June 24, 2013 Miracles!

Last week of this change and what a week it was! So I have two pretty awesome stories I wanna tell you guys first before anything else. Story number one with the Familia Diaz. As you know Tania, the wife, has a ridiculous work schedule, ten hours a day seven days a week and has a four month old baby so she is pretty busy. With her working so much it was impossible for her to come to church so only Victor Diaz was coming to church, so this last Monday she asked her witch of a boss for permission to come to church on Sundays in the morning and her boss had to think about it all week long and almost fired her for asking. The boss is Catholic, pretty ironic keeping someone away from Christ when you´re supposed to be Catholic. Anyways Saturday night we were waiting outisde of the tienda where she works and when she came out she was like "My Sunday mornings are free!!" Holy crap we were so happy and she was too so that just pretty much made it certain that they are getting baptized. Miracle number two, this last Tuesday we had nothing to do and so we knocked one door (against the rules) and talked to the dad there. We talked about the Restoration a little bit but he had a question about why we dont drink coffee so we talked about the Word of Wisdom and talked more about the need for a prophet in these days. We set a time to go back and teach them for Thursday night. Thursday night we once again taught about the Restoration but it was more like a discussion which was alright because it was really good. We mainly focussed on prophets again and Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. We left a book there with them and went back Saturday night to see how things were going so far. We asked her if she had been able to read and she told us yeah a little bit. We were both really excited thinking she had read the whole introduction. Then she started skimming through the Book of Mormon and stopped at Helaman 1...until there she said. I was confused so i was like oh cool just random pages until Helaman 1, she probably read some good stuff then haha. Well no, she said no i started where you told me and read until here. In two days she read the introduction, all the testimonies of Joseph Smith and the witnesses and 445 pages in the Book of Mormon!!!! 

445 pages in the book of mormon!!!! 

Me and my companion were just in shock at this point, I´ve heard of people reading like first and second nephi in a week or two, but nothing like this. She basically went on to say, this book pretty much answers all my questions so i really wanna keep learning from you guys and find out what your doctrine is. We were only able to have a quick lesson with her, i was kinda upset about that but  this Wednesday I think we will definitely giving her a baptismal date so that will be awesome but I dono if I´ll be in this area. Bad news huh. Worse news my time is up i love you all so much!!! have an awesome week!

 

Love,   Elder Jorgensen

June 17, 2013

HAPPY FATHERS DAY!!!!!! I love you so much Dad and I am so grateful that I have your example in my life and your support in the mission. Sounds like the camping trip you guys had was pretty fun, little cold on Friday so I`m sure the generator was on quite a bit for all the movies you probably watched in the "big rolling turd" hahaha, hopefully everything worked good in the camper. But the pictures from your guys` ride were beautiful, it is super green up there and it was cool to see some snow in the background too. I am pretty confident I am going to freeze to death when I get back home because the coolest it`s been in my area in the past six and a half months is 85 degrees plus humidity, and I`m sleeping when that happens! So yeah stock up on the blankets. Hope Sunday was a good day for everybody too and yall enjoyed the weekend together.

As for me, probably the highlight of the week was eating my 500th pupusa ha. Pupusas in case you have forgotten are the pride and joy, number one unhealthy food of El Salvador so I`m doing pretty good. One kid who is finishing his mish here in a week ate like 650 or something so I am setting a pretty good pace for myself ha. I`m kinda starting to get sick of them too so that`s not good cause there are no other options for dinner usually, lunch is usually chicken or meat that is as hard as concrete well I`m exhaggerating but you get my point. So my diet is usually benefited by the packages I receive and Sunday lunches with Mama Tuli. Other than the food stuff it was an average week for us. Our most powerful lessons were with the Diaz family again. On Friday we went to the chapel for a FHE activity where we watched the video of the Testaments with Brother Diaz. It was super powerful at the end of the video he dropped a couple tears and asked for a copy of the movie to show his wife and I believe they watched it last night so we will have to see how it went. Sister Diaz has another challenge now with her boss, she has to work every Sunday now no matter what but we asked her to ask her boss for one hour on Sunday to come to church and then also to start looking for a different job. It is pretty difficult for her right now to do that so we are praying hard for that. Still no news on Angela but we went by her house yesterday and her brother told us she should have crossed the border on Sunday morning so hopefully we`ll know how everything goes. 

The comp situation is still work in progress, I`m pretty sure he just waits to talk until he can point out something I did wrong or am doing wrong so my patience is starting to wear thin but I`m trying. We are still trying to have fun while working but he just doesn`t have a lot of ganas at times to work so it`s hard. As for changes I have no idea, we will be told next Tuesday in the night time. My gut tells me that yes I will have changes but I guess I could stay for my sixth change here...either way though, I`ll just be happy and keep working. I wouldn`t mind a new companion though haha. So that`s about all the news I got this week. I love you all so much and I will talk to you all next week! Love you so much and thank you for your thoughts and prayers always!!

Love,

Elder Jorgensen

June 10, 2013

Well this week was a lot of the same stuff but some pretty big stuff happened to us too. Let`s see this Monday I got a little sick but it went away pretty quick which was good because Tuesday morning we had to pick up a birth certificate for some other missionaries because they are going to have a baptism of a family, but the family has to be married first so we had a nice four hours on a school bus to a place called Chiltiupan. It`s clear up in the mountains, well big hills cause mountains like back home don`t exist here ha. But that was fun I just hate being on buses for so long because it takes all my energy. The rest of the day Tuesday was just kinda normal day for us. Then on Wednesday we got back on the bus again to come pick up my package that I finally got! So thank you so much for all the jerky and cookies and stuff. I`m gonna have to eat everything before changes on the 26 or I`ll have to leave it in the house cause it would be a huge pain to pack everything. I`m doing good though, I ate all the chips ahoy and one bag of jerky so far and just a little bit of candy.

So now for my big news this week, Angela moved to the States! I was way shocked when she told us Monday night. She said she was going to Maryland to be with her mom and I was like oh that`s awesome and asked how long she would be there and she was like well hopefully I`m moving there! I didn`t know what to say after that ha. She told us how she would be going there and everything, but hopefully she makes it and nothing bad happens to her. It was really hard to say goodbye to her. We went to her house like twice a week for these past six months, and to see her make so much progress in the gospel and gain such a strong testimony of the church. I hope she can find a spanish ward soon and can keep moving forward in the church. I was super sad to say goodbye to her though. I think I`m starting to understand that as I change areas and later finish the mission, it will be the last time I see most of these people. But anyways we took a bunch of pictures and stuff and I gave her my email, so hopefully in a week or so I will get an email saying she made it safe and is back with her mom after not seeing her for 12 years! I don`t even wanna think about how bad that would be!! 

And my other news. The Diaz family we are teaching is awesome! Their names are Victor and Tania. I`ve probably said this before about some investigators but this family are the best investigators I have ever had. They are so awesome and always keep their commitments, they read extra chapters in the Book of Mormon and are praying, living the Word of Wisdom just because one day we mentioned we don`t drink coffee. They are just amazing. I`ve cried I think our last three or four lessons with them, and every time we show up I promise myself I`m not gonna do it and then I can just feel the faith that they have, it`s incredible. They have a date set for the 29 of June...I`m not sure if I will still be here. We did divisions one day and Tania saw my comp and another missionary and told Victor I got changed and he apparently got a little upset but we got it all cleared up ha. I will be super sad to leave them. 

Well it sounds like everything at home is super good. The backyard looks great dad. Just another year until I can help out again but all the trees and patio look really good. Brandi told me about the bike chain incident, I probably woulda made fun of you guys too haha it sounded pretty funny in Brandi`s email. Mom was probably too embarrassed to write it to me ha. I`m super jealous you`re all going camping! I can`t believe it`s already fathers day, it feels like we are still in May so my bad dad probably won`t get a card to ya. But if i find one i will send em. Keep reading from the Book of Mormon every day! You guys have to finish it together! Our family will be so much closer if you can do that! Have fun in the pool and I`ll try to stay out of the ocean! Have an awesome week everyone! I love you all so much!

Su querido Elder Jorgensen

Que Dios les bendiga siempre!!!!

1 Year! June 3, 2013

 

 

 



So I have no idea where to start this email but this week was pretty good for us. It was probably so awesome because I hit my one year on Thursday so that was sweet! And yes I did burn a shirt, but I took a video of it but i think my comp took pics so I`ll see if I can send those. That day was pretty fun, I put on my brand new shirt and socks (everything smelled like America) so I felt all new and clean. So then I wanted to celebrate and we went and bought some ice cream. I bought a banana split and spilled on my new shirt so hopefully Mama Tuli can work some magic for me there. Then we went over to her house later that night and I burned a shirt, don`t worry I didn`t use one of mine ha I used one of Elder De La Cruz`s so it was free.

Really I don`t have any cool or exciting stories to fill everyone in on this week. But we did have an awesome lesson with the Diaz family. Our Branch President went with us to teach them, only the second time in my six months here that he has offered to help, but it was great. We showed up with plans to teach the Plan of Salvation but instead we read from the Book of Mormon. We read 3 Nephi 11 with them. We pretty much shared the gospel of Christ after that focusing on the Atonement. It was an incredible experience. I got to share my testimony about the power that the Atonement has to clean us of our sins and change us to become the person God wants us to be. I dono why but during that lesson the Spirit was stronger than any other lesson I can remember. I ended up crying and so did Brother Diaz. I know that lesson touched him very much and it helped us both come closer to our Savior and Heavenly Father. I`m so grateful that Jesus Christ came to this earth to pay the price for my sins so that I can be forgiven, we are lost without his Atonement and sacrifice. I am learning to love this gospel more and more every day. This last year has been amazing and I can`t wait to see how the next one goes. I love you all and sorry this letter is short!

Elder Jorgensen

May 27, 2013

Well here I am three days away from one year in my mission. I can´t believe all the changes I´ve seen in my life and in the lives of others, and all this is thanks to the Atonement of Jesus Christ and His gospel. This week I was able to see miracles from the Lord every day, and even though there were hard times with my comp, it has been one of the most successful weeks in my mission so far. So Tuesday was our P day this last week and we didn´t do much of anything but it was very nice to just lay down on my bed and just think about all the blessings in my life and how much my Heavenly Father has helped me grow in this past year, and then after that I slept for a good hour so that was nice too. The rest of our week was pretty full of lessons and going all over trying to find more people to teach and baptize, what else is new as a missionary. But our zone has a goal for the month of July, that every companionship will see a baptism in their chapel every weekend of that month. We have been blessed to have already put four dates, right now they are for the 22 of June and 29 of June but there are always things that happen and it´s still too early to tell if we can meet those goals or if we´ll push the dates back to July. I´m excited to be able to put all these dates and everything, but I´m getting kinda tired of El Puerto. If I´m still here for July it would mean I would at least be here until mid August and then the new President would be here and he probably wont make many changes for a while, so what I´m kinda hoping for is changes the 26 of June.

 We do have a new family with a date set. Another Diaz family but they are awesome, the dad alwyas has questions about other churches and why they do things in such a weird way and then he asks us what it´s like in our church and he always agrees and says that is the way he pictures Heavenly Father directing His church! So awesome! He also already came to church, and his wife will come next week cause she had to work yesterday. They also have an eight year old daughter named Estrella (Star) but don´t worry they aren´t hippies. I´m super pumped to see them progress. This week it also rained for the first time in a very long time! It was so nice and cool I almost cried haha jk but seriously i wanted to. Still doesn´t rain during the day but around seven every night it calls down the thunder, big storms and it´s kinda like home too, the bigger the storm the more wind we have. So that kinda blows, ha see what I did there? Anyways I also bought some souvenirs for the first time, I figured one year and all I´ve got to show for it is a t shirt that says SWAG AIR from Nike. So I bought a flute for five bucks but it´s sweet, hand carved from wood and I bought another keychain and some little game things so I´ll try to look in to see how much it would be to send those things home in a package. But there are a couple kids in this district that are from Rigby and one other kid who went to Hillcrest and he goes him in two months I think so I might just ask a huge favor from him ha.. 

Well more news on the comp, well actually no new news still got nothing in common. Partly because I stopped caring about Pokemon when I was like ten, thank goodness, and he doesn´t like sports and only listens to classical music. So my comps are just getting more and more different from me. This week he tried arguing with me that the Americas are only one continent and not two. He asked me why they are two, and I told him that he thinks there are only one cause he secretly wants to live in the U.S. I think that kinda made him mad but I didn´t care too much cause it shut him up ha. But I am trying to be nice dont worry, I just want him to try to be more friendly. 

Sounds like everyone at home is doing good! Brandi did awesome on her finals! A´s in everything, ¨holy crap¨ - Frank Ramone, Eerybody loves Raymond. But yeah way to go!! Sounds like the bonfire was awesome too, I´m super jealous of that but this week I will also have a small fire, burning a shirt!! um only other requests is for the pens, make sure they arent gel, the last ones were and it just smears so thats all. But more food and pictures. Well I love yall so much and thank you for all your prayers always and your love and support. Have an awesome week!

Cuidense mucho!

Love,

Elder Jorgensen

May 21, 2013

Well this week was amazing and super fast and full of blessings. First off I got a new companion, Elder Chacon from Costa Rica. Right now I don`t have much in common with him other than we love serving the Lord. He graduated from highschool two years late because he couldn`t stop playing video games so that kinda sums up all our differences right there in that sentence ha. Really good missionary though and he has been out for one more change than me, so 13 months. I cannot believe it has almost been a year! How crazy is that? I can`t thank my Heavenly Father enough for this blessing of my mission.

So a little about our week and the work down here in El Puerto. First off, my favorite number we had was seven new investigators. That hasn`t happened in a long long time for me. We also put two more baptismal dates so this next change is going to go by super fast because we now have people that are really progressing so it makes everything more exciting and helps me stay more motivated. The new dates are a family, husband and wife, but they have accepted a date for the end of June. I will write more about them in my next emails after we have taught them a little more and I know more of their needs. We had two really lessons that were really difficult for me though. Number one: First day with new comp we went to visit some old investigators that we had dropped a while ago and there ended up being a pastor there from the prophetic apostol church of faith of Christ or some weird name like that. So right off the bat my comp just ignores the old investigator and starts bible bashing with this pastor dude. Trying to just trick him and get him to say something conflicting that he could use to prove the pastor wrong. Just made me mad, so I just sat there the whole time and tried to kinda ignore what was going on. So obviously no progress was made there. OK number 2: lesson on Saturday morning. The guy was a reference from Angela, her neighbor, she told us that he had been reading from her Book of Mormon and he was one of the workers who built the chapel in El Puerto, so we showed up with pretty high hopes. Yeah he shot every hope down pretty fast. His beliefs are that God is everywhere at all times because he is not limited to a body, Jesus Christ was a good man that lived really well and died and was resurrected but that doesn`t have anything to do with him and his life, that commandments are just rules given from men to men to protect themselves, and there is no life after this life. The lesson started off very well though, we explained the scriptures to him and bore testimony and then he just kept rejecting everything so that was hard. It was sad for me to see this man has no hope of anything after this life, and that this life now is just 70 to 80 years of trying to achieve personal goals that really don`t mean anything. Basically he doesn`t have faith, but won`t try to plant the seed of faith in his heart. We still gave him his own Book of Mormon though.

This last week we also did some service finally! At Rene`s house we just kinda flattened out his yard and trying to move all the big rocks he has around so he can plant more coconut trees. Kinda hard to describe what we were doing but it was awesome to be able to do like normal manual labor for once, I miss working like that so much... This week we also ate some really good food at Mama Tuli`s house. She bought fish from one of the restaurants on the beach and cooked those really tastefully then stuffed them with cooked shrimp, then of course more rice and tortillas but hey I was pretty freakin happy. Also I didn`t write yesterday because we had a multizona. That is where two or three zones come together for a conference and we are taught by our Mission President. It went from 8:30 until about 3. It was so powerful and amazing. I don`t have my notes with me but it was awesome. He talked a lot about obedience and the Atonement (as always) but everytime he teaches us about those two things it is more powerful, I learn more, and I feel the need to improve. Basically yesterday was a great day even though I didn`t get to talk to you guys. So sorry you were probably freakin out last week but everything is good, I`m all good just trying to stay super positive in El Puerto. Just a little tid bit at the end of this change I will have been here for seven months, so yeah a little chunk of my mission. i love you all so much and hope that Brandi has a great last week of school, good luck on all the tests! Have fun this weekend afterwards but don`t be stupid, I know that`s impossible though cause you`re basically my perfect example. Good job mom on your half marathon, I`m so proud that you can run a lot farther than me and a lot faster too haha. But seriously thats awesome and i hope you`re not too stiff and sore. Dad, thank you for your email and yes please keep adding to it and enjoy doing the yardwork again this year without me. And to all my Grandparents, thank you so much for your love and support. And I know I missed your birthdays this month but:

GRANDMA BEVERLY HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

GRANDPA BOWMAN HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

GRANDMA EVIE HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

Thank you so much for all your love support and letters all the time! 

Have a great week everyone!

Love,

Elder Jorgensen

Mom I`ll try to write a letter to the ward really soon!

May 13, 2013

Man what a good day yesterday was! I was so happy to see all of you guys. It was definitley hard to say goodbye. I defininitely needed to be able to talk to you guys though, even though it feels like last Christmas was not very long ago at all, hopefully this Christmas comes super fast. There is probably nothing better in the mish than talking to the family, having a baptism is right there too and we also had one of those yesterday.

 

So the baptism was supposed to start at 8 in the morning but nobody here is ever on time, ever, for nothing. So we get it started at like 8:30 or so, we were running all over the place to find her, wait for members, get pictures done, and organize the service. And while I was doing all that by myself the Branch President refused to do anything because we were going to be starting late. He wasn´t even going to attend the baptism! When I finally got everything done BY MYSELF I asked him if he was ready to come in and he was just like no, it was supposed to be at 8 and now we are starting a half hour late so I´m not. I got pretty upset with him again. I didn´t yell at him or anything but I used a strong tone with hime when I said you gotta be kidding me I cannot believe you President. I´m trying to feel bad about getting mad at him but he needs to not be so freakin selfish. But anyways Guadelupe got baptized, she is a single mother of 7. She has a 21 year old kid and a 16 year old girl but they don´t live with her. She does have a ten year old son so he will probably be getting dunked here in a month or so we hope. I hope before I leave the area. But yeah I will be here in El Puerto until June 26. That day I really do hope to have changes, cause that will mark seven months here and I dono if I could do six more weeks after that.

This week I also had divsions with Elder Dolbin my Zone Leader. He just got made Assistant today so obviously he is super powerful. It was an awesome day with him and he helped me receive a ton of references from members here so that was awesome! Well I wanna write a personal note to you guys so I´m gonna end this short email I´m sorry its short but I love you and thank you so much for the prayers and support you are always giving me! I need it so much! Love you all, have a great week!

Love,
Elder Jorgensen

April 29, 2013

Well it has been a super fast week down here in El Puerto with a lot of good days with lots of appointments and some other days with not much to do. Even though there were some hard times this week I have grown even closer to my Savior and am even more thankful for the Atonement and sacrifice He made for me. This week I have been praying a lot and studying a ton about the Atonement so it´s been a pretty powerful week for me in the study category. Tomorrow I hit eleven months in the mission so that´s pretty crazy, at times it feels like I´ve been out for a long time but when I think about it these eleven months have flown by. 

 

This week we weren´t really able to make a ton of progress with our investigators, but we did place a date for one for the end of the month. So now we have two dates for the month of May. I´m pretty sure one will get baptized and the other one, we´ll just have to wait and see the effort she puts in to the church. They have some challenges right now with work on Sundays so they haven´t been able to attend church yet, so that will be a big step for them. We found a lot of new investigators the end of last week and the beginnning of this week but it has been hard to hold on to them. Part of the problem is people are very nice here so they will tell you what you want to hear but not really what they´re gonna do so that is still frustrating for me. But this week we were able to have a fast to believe. For me this fast was very special and really helped me this week. To believe that we can meet all the goals we set in our zone meeting and to better each of our areas here. 

 

Probably our most powerful lesson this week was with a less active family. It was just going to be a short lesson with them about the importance and power of prayer. It started out kinda weird because the wife wouldn´t come join us for the lesson. When she finally came and sat with us, she wouldn´t look at us or participate in the lesson. I tried to ask questions and help her feel the Spirit but she just seemed angry. So to close the lesson we shared our testimonies of the power of prayer and I shared that whatever trial or problem we have, we can´t blame our Heavenly Father for it because he is only there to help us through those things. He has to be our rock, not our excuse. After that she started crying and told us some struggles they are having, but then I got to share my testimony of the Atonement with them and help her understand the purpose of it and the blessing it is. It ended up being a very spiritual lesson for me and hopefully for them. Sorry to say that the story doesn´t have a super happy ending because they didn´t come to church yesterday but we are going back to them this week. Well I don´t know how but our time is already up. I love you all. Thank you for all your prayers this week!

 

Love,

Elder Jorgensen

April 22, 2013

Whew I can`t believe how fast the weeks go by. I`m coming up on eleven months already. This week was a pretty good week for us, I feel good about it anyways. Just a little side note, we just had interviews with President so now I`m all sorts of rambled but I`ll do my best. Let`s see this week we were able to find some pretty good new investigators which is awesome because we are always cycling through new investigators because most people here are kind enough to let us in and give us hope that they will progress. Then when we go back and try to find them, they happen to not be home or they have too many people visiting or other excuses. Sometimes I wish the people were just more upfront with us so that we wouldn`t lose time looking for more who are willing to accept the Gospel. 

 

This week though was super fast because I had divisions one day with one of our Zone Leaders, Elder Gillespie from Washington and we also had Zone Conference. The day with my zone leader was interesting. He is a different kid, really good missionary, just oblivious to some things that might bother other people. I learned a lot from him though, he is a really good teacher. Our Zone Conference was awesome though, soooo powerful. We talked a ton about humility and the Atonement. I hope to be able to use the cleansing power of the Atonement to its fullest, it is amazing. We also made a lot of goals and stuff like that baptisms in these upcoming months and how we can better help our wards and branches. Really good stuff, I`m not so sure some things will be as helpful to us just cause some of the challenges we face in our branch are to the extreme at times. But we have a lot of good ideas about how to keep working and improving the family within the branch. Our family home evening nights in the church might not be working out to great anymore though, we only had two show up last week, our convert Angela and one member who is preparing for a mission. So we`ll see if we can continue to do those or not. 

 

Transfers aren`t for three more weeks so I won`t know for a while so about that, it is the Wednesday after Mother`s Day! Super excited for that day! I really am not sure what to put in this email ha my mind is all scrambled. Things with my comp are still improving everyday, we still have our moments when things are frustrating but every day gets easier. I don`t really have any cool stories this week either. On Saturday we left with Sister Tuli, our cook, to look for less actives. We had to rent a pickup (only 5 bucks driver included) to go visit them. They live clear up in the mountains, about an hour away, ridiculous haha I dono how the missionaries found them. But they weren`t too positive we will see what happens though. Other short story, Tuesday was a little slow so when we were walking by the river I found a little piglet, there are pigs everywhere here! But I chased him for about fifty feet, those things are freakin fast and I am way out of shape ha but it was fun and something a little different. 

 

Sounds like things at home might be start picking up weather wise anyways. Getting a little warmer hopefully. Brandi is dommin up in track, in your pic you looked pretty professional and I could tell you were in first haha. I`ll be praying for you to be able to get better so you can run faster, how did you get more sick than me?! And Mom, you are still running too? Ten miles a day,  I dono how you do that, how long does it take you to do ten miles? Well that`s about all I got this week I love you all so much and thank you for all the support you always have given me and are still giving me! Good luck everyone who is coming up on finals and all the crappy tests in school haha take luck! Have a great week!

 

Love,

Elder Jorgensen

April 15, 2013

Well I´m not exactly sure where to begin this email. First of all I guess I´m very happy to say that we found a lot more lessons this week than last week, more than double actually so that was cool for us. I´m still not big on numbers, I hate being compared to other people and other areas because not a single one of us are the same. But oh well we have to turn in our numbers every week. 

 
The new role of District Leader is...different haha. I have to prepare a district meeting every week, which is just kinda like a motivational lesson to help the district and also helps us exercise and increase our faith in the Lord. At first I was pretty nervous because I was the youngest in the district besides my kid, so I thought someone else should be the leader but I guess the Lord really wants me to learn and grow this change so I´m trying that out haha. I had divisions with one of the Elders in my district this week, Elder Chaclan from Guatemala. He was in the area about a year ago so he showed me all his old investigators so that day with him was awesome. I learned more from him than he learned from me. But all those new investigators I´m sorry to say now want nothing to do with us so that was a tid bit depressing but what more can we do. The progress with our other investigators is slow. We still have a solid date for Guadelupe on the 27th, but the other families we are teaching, I´m trying not to lose hope that they will realize how important these things are for them. And we´re not just talking about the word of God, like all the preachers and pastors down here. 

Me and my comp are still doing good together, I think everyday gets a little better and easier for us, he is just a little bit of a different character. But I am learning a lot from him, a lot of patience and humility. He is definitely helping with the Spanish part, still trying to learn new words everyday and work on the fluidity of my speech and proper grammar. I wouldn´t say that I am fluent in Spanish but I am confident in Spanish so there ya go, for me I´m happy to be able to say that! 

This last week was a little rough for the branch. I´m trying to stay positive with everything that is going on.  We´re doing our best to help everyone we can. It is kinda sad at times. It´s hard for me to sit back and watch. 

 Other than that stuff, it was a normal week for us. I don´t have any fantastic stories or anything. We did help a guy out from Honduras well I dono how much we helped but he showed up on a Thursday night in El Puerto with one suitcase no money and looking for a job. We shared with him a short message and I offered a prayer and gave him enough money for breakfast the next day. I haven´t seen him since but it was kinda the same experience we had a few weeks ago with me and Elder Scurr talking to a guy on a bench so that was cool. Other than that same ol same ol. Sounds like home is goin alright haha. Brandi is loving the ACT and SAT so that´s cool haha.  Hopefully she can relax a little and enjoy her dance. So have fun there Brandi! And hopefully mom can stay in top shape for her half marathon, we´ll probably both be sweating pretty profusely at the same time so I´ll be thinking about ya then haha. And hopefully Dad can find some nice patio furniture so you can sit outside and freeze in your 40 degree weather HA. Forty degrees to me sounds miserable now, I´ll probably die my first winter back in Idaho haha. But that´s all I got this week. Keep me in your prayers and keep moving forward with faith. 

Love you all!!!!

Elder Jorgensen

April 8, 2013

Well how is everyone doing? I´m doing good down here in El Salvador just trying to not screw up as being district leader. It was a pretty surprising phone call from the zone leaders, they just called me Wednesday night and said I better start planning my District Meeting for Thursday so I started panicking instantly because I´ve never had to worry about that before. Being a District Leader I get to go on divisions with all the elders in my district and tomorrow I get to do divisions with Elder Chaclan from Guatemala. He served in El Puerto (my area) about a year ago so hopefully he´ll be able to show me some of his old investigators because we desperately need people to teach. This last week was tough for us with one lesson with a member present and only four others, with a whopping three less actives to top it off. I´m glad to start a new week. We did have Guadelupe and her family come to conference, right now she is pretty much our only solid progressing investigator, but she said she loved conference. She is a single mother of six or seven, I think. We´ve had to drop our other investigators or it is just super hard to find them so that's depressing but we´re not losing hope on em yet. We only had an attendance of about 30 from our branch and they only came to one session on Sunday. Our branch president only came to that session as well so that really angered me, we can´t make progress if the most influential leader in the branch and the head of the branch doesn´t want to do anything. But what can I do?

 

I also got my birthday package! I was super excited for that! The two ties are probably my favorite and the jerky is all of the latinos´ favorite haha. I wore both ties on conference weekend, they´re too nice to wear to work every day so I gotta keep em nice. But the other stuff was awesome too, the cd´s, shirts and just all the good food haha. Thank you so much and the Birthday cards I got from everyone was awesome. Thank you so much Grandma Evie and Grandma and Grandpa Bowman, and Grandpa and Grandma Jorgensen my mom said yours is in the mail so I will thank you right now as well. Still can´t believe I´m twenty, I don´t feel it. 

 

So how did everyone enjoy conference?! It was my favorite so far, but I´m pretty sure I´ll say that about every conference for the rest of my life haha. My favorite talks were the fourth one from Saturday Morning Session, Bishop Cardon, and others on obedience by Thomas S. Monson, and faith by Jeffrey R. Holland was freakin awesome too. The worst part about conference and the only bad thing about conference is there is a closing prayer that means it´s six more months until conference again. I hope all you guys had questions answered and felt the Spirit from this conference. 

Sounds like things at home are still going, I wanna go do yardwork. This week we raked leaves for about 30 minutes and I probably sweated enough to fill up our pool at home, it was ridiculously hot.  Apparently April is the hottest month down here. We´ll see if I make it to next April haha. But Brandi sounds like your track meet was awesome.  And I´m not sure who asked you to the dance but hopefully you have a good day! Mom how is your training going for your half marathon? And thanks for the update on mission calls, that´s sweet! Dad feel free to get going on the hot tub cause i could sure go for one right now haha. But that´s it for me for the week. I hope you all have a great week and I´ll chat you up again

Monday!

 

Love,

Elder Jorgensen

4/1/2013 I'm coming home!!!

Well like the subject of the email says I´m coming home! Apparently in order to change or split the mission they have to send some missionaries home so I´m gonna have like two months of down time! HA HA  April Fools! But wouldn´t that be sweet!!! Anyways so I logged on today and had 31 emails!!! Thank you everyone for emailing me and Brandi thanks for the pics of California, those were sweet. For my birthday though it was a pretty good day. At lunch we went to Hermama Tuli´s house cause she made me a double cheeseburger with bacon and homemade french fries and FRY SAUCE! Then to finish it off she brought out a 3 milk cake. It was different but really good. Then she also got a yellow lab puppy this last week, and I got her to name it Kate. So now I have a yellow lab puppy here in El Salvador! Makes me miss our dogs a lot but it´s alright. Also on my birthday we did divisions with some members from the branch, that was alright we weren´t able to get much done. But to finish off the day some investigators invited me over and they made us some dish of Shrimp and vegetables, it was super good. Don´t worry I took pictures of all the food haha. It feels super weird being 20, actually I don´t feel any different but whatever. 

3 milk Birthday Cake!

 

Kate thinks its hot here too!  She likes to cool off in the fridge.

 

Birthday Meal!

 

Hermama Tuli's new puppy!  I convinced her to name her Kate.

 



 

Yumm... Shrimp and Veggies!

 

Overall this week was a lot better than last week. Our number of lessons went up a little bit even though on Saturday and Sunday we only taught one less active. Semana Santa is huge down here. EVERYONE goes to the beach for the week so my area was freakin packed with people that didn´t care to hear from us at all, just yell Mormon stuff at us. I did receive a few friendly waves from some people but it´s against the rules to talk to them haha. Saturday though was insane, down here it´s really not Holy Week at all, just free time party week, and Saturday night they had parties everywhere, it was more wild than New Year´s and Christmas. We made it through though. 

 

This last Sunday we didn´t have any investigators in church but our attendance is going up. We´ve been in the sixties and upper fifties for about three weeks so that´s been cool. Our one investigator with a baptismal date hasn´t come to church yet and I don´t know what her deal is. Hopefully we can find her this week and she will be coming to conference. This last week I´d have to say my favorite time of the day was personal study every day, I don´t have my study journal with me right now but this whole last week was awesome. One thing that I´m trying to focus on is making every good thing a habit. I read from the teachings of President Lorenzo Snow that living the Gospel is like learning to play an instrument, at first it´s hard and we have to think about every note, every sequence, and how to act all the time. After practice we can play the song from memory and from habit, we have adjusted to be able to do it. And to play something wrong is almost difficult but it is more easy to correct when we do. The same with the Gospel, if we are trying to live the Gospel at all times things outside the Gospel or things we do that make us lose the Spirit seem difficult and are hard to do. When I read that I really liked it. I only read it this morning before I left the house but I´m gonna try to put those things in practice haha. I know that would be a blessing. 

 Well I´m glad everyone had an awesome fun Spring Break and was able to enjoy being together. The pictures looked fun and the emails I received made it sound like everyone had a good time. Even though it was Spring Break I hope everyone was able to remember the importance of this Sunday and the hope and happiness the Atonement of Jesus Christ brings to our lives. The power of the Atonement is amazing, it cleans us and it is a blessing to repent. I love my Savior and I love my family and I love my friends. Thank you all so much! One more quick note, make some questions for this conference! It will be a more powerful conference if you do! Que Dios Les Bendiga Mucho! Que les vayan muy bien!

 

Love,

Elder Jorgensen

March 25, 2013

Yummy mangos!!!

 

 



Woah... I´m going to be 20 years old tomorrow, I don´t know how this last year has gone by so fast. A lot of things have happened to me in this past year and I´m so thankful for the changes that I can see in myslef. First off thank you everyone for the happy birthday emails, those made me pretty dag gum happy and even though I didn´t get my package I got a present of seeing you guys on a beach in California. So basically we are in the same place! Ha I hope the beach there is a little more tranquilo than it is here, we are starting semana santa, holy week, and everyone and there dog heads to the beach so this week will be crazy. Hopefully even though it is gonna be crazy we will see more success than we saw this week. It was another low week, for numbers anyways. But I think I learned a lot. 

 

We had some bad luck this week though. Our two most positive families dropped us. One family decided Jehovah Witness is the way to go and the other family just doesn´t want us to come back for a couple weeks...So needless to say, once again we don´t have many investigators to visit so that means a lot of walking every day. Usually we can find people to talk to in the street but these last few weeks no one will give us the time of day so that´s a little disappointing. But we did have some success with some less actives. Our church attendance was 63 this last Sunday, the highest I´ve seen here in El Puerto. One less active family lives about 45 minutes from the church and they walk the whole way because they live very humbly. It was awesome to see them there though. It brightened my week quite a bit. 

 

Friday was a little bit of a tough day for us. Every Friday we have a weekly planning session where we plan our goals and everything for the upcoming week. To finish the planning session we do what is called a companionship inventory where we talk about the strengths of our companionship and set goals on how we can improve and be more unified. Every time we do it I ask my comp if there is anything I can do that will help improve our relationship or anything that I do that bugs him, stuff like that. Well this week he tried to tell me I needed to be more kind to him and show more charity, and well then lets say I gave him a piece of my mind as well .... so we had a pretty rough start on Friday morning.    Pretty much Friday in the morning was pretty bad.  On Friday everything fell threw except for our Family Night we had in the church. We´re trying to get the branch more unified so we played a bunch of games and gave a small message and then had refreshments, there was about 35 people there so that was awesome. 

 

 

This week we also did a fast on Saturday as a district, it´s pretty hard to fast here cause it´s about 105 degrees or so plus humidity during the day and a cool 84 to 90 degrees at night, but anyways like five minutes after starting the fast we walked by a water stand with what I thought were two models giving out free water. Freakin temptations haha!!!   It was hard but we made ´er through and were able to complete our fast. Well that´s pretty much all I got this week, hopefully my birthday brings us some luck or blessings cause we need em. I hope all you guys at home have an awesome Spring Break and enjoy Sea World, Universal Studios, and Disneyland. I´ll be thinking about ya and praying like always. Love you all so much!!

 

Elder Jorgensen

1 Nephi 18:16 March 18, 2013

Hammock Time!!

 

 

Bananas that don't taste the same.



What`s Up everybody! I had a way better week this week than last week so hopefully I`ll have some more stuff to put on this email ha. Let`s see first off me and my comp are doing lots better now. I had to convince him that the mission is supposed to be fun. This work is the Lord`s work, and we are bringing eternal happiness to these people so it only makes sense that we are able to have fun in the mission. I told that to him on Tuesday and every day has been getting better and better. Saturday was probably our best day just cause we were able to keep a positive attitude all day with jokes and stuff like that. I definitely need to be able to be me as a missionary and not some robot but things are going much better.

A little info about our investigators and the branch real quick. We are teaching complete families right now, first time in my mission that I`ve been able to say that and it feels good haha. The only problem with all of our investigators is attending church. Because my area is on the beach it is a tourist area meaning guess who has to work every Sunday in restaurants, hotels, cleaning and police and all those jobs. So that part is going to be kind of difficult for us with all of our investigators but we`re not losing faith in them. Our most positive family this week we just found out that the wife is a Jehova Witness but less active but they are occasionally listening to JH missionaries so that  sucks ha. They are really solid, but they are having a hard time praying about the Book of Mormon. Our other families are pretty new and hard to find so that is another obstacle but just read the scripture reference and it explains how I`m feeling.

 

This week I had two awesome meetings. Wednesday we had our trainers meeting with President and Thursday we had our Zone Meeting. In the trainers meeting..wow it was awesome, I left there with a completely different outlook on my mission. Just erasing fear with faith. Thursday as always zone meetings get me pumped too. It was pretty much an extension of the trainers meeting erasing fear with faith and enjoying my time being a missionary having fun! Then on Thursday I had divisions with another missionary Elder De Leon from the Dominican Republic, it was a pretty fun day with him too. His Spanish is so much clearer than my comp`s so I loved that part ha I didn`t have to ask him to repeat everything he said. On Friday we had a cool experience too. We were just walkin from Angela`s house to another lesson and a silver van drove by and layed on the horn. I thought it was maybe some white members visiting one of the beaches but about three minutes later we hear someone yell ELDERS!! we turned around and it was President Glazier and his family! His son and family are visiting him for spring break. So we took a quick picture with them and they gave us a juice and some m&ms. I chugged the juice but gave the m&ms to some kids, made their day haha.

 

Oh we also had our house inspection this week. So our District Leader came over on Saturday and somehow we passed ha. He was like wow I`m really suprised at how clean this house is way to go guys. I know it`s not clean at all and I didn`t believe him at all when he said it...so I gave him some candy to help us out there too haha I think it worked. This week was better with lessons too but just a little bit. We didn`t break 20. I feel pretty good if we get 20-25 lessons especially in this area cause it`s freakin huge haha. But anyways. Sounds like everything else is going kinda slow at home. And windy. Still no wind and no change in temperature here. Just freakin hot and humid all day all night. I can`t remember what a cloud looks like anymore haha jk. I still miss the snow though...long time till i see it again dang it. But thank you all for your prayers last week and all your help. I am doing much better now. I love you all so much and hope everyone is doing great and is taking time to read their scriptures everyday. Scriptures are the key to true happiness, just take the time to let them change you. I know this church is true and I love you all so much!!!

Elder Jorgensen

March 11, 2013

Hope everyone is doing good and loving life! We had kinda a rough week down here with only 13 lessons in total this week. I think that this week was my lowest number wise of my mission so far. I know that numbers don´t matter though. The Lord knows how much effort I´m putting into this work and it is up to other people to use their agency to listen to the message of the Restoration. I´m still keeping positive though. Trying to get to be better friends with my companion because it gets a little rough at times, really we are just not into the same things and then add the difference in culture and language and it makes for some silent boring times. But we´re changing that, well I´m trying to anyways haha.

Probably one of the neatest things that happened to me this week was in a lesson with an investigator who we had to drop.. But in the lesson he said to me that I listen with my heart and humbly teach and listen. That was a big boost of confidence and motivation that I definitely needed this week. With everything falling through, that little sentence let me know how I´m doing as a missionary and a person. On Wednesday we had a Priesthood meeting in the chapel to try to make some plans to get this branch going and to get people more excited about the work. I would call the meeting semi successful because we had about four other people there. This is definitely a tough area, all the more reason to work extra hard though. I really don´t know what to put in this email though ha. I didn´t think I´d have troubles sending long emails home every week to you guys but today I honestly can´t think of many good things to put in this email. I´m so sorry I´ll try to be better next week. But I love you so much and I know this Gospel is true, live this Gospel and let the Lord change you!

 

To answer your questions quickly, district meetings are every Thursday but this Thursday will be a zone meeting. zone meetings are with more missionaries and are way better than district meetings, they only happen once a month though. the mission will be split the end of June.  We don't know who will go where yet but our president will be the president of the El Salvador West Mission.  It's exciting but not at the same time, because I really like President Glazier he is a great leader and example to me. I will definitely buy souvenirs before I leave too. Sorry I don't  have much else to say.

 

Love,

Elder Jorgensen

March 4, 2013

I can´t believe how fast this week went by for us down here, it feels like just yesterday I was emailing you guys. But we had a good week full of work and not so full of great numbers. The mission isn´t about numbers though, the Lord knows how hard we are working and if we are doing our best. Last week started out super fast for us. Our P days...kinda not much fun. ha ha we send our email from the stake center every P day and our stake center is about an hour and fifteen minutes or so from our area. So about two and a half hours every P day I´m stuck on a stupid bus. Then we had to do a bunch of new stuff for my comp cause he is new so he doesn´t have much to eat in the house so that basically took up the rest of our p day. Then Tuesday we had our stud member help us out, Hermano Lopez, we visited a ton of less actives and walked for forever but it was a great morning. Then after that we had to study for like four hours so only taught a couple lessons after that nothing too spectacular. Then Wednesday we had to go to the capital for immigration stuff for my comp cause he is new. So that took about four hours of the day as well, but there I did get to see a bunch of missionaries I haven´t seen in awhile. I saw Elder Reynolds, friend from the MTC in Guatemala, and Elder Scurr again! It was sweet to see those guys there.

 

The rest of Wednesday was spent at Angela´s house preparing a few more things for her baptism and then going to members´ houses trying to invite them to come to the baptism. Inviting members to the baptism of Angela was basically our back up plan if anything fell through, a lot fell through this week so we ended up visiting mostly members. On Thursday though we did find a new investigator family, they are married and have two kids a one year old and a three year old so that was awesome. And they are super positive, but they weren´t home when we passed by their house to pick them up for church yesterday. Friday just ended up being a lot of walking for us though, didn´t have much luck finding people or getting into houses.

 

But finally Saturday saved my week haha. We got to the church at 7:30 and filled up the font and then waited for a bit to go pick up Angela. Once we got back to the church we waited...and waited....and waited some more, finally at about ten we got started with the service. There weren´t too many members there, so I felt kind of bad for Angela, she needs the support of the members. I got to baptize her though and I´m pretty sure she was smiling while she was underwater. It was a way neat experience to help her realize the blessings of the Gospel. I am sure she will stay active, she does have a lot of friends her age in the branch down here and on Sunday she got her Temple Recommend to go do baptisms. So she is way excited to go later this month and visit the Temple! That made my week a lot better and helped me feel like I accomplished even more than I actually did haha.

 

Other than that though, Sunday was a slow day in church. I thought it was gonna be the second Sunday in a row of not having all three classes because there was no water, but we were blessed with a miracle because we got water halfway through testimony meeting. We only had 39 people in church on Sunday, it was a little frustrating for me because I worked harder this week than I have in my mission so far I´m pretty sure, and I didn´t see many fantastic results. There was the baptism though!

 

 

 

 

 

Sunday night we got to eat dinner with the family that gave us turtle eggs, and this time they gave us some other weird thing to eat. Basically it´s sushi of El Salvador...I don´t see it ever getting outside of El Salvador because well it wasn't good. haha. I don´t know how to describe it, but it definitely has the texture of rubber and tastes like I dono just imagine fish guts haha. That was basically my week though and now i gotta go I love you all so much. And thank you for your prayers and your letters I´m still getting. KEEP SENDING LETTERS!! I love hearing from everyone. You are all in my prayers and I hope you have a great week!

 

Love,

Elder Jorgensen

Week one as a trainer..here we go! February 25, 2013

Well how is everyone doing?! I`m doing pretty good down here in El Salvador, trying to take it one day at a time as a trainer. Definitely praying even harder now. My new comp is Elder De La Cruz, from the cross haha, he is from Argentina so he has a little bit of an accent so that makes it a little tough at times with the Spanish and all but it will just make me better right? Well this last week was really good for us, I feel like I`ve grown a lot already and I`m excited to see what`s in store these next eleven weeks. This week we had a few lessons fall, so we spent a lot of time looking for those new chosen investigators. We had some good experiences and definitely walked a lot, I think our biggest day was thirteen miles. Not too many new ones but we are confident the Lord is preparing to put those people in our path this week.

 One thing we are really trying to do now is find where all the less actives live here and start reactivating them! We did find one awesome family last week, and we are setting up a family home evening with them this week so that`s exciting for us too. I love being able to find some type of activity to do, because we need to be able to have some fun. We have the help of the Second Counselor from the branch though, he is probably the strongest member in the branch and wants to start working with us a lot more often so that`s awesome.

Also good news this week, we will have another baptism on Saturday! This last Thursday we went to Angela`s house and talked to the Grandma for about an hour and a half and... got nowhere. I was starting to get a little frustrated with her because she kept saying conflicting stuff and we were just making no progress, finally I was able to talk to Angela a little bit in front of the grandma and just asked questions about how she feels about the church. She answered all the questions perfectly, and then I asked if she wanted to be part of the church, and she said yes. The grandma finally said she would support her in whatever decision she makes and will help her be able to always go to church, that`s perfect! Ha so after that lesson I was super happy. Then I got nervous all over again about how to find new investigators but I know the Lord will help me.

 A little more about my comp, well not much to report on yet but I can tell you we don`t have much in common, at all. But I will keep a good attitude. He likes to draw, plays a little bit of soccer. But yeah so we`ll see how it all goes. Also I finished the Book of Mormon in Spanish this morning and had an awesome experience. Just really realizing how much the Book of Mormon will help me in EVERY aspect of my life. Sorry I gotta go now, but I love you all and I pray for you always, and remember the Savior is always there for you to help you with every challenge you face.

Love,

Elder Jorgensen

 P.S. This mission is going to be split at the end of June, I`ll tell ya more about that next week.

Baptism!!! February 18, 2013

 

 

 

 



Well how is everyone doing! We had a pretty crazy busy week down here in Beach City. I´ll just take you through it day by day cause that will help me think more clearly. On Tuesday we had a multi zone which is what that one other email was, just a picture. But that was awesome, it was all about obedience and loving the work down here. That conference lasted about five hours or so, then we had to take the bus ride back to our area so that was the majority of the day. Then on Wednesday we had to pull out a birth certificate for somebody, so we rode a bus for like an hour and a half, still in our area by the way, and when we got off the bus this old guy fell down and broke his pinky and hit his face. It was all in slow motion but we couldn´t do anything to help him I felt bad, his pinky was messed up, like twisted bent sideways and yeah weird looking. But anyways after that just tried to regain our energy for the day to go out and teach. Then Thursday we had the interview for Rene with the counselor of President Glazier so we got on the bus again for another two hours and finally arrived. Rene scared the crap out of us when he didn´t show up for like an hour, we were starting to have some doubts but he finally showed up and got his interview done. So then we came back to our area and tried to get everything ready to head out for that day. Nothing too spectacular happened besides that stuff, then on Friday we were supposed to have the interview of Angela but the zone leaders showed up too late to do it and her grandma didn´t give her permission anyways so we have to wait on her. But she is so ready! She doesn´t know how ready she is, but she is probably stronger than half the members in this branch already and she hasn´t even been baptized.

 

So then Saturday finally came! Friday we spent most of the day trying to visit members and investigators, less actives and everyone else to come to Rene´s baptism and it sounded like we were gonna have a ton of people. Then Saturday morning, we showed up to the church at like 8 ish and the baptism was at 9. By 9:15 we were starting to worry when no one had shown up, not even Rene. Then at 9:30 one family from the branch finally showed up. And then at about five minutes to ten Rene and his wife showed up. So we ended up not having many people at the baptism. Anyways we started the service and during the opening hymn him and his wife were kind of crying, and this guy is not emotional at all...ever. We had a few short talks and then my comp walked down into the water with him and baptized him. I was so happy for both of them, Rene for being able to make this decision and Elder Scurr for ending his 14 month drought. This week was probably one of the happiest of my mission.

 

Now for some other fairly big news. I will be training this next change. President Glazier called last night and told me and Elder Scurr we would both be training, so Elder Scurr will probably open a new area or reopen a closed area and I am for sure staying here in El Puerto. I´m pretty much freaking out right now. I hope that I will be able to be a good trainer and first companion to my ¨son¨, I hope I´ve learned enough from everyone else that I can teach him everything he needs to know to be a successful missionary. I know this will allow me to grow more as a missionary as well. I will have to control every situation and always keep us busy. I´m super nervous and excited, I´m also pretty sure I will have a latino companion but that´s ok my spanish will improve a lot more. So this next week I should have some exciting stuff to report on. Thank you for everything and this week I would greatly appreciate any extra prayers you might be able to throw my way. Hope all is well at home with everybody you are all in my prayers.

 

Love,

Elder Jorgensen

February 11, 2013

What´s up everybody!

 

So this week was much better for us! Started out last Tuesday when we had some of our most powerful members from the branch leave with us for the afternoon and they took us to some of their family and some less actives. It was awesome to see how excited they were to go out and work with us and teach. They are amazing teachers, I was pretty impressed with them. So that was good to get some new investigators with them, we ended up with twelve new ones this week which is really good for us especially in this area! Also I have some good news about baptisms that are coming up. The familia we were teaching got whittled down to just the oldest daughter, but she should get baptized this next Saturday. She is super powerful too, she started going to seminary in the church, and they changed the schedule so she could continue to come every day. We are excited for her and then there is also Rene, and he can posibly get baptized this next Saturday as well! We have a multi zone meeting with President tomorrow so we are gonna bring him so President can interview him and hopefully pass him. So we could break my companions 14 month cold streak on the baptisms. Also we have a couple others that are super powerful that have a date for the first weekend in March. Their names are Vanesa and David. Vanesa is the wife, we hope, of a less active member who is 28, and she is pregnant right now (18 years old). Then David is a friend of both of them. I love going to teach them because they actually do what we ask them to do! We give them a chapter to read and they read it and then have questions but then they answer their own questions, it´s awesome!!!!

 

So we are starting our last week in this change. This change was only five weeks because of the age change we are getting a ton of new missionaries, about 40 when normally it´s like 15 to 20 max. But my comp is starting to pick it up again, just took forever it kinda feels like and it makes me feel super baggy and feel like I´ll never finish my mission haha. But it is getting better. I don´t think we will be together for another change but we both might stay in the area and it will get split, so we´re still waiting for that news. Um what else happened this week..I finished 3 Nephi in the Book of Mormon in Spanish so only a little bit more and I´ll have ´er done! I really haven´t studied language at all, just reading the BOM so my comp is pretty suprised about that, but I definitely need to study more just to be able to talk more smoothly without thinking so much about sentence structure and all that haha. I love studying the scriptures though, really studying. It´s awesome to feel the spirit when you read but when you actually study the scriptures and search for answers or things to help you out, the spirit is so much more powerful and I actually feel enlightened and inspired it´s awesome!! So I challenge you not to only read your scriptures but study with a purpose, with a question, with something in mind you want to understand better, and you will be so much more edified by your studying.

 

So pretty much besides that, not much else to report on. I have started stretching though! I figure there is no way I can really work out on my mish and see improvement or anything but there is a posibility I could touch my toes! So we´ll see how that goes. Oh i thought about another thing for a package, FIG NEWTONS i dono why but I have a huge craving for those right now haha. Other than that though...I dono.   But hey if you could tell Bro Cornelison and Bro Neuerberg thank you for me for everything they did for me when I was there that would be awesome. I´ve been thinking about that a lot lately, I never let them know how much I appreciated them and everything they did. That´s too bad about Taylor, I hope he can stay motivated to go back out. Tell him to write me though if you see him! It´d be awesome to get a letter from him. Other than that I love you all so much. Now have a great week, and be an example that someone else can look up to!!!

 

Love,

Elder Jorgensen

February 4, 2013

What`s up everybody,

 

Well this week I definitely missed Super Bowl Sunday, I dono if I missed watching the game, commercials, halftime show, or just normal awesome snack food all day long. I think I`m leaning towards the food at this point but it sounds like the game was pretty intense! Listening to your report and everybody else`s sounds like the 49ers shoulda taken it! I wanted them to win but oh well I guess, you all have a good time watchin it though? And the snow report...is the snow finally gettin better there in good ol` Idaho? Hopefully I`m not missing out on too much ha.

Anyways though about my week here in El Salvador. Well I hit 8 months on Wednesday so that was pretty neat I thought, doesn`t really seem like that long but at the same time it seems like longer, weird how that works. Tuesday though I went on exchanges with Elder Dolbin in our area. So that was a little nerve racking for me, I had to plan out our day and then when stuff fell through I had to find something else to do. But it was an awesome day, I learned so much from him during lessons and studying and just everything about being a missionary. I`m not even kidding, he is probably the best missionary in the mission ha me and my comp always ask him for his autograph because we want the autograph of a future apostle haha. Then Wednesday morning me and him went running on the beach, I`ve been here since Dec 5 and we go running like never so that was my second time running on the beach haha. And it killed me.

He also did the interview for Rene, but we are gonna have to wait a few more weeks, I hope this doesn`t discourage him though. So no baptism last weekend but hopefully in a couple weeks we should have at least 2! So things are starting to get better for us here. I didn`t really have too many powerful stories or things happen to me this week but for our district meetings we are now given study subjects to study all week and then we discuss what we learned in District Meeting, so that is like my favorite meeting of the week! I love it and it`s so spiritual and like a boost right in the middle of the week when everything is a little rough. My comp though is starting to get a little more fired up though finally, I think our zone leaders and one of the assistants got through to him this last week so it was kinda awkward at first but now we are super good. We are just working con todo right now so that`s fun, this week our highest step day was like 18,000 and I figured out that the lower the number the better. A higher number means a lot of stuff fell through and we were just looking all day and not teaching. So hopefully that number will be somewhat low from now on haha.

You guys send packages like crazy haha but yeah church music would be awesome, I actually just bought some speakers and a sub haha 30 bucks gets ya good sound down here in latino land but yeah that would be awesome! I do need another watch too, mine broke and we can`t go shopping here really unless it`s an emergency and I don`t wanna buy a crappy one in the street so maybe another walmart watch? Other than that I don`t got much else to say haha except I love you all and I`m praying that everything goes good in work and school for you! Thank you for your thoughts and prayers and everything you`ve given me.

Love,

Elder Jorgensen