January 14, 2013

Well, as many of you have mentioned, I am not in Park City this week. Bummer. But I wouldn't want to be there this week anyway, because this week is Char's baptism!!! I have been waiting for what feels like forever! She had her interview on Friday and passed, and her husband (who has been less active for a long time) has been found worthy to baptize her and confirm her the following day! AAAHHHH!!! I just love these two people so much, and I'm so glad that I have been able to be apart of her conversion. She tells me that I did a lot, but really I just sat back and watched the Book of Mormon do all the work! I have such a stronger testimony of that book since I saw what it has done for her and her life! So amazing!!!

We have had many other miracles happen this week as well. Just last Monday night we got a text from an investigator that we tracted into a while ago and have taught about two times, and it said something along the lines of "read the book, asked the question, got a warm feeling that I have never before felt!" We told her we were so excited for her and that we couldn't wait to meet with her to talk about it. She said that she read the Restoration Pamphlet and not the Book of Mormon because that was too hard to understand, but she felt really good after reading the pamphlet. She said she has had a lot of church people talk to her, but none of them are ever as "enthusiastic" about it as we are. She said she just feels like there is something different between us and the other people she has ever talked to. We invited her to come to church and she was pretty excited about it... But then on Saturday when we texted her she said she'd been really sick and didn't know if she could make it. We offered to bring her some crackers and sprite because she had been throwing up but she said she was okay. But on Sunday we got a text from her saying she felt really bad she couldn't come, and that she could use some saltines and sprite. We checked this text right as we were leaving our missionary coordination meeting, and since it was Sunday we couldn't run to the store to get things for her. So I asked the ward missionaries and one had crackers and another had 7up, so we went to their houses, got the food, and then went to visit her. (This is the same sister that we shoveled her driveway a few weeks ago). I have always loved helping and serving people, but there is something extra special about doing it while wearing a tag that has Jesus Christ's name on it. I really hope that we can get her to come to church, but if she chooses not to, we sure have left a good impression on her about who the mormons are! We told her that we couldn't go buy her things because we keep the sabbath day holy and how members of our church were willing to help us serve her. She was impressed with that! She also has three daughters who are really cute and like to talk to me, so I spent some time talking to the oldest girl about the bible and about Jesus. It was really sweet. She recognizes us as the "church girls" and likes to talk to us about God! 

Another family we tracted into said they would get baptized!!! And that they want their children to be baptized too! But they didn't come to church because she didn't have anything other than blue jeans to wear, and didn't want to disrespect our church. But she promised that she would buy clothes next week and come. We were teaching them about the Plan of Salvation and she asked if it was the same tree in the adam and eve story as it was in chapter 8 of the Book of Mormon! We explained that the tree of life was different, and talked about that vision, and she really liked it! They are great, and we really hope that we can set a date with them next time and work towards baptism with them! 

Oh, the other investigator we had a date with is now being taught by the Spanish Elders. Some drama occurred there and now it is best for everyone if he gets taught by them... (I had NO idea how much drama would be involved in missionary work, Elder Stone (Spanish elder) and I were talking about how it is worse than anything we have ever seen in high school! hahaha) 

Now for family news... SHAUN IS ENGAGED!!! How crazy exciting is that?!?!! And I'm so excited for Ron too! What a fun time in the Cordners life!!!! And for those of you in Park City, I hope you are having a blast! It sounds like it is colder there than it is here, we had really nice weather for a day or two, like in the 50s and 60s! All the snow is gone, but then it started to sleet (which I just learned what that was) and its back to freezing weather, but not in the negatives! Thats insane!!!

Love you all, have a great week, and try not to miss me too much! haha

Sister Cordner

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January 7, 2013

Hola everyone,

Things are finally getting back to normal after the craziness of the holidays! School is back in session at Purdue (as of today) so all the members are back and people are here to let us in to their houses again! We had a cold and long week of tracting, but we do have about 4 (maybe 5) new investigators from tracting that we are hoping will go somewhere. One is this funny old lady named Jennie. She kinda loves me (not to brag or anything) but I tell her how funny I think she is and she just laughs at me because apparently I'm a funny girl. When I was telling her about the restoration, she got up after I was done, got me a water bottle and a hard candy, and asked me to rest my voice, because it apparently sounded scratchy. That was a good reminder for me to let my comp do some talking. You get me going about the Gospel and I never want to stop talking, so its nice to be reminded that I don't have to say everything! And Sister Guy has been doing a fantastic job. She is a pro at door approaches, and now we are doing a pretty equal job at sharing them. Where it used to be only me, it is now both of us, and we have been having a great (and cold) time doing it! Did I mention that its cold.... yea.... kinda killing me! lol

We have had a little drama with our investigator we gave a baptism date to. And by drama I mean I think they might be accusing my last companion and I from stealing from them... soooooo..... we're not quite sure what to do! It hasn't been anything major or accusatory, just that I guess something went missing after our last lesson and now they don't want us ever coming to their house again. And he wasn't at church so we couldn't talk to him about it, and he never answers his phone, so we do everything through his wife. I'm thinking as soon as Satan heard that we were giving him a date he stepped up and worked extra hard on Wayne. That darn Satan sure is good at his job! DRIVES ME CRAZY!!! But yea... I'm just not really sure what to do about all of this...

But on the other side, Char gets baptized a week from Saturday, and I could not be more excited. We are teaching her and her husband about eternal marriage this week in a members home, and the members are some of my favorites too. They are just a little older than me, met at BYU-Idaho, and just graduated and moved out here to work. I feel like we would have been buds if we knew each other at school, so we are kinda buds out here in Lafayette! Its quite fun! Anyway, Char wants to get ceilied to her husband, and if they do it in a year, I will still be out here so I will be able to go to the temple with them, and the very thought of that gets me so excited its insane!!!

We had interviews this week with our mission president, and I passed!!! (haha). No, but really, interviews are the best, because he just really pumped me up spiritually and gave me all sorts of help! Kinda of scared me when they let us know of the changes that are happening. Like how we have 18 sisters right now, and 10 come out next month, and then as of now we already know of 10 coming out in March. Chances are after I'm done training Sister Guy I will be in a trio with two greenies, he kinda said he sees no other way of doing it, but that we will just see how it goes. So ya, scary but fun times lie ahead!!!

Thank you all so much for your thoughts and prayers. I can honestly feel them and they are helping a ton! Love you all,

Sister Cordner

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January 2, 2013

Happy New Years everyone! The library has been closed for the past two days because of the holiday, so sorry that I'm late emailing this week again! Hopefully everything will be back to normal next week.

This past week was kinda a rough one. It was hard to teach people, because nobody was in town. And when we did have teaching appointments it was hard to have members come with us. But we managed to have a good time nonetheless! I liked how everyones emails were pretty short this week, you are all thinking... "I just talked with you a few days ago, I have nothing to say!" haha... I'm kinda the same way, but I guess I do have some exciting news!

We set a baptism date for two of our investigators for Feb 23rd (also known as my best friend Amy's birthday!) We have been teaching this family since I got here. She is a member, and we have been teaching her husband and her daughter. But she doesn't have full custody of her daughter, so getting a baptism date was going to be hard, and she wanted her new husband to be baptized the same day as her daughter... so its taken a while, and thats why the date is still kinda far away. I was excited when we extended the date, and they both accepted it and seem excited, but we still cannot tell if he is getting baptized because he wants it, or because his wife wants it for him. Its kinda a tricky situation, because he keeps all the commitments we leave for him, and he is slowing changing, but still... he is not nearly as converted to the gospel as my last converts have been. But who are we to deny him baptism if he wants it.... so we are going to continue to teach him, and if he doesn't want it then that will come out when he gets interviewed for baptism. Our DL will really crack down on him and make sure he knows that this covenant he is about to make is kinda a HUGE deal, and theres not really going back on promises with God... so yeah.... We are excited... but apprehensive at the same time!

But what we are really really excited about is Char's baptism! Have I mentioned how much I love her! I called her yesterday and she said, "Hey Tara, how was your new years?" It is the weirdest thing being called Tara out here... but I kinda like it! haha! She is doing amazing, and her interview is next week, and her baptism the week after that! Only 17 days away!!! She has asked me to speak at her baptism, and she made a pretend program and it said, "Char's missionary, Sister Tara Cordner, will speak on__________." Oh man, I just love being her missionary! It has changed my life to see the way her life is changing! Gotta love it!!!

New Years was just another day for us. On P-Day we went bowling with all the other missionaries in the area, and then we had dinner with a family in the ward and they made us homeade cafe rio! I wish I could ask every family to make that for us! So far I have had it 3 times since I've been out! Not quite like my days in Rexburg where I was hitting up Costa Vida 3 times a week, but I'm very thankful that I've still had it!!! We got sparkling apple juice and that night around 10:15 we randomly counted down "54321!" and drank our little juice out of a mug! haha! And then we went to bed, and woke up and it was a brand new year! kinda cool right?! 

Well everyone, I love being a missionary! It is probably the hardest thing I have ever done... but yet I still find so much joy in it. Weird right?! Answer: YES! 

Love you,

Sister Cordner

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December 26, 2012

It was so much fun talking to you guys on Christmas! I loved that I was able to hear the announcement of niece number 6, and that I was able to hear how all of you were doing! I'm not gonna lie, saying goodbye to mom and dad was probably the hardest thing in the world! Why do you guys have to be so awesome? Also I got our Christmas Card! Oh and I got the pillowcase from the ward! That was such a wonderful surprise! Tell everyone that I loved it so much!!!

Christmas on the mission was amazing! I absolutely loved it! The ward has taken such good care of us. On Christmas Eve we went with the Stake President and all of the missionaries in our zone to an Indian restaurant. Then we went to President Ellis' house and just spent the evening together. It was so fantastic. Christmas morning was the best, we woke up and opened our presents for our "exercise", and then we went to the Ward Mission Leaders home for breakfast. They had already done their whole Christmas thing with their 1 and 3 year old boys. That was super fun to see what those boys got for Christmas and how much fun they were having! Sister Baer made us a HUGE breakfast with everything you could imagine to eat! Then we watched Joy to the World! What a fantastic missionary video that is! Then we made our phone calls and did our studies, and then went to the Primary Presidents house for dinner. They lived out in the country so we had someone drive us there and we spent a few good hours with that family. Then they drove us back, and I called dad! I was getting very ancy because I told him I would call him around 5 and here it was, 6:30, and they were still talking to us and not giving us a ride home. SORRY DAD! But talking to him was worth it. Although it did make it hard to re-focus on the work after talking to the family! 

Today there is a HUGE storm going on, so we went to an appointment this morning and they lady didn't ever answer her door. Thats always annoying. So we used that time to tract. And either no one was home or nobody wanted to answer the door in a blizzard. One person answered, and said, "aren't you freezing?" We said yes but explained what we were doing and he said he wasn't interested. So that was the extent of my first blizzard tracting day! We decided to move our weekly planning session from tomorrow to today, because we did not want to spend more time tracting in the snow! 

My new companion is fantastic! Her name is Sister Guy, and she's from Utah! My goal was to have no companions from Utah... but that didn't really work out! haha. She is amazing though! I was so scared to train but it is easy when she is already so knowledgeable. She was talking on doors her second day, which is way faster than I did. We taught a lady that we tracted into last week the entire restoration lesson today. Usually we have to split it up or something, but this girl is golden. Sister Guy was amazing at stepping in, I actually think she talked more than me! Which I loved because I was afraid that me (being the talker that I am) wouldn't be a good trainer because naturally I would just take over and talk a ton, but she is amazing at talking in lessons! Basically she is training me, and I just answer a few questions of hers about the logistics of missionary work. And so far I have only had to ask my District Leader for help once!!! The two of us are learning a lot from each other and we are learning a lot about relying on the Spirit! Today with the blizzard our Zone Leaders called to say that they want us to be careful, and that it is up to us if we ground our car, drive it, or reschedule things for the day to stay safe. At first I just wished people would tell me what I should do, but I am learning a lot about asking Heavenly Father, and then relying on the Holy Ghost to know what to do! And Sister Guy is so great about that too!!!

I miss Sister Stanford a ton! If you are reading this Jamisyn, I LOVE YOU!!! I spent a huge chunk of P-day writing her a pretty lengthy letter that most of the Elders were making fun of me for doing it. I had to explain to them that she isn't just my trainer, but like my favorite person, and I felt the need to tell her every single detail of what she was missing in Indiana! haha! And she sent me a letter about how she gave the guy next to her on the plane a Book of Mormon! She is just the best missionary in the whole world! I just love her so much!

Missionary work is just the best! Christmas night was kinda hard because after all the fun of Christmas Eve and P-Day and then Christmas, we had to get right back to work. No 2 week vacation or nothing! But last night we were in a Less Active members home and we read in the Book of Mormon with him. Once I was there reading with him, the spirit reaffirmed to me the reason I am on a mission! As much as I miss all of you, preaching the gospel is the best thing in the world, and I am so glad that I can be doing that here in Indiana! (Even during a blizzard!)

Love you all,

Sister Cordner

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December 17, 2012

A lot of things have happened this week, and I have a short amount of time to email since I have to drive my comp down to Indy so she can get on the plane and go home! BTW, killing a companion is not the easiest thing to do. As she is packing and cleaning and getting ready to go home, I am feeling like I should do the same since its Christmas time. I feel like the semester has ended and its time to head home, but then I'm reminded that I'm a missionary and won't be going home for 14 more months now... kinda weird!

But anyway, we had a Christmas Conference on Wednesday. President Collins and his wife did a great job at speaking and talking about Christmas, and they gave us presents, and then we got the letters from home! Thank you everyone who sent me a letter! It meant the world to me to get that envelope full of cards from all of you! And Angell... I'm going to write you but I don't have a ton of time today, but thank you so much for your package. I'm not going to lie, I think my favorite thing about that whole day was seeing the pictures of your kids! I literally started to cry when I saw them and I think I said things like... "these are my favorite people in the whole world." and "Oh my gosh Avery's hair is so long!" And the crying continued.

So Wednesday was great, I also got to see missionaries that I hadn't seen since the MTC, and tonight in Indy I'm going to see some more, so I'm excited!

Friday we had dinner at Sister Carver's house! And then afterwards we had a lesson with her. She is getting so excited for her baptism date, I just love it! She gave Sister Stanford and I christmas presents! Friday was a weird day though because everyone had their TV on when we went to their house. The shooting in Conneticut was all anyone was talking about. It was very sad.

Saturday was a lot of goodbyes for Sister Stanford. Somehow with everyone we had to say goodbye to, we still managed to teach a ton of lessons this week! We taught so many lessons that we had to get a 2nd progress report to write all of them down! Thats a new record for us! And yesterday we had the Christmas Program in Sacrament Meeting with all the different musical numbers. We were in the choir and it was really fun! We had 4 investigators at church and I could see all of them from where I was sitting! And Sister Carver was just smiling at us the whole time! Oh gosh I love her so much!!!

Okay... now for the big news that I've been holding out on. Before all of this happened, we had a teaching appointment with Sister Carver that we invited President Collins to come to. This was Tuesday afternoon. On the way to the appointment he was telling us how he heard that a year from now we will have 58 sisters in the mission, (right now we have 18) and how the mission is just going to explode here soon with tons of missionaries. I made the comment... 40 new sisters? How am I going to get to know all of them... and he said, "Sister Cordner, you're going to train more than half of them!" hahahaha... oh wait... this is President Collins joking about me training... I probably shouldn't be laughing at this.

After our lesson he told me he needed to talk to me. I thought maybe there was a talk about how to deal with sending your companion home. Instead he just straight up said, "Sister Cordner I need you to train." I said, "Ok... wait now?" And then I told him, in case he forgot, that I was a brand new missionary! But he seems to think that I can do it. So my new companion is currently in the MTC and will be flying in tomorrow. I will pick her up at the Transfers meeting this Wednesday and then train her!!! AAAAHHHH!!!

Basically I have just been kinda freaking out all week long about this. Part of me wishes he hadn't told me a week ago, because it really made for a hard and scary and stressful and mentally insane week... but the other side has been good. Sister Stanford trained her 3rd transfer, and so she had a lot of tips for me! Basically I'm going to "fake it til I make it" for the next little bit, and my new greenie will think that I actually know what I'm doing! hahaha. Anyway, I'm wicked nervous and basically am about to begin what I think will be the hardest thing I have ever done, so continue to pray for me! I know that I can't do it alone, and I have been relying on the Lord a lot since I've been out and I just know that I'm going to need to rely on him a lot more! With His help I can do it! (ONLY with His help!) Because without the strength from the atonement and the love of my Heavenly Father and the guidance of the Holy Ghost... I would not be able to do this!

 I love you all so much,

Sister Cordner!

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December 10, 2012

I'm not sure what has been happening to make time feel like its 100x faster than it should be... I guess I have just been keeping really busy or something! But time is literally FLYING and I can't believe its already Monday again. Next week is transfers, and since my companion is dying I'm going to be taking her down to Indy next Monday and then spending Monday night and Tuesday with some sisters in Indy, and then I will get my new companion on Wednesday... but until then Sister Stanford and I intend to have the best week ever and convert all of Lafayette!!! 

This past week has been so great! Everything about missionary work is great, have I mentioned how great missionary work is?! haha. We had an exchange this week and I worked with Sister Tagg for a day. She is great and we have a lot in common! She is from Arizona and also has graduated college. She came out the transfer before me but will be going home the same date I will, so we are already planning on living together in Arizona and being awkward RMs together! haha... I loved the exchange because I proved to myself that I don't need my trainer to do missionary work. I can be a real full time missionary all by myself... its like I'm a big kid now! I was really nervous going into it, like I think I will always be, but it ended up being a great day!

Saturday Lafayette had a Christmas Jubilee that a lot of churches hosted. For the last month or so we have had a christmas tree in the church building with ornaments that said "Buy a gift for a 3 year old girl for $5." or "Buy a gift for a 8 year old boy for $15." People were encouraged to take ornaments and bring the gifts to the church building, then on Saturday the whole stake center in West Lafayette was decked out with a room for stocking stuffers and a room for presents, all organized by gender and ages. People signed up to be hosts, and then people who have lived in the homeless shelters during the year were invited to come to a church to participate in the Jubilee. So Sister Stanford and I were hosts, and our girl was Monica. She is 24, has a 7 year old daughter and a 3 year old daughter, and she is about the nicest person I've met! She was so cute and funny and nice, very humble and appreciative. We took her to the rooms to get gifts and she picked out a small and a big gift for each daughter, and then we would go to the cultural hall and wrap them, and then we went and got more gifts. They were all allowed to get three stocking stuffers and three presents for each child they had, if they had a teenager they had gift cards for them. And then they had a plate of cookies and a ham for everyone to take home, and a gift card to the grocery store. It was insane the generosity that went into this. It is done every year and different churches around the city volunteer to host it, and the church members make it all possible! SO COOL!!! Well we counted it as a service project, but it was also a great finding opportunity. Monica loved us and we exchanged information and little does she know, we are thinking of making her our new investigator! haha, but really, she is just great, and we know the gospel can bless her life so much, so we are going to do all we can to help her out! 

I am learning so much on my mission. I had no idea how amazing nice of a life I had until I see how hard SO many people have it... I mean I knew my life was easy, I just had no idea how rare it is to have a life as good as the one I have led up to this point. So many people have had such a hard life, but I have also noticed that a lot of the things that make their lives hard could be avoided by living the Word of Wisdom, the law of Chastity, paying Tithing, keeping all of the commandments, and living in a provident living kind of way. So really I am just so thankful that the Gospel keeps us from so many hardships that are in the world! 

Sister Stanford and I became aunts to two little boys this week. A member of our Bishopric had his little boy this week (they were actually the first family I met on my mission and I just love Sister Harris!) and one of our investigators actually had a problem with her pregnancy and had her baby 2 months early. Little Cooper is doing well, but he will be in the NICU for a while. His mom Amy is doing better, really exhausted, but that is to be expected. We are kind of putting teaching her on hold for right now, but we have visited her in the hospital twice and we are still keeping contact with her, but I think the lessons will have to be but on hold until she is actually able to get out of her hospital bed. We were pretty scared when we heard, but everything is going well, and lots of prayers have been said for her and her family! 

Hmmm... everything else about this week is basically a blur. I love being a missionary and I love Lafayette Indiana! I keep having this nightmare that President is going to have me train a new missionary next transfer and that he will double transfer me out so I will have a brand new missionary and a brand new area and I won't have any idea what I'm doing. So lets just hope that I will be staying here!!! 

I love you all so much! Hope everyone is doing well and as always I look forward to hearing from you all!!!

Sister Cordner

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