Week one as a trainer..here we go! February 25, 2013

Well how is everyone doing?! I`m doing pretty good down here in El Salvador, trying to take it one day at a time as a trainer. Definitely praying even harder now. My new comp is Elder De La Cruz, from the cross haha, he is from Argentina so he has a little bit of an accent so that makes it a little tough at times with the Spanish and all but it will just make me better right? Well this last week was really good for us, I feel like I`ve grown a lot already and I`m excited to see what`s in store these next eleven weeks. This week we had a few lessons fall, so we spent a lot of time looking for those new chosen investigators. We had some good experiences and definitely walked a lot, I think our biggest day was thirteen miles. Not too many new ones but we are confident the Lord is preparing to put those people in our path this week.

 One thing we are really trying to do now is find where all the less actives live here and start reactivating them! We did find one awesome family last week, and we are setting up a family home evening with them this week so that`s exciting for us too. I love being able to find some type of activity to do, because we need to be able to have some fun. We have the help of the Second Counselor from the branch though, he is probably the strongest member in the branch and wants to start working with us a lot more often so that`s awesome.

Also good news this week, we will have another baptism on Saturday! This last Thursday we went to Angela`s house and talked to the Grandma for about an hour and a half and... got nowhere. I was starting to get a little frustrated with her because she kept saying conflicting stuff and we were just making no progress, finally I was able to talk to Angela a little bit in front of the grandma and just asked questions about how she feels about the church. She answered all the questions perfectly, and then I asked if she wanted to be part of the church, and she said yes. The grandma finally said she would support her in whatever decision she makes and will help her be able to always go to church, that`s perfect! Ha so after that lesson I was super happy. Then I got nervous all over again about how to find new investigators but I know the Lord will help me.

 A little more about my comp, well not much to report on yet but I can tell you we don`t have much in common, at all. But I will keep a good attitude. He likes to draw, plays a little bit of soccer. But yeah so we`ll see how it all goes. Also I finished the Book of Mormon in Spanish this morning and had an awesome experience. Just really realizing how much the Book of Mormon will help me in EVERY aspect of my life. Sorry I gotta go now, but I love you all and I pray for you always, and remember the Savior is always there for you to help you with every challenge you face.

Love,

Elder Jorgensen

 P.S. This mission is going to be split at the end of June, I`ll tell ya more about that next week.

Baptism!!! February 18, 2013

 

 

 

 



Well how is everyone doing! We had a pretty crazy busy week down here in Beach City. I´ll just take you through it day by day cause that will help me think more clearly. On Tuesday we had a multi zone which is what that one other email was, just a picture. But that was awesome, it was all about obedience and loving the work down here. That conference lasted about five hours or so, then we had to take the bus ride back to our area so that was the majority of the day. Then on Wednesday we had to pull out a birth certificate for somebody, so we rode a bus for like an hour and a half, still in our area by the way, and when we got off the bus this old guy fell down and broke his pinky and hit his face. It was all in slow motion but we couldn´t do anything to help him I felt bad, his pinky was messed up, like twisted bent sideways and yeah weird looking. But anyways after that just tried to regain our energy for the day to go out and teach. Then Thursday we had the interview for Rene with the counselor of President Glazier so we got on the bus again for another two hours and finally arrived. Rene scared the crap out of us when he didn´t show up for like an hour, we were starting to have some doubts but he finally showed up and got his interview done. So then we came back to our area and tried to get everything ready to head out for that day. Nothing too spectacular happened besides that stuff, then on Friday we were supposed to have the interview of Angela but the zone leaders showed up too late to do it and her grandma didn´t give her permission anyways so we have to wait on her. But she is so ready! She doesn´t know how ready she is, but she is probably stronger than half the members in this branch already and she hasn´t even been baptized.

 

So then Saturday finally came! Friday we spent most of the day trying to visit members and investigators, less actives and everyone else to come to Rene´s baptism and it sounded like we were gonna have a ton of people. Then Saturday morning, we showed up to the church at like 8 ish and the baptism was at 9. By 9:15 we were starting to worry when no one had shown up, not even Rene. Then at 9:30 one family from the branch finally showed up. And then at about five minutes to ten Rene and his wife showed up. So we ended up not having many people at the baptism. Anyways we started the service and during the opening hymn him and his wife were kind of crying, and this guy is not emotional at all...ever. We had a few short talks and then my comp walked down into the water with him and baptized him. I was so happy for both of them, Rene for being able to make this decision and Elder Scurr for ending his 14 month drought. This week was probably one of the happiest of my mission.

 

Now for some other fairly big news. I will be training this next change. President Glazier called last night and told me and Elder Scurr we would both be training, so Elder Scurr will probably open a new area or reopen a closed area and I am for sure staying here in El Puerto. I´m pretty much freaking out right now. I hope that I will be able to be a good trainer and first companion to my ¨son¨, I hope I´ve learned enough from everyone else that I can teach him everything he needs to know to be a successful missionary. I know this will allow me to grow more as a missionary as well. I will have to control every situation and always keep us busy. I´m super nervous and excited, I´m also pretty sure I will have a latino companion but that´s ok my spanish will improve a lot more. So this next week I should have some exciting stuff to report on. Thank you for everything and this week I would greatly appreciate any extra prayers you might be able to throw my way. Hope all is well at home with everybody you are all in my prayers.

 

Love,

Elder Jorgensen

February 11, 2013

What´s up everybody!

 

So this week was much better for us! Started out last Tuesday when we had some of our most powerful members from the branch leave with us for the afternoon and they took us to some of their family and some less actives. It was awesome to see how excited they were to go out and work with us and teach. They are amazing teachers, I was pretty impressed with them. So that was good to get some new investigators with them, we ended up with twelve new ones this week which is really good for us especially in this area! Also I have some good news about baptisms that are coming up. The familia we were teaching got whittled down to just the oldest daughter, but she should get baptized this next Saturday. She is super powerful too, she started going to seminary in the church, and they changed the schedule so she could continue to come every day. We are excited for her and then there is also Rene, and he can posibly get baptized this next Saturday as well! We have a multi zone meeting with President tomorrow so we are gonna bring him so President can interview him and hopefully pass him. So we could break my companions 14 month cold streak on the baptisms. Also we have a couple others that are super powerful that have a date for the first weekend in March. Their names are Vanesa and David. Vanesa is the wife, we hope, of a less active member who is 28, and she is pregnant right now (18 years old). Then David is a friend of both of them. I love going to teach them because they actually do what we ask them to do! We give them a chapter to read and they read it and then have questions but then they answer their own questions, it´s awesome!!!!

 

So we are starting our last week in this change. This change was only five weeks because of the age change we are getting a ton of new missionaries, about 40 when normally it´s like 15 to 20 max. But my comp is starting to pick it up again, just took forever it kinda feels like and it makes me feel super baggy and feel like I´ll never finish my mission haha. But it is getting better. I don´t think we will be together for another change but we both might stay in the area and it will get split, so we´re still waiting for that news. Um what else happened this week..I finished 3 Nephi in the Book of Mormon in Spanish so only a little bit more and I´ll have ´er done! I really haven´t studied language at all, just reading the BOM so my comp is pretty suprised about that, but I definitely need to study more just to be able to talk more smoothly without thinking so much about sentence structure and all that haha. I love studying the scriptures though, really studying. It´s awesome to feel the spirit when you read but when you actually study the scriptures and search for answers or things to help you out, the spirit is so much more powerful and I actually feel enlightened and inspired it´s awesome!! So I challenge you not to only read your scriptures but study with a purpose, with a question, with something in mind you want to understand better, and you will be so much more edified by your studying.

 

So pretty much besides that, not much else to report on. I have started stretching though! I figure there is no way I can really work out on my mish and see improvement or anything but there is a posibility I could touch my toes! So we´ll see how that goes. Oh i thought about another thing for a package, FIG NEWTONS i dono why but I have a huge craving for those right now haha. Other than that though...I dono.   But hey if you could tell Bro Cornelison and Bro Neuerberg thank you for me for everything they did for me when I was there that would be awesome. I´ve been thinking about that a lot lately, I never let them know how much I appreciated them and everything they did. That´s too bad about Taylor, I hope he can stay motivated to go back out. Tell him to write me though if you see him! It´d be awesome to get a letter from him. Other than that I love you all so much. Now have a great week, and be an example that someone else can look up to!!!

 

Love,

Elder Jorgensen

February 4, 2013

What`s up everybody,

 

Well this week I definitely missed Super Bowl Sunday, I dono if I missed watching the game, commercials, halftime show, or just normal awesome snack food all day long. I think I`m leaning towards the food at this point but it sounds like the game was pretty intense! Listening to your report and everybody else`s sounds like the 49ers shoulda taken it! I wanted them to win but oh well I guess, you all have a good time watchin it though? And the snow report...is the snow finally gettin better there in good ol` Idaho? Hopefully I`m not missing out on too much ha.

Anyways though about my week here in El Salvador. Well I hit 8 months on Wednesday so that was pretty neat I thought, doesn`t really seem like that long but at the same time it seems like longer, weird how that works. Tuesday though I went on exchanges with Elder Dolbin in our area. So that was a little nerve racking for me, I had to plan out our day and then when stuff fell through I had to find something else to do. But it was an awesome day, I learned so much from him during lessons and studying and just everything about being a missionary. I`m not even kidding, he is probably the best missionary in the mission ha me and my comp always ask him for his autograph because we want the autograph of a future apostle haha. Then Wednesday morning me and him went running on the beach, I`ve been here since Dec 5 and we go running like never so that was my second time running on the beach haha. And it killed me.

He also did the interview for Rene, but we are gonna have to wait a few more weeks, I hope this doesn`t discourage him though. So no baptism last weekend but hopefully in a couple weeks we should have at least 2! So things are starting to get better for us here. I didn`t really have too many powerful stories or things happen to me this week but for our district meetings we are now given study subjects to study all week and then we discuss what we learned in District Meeting, so that is like my favorite meeting of the week! I love it and it`s so spiritual and like a boost right in the middle of the week when everything is a little rough. My comp though is starting to get a little more fired up though finally, I think our zone leaders and one of the assistants got through to him this last week so it was kinda awkward at first but now we are super good. We are just working con todo right now so that`s fun, this week our highest step day was like 18,000 and I figured out that the lower the number the better. A higher number means a lot of stuff fell through and we were just looking all day and not teaching. So hopefully that number will be somewhat low from now on haha.

You guys send packages like crazy haha but yeah church music would be awesome, I actually just bought some speakers and a sub haha 30 bucks gets ya good sound down here in latino land but yeah that would be awesome! I do need another watch too, mine broke and we can`t go shopping here really unless it`s an emergency and I don`t wanna buy a crappy one in the street so maybe another walmart watch? Other than that I don`t got much else to say haha except I love you all and I`m praying that everything goes good in work and school for you! Thank you for your thoughts and prayers and everything you`ve given me.

Love,

Elder Jorgensen