Week 39

Buenas dias familia y amigos!

Happy thanksgiving!!  Hope you all had a wonderful week!!!

So I don't have a lot of time to write but I just wanted to say thank you to all of you that have had a part in my life to make me the person I am and for this opportunity to be serving the people of Baltimore Maryland.  This time of year is a great time to love one another and be thankful!  And eat lots!!! Ps none of these calories count until January 1st so eat as much as you want!! or so I'm told...  But as I sat at the thanksgiving table with the Greer family, the Martinez family and the Barrientos family, I am so thankful for each one of them and it was so cool to see how they would allow us to be part of their family.  Someone really close to me told me the secret to happiness is letting every situation be what it is and not what you think it should be... It really works!!  And I am so thankful.  What are you thankful for?

Scripture of the week: Mosiah 2:17 And behold, I tell you these things that ye may learn wisdom; that ye may learn that when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God.

Serve others, love those that hate you and be thankful for those that are around you.  If we have love, show it, through serving others.  I love you all.  Hope you had a wonderful thanksgiving!!  Have a great week!! 

Elder Cornejo

Week 38

Yo!!!!!!!!!!!!  new word of the week! when somthing surprises you say yo!!!!!

Wow I don't even know where to begin!  this week was soo full of awesome miricals!! :)   Last night we had such an amazing activity which was titled the Barra de hierro, which literaly means the iron rod, and there is a story in the book of mormon how that if we hold to the iron rod, we can see eternal life.  So we rapped rope around the church to the door handles which resembled the iron rod.  One end was where the ppl started aka birth and the other rope ended in the chaple "celestial kingdom" and so we blinfolded all thes people and told them here is your journey in life!  The goal was to hold to the iron rod until you made it to the end.  So they held onto the rod and we had ppl telling them to follow them (resembling devils) and others telling them to stay holding on the rod (angels)  Some ppl got confused and let go of the "rod" which was rope and the devils led them to the world know as "the world we live in"... while others that held on made it to the celestial kingdom... there they ate cookies and had a great time!  It was a great demonstration for everyone and everyone had a blast cuz some were in heaven and others where not and so the ones that went astray felt decieved and so it was a mini demonstration on what life actually is... Everything is symbolic!  I couldnt believe that some ppl let go of the rod even tho nefi, "god" had told them to hold onto the rod till the end, yet they still were tempted and let go because of our words... shows just how strong the pull of the world is!

This week ive really been trying to figure out what makes a person desire to be baptized and why.... We know that baptism is the gate to eternal life when done by priesthood authority which was given to joseph smith the prophet.  As i think more and more about it and the whole scheme of the world and all the many churches out there, all the different people and different beliefs, I have find myself sadden because of the lack of faith that humanity has in "God" and in "Man".  Each person has a different perspective of who god really is.  What is the secret to life.  Am i really making a difference.  And where am i really going to go after this life?  

As I think about the message that we share with each one of our investigators, I try to understand why it is not easy for them to see how i do when i am open to what they have to say.  The message that we share is the restoration of the gospel of Jesus christ.  I aske all my inv, what does that word restoration mean?  Just in worldly terms?  Well they answer me, restore means to make new.  Taking an old car for example and making it brand new!  So when i teach restoration of the gospel of jesus christ and say Joseph smith's name, automatically, people assume that we worship joseph smith.  They in turn are the ppl that have let go of the iron rod and are blind folded.  So we continue to explain about prophets of old, aka moses, noe, abraham, isach, all the prophets in the bible, great that is something we all can agree on!!, we get to the part of jesus christ establishing a church with priesthood authority (Mathew 10:1) jesus gives that authority to his apostles to teach preach and baptize... he gives 12 apostles, he is the prophet and gives the ppl the word of god.  aka thru revelation and the scriptures, all this he does so that we might hold onto the iron rod.  But what to the ppl do? they kill the prophets... So we lose the church christ establishes and many many churches form.. aka apostacy.... Logically if god loved us like he said he does and is the same yesterday today and forever, why wouldnt he call a new prophet??

So As i think and ponder a new prophet being called is really what separates us from all other churches and truths in the world.  I want to look at how joseph smith was called, he says that he had a vision, where he saw both god and jesus christ... Many ppl would say that is impossible.  If you believe in the bible you can read about Moses talking face to face with god (Exodus 33:11)... And then as Moses is being chastized for not doing as the lord has comanded, the lord says that he will call a prophet in a vision, face to face if your read it in spanish or mouth to mouth if read in english (Numbers 12:6-8)... so if god is the same today yesterday and forever and had prophets in the past to give his word, logically, how does it not make sense that he would call another prophet?

Now here is the overall question, did joseph smith really see god like he said he did?  Well we know that we can ask god and he will give unto us anything we ask in the name of jesus christ( John 14:14)  And how will we recieve an answer? By the power of the holy ghost ( 1corintheans 2:10-11) 10 But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.
 11 For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of Godknoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.

So then after all is said and done that is the question we need to ask ourselves, was joseph smith called of god by seeing him face to face,  If that is true then everthing that comes after is true.  Baptism is the gate to etearnal life and so is receiving the gift of the holy ghost.  I testify that when i was baptised and recieved it i now understand so many more things because i have the gift of the holy ghost in all times and all places.  How cool is that!!  I just want to share this message with the world because i know that joseph smith saw god and once one can understand that, the windows of heaven are now opened and blessing pour from the heavens!  This message is so important because since joseph smith saw god we can live forever! and we understand why.  So pray ask god, he will answer, I promise.  And hold tight to the iron rod!  Hope you have a great week!

Elder Cornejo

Week 37

Ok I have to start with a story!!!!  I cant believe i forgot to tell this story last week... So when i was with my trio, elder tolley and elder de leon we were walking through a pretty high class neighborhood... So Elder De Leon was soo excited to go to this persons house because he had heard that they make really good food and it was really nice.  So as we were walking to the house these dogs start barking in the distance.  Elder De Leon says oh shoot i thought they were coming for us!  I respond oh those arent the dogs you have to watch out for, you have to watch out for the German shepard!  He says oh why?  I say sarcastically, cus he will bite your face off! We dont think much of it and we knock on this really nice door and they open up... I am in the front, elder tolley is to my right but walking a little behind me and elder de leon is in the back trailing... So she opens the door and says oh come in elders... the only problem is there is about a 120 pound german shepard right in front of me staring at me, he is literally 3 feet from me... He goes stiff like he is gonna pounce and the thought that goes thru my mind is oh shooot!!!  And if any of you have ever seen the movie K9, all i am thinking of is the part when he says Lunch Time!!... Well the dog pounces and goes straight for me but i am able to hit him in the head with my backpack and i spin to the left, but the dogs momentum caries him and he goes right for Elder De Leon!!!  This dog litterally flies towards Elder De leon and he moves just in time for the dog to get his mouth around Elder De Leon's arm!!!  I was like ohhh what!!!!  He spins and the dog flies to the ground, gets back up and starts barking like crazy at us!  It was sooooo crazy!!!!!  I was litterally in shock of what had just happened!!! Good times....

But ya as for the spiritual side of things we had such a great lesson with rudy this week!!  We taught him the plan of salvation and talked about how families can live together forever when they are sealed together by the power of god in his holy temple.  Rudy was so stoked.  He definately felt the truth of our message!  We invited him to be baptized but he still wants to wait a little.... Ana Garcia is another less active member that we have been working with and she finally went to institute this last week!! It was soo good!  We are seeing so many cool miracles.  Why is that a mircale?  Because when we are living our life in line with Gods, the windows of heaven open and possibilities come that we never thought possible...  I love this job! haha  Well my ponderizing scripture for this week was Ether 12:27... "And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them."  I have used this scripture soo many times this week!  There is a promise from god that if we go thru trials and put God first, he will then make week things strong unto us.  I know he lives and that my trials are now a testimony to me that I must continue to help those ppl that are ready.  I love you all  Hope you have a great week!!

Elder Cornejo

Week 36

Miracles!!! All around!!!

So God gave me a miracle and let me stay in this area at least one more transfer!!! I definitely know i have work to do!!  With 12 people in the district and 10 investigators, we definately have our work cut out for us!!  Mirical this week!!  Axel, a recent convert since last february came to church!! First off last Wednesday he called us up and was like, Im just not feelin the spirit like I should.  Ive been putting off church way too long.  We went over and shared the Ether 12:27scripture with him... says 27 And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weakthings become strong unto them.  

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We explained that if he does the first couple things, the lord promises us that whatever trial we are going thru, in the future, he will make that weak thing strong unto us.  We talked to him about the temple and this sunday he got his TEMPLE RECOMMEND!!! I was sooo pumped!!! So we are gonna hit that up soon!  Hes never gone!! Since february!!!  I always think of how excited travis biggs got when we got to do these things and i am soo pumped for Axel!!  

We have just seen so many miracles! But i am running out opf time to tell them all!!  haha  Just know that whatever happens, as long as we put trust in the lord, he always helps us, but like any good father, he makes us learn from our mistakes.  Sometimes it is hard to see how ppl cant believe, but its because we do not knock on the door ourselves as he is waiting on the other side.  Sometimes it is hard to knock!  But when you do its the warmest house youll ever walk into!!

Hope you all have a great week!! Stay Golden

Elder Cornejo

Week 35

So phrase of the week, "Draft ME"  Meaning we just had a great idea so pick me! - Curtesy of Elder De Leon...  We found two new people to teach this week, so we are currently teaching 12 people.  Dice: El campo blanco esta ya para la siege!  soo true.  The lord blesses and wants to help those people that are ready to receive his message.  A veses its hard to share this message that we have with the world because of the fear of what will they say?  This last week has really taught me, if we have the spirit, we won't have to wonder what to say.  It will be given to us.  Sooo cool!  This last week we had some of the most spiritual lessons I have ever felt in my life.  One had to do with the familia de Saida.  Saida is doing sooo good!!  She was baptized in 2012 and left the church for a little bit, but now we are teaching her and her entire family!  They are the coolest people ever!! I love them so much... When we teach Saida, it is so cool as she makes little connections here and there about the plan that our heavenly father has in store for us.  Last week we talked about the Fall and Adam and Eve.  We explained that if:

 Adam had not transgressed he would not have fallen, but he would have remained in the garden of Eden. And all things which were created must have remained in the same state in which they were after they were created; and they must have remained forever, and had no end.

 23 And they would have had no children; wherefore they would have remained in a state of innocence, having no joy, for they knew no misery; doing no good, for they knew no sin.

 24 But behold, all things have been done in the wisdom of him who knoweth all things.

 25 Adam fell that men might be; and men are, that they might have joy.

When we understand why our first parents fell, we begin to understand our purpose here on the earth.  As we explained our purpose here, we barely had to explain, saida kept talking and she was just lead by the spirit as she made connections by herself as the spirit revealed personal revalation to her!  Sooo cool!  I could just remember as I did the same thing, sitting in Travis's house and he would just laugh and be sooo stoked for me!!  HE would never say oh I knew that but was sooo pumped that I had made that connection.  Oh man I had never felt soo much joy than in that moment, watching Saida make those connections and just feeling overwhelmed by the spirit!!  IT was soooo cool!!  

I know im typing a lot but for those of you that feel like there is not much more to learn from church of from the doctrines, I would encourage you to read 2 Nephi28:30... We met with a member this week, and he felt the same way... We bore testimony of the sacrament verse and of this scripture.  As I was talking to him, I explained the joy that I felt as I watched Saida make those connections.  There is no greater joy than sharing the gospel with those you love.  Lets face it, there are a lot of opinions out there, but there is only one truth.  If you ask god, he will give it to you.  So commitment for the week, will you all share one belief that you have from this wonderful plan with someone you care about this week?  Awwesome, I love you all so much, and if I didn't know this was absolute truth, I wouldn't waist my time.  None other than god himself with change the hearts and minds of people, but you must have a desire to find him first!  Have a great week!

Elder Cornejo

Week 34

Miracle this week!!! I made cookies and did not burn them!!! Woo!  We've been making some cookies and brownies for the ward members so they want to come out and teach with us!  Genius right?  This week was a really great week.  We are trying to change how we do missonary work and that is to work with members!  So we have really just gone through a lot of planning with our new ward mission leader and it is going to be sooo cool!!  I'm pumped!  So super funny story, but it's a missionary story so I'm warning you right now... So last preparation day after we had written we were so hungry, so we went to costco for pizza!  As we were driving home we couldn't wait to eat so we started eating in the car.  The windows are down and I have to call someone on the phone, so I am not paying attention.  My companion elder Tolley sticks his hand out the window while I start rolling it up.  He goes hey hey hey! but doesn't remove his hand from the window!!  I wind up rolling his hand up in the window as he yells HEY MY HAND IS CAUGHT right as the people on the other end pick up the phone!  We just about die laughing, the ppl on the other end are so confused, Elder Tolley says, that has been my worst fear ever since I was little and now it happened!  His reaction was priceless... Soo funny....... then I found 5 dollars.........

So spiritual out pouring of the week, Sacrament Meeting.  I am not going to tell you the story that he shared, but just know.  The Atonement is real.  Go to sacrament meeting next sunday, ask God to help you with whatever your struggle might be and He will.  After Sacrament we had the opportunity to watch 12 steps to change with a family that is addicted to alcohol.  We meet with a boy named Kevin.  He is 18 years old and he cannot go to sleep without drinking alcohol.  When he and his sister were little, their grandma would offer them alcohol.  He would drink.  She would not.  They have an older brother named Carlos.  He is about 24 and just got out of jail.  He asks Kevin, his little brother to drink with him.  Kevin wants to be a good example their youngest brother, but does not know where to start.  As we are talking, their step dad walks in drunk.  Kevin tells us that the thing that motivates him to make it though the work day is knowing that he can have a drink in the evening.  This problem with alcohol started when they were very young.  I look at my life and look how fortunate I am not to have to of delt with the problems that alcohol brought because my family set the example when we were young that Alcohol is dangerous.  It dulls senses, increases anger, and brings a number of health problems.  I feel so bad for my friend Kevin.  He is such a great kid.  Is there anyway out?  Yes and it is though the Atonement of Jesus Christ.  If one has the desire to change their life and ask him for help, I can promise, he can and will make all the difference.  I did not know how real addictions were until I came out here and meet so many great people that hide their addictions from whomever it may be.  But the thing that i told kevin is, you can lie to me, your family, your friends, even yourself, but there is one you cannot lie to and that is God.  He know us personally and he sent his son Jesus Christ to die for us.  I know this gospel is so true or else I would not give 2 years of college, of dating, of my family and of my life than to help these ppl, to let them know that God is real.  That He is there when we need him the most and even when we don't need him.  If any of you or anyone you know struggles from addiction, their are programs, and videos that are labeled 12 steps to change.  Watch em.  I have watched ppl struggle from smoking and the way that they gained their testimony of whether god was true is by reading the book of mormon everytime they had a craving.  This is the way that they knew this book was from God and not from a man.  It helped them stop, live free and clean!  The book of mormon works miracles!! I love you all and feel of the spirit every day!  Hope you have a great week!

Elder Cornejo

Week 33

Ok so I was reprimanded by a good friend so now Ive got to be more spiritual ;)... But don't worry I still love to laugh!!  This week was awesome!!  Got another new companion because well his companion got sick and couldn't eat any food so we are in a trio for the next 4 weeks.  It has been really fun!  His name is Elder De Leon and his mom is from Peru and dad from Guatamala.  Yet he doesn't speak Spanish?  Go figure??  Anyway we laughed a lot and had a lot of good times.  As for the spiritual side: hmm so Miracle!  I went on exchanges with another elder in the district and we went to his area..  On Wednesday We talked to like a million English speaking people and then I was able to talk to 3 Hispanics... well 3 days later we are walking to go visit a referral and I say hi to this Hispanic and he says I know you!  I'm like you do?  He says ya you talked to me in Frederick 2 days ago.  I was like no way really?  So he invites us into his house, we have a sweet lesson and he invites us back this week so we are going to go stop by.  Coincidence?  I think not!... then the next day we are walking along this street to visit a member that hasn't come to church in a while, but she is not home.  There is literally one person walking down the street so while my comps are writing a note to leave on the door, I feel like I need to talk to his lady.   So she is walking down the street when I yell to her and say, hey do ya like the weather?  She looks at me like I'm crazy!  Well I walk over to her and then we start talking and this random car shows up and she gets in.  They say we are going to a house do you wanna come.  I say sure!  I have no clue what to expect.  So we follow her in our car... It's about 7 so it's dark and we get to the house, introduce ourselves and they invite us in.  I guess we just walked into an Evangelist Bible study.  So they start doing their ritual thing and its very cool  Pretty crazy/different but cool.  When one person prays they all start screaming at the top of their lungs and are thanking god.. I look at my comps and are like whaaa?  they talk about david and goliath and they say AMEN like a 10000 times throughout the hour, then its time for a testimony... they look to us... elder tolley stands up and reads Mathew 6 to them!  It talks about how when Jesus comes, he commands the people not to use vain repetitions in their prayers..  They continued to say amen, but the energy in there was crazy!!  We met this really great guy after named Frank.  They gave us Salvadorian style tamales and frank said we could share more with him today.  It was crazy!! but really cool... the lord works in such mysterious ways if I didn't talk to that lady, we wouldn't of gone to the bible study, and if not we wouldn't of met frank!  I hope this all works out!  I hope you all have a great week and just know that the lord is so real!  He helps me learn Spanish and do all these great things.  My ponderizer scripture for this week is Alma 14:11  from the Book of Mormon... I always wanted to know why god lets bad things happen to innocent people.  The scriptures really are the words of God.  Read them and ponderize.  Have a great week!! 

Elder Cornejo

I hate planning

I don't remember if I told you the story of this guy but we were just walking down the street and this ice cream truck pulls up and this guy swings the door open! runs out of the house and says ICE CREAM!!!!! at the top of his lungs!! He then pushes to the front of the line and cuts off all the kids.  Soooo funny!!

Week 32

So I don't have a lot of time today but we had such a sweet lesson this week with the family Martinez!!  Saida has not been going to church after she got baptized in 2012.  So we started teaching her brother.  She stopped cuz her family didn't like her going.  Well she misses church because she has felt the holy ghost testify to her that this is the only complete church on the earth.  She has gone to multiple other ones and felt the spirit, but she says its not the same... So we have been teaching her brother Kevin and he is a punk!! He is like wanna play wigi board with me and all this garbage stuff and we are like no! haha It's funny cuz he says a lot of things that I used to ask the missionaries... Well this last week we made cookies for their mom because she is the one we have to get haha and we brought em to her and she opened the door and was super friendly with us.  Long story short, we started reading the Book of Mormon with the entire family!!! Now the other sister Nancy asked us for one cuz she wants to read it to.  The mom then invited us over for dinner and made us such a bomb Guatamalan soup!!! We were able to watch Elder Hollands talk with them on saturday and they promised they would come to church next sunday.  I am praying that they do because the gospel could help them soo much!! The feeling that you get when you teach is soo awesome!! I just wish ppl were more open! haha but that is ok!!  So funny story after the lesson, I get home and  it is a pretty storm night and I get a call from the sisters in our district that they are going to be home a little late... at 9:50 then I get this call and I was in the shower so I missed the call and the message that they left is that someone broke into their apartment and they are freaking out... So I call them and they say they are chillin in the car and when they went inside everything was moved around and they cut the power when they walked into their appartment... so I call the zone leaders who then call pres... within 2 min I'm on the phone with pres and he tells me I have to go check it out... Well Elder Ball who was in the hospital last monday wasn't with us so I was with my comp Elder Tolley and Elder ball's comp elder Ed Leon.  So we are like sick!! This is gonna be so cool!!  So confession there is a machete under our sink and it is so sick.  Elder Deleon is like lets bring it!! but I say no no, we are just gonna go check it out... So we drive at 10:20 and it is pretty stormy... We get there 10:30... and the sisters are terrified... we go take a look and I flip on the switch and no light.  Dang it! It's just like a movie!  I ain't going in there if I can't see!!  So I ask the neighbor if they have power and they say no.. so I'm like ok they didn't cut the power we are good.  They give us a flashlight and we search the apartment... IT WAS SOOO SICK!! I felt like a detective ahhah... ok clear no one there... so we let the sisters come in, Pres Christiansen calls me so I am talking to him... nothing is stolen  ok what happened?  The sisers then said oh all this stuff was in the closet, why would they move the christmas tree in the middle of the room?... I look in the closet and there is a valve at the botttem.. I think oh it was probably just the maintanence man trying to get to the valve!.. Sure enough there is a note that says, "hey sorry about the mess, we have to shut off the water cuz of the storm, we will come back tomorrow.  Joe"  The sisters were like Dang it Joe!!! how could you do this to us!!  I was like really??  Sooo funny  now if anything bad happens we just blame it on Joe... yep just another day in missionary life... tune in next week for our next mystery!!

Missions are hilarious,

Hope you all have a great week!!

Love

Cameron

Week 31

Wazzz up!! What a week! Wow where to start!  Missions are crazy!! So last week, I was with Elder Brewer training, we taught a bunch of ppl, it was awesome! All these ppl said they were gonna come to church, transfers hit on wed, Brewer went to Annapolis, I got Elder Tolley.. our goal is to only talk and say good things... haha. We got a new pair of spanish elders, I set them up, split the area book, made boundaries for them to teach, they don't  have a car so I'm working on that, Then we teach some more sweet lessons, Carlos agrees that he wants to be baptized on Oct 24, I'm praying for that!!! We finally get Diana to come to a baptism and she actually went inside the church! She loved watching it, but still said she couldn't feel the spirit, we blessed her house the night before...ummm oh had a sweet spiritual experience where I just got up from a lesson cuz the spirit told me to 3 times and went to another lesson and the spirit was soo strong there... Then Saturday morning ran a 5K and got sick.  We were in the ER all day today!!! But not for me haha the new guy in our district came so I stayed in the ER all day with him, but he is gonna be fine, he couldn't eat and was feeling terrible!! I feel bad for him but it looks like he is gonna be able to stay here and not have to return home so that will be good!!  Wow this mission is nuts!! I have so many cool stories but no time to tell them! We have to go meet some ppl tonight!  I don't have time to rest haha but it will be great!!  Lesson learned for the week!! Follow the spirit, when you are unsure what to do, pause, ask, and he will guide you, it's nuts!!  I've come to learn that the spirits voice is always the same, constant and calm... imagine someone that whispers... if they whisper at the same level, you can only hear them if you get closer to them, they will never change tone... so how do we get closer?  Seek and you shall find and knock and it shall be open unto you.  How crazy is that!! I've seen sooo many miracles this week!! I love it!!  I can't believe how true what we teach is!  I don't feel religious, I just tell em facts!!  Hope you all have a great week!! Love you!

Elder Cornejo

So I got this map that was here since 2004! and it has all the spanish missionaries from California since 2004!! Astle came here?  Who was that? Can   you ask them??

Week 30

Hey how's it goin!  Well this week was crazy!!  So ok I can't hold it in any longer. Guess what!!!! I wrote Elder Holland this WEEK!!!  So Tuesday right, I meet the 1st counselor to the stake president who just says that he is going to be meeting with Elder Holland in 2 days!!  So I casually go up to him after and ask him to thank elder holland for me for the talk he gave in general conference and he says well why don't you write him a letter?  So I do and I gave it to him thursday and he said that he was going to personally hand deliver it to Elder Holland!!!!!! how crazy is that!! I know! I was soo pumped, I've been waiting all week to tell you cuz you know how cool that is!!?  Anyway this week had soo many miracles!  We started teaching a family and they are soo golden.  The baptism we went to last week, kevin may sleep for days and forget about our appointments but he is a really great guy... although none of our investigators showed up at church, it was ok because we need to be on the Lords time and not our own.  I would say that was the biggest lesson I learned this week.  Be patient and on the Lords time.  Hmm what else soo  So funny story for you.  For me at the time it was hard.. So our branch president calls up friday night and asks us to meet him for a missionary meeting on saturday at 2:30.  So we clean the park up all morning rush home, change out clothes to our white shirt and I have my tan pants and shoes and we rush over to the church and it is 2:35 when we get there, so we are kind of late and there are a lot of cars in the parking lot, so we walk in and there is nobody to be seen, so we walk around the church for about 10 min until finally we come to the high council man's door.  We put our head to the door and hear voices... so we knock, not thinking and a man opens the door and says come in... so we just walked into a meeting 15 min late, everyone in there has suits on, our missionary zone leaders are there and they give us the most confused look like where are your suit jackets, our mission president, the stake president, his counselor, and all the 8 bishops and missionary leaders in the entire stake of Frederick!!  All of them look at us and I am just like ohhhh nooooo... 15 minutes late and we don't have our suit jackets and we aren't even supposed to be there, but we subbed in for our ward mission leader cuz he never does anything so its ok! haha man most embarasing moment on my mission yet!!! But it turned out all good!  Stake conference was good... Keep the sabbath day holy! You will be blessed, more so than those that don't, fact not fiction...test it!... but transfers are this week! Elder Brewer, my trainee is leaving!  Another elder is coming here, I hear a little bit of disobedience but we will have to see... and we are getting 2 new elders in the district so I'm pumped but now we'll have 10 elders and sisters in this district.. I gonna be even more busy!  It's gonna be great tho :).. I feel like I was just  writing about training, now it's 6 weeks later! So nuts!! Well thing to work on for me this week, Obedience.. because with obedience brings blessings, exact obedience brings miracles.  We gotta help these ppl, that's literally what I eat sleep and breath.. all I can think about is seeing how I can help these ppl and I find that my own problems seem to deminish.. I would encourage all of you to watch the mormon message, Lift this week.  Lemme know what you think :)  Have a great week!!

Elder Cornejo 

Week 28 & 29

 have like no time this week to write, but I love you all and miss ya!! Hope you have a great week!! So that blessing I gave last week!  Guess what!! the baby doesn't need a liver transplant now!!  He is healthy!!!! Ohhh whaaaaaat!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! How crazy is that!!! Faith!!! that is sooo cool!!! It's kinda like Ryan's experience with the blind man but the baby is healed!!  I love God! haha Have a great week! 

Elder Cornejo

Week 29

Ok so this week was sooo crazy good!!!  Alright lemme tell you, Miracles out the wazzoo!!  So I'll start with the coolest thing, so Quieten L Cook...sorry for butchering his name, came to our mission!!!!  I shook his hand nbd!!  We all drove to Annapolis stake center last saturday morning and when he walked in his head was literally glowing!!  He gave us some sweet advice!  And he left a special apostolic blessing upon our mission.  He told us that even though it is hard to serve sometimes that we need to be assured that when we are serving here that our family and friends back at home will be blessed more than we can imagine for the service that we are doing right now.  I can't help to think and just feel that by me being here, there is gotta be someone at home that will be blessed and it encourages me to work harder and harder each day!!! After the spiritual outpouring, we raced back home and picked up an investigator and less active all the way in Frederick and then got in the car and drove back down 45 min to Ellicot City to watch a baptism in a river!!  Our investigator then said he wanted to be baptized!! He dressed down for church but then something came up and he couldn't make it... So then yesterday we went to a Porque yo creo in Columbia and I found out someone that Elder Leavit and I were teaching is getting baptized next Saturday!!  So they said that the familia Soriano requested that we come down to watch it soo we gotta find someone to come and be baptized!    So yesterday I felt kinda sick. I had a fever but went to church and felt pretty terrible.  I love hispanics!! they see that I'm not feeling good so they just show up with random pills... I couldn't help but think of Shelby's ghetto experience in Peru where you tell them your symoptoms and they just give you medicine... that's exactly what they did.. so I took it!! and I felt so much better... don't know if it was bad or not but feel better now!  Probably was some drug.. I felt wired... idk if that's a good thing or not!  Sorry I've been so bad at writing, We never have time!!  Thank you Becky for writing me!  I hope everything turns out for their car.  Glad to hear no one was hurt... So I'm learning a lot, we have a ton of good times!  It's all good.  I hope all of you have a great day  Tell Quinn good luck!!  He's gotta lemme know how he is feeling!!  When is Chloe coming to the Baltimore mission??  That is soo nuts!!  Hope you all  have a great week!!

Elder Cornejo

Week 27

Waz up!  How is everyone doing?

So this week was super good.  We taught 23 lessons this week!!  That's soo crazy especially for spanish work in the states!!  I'm literally praying so hard for 1 on our 11 investigators to come to church!  We had so many that said oh yes I will be there and not one of them showed! :(  I was like are you kidding me!!  Why do ppl have agency! haha but its so good!  But then we had this guy named carlos and he told us he couldnt make it and then we hit the 3rd hour which is sacrament and he comes!! He left work early all the way in Virginia just to make it!! I was sooo happy!! He is such a boss!!  And after we had this money lesson with Gregorio, the one that lives in Damascus MD and he was just saying I want to go so bad but my wife just doesn't want to go.  I had to of course tell him that whenever I went dirt biking, unless I loaded the trailer, packed all the dirt bike bags and then went to my dad and said ok everything is packed all you have to do is drive, that is when we went riding!!  He liked that idea and said that next week he was going to load up everything and say ok Esposa all you have to do is come and sit in the car!  We have another lesson with him on tuesday and that is a miracle cuz he didn't even want to meet with us last night,  I think it was cuz he felt guilty for not answering out texts.   We didn't care!!  So I took an elder with me on exchanges this week and he is still in his first 2 transfers and it was one of the funnest exchanges ever!!  He couldn't believe we could knock a hispanic door at 8:55 at night!  Or ask for a bottle of water and they would just go inside and get us one no matter who it is, even if we just met them!!  The culture is just soo humble it is soo awesome!!  So I have a miracle to tell about this blessing we gave this week and wow it is soo cool but I'm like out of time to write!!  So we get this call at 9:30 am this week from our branch president and he is like hey I need you at my house there is a lady there that needs a blessing.  So we go and it turns out that it is this family that is not members of the church and they are there with their little baby and he has this feeding tube hooked to him and he needs a liver transplant or something I didn't understand the spanish word they used but anyway this baby looks so sick and the mom is just in tears and the dad is looking so sad it's almost like that story of how the man is desperatly bringing his kid to be heald by Jesus.  Now I'm not comparing anything we did to Jesus but we anointed and gave this baby a blessing and I'm not kidding you everything starts going crazy as we bless this baby!! Phones start ringing, tv's are on,. the baby is crying the other kids starty screaming all while I'm trying to hear the words of the Lord in spanish!! One of the most ridiculously distracting blessings I've ever given but after, color returns to the baby's face and he looks healthy!! The parents were like what the heck!!  It was sooo nuts!! They were so thankful!!  It was something I def wanna remember.  Missions are crazy cool!  I love em!!  I love you all  I have to go but I hope everyone has a great week!  Take care of the gym for me!  And ya see ya!!  Love

Elder Cornejo

Week 26

So this week was sooo sweet!!  Man I am soo crammed for time all the time!   It's so great! Makes the days and the weeks go by super fast.  Tomorrow I hit my 6 month mark... it does not feel like I have been here 6 months then again it feels like a year haha but I'm doing awesome!  How is everything back home?  Getting ready for school.  The walmart is absolutly packed here in the back to school section.  It's so weird seeing everyone get ready for school.  I feel like I should be in high school.  So we went to dinner at this peruvian family's house this week and their son who is 25 he's just left wednesday for BYU provo.  He's about to get married and he's soo sweet.  He made us like a 6 course meal.  It was nuts!!  The first thing he came out with was this guacamole stuff but he put pomagrante seeds in it! Pretty good, then this corn that was boiled, then grilled, then had all this other stuff on it,  pretty bomb, then this octopus that was grilled with this black bean sauce.  Then this carne asada with these fancy potatoes and I think there was one other thing and then they finished it all off by giving us home made flan... sooo good.  Nothing like resturant flan./  I seriously have never had food like I have here- it is sooo good!! Then we have been teaching, seeing less actives, bringing less actives to investigator lessons... wouldn't recommend doing that again... haha then just this last sunday was such a miracle!!   So the Spanish branch is doing absolutely amazing!  Everyone here knows about our 2 baptism goal before the end of September.  Yesterday, we had a branch council meeting that was amazing and focused on the missionary efforts.  After, with the branch presidents permission, we got the entire branch together, except the children, which were in primary, we showed the restoration video, just the first vision part.  After that the spirit was so strong that we passed out family plans to each family in the branch.  We watched about 4 hastening the work videos and they wrote down ideas of who and how they could help missionary efforts.  They passed their papers back to us, we made copies and gave them back theirs and we kept a copy.  Now we have names of who these people want to work with!  Now all we have to do is edit the plans with them when we go over and follow up.  The branch president then stood up in support of us and said that the way we are going to be able to get these names is through prayer and the spirit.  So we have really been praying for each one of these people by name because when we do that there is just a different feel!!  It was so amazing.  And then that night we had a fireside where 3 past missionaries came and spoke at the stake center.  Mostly everyone that is active from our branch was there.  I have faith that we can get these 2 baptisms!  Miracles all around. And another miracle happened that night.. It was like 8:50 and I was close to our apartment, and I was like I have to do key indicators tonight and call a bunch of people I should just go home, but I was like no, not yet, I really want an 8:59 miracle...so I tell my companion, we are going to get an 8:59 miracle tonight... so we have been trying to find this guy named Leonelle forever!!  The sisters gave him to us a little bit ago and his cousin just got shot in Vegas, The only thing that I knew from him is his name and that he wants us to pay for his cousins funeral... So last night we are walking and I see 4 hispanic guys and it's like 8:55 so we talk to them and I am not even kidding you at 8:59, some random guy drives up and says Elder Cornejo, Elder Brewer, how's it going?  And we are just like what the heck who is this guy?  He says I'm Leonele!  So we start talking to him and he parks the car and we get a return for tomorrow!!  And he said he'd really like to come back to church!!!  Ohhh Whaaaaat??  That was so sick!!  And he knows my trainer Elder Riddle so it was sooo sweet!!  He's gonna be baptized haha.  Talk about finding... we walk down the street and our investigator just finds us!! It was sooooooo sick!!!!!  I was pumped!!!  It reminds me, we are fishers of men, just need to be in the right place at the right time.  I love it!!  Hope you all have a great week!.

Elder Cornejo

Familia Riggins from Columbia!  They were the ones that bought us cheesecake factory!!

Same family!

Will Lopez.  My favorite fam alive!! From Annapolis!!!  Literally chilled with them the whole o's game.  

Week 25

How's it going? 

So this week was crazy!!  After last week, I had a great time with Elder Fisher for the next two days and we literally ate soooo much food!!  He was leaving so everyone was feeding us!!!  IT was soooo awesome!!  In one night we had all you can eat Golden Corall! then cheesecake at another lady's house, then we went and said bye to this family from Bolivia and they had prepared this carne and rice and platanos and oh man it was soooo good. But I didn't sleep much that night at all cuz I was worried about training and being district leader and not understanding all the spanish!!  But it's sooo weird!  I can understand now! the Lord must want us to understand!!! So last week I translated better in sacrament!! and I can understand all the lessons!!  IT's sooo cool!  I can understand spanish!!! After that Wednesday came,  I had to get TB tested and it came back negative, so no worries.. then training my new comp. He actually lived in mexico for 2 years, 6 years ago so he knows a lot of spanish!! but it is still pretty foreign.  I feel like I just got here but then he reminds me of all the things I felt when I arrived here.  It's cool.  We definately have some good times!!  Friday was leadership meeting from 8-4:30,  then on Saturday we taught an english class,  Sunday we had church until 4:30, Monday we had zone conference from 8-4:30.  I feel like I never have time to be an actual missionary.  And now today preparation day until 6!! Everything has just been flying by!!  We found a new person to teach last week and she is sweet!!  We invited her to be baptized and she said yes!! but she needs to learn more first haha.  She's just looking to make her life better!  My new comp is definitely good luck!!  I am so excited to get out and work!  Sorry I've been so bad in writing!  and with pictures.  I'm grateful for all of you and your examples in getting me here to this point.  I hope you all have a great week!  Next week I'll have a funny story!  Say hi to Janelle for me!  I can't believe she is home!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Elder Cornejo

Week 24

I don't have a ton of time so I'll be brief.  This day was kind of weird with transfers coming and a new mission president.  He hasn't got everything figured out yet so a lot of ppl don't know where they are going yet... but to be brief, so everything is changing!!!  I'm really sad... I'm gonna be a trainer so I'm pretty stoked about that but I'm also gonna be district leader over 3 sets of elders and a set of sisters... kill me! haha  and the worst part is, before this we had 4 missionaries in our branch, 2 sisters and 2 elders and all 3 of them are leaving!!  No sisters are coming in to replace them!!  So our branch covers the entire stake!! which is huge and I have to do all the missionary work.  We were seeing sooo many miracles and the sisters were helping.  This area used to have 6 missionaries so now i have 3 area books to deal with!!  Thats 14 investigators!!  And im training someone who cant speak spanish!!  How is this gonna be possible?  And that means I have to translate church from spanish to english for 3 hours every sunday!!!  And sing at this noche de hoger!! just me and my comp and the mission pres.  We were supposed to have the sisters help but now they aren't cuz none are coming in!  It's gonna be intense... I'm stoked for the challenge but also pretty sad... We saw sooo many miracles this week with both elders and sisters working with the branch and the branch was getting reallly involved... I hope we can keep up the excitement... pray for us... we really really need it...  when our branch presidency found out they all started crying... idk.. It's gonna be nuts  but I know the Lord will help us!!  He is so great!!  I love you all!! your the best!!  I wish i had time to write more but next week I'll let you know.  I love you all!!  Say hi to everyone for me!!

Elder Cornejo

Our branch pres and his wife.  They are crazy.   That is one of the cutest kids ive seen.  His name is Mosi!

Emillio's 4th birthday party fiesta!!  It was sooo funny to watch all the kids!!  There is even this spanish pinata song that they all kept singing it was so funny.  Look it up!

all watching the pinata.  Greg is the guy in the blue.. He is the one we are teaching!

Exchanges with elder young!!!  HE is so sick!! but he finishes his mission on wednesday so hes going home!

me elder young and the branch President's Son Omar!

My companion elder fisher for now..  Im getting a trainee Wednesday!!  We had some good times!!

Sunset driving home.  Its pretty beautiful here1

Week 23

So this week was another week of workin super hard non stop!!  We have so much fun!! but it is hard work too!!  You never stay in one place more than an hour and once you do it feels like youve been there forever!!  LAst week we had to pass 2 of those investigators that we found to the sisters and drop one but we gained 4 more!! its kinda like tithing ;) haha its been sweet!!  We are meeting such cool ppl and now we are going to start playing soccer because everyone wants to play!!  I'm pretty pumped!  Last night was crazy as far as the lesson,  We go to this recent converts house with his wife, then our branch pres shows up with his entire family so we all eat the most fantastic authentic mexican style dinner and it is sooo good i cannot eat any other type of mexican food now and then we are going to share a lesson when Alex goes hey lemme go and get my friend for a lesson.  So he runs accross the street and we wind up having 10 people in this room as we all teach his friend the spirit.  I feel like he felt a little intimitated but everything turned out great.  We mainly just sat quiet as everyone in the room testified to him how they have felt the spirit of god.  It was sweet!!  Then we sprinted to this other guys house.  He is Peruvian so we talked about Qui!  I wanna try it so bad!!  Maybe one day! haha  But had the most amazing message about the restauration and they felt the spirit so strong.  That message has to be my favorite and it is good in any occation!!  But last week we went on exchanges and it was hard cuz i literally have to teach everything because the guy that came doesnt speak spanish.

  Well we had to move this lady this week and oh my gosh, she had some of the heaviest furniture in the world!!  Each piece was like 300 pounds and we had to squeeze it out of this little tiny door frame... It was all solid oak!!  but we got it all in.  She only broke one lamp!  So that was awesome... literally just pushes it off the table... and it shatteres... we all watched her and were like did that just happen?  Cuz she almost starts crying after... idk...but ya we got to go to the temple this week.  That was sweet.  The member that took us fell asleep and the guy inside was freaking out.  So let me describe to you just how humid it was, we walk outside the temple and my camera wont even take a picture because the air is so humid.  IT fogged up my lense within seconds... so thats the reason why i have no pictures this week :( sorry!  What else  i really need to write down these cool experiences because by today i forget them all!! and I definitely need to write in my journal, its just we are sooo busy i never have time!!  I am gonna work on that this week, Follow up with me next week to see how I do! Enjoy your vacations if you see guys with white shirts give em water!!  ITs so hot! haha

Week 22

So this week was sooo hard but sooo sweet!!!  We went hard! haha  We found 5 new investigators!!  Literally everything possible happened to us this week!!  So Monday we met a sweet latino family Hernandez.  His mother in law goes to our branch but he goes to the english ward with his family.  He is nuts but its funny.  He calls all the hispanics laminitas or laminites and says they are always late for everything!! So we set up a party for couples last friday night and while he was waiting for them to arrive he got his disco ball out and blasted Turn Down for What and the sub was sooo beautiful!! haha He just started blasting all this solja boy and wobble and all these songs and starts dancing and has us film him so he can send it to an ex missionary. hahaha he is hilarious pretty crazy tho.  I wish my words could better describe what went down but no amount of words can have you fully capture the image of his dance moves that will forever be engraven in my memory... not a good thing... haha... then we also had some drunk guys we delt with.  I talked to a homelss guy for 5 min a guy that had been living in the church for 5 weeks and then one day the bishop comes and says there is someone here that shouldnt be and they find him!!!  i cant believe he dodged the members for 5 weeks straight!  But now he just chills outside and the members wanna put him in jail... youd think theyd wanna help him?? but idk thats the english work haha  As far as our missionary work it was so sick!! the members here are awesome!!!  We are becoming pretty good friends with them.  We helped set up a wedding but couldnt go to it but that was last friday and then we are litterally contacting like crazy to try and meet new ppl.  We have met a ton of pregnant teens.  One 14 year old we gave a blessing to last week and then another one we talked to in the street... so weird.  Sundays are the best in the mornings cuz this family makes these Giant and i mean Giant pancakes for us to eat with strawberries, peaches, blueberries, platanos, whipped cream, dulce de leche and of course maple syrup.  When i get older i definately wanna get a tradition going for the missionaries to come over at least once a week.  This family is famous around the mission for these pankakes cuz they are literally so huge!!!  And missionaries rarely ever eat breakfast so it'll be cool!  Oh this week we get to go to the Washing DC temple, last week we did babtisms with the branch so that was sweet but this week we get to go thru a session.  We werent allowed to do the baptisms and i forgot my temple reccomend... so pres wasnt too happy with that haha but i won't forget it again!!!  Man there are so many cool things that went down but ya its hard, it's sooo tiring but it is sooo fun!! and rewarding!!  Work hard and love one another that is our goal for this week!!  Hope you all have a great week!!

Elder Cornejo