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