A Weekend with a General Authority

Hey everyone!

I hope all of you have been doing great so far in the wonderful month of November. The mission has been fantastic! We have had a lot of laughs and instruction by the Lord. It has been a great week here in the mission field. 

It all started on Tuesday when we had Zone Training. So usually, we have Zone Training at the Stake Center, but we found out the entire building was rented out for voting for the election... so we had to improvise and do Zone Training at the Centro Hispano at 5th and Washington. It was a lot of running around, but it was so great! The Spirit was so strong in really guiding the discussion on our Trainings. It had to be the best Zone Training I conducted! I had so much fun with it, and we have one more this transfer in December which we are very excited for. 

Later in the week, we had Elder Cordon of the Seventy train us Thursday and Friday. Thursday as an Mission, then Friday for the MLC. It was incredible to just see his training and his personally really connect with the missionaries. The biggest impression I took out of that whole training was that you can live your mission as a son of man or a son of God. As we find out who we really are, we find power in our identity. It was such a blast. Then, if we weren't blessed enough, we had stake Conference this weekend and the guest speakers were President and Sister Randall, and of course, Elder Cordon! So Saturday night and Sunday morning we were instructed even more. What was also neat was that I saw so many members from Kutztown! It was great seeing the bussiere family and the O's. What was hilarious was I just happened to sit right behind the O's Sunday, and they had no idea and then brother O looked back and I winked at him. Then he whispered to Sister O, then she turned around eyes all wide and just so excited to see me. She told me she just pulled out the vase Elder Thielen and I gave her for Mother's Day. I just felt the Spirit so strong seeing them again, it truly is a blessing to have all these friends on the mission, it's so great.

This Saturday is so exciting, we have 3 baptisms coming up and Elder Martinez is come back up to see it. The Lord blesses us everyday out here. What a blessing it is to be a part of this great work. 

I hope all goes well for you all this week! Remember that you are a child of God, although we are children of men, our divine heritage cannot be denied. 

Elder Cortes

Reading, PA

Reading Round 2

Hey everybody!

I hope you all have been doing great in this first week of Fall. It's been a week full of changes, work, and of course, miracles.

I started the week by sending off Elder Martinez to Philadelphia and picked up my new companion Elder Baker! Elder Baker is from Eagle Rock, Utah. He's half Hawaiian and half Native American and has been out for a year. It's actually pretty neat because we were both companions with Elder Thielen and Elder Harris so we've been able to connect with that. But he's a great missionary who just wants to work which is such a blessing.

We started the transfer strong by finding three new investigators this past week through bible referrals and just being led by the Spirit to stop by a less active home. The less active wasnt home but a 19 year old named Devon let us in and we had such a powerful lesson on the Restoration. It was such a blessing from the Lord to find these new investigators. It took a lot of time walking through the streets of Reading, but the Lord provided for us which was incredible.

We also have been continuing to teach the Maldanado family. Anthony, the dad, and Chenell and Dakota, the daughters, are getting baptized in two weeks which we are very excited for. They just continue to keep commitments and keep talking about their baptism. They have brought up being sealed as a family already! We are just so excited in two weeks for this special day. It all started when Elder Martinez talked to Melissa, the mom, in May. Now here we are, what a blessing it's been to be working with this family.

Well, we are having an exciting week coming up. Elder Cordon of the Seventy is coming to our mission and we have Zone Training tomorrow. I'm so grateful being able to learn how to be a better teacher and a better person on my mission. It is without a doubt the hardest thing I have ever done in my life. But I'm grateful for how hard it is. May we all recognize what a blessing it is as we learn and grow from the callings which the Lord has given us. What a great blessing it is to be pushed to become something more through our callings. Well, continue in the faith! May the Lord bless us in all that we do.

Elder Cortes

Reading, PA