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!!!

June 23, 2012 Guatemala MTC

Hello everyone! The MTC here is pretty cool I still miss the Provo one
though ha just all the people there made it a good time. My companion
is pretty sweet and so are the other kids in my district and then we
have three hermanas too. The food here is pretty freakin good but its
not all you can eat ha today i had a dragon fruit..it was like a spiky
shell and then the inside was basically like a grape with a huge nut
in the middle and it didnt taste too weird so thats good haha. I have
seen Hermana Flake Joshs girlfriend so we just talked a little bit.
The biggest thing that has happened so far is we got to go and just
walk around the temple grounds and talk to members there. Well me and
my companion found a guy sitting in a van just behind the temple and
we waved and stuff then just walked on past, my companion got a
feeling we should go back and so we did we introduced ourselves and
everything and talked to him about our church. He was way nice we just
couldnt understand anything he said back to us hahaha. Before we left
we asked if he had a Book of Mormon and he said he didnt so I
explained what it was and what it could do for him and his family and
he seemed interested so we gave him one of our Book of Mormons the one
that we were given at the Provo MTC (I didnt give him mine though
haha) but it was freakin awesome! Im trying to think of everything
else thatis goin on..um my address is whichever one you found in the
book, I dont have a box number or anything. There is like 110 of us
here or somethin like that and its the most they have ever had haha.
My old companion isnt even in my zone anymore and Im not too upset
about it. Ha. And the Spanish is I dono kinda at a stand still I
memorized the first vision back in Provo in Spanish but thats the the
only cool thing I know haha. The humidity here is freakin ridiculous!!
Ha I didnt think it would be this bad but geez..After gym is the worst
cause we take ice cold showers like it takes your breath its so cold
then you feel all cooled off  and get out and dry yourself then you
start sweating again it makes no sense to me whatsoever haha. And then
the MTC is right next to the highway and cause its so hot we leave the
windows open but we get the noise which kinda sucks.. a lot haha. Im
so glad I got to call home and talk to you for so long we got pretty
lucky cause some people didnt try as hard as me to call home ha. Im
just trying not to think about the next time I get to hear your voices
cause I know it will be a while. But its good to hear things at home
are still good the weather gettin nicer yet? And everyone still sounds
busy but make time for family time I miss you all so much!!!! And
thank you mom for the addresses.. we figured out how long it will
probably take to send a letter receive it and then reply..id rather
not say how long its gonna take kinda depressing ha. But i love you
all so much!! And miss you! Youre all in my prayers. I know im
spelling things wrong i cant find the apostrophe on this freakin
keyboard. But yeah the mtc is fine but i just wanna get in the field i
think time will go by faster and i will learn more there. Thank you
for the prayers though and keep em comin! ha I love you all once again
ha. Oh sorry some bad news I think the ipod got left in provo so im
gonna send a letter there with like ten bucks for them to send it back
for me cause im pretty sure its there...hopin anyways. Oh and i cant
take pics here! They take our cameras cause i guess theyve had
problems with some latinos taking stuff our roommates are nice though.
K i need to finish up i love you all so much and God be with you til
we meet again!

June 18, 2012

Hola mi familia y amigos!

It has been a pretty awesome, exciting, sad, and everything else week haha. I don't even know where to start. We are still teaching the two "investigators" if that's what you wanna call em they are really just our teachers acting but we had some pretty awesome lessons. We are goin modo de bestia on our lessons now! We can do our whole lesson in Spanish like no problem no notes or anything so that makes me feel pretty good but all of our lessons start out pretty rough cause our conversational Spanish kinda sucks haha but it's alright it'll come even everyone that's like 7 to 9 weeks say that they can teach no problem but they can't just have normal conversations, I guess you just pick that up in the field ha. Sorry I do not have my Guatemala MTC address yet we won't know until we get down there apparently since I don't have it yet. Kinda some good news about the kid that was goin to El Salvador, he can go to the Guatemala MTC with us he just doesn't know about serving in El Salvador yet so we'll see what happens there. Last night we had a fireside from um Sister Dew I can't remember her first name but she is the President of Deseret Book and a pretty amazing lady, she talked a lot about just having faith in Jesus Christ and the Atonement and using it, pretty awesome. Then we watched a movie about the building of the Salt Lake Temple and that was freakin sweet I learned a lot about that and I also learned the Provo Temple was built and completed while construction was still goin on in Salt Lake so fun facts everywhere ha. I'm kinda mad we're leaving tomoro cause they are having all the new mission presidents come in next week for training and stuff I guess you would call it but that means that general authorities are comin in so we'll miss probably two talks at least from General Authorities! How unlucky is that!? Ha maybe we'll get lucky in Guatemala and they'll come down for somethin but I dono. The yard and everything looks great! You guys are goin to town and workin your butts off I bet, dono how you're doin it! Hopefully Brandi will be able to have a good time at Girl's Camp sounds like it will just be good for her to have a little break since she is also workin so hard and probably hangin out with friends all the rest of the time. I can't believe you are running that much mom holy crap haha in our gym time I just play basketball (didn't get to play any more volleyball kinda mad bout that) but I'm like dyin after a good game of 3 on 3 it's pretty pathetic ha. And I only lifted once this week. It's hard to want to work out at night cause that's when we get to read all our letters and since I get like three times as many as everyone else I don't have time to do anything! But keep the letters coming it is so great to read em and see whats goin on with everyone! I wish I could write back every day though P day just isn't long enough haha. Um what else is happenin..everyone is way bummed I'm leaving tomoro ha they are all like who is gonna sing country or make us all laugh or quote movies with ha makes me kinda sad. Oh and grandma I did sing in Sacrament yesterday kinda a solo but not really, everyone who is leavin this week so like 11 people in our zone sang a hymn in Spanish cause that's all we sing but everyone sang way quiet but I was like screw that so I sang way loud and low. haha I looked up like halfway through and everyone is just lookin at me and afterward a bunch of people came up and said they'll miss my voice ha. I'm gonna miss all the great guys I became friends with here, they are way awesome don't worry Mom I took lots of pics so you can see who I'm talkin about ha. And they all feel bad for me cause it will just be like me and my companion from my district and they all know he is a sweet spirit we're just different is all haha. But I'm just like dangit now I don't wanna leave this place yet! We got some email from El Salvador but guess what it's in Spanish so we gave up tryin to translate after the first sentence ha too much time. Oh I also heard this week that Josh Turner's album is like the greatest thing ever so if there is a song that is even remotely religious on that album SEND IT TO ME!! haha you have no idea how much I miss music, shower time is karaoke time haha pretty awesome. That's too bad about Kurt I'll remember him and did you get my card Dad? Hope I didn't spoil the suprise in the email but I sent a card, that's about all I can do..and call home tomoro!! Around 7ish I'm assuming but just charge the phones and strap em to your hip alll night ha cause I'm not sure. I got some pics with my two teachers Hermano Sanchez (born in LA but his mom is straight outta El Salvador how crazy!! he said they (salvadorans) are some of the fastest Spanish speakers..great) and Hermano Hallstead he is a freakin stud, there is no spanish word for stud I looked it up, but he's awesome after our last lesson with him he called Hermano Sanchez and just told him how awesome I did with my Spanish and it's unbelievable how much I've improved. I guess they never call each other and it was like 10:30 at night the day before a big test so it's pretty awesome he did that! Really boosted my confidence level ha. All the addresses are awesome! Keep em comin I'll have to write them I guess cause I haven't gotten a letter from any of those three guys ha has Braxton gotten his call yet?? I don't really know what else to say so I'll talk to you all next week I guess, Hasto Luego! And Happy Father's Day Dad!! I love you! I love all of you and miss you more than you know!

June 11, 2012 - I'm doing better!

HOLY CRAP what a week haha. Um I don't even know where to start but I'll do my best to go in order haha. June 6 we taught lesson 3 to our investigator Sergio and these are half hour lessons in complete Spanish might I add. Anyways we started if off just talkin to him about his day and stuff like that then when it came to the lesson I did all the talking in Spanish for like fifteen minutes straight, kinda left my companion out and whenever he tried to talk Sergio basically told him to shut up haha. That experience was such a testimony builder for me because I know you all are praying for me every day. The language is still way rough but the other kids in my district are all still doing pretty good with it and they all decided on like awards for the language for the mvp, most improved and stuff like that and I got most improved haha. Pretty sweet I thought, I gave a prayer and that was like the first time I really spoke solo in Spanish to the whole class and they were all just like holy cow dude where did that come from! So I am doing much better now. We also taught a member of the branch presidency yesterday in Spanish for like four minutes and we dommed ha we got more out there than we did in our first two sessions, massive confidence booster haha. I did get a package from you mom with chips and queso dip and a couple other things and also got a package from Chelsea this week! Guess what it had in it..TWINKIES!! Made my day haha she also put a ton of other stuff in there I'm drinkin the Peach Mango Fuze right now and its muy delicioso. Another exciting thing that happened this week was me and my compañero (yeah dad I figured out the Spanish tricks on the keyboard) haha but anyways we got to go on a field trip to the police station with some other kids goin to El Salvador. There was a Tongan in the group and he was hilarious and I met another sweet kid I can't remember his name but he was best friends with Callin Milton when Callin lived in Las Vegas so that was awesome, but I dono if he can go anymore. Cause we went to the police station for background checks and he had some assault charge for beatin some kid up at BYU ha-ha awesome story but if he can't go cause of that I'm gonna be a really mad! So fingers crossed there. Let's see more news about the companion, he hasn't watched the super bowl in about five years so that about tells ya everything you need to know about him ha we are just not alike at all. We don´t fight or disagree or anything like that we just don't ever talk and he never wants to wait for anyone else in the district to go do anything so it's always just me and him so that also makes me angry. The one good thing is I'm learning patience and charity just like we're supposed to and just like what last nights fireside was about, that and working hard even though a mission is the hardest thing most of us have done yet, I felt like he was talkin to me during his whole talk. But I also got my companion to go to the choir practice yesterday so that was fun and they just sing on Tuesdays during the awesome firesides ha. But bad news my roommate is still sick, worse news he got my companion sick, horrible news I am now sick. I just have a sore throat and a little cough and way runny and stuffy nose so it's just more annoying than anything. But I'm takin all the meds and vitamins and crap so hopefully it's gone soon before I go to Guatemala next Tuesday!!  We will  arrive Wednesday morning in Guatemala City, I'd like to quote a song that I think would be funny but just ask Brandi about no sleep by wiz kahlifa haha. Um they said we pay for our luggage so make sure there is money on my debit card please. And let's see last few things... I saw Ian, Aaron, Landon, Austin Madsen, Austin Christensen, and Schyler again. I got pictures with Ian before he left today ( at 4:30 this morning) so that was good and pics with Aaron and Austin Christensen. Austin Madsen said tagalog is freakin hard and he's havin a rough time with it but he says he's enjoyin everything and he has a sweet companion so I don't feel too bad for him haha. And mom companion means companion, yes we sleep in the same room and are together 24-7, he needs to go to the bathroom I need to go to the bathroom. I have been gettin letters from people but not enough from friends so if you are reading this you better write me! If not, Mom go beat em up! I forgot to bring addresses with me so I'm savin all the ones I get but I can't send one out to people so please find addresses of anyone you think I would wanna write and send em to me. P day is the only day we get to write home our schedules go like this: 6:30 wake up and exercise til 7:20 ish come back shower, dress breakfast at 8:20 then class at 8:50 to 11:50, then personal study for an hour, then lunch, then language study for an hour, then another three hour class which is either class or teaching investigators, then dinner, then three hours of personal and companionship study time, then planning session. We leave our room at 8:10 ish usually and get back at about 9:35 so yeah it's a long day, then it's read letter time or push up contest. (I'm the champ right now with 94 straight pushups without falling or taking a break, record is 124 but not going all the way down so I'll see what I can do there haha. But yeah EXTREMELY busy days that are way long and go by way fast. Sounds like the yard is coming along great and fast, that's awesome! Brandi I can't believe you're getting a sixteenth birthday with a dj and catering!! I watched a movie for my sixteenth bday I think so WOW! But I'm so sad I can't be there. I loved all your letters I got, they made me start ballin haha but it's all good. I love you all and I miss everyone like crazy! Get everyone to write me!

 
Yo se que la iglesia de Jesucristo es verdadera, yo se que Jose Smith fue un profeta, yo so que familias son eterna, yo se que el libro de Mormon es verdadero, y Jesucristo es un hijo de Dios y el Salvador de los todos personas en la tierra. Yo se que el evangelio de Jesucristo es verdadero, en el nombre de Jesucristo Amen.
  

I went 25 minutes over my allotted time to do this email haha fun fact for ya!

June 4, 2012

Como le va Idaho!!

Wow already a week down at the MTC and what a week it has been. They keep you so freakin busy here it's nuts! We get up at 6:30 leave by about 7:20 and don't get back to our residence until 9:30 at night. I had no idea they were so strict about everything. One day we got done with class and decided to go to our residence to do personal study cause we didn't know about that rule so we got there at like 7 ish and they got pretty angry with us. Let's see in my district people are goin to Guatemala, Chile, El Salvador, and I think that's it, same with the zone. There is only three of us going to El Salvador out of the twenty or so in our zone. My companion. ok his name is Elder Josh Vaughan and he is from the Seattle Washington area. He attended Utah State last year so that was kinda weird but I had never seen him before. He is pretty quiet and won't tell me very much about himself I always try to ask what he's into and stuff like that but he doesn't really say anything. I know he doesn't really care for football so big red flag there haha.  He is better at Spanish than me so I feel bad cause I feel like he gets a lot of pressure put on him to make our lessons make sense. But I'm workin on it! Most if not all the elders have at least two years of Spanish under their belt so I'm way behind. Plus I only learned how to take tests so I can recognize what something says when I see it but when I hear someone else say it I almost always have no idea what's going on. For instance our "investigator" Sergio (pretty sure he is an RM from Argentinia) speaks so freakin fast it's ridiculous! I don't have a clue what's goin on in our lesson until I read my couple lines. So I can read my stuff really good haha. My roomates are pretty cool one is from Utah and he likes country music so big plus there haha, he asked what I was into so I said some stuff then I said mudding, and he was like what's mudding?...are you kidding me!? haha but he's a cool kid. The other one is from California, I thought he was pretty cool at first but now I'm startin to see he's kinda a know-it-all or thinks he knows everything anyways and it annoys me bigtime. But last night he got sick so we're praying for him. Which reminds me I'm saying almost my whole prayer in spanish now. They're pretty simple prayers but I'm trying to add words to my vocabulary. It is a slow process, especially for me. Everyone else seems way far ahead of me and most don't use notes in their lessons. I'm in awe of them haha. Today we went to the temple and did a session it was pretty neat to see the inside of the circular Provo Temple. They have a huge dressing room just for missionaries so that was kinda weird. Yesterday we did our temple walk so we just walked around the outside of the temple for an hour and we took pictures...sorry mom I forgot my camera in my room so pictures next week hopefully. Let's see oh I've seen Elder Aaron Potter, Elder Ian Johnson, Elder Schyler Odum, Elder Austin Christensen, Elder Landon Thompson, Elder Drew Benson, and Elder Drake Anderson. All of those people except Drake and Aaron live in one building on one floor!! How the crap did they do that?! Hopefully I can get some pictures with them next week on our temple walk cause we all have it at the same time.

This is definitely the hardest thing I've ever done in my life. I would rather do Coach Owen's two a days like four times a day than this haha Spanish is so hard for me! And so is being away from all my family and friends, I figured it would be like college kinda and I was wrong haha. I want to pick up a phone and call home like every five minutes cause I miss you all so much! I've cried every night to my Heavenly Father to give me strength to not be homesick and to calm down and let myself feel the spirit and so far I have not been blessed with those haha. I'm working very hard to have a positive attitude always. I'm verrrryyyy jealous of Nate and Ian all of a sudden for being in the states. I think I would be a ton less stressed if I was serving in the states but I am excited to get to El Salvador I just wish I knew the language, patience is still an attribute I'm working at and trying to obtain. Sounds like home is home though I wish I was there to help dad with the yard and everything and see Brandi's massive sweet sixteen party cause I know that will be crazy...and way loud! Haha I miss seeing everyone so if you are praying for me, which you better be doing or I will beat you, pray for me to have patience and to not be as homesick because it has been extremely hard for me to let everything and everyone go for two years. I'm trying to love the work and I'm not there yet. So please keep me in your prayers and you all will always be in mine!

 

Hasta luega mi familia y amigos!!

1st Letter!!! June 1, 2012

 Hola Mi Familia!

Wow! That's all I got to say the first two days here have been jam packed craziness.  Not gonna lie I had doubts already last night and today but tonight we got to meet as a zone and district and all of my doubts were wiped away.  The language is hard no doubt bout that but I'm surprised at how much I do remember, not enought still but more thatn I thought. HAHA.  Alrighty...trying to write quick I only got ten minutes so I'm workin but uh...companion:  His name is Elder Vaughan he is from Seattle and went to Utah State last year! How crazy is that?!  About him... well haha we get along fine and I don't mind him at all he is a great missionary with a strong testimony of the gospel.  I probably won't make lifelong friends with him but there are some sweet Elders in my zone and stuff so that's cool. haha well I promise my next letter will have more info cause I'll have more time.  Please everyone pray together for me every night it would comfort me so much to know you are saying a family prayer every night include dad too.  The church is true and so are all of its teachings, I love my Savior and am so grateful for the sacrifice He mad for all of us to live with him again.  I love you all!  Mom I am doing just fine and I am glad to be here.  I miss you all more than words can explain.
                                          Hast luego!

                                           I love you!!

                                        Elder Derrick Jorgensen