Week 33 - Gosnells, Southern River Zone, Western Australia - March 29, 2016 - Kenzie's Home!

Man, it was sweet to look at all the pictures of everyone gathered together to welcome Sister Cordner home! I watched the video of her seeing everyone for the first time and it made me smile HUGE. Happy for all of you but I am glad I am out here:) Heard from several people Mckenzie gave an awesome talk and shared some cool experiences...well done.

This week I don't have heaps to say cuz I just wrote a few days ago but, we had dinner last night with some people from New Zealand.  They are actually Seventh-Day Adventists so we will see how things go but Elder B and I made some mean bbq wings and took them over to add to the FEED that they had prepared. They LOVED our chicken I made some spicy ranch dip for them just like at buffalo wild wings haha! They just kept saying over and over "Cuz this Chicken Gangsta G' haha they LOVED it - gobbled it all up. But it was good! We talked about our beliefs and we have a good relationship with them now so we are planning on inviting them to church...

Easter has been good here.  We missed our ward gathering because we had to deal with missionaries who were acting like punks. Elder Brinkerhoff and I are staying together another transfer! haha We thought for sure he was leaving! We are happy tho! At the end of this transfer he is going to have been here for 10 and a half months lol. We have work to do!

The other day during studies I was reading in the New Testament (which I am trying to finish) and the thought just came to me to read Ether 4...I didn't even know what chapter that was but I turned to it and God just spoke to me through the Book of Mormon...It was a neat experience. It would be nice if I could always follow those quiet little promptings. I love all of you! It was great to see all the pictures! Have a nectarizing week.

Elder Cordner

Week 32 - Gosnells, Southern River Zone, Western Australia - March 21, 2016 - RE-United

Hello family:) I looked at the pictures of you guys in Brazil with Kenzie and I was just smiling huge! You all look so good and Kenzie looks soooo happy! Haha Sounded like to me that it has been a very fun trip....It actually just motivated me to work harder because I am not ready for that day to come for me...:) The pictures of dad with the families he baptized were so awesome. I wish I could have been there to meet them. I bet the kids at home are anxious for you guys to get back!

We find out about transfers this Sunday...anything could happen! Elder B has been here ages so I am thinking he will leave but who knows.

I do not have long....It has been a hectic week with a lot of random things going on so we still have a lot to do today. We aren't really taking a full p day.  President Fife randomly showed up at our Zone Meeting. Elder B and I are giving a training in front of the stake/ward mission leaders and ward missionaries tonight on how a correlation meeting should look like so that should be good:)

I love all of you thanks for the letters and all the pictures!

We are all children of a Father in Heaven who loves us more than our mortal minds can comprehend. My love for Him is growing each day as I serve and lift those whom I am able. I promise you all that not for one moment of your life has Your Father turned from you. Put him first in your life and watch in amazement as your heart is transformed. I love Jesus Christ. It is because of him that I have a chance at becoming something. I am SO Weak but through Christ I can be perfected. My hero in the Book of Mormon is Nephi. I pray to become even in the least bit, like he is.

This mission here in Perth Australia was the one for me! Have a good week and enjoy the company of the returning sister MAMMAL. haha

Elder Cordner

Week 31 - Gosnells, Southern River Zone, Western Australia - March 14, 2016 - BUZZY

When something is true but hard to believe they say..."buzzzzzzzy" here.....It is buzzy to think that you guys will be going to pick up Kenzie just in 2 days! That is soooooo cool! I am so happy that most of the family will be re-united! haha Don't worry about me. Just send lots of pictutres of Brazil and all the people you guys meet! Can't wait till next Monday to see everything! Cool also to hear all the hullabaloo that is going on back home. Seems like things are quite busy. I was really happy to hear Jake baptized Bennett. That brought a smile to my face! He beat me to his first baptism. haha!

Well, E came to church yesterday. He always loves it and he still wants to get baptized but it's still the same old problem. His elders of his tribe need to grant permission....We talked straight up with him and he called his uncle again to talk to him.  Apparently he won't know for sure until his uncle comes to Australia sometime soon.....Who knows when that will be...so we are praying and fasting for a miracle! J and M are doing well. They are sincerely investigating and they said when they come to know that it is true for themselves they will be baptized. M is having a little bit of a hard time just because her whole family is very dedicated to Catholicism and her brother is a priest....They are reading the Book of Mormon though and they are coming to a small ward gathering tonight so I hope all goes well there. Elder Brinkerhoff and I are sharing a spiritual thought at this gathering so we practiced a little skit we made up. haha I'll film it and try to send it to you guys.  It should create some laughs.

C is doing alright. He is still toughing it out with his smoking habit. We are working as close as possible with him. This morning we went over and read Alma 32 with him and watched all 3 patterns of light videos by Elder Bednar. It was very good. He will be baptized if he can kick the smoking but he needs Gods help...that is where we are at with him...

We found a couple from New Zealand who are keen to hear our message so we are seeing them tomorrow. We met her walking home from the Chemist (a store) and we talked to her for a while. She needed a vacuum but she didn't have one so we biked ages home and got her one and drove back in the car with it. She was super grateful and maybe something good will come of it....:)

Elder Brinkerhoff and I keep super busy with all our various duties.  It's good since some of our district leaders are struggling. We might start going on even more exchanges to try to help them out....That means we are going to have a pretty dirty flat if we don't keep on top of things haha. Anyways, things are good here in Perth...I saw the weather on C's tv today and Perth is the hottest this week in all of Australia BY FAR....so we are in for a treat:)

Congrats to Nelson....he sent me and email and informed me all about what went down...love ya brother and Hello to his new Woman you will be seeing me a lot in the future haha. S/O to Rio also...idk quite whats up with him but they are engaged ehhh???  idk haha love those 2.

King, Nana, and Maddy, I am sure you guys will have the time of your lives spending the week with Aunt Jayne  I am sure Maddy is very excited! Love you all! Thanks so much for writing me and have a fun adventure in South America!!! Welcome to the SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE:) 

Elder Cordner

J, M, and M. J actually played college bball in the Phillipines. They are doing pretty good. 

They have real intent to know the truth. They read the Book of Mormon in Tagalog every day.

                                

                                

                             

Week 30 - Gosnells, Southern River Zone, Western Australia - March 8, 2016 - Never let a Poly in your kitchen

Elder Ramsey from Tonga....in the back is M the Filipino who came to church!

I'd say 70% of the Elders in our Zone are Polynesian and their is a new way we do exchanges where they actually come to our area and stay the night and work for a day instead of us going to their areas. But this is starting to pose a slight issue...THEY EAT LIKE HOGS! I am not kidding unless you specifically tell them to stop eating, I promise they never will. I am about to print out a paper to put on our fridge that says "NO ISLANDERS" on it.  haha I have no problem sharing food but when it gets to the point where we are wondering how we are going to fill our stomachs....that's an issue. Imagine. 2 cartons of eggs, 2 cartons of milk, 3 loaves of bread, a carton of chocolate milk, a tub of cookie dough, 6 packages of noodles, a tub of peanut butter, a box of cereal, 4 avocados, all the butter etc.... Elder B and I were just stunned when they left....its ok  tho we are putting together a future plan of action. From now on they will not be allowed to enter the kitchen. It will go as follows. 1. They will say that they are hungry 2. Either I or Elder B will enter the kitchen and serve up a plate with an appropriate portion size 3. They will eat. 4. They will ask for more. 5. We say no...no more.
That's simply how it is going to go. haha.

ANYWAYS, I had an experience this week that I always knew would come but never quite thought through how I would handle it....but we went to L's house this past week to visit her.  We ended up helping her and her partner D from Ethiopia around the yard. Afterwards, they kindly offered us lunch and we sat down and awaited the food. I was not nervous at all.  Elder B and I were just pretty calm just sitting there...but if we knew what was in store we would NOT have been calm whatsoever.  L places before us a giant helping of this green goulash on rice. Elder B asked "What is this???" She just responded "meat" haha ohhhhh it was much more than just that and to make a long story short we spent the next 15 minutes absolutely fighting our way through chunks of raw fish and goat and who knows what else....I am going to be honest. Elder B was being such a little girl about it so I was having to HOG down HUGE helpings and since we were eating from the same plate HE EASILY MADE ME DO THE HEAVY LIFTING... haha! As I was feeding and gagging like crazy I just chuckled to myself as I imagined Nelson battling down his Ukrainian food  and all the other stories I heard of missionaries eating disgusting meals but I guess the day of reckoning comes for all of us...I'm probably just wimpy because I am in Australia -  but it was DISGUSTING! haha.

So we found a new family! They are Filipino and their names are JAND M. They have a daughter named M. We have HIGH HOPES for them! They came to a baptism on Saturday...loved it....and came to all 3 hours of church on Sunday...They are a miracle! We are going over tonight to teach the Restoration....Pray that they will feel the Spirit very strongly. E and C are still a work in progress we just found out one of C's dogs died today so we will go over to see how he's doing. He LOVES his dogs.

I know we aren't allowed to chew gum...that was a one time thing...This is C.

 His dogs are Pucks and Ali...Pucks died today :(

Love all of you! The work is good!  I UTTERLY love serving the Master. I love the mission and I LOVE AUSTRALIA. Have a good one MATE:)

Elder Cordner

An Aboriginal decorated my scriptures... SO SICK!

Week 29 - Gosnells, Southern River Zone, Western Australia - February 29, 2016 - GOAT AND INTESTINE

HEY FAMILY I LOVED HEARING FROM EACH OF YOU! I love you guys each so much! Soooo you know E The African kid we teach? Well we have been teaching his whole family and his mother E, has made us several African meals and we have sat on the floor with them and eaten some nice goat:) some pig intestine:) and some fish...It's all been pretty good actually! I love their family so much! We just need to get E permission to be baptized from his Elders of the tribe back in Barundi....Keep praying for him and his family:) 

One of the highlights of this week was a leadership meeting with President Fife at the mission home. He is such a dedicated and inspired man. He goes one million miles a minute and he NEVER slows down! haha! I love him.  The meeting was really good. We talked a lot about the cultures in our Zones and how we set the culture as zone leaders. Elder Brinkerhoff and I have 36 missionaries in ours and we are getting them absolutely pumped to work harder than ever! Also at the training we learned better how to help people keep commitments. We have been putting it into play and it works really good! I am excited to continue to work hard and put my trust in God:)

Elder B and I talk to every single person we see!!! We try to at least! It is all about showing the Lord you are willing to give everything and talk to everyone! I know it is all on Him. We can't do anything on our own. He allows us to assist in this great work...He obviously does not need us:)

This week I was on exchanges with a little Elder from Thailand who doesn't speak English really at all, but we said a prayer for people to be put in our path so that we could share the message of the restoration. We had not biked more than 30 seconds when just down the hill under the bridge we were crossing I spotted a group of like 30 people having a picnic. I just rode past but the thought that came to my head was..."are you serious? You just prayed for people to be put in your path and you are going to pass that up"? It was funny because I also actually thought about Trevor and I at Disneyland doing all that weird stuff in front of people and I thought ok if I could do that I can talk to this huge group, so I turned around and cruised down the hill, summoned the attention of all within the sound of my voice and bore my witness of the restoration. haha! I talked to a few people after and handed out a few pass along cards. Although nothing came of it immediately, I knew Heavenly Father was proud of me and I knew he would not forget what I did. I love you all and would encourage you to read Alma 5...one of my favorites. 

I cant believe Kenzie is almost done...crazy I love her so much:)

Have a good week!

Love, Elder Cordner

A push-up competition I'm sure :)

Week 28 - Gosnells, Southern River Zone, Western Australia - February 15, 2016 - 6 Months In The Field

Crazy that its been 6 months and I cannot believe kenzie gets home in a little over a month! Have fun without me:'( just kidding I'm all goods:) This week was super busy with a lot of meetings and getting things rollin for the transfer. A member of the seventy named Elder O'Rearden met with the mission leadership in the mission home the other day and it was soon cool. It was basically just an open discussion. He was an impressive man. 

I have stories about crazy things that happen and that we see but I'm always hesitant to share them haha. The other day we had a run in with a couple that were having a huge fight in their house and were probaby on meth...(which is  a huge problem here) but this guy was chucking chairs and stuff through his windows and bashing up his whole house. Elder Ta'ala and I tried to settle him but that just made him want to come at us...He tried to attack but his door wouldn't open haha I wonder why??? The Lord surely knew what would have happened! Elder Ta'ala is from Samoa and would have wrecked the man without a second thought....anyways thought i'd share that....

Chris is doing well. He came to church yesterday. The only thing he's struggling with is smoking. We are working really close with him, He has had a really hard life and he needs all the prayers he can get to help him endure this process of conversion!

Well I actually have to go! I love all of you! Thank you for all of your prayers on my behalf I am also praying for you guys! Have a good week:)

Elder Cordner

This little guys name is M and we have been teaching his family for like a week now.

The guys I am sitting with we met last night and taught the restoration.  

Week 26 - Gosnells, Southern River Zone, Western Australia - February 8, 2016 - Nice and Momo.

This week has been nice and momo:) (As a little child, Mitch would use this word for "comfy".  It stuck with the family and we say "nice and momo" when we are happy with our surroundings. However, I think he is referring to the weather here) and there are 2 weeks of nice and momo days ahead I am so excited!:)......other than blisters developing on my dozzler I am doing so GOOD!  Thanks for all the letters! They fill my soul with JOY! I can't believe Kenzie has one more transfer...wow:) She is such a work of life. Our separation period is half over! Oh, and before I forget Happy Birthday to Big Animal (his Lake Powell name - his dad), NANA, and KING (his almost 17 year old twin siblings, Mary Anna and Matthew)! I send my love from the land down under:) I always think of things to tell all of you throughout the week but I know I end up forgetting 90% of it. I've thought about making a list throughout the week but if you know me you know that's not my nature so I'll just try my best. 

This week was really good. So a few weeks back we met a man named C walking his dogs. We talked to him and he agreed to have us around the next day, Well the next morning rolled around and he sent us a txt and cancelled it saying he isn't interested so we just forgot about him. A few days ago he called us asking if he could get a ride to church! We said for sure and then we asked if we could come around before church and teach him....He agreed. It was a super powerful lesson. He is a very humble guy with a rough past and no family. He is in the perfect place in his life to accept the gospel. At the end of the lesson we explained to him what a priesthood blessing was and then he asked for one. He came to church the next day and loved it. He has some addictions to overcome but he agreed to work towards the 26th for now so we will see! (pray for him)  The Brazilians didn't show but we are going around tomorrow to see how they are and hopefully share a message I know they would accept the restored gospel we just have to get in there! E, the 17 year old African young man, came to church. He is on date for the 26th also.  The only possible road block would be his mother who is a member of another faith. He loved church so much and seriously even expressed the desire to serve a mission! He loves Elder Brinkerhoff and I. Part of being a good missionary is about being a really really really good friend and constantly making people feel good about themselves  E told us he never wants us to leave Gosnells so that sums up our relationship with him. L also came to church in the third hour after we ran out of class and waved her down on the highway haha! Her kids kinda went hog wild sooooo we will see her later this week and see how she feels. 

We have a cottage evening gathering type thing for our District's investigators tonight so we will be inviting them all to that. It is at a recently returned missionary's house, His name is Riki. He is the absolute man. He has been teaching with us a lot!  He and I have become super close. He is a convert and is the perfect fellowshipper for like all of our gators. haha He is one of those people who can just love anyone!

Elder B and I have been seeing MIRACLES as we have worked like HOGS. I know the Lord is with us in the work! I love the Savior, Jesus Christ! I have been learning much of him as I serve him. I want to be like him, I want to do those things that please HIM! That is the deepest desire of my heart! I love you all! 

Btw... we helped our neighbour move and he rewarded us quite well! haha... he forced us to take like 200$ basketball shoes - a pair each! haha I will send a picture. We actually took a lot of their old furniture and put it in our flat so we are livin the high life these days with like 3 big couches haha.  

Elder Cordner

                         Elder Ta'ala and I. This is his hat btw....it is like 110 degrees this day. 

One of my best mates on the mission. We were on exchanges and literally tracted 12 hours straight!

Random picture.  Baby Roo.

The shoes our sick neighbour gave me... They fit perfect! They are super nice!