Week 38 - Jundiapeba, São Paulo - June 22, 2015

Hello my beautiful, wonderful, and blessed family!!

Oh how great this week was!  We have so many people that are progressing and preparing to be baptized very soon!  

First of all, Luiz and Vanda were married this week and it was wonderful.  It was really fast and sweet, but they were married and Luiz was able to be baptized yesterday.  They are a beautiful family.  Members in the ward remember Vanda when she was a teen in the ward.  After many years of being inactive she has returned and her husband is now a member of the Church of Jesus Christ!  What a beautiful new start for them!!  I will send pictures :)

Luiz and Vanda's wedding!

Luiz's baptism.

His niece, R was not baptized because we need to get the signature of her mom or dad.  It is so frustrating because they are not even in her life and her great-grandmother does everything for her and doesn't have legal guardianshipship!  So this week we will try our best to get her dad's signature and explain to him the situation!  Oh sweet R was crying last night because she would not be baptized.  It will be a beautiful day when she is!

E and L with her sister E and S will be married this Thursday!  In the center of Mogi it is so much easier to be married and they are so excited!  We were with E and S this week teaching about the Word of Wisdom and they were so willing to make so many changes in their lives!  When S was saying the closing prayer he asked for help to be baptized and receive the Holy Ghost one day.  I love them so much!  They are the most humble people who love their family.  S is very quiet and pretty shy.  But each time we visit them I see more and more confidence.  They all even came to the Festa Junina (it is like a brazilian hoe-down) this weekend that the ward put on!

Festa Junina! (Festival of June) 

There were so many sweets and candy!

B is E and L's son and he tried to be baptized yesterday.  The water was so cold because the heater has been broken for a long time.  First of all,  he is scared of water and second, it was freezing!  He was coaxed into the water and finally dunked but the elder let his feet come up.  He panicked and would not try again!  So we are praying that next week the heater will be working and he will have more courage being baptized with his mom on the same day!

This week a member in the ward made pancakes and maple syrup for us and it was a dream!!  Rice and beans every day sometimes gets to me, but I know I will miss it when I get home!!  I am so grateful for the chance to meet so many wonderful people and share my testimony with many of them.  I know that our Heavenly Father is worried about each one of us and that because His Son, Jesus Christ, suffered everything that we suffer, so He knows exactly how to succor us in our times of need.  Every day I am able to converse with my Heavenly Father and I know that He is hearing me.  I do not feel that I am talking to a blank wall but that He is my Father.  He knows me better than I know myself and He knows the people I need to be with, where I need to be and what I need to hear or read.  Every day I feel more and more grateful to know that I am His daughter.  I have never been more aware of my weaknesses than I am here on my mission, but I know that the Lord gives us weaknesses so that we will be humble, so that we will always turn to Him.  He loves us enough to give us weaknesses.  For this I am so grateful!!  Feliz dia dos Pais ontem PAPAI!!!  Eu amo você para sempre!  Obrigada por tudo que já fez, está fazendo, e vai fazer em minha vida!! (Happy Father's Day Papa!  I will love you forever!  Thank you so much for all you have done for me, are doing for me and will do for me in my life!!) Have a wonderful week everyone!!

Com muito amor, 

Sister Cordner xoxo

Week 37 - Jundiapeba, São Paulo - June 15, 2015

Bom dia família!  I hope that your week was just wonderful in the beautiful Utah sunshine!  Here it is getting pretty chilly and I feel like it should be Christmas!  Weird!!  We have many great people that we are working with and that are progressing!  I will write a little bit about each of them:

L is an amazing man.  He is 22 years old and will be married with his girlfriend on Saturday who is already a member!  They have two beautiful children and are very excited about the gospel.  They are reading the scriptures daily together and I can just see the change that they have made in their eyes!!  The members are really welcoming them into the ward family.  I am just so grateful that they have finally found happiness!  He will be baptized this Sunday!  

His niece R will be baptized as well!!  Her story is a little funny.  She lives with her great grandmother because her mom is a big partier and is not even in her life.  Her great grandma loooooves us.  Even though she does not go to church and does not want anything for herself, she is so supportive of R!  Blessing!!  R, these past weeks, has been battling baptism in her mind. She tells us that she does not want to be baptized but after our lessons with her, she just does not know what to do!  It is a big choice for a young girl!  One morning she asked us if she had to wear skirts for the rest of her life after her baptism and not watch TV or movies.  What?  Who told this to her??  Well, we cleared things up and she is so excited to be baptized!

E is the sister of an eternal investigator.  They both need to be married but they both looove the Church of Jesus Christ.  It is the biggest battle to get people married here, but we will work with them so much this month to get them baptized in JULY!! E, and her husband, S, and their children went to church for the first time yesterday and they loved it!  It is so awesome to be teaching a couple!  

I am just so grateful for the experiences that I am having here in my mission.  I would not trade them for anything.  The ward is really picking up the excitement of missionary work.  We asked all of the members that helped us during the week with teaching lessons or giving references to share their testimonies about their experience in the testimony meeting yesterday.  Almost all of them shared their experience and bore testimony!  It was so amazing to have a sacrament meeting to get everyone excited about sharing the gospel.  

I know that God is our Heavenly Father and that we are His children.  I am grateful forever for the sacrifice that the Savior gave to us.  Every single day I grow and I learn through the Atonement.  The sacrament is the most important meeting in the church and we need to learn how to use the sacrament every week!  Bishop Sidni taught something so interesting a few weeks ago.  When the Lord commanded all of the Jews to kill a lamb and smear the blood of the lamb on their door to protect them from the curse, they were showing God a sign that they were a different kind of people,  a covenant people.  We need to do the same today.  But the way that we show God we are a covenant keeping people is through how we keep the Sabbath day holy.  When we go to church every week, take the sacrament to renew our covenants, and when we go home and feed our spirits even more throughout the day, we are showing Him that we want to be saved, that we want to be His people.  

I wish all of you an awesome week filled with good and uplifting things!  Go to the temple!  Serve others!  Read the Book of Mormon!  And prepare yourselves for the sacrament!  I love you all!  

Sister Cordner xoxo

Week 36 - Jundiapeba, São Paulo - June 8, 2015

Hello and Boa Tarde Família! 

Well, I just wrote an entire email and I accidently deleted it. I knew that one of these days this would happen!  This week was a good one and a tiring one!  We searched many addresses of inactive members for the church, as they are trying to organize everything and we walked a ton!  We probably found two or three houses that were correct and the house numbers here are so out of order.  It kills us!!  I also went on an awesome division with Sister Berry from Arizona.  I always learn a lot in divisions!  I caught a bad cold and I have not been sleeping very well because of the church called Congregação Cristão do Brasil that is next door.  One night they were crying and screaming and worshiping until four o'clock in the morning.  I have learned that there are many weeks in the mission when we are planting seeds left and right and there are few weeks where we harvest the good fruit.  The Lord tests our faith and diligence in the weeks of planting.  But of course, weeks like these are so necessary and can be so much fun.  This week we have been giving all of the members "missionary investigations".  We made a list of ten questions about basic doctrines in the gospel and we passed them to all of the members to ask their friends and family.  The last question is if they would like to recieve a visit from the missionaries!  We have had a lot of success with this and getting a lot of references!!  WOOHOO!!  I love to work with the members.  It is the best way to do missionary work!  Well, I love you all and I miss you all!  I cannot believe that little Maddy did baptisms in the temple for the first time this week!  I hope you all have a great week!

Sister Cordner xoxo

Week 35 - Jundiapeba, São Paulo - June 1, 2015

Back with Sister Zanni!  At a wedding this week.

BOM DIA FAMÍLIA!

I hope you are all doing wonderfully!  I am writing from Jundiapeba, in the zone Mogi das Cruzes! I am in the little tiny town right next to Suzano, where I was born!  And you all will not believe who I am with... SISTER ZANNI!!  My own mother here in the mission!  It is her last transfer here in the mission and I am so happy to be with her! It is so rare in our mission to serve with the same person twice!  It must have been inspired!  This is my fourth area and my smallest.  There is not one hill in the entire city and it is a great place to serve.  The Lord has been so generous with me and where I have served here in São Paulo.  

This week we ate lunch at the Patriarch's home out in the middle of nowhere!  They grow oranges, limes, avocado, jaca (the biggest fruit I have ever seen...the size of a large head), peanuts, and all types of bananas, the smallest being the size of my thumb!  It was so much fun to try all of them.  I felt like I was at Grandma and Grandpa Jenkins home for an afternoon!

Well I am feeling great!  I have been feeling the heart spasms every once in a while, but I am glad it is no longer a constant stream.  I still have not heard anything from Doctor Swenson (the doctor here serving, I think he is from Provo) but I will call Sister Andrew and tell her about the PVC  that runs in our family.  Thank you all for your many prayers! (Premature Ventricular Contractions - When my dad was visiting this week he told me that several people in our family have experienced similar symptoms so he was thinking that she might have the same thing)

I have been thinking a lot about the family unit lately and how important it is to our Heavenly Father that we have complete families.  There are many beautiful families in our ward that are strong and teach the principles of the gospel in their homes.  There are also many families where the father is being reactivated!  It is so exciting to start to see the light of Christ back in the eyes of an inactive member!  

We made a great contact this week at the bus stop.  She is a single mother that has five children under 12 years of age. They live in government apartments that are so run-down.  When we passed by her home she had forgotten that we were going to pass by.  There was soapy water covering the floor, the washing maching had leaked all over and naked children running around making all kinds of messes.  I started to pray that there would be able to have a calm moment for her to feel the spirit and peace in our small lesson of the restoration.  As I bore testimony of how the gospel blesses our families I felt so strongly of how much she needed the gospel in her home and in the lives of her children.  I am so excited to return this week and teach her more!  Even though she had never really prayed and she has never had religion in her life, she prayed for the first time and I saw the beginning of something wonderful!

Oh my, I love this work so much.  Every morning when I wake up I feel such an eagerness to share the gospel.  I am so grateful for this oportunity to grow in testimony and spirit.  I know that our families are the most sacred thing to our Father in Heaven.  We must do all that we can to strengthen our families through scripture study, prayer and family night every single week.  

HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY MADDY DEAR!!  I cannot believe you are a little Beehive!!  I hope you had a wonderful day!  Congratulations to Mitchy for graduating High School!! Sorry but your "glory days" are over.  Now it is time to move on to the real GLORY DAYS!  MISSION!  School is over and I hope all of you have a fun and fantastic summer!!  I love you all!

Love, Sister Cordner xoxo

Elder Sellers went home this transfer.  The time is going by so fast!!

Sister Zanni and all her daughters at transfers.

Jaca Tree!  Can you see the gigantic fruit?  (No...not really)

Week 34 -Moóca, São Paulo - May 25, 2015

Well family, I have something to say, but do not freak out because everything is just fine :) The reason that I have been here in Moóca for a week is because for one week in Presidente Dutra I was feeling my heart acting really strangely.  Every single heart beat I felt very strongly in my chest and head and any sudden movement my heart beat increased rapidly.  Also at times I felt very short of breath and like my heart was acting irregularly.  Strange no?  So I called Sister Andrew and they had me move to the big city for the week to do some tests on my heart.  After waiting in a very fancy hospital for SIX HOURS...so many people were there...they did an electrical test for a few seconds but in the moment I felt my heart acting normal... so the results were normal.  Soooooo, I had a 24 hour test done on my heart.  In the morning we traveled to Tatuapé and they put on the device. During the day my heart was going absolutely crazy.  It was so strange, but I am glad it picked up some good information.  But after the test was done, these past few days, I have not noticed anything strange.  Later today we will go back and pick up the results and I hope they will be normal!  So, just kidding I won't be staying here in Moóca, I am sorry that I did not tell you all about this last week, I was just scared that you (Mom and Dad) would be worried all week.  But now everything is fine and I will be going to a new area.  Probably here in the capital, to be close to Sister Andrew and the hospitals...haha.  

I can not even tell you all how much I have learned this week though.  The sisters here in Moóca are amazing.  We have been working with them every single day this week and with their investigators.  Sister Martinez is from Panama and she is my soul sister.  I really think we were such good friends in the pre-mortal life.  We have been teaching so many amazing people and it would be my DREAM to stay here and work with her!  We laugh so hard and she loves to sing too so we sing all day long.  It is the dream life with her.

This week back in Presidente Dutra J (14 years old) was baptized, V (14 years old) accepted to be baptized, and N is still going strong with her baptismal date.  Oh it has been so hard not to be in my own area with my own investigators, but I know that I needed to learn many lessons with Sister Martinez here about courage, love and dedication.  This week we have been teaching two different people who need to stop smoking.  I have seen very clearly the importance of humility and submissiveness.  J is so humble and is ready and willing to accept our help and the help of the Atonement and she is doing great with her goals!  But C comes up with excuses and denies any kind of help we offer her.  Until we become humble and submit to the will of the Lord, He can not make miracles in our lives.  This is true with any person.  I am so grateful for the example of J and how she has taught me to be willing and ready to change and be a better person.  

Here in Moóca there is such a difference in the social classes.  I have seen the saddest situations with some families we taught this week.  I wanted to take a picture so badly of where I stood in the dirtiest, leaky walkway with the most humble homes, and looking up I saw sky-scrapers filled with well-off families in their most comfortable apartments.  As a missionary I feel such a need of everyone having the opportunity to hear of and enjoy the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  I am just so grateful and so humbled to know that I have been blessed with this wonderful blessing in my life.  It is everything to me to be able to share it with others.  So, tomorrow I will be heading off to a new area with a new companion...once again!!  I had a dream about Sister Johnson and I together so... ya never know haha!  

Please mama do not call to our mission office about my heart... haha I know you won't! I will be fine, and I feel totally normal now!  I felt very strongly yesterday that I just needed to be here for a week to learn many things from Sister Martinez!  I love you all and I am so proud that you guys have finished one more year of school!!! WOOHOO!! SUMMER!!!  And congrats Mitch for graduating Seminary!! Play really hard for me guys :)  I love you all and I wish you all a great week full of great things!

xoxo Sister Cordner

Week 33 -Guarulhos, São Paulo - May 18, 2015

Well, it feels like an eternity since I talked will you all on Mother's Day!  I hope all is well back at home and that everyone is happy and safe.  This week was a great one!  Sister Andrade and I have loved working together and we have learned so much together.  I will be transfered....again...I will go to Mooca in the middle of São Paulo!!!  President Andrew called us last night and I will be heading there today!  It has been a crazy weekend with a lot of changes, but everything will be great :) I have so much peace that when I do not know the reasons for some things, I just need to follow and be obedient and the Lord will bless me.  I am excited for one more adventure here in the mission!

This week we had an amazing little miracle.  When we were all in bed sleeping one night K, a young man in the ward, called at eleven o'clock wanting us to visit his friend the next morning at nine AM.  Ta bom, beleza.  So we got up the next morning and got ourselves ready and headed to the chapel - happy and punctual.  Well, right when we got to the church, he called and cancelled... OK... so we decided to pass by the market to buy a few things.  While we were walking down the street, I recognized a man that we talked to our first week here.  I do not know why or how I remembered him or his name but the Spirit helps us with things like that every day!  We began talking to him and we ended up talking about the restoration and how his family could be blessed with the gospel in his life.  He began crying and the Spirit was so strong.  We bore powerful testimony of the Book of Mormon and how if we read it, we will be blessed in all areas of our lives.  When we gave him the Book of Mormon he was so excited and so happy.  I know that we were supposed to be where we were in that exact time!  Heavenly Father works in mysterious ways.  

Okay Satan is so annoying!!  I swear every single time we teach the restoration (this has happened so many times) in the exact moment we want the investigator to feel the power of the first vision, every one and their dog wants to disrupt the Spirit!  Either the TV strangely turns off during the video, or someone calls, or the wife starts yelling, or the baby starts crying! My companion and I just look at each other in shock sometimes. haha it is great :)

Oh, I will miss Sister Andrade so much!  She is just the sassiest most animated brazilian woman that I have met.  She loves animals so much, more than humans, and you all know how I feel about animals...not my favorite thing in the world.  I cannot even tell you all how many dogs and cats are in the roads here.  It is crazy.  SHE LOVES ALL OF THEM.  One day we were walking on the street (when are we not?) and we passed a cute little dog and she started to talk about how cute it was and how she wanted to take him home.  When we passed him he looked up at us and his eye was completely taken out and the hole was stitched up.  He looked up so sadly and she about died, I was laughing so hard I could not even take it!  I will miss that woman.

My testimony of the Book of Mormon has grown so much this week.  When I read it every day I feel the love of my Heavenly Father and Savior Jesus Christ.  I love to learn about the prophets of old and how strong they were in their beliefs.  I love to read about Ammon, Alma and the sons of Mosiah. They were amazing missionaries.  I love to testify of the Book of Mormon and share what I know to be true with everyone here.  I am so grateful for the prophet Joseph Smith and all that he sacrificed so that we can have the Book of Mormon today.  I love you all and I hope you all have an amazing week!!!  Read the Book of Mormon every single day!  

xoxo Sister Cordner

McKenzie and her MTC friends meet up.

McKenzie met Sister Lauren from Alpine who is serving in another mission in Sao Paulo meet at the temple.

Aerial view of Mooca

Week 32 -Guarulhos, São Paulo - May 11, 2015

Mother's Day Skyping with Sister Cordner

Oh my family!  It was so amazing being able to talk with you all yesterday!  I feel renewed and ready to get back to work because I have seen all of your smiling faces!  I just feel so proud to call all of you mine :)

Well false-alarm.  I thought I had dengue and I had all of the beginning symptoms, but thanks to my amazing and very humble Bishop Oliveira I recieved a simple blessing yesterday in his office and I feel absolutley good as new.  I have a strong testimony of the power of the priesthood.  I was not only feeling sick physically, but I was also feeling a little bit sick spiritually.  Heavenly Father knew this and He let me see that His power could cure both types of sicknesses.  I am so grateful for the worthy priesthood holders in my life and in my mission.  

This week Sister Andrade and I have been really trying to have meaningful and spiritual experiences in our personal and companionship studies.  This was a challenge that Elder Clayton gave to us and let me tell you all, it is amazing what a difference it makes!  After studying with Sister Andrade every day, I feel like I have put on spiritual armor to defend the gospel truths that I know to be true.  And when I teach throughout the day, the words flow from my mouth with more spiritual power.  I am so grateful for the Book of Mormon, I know it is the word of God.  

I am sorry that I do not have many stories to tell after talking to you all yesterday, but I am excited to work hard this week!  Happy, Happy Birthday to Mitch this week! Oh my heart drops when I think he will be 18!!!  WOW.  I love ya man, have a great week!  

Love, Sister Cordner

Please pray for:

Vivian, and her courage to make her own choices and leave the church Universal.

Vitor,  that he can keep praying to recognize his answer.

Nayane, that she can continue reading the Book of Mormon and praying to be baptized on May 30!

THANK YOU ALL!!