December 17, 2012

first and last pictures are a vacation house, it has four pools, two of those are the other pics, they are on the beach! the tide was high in these pics but when its low it`s a sand beach so pretty nice stuff here!

 

What`s up family and friends?! Hope everyone is doing great and as excited for Christmas as I am. Next Tuesday we will be skyping so Monday I might be emailing you a little more information like exact time or whatever but I`m not exactly positive because we get to go to the temple on Christmas Eve! Didn`t know it was open on Christmas Eve but whatever we`re going haha. But I`m pretty sure it will be sometime around ten, that`s what I`m shooting for anyways. But anyways I`ll give you the low down on this week.

 

First off me and Elder Scurr are becoming great friends and I don`t remember if I told ya but he is from Arizona and lives pretty close to Elder LeSueur so there is a good chance of me visting all these guys here in about 17 months or so haha. But this week me and him worked really hard to try to find people because this is kinda a tough area. We are in a branch and I guess the attendance at church is usually in the sixties but these two Sundays I`ve been here we have had low attendance, 42 yesterday so not good. From everything I`ve found out, it just sounds like the people are pretty proud and they can`t seem to figure out how to become a ward family. So our goals are to help the leaders of this branch take responsibility for things.

 

We had a good week though trying to find less actives and getting them to church but everyone just seems to make excuses or they are kinda hipocritical so that makes it kinda tough and annoying. Everyone just says primero Dios and Si Dios permite I really don't like those phrases haha

This week we found a few new investigators and I have some pics of one family, just wait til you see this place, it is awesome haha. but we will see how they do. We have one family and they have been reading and everything and they believe it and stuff which is great, but they don`t know it to be true. So we are working hard for them to gain their own testimonies so they can be true converts to this Gospel.

 

This week we also had our zone conference, and wow! If Nate is like our zone leaders it would be awesome to work with him. These two missionaries are so powerful and I actually am going on divisions with one tomorrow so I`m excited for that. The zone leaders receive instructions basically from the Mission President every month and then they teach us and tell us what the plans are to change this mission. I`m starting to find out more and more that this mission did not used to be good... I`ll go more into that on Christmas.

 

But anyways I`m doing great down here in the new hoootttttt area. But it`s awesome I`m excited to be here. And the videos and pictures were sweet ha. Just a little reminder you guys can send pictures in emails and letters too ha I love seeing pictures of everyone at home so...yep haha. The Christmas party sounded fun for you guys, my bowling skills I obtained in college are probably gone by now, but I am getting better at soccer so that`s cool. But hope everyone at home enjoys their last week of school and work before Christmas Break! Everyone who has finals this week...I feel bad for ya haha but good luck! And family I will be SEEING you on Christmas!!!

 

Love,

Elder Jorgensen

New Area December 10, 2012

Hello from El Salvador!

 

So this last week we had transfers, I was pretty sad to leave my first area but I knew it was time to move on and keep learning. So Wednesday we got to changes meeting and I have been moved to El Puerto de la Libertad, port of liberty. Remember how I said El Salvador had one of the top beaches in the world? Yeah no big deal, but that is my area now haha freakin legit! It`s so sweet here, reminds me exactly of our cruise so at the same time that is kinda hard cause I just want to hang out but there is a lot of work to do here. The area is HUGE I can ride a bus for an hour and a half and still be in my area. All we have is a branch here and not a whole lot of members. We only had 56 people at church on Sunday at that was just because two gringo families came to church (we're doing FHE with them tonight haha) but yeah plenty of work here to do.

 

There are a lot of less actives we can work with and right now we are teaching three investigator families so we`re trying to increase that number. This is a really hard area to baptize in, well that`s what I`ve heard dono if I believe it so we`re gonna work hard to change that rumor. I think there have been 3 baptisms this year and 2 are now inactive so that`s a problem we got too. Oh my new companion is Elder Scurr from Mesa Arizona. He`s got 17 months in the mission so just a little bit of time ha. But he really wants to get the work going here too, he hasn`t had a baptism in awhile, about a year today actually, so he`s ready to find em and dunk em. He`s a good teacher though and actually shares the times in the lesson with me. So I`m actually teaching now, with Elder Hammond and Monares they pretty much taught everything and left me with nothing to say. But he was way impressed with my Spanish so he said to me I hope you`re ready to teach a lot cause I want you to talk more than me. We`ll see how that goes.

 

Also my first week here was like the annual festival for El Puerto so there was fireworks everynight and people going nuts. We were walkin home from dinner one night and a huge group of people started running towards us, it turns out they were running because they were getting chased by a guy with fireworks strapped to his back. And not just like bottle rockets and roman candles, he had those but he also had the freakin big ones and was shooting those at people. We almost got hit a couple times but we made it so thanks for your prayers that day haha. But no it was fun, then there was a big firework show at night, nothing like IF fireworks though.

 

And at the changes meeting I received two packages...And I`ve already opened all my Christmas presents haha thank you so much for them though. And the scriptures were cool, that was a good idea. And the stuff inside was good too, I`ll be enjoying all that for a while. And on Friday we had our Christmas party at the President`s house. They had our zone and one other zone come up and we played games and read a Christmas story and ate imported American steak for lunch!!!!! Holy crap I thought I died when I ate the food.ha it was freakin delicious. We played a bunch of minute to win it games so that was way cool. And it was nice that they tried to help us have a good Christmas.

Other than all that, I don`t got much to say..Keep reading your scriptures everyday and keep praying for me haha. I love you all so much and thank you for your prayers and support always.

 

Love,

Elder Derrick Jorgensen

December 3, 2012

Well what a week I had here in El Salvador. It was a pretty crazy week full of some pretty good stuff. First of all on Tuesday we did service up at a members house. We went up there and he had a huge tree for us to cut down, luckily he had two machetes though so it only took us about three hours haha my hands hurt so bad afterwards. I have some pictures and a video of the tree falling so I`ll send some of those home. This week was also the start of December which means I am now officially over six months done with my mish, craziness. I didn`t do a whole lot for the six months but I did burn the tie, and ate dinner with Douglas` family, we made some pretty bomb pupusas so that was good.

 

There family is still doing way good by the way. In fact we are baptizing Helen, the older sister, this Saturday or Friday. She is a powerful investigator, she always reads and is willing to do anything for this Gospel, such a good example. ..But I am probably not going to be here for her baptism because my comp is going to be training. I don`t know for sure yet but I`m probably gonna be getting changed out which kinda sucks now, I wanted to stay in this ward until after Christmas. But I dono we`ll see what happens. But some other good news is we found William and baptized him this last Saturday!! So that was a really good day too except we did the baptism at like 8 in the morning so not many members were there, kinda felt bad about that. And then after the baptism we did more service at Familia Palacios house, our cocinera. We painted their house and then got a ton of pizza so that was a good time too. Then Saturday night there was some party for a restaurant here and they set off fireworks so we got on top of a roof and watched em...Nothing like Idaho Falls fireworks, they were freakin tiny and no noise.

 

Sorry my email is short again, everyone wants to go play soccer. But sounds like things at home are going good! Maybe a little bit boring but hey that`s ok haha. I`m definitely gonna miss Christmas this year, here all they do is set off fireworks and drink quite a bit so I`m not sure if we`ll be allowed outside yet for Christmas and because I`m getting transfered I`ll have to find out what`s up with the skype thing and all that. I know I need to do better on my emails but I love you all and hope you have a great week and always remember this Gospel and how fortunate we are to have everything we have.

 

Love,

Elder Jorgensen

November 26, 2012

Happy Thanksgiving! Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving day and a great break from work and school! For me Thanksgiving was definitely not the same haha that day kinda sucked. My dinner was a piece of chicken, actually wasn`t too bad, and then some type of soup. I can`t really tell ya what type of soup it was, I know there was carrots in it and some weird very nasty leaves too, so not the greatest but I did get to eat a PB and J at the house so that was nice haha. Also this week I saw some weird stuff, I saw a couple way nice fourwheelers, Polaris Sportsmans and a couple dirt bikes yamahas and suzukis definitely did not think I would see those in this country...ever. Then I saw something that was so very messed up. We were walking back from our Thanksgiving Feast and passed a homeless guy, very old and on crutches, he was nice though just said hi to us and have a safe trip and kept on walking. Then some little kids came sprinting by us and I turned around just in time to see them run right into the homeless guy and then one of the girls picked up a rock the size of a softball and threw it at the homeless guy. He couldn`t do anything about it though cause he was on crutches. I just ran over there and kinda scared all the little brats away.  I`m not sure why some people feel like they can treat others that way, but anyways it just really made me mad. Not sure why I wrote that story but anyways now the rest of my letter.

 We didn`t end up having our baptism this week, we couldn`t find William at all. Everyday he ended up having to work and then he didn`t come to church yesterday either so I`m not sure what has happened but hopefully we can figure it out this week. Also last Wednesday I started the BOM again, I`m still reading in Spanish and in English but I started it again and I`m just marking the blessings that we have. I`m about midway through Second Nephi and holy cow do we have a lot to be thankful for, it`s almost ridiculous how much we owe our Heavenly Father, He has given us everything.

 Just looking through my planner there wasn`t a whole lot of stuff to talk about...Oh we had a multizone meeting with the President and his wife. So that meeting was on Tuesday and was about a six hour meeting so I did learn a lot from that but all my notes are back at the house so I can`t put a cool quote in here ha dangit. Oh yeah and in our District Meeting Thursday, my comp is the district leader, and he had us do some practices of teaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ using the Book of Mormon, I`m not exactly sure why but he decided to just have one person teach it and the rest of the district act like investigators, well of course I got picked to teach. But it was good. Elder LeSueur told me that I teach really well and that he can feel the Spirit as soon as I start talking. Huge confidence booster that was haha. But yeah other than that not much has happened.

 Last Monday I got one package, the one that had Raul`s tie in it, he loved it by the way. And thank you so much for the other stuff too! And I also got a letter from Elder Judy and Elder Kaulin Johnson so that was pretty sweet too. Sounds like Thanksgiving at home wasn`t too fantastic with the festivities and what not but I hope everyone was still able to appreciate the time together and give thanks for everything that we have been blessed with in our lives, especially this Gospel. I was very grateful that day for all of my friends and family, for all of your support and love and words of encouragement, thank you all so much. Have an excellent week and as always. Que Dios les bendiga!

 

Love,

Elder Derrick Jorgensen

November 19, 2012

 

 

Douglas' Baptism Day!

 

Just messing around

 

Daily Studies!

 

Me and Elder LeSueur

 

Douglas showing us his happy face!

This was a way fast week, full of ups and downs, good things and bad things. Little bit hectic but I learned a lot. First off, we had another baptism!! Douglas, he is a friend of Raul and a way sweet kid! I got to baptize him so that was pretty sweet too. He was very accepting to the gospel and has a very powerful testimony of the Gospel at such a young age, pretty incredible. And it gets better his mom and sister came to his baptism and we have been teaching them as well, last night we taught them the Word of Wisdom and then took their coffee and threw it away so hopefully they can continue in the Gospel. The sister is 25 and is very interested she started reading the Book of Mormon on her own and marks it all up and has great questions so she is fun to teach. We also have another baptism this Saturday with a man named William, he is about 27 so finally a solid Priesthood! He is a great guy and very active, lately we have had a bit of a hard time finding him but hopefully work will be a little bit easier on him this week and we can get him ready and sure for his baptism! Good stuff happening here in Jardín!

The ward has kind of been going through a little bit of a rough time with gossiping...I can`t believe how bad it has gotten. There are some amazing nice people down here but sometimes they let pride get the better of them, we are working on that too though, trying to help calm everyone down. It`s a little bit frustrating though, I just wish that some people would keep their mouths shut sometimes ha. Also another thing that made this week stressful was my talk I gave in Sacrament yesterday. That was freakin scary! I think I was more nervous for that than for my farewell. But I think it ended up being good, I talked for about 12 minutes so that also suprised me ha. I talked about the Atonement so I had a great topic and was able to have some great personal studies preparing for it. Probably the best I`ve had so far in the mish so that was pretty neat.

Not a whole lot of fun crazy stuff happened to us this week though, we talked to a few bolos (drunks) and they were pretty funny, mostly cause they couldn`t function but it made me laugh so that was good. But I`m still doing great. yes I bought a camera last week so I`ll be sending some pictures with this email. Still haven`t gotten the packages yet but we might go to the office today that`s about an hour away, we have to take a couple buses but its fun. And hopefully worth it! Me and Elder LeSueur got to do exchanges again cause we had to do the interview with Douglas so that was great. Me and him are like brothers it`s great, love that kid. The language part of the mish is still coming along just trying to learn new words everyday, Elder LeSueur says my Spanish is better than his was at six months so that`s cool, he has 16 months himself so he`s gettin to be old in the mish. Me and my comp are still getting along, there are times when he is not my favorite but I`m learning from him, especially spanish ha.

Glad you had a good birthday though dad, definitely missed ya on Friday. Probably will miss everyone a lot this Thursday, I don`t think we`ll be doing much different than a normal Thursday so not an exciting Thanksgiving ha. Red Lobster sounds pretty good right now and so does Smitty`s actually so do some twinkies. Make sure you leave those puppies in the freezer until I get back in 18 months, I plan on enjoying those haha. Not kidding. And your new gun sounds pretty sweet hopefully you get to go out and use it. Alrighty that`s about all for this week, remember I love you and I`m thankful for all of your help, support, and prayers family and friends. love ya. And so does our Heavenly Father, remember to be grateful for everything you have been blessed with especially at this time of year. We are truly blessed and loved by our Heavenly Father, I testify of that and that he knows each one of us. until next monday. Nos vemos.

Love,
Elder Derrick Jorgensen

November 12, 2012

Happy Veterans Day!

Hope all is well at home and everyone is doing good! We had another really good week here. About the earthquake real fast, it was probably the longest one I have felt here it lasted a good 20 seconds but wasn`t too big. I think it did more stuff in ¨Guatemala, but my companions family is all good and safe. We had a good week here and it was way fun too. Last Tuesday we were up in the top of our area with the guy in our ward who is a mute, can`t talk, read, or write but he was showing us around cause I had never been up that far with Elder Hammond but anyways he showed us around and showed us a couple natural fresh water holes. I didn`t drink out of em but he did, and he is still alive so that`s how I know they were clean haha. But that was kinda cool to see that, definitely didn`t think I would see clean water in this country ha.

 

This week was good though. We made a lot of progress with all of our investigators and if all goes well these next three Saturday`s will have a baptism scheduled. So I`m very excited for that! Last month was my first month without a baptism kinda weird..But everything is going great. I am loving my comp he is a great guy and really helps me learn Spanish, I definitely speak it better now, like more fluidly, just still limited on vocabulary but I `m working on that ha. But he helps me and we have been working hard though, different from Elder Hammond and some things are good about that and others not so much. This week I also got to go on changes with Elder LeSueur so that was awesome. Probably the funniest day of my mission, we had a great time. A lot of the appointments we had fell through though, actually everything besides dinner fell through so that was kinda discouraging but we found a couple less actives to visit. He gave me some great advice and motivation though, great friend definitely want to keep in touch with him after the mish.

 

I`m still learning a ton everyday. From the scriptures and from the people. It`s amazing how the scriptures come to life down here in El Salvador, every story you can find down here. All the bad people, all the good people, all the strong members, and all the members who have become too proud to realize how much the Lord has given them. Every day I`m excited to read from the scriptures and I hope it can be like that for me after the mish too. If a person really studies the scriptures the Spirit of Heavenly Father will always be with them.

 

Still have yet to receive those packages, we might go to the office today though, so hopefully they are there! Also I`m gonna look today for a camera and a voice recorder cause that would be sweet. And a lot easier than typing emails. Well that`s about all for this week I love you all so much and pray for you always. Thank you friends and family for your examples to me and your thoughts and prayers. And I`m glad to know everyone is doing good at home.

 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD on Friday.

 

Love,Elder Derrick Jorgensen

November 5, 2012

 

Saying good bye to Elder Hammond

 

Painting the fence

 

Didn't get an explanation with this one

I can`t believe how fast time goes by, no complaints though! We had a great week here in El Salvador! We were able to set a few more dates so hopefully these next three or four weeks in a row I`ll be sending some pictures home of some people dressed in white!! All of our lessons were good though, the ones that we did have. I think we taught about 15 lessons or so to investigators, probably my lowest yet but we just couldn`t find people so that was kinda hard for me little discouraging at times. But my companion is still really good, still learning words everyday, not as many as I want, but it`s coming ha. But he helps me out a lot and is patient with me even when I`m not patient with myself so that really helps me. The mission is definitely tough, but I wouldn`t want it to be easy.

 

Not a whole lot of way fun stuff happened though this week, I forgot it was Halloween this week until we got a phone call from President saying we need to be in the house two hours earlier than usual so that was kinda weird. I didn`t think it got too crazy but I guess I don`t really know ha. We wanted to do somethin fun that night but didn`t have much to do ha. We found some uno cards and Elder LeSueur`s companion had the fake snow stuff, so things got pretty crazy in the house. We had a small snowball fight outside on our patio, until I got hit with a big one in the face, so I got ticked they ran inside and I followed em in throwing some big handfulls ha. Surprisingly it wasn`t too big of a mess, and better news I didn`t have to clean it up haha. But it was a good time. On Tuesday we had 6 teachers and deacons leave with us, and I will never ever ever do that again ha one is fine but you get em all together and they aren`t focussed at all and just start playing and even during our lessons they weren`t being reverent, kinda ticked me off. And we walked like 9 or so miles that day in the part of our area called Cerro, hill. So they were complaining about that too, ha big mess. Anyways back to important mission stuff....uhmm. Yep ha.

I`m still doing great though. My back still hurts a little bit but I`m kinda sleeping better sometimes so thats good. Haven`t been getting sick though so that`s probably the thing I`m most grateful for cause that would suck to be sick. And I`m eating a lot better now too ha. I set up dinner appointments for us every night, very excited about that haha. But everything here is about the same, weather all that, it`s weird to me it`s already November, cause I haven`t felt the change at all like back home? Have you guys had your first snow yet? Really gonna miss snowboarding! But that`s alright I`m blessed for being here and I wouldn`t change it for anything. I love you all and thank you for your thoughts and prayers always.

 

Love,

Elder Derrick Jorgensen