Long Rides to Philly and Another Goodbye

Hey guys!

It's been getting pretty cold out here in Jersey. But we are still

pressing on! This was the last week of the transfer so we had a few

changes in the district, a few goodbyes, but still, it was a great

week!

Tuesday and Thursday, we saw the Davis family and taught the kids

simple things like the Godhead and Families. It's really great because

teaching the gospel in basic terms is how it should always be. With

kids, that just sticks out. They always have good questions and really

do want to listen.

Wednesday, we saw the Williams Family, who are members in the ward.

However, Sister Williams hasn't been to church for a few months. She

works at a hotel and says she could never get Sundays off. But we

promised her if she asked to get Sundays off. What was so awesome was

yesterday, she was at church! She put our promise to the test and she

was able to get off. I love promising people blessings as we invite

them to keep commitments, it just feels like it always comes true. It

also feels like there is a divine power that backs it up as well as we

promise them a blessing in keeping a commitment.

Thursday and Sunday, we took Elder Thomas to Philadelphia. I'll be

honest, it is something else driving through Philadelphia. You learn

so much! But anyway, the reason we did was on Thursday we dropped him

off so he could go to the temple on Friday, because all the departing

missionaries get to go to the temple before they go home. Sunday was

the finisher! It was so great, because we met the Assistants at the

Philadelphia Temple and it was such a great sight.

Saturday, we also saw David Garduno. We started teaching him about

temples and he is on his way to getting ready! I'm excited for him and

hopefully we can get him there. That will be a really exciting time.

Also, before we took Elder Thomas home, we taught Relief Society on

Missionary Work.....and our Stake President was our escort because we

need a guy in the room full of sisters. Even though it was different

on a many different levels, we had a great time getting all the

sisters ready for the Holidays and what they can do to spread the

gospel!

Also, transfer calls were Friday and I am not getting transferred!

Neither is Elder Harris. So we will be together for another six weeks.

Which means I will be in Moorestown for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and

the New Year! It'll be a good transfer. I'm excited to find new people

and hopefully get a baptism!

Well, Thanksgiving is this week! We have a lot of plans to go to a lot

of houses. I can't wait!

I hope all of you have a great Thanksgiving and a great break. I hope

all is well back home. Take care and have a great holiday!

Elder Cortes

Mid-November

Hey everyone!

It's been such a busy week, especially with Thanksgiving coming up.

But that's exactly how it should be!!

We had a a day filled with interviews with our mission president and

training from the Assistants. It was a really good day learning how to

teach more simply and efficiently. Also, our President is so great. He

truly does care about each of his missionaries individually. It really

does make me want to have more charity with everyone I see.

We also had a new investigator this past week named James. We met him

Saturday and he's a real down to earth guy. He has mild autism and he

has a son about 6 who has autism as well. He also has a cool two year

old daughter. We taught him the plan of salvation and he had so many

honest questions. Those are the best lessons, when there are so many

questions asked. He's great, we are meeting with him sometime this

week.

We also had Spencer's confirmation Sunday. It's always great to be a

part of confirmations. He's getting the Aaronic Priesthood soon, so he

just keeps progressing! Last week of the transfer! We are having a

blast together, but it'll tough to see Elder Thomas go. Transfers are

next Tuesday, so we will see if I'm staying or leaving! If I stay,

it'll be until after Christmas.

Hope all of you are doing well! Take care and be happy and safe.

Elder Cortes

Busy Cold Days and a Baptism!

Hey Everyone!

Time just doesn't stop, that's for sure. I have just been going

nonstop this week, but that's a good thing. I can't even imagine

wasting time on the mission. I hope you all are doing great! I'm sure

you're a all excited for the holidays. I know I am. Thanksgiving and

Christmas are going to be so fun here! But anyway, I'm excited to

share my experiences this past week with you, there's a lot of good

ones.

Tuesday we drove to Broomall, PA for Elder Harris' Golden Retraining.

It was really great! They talked about the same things for the most

part when I went to my retraining, but I learned so much more. It was

like the Lord just always has something to teach me, which I am so

grateful for. I also got to do a role play of a street contact with my

Mission President which was pretty fun and different at the same time.

All of us had such a blast, trainers and Goldens. I really loved

getting to know the trainers and seeing good friends, like my friend

Elder Drake, who is serving in Pottsville. I'm also glad my son, Elder

Harris, did a great job (trainers are dads). He's doing a good job so

far in his mission, I can tell he really does care and is progressing

very well. Also, traffic to Broomall is insane. We went on the road

call Roosevelt Lane, which has six lane and a divider between three

lanes. It's one of the most accident prone roads in the country and it

was just so crazy. But on the way home we drove through center city,

and it was so amazing. There were all these murals and endless amounts

of people. I just want to stay there the rest of the day and do street

contacting. But I'm not worried, I'll get there one day!

Thursday, we went to Zone Training and had a really fun time. Elder

Bowman and Elder McCarthur did a great job with the training. We also

met some mini missionaries (16 year olds who are with missionaries for

a few days) from Delaware and the North Jersey. They were pretty smart

in the gospel, I'm just grateful the youth understands the importance

of preparing now for a mission. After Zone Training, I did a two day

exchange with Elder McCarthur, we went to Cherry Hill the first day

and Moorestown the second. He's been my Zone Leader ever since I have

been out on my mission, so needless to say, it was pretty nice to

spend two days with him just working together.

Sunday was pretty much the best part of the week. All week we were

getting ready for Spencer's baptism (interview, the program, etc.) and

to finally see him be baptized was great. His wife, Rebecca, was

sitting next to me and she was just beaming constantly. I was just so

happy for her, it was her first time seeing a baptism besides her own.

She gave the closing prayer and was so nervous, but it was pretty

powerful. I truly did feel the spirit as she prayed. The end of the

night was pretty much perfect. We taught David, who we have been

teaching for months. When we got there, he had almost finished 1st

Nephi and just wants to do everything he can to strengthen his faith.

He had all these questions written down and we just had a great

discussion with him. At the end of it, he gave the prayer and was so

emotional, I was so happy with the progress he is making to get back

to being active.

It's constant 40's over here but that doesn't bother us. We just keep

on moving, because that's all you can do. Anyway, I hope all of you

have a great week. I truly do love you guys and I do love the gospel,

may we all be strengthened in the Lord and His everlasting grace. Keep

being great!

Elder Cortes

Halloween

Hey everyone!

I hope all of you had a great Halloween. Mine was a little....

different. But it was a great time nonetheless! But I'll get to that

in a little bit. There were a lot of great miracles that happened and

we just continue to learn and grow by the spirit!

It was a pretty great Tuesday for us! We saw Brother Madueke before he

took a trip with his Mom to Nigeria for a couple weeks. We talked

about him getting a calling and he said he was all for it! It is so

great because all he wants to do is help the youth in the area and I'm

just thinking "Oh my gosh, he could be a perfect Sunday school

teacher"! So I can't wait to see what happens because I think that is

what will get him completely active again. We also met a man named

Marcello who was locked out of his house. It was perfect timing

because we had 30 minutes before we needed to be at a lesson so we

went to do some finding. He was such a kind guy, he's from Brazil and

just moved here two weeks ago! He's been studying English for 8 years

before he came and he was very interested in meeting with us! What a

tender mercy by the Lord.

Wednesday we met with a young boy named Mateus who just turned 8 this

past week. It's pretty great! We met him two weeks ago and he asked

what we were doing, so we explained we were missionaries. He was

pretty curious what we were all about, so we told him we would stop by

sometime and give him a Finding Faith in Christ dvd. So we did and his

mom only speaks Portuguese but is so nice. We had a great lesson with

Mateus and he was pretty receptive to all that we were saying to him.

Later that night we went to the Davis' (Sara Davis was baptized in

August). We stopped by and simply invited them to church (they had not

been coming for a long while due to personal issues with extended

family). It was so great! They both opened up and said they knew they

needed to come back to church, that they could feel a difference when

they did not go. They committed right then and there to go to church.

Then, before we left, we asked their kids in the other room if they

want to be taught and be baptized. Two of them were interested and

honestly, it was such a great feeling to see these young kids, all

three I saw, take a sincere interest to our message. The Lord truly

did soften my heart that day to see these special young kids take bold

steps in coming closer to our Father in Heaven.

I also had a pretty inspirational district meeting on Thursday. It's

pretty great, the past three weeks I had topics all relating to the

scriptures: The Book of Mormon is the Keystone of our Religion, How to

use Scriptures, and How to use the Book of Mormon. At first when I got

these topics I was a little confused because they are all so similar.

But my friends, they are all so different. I truly have learned so

much on the Book of Mormon and to use it more effectively and to treat

it with such great respect and love it deserves. I also have learned

new ways to help and to teach those to use the scriptures and to help

them feel the spirit as we read. This week it's zone training, but

next week the topic is the Book of Mormon answers questions of the

Soul. I'm really excited for that. It's also been a struggle lately

with Carmen. She did research about the church. When you hear the word

"research", that isn't a good sign. She saw some anti stuff on YouTube

and it broke my heart because it really had her confused. We are not

giving up though, we are seeing her tomorrow and we're hoping the Lord

is with us as we teach her.

Regarding my Halloween, we have to be in before dark (which is 5:30

over here) unless we are with members. Well, I spent my Halloween at a

wedding! It was for Rebecca and Spencer Mora. Spencer is getting

baptized this Sunday so we were excited for them to be married and for

him to be baptized. It's pretty special to see, especially since I

have been teaching them since the beginning of my mission. I'm just so

grateful the Lord has given me this opportunity to see both Spencer

and Rebecca have such special life changing events. There was also a

candy bar, so I guess you can say I got my trick or treating in before

we went back to the apartment.

Sunday, it was so strange. We had a sewage problem and it was a health

hazard.... So we had to leave church after Sacrament Meeting. It was

the weirdest thing. I don't think I have ever had church cancelled. It

was pretty strange seeing everyone just file out and go home. I was

blown away. I also experience daylight savings for the first time in

my life. It was so nice getting an extra hour of sleep. I can safely

say, I know I can live outside of Arizona now.

But to end this, I just wanted to talk a little more about what I was

thinking regarding the children I met. Imagine if all of us had the

great wisdom children do. We all have trials and struggles in our

lives. But if we had the great love and the positive attitude children

have, our lives would be so much better. It really put things into

perspective as Christ said be as little children. We really can learn

so much from them. May we all be as children, full of faith and

righteousness. As we do, we will press forward in this life with love

and joy, I guarantee you that.

I hope all of you have a great first week of November. 3 weeks left

for Elder Thomas. We are going to be putting in some work! We also

have Elder Harris' Golden Retraining tomorrow. It's so different

having both ends of the spectrum for companions. But it's exciting!

Take care.

Elder Cortes

40-Degree Weather and First Week Training

Hey everybody! How are you doing??? It's been a little crazy and all

the time busy, but that's a good thing! There's nothing better for

missionaries than work.

So to start off, I had a pretty good last day with Elder Foster on

Monday. We ate food, said goodbye to members and investigators, and

got him packed to go to his new area (Which is Honesdale in the

Scranton Zone).

Tuesday was pretty early for us. We woke up at around 4:30 a.m. and

left at around 5:30 to go to transfers and pick up some missionaries

in Camden along the way. I needed to be there at around 7:45 to get a

trained on...well training. It was good, I learned a lot and got so

pumped to train after transfers. Transfers were so fun, I got to see

so many Elders and Sisters I came out with. 3 other missionaries I

came out with are also training and it was crazy to just look back and

see how all of us have progressed since we came out. But transfers

were unpredictable, like always. I am in another trio again! (I pretty

much came to the conclusion I'll just be in trios my entire

mission).The Elder I'm training is Elder Harris. He just turned 18

last month and is from Orderville, Utah. He's a big hunter. But he's

excited to work. My other companion is Elder Thomas, he is from Provo

Utah and a big music person. He has 5 weeks left, so I'm killing

another missionary, which is pretty rough because I hate saying

goodbyes. But I'm grateful for his knowledge, he's such a great Elder

and we talk so much about music, band, songs. It's so great! I'm

grateful for both of my companions, they have so much to contribute

and really are going to be essential in moving the work forward. Right

after we got home, we went and knocked on doors in our home town,

Riverside. It was great for Elder Harris to just get the real life

experience.

Thursday, I conducted my first District Meeting. It went really well

and there was a great discussion on the Book of Mormon. I was just so

glad the Lord blessed me in leading out an effective discussion. I was

so happy by the end of it. We also did service for Brother Lopata (the

member who will die if he quits smoking). He told us he appreciated

the work we did for him so much, he told us he would go to church the

first week of November. I was so glad by the end of moving furniture,

paperwork, and boxed for four hours to hear him say that. It truly was

a tender mercy.

Friday I conducted my first two baptismal interviews. It was to a mom

and her 13-year old daughter. It is so amazing to see these people who

are ready to make changes in their lives. The spirit truly was felt as

I asked them the baptismal interview questions and they answered

honestly and openly. The best thing was when they bore their testimony

and it was so powerful to see daughters of God who are completely

committed to the gospel. After that, I got a text from a sister

missionary in Medford who requested a blessing from us. I had the

special privilege to give this Sister a blessing and I was just so

grateful for the Lord to bless me with this chance to be over a

district and not only teach and learn from them, but to help them in

any way I could.

Elder Harris invited his first person to be baptized on Saturday! I

was so proud of him. He is just trying his hardest and I couldn't be

happier about it. Everything he does in teaching, inviting, and

studying reminds me when I first started in the field 3 months ago.

He's progressing very well and I know he will be a great missionary.

We also had the fall festival where it was pretty much a get to know

you for Elder Thomas and Elder Harris with the ward.

Carmen and Spencer are both doing well and are progressing toward

their baptisms in November! I'm excited for them and their spouses as

they strive for baptism. Also, we are going to Susquehanna to see the

Priesthood Restoration Site tomorrow! We only have a few hours for

P-Day today, but tomorrow is our real P-Day for this week. So I will

respond to individual letters tomorrow. Thanks everyone for your

thoughts and prayers. I pray you all have a great week!

Elder Cortes

                       (Leo & Elder Harris)

                        (Elder Thomas playing his Ukelele)

   (Elder Thomas teaching Leo to play Piano)