AMADORA

This city is...fantastic. Holy mangos the people here are so open! Its awesome! So far we haven't really met with many people but those we have are amazing.

So first things first, I'm extremely grateful for the sisters that also serve in our ward for the sacrifice of the house we now live in. The house that the sisters used to live in was in our area and the house that we lived in was in theirs. By orders of President both parties were evicted and swapped. Well. Now we live in a five star presidential sweet with air conditioning, yoga mats, and individual bathrooms. It is probably one of the greatest thanksgiving/christmas gifts I've had. So hat goes off to them.

The city is also sic because we have a ton of christmas lights in the streets! Its great! Our ward is super supportive as well. I've met so many people who knew grandpa Hillam. Its amazing to get lunch and help from the members! The sacrifice they make to help with the missionary work is truly appreciated.

So far we have just been getting to know the area. We are teaching a man who is progressing pretty well. He is scheduled to be baptized this coming Sunday. Yesterday he didn't show up to church so we met up with him later and had a super sic lesson about the importance of being baptized because we know the church is true and not because the missionaries are cool and it will make them happy (even though both are true). He is now going to start reading daily and praying to know if its true. He is awesome.

Not much else to report about. For thanksgiving a random lady at the butchers bought us some kebabs. We made those for lunch and it was fantastic. We gave her a Book of Mormon.

My little spiritual thought comes from a quote I had heard before but read recently this last week and it hit me like something that hits really hard (maybe like a cement truck or an iPhone at terminal velocity):

“Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on; you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make any sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of - throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace."

It explains itself pretty well. The Lord is going to make us a lot better than we think we can be. And its going to be uncomfortable. But its going to be awesome in the end. Who wants to have a four room cottage when you can have a massive palace with schnazy paintings and columns and towers and fountains and other fancy majestic things?

Anyways, this week has been one of gratitude, how fitting for thanksgiving right? 

I love you all,

Elder Cordon

TRANSFERRED

This is the MOTHER insert...This is from Last Week.  Sorry for the delay...No Pictures so you have to just query Amadora to see where Elder Cordon gets to serve.  ENJOY

Well, the title says it all. I've been transferred. Not only have I been transferred but we were whitewashed out, and I'm whitewashing in! And I'll be training a new Elder named Elder Losa. Not sure really about anything else. My area is Amadora and we are doing email in this weird shopping mall thats a maze of phone stores literally called Babilonia. ...Babylon. Awesome.

So I'm kind of turnt down for leaving Vila Franca de Xira. We were just getting things rolling. I pray that the next Elders there don't have so much of a dead stop that we seemed to have when we got there. Me and Elder Lowry joked about getting transferred but we both figured we would stay. Haha, nope. If you wanna make God laugh, tell him your plans. We found out Saturday that we were getting whitewashed. Then Saturday night we find out that Elder Lowry was going to the Azores. Then Sunday morning we find out we need to get the train at seven that night and that we were sleeping over at the office. Wow. Sunday was crazy full of packing and what not. 

Awesome experiences? Teaching Augusto and Vanda. They are amazing. Everytime we were with them they were always so willing to learn more about the gospel and ask crazy hard and cool questions. We also have Ivan. I'm going to miss that big guy. I hope that all goes well with him and the other Elders and he finally decides that he actually is ready to be baptized.

I don't really have a ton of time to write but, the church is true! Crazy right? My nice little thought for all you lovely folks is that which I heard from Hoody, something that really applied directly to me. Just a short quote from a longer story: 

"I think that life is much like this. Sometimes it is overwhelming, looking at all of the things we need to get done. As we let all of that go, and focus on the task at hand, it gets much easier. We can each do difficult things. That doesn't mean we can't look around and enjoy the view, but we shouldn't let the view distract us when we're going through difficult times."

You guys are awesome. Love you all. Don't worry about worrying things that don't need to be worried about. Focus on the task at hand!

Love you all!

Elder Cordon

How Empowering it is to Know the Plan!

The Chapel in Vila Franca de Xira

Namastē! 

Thats hello in Nepali! We have become very good friends with some Nepalis who own Everest Handicraft, a shop near the train station that sells Nepali handmade things (coats, shirts, rings, statues, tea, tibetan singing bowls, etc.). Those guys are awesome. They speak...Nepali, obviously, and broken English and very little Portuguese. Very different beliefs and many language barriers but no matter. :)

This week has been pretty great. We read 3 Nephi 11 and then watched The Testements with Ivan. Man that was powerful. I would say that the best part was his deep chuckle at the point when all of Zarahemla is on fire and everyone is running about in panic, but, without a doubt the greatest was the spirit that was manifest. After it ended we simply sat in silence, nothing to say. "One hour," he told us, "one hour straight I had goosebumps everywhere." He still hasn't been marked for baptism but we hope that will happen today!

The reason for the title of this email is because of my gratitude for the Plan of Salvation. The Liahona for last month had that exact sentence in one of the talks. I'm so grateful for the knowledge that I have of God's plan for all of His children, including me. That plan that tells us from where we came, why we are here, and what will happen to us after this life. I don't think I had ever realized how much comfort and purpose knowing this plan gives. This week we had the opportunity to teach a couple the Plan of Happiness. Now, perhaps more questions were raised then answered, however, they told us about their search for answers. They had faith that God had a plan for them, after all, thats what most religions teach. But they always questioned what it was. She said it was overwhelming that, out of nowhere, all of the answers to her questions were presented. 

How amazing it is to know that our Heavenly Father knew us before we came and we chose this life to grow and progress. How amazing it is to know that we have our Savior, Jesus Christ to atone for our sins and give us the opportunity to repent and be made clean. How amazing it is to know what steps we need to take in this life to truly follow the Master and become like Him. How amazing it is to know that we can see those we love and be with them once again and for all eternity and that death is but a short separation. How amazing it is to know that we can perform ordinances in God's temples to help our loved ones who have passed on without a knowledge of this Gospel to come unto Christ. How amazing it is to know that death has no power and that we may all be resurrected. How amazing it is to know that we have a perfect Judge, and a perfect Savior, who together can meet the demands of Justice and Mercy and provide a way for us to return once more to live with our Father in Heaven. Truly it is empowering.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ is truly the straight and narrow way. We can rely on the Savior, He is at the helm. We need not fear. The way has been set forth and is clearly available. It is a path that all may follow. Not a single person on this Earth is exempt from the promises that this Gospel brings. We however, must fear not, and trust in the Lord, and, once again, He will lead us home.

I know that my Redeemer lives. What comfort this sweet sentence gives. He lives, and while He lives I'll sing: "He lives! My Prophet, Priest, and King!"

Love,

Elder Cordon

I walk this path EVERY DAY

Overlooking Vila Franca from Bom Retiro

The Things I've Seen...

MOM wanted to see my face

Wow. This week was nuts. Filled to the brim with all sorts of craziness. So lets get right into it.

 There is a guy we know named Antonio who always likes to come and talk to us in English. He speaks English, Portuguese, Latin, bits of German, and bits of Arabic and Hebrew. Oh I forgot French. However, opposition in all things. He pretty much has no job, his home has no water, power, and ya. He is also a bit unstable? Not sure the best way to describe him. Anyways, so we see him the in the square and we had felt that we needed to start focusing on him. So we did. We hadn't seen him in a while so we went up to talk to him and miraculously managed to set up a time later that day to talk to him in the chapel! Well. That meeting was something. He said that as he sat in the church he felt a peace he had never felt before. We started to give him a tour but only made it to the room we have priesthood before he took liberty with the chalk board and explained/wrote a 'map' of words and began to more or less prophecy stuff. That was interesting. Anyways. We eventually calmed down and discovered a lot of his back story. Wow. Well we invited him to baptism and he accepted and is extremely anxious to be baptised and receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. We gave him a blessing.

The next day we went to his house. We knew it was bad living conditions there and we knew that cleaning his house would be a massive step to helping him feel the spirit more in his life. Well. That was an experience. You know those pictures you see of the after effects of a hurricane where its just waste? That was the interior of the house. Now take that and add ten or so years of decay, mold, humidity, and what not. You may or may not get an idea. Well, we cleaned the front room which was probably about 250 square feet. We filled a dumpster. For the sake of him, me, and you, I won't go into detail. This we hope is the start for him. He has a goal that by Christmas his home will be a place he is proud of where the spirit can abide. Unfortunately however, he didn't come to church. We're pretty worried because since we cleaned his house we have only gotten to meet with him once.

Other things that have happened: Zone Meeting, Divisions, a suggestive text from a random number we had to decline, more cleaning with Gypsies. We met a guy who we knocked on his door, told us he didn't want anything, and then invited us in for soup. So that was nice.

Ivan is the other awesome tale for this week.  Ivan is flipping awesome!

So we scheduled a time to meet with Ivan in the park. We got there and were about to go meet him when we saw he was examining the first couple pages of the Book of Mormon we had given him in Russian. We quietly backed off for a bit to let him read and think. A couple minutes later we came and simply sat with him as he looked through the book. Oh man. The spirit there was awesome. Everything was super calm. The water on the river was glass. And we just sat there helping him understand who Moroni was, who Mormon was and he was getting everything. There were times when I thought "maybe I should say this!" But every time the response was "Listen" And it was fantastic. Later we walked with him up to the chapel and watched the Restoration video.

Then on Sunday (by the way Ivan broke his left hand beginning of this week so he's just powering through with a broken hand. Ivan is awesome) he came to church and we taught him after with a member. We watched the Restoration video once more this time with a big TV and the sound up high (last time was a tiny portable DVD player with hardly any sound) and in Russian. It was super powerful for him and he said when God spoke to Joseph he got goosebumps everwhere. He wants to start talking to us more often and wants to learn little bits everyday. Ya. He is the best. He loves the videos so we are going to watch The Testaments with him. 

Anyways. All sorts of crazy things happen in the mission. From people begging for five dollars so they can buy a new phone case to racing oranges down a steep hill you just happened to be traveling down. 

Not much time for anything else.

Thank you for your support and prayers everyone!

Love, 

Elder Cordon

"Frozen Cereal"  Notice up at the top.  Eating well!

This is in the valley of Alhandra

backyard of Lídia and Glide

Funerals, Meetings, Stealing

Path we walk everyday!

Looking at our neighborhood

Well this week had all sorts of activities which, now that I think that it was this week, seems super long ago. Time is without doubt the weirdest thing ever.

Usually we get out of the house by eleven thirty because up until that time we are doing our studies. BUT. If we have a district meeting or something else we have to leave the house early to catch the train to wherever so we can get there on time (for example District Meeting at 10 in Alverca). So nearly every day this week was something that caused us to need to leave early!

First things first, we usually have district meeting on Tuesday. So, on Tuesday, we get up, exercise, eat, and head to the train station. We show up at the chapel there to find tons of people. Turns out there was a double funeral! That was a suprise. So after we ask the District Leader about it all and the District Meeting was moved to Thursday. We are thinking it may be more economic to buy a train pass. We'll see. 

Then we had an awesome meeting on Wednesday with President Tavarez. During Zone Conference things ran late so he wasn't able to share what he had wanted to share so he moved it. He talked a lot on the spirit and taught how to ponder the scriptures and the importance of Preach My Gospel and all sorts of good things. It was pretty great. 

THEN thursday district meeting, friday weekly planning, saturday...well we would have gone to that Halloween party but considering how far it was and we had no investigators of ours to take...and the fact that the entire zone would be there to accomodate people, President gave us permission to stay in our area so it turned out nicely. I dressed up for Halloween either way. I wore my Gryffindor tie and put on a sweater and instantly became Harry Potter. It was fantastic.

So Sister Tavarez had the idea, on Sunday there is a day similar to Memorial day when people go to the cemetary. So after church we ran over there to attempt to leave flowers with people along with family history and plan of salvation stuff. It was...awkward... but it worked out nicely in some cases :) 

Ivan showed up to church! Very simple and big Russian man. He could probably break me in two without a problem. His home is up in an unfinished building (they have a lot of those). He simply moved in, fit a door on the door frame, inserted some windows, found a bed and bed frame and moved it in, and slowly just started accumulating items for his house! We have yet to visit him in his home. We had a lesson with him at the chapel about the Plan of Salvation though we're unsure of how much he understood but he said he would come to church and...there he was! He told us that he didn't understand a lot and would need to learn more. Ya, I think we can help with that!

Ahh! How could I forget about stealing from the gypsies! This is a fun story. We went back to the first house and really got to work this time. We leveled this hill of what first looked like dirt then turned out to be several layers of trash and who knows what else. We found a bone that looked suspiciously like a femur. And a large kitchen knife... I'm suspicious of Professor Plum in the Conservatory. So we level it all out until its just dirt but there was danger of it all sliding down to the house if nothing was there to hold it back. So we found that there were two stakes in the ground that were pretty tall. If we could find something to wedge between them it would form a pretty effective wall to hold back the dirt. So we try the marble slabs they have. None were long enough. By the trash is a ton of ruined furniture so we go there and find a head/footboard! Perfect! We bring it back and while we are working out how to get it in, this guy comes up to us.

"Did you pay for that??"

"No, we got it over there by the trash."

"Thats all my stuff."

"Oh, our bad, here, take it. We'll find something else."

"Nah, leave it there."

"Are you sure? We can get something else"

"No. Leave it there. Thats my stuff. I sell it. You didn't pay for that."

"...Ya. So...here. Take it back. We don't need it then."

"No leave it there. I don't want it. You didn't pay for it."

"Sir. You can have it back. We are sorry. We'll find something else."

As he then walks away *grumble grumble* "leave it there" *grumble* "leave it there" *grumble* "mine"

So ya. That happened. He didn't want it back. So now its holding back the dirt! It works really nicely though! I'll take a picture of it this week!

We also knocked at the door of a guy we contacted last night. He proceeded to show us his entire apartment and all of his earthly possessions and where he got them and gave us a peice of cake. So he is super friendly!

Ether 6:5-7. I hijacked this message from a Liahona, not sure which month. But I use this scripture to share with people a lot. This is the people of Jared who are commanded to cross the ocean after the fall of the Tower of Babel. They have now built the barges, solved the problem about air and light, and have set forth:

 5 And it came to pass that the Lord God caused that there should be a furious wind blow upon the face of the waters, towards the promised land; and thus they were tossed upon the waves of the sea before the wind.

 6 And it came to pass that they were many times buried in the depths of the sea, because of the mountain waves which broke upon them, and also the great and terrible tempests which were caused by the fierceness of the wind.

 7 And it came to pass that when they were buried in the deep there was no water that could hurt them, their vessels being tight like unto a dish, and also they were tight like unto the ark of Noah; therefore when they were encompassed about by many waters they did cry unto the Lord, and he did bring them forth again upon the top of the waters.

Imagine for a moment what an experience this would be. I imagine it would be terrifying, frustrating, stressful, harrowing, depressing, and who knows what else. I'm sure you can come up with some more adjectives. But there are two things I love about this.

1. The direction of all of this turbulence was towards the promised land. These afflictions and trials, wave after wave, gust of wind after another, were bringing them closer to the reward their Father in Heaven had planned for them. Without these trials, they would never have progressed and never have gotten anywhere closer to their end goal.  

2. Now at times the weight of our trials can get really heavy. We end up submerged in the depths of the sea and escape seems impossible. Yet everytime they were in the depths of the ocean what would they do? They cried unto the Lord. They prayed. And, because of their prayers, the Lord supported them, he did not leave them alone in their trials, and brought them back to the surface.

Now that in no way means that the Lord took away their problems. Back at the surface was still gigantic waves and crazy winds. Nor did the Lord say "Well, you passed the test! You won't go under the water again!" No, they reached their lows many times but that didn't take away their faith in God. They did not murmur and say, "hold up, this happened last time. Why are we going through this again?" Rather they put their faith in Heavenly Father, prayed once more, and were brought to the surface.

Find the surface.

Love you all,

Elder Cordon

We removed the stump in the picture.  Oh what a stump