Week 59 - Lockridge, Dianella Zone, Western Australia - September 27, 2016 - CHILL CITY

Good to hear from you all! The Alpine lingo that the boys and I created is flourishing in the Australia Perth mission! haha! It's so funny how fast our weird language catches on. 

This last week was Mean for sure....We had zone conference that was awesome! We watched "How Rare A Possession" and President Fife put a lot of emphasis on the Book of Mormon and fully utilizing it in our teaching. He also talked about being Swiss Army Knife missionaries, not single blade! He was so excited to pull out his swiss army knife and reveal all the different gadgets but he was a little too hasty and cut himself on the thumb! haha! Awesome meeting! Elder Jackson and I did Zone meeting yesterday which President Fife came to. We role played teaching President in front of the zone....

Sooo this week we had some really good success teaching, The sisters in our ward had a lot of young African guys that they were teaching so they referred them all to us and that's been good... We are teaching a kid named E who is keen to be baptized once he finds out it is all true. We tracted into a long lost less active kiwi woman who is like 60. We have been teaching her and her partner from South Africa...We went over and taught them. The Spirit was THICK...She couldn't stop crying to save her life and B was just sooo confused as to why she was so emotional. Haha! He is a pure atheist....We have been going around and trying to visit the members with the Spirit so they will all trust us and it's been working really well. I like this ward a lot:) 

A few days ago we unintentionally got involved in quite the dangerous situation! haha...We were visiting with an potential  investigator from Africa. We were meeting with him on his back patio area when his wife came out and started yelling at him. Apparently she is Muslim and she does not want him to meet with us. She was making fun of him and yelling at him etc... This guy that we were meeting with just flips out and attacks his wife and starts bashing her up. We finally pulled him off her and he immediately went inside and destroyed his whole house...He was chucking TVs, chairs, everything....Long story short we spent the next 30 mins stopping Him from murdering his wife while we waited for the police to come....it was soooo intense!!! Haha She was chucking massive rocks at him and she started chucking furniture and everything also....Pretty crazy! It felt like such a movie scene....When the police finally came they got control of the situation and asked us what happened and everything...We didn't want to be involved so luckily we had a YSA kid with us who was able to give reports on the crime scene and provide a statement and everything...We were laughing after because it was the very first lesson we had ever taken this poor young single adult to. Haha...he was soo bewildered.....Sorry if the story scares you mom- just thought it was something exciting to share. We were definitely protected by God. :)

I love being a missionary! I love you guys! Have a good week:)

ELDER CORDNER

Dianella Zone

We started teaching this guy.  Turns out he is a long lost less-active.
He got baptized when he was 9.
We are working on getting him back to church.

Week 58 - Lockridge, Dianella Zone, Western Australia - September 19, 2016 - Living the Dream!

Hey Guys its just me again:) It was cool to see the twins dance pics they looked pure!

Honestly, not much happened this week. We had transfers so we had heaps of missionaries staying in our rat's nest which just made matters worse....We laugh because there is just strange different scents as you go into each room of our flat....Missionaries have probably been living in it for 50 years.... 

We live next to these big parks and we find the most random people there that are usually just high off their minds but we have seen some pretty funny things....I won't mention it in this email but if you want to know ask King Louie. (A nickname for Elder Cordner's younger brother) I told him what happened. 

I dare you all to read the last chapter of Helaman and look for how it relates to people today. There are 3 specific Obvious Manifestations of the Power and reality of God that the people dismiss and refuse to believe. Satan is very cunning and if we don't have our own testimony and Faith in Jesus Christ even witnessing miracles will not be enough for us to change our ways and align our hearts with God. We should seek to feed our spirit each day and focus on strengthening our Faith in Christ each and every day. I love you guys! Have a good week!!!

Elder Cordner

A little paragraph that Elder Cordner wrote to his father in response to his letter this week.  His dad shared with him a little about a wonderful training meeting he had with Elder Quentin L. Cook and some other general authorities.

Powerful...I wish i could have been there with you...My testimony of the Savior Jesus Christ is just starting to grow and flourish. I have gained a personal conviction that i will never deny or turn away from. On my mission I have gotten my Goals and aspirations into line i have a Powerful Vision of what i want to do and who i want to become...I am not dumb...I know that these things can be very quickly lost if we lose focus of whats important, or stop doing the daily things that build our Faith. It bothers me soooo much when people tell me that you never really know if you will go less active so be careful what you say....haha it may be true for them but for me its not....Although I will stumble and fall along the way I WILL NEVER FORSAKE THE SAVIOR. He has reached out to me personally and let me know that he is there and that he is real and for that I will Stand as a witness of him for the rest of my life. Love you dad

Week 57 - Lockridge, Dianella Zone, Western Australia - September 12, 2016 - Another Day, Another Place!

It was pure to see the pics and witness the Lake Powell experience via email! It was just as good as actually going:) I didn't see any pics of Chase! Did he actually go??? Anyways, its been an exciting couple days! I was called a few nights ago and told to pack up my stuff and bring it all to a leadership meeting that we had going on. And I found out I would be Doubled into another Zone leader area so we just got Shotgunned "when both Elders just get thrown into a new area and told to start from scratch." SO I am now in the Dianella zone in Lockridge. It's pretty cool cuz we have free reign to anywhere downtown Perth- all the way to Cottlesoe beach. It'll be fun! We will check it all out and have some fun p-days.

It's been really fun just starting fresh and building an area. We couldn't find the area book for ages, then we finally found it and saw that it hadn't been updated for a year.  Haha! That's not good. 

Something I love already is our Stake President. I love HIM!  He is a lawyer and a lot of people here in the stake have been highly offended by him because he is so bold. Haha! I have loved listening to him ever since I heard him speak like 10 months ago. He is the man! Our bishop is cool too! We went and met him last night. His family is cute as he has 5 kids all young and blonde with blue eyes. They were going crazy, crawling all over us all, talking nonstop - super cool family. I have only heard good things about the ward so I am pumped! It's us and a set of sisters in the ward.

Our area is pretty rough. Everyone has been warning us to watch our backs! Our neighbor smokes pounds of pot per day and it beautifully perfumes our home:) Our flat has got to be one of the oldest in the mission! haha! It is nasty! So many elders for so many years.... I am not even gonna bother to try and clean it....might as well take my turn and live amongst the filth....Oh, by the way, I finally believe dad about how big the rats are in Brazil. I have seen rats here that are way bigger than house cats! It's hilarious. 

ME and my comp are gonna smash this area! We are excited! It's so interesting to see how God has set me up in such particular circumstances throughout my mission:) Things never go as planned:) and its usually not what will be easy and fun, but what will help us in each of our own personal ways to draw closer to The Savior and to be reliant upon Him and trust Him. I am starting to see a very personal pattern in my life with how Heavenly Father works with me. I testify that He is in the details of our lives. 

I had a powerful experience in an interview with President Fife....After we had been discussing some goals that I have, he looked me in the eye pointed his finger at me and said, "Nothing good about you comes from yourself. Every last bit of it comes from God. There is never a moment in life where you can pat yourself on the back. You remember that". When he said that the spirit surged through me, my vision went blurry and I knew that what he said was absolutely true. I had the strong impression that, that is something God really is trying to help me learn and something I need to learn further for some reason. God is in the very details of our lives! I know He is. I have had Experiences. I will never deny!

LOVE YOU ALL:) HAVE A GOOD WEEK:)

ELDER CORDNER

The leadership in Southern River Zone before I left.

My new companion, Elder Jackson from Snowflake, AZ.  He was a rabbit farmer before the mission.

I can't wait to see some big ones :)

Week 56 - Gosnells, Southern River Zone, Western Australia - September 5, 2016 - Island Feeds

HEY Everyone! I just wrote you all and I am sure you are all busy Basking in the Lake Powell sun, and tubing your hearts out so I will keep it short. 

We have been working with a part member family from N-Zed and it has been pretty awesome. They fed us like 3 times this past week! haha! Last night they Made a Huge Samoan Feed! It was so dang good. I kid you not- once you eat a lot of Poly food there is no going back! Nothing else can quite hit the spot!!! Good thing my metabolism is still in high gear.

It's so crazy how well our Heavenly Father knows us. I have noticed on my mission that He absolutely refuses to let me get comfortable which is a good thing because once you are comfortable you have stopped Growing. I came on the mission overly confident in my own abilities and I am so grateful God has kindly showed me I am capable of no good thing in and of myself. I rely upon him for everything, even though my first instinct is to do things myself. I am learning to trust in him:) I Love you all have a good week:) have fun at POWELLLLLLLLL!!!! you lucky DOGS:)

ELDER CORDNER

Stralia Mate!

Some true Aussies from Darwin - thickest accents I've ever heard.

Big Phil

Week 55 - Gosnells, Southern River Zone, Western Australia - September 1, 2016 - Happy Birthday MUM AND KENZIE:)

Just so you know, I didn't forget about mum's birthday last week. I just wanted to make it even more special and give a S/O to both of you at the same time:) I love you two so much and if it weren't for both of you I would probably be in a gutter slumped over drunk in the middle of Kiev, Ukraine. It really is the unbelievable women in my life that motivates me to be the man God wants me to be and to honor my priesthood. I love you guys:)

We just got back from the Temple, which was great I feel refreshed and ready to go big animal for another week. We are currently teaching a Perth local female WWE wrestler....she has bright purple hair because it matches her fighting costume and she is probably 350 pounds....that's been really fun! She is one of a kind.

On the train ride back from the temple just barely we were just calmly cruising back to our area and a MASSIVE Aboriginal man and his friends got on the train. He was obviously high on something but he immediately shouted You *&#!%$ Mormons* and he was just going crazy all the while I was picturing Nelson going big Hoss mode on those Russians in the subway station and I thought it might be my moment to shine....sadly he stopped yelling and went to the other end of the train...Heavenly Father knows I am just too eager for adventure- so he keeps me safe.

We have had some awesome experiences knocking doors just meeting heaps of people who needed us at that very moment. Yesterday we found probably one of the most humble Aussie guys I have ever met. After we explained the restoration I asked him what it would mean to him if he found out from God that all this was true.... He paused and said "well it would kinda mean everything now wouldn't it" WOAH! I was surprised! We don't hear that very often. A man who was not interested at all at first was touched by Joseph's experience and now we are heading over tonight to share more....I promise you that If Joseph's story was a lie this church would have no followers, not even his family would have believed him. No other Church on this Earth makes anywhere near the claims that we make as a Church....Because they can't back it up nor does the spirit. I know for myself that Joseph Smith was a Prophet called and chosen by God to accomplish His eternal purposes. 

This past zone meeting we had on Tuesday, my comp and I trained on what the difference is between Knowing of Christ, and Really Knowing Christ. In the last year in my own small way I have come to Really know the Savior. I love Him so much! If this mission was for any other purpose than to represent Jesus Christ and be His representative it wouldn't be worth it at all. I know he lives! This life would be pointless to the core if it weren't for Him.  

I LOVE YOU ALL HAVE AN AWESOME WEEK <3

ELDER CORDNER