Week 60

Wow it was soo great talking to everyone yesterday.  It really brings you back to real life for a moment in time but now it's time to go hard!!  I feel like I am running out of time!  This last week was so wonderful.  We had 2 amazing lessons with our investigator named Maria Isabel!  She is looking to feel peace in her life.  As we testified of the Atonement last week, the spirit was so strong!  She says she notices changes in her life.  Everytime we come she feels the spirit so strong she says, I don't want you to leave.. but she is working towards the 22 of May for baptism.  It really is a blessing to see when the people allow the Atonement to work in their life, there is no possible way we could do this work alone!! 

Well I cant really think of anything more to say other than I love you all!  I am so grateful for this mission and for the support.  The Gospel of Jesus Christ is so real!!  Have a great week!

Elder Cornejo

Week 59

Well I am completely out of time.  This week was great!  The people are awesome!!  We have a new district.  Everyone seems to be soo excited about the work.  It is going to be a great transfer!!!  Sorry I have no time but I wrote this to Monet thinking of all the challenges we face in this life... So I have no time but ill send it to you.  What are your thoughts?  I Hope you have a great week and continue learning!  We had one of the craziest things happen I'll have to tell you about it next time.  Love yall!!

Elder Cornejo

Yesterday in Sunday school we were learning about the atonement and the teacher wrote 3 words on the board:

sin,

death,

affliction

As he was talking the spirit revealed something to my mind that I had never thought about before.  Jesus Christ says, come unto me and be perfect even as I was perfect.  So let's start with the first part, Sin, obviously Jesus was perfect, but as he suffered in the garden of Gethamane he took upon him every sin that everyman and creature has ever committed.  So he has paid the perfect price for every sin that we have and ever will commit..

Now death: He died and everyman on earth will die as well to follow his example.  The same goes for the resurrection

And now Affliction:  Jesus Christ being the perfect person had to suffer more than any man ever know and will suffer in the history of time.  No us, being imperfect and even though we try our best to be perfect, there is no doubt in my mind that we were meant to taste of the same affliction that Jesus felt.  And since we feel of that affliction like he felt, there is no doubt in my mind that we will also feel of the same joy, the perfect joy that he felt when he overcame it all.  

It's all about the process.  In English after we take the steps of the doctrine of Christ, faith repentance baptism receiving the gift of the holy ghost, we need to ENDURE to the end.  I like the wording in Spanish better which directly translating states, "persevering until the end.

So a Mexican ship sailed to Baltimore from Mexico as a sign of Peace!!  They let us board it and look around.  It was so legit!!  Everything on it was beautiful!  I could even talk to the people that came up!!

Week 58

So quote of the week:  Can you believe we were walking thru the hood and this suuper drunk lady stands up and looks around and says, "I think I must be in da hood.. cuz yall be wearing hoodies.."  yep that's classic Baltimore.. Elder Scott and I looked at eachother, did we really just hear that??  

This week was really great!  We found a new person to teach named Maria and her daughter.  The are from the Dominican Republic.  Oh my her Spanish is a completely different world!!  And let me tell you the food too!  She taught us how to make some Dominican food, let me just say its probably one of the best tasting things that I have ever had in my life!!! Plus I learned how to cook plantains! :)  It is such a blessing to be able to work with such a wide variety of people from all over central and south America!  We have seen so many miracles and experienced so many great things, there is never enough room to explain it all :/...

Miracle of the week:  Elder Scot and I get to stay in Baltimore together for another transfer!!!  The best thing ever!!

We had such an amazing lesson with well everyone.  The spirit has been so strong here in Baltimore.  So we made friends with one of the coolest famies. "The Ayalas"  They invited us over on Saturday, and then again on Sunday so that we could teach the oldest sisters guy friend, quote from the lil sister: "Don't worry its a boo thang, not a thang thang"...  Yep and she didn't even grow up in the city!!  So they asked us to teach him.  Really you don't understand how much of a miracle that is when a member family invites you to teach one of their friends!  Best thing ever!!  So we meet him he is a little interested but not too much.  We talk and he just says ya no I'm not really interested but that's ok.. So then we go inside the whole family is sitting round about and we all are laughing having a great time getting to know each other so I say would you like us to share a lesson?  She says sure!!  So we share a lesson about the atonement!  The spirit dropped upon the whole house like a bom! Afterwards he was excited and asked us for a pamphlet!!  And another friend that was over was so excited about what she had heard and felt she asked for a book of Mormon.  I have often wondered what type of missionary i am going to be after the mission because I know that being a full time missionary just won't be possible.  This experience with the Ayalas really was a great lesson for me that being an example for non members and inviting them into members homes is such a powerful experience.  Just by setting the example as members, we don't know how strong the impact of our morals has upon the non members.  It may not always be their time but never be afraid to invite and set that standard in the home that you are willing to pray, bless the food have a lesson with the missionaries, and when the questions come, that is a blessing!!  Thank you and I love you!  Hope you all have a great week!!

Elder Cornejo

So Felix took a bunch of goofy selfies when we went to Inner Harbor to play beach volleyball last preparation day.  It was awesome!!! 

Week 57

Wow it seems like life is passing by and we are all just growing along with it.  I can't believe Carter is going to be married soon!!  One year brought changes and I imagine that the next is going to do the same.  Wow I am so grateful for the people that I have met and this wonderful calling that I had to be a missionary!!  This last week Alvin Collado was BAPTIZED!!!

It was so awesome to see how the branch accepted and supported him and his family.  And not only that after the class people were hugging each other and you could just feel the love that was shown between the members of the congregation.  It was something else 

SO Last night miracle.  So we contacted this lady named Elizabeth from Puebla mexico last week as we took a member out to a lesson he helped us street contact her.  So we did, she said she didn't believe in god.  What!! That was the first Hispanic that I have ever met that didn't believe in god!!! So last night we went over and I tried to "serve her" by making tortillas for her.. didn't turn out as well since I tried to make em by hand, but she liked em haha.. After we tried reading the story in Alma 22 where Aaron tries to talk to the king and say there is a god, but she wouldn't believe... But then the member bore his testimony and the spirit filled the room.  He told her that she needed to read the scripture and ask god if he is there.  she said that would be hard..  That part caught my attention so I asked why would that be hard?  She said because she hasn't recived an answer before... In that moment I felt the spirit fill my body and I was like Ammulik when he perceived the thoughts of the Abogados... I knew something had happened to make her not believe, so that's what I told her.  I told her I know you know there is a god but it is hard to believe because something happened that gave you an experience that says there is no god.  Then she starts crying and says yes because her child died and she feels so alone.  The spirit was so strong as we testified of the plan of salvation and how she would see her daughter again. 

I love my mission and the people I get to meet :)  Thank you for all you do.  Hope you have a great week!!

Elder Cornejo

Week 56

Happy Easter!!  I hope everyone had a great Easter Sunday. I would have completely forgot about Easter but since my last name is Cornejo everyone calls me Conejo which means Bunny...  I was so tired yesterday after being out of our area in different places 2 days last week I guess I was super tired from all the traveling! haha  But everyone kept asking me, Are you tired because you were busy leaving eggs last night??  Where is the chocolate candy today?? It was pretty funny! 

Last week a Seventy came to our mission to help us better motivate the missionaries.  It was so cool because we were able to learn the way he broke down the scripture 2 nefi 32:3-5 how before our baptism the spirit will tell us all things that we should do and after it will show us all that we should do...  Then we were able to have a question and Answer.  Someone asked him, How do I get myself and the other missionaries to love the people more because it is kind of hard to love the people when they slam a door in your face...  Elder Carlson (the Seventy) responded, the only way you are going to be able to love the people more is if you have the spirit with you.  There is an unbreakable law in heaven where the spirit cannot dwell in unholy temples.  And our temple is our body.  So he gave a longer explanation but essentially said that we should be repenting constantly throughout the day.  The Savior suffered and died for our sins and afflictions.  He knows how we feel each day sinful and sinless, happy or sad...  So we need to call upon that great and infinite atonement and in doing so, in repenting each day after each bad though, the spirit can be with us as our constant companion...

I have applied this into each day and let me just say this past week of my mission has been one of the most spiritual weeks that I have had.  When we share truth about the gospel of Jesus Christ, the spirit really is brought unto the hearts of the people until they have the opportunity to accept of reject it.  

After a lesson with Alvin and Brigit last night we really felt and have been able to see the spirit change their lives.  The are what the bom says as becoming a "delightsome people"  And I love them so much they've become our family.  When we do any type of missionary work we cannot help put to feel that pure joy that can only come from God himself.  I am so grateful for this mission and for your support.   Hope you all have a great week and spiritually prepare to take heed to the advice from the prophets this general conference.  

Elder Cornejo 

Week 55

Soo I'm completely out of time but this past week was great at the start and then it just got weird!  Everything we had started falling through!  Even Karen and Jose decided to move their baptism date to the future sometime because a lot of people started telling them crazy things about the church.  I am actually pretty excited about that though because before hand they were going through the motions and not really giving it all they had.  So now we are getting somewhere! haha  Alvin is preparing to be married and baptized this week so we are definitely working hard with them to do everything we can and pray to the lord for his help.  I definitely am so blessed to be able to see his hand in the work each day.  There are so many wonderful things happening here.  The spirit in the lessons it just unreal!  We met this guy named Will this past week.  He is 20 and super curious about the mysteries of god but doesn't really want to put forth the effort to learn.  So this past week we committed him to read about faith.  Then we start teaching him about the atonement naturally that comes after we have faith in god.  I then remembered an example on how to better help him understand the reason why we need Jesus Christ in out lives... It came from a talk I read a longtime ago and the spirit brought it to my mind... It is about how after we die we will be in a room with lots of files all around us... then we have the files of all our sins and we look through it and read it and are like oh man, I feel so terrible.  afterward Jesus Christ  comes and instead of us having to be judged for everything we have done wrong he takes the pen and signs his name over each sin we have ever commited and takes it all from us.  Writing it does not do it justice but it was such a cool experience because Will was speechless he was actually speechless! and the spirit was droped in like a bomb! Anyway great week so many cool experiences.  I hope you all have a great week.  Something that I read this week was March's Ensign letter from the first presidency:  It talks about spiritually preparing ourselves for Conference:  

I would like to invite all of you to spiritually prepare to receive revalation from this conference by coming with questions and seeking to hear the revelation that comes from the spirit for you specifically and not  from the direct words that the prophets say.  I love you and have a great week

Elder Cornejo

Week 54

Crazy Baltimore story of the week: We were walking and this guy asks us hey! yall missionaries!?  We say yes!  he starts talking to us telling us about his family.  He tells us about his son: 22 confirmed kills... we ask was he in the army.. nope committed suicide.. okay... you can see in his eyes that he is on some pretty hard core drugs... he says ya I gotta run looks down at his leg and his pants are just soaked thru with blood all around his ankle.  We are like what in the world?  He says ya I got a scratch... he pulls up his pant leg and there is a perfect round hole that is pouring literally like a waterfall of blood.  Whoa!! he goes yeah hope I didn't get shot again... again!?  Definitely a bullet hole...  poor guy doesn't even feel it... probably did it himself.. question mark?  #Ilovebaltimore!!  haha

But this week was pretty good, I got sick for the first part of it but the members took care of me and I received my first blessing in Spanish and understood all of it!  it was super cool!  We gave this blessing to this little girl named Catherine this last week and she was soo sick but afterwards she just stands up and is like I'm all better!  What!?  Super sweet!!  Jose and Karen came to church along with Alvin.  They are all doing really great as they progress towards their date of baptism on the 26 of this month...  

Our focus for this week was to really teach the doctrine of the Atonement.  When we stop believing in Christ and start Believing Christ, that is when we truly understand how to apply it to ourselves.  Believe Christ that he came to the earth and that he died for you individually makes it so we desire to do good.  When we truly understand the significance of the Atonement, we stop worrying about the little commandments that he asks us to do and in turn we understand how to best draw closer to him and help others do the same.  If you are looking for a great scripture on the Atonement, I would say Alma 34 :)  Hope you all have a great week.  Love you

Elder Cornejo