July 28, 2012

Hello Everyone!!! I cant believe it my time in the MTC is finally over!! i'm so excited haha its gonna be awesome to be out in the field everyone please pray for me to have a good trainer im gettin nervous about that part haha. This week has been awesome though i finally got the package mom and i got to go on a field trip to pick it up so basically i got two city tours just no wendys this time dang it... but it was good thank you so much for everything in it.  they opened up one of the pringles so i didnt eat those but everything else is getting eaten quick haha. they said from now on to put elder on it but im still not sure so well just see what we should do. i dont have my new address yet but i think mondays are gonna be my pdays so hopefully another email will be comin this monday ha. This week has gone by fast which is awesome. we went proselyting again and placed three books of mormon and got five contacts so that was pretty sweet and then went to the temple again no power outages this time haha. The only thing i can really think of that stands out is everyday we play volleyball for sports so i love that haha and its concrete so i can block just about everything, some people don't really like when i play hard but i don't care hahaha. oh other good news i guess our mission president takes us to the beach and we get to play volleyball or soccer on the beach a couple times in our mission so thats like sick!! Still haven't gotten any letters or emails from friends back home so what the crap guys! The spanish is kinda at a stand still and i feel like im forgetting some words that i should know but i dono maybe im just trying to do to much stuff at once in my head. Anyways though im doin great here and am way excited to get out to the field and spread Gods word! And it sounds like everyone at home is doing good dad and mom are busy at work, brandi with work and cross country but getting a break very soon for a couple weeks that'll be nice i'm sure and she gets to go to lagoon with the cousins! very nice! the weather has finally turned around apparently if the pool is above 80 degrees i know its hot there haha so hopefully you all can enjoy that cause i know your all very busy so make time for it! And it sounds like home is getting a lot of changes in the city well maybe not but it will seem like it by the time i get home haha.

hopefully i got enough in for you guys i dont really have a reading assignment this week but if ya wanna read the gospel of jesus christ 2 nephi 31 ha go for it its really good! But i love you all so much and just think its already been two months just day by day that's how i'm doing it ha but i think about you always and you are in all of my prayers. Stay strong in the faith. i love you all so much and can't wait to chat from el salvador!!! Adios mi familia y amigos!!

July 21, 2012

Well how the heck are ya?! Just another regular week here in Guatemala rainstorms, earthquake during a lesson, power went out at the temple twice, ate some horse meat just same old same old ha. But the earthquake was awesome just right in the middle of our lesson and our legs started shakin then it went up through our whole bodies and there was a plant sittin next to us on the table that started shakin it was sweet haha. The temple was sweet it was right in the middle of our session and everything just went pitch black and then we only had sound but after like ten minutes they got everything goin again but it made it pretty obvious we are in a third world country ha-ha. I cant

believe it only four more real class days left here then we do different training stuff i'm so excited to leave, this place can make ya go crazy haha. I did get the pictures mom so thank you for that and
i got a package from grandma evie and there was 4 twinkies and some jerky sticks...i love twinkies we just need to figure out how to ship em frozen and then i would be in heaven haha jk, but no other package yet from you guys. I got a letter from Nate and some pictures from him too that was so awesome to hear from him and he's got some baptisms now so that's awesome he has worked way hard for them so i'm happy and i think he got transfered too but i'm not sure. ill be lookin forward to the letter from Andrew i'm not sure what the address will be in el salvador they don't tell us anything ha. But another address i want is austin madsen so keep your eyes open and maybe ask andrews mom for that or somethin but anyways the language is still goin good tryin to learn just normal words i would use everyday and its hard but were gettin there. Patience, patience, patience thats all i've read about in the scriptures this week and i haven't been lookin for it they just pop out at me ha kinda neat how the Lord knows all of us so well and knows exactly what we need when we need it! Um other than that there isn't much to report on oh i remembered another thing i want, they gave us a
workout band in provo but i seemed to have misplaced the stupid thing so if you wanna make another trip to walmart cause you havent been there in ten minutes that would be great hahaha i thought that was a funny joke. But i really do want that. Other than that any type of granola bar anything that looks like food i'll eat it ha. This next week we get to go proselyting with our own companion so me and elder gates so well probably just be a couple a studs out there chattin it up doin the lords work like we are professionals but we will be because we have the spirit of the holy ghost with us. Hopefully we can make some good contacts. And we get to go to the temple this week again too and its really rare to go two weeks in a row so that's cool the temple here is beautiful its just VERY small. Everything at home sounds like its goin good nice warm weather, stayin busy at work, gettin new decks Im way excited to hear all the new music in the truck and car, i probably wont even come in the house ill just sit and listen to music for like a week straight haha. And it sounds like brandi is gettin to have a good time its cool you got to talk to my friends cause i haven't!! Tell them to email or take some international stamps to their houses and slap em around a bit ha come on people! But keep havin fun sounds like its a quick summer like normal and believe me its goin by way faster here ha its crazy and mom HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! you're right only one more b-day and then i'll be there

to celebrate with ya. I learned that el salvador is definitely hotter in el salvador and a little more humid too, so i will probably sweat like 10 to 20 gallons a day so no big deal. haha but that is a good

idea mom to give em somethin or a couple families things i was thinkin buyin ties or pictures you can buy sick ties here for like 3 bucks its awesome but i love you all so much and i miss you and pray for you always. always remember to read your scriptures everyday and look for the stories in there and it will be your favorite book ever!! I'm so grateful for this oportunidad to serve my mission and change my life forever and hopefully many others as well! I love you and God be with you til we meet again! Love, Elder Jorgensen

July 14, 2012

Hola familia! This week was awesome! We had our city tour on Monday so we got on the bus which was a hundred quetzals or however you spell it (about 12 bucks or so) and started driving down the highway and people here drive nuts and the lanes are not nearly wide enough.  ha ha. while we were driving there was another bus that passed us and broke off the mirrors on our bus, I could've  reached two inches outside our bus and been in the other bus its crazy. The first stop on our tour was this big 3-D layout of Guatemala, Southern Mexico, Honduras and tiny part of El Salvador, it had like mountains lakes oceans rivers everything mapped out on it, then our MTC president described it to us and we started talking about the Book of Mormon and how its possible it played out here.   It's pretty crazy how similar everything is I tried to take pictures but they didn't turn out good just cause it was weird angles and everything so I ended up deleting them. Then while we were walking back we saw a private school of elementary kids and we started talking to them. they were so sweet we walked by and they held out their hands for high fives knuckles and peace signs. They were also learning English so they would introduce themselves in English it was cool.  way sweet experience for all of us! Then after that we went to the market which was the sweetest market ever! We got dropped off on the side of the road (like six lane road so not many cars) ha ha and then just started walking on the sidewalk. We started to get into like all the little necklaces and stuff like that and then there was some food but they told us not to buy any of it but it smelled good except for plantains which are a banana mixed with a potato and fried - they suck ha-ha supposedly they're supposed to keep you from getting sick and be one of the best snacks ever, I can get like two down then I'm like nah go ahead you can eat em ha. but anyways kept walking down the sidewalk and started seeing some cooler stuff, soccer jerseys and everything and then we saw like a pet store set up on the sidewalk and they had some sweet dogs ha-ha and they were only like 60 bucks. we were trying to figure out how to get one on the bus and feed it here at the mtc and then the president came ha whoops. but he said we haven't even gotten to the market yet and we were like are you serious so he led us down to like a basement of what looked like a little building but it wasn't it was massive there was two floors below like street level and a ton of little stores with everything you can think of. we found some cool stuff that we thought about buying but I was like I still have two years to get some sweet stuff so we all just looked.  And then we went to the food court and just sat and smelled.....so freakin good ha-ha made me starving. But after like two hours of walking around the market we went to wait for it .....WENDYS holy crap I almost cried. ha-ha I walked up and was like numero tres grande con cocino por favor con la coca cola ha-ha very sweet. I had a triple bacon cheeseburger and a large fry and coke and it was the best thing ever, and I almost got full too so that was pretty neat ha-ha. There was like 40 of us there or something and it was crazy, other Latinos would come in and just yell hola gringos and leave ha pretty funny and then after that we went to like some of their capital buildings and I took pictures there so ill send those home sometime ha sorry they already took our cameras back. Lo siento. but anyways I also went on splits for a day with Elder Roach from Indiana he is in our district but that was fun too ha. Um.. we are now teaching a few 45 minute lessons and that's about it, everything else is same old same old I love you all and I miss you so much!!!! ADIOS!!

July 7, 2012

Hello mi familia y amgios!!!! All is well down here in Guatemala. The big news this week is our proselyting adventure we got to go on for three hours on Tuesday. They loaded us all up and drove us like 20 minutes on the highway in one of there awesome decked out Jesus rides is what they called em haha but we got off and I got my companion (we went on splits with a latino companion) elder Rodriguez from Mexico. He was a way sweet kid he was 20 years old and has a couple sisters. We didnt place any book of mormons though and just gave out some pamphlets. It was just the wrong time of day to be out tracting, everyone is working so it was tough. And we met a lot of people that are just Catolico and are happy with how their life is going so it was kinda hard. So we got two contacts. I basically just bore my testimony but i did give the first vision and like half the first lesson so that was neat. We talked to a couple cops so they were just holding machine guns and shotguns and pistols on their hip and were just like hey wannna hear an awesome message? ha ha it was fun and kinda discouraging too some people totally ignored us we would start headin their way and they would turn around and go inside or walk to the opposite side of the street. It was just like gosh dang-it people come on!! just listen to my bad spanish for a little bit and be saved haha jk.  Another thing it was sunny that day so I was sweating so freakin much my shirt was disgusting it felt like i just run a marathon or something. We walked through some sketchy places too a couple roads we went down the houses were...sad to say the least like just tin roofs paper thin walls just garbage everywhere and just dirty filthy poor it was pretty sad. Ok other than the tracting experience the week was pretty normal we taught our investigators again (just our teachers acting) but we are getting so much better! Now i can feel the spirit when i teach in spanish and i was able to give some personal experiences in some of our lessons i was just like sweet!! And we committed both of them to baptism on the 27 of July(remember this isn't real just actors) but still pretty dang sweet. I missed everyone so much on the 4th it was kinda a hard day for me just thinkin what i would be doin at home with the fam and friends and everything made us all kinda sad. But they made hamburgers for lunch and had a huge american flag and american decorated hat cake it was pretty sweet and get this kool aid!!!! Ah soooo good made my day ha ha. Today we had the market come and i bought two more corbatas so now i have 4 corbatas de Guatemala and they are sick haha. Last night i got some letters so thank you so much everyone that wrote me!! I think the letters were dated like the 25 to like 27 of june so that was like 2 weeks ago? kinda sucks but it was still great to hear from people! So thank you again that made my day! This morning we played basketball nortes contra latinos...we dommed em it was awesome I think i made like 12 shots and had a couple alley oops so that was fun and that's about it so far. this next Tuesday we get to go on a five hour tour of the city so were really excited for that ha ha. Alrighty now for the stuff at home! Thank you Trevor for buyin my truck she wont let you down!! ha ha it was a good truck, sorry the morning of the fourth wasn't the best for everyone but I'm glad the fireworks were together as a family. Family is so important i cant believe i took you all for granted so much. Glad the weather is finally nice and hot but sounds like there is a lot of fires everywhere not just in Idaho so that's not good i will add those people to my prayers too. Oh another great thing happened this week, I got full for the first time this week it was Wednesday lunch i believe and i had my plate and seconds and one of the hermanas gave me half her plate then i went back for like three of the rolls here which are amazing, so that was awesome i almost teared up haha jk. So yes send some stuff in the package granola bars is fine anything quick and portable that i can finish in one sitting so the ants dont get into it. There are ants EVERYWHERE they climb up the walls all the time into the ceiling i just look up at night and see em come out of the cracks of the ceiling and pray they dont crawl on me. I only got bit by one while i was sleeping so far so thats good, and yes im still takin the probiotics and vitamins so im not sick at all it s great h aha. sounds like josh cant catch a break hopefully he can get better fast. Umm..tryin to think what else i can add..oh we got our cameras today so ill try to take a ton of pictures here and at the temple...I think that all about sums up my week so i hope your happier with this email than the last haha I love you all so much and cant wait to see you again keep the prayers comin and God bless!!!

June 30, 2012

HEY EVERYBODY!! Ok first off i found the ipod haha it was in the last
pocket i checked so that was good it looked like the party was a
success the pictures looked sweet and everyone was lookin like they
were havin a good time from what i could see ha I bought some regular
stamps cause thats all we need til we get to the field then i need to
buy international stamps. today a market came and i bought two ties
and some sick scripture cases cant wait for them to get here.
I have been more hungry but i havent lost any weight yet and im not
workin out as good either. I dono what i want in a package ha. We are
pretty safe i think. we heard gunshots our first night here but nothin
since then, i guess there has been two earthquakes both of em were 5
point somethins so i dono not too big. glad to hear josh is doin
better too. hopefully he doesnt get sick again sorry the email will
not be organized at all this time my bad not enough time haha. im just
gonna reply to different emails probably.

Emails are great! handwritten are even better!! haha thank you so much

for the prayers dad! Sounds like you need to take a long break and not
do anything but watch movies so hopefully thats what you can do on the
fourth or since the weather has been so crappy outside. The weather is
beautiful here about 85 im guessing? but humidity is ridiculous!! And
we had our first rain storm finally, it was two days ago on Thursday we
had hail wind thunder lightning like crazy and hardest rain ive ever
seen and the rain drops are huge! But the highway right next to us was
like a creek. Like 6 inches deep of water just flowin down the road
and garbage and debris from buildings was just bein swept down the
road it was pretty sweet to see wish i had my camera! The spanish is
comin a long really good i think speakin is still kinda rough but i
can understand almost everything the maestros tell us so thats good
until they start speakin normal speed for them then i miss a phrase
and im lost haha there is a lot of stupid rules in this language that
dont make any sense haha. hopefully the truck is goin good and trevor
wants it and can buy it and hopefully ill get a letter from him and
braxton have you heard from him? i havent gotten a letter back yet but
oh well i guess. The companion is still really great we go really well
together so hopefully my trainer in the field will be just as good! im
gonna try to read some other emails now.

im sorry i wasnt at your big party brandi happy late birthday as i

forgot to write that last week im so glad it was as big as you wanted!
sounds pretty sweet! i cant tell you everything thats goin on
in this email to you but hopefully you can read all the others and
help  mom crop them or do whatever to help them make sense i love you!!

Ok last little bit of stuff hopefully probably no punctuation trying
to type fast ha ha this week ive been studying a ton and stuff trying
to learn as much as possible. I read the first 90 sections of D&C and
im in mosiah in the book of mormon and im in chapter 3 of first nephi
in my spanish scriptures WOOT WOOT haha. No really fantastic news here
just tryin to get through every day ha its already been a month and i
think it went by pretty fast so thats good haha. we taught or spoke to
more people at the temple this week and it was cool just did a lot of
normal conversation so that is awesome and now they are cutting me
three minutes short im so soory i love you soooo much and miss you!!!