Week 71 - Lockridge, Dianella Zone, Western Australia - December 19, 2016 - Merry Christmas!

It's been a good week! I got the package. Thanks Mom!

I loved the package so much! It made my week!
(Thank you everyone for sending me your picture and some 
of you sent messages!! I didn't think he would take the time 
to tape it up and THEN tape all the ornaments on, but he did!!! Yay!!)

Not much this week but we gave the training for the ward mission leaders and the bishopric and it went really well....Everyone was super pumped afterwards and we are hearing really good responses from around the stake so thats awesome! Had zone conference which was awesome. President Fife taught about being lovingly bold and how we have to help our investigators get rid of all their drugs, cigarettes and Alcohol....It was a really good training about helping our investigators keep commitments and progress!

Our Mongolian son is doing awesome! He's just blossoming into a beast! He is just getting used to the people here in Aussie land how chill city they are and all:) 

WELL, I will see you guys on SUNDAY:) Christmas Eve for you:) Can't wait!!! Love you guys:)

ELDER CORDNER

FHE with R and K - We shared a Christmas message and did the Nativity tradition.

This spider was pretty huge.....bigger than it looks in this picture!

Week 70 - Lockridge, Dianella Zone, Western Australia - December 12, 2016 - MONGOLIA

Our new son is from Mongolia! He is The MAN:) He is a convert to the Church of about 2 years because he went as an exchange student to Utah...He is super cool and he brings power to our lessons with his personal experiences of joining the church. It's pure! 

Miracle this week, K has come to church like 8 times now and he called us out of the blue the other day and told us he made the decision to be baptized! We were so pumped! His favorite number is 9 so of course he wants to be baptized on the 9th of January. haha! So we settled for that day! Now we just have to help him to continue to progress and remain strong. WE've got some dinners with members lined up for him so that should be good. 

This week has just been crazy and kinda slow as far as work goes just because of all the meetings and transport and all that so i am excited to have a more productive week. Missionary work is the best when you just hit mule mode and grind it out:)!  We have been asked by our Stake President to do a training for all the ward mission leaders and bishopric in the zone for tomorrow so that should be great! 

We started teaching a members' next door neighbor who is a devout Catholic but his dad recently died, He is pretty depressed and he's been studying a lot about the Mormon's beliefs of eternal families. When he told us he wanted to be with his family forever and his greatest desire was to see his father again, the Holy Ghost was with me in POWER with tear-filled eyes I testified of the way he could be with his family forever and Exhorted him to read the Book of Mormon...He  was looking down and i could definitely tell he was feeling some intense things... right at that moment his friend called his phone and he answered I could tell he was a little choked up...He agreed to diligently seek truth by reading and praying about the Book of Mormon. I have no doubt that if he asks in Faith with an intent to act upon an answer given he will receive his answer. 

I love this work guys:) I am so imperfect. The constant love that flows from our Father in Heaven Amazes me and causes me to Marvel! 

I read Dallin's (Mitchell's cousin who just came home this past week from Uganda) last email home and I was deeply touched by his testimony...What a Man! The spirit I felt was evidence that he really knows the things he said! Thanks for the example!

In the spirit of Dallin's testimony I want to share a brief one with all of you....

The other day I read a bumper sticker on the side of a diesel truck which read "Forget God because he has forgotten you." I bear you my personal witness that there is no greater lie my eyes have ever read or my heart felt. I personally Bear witness that at no moment in my mission and looking back on my short life at NO MOMENT IN MY LIFE has God ever Forgotten about me...He Has ALWAYS been there...And he will continue to always be there...You can always rely on God. You can trust him in face of all evidence to the contrary. I Testify That by the Power of the Holy Ghost I Know for myself and day by day I know even further that Jesus is The Savior and Redeemer of the world. He lives today He will come again. Whatever life has in store for me, I will NEVER forsake him. I will be faithful to him till the end of my mortal days. Joseph Smith is for sure a prophet of God. I have known this for a long time, I will defend his good name for the rest of my life. I love you all, This Gospel is true. My life would lose all meaning without it. I haven't been brainwashed out here. I have had experiences so personal and so undeniable they cannot be written in words. I love you all to death:) I thank my Heavenly Father each day for amazing Parents, Family, and friends that showed me the way when i was too stupid to open my eyes and look...

Have a MEAN WEEK:)

ELDER CORDNER

Elder Cordner and Elder Jackson's new companion from Mongolia.

Week 69 - Lockridge, Dianella Zone, Western Australia - December 5, 2016 - PURE

Well it has been quite an eventful few weeks. It has been a while since i have updated in detail so i will try and fill you guys in. 

R was baptized! It was an amazing experience to be a part of...Let me tell you a bit about him...

He grew up in Afghanistan but after most of his family was killed by the Taliban including his brothers and Father, he fled to Iran where he stayed and worked for many years and spent his days working as a farmer and hiding from the Muslim extremists who persecute his muslim sect...He got married and eventually made it to Pakistan with his wife and 3 kids....He has now been in Australia for over 5 years. 

From the time we met him to now, a dramatic change has taken place in his heart and in his countenance...He is happier than ever. He knows the truth, and he knows life's purpose and who to look to for strength and relief. It has been a miracle! He is such a solid convert...He has been teaching his family the lessons over skype and they are excited to be baptized when he finally gets them cleared and ready to come over. 

Me and Elder TA'ALA sang "How Great Thou Art" at the baptism and it was pretty good not gonna lie haha. He was baptized by a good friend he made in the ward Bro Pemburton who is in the bishopric....

K was at the baptism and church yesterday. He also went to a YSA event so he is looking awesome. He says he might be baptized at start of the year!

K looking sharp with Elder Jackson's name tag.

I got bit by a dog...which was soooo annoying. The owners were just laughing but i wanted to go big hoss mode and strangle the little guy...I went in the bathroom and i just had heaps of blood leaking down my thigh so that ticked me off a bit...

You know how I was eating super healthy??? Well we got into a scenerio with a Samoan family where we just couldn't turn down their food because it would have been HIGHLY offensive so after weeks of living a pure vegan raw foods diet I had to MULE DOWN the biggest amount of OILY Samoan food...It was sooooo good but they just kepty loading us up and a bit of the way through I KNEW i wasnt gonna be able to handle it I struggled for the remaining hour to keep it from coming up all over the table while we were giving a spiritual message and singing songs...it was complete war....

OH haha it was funny when we were teaching R about the Word of Wisdom. He was totally agreeing with everything and then Elder Jackson started talking about cold cereal and milk for some reason and R thought it was banned in the Word of Wisdom so he, on the spot, agreed to never again eat cold cereal and milk. Haha we explained that it was all goods and he laughed...Shows you how humble he is...He felt the spirit big time while we were teaching him and he was willing to obey whatever we taught him...Such a pure man...

Thats probably the longest letter I have ever wirtten! Wow! I love you guys so much! I am willing to conform my life to God's will at any point...God expects our love and our loyalty at every stage of our lives! Love you guys to death! Have a mean as week:) (No, he didn't misspell a bad word.  This is a pure Australian thing to say.)

ELDER CORDNER

Week 67 - Lockridge, Dianella Zone, Western Australia - November 21, 2016 - Thanksgiving Down Undah!

Last Thanksgiving I had a massive feast in Kalgoorlie with an American Family. Doesn't look like we will be quite as blessed this year:) Good to hear from home! Sad to hear LP lost in the Finals. That's 2 years in a row isn't it??? Anyways, I can't say much since my senior year we got throttled first game of the playoffs...

This was a super GOOD week. We are still working with R from Afghanistan. He is doing soooo good! He came to church again and loved it! For the third hour we took him and his friend H and another member into a room and taught the Restoration and the Law of Chastity. The Spirit was strong and smashed through the slight language barrier. R is such a humble man. He feels the fruits of the Spirit and he wants to change his life! It is so cool to see how quickly he makes changes. He has 100% completely stopped drinking alcohol, tea, and coffee and is sooo willing to change whatever he needs to, to be baptized. He is the man! 

We called President last night to talk to him about interviewing R. Please pray that everything will work out:) The only road block we can see is President not clearing him for baptism because of his previous religion.

K has been struggling. Apparently church on Sunday isn't quite as exciting as a rap concert or the club? But we are working with him!

Just tracting and contacting heaps trying to use a lot of unique approaches seeing what works well among different kinds of people...I find great satisfaction as I teach, testify, and give people a clear and simple chance to either accept an invitation to come to know if what we share is true??? If the blessings we speak of are real??? Sometimes we can get people to the point where they understand that it is their own pride, laziness, or lack of desire that is putting a pavilion between them and their Father in Heaven.

I have been smashing the general conference talks. We just got the hard copy. Reading through it my favorite two talks are Elder Ballard's and Elder Bednar's.....I love  Elder Ballard's point of "Where would you go if you left the church????" "To where would you turn???" Serving here in Australia, I have witnessed the results of people abandoning God and refusing to believe life has a purpose.... I would never want to trade with them. I thank Heavenly Father for the undeserved, unending blessings of my life. I am forever and eternally indebted to Him! I love you all! Remember How blessed you are! Even if your life seems in shambles you have the Gospel of Jesus Christ. That alone is  a blessing; an understanding greater than any worldly amount of wealth, comfort, or education. 

Elder Cordner

Elder Jakoselam, a missionary from the Philipines, carving some fresh sugar cane.

Week 66 - Lockridge, Dianella Zone, Western Australia - November 14, 2016 - Donald Trump

Everyone has been talking about Donald Trump! The minute they hear our American accents that is the first question everyone asks haha....and when we respond in favor to Donald they all disfigure there faces and scoff at us with disgust! Haha!  The media has portrayed Donald as an absolute Monster here! It is pretty funny:)

So R the Muslim who told us he wants to become a Christian...He came to church again and loved it...We put him on date for the first weekend in Dec! We need to help him with the word of wisdom. He has a super busy schedule so we are gonna have to mainly teach him on the weekends but we are really excited about that!!! 

The heat is comin in full throttle. It's supposed to be a hot one today...

Nothin much new to talk about to be honest...

We are setting up a games night every 2 weeks. We got a bible study going on with this guy in our ward that we are inviting people to and we've got an english class....so we are really trying to find people in different venues then just at doorsteps:)

Our mission is reading the talk "Cast not away therefore Your Confidence" by Elder Holland. It is super good and helped me to learn more how God works with us and invites us to change and grow...

Love you guys:) have a good week:)

Elder Cordner

This was like a month ago with K - the one in the blue top.

Week 65 - Lockridge, Dianella Zone, Western Australia - November 7, 2016 - Muslim Convention and Summer

Hey guys, Its been a while since i have really written so I''ll try to remember some details to try to make it interesting...

President Fife had Elder Jackson and I go to a Muslim Convention in the city to represent the Church...It was quite interesting from songs in Persian to Rebukes from the Koran. The Representative of Australia was there and he told us that he had met Dr. Hinckley and presented him with a Koran. Pretty awesome!

The same night of the Convention we had a sports night for our ward that we had invited some of our gators to but right when we were about to leave the building, they closed the doors and guarded them and started showing a documentary on their leader they call "HIS HOLINESS." They believe that when Christ was on the cross he was really in a coma and he continued to live, traveled down to India and lived the rest of his life. Anyways, we missed the sports night that we had put together. Luckily the sisters had our backs:) 

We have been teaching a Polynesian kid named K and he is going well. He has come to church twice now and we are helping him to move his baptism date forward. Right now he wants to get baptized the 1st of Jan...  We had Zone conference which was awesome! President Fife's mortal hero is Joseph Smith. He talked about him a lot...I also Love the Prophet Joseph! He is my hero!

We had a cool miracle. There is an Afghan who got baptized into the church about a year ago and we have been visiting him. He lives with like 5 other guys from Afghahnistan. We were talking to one the other day who had come to church the previous week and he just opened up to us telling us how he really felt something powerful at church. He said he wants to change his life and become a Christian! It was awesome! So we are working with him and helping him to come to church again!

The work here in our area is pretty usual. We are trying to contact 100 people a day which for our area basically means tracting and contacting all day...There aren't very many people out walking around... I love being a Servant of the Lord so much! The happiness this Gospel brings cannot be emulated by the world...I love you guys!!!

Elder Cordner

My nametag at the Muslim Convention.

D Will

Week 62 - Lockridge, Dianella Zone, Western Australia - October 17, 2016 - Winter For You Summer For Me:)

The weather is perfect these days here in Perth - not too hot not too cold. Probably around 75 degrees most days...but I know better than to get comfortable. The scorching Egyptian Heat is just around the corner:) Good to hear from you guys...S/O to King for winning Sir Knight! I watched the vid! Haha! I was cracking up at Chadwick doing a jig in the corner! You are such an Eagle LOUIE! 

Don't have too much to say since I just wrote...

We have some part member families that have been coming to church pretty regularly so right now we are really focusing in on them. They just need to take that step of faith and Follow the Savior into the water...

This one Mauri dude is about to get married to a member his name is M. He works in the mines; always flying in and flying out but we are going over to see him this weekend...

We are teaching an 18 year old kid from Congo he is super interested but just got baptized like a few weeks ago into a different church so it should be interesting bringing that one up!

I just finished the Book of Mormon again...I know its true; no doubt about it...

While I have logically studied different religions and beliefs throughout my mission, it has become obviously apparent that if there is a God, this is his Church. With the depth of understanding and eternal perspective this gospel gives, everything else just doesn't cut it...Not even beginning to mention the far more important spiritual witnesses I've experienced.  

I love being a missionary, The peace I feel can't be explained! I have faith that God will perform mighty miracles here!

HAVE A MEAN WEEK!!

ELDER CORDNER

Some guys from Afghanistan we are teaching.

Week 61 - Lockridge, Dianella Zone, Western Australia - October 13, 2016 - God Still Speaks

HEY! I am not gonna lie. I have very limited time today due to some unexpected events but I will try to share a few things:) 

MAN it was good to hear from Ryan about his first week in the field. He is gonna be soooo solid! He already is! I loved General Conference of course. I tried to only write down the things that I thought the Spirit was telling me this conference and I really liked it. It gave me more time to actually really listen and to be in constant prayer with Heavenly Father. Although I did have talks that I liked the most the things that stuck with me the most were the personal messages that God gave me as i listened to The Prophet and the Quorum of the Twelve. One of the things that I really loved was the powerful message that God's work is not yet finished. He still speaks today. The Restoration is an ongoing process. I know that is true! One of the missionaries in the mission used to be a Jehovah's Witness a few years ago but he converted to the church and came out on a mission. I was on exchanges with him yesterday and it was super cool to talk to him about all his personal experiences and how he came to know the church was true...Some of these missionaries I get to serve with have THE COOLEST conversion stories. A lot of them come from families where no one is a member of the church...It strengthens my faith serving with them and it's a blessing for me to witness their examples!

We found a really cool couple tracting....most random thing of my mission...one of them is a less active member from Mexico City haha! She is the 2nd Mexican I have ever met in Australia and she is a member...They came to conference and loved it! Her husband is a true blue Aussie. We are working with him. I will write you guys again in a few days! love you so much!

ELDER CORDNER

This is D. He was doing soooo good then he slipped back into the drugs
and we lost contact. Hopefully we can see him again

Elder Zinck and I heading down to the city...He used to be a Jehovah's witness....He is such a wildabeast. 

He does hip hop dancing professionally haha...He has gone to Vegas like 3 times and won competitions. 

Such a Stud!

Elder Sokovakayawa from Fiji. He had a 30,000$ contract per game to play 
rugby professionally for France but he turned it down to serve the Lord.
Such a cool guy. His brother plays pro Rugby for Australia

We taught a pro rugby player named Sham and he gave us a tour of the 
Western Force Training Facility... It was pretty legit! My heart was Yearning to slam 
some biscuits on an Iron bar and start Feeding my writhled 
(cross between withered and shriveled??) mission body haha....