just lives down the street from us too, and she is so prepared. Only a matter of time with that one! She couldn't come to church this week because she felt so sick, but she watched HOURS of BYU TV and learned so much! Our lesson with her yesterday was so sweet. Oh my I just love her so much!

We have our exchanges all set up for the transfer. We are over the sisters in the Indy North and Indy West stake, and they are all so close. We don't have to go to their area to blitz, we are able to bring some of them to our area, so I won't be traveling and away from my area twice a week like I was previous. And Sister Donaldson is just a rockstar who I am learning so much from! Its her last transfer and I am determined to make this her BEST TRANSFER EVER! I did it with Sister Stanfrod ( I think) so I can do it again! We have just been working so hard and its so fun to work hard after being a trainer for so long and not being able to work as hard as I wanted to. I just love working!!!

I love the area and the ward and the whole thing. Last transfer was the hardest one of my whole mission, but I can put it aside and focus on how sweet these next 5 will be! I can't wait!!! I love being a missionary!!!

Sister Cordner

July 15, 2013

So... drum roll everyone..... sometimes I make things more dramatic than they need to be! haha, I am getting transferred!!! As sad as it will be to leave Indy 1st, I'm really excited for the next area! I'm still thinking it will be YSA, but you never know. I try to read the Assistants but they are kinda hard. We talked with them last night at a fireside and they both just do the... oh yea, maybe... umm... and we don't know whats going to happen. But I do know that my best friend and MTC companion Sister Pitcher just got called to be a sister trainer leader, and when the Assistant asked me for my opinion on transfers, I told him that we should be together. And so far everything else I suggested for transfers has occurred so I'm hoping that we get to be together. But if not I know who the other leaders are, and whoever my companion, I know she will be amazing! Mostly I'm just excited to work with someone who knows what she is doing and is willing to be obedient and work hard! I can't wait!!!

This week I had some amazing exchanges. I love working with the other sisters. We had a blast in North Vernon and in Seymour Indiana. These cities are so small and yet there is so much work to do down there! I love working with Hoosiers with no teeth living in trailers and talking about how good God is. (I even got a wristband from one of them that says "God is Good.") I love it so much! Indiana is just about the coolest place in the world to serve. I love it here so much!!!

I don't have a ton to say, this week just flew by. We stayed busy teaching and finding people. We have three investigators right now that are 17 year olds boys.... don't ask me why I'm teaching all these teenagers, but I am, and its been fun! Tonight we are teaching one about the Law of Chastity... fun stuff!!! I love being a missionary!

I love you all tons, have a great week, and I will be sure to tell you all about where I go and who I'm with next week! Love ya,

Sister Cordner

July 8, 2013

I was talking to someone recently and we decided that week 6 is the longest week of the whole transfer. The reason is we start planning for week 6 Thursday of week 5, and it really doesn't feel like Week 6 is over until Wednesday of week 1 when you are at transfers... so really this week is 2 weeks long. But I can do it!

This past week we did the Finding Fast, we studied finding EVERYDAY, we prayed at least twice a day on top of our regular prayers only that we would find those who are prepared, and on Sunday we fasted that we would find more investigators. This couldn't have been at a better time since we literally had 0 investigators 2 weeks ago... its been pretty rough. But just this week we found 5 new investigators. One of whom the Elders were teaching and he has a baptism date for the end of the month, but he is in our area, so we get to teach him now! His name is Jack and he is Keri's age... well younger because he is going to be a senior this year. He's doing really great and is pretty cool to teach, he kinda just goes with what we teach him and doesn't disagree. Its been nice!!!

I did two more exchanges in Bloomington this week. I have two more to go on this week and then I'm done for the transfer. (this email is taking a long time to write because I'm chatting with Keri....)

We met our new mission president this week. President Cleveland. This is a direct quote from him... "Basketball is kind of a part of baptism." hahahaha, he would say that! He had a great training and everyone seems to love him, including me. I really miss President Collins and I think I always will, but President Cleveland is stepping into his shoes very well. He talked a lot about the colleges in Indiana. He has worked on a lot of college campus's before as a coach, and he has some great ideas. I might have mentioned that putting Sister Training Leaders on campus's would be a great idea... and he kinda agrees! Sister Training Leaders will be together next transfer like Zone Leaders are, which means I will be done training! Its been a long time coming and I'm really excited to work with a sister who knows what she is doing, I'm actually really excited to not be a trainer. As much as I will miss some parts of it, I'm mostly just really excited! I think I will probably be going to a campus soon, I'm crossing my fingers for Purdue just because I love Lafayette so much and I would love to go back, but after all my exchanges in Bloomington I think I would love IU. And there are like 5 other big campus's here that I could go to, so we will see! I'm just really excited for the change my mission is going to take on next week. This has been the hardest transfer of my mission, and I just really want a clean start, new area, new planner, new companion, and new everything! I'm really excited! (Watch now that I said that I'm not getting transfered and I will stay a trainer for another 6 months.... bbbaaaahhhhhhh!!!!)

I really will miss Indy 1 though, its been a great area and I have loved the people here that I have taught! Sister Stickels fasted this week and was at church with her family and answered questions in RS and Sunday School. You would never guess that she joined the church only a few weeks ago! She is so amazing!!! And Sister Hodge is doing family history work for her next temple trip! She is wonderful too!!! I sure do love the people in Indy!!!

I'm glad to hear from all of you about your fun 4th of July. Ours was just another day, but we did have a good day nonetheless! I love you all so much,

Sister Cordner

July 1, 2013

I am doing so much better than I was last week. No car accident, and we found 3 new investigators, so things are looking up! I'm trying to even remember what happened this week, I think we just stayed busy and worked hard. I did two exchanges, both in Bloomington. I love that city so much! I hope that I get to serve there, but I'm thinking as long as I'm a sister trainer leader I won't be there, its not a good location to be able to exchange with other areas, but who knows! Maybe the new president will decide to spice everything up and switch everything around! I haven't met President Cleveland just yet. I did talk to him on Sunday night. We had a situation occur where we really needed advice from our President, and it was weird to call someone we didn't know, but as we talked with him it felt right. He cares for us and gave us great advice and just really wants to help us. It made me feel good and I am really excited to see him this Friday!

We have a zone training tomorrow and I get to give a training. I asked the Zone Leaders today how long they wanted me to train for and they said 3 hours! hahaha, sorry Zone Leaders, I'm not about to do your whole training for you! But I have prepared what I think will be a pretty sweet training on the Role of Holy Ghost in Conversion. At least I had a sweet study about it today, if the other missionaries can learn the same things I learned, then it will be successful. If I learned anything from President Collins it was to love the Holy Ghost. He is so much more than a good feeling you have, He is a physical person who is a God, and He can be with us when we are being worthy! How great is the Gift of the Holy Ghost, when you really step back and realize that you have a God with you at all times... its seriously the best!!! Words cannot hold the love I have for Him!

One of the sisters that I went on an exchange with is training two right now, and we had a great talk about it. Its just so funny because she said that everything she has done on her mission I have done, and she just tells me that she always thinks, "Sister Cordner did it... so I can too!" She says she always looks up to me and loves me! I have probably only spent a handful of days with this sister between mission wide meetings and a few exchanges, but she just looks up to me so much! We click really well and she is just so cute!!! I just think of all the Sisters I have looked up to on my mission and think its weird that other sisters look at me that way, but its been fun! I love her so much!!!!

The weather hasn't been too bad, its been in the 90s a few days with about 100% humidity... nothing like tracting in that for a good few hours! YUCK! But then it will rain in the evening and cool down to the 70s, so thats nice!

Mom asked what I do on Sundays. Some are busier than others. We have church from 11:00-2:00, so thats more like 10:30 to 3:30. If we had a meeting in the morning than we go around 9:00, and then we have to make our study up later that day, so we would come home and have lunch, study, maybe teach a lesson and then go to dinner. Yesterday we had time to work so we had a lesson at 3:30 and another one at 5:00, then we tried some potential investigators and got into an old ladies house and taught her for a little bit, then we had to do language study for Sister Ware so we came in at 8:00 and did that then. Mostly Sundays are full with lessons with Less Actives, we don't like to tract on Sundays just because its Sunday, but we will if we have to. Last Sunday we had that world wide mission meeting, and that took up a good chunk of time. Sundays are actually my favorite days! This Sunday I gave a talk, taught Sunday School, and taught combined RS/Priesthood lesson. I think the ward might be a little tired of me! haha!!! It was good though, I loved it!!!

Woah... that was another long letter. Sorry for the depressing one I sent last week, everything is good again and I'm loving it out here! My companions are a handfull but we have fun together! Love you!

Sister Cordner

Tara

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