My New Career

I can't even begin to express my gratitude for the way things have just been falling into place for me since I got home! Let me back up and tell some background story about how all of this came to be.

In college there was this super sweet girl in some of my healthcare classes. We really hit it off and decided to become roommates! We were roommates until she decided to be a grown up and graduate. That was a sad day! But the good thing is that we stayed friends. She got a sweet job in Salt Lake and I went on a mission and we emailed each other every week! 

Around Christmas I asked her if she could keep her eye open for jobs for me! And then in my last transfer she told me she found the perfect job for me. That the description is basically asking for Tara, and that her boss wants to interview me as soon as she can. Because I was still on the mission we set it up so I could interview over Skype on a preparation day. I apparently impressed them because they wanted to interview me again! So I got home from the mission, made a resume, emailed it to them, and scheduled my second interview for yesterday. My interview was a panel interview with 6 different managers I would be working closely with. After my interview they asked if I could stay for a little bit. Not 10 minutes later my main boss came out and talked with me and I assumed she was going to ask me to have a third interview. She told me that everyone in the room loved me and that they want to bypass the third interview and offer me the job right there! That was totally unexpected but really exciting!  

So the job itself: I will be a Quality Coordinator at Sutter Health Physicians Services. It's a call center for Sutter Health in Sacramento California. So when you go to the hospital and they say, call this number, you are actually calling us! And my job is pretty much the Cheer-leader of the office. I am over all aspects of quality. I will do training for all the new hires, I will monitor patient calls and help to improve the over quality of the whole office! They wanted someone who is happy and bubbly and can be friends with everyone but also someone who can get the job done, train others, and be professional! Apparently they think I can do all of those things! 

So yea, thats the job and the how to behind it! I prayed on the mission when I heard about this job that Heavenly Father would send me where he needed me to be. I told Him if I needed to be in Salt Lake then help me get this job, if not, help me to know where I was needed. I feel so good about this decision. It was almost as easy as showing up to transfer meeting and getting told where my new area is! He sure does love me and watch over me all the time! I am just in awe at how much our Heavenly Father loves us!

Post Mission Baptism

Once upon a time I got transferred from one of the best areas in the whole mission (Carmel) to a tiny little farm town called Rochester. We got there and had one investigator. She was wonderful, but you need more than one investigator if you want to have things to do during the day. So my companion and I started praying for finding opportunities, and the first week we were there we got a HQ referral from a member who said his wife wasn't a member and he wanted us to come and meet her. So we went and met them that Saturday and they were the sweetest couple ever! She was raised Pentecostal, but the current church she was attending didn't have any stance on keeping the Sabbath Day holy. She knew right off that that was a problem. We had lessons with them about twice a week for the whole time I was there. She had a hard time accepting the Book of Mormon at first, also had a hard time with needed to be baptized again (mostly just wondering about the priesthood!) My companion and I just loved teaching them together. When we invited them to church they came! And they kept coming.

On Christmas Eve they had us over for dinner. It was quite a miracle because we were invited to spend the time at the Stake Presidents house but we didn't have the miles to drive down to Lafayette to spend the day with the other missionaries. So we went to their house and we ended the night by watching Joy to the World. After we watched that movie we asked her what she thought, and she told us she wanted to get baptized!!!! But there was a catch... they are snowbirds. They stay in Rochester for the holidays, but once those are done they move to Arizona to spend the winter here. So we told them that that wasn't too big of a problem. We reassured them there would be missionaries in Arizona and you could meet with them and get baptized there. I couldn't invite someone to be baptized without extending a date... so we invited them to be baptized on February 15.  They knew that I was ending my mission soon and that I was from Arizona. So I planned a baptism on my mission for the week I got home!

I was sure I would be there in Rochester to work with them until they moved, but I was transferred out unexpectedly and I didn't have a way to keep in touch with them. The week I got home from my mission I gave them a call and she told me she was still getting baptized and that she wanted me to be there!!! So that Saturday I drove to Apache Junction and got to see a baptism of the sister I taught this last December in Rochester.

The coolest thing about the whole experience was that I really struggled in Rochester knowing what I was to do there. I got a blessing from my District Leader and he told me that someone in Rochester needed me. I now know retrospectively why I was called to go to Rochester for the short 6 weeks I was there!!! I am so thankful that God was in control of my mission and where I went! I love how he works!

Going to the baptism the week after I got home was the best way to end my mission ever! I could not have asked for a better transition into real life!!!

Remember That One Time I Served a Mission...

The title I think sums it up pretty well... I served a mission! Past tense. Its over! I can hardly believe it. It was the slowest 17 months of my life, but also the fastest. It was the hardest, but also the funnest. It was the saddest, but also the most rewarding.... Wow. I'm about to get all sorts of cliche on this blog. Be ready for sap!

I don't even know how to sum up my mission in a single blog entry. Luckily my mom posted my emails for the last year and a half so my mission is on here if you want to read it! But if all you want is a sum up, here it is...

I always knew that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints was the true church on the earth. I gained my testimony as a youth in seminary and through mutual, and I had a pretty solid foundation of the truth. What I learned on my mission was that there is a much deeper meaning to the "church being true." I finally understood why we needed a restoration, what Joseph Smith truly did for us. But most important, I gained a conversion to living the Gospel of Christ so that I can be cleansed from sin through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ established His church when He was on the Earth, and after He ascended up to Heaven, the church was lost. Joseph Smith simply brought back Christ's church in its entirety. Thats what it means to be true. This is God's Kingdom on the earth today.... true statement!

That doesn't even begin to cover what I've learned on my mission, but that is a start.

Now into the real life... I'm going to try to be a normal person now. Hopefully everyone will get a few kicks and giggles out of me struggling to be a grown up! I have plans to tell you all about it. I am actually really excited to be back and blogging again! So be ready blogging world... TARA IS BACK!!!

February 10, 2014

It took me all of 5 minutes to read everyones emails this week. And it will probably take only 5 minutes to reply back to everyone. This week was... well it was hard! I hate goodbyes.

There was a snowstorm that hit Tuesday night and we needed to go inside, and we stayed in for most of Wednesday too. Not really how I would have liked my last week to be but it was okay. We had a few really good lessons this week. One that was AMAZING with a newer investigator and his girlfriend who apparently used to be taught by Elders and she was bearing testimony how she knows this church is true and how the Book of Mormon is true. She snuggled right up to him and said, Ah, honey... this could be our first church together! It was way cute, and I'm sad that I won't stay to keep teaching them. 

I loved this area. The work didn't move along as much as I would have liked it to... but it was still really great. I loved my zone. I LOVED my district. These elders have become life long friends. They moved around their schedules today so we could play one last game of Volleyball. I was an emotional wreck though, I think they thought I was kinda weird as I would hit the ball and then start to cry. No joke though. But we have all said our goodbyes and now life is over. (Mission life that is). 

But in all honesty... as sad as this week has been... I'M SO EXCITED TO COME HOME!!! I can't wait to see all of you and talk to all of you! I have some ultra fun plans for tomorrow and Wednesday! Please be patient with me as I try to transition into being a normal person again! I love you all so much!!!

Sister Cordner

February 3, 2014

President Cleveland has set a standard of excellence that we should all be achieving... and when we got double transferred into the area, we were no where close to getting it. We are supposed to be teaching 20 lessons a week... we were maybe getting 10-12. But this week we had miracles. The mission did a mission fast for finding. It included a few steps that we did all week long. We studied finding every day, said an extra prayer before we left the apartment that was solely on aligning our will with Heavenly Fathers so we can be more spiritually in tune to who He wants us to be seeing. We did a lot more finding activities than we have been doing, and then of course we fasted on Sunday! We found 4 sweet new people to teach, and taught a total of 19 lessons! That was pretty awesome for White River!!! With the new people and the ones we will be finding this week, we are hoping to reach that goal he has set for us. 

We had the coolest experience yesterday at a less-actives home. She told us when we found her that she would have us over for dinner sometime, so we asked her if she would feed us yesterday, and she did. Our lesson was going to be on baptism and what her baptism covenant meant, but we prefaced it a little with faith and repentance. Then she starts to cry and says,"I know what you are saying, I need to do..." and then she starts listing off the stuff that the Spirit was teaching her. I love being a missionary because even though I'm the one speaking words, the Spirit is the one teaching... and it is SO COOL when you see others feel and hear the Spirit. She knows what she needs to be doing now, not because Sister Cutler and I told her... but because the Spirit did!!!

None of our investigators are progressing right now. It was kinda a sad Sunday, we expected 4 or 5 of them to come to church, and no one did. But it was still a great day at church. The Spirit was so strong. I bore my testimony on the work and the gospel. I cried a little in Relief Society just because the Spirit was so wonderful!!! I can't even put into words how much I love my calling. Its the best thing I have ever done with my life! I love it so much!!! 

Talk to you all next week, have a great week!

January 27, 2014

Well I am offically on week 5 of the transfer, which means that next week will be week 6.... and then thats it. That is all of my weeks!!! Words can't even describe the emotional roller coaster I have been going through. I am going to miss Indy so much, I love the people in this area, and I'm going to miss all my missionary friends like crazy... but there are also SO many people at home that I love and miss terribly, and missionary friends who have gone on before me, and so much that I want to do at home.... so I'm really expereincing what the phrase Bitter-Sweet means!

This week has been wonderful! I did something for the first time this week in my whole mission. I went on an exchange with a Sister Training Leader!!! She is so great, Sister Roundy. She is my great-granddaughter. She was trained by Sister Hain who was trained by Sister Guy who was trained by me! All of this happening in the Lafayette 3rd ward. So of course we had a lot in common starting our first 6 months of our mission in the best area ever! And then we just went to work. She is working in the most coveted area, Indy YSA. I have only wanted to serve there my WHOLE mission!!! But I'm not jealous. We had district meeting in the morning and then her and I went to teach a LA that is actually in my area, but then we spent the rest of the day on campus. We give the zone leaders a hard time because they work on campus and are only teaching girls. So I made a goal (to mock the goals they make of contacting 2 blondes and 2 brunettes) to contact a boy that would be interested. As we are walking on campus, I look behind me and see this really tall guy with a Colts hat on. I just start talking to him about the colts, we walk together for a bit, and before you know it we are inside talking about the Book of Mormon and a bunch of other doctrine. We had a great talk and we invited him to learn more. I'm so jealous of the sisters who get to teach on campuses. There are so many prepared people there. My short time on campus we talked with a lot of people and had a few lessons. It was so sweet!!! Then that night we went to Institue. That was really werid because I was just thinking the whole time how in a few weeks I could be in an institue classroom for real, without my tag on! And now I can be one of those annoying people who start every comment I make with, "When I was on my mission..." I CAN'T WAIT!!!!

My Sister Training Leader is so cute, shes been out for almost 8 months now. She told me she was scared to go on an exchange with me, but felt like she needed to! We had a great time together and we both learned a lot!

We had the sweetest lesson with the Thompsons yesterday. We showed then the apostasy cups, and the 14 year old boy asked his mom (the less active member) if the church they are going to has 12 Apostles. She said no and he said that he then wanted to go to this church! hahaha! The truth will get ya, every time!!! That family has become some of my best friends in Indy! I am excited to be facebook and real friends with them after the mission so I can continue to help them grow in the Gospel while the sisters help them here!!! They are so wonderful!!!

I love my companion, we are having a blast together. What a blessing it has been to serve with her at the end of my mission!!! I love every part of the work right now, except of course the freezing weather. There have been days where I just want to cry because of how cold it is. And then I think about how warm it is in Arizona... I'm going to melt once I get home! I can't wait though. I am excited to feel warm again! 

Well I love you all! I will continue to let you know how much I love this place for all of 2 weeks and then I will call you to tell you more! hahaha! Have a great week,

Sister Cordner