September 24, 2012

Hello from El Salvador!

 How is everyone doing? We had a great week here and I can`t believe it`s already p day again. The weeks fly by so fast it seems like, not complaining at all about that haha. But this week was our temple trip, I`m not sure if I told you about that last week. But we had a mission wide trip to the temple with our investigators. Many saw it for the first time and it couldn`t have been a better day. Everything was so organized. We left our church at 9 and got to the temple at about 10 and then President and Sister Glazier spoke to everyone and welcomed them and gave short talks about the temple and what we do there. Then they split up into small groups and learned a little bit more specifically about the church. We had lessons about the Plan of Salvation, how families can be eternal, mock baptisms, and everything else you can think of. It was awesome, and right when we were walkin by the front door of the temple, a bride and groom walked out and started taking wedding pictures!! I couldn`t believe the timing, everything just seemed to work perfectly that day. And I think in total we had 650 investigators come to the temple, we only brought about six of our investigators, the other six or so had to work...I was pretty mad about that.

 But our investigators our progressing really awesome! Julio made it all last week without drinking! So he is goin on his tenth day today! Words can`t describe how happy I am for him and the things he is doing. He is noticing how everything is going better in his life and is really getting desires to change. The other good news for him is we rescheduled our lunch that we were supposed to have for next Tuesday! I`m pretty dang excited for a barbeque haha. Mario and his dad are doing great too. We actually set a date for both of them for the 13 of October so we will see how that goes and hope and pray they don`t have any challenges that keep them from the waters of baptism. And this Saturday coming up we have a baptism too. It seems like we don`t have a lot going on until I sit down and write about it and I`m like holy crap we are doin work! haha its great. But yeah I think in total we have 5 investigators with dates in October so hopefully that all works out before changes on the 24 of October. That`s when I think Elder Hammond will be leaving and I`ll be staying, I`m freakin out about that day. Pretty much because I still can`t speak that great, pretty limited to just the Gospel and then I still don`t always understand what they are saying to me. But progress from the first day here is definitely significantly higher ha. Elder Hammond isn`t really big on language study cause he already knows it, and he doesn`t take a lot of extra time to explain stuff to me anymore. So that is a little frustrating but I will learn. Actually one of the zone leaders in our house, Elder LeSeur, helps me out a ton. He is a sweet kid. Reminds me almost exactly of Ian so that is pretty sweet to have an awesome friend like that already.

This week I read 2 Nephi 4. And it talks about pleading with the Lord for deliverance and strength to withstand from sin. And it really just made me think that maybe we don`t or I don`t pray hard enough to our Heavenly Father. If you think about prayer and the power it has, it`s amazing. We pray to our Heavenly Father and He hears us and answers our prayers. If I really understood that I think I would make sure I was a lot more prepared to pray every time to Him. To ask Him for things and to thank Him for all of the blessings that I have in my life. I realized this week how extremely lucky I have been to grow up in the Gospel, even though I don`t feel like I know very much, I do. People hear don`t understand or don`t have the knowledge of the basic things that we do. And I really take that comfort for granted. We are so blessed to have this Gospel in our lives and to know what our purpose is and to have deeper and more meaningful goals than the average person, like being with our families forever. I know this church is true and our Heavenly Father is always there to help us in this life so that we can return to Him and be like Him.

 

Glad to see you guys are still gettin out and around with the camper. I missed that so much these last almost 4 months (next Sunday but who`s really keepin track). And you got to go golfing too, I`m sure it was a lot better than our little course we had set up on our table haha. And Brandi is still kickin butt on the cross country team, but is getting a little burnt out ha. I know how that is just remember it`s always harder in the moment, things will be better tomorrow. Remember that. And she`s got her big first dance coming up that`ll be fun too! Hopefully you guys still have a little bit of time every day to enjoy being together. And Grandma is doing better! That is good to know and a relief. I can`t believe Ciera is engaged!!! Holy Crap! haha that was a shock. He is probably a pretty cool good guy though so I`m sure she is doing fine. Anything else at home changing? Fires are still going, and Grandma Beverly said Palisades is way low so hopefully you have a good winter with lots of snow, and skiing. Ha I`m really gonna miss snowboarding this year.

But I`m still doing good, not too many bugs in the house to answer your question. Only a couple cockroaches, the bad thing is ants...freaking everywhere!!!!!!!! But we are doing good. We got up at six today and did P 90X so that was good. I dommed every body but no big deal haha. It was good to actually get up at six and do something, usually my comp sets his alarm for about 5:30 and hits snooze every five minutes until 6:30 so I REALLY enjoy that everyday ha. I dono what else I would want in a package besides food haha that`s really all I need and I know food doesn`t send that good...maybe a couple more ties I guess? But thank you for everything, thoughts and prayers, I love you all!

 

Que Dios le bendiga!

Elder Jorgensen