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