I don't want to waste your time telling you about every detail of my long week of knocking on doors, so I'm going to skip all of that and get to our training last Saturday with Elder Ballard.
The entire mission was together for the first time my whole mission. I was able to see and sit by my MTC best friends, as well as other sisters that I haven't seen in a while! Turns out that both my companions are now training their own greenie, and 2 of the 3 Elders I came out with are also training! Thats almost all of us who have just been in the field for 5 months are already training! The craziest thing is Elder Martin was just barely 19 when he came out, and he is training an 18 year old right now, they are the youngest companionship out here! But that is exactly what our training was on, how all of the missionaries have to step up and start being missionaries now because a tsunami of missionaries is coming out and we have to be ready to show them what our mission is about!
First we were all sitting in the Chapel reading scriptures and then our mission president and wife, Elder Lansing, Bishop Stephenson, and Elder Ballard all walked in. We all stood up and they walked to the front but didn't sit down. President Collins said that Elder Ballard wanted to shake all of our hands, so we all went up and shook all of their hands. I think I even mustered out enough courage to say "hi" to him! Oh man... one of the greatest moments of my life right there!!!
Elder Lansing on the 70 spoke to us first. It was super funny because our mission presidents wife insists that we call P-Day "Preparation Day" and then Elder Lansing said P-Day in his talk and she just dropped her jaw and got so mad! Haha, the whole mission was laughing and she told him right in the middle of his talk that its called "Preparation Day". Sister Collins corrected a member of the presidency of the 70, it was so hilarious! Then Bishop Stephenson (you know, the Presiding Bishop of the Church), spoke to us! He gave great instruction on how to commit people to do things and how we need to bear strong testimony. Then we had a short break where we got up and walked around and said hi to some people, but mostly everyone just wanted to be back in the meeting because they knew once the break was over then Elder Ballard would be talking to us!
He spoke to us for about an hour, on all sorts of different things! Then he opened it up for questions. My friend Elder Petersen asked him how we can continue to stay motivated in the work, and Elder Ballard told us what he does. Apparently being an Apostle isn't the easiest job, especially for someone in their 80s. But he pulled out a small picture of Jesus Christ, and told us that when he is tired, or doesn't want to work, or is having a hard time, he looks at that picture and is reminded why he is doing what he does. It was at this moment that the Spirit testified to me that Elder Ballard truly is a special witness of the Savior Jesus Christ. That being a member of the 12 is more than just being one of 12 people that live in Salt Lake and work for the church, but that he is a real prophet, seer, and revelator and he knows that Christ is our Savior. After he left we had a small amount of time for President and Sister Collins to talk with us. This might be the last time they can speak to the entire mission before they leave. Sister Collins got up and said, "Listening to him... we know that he KNOWS!" And it is true. I know that Elder Ballard is an Apostle of the Lord, and it has strengthened my testimony even more in the fact that President Monson is the Prophet on the Earth.
Later that night we had 3 lessons and a dinner appointment. I have not had that many AMAZING appointments in a row in my entire mission. We are taught that if we do not have the Spirit, we cannot teach. I think for most of my mission I have been teaching with the Spirit, but after spending hours with an Apostle, our lessons just went fantastic, and the Spirit was SO STRONG! It was truly amazing!
And it didn't stop there, our stake had a special Stake Conference and President Collins and Bishop Stephenson came and spoke to us on Sunday! That entire conference was on missionary work, and apparently all that Elder Ballard talked about in his training to the Bishops on Saturday was also about missionary work! Our mission is literally going to EXPLODE with missionaries. Not only are we getting about 80 more, but we are losing 2 stakes. So what used to be a mission of 8 zones and 170 missionaries is going to be a mission of 6 zones and 250 missionaries (60 of whom will be sisters!) Thats 10 sisters per stake... thats INSANE!!!
I love being a missionary! Its basically the best thing in the world someone could be doing, and I love that I get the chance to be doing it at this fun time where the work is just exploding! Thank you all for your prayers and encouragement! Love you,
Sister Cordner
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