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