December 30, 2013 ~ Week 23

Hello everyone!

So as you know, this week was Christmas! As a result we didn't really get much of anything done...It was sad. No one was ever home, or wanted us to come over. We went to a member in our ward, but not in our area's Christmas Eve party... it was a polish Catholic Christmas eve party. That means they didn't have any meat, besides fish. So we had tuna spaghetti, creamed cod, and those potato ravioli things that I don't remember what they are called. But it was weird to say the least. It was also weird because our whole group was there... because everyone is related. So it was basically just like church. I did get to sit on Santa's lap, and I even got a present from him! It was a little cosmetic bag with a bunch of skin care items. (Sorry the picture is blurry.)

It was so awesome and loving of the family that invited us because we had no plans and they invited us over last second.  That was super awesome of them. I felt very loved. Then we went home and went to bed! On Christmas, I woke up and made pancakes for me and Turpin. Then Elders Reese, Hanshew, Fawcett, and Winegardner came over and we opened presents. I definitely felt the most love! :P Thanks for all the love that came my way! I'll be writing all you that sent me presents a letter later today, and if I happen to miss you, it's because I was dumb and didn't write down all the addresses from everyone before I threw away the boxes so I will have to get some addresses from my mom and write you next week! But after that we played games, then I called home, which was awesome. Then I had a nap, then had Spaghetti for dinner! Yay! Then me and Elder Turpin just played games for the rest of the night. It was a good Christmas.

 I bought a pair of Basketball shoes with some of the money that people sent me for my Birthday and can I just say that that is so out of character for me. I don't know if any of you remember, but I HATED basketball before... I still do a little bit. But I'm decent at it, and we play a lot. So I figured I would not break my ankles and buy a decent pair of shoes. So that's fun and stuff!

Not much else happened this week. We had a short lesson with Jason and Dennise on Thursday. We taught them the Gospel, and they would be so good, if they would just go to church! Dang. Oh well. We'll keep at 'em. Anyways, Love you all! Merry Christmas!

Love,

-Elder Jorgensen

Merry Christmas from Pres. & Sis. Anderson

Can you find Elder Jorgensen? 

 {Top picture, 3rd from the right, on the bottom}

Merry Christmas!!!

Merry Christmas!  Today was incredible and emotional, and quite frankly..... magical.  Before I share some of the things we talked about, I have to tell you how excited I was ALL morning.  It actually began last night as I was laying in bed.  I was so giddy with excitement that I had the hardest time falling asleep, much like when I was a kid waiting for Christmas morning.  From the moment I woke up, I had butterflies.   It was surreal for me.  TODAY I was going to talk to my baby...I could hardly contain my excitement! We enjoyed family prayer together, took the traditional "top of the stairs photos," opened our presents, ate a tummy breakfast, and then proceeded to WAIT for the call.  

At 11:27 am, the phone rang.  I jumped up and RAN to the phone.  Hello?  "Merry Christmas Mom."  It has been 154 days since I heard my sweet boy's voice and my heart completely melted.   As I listened to his sweet tender voice, PURE joy filled my soul.  I LOVE that boy so much.

We enjoyed the next hour visiting about life in Upper Darby and Scranton and missionary life in general.  I had my list of questions right there so as too ALWAYS know what to ask next.  :)

Did you know Elder Jorgensen:

1.  shops at Wal-mart?

2.  does his laundry downstairs in the house where he lives?

3.  walks everywhere?

4.  plays Magic on his P-day?

5. plays a lot of basketball?  In fact he bought BASKETBALL SHOES??

6.  had NO plans for Christmas dinner?  He was going to make Mac & Cheese?  (Sad, huh?)

7.   LOVED all the packages he got for Christmas?

8.  LOVED the 20ish boxes of Jello I sent the very BEST?

8.   got a knife pulled on him in Philly and talked the "crazy" guy out of stabbing him??

9.  is in a ward with 600 members but only 150ish are active?

10.  exercises sometimes in the morning?

11.  LOVES his mission and couldn't think of anywhere else he would rather be?

12.  gets along with his companion pretty well?

13.  left his butcher paper family hanging up all over his Upper Darby place for other missionaries to enjoy?

14.  lives in the Pocono Mountains?

15. told his baby sister that ANY boy that wants to date her has to email Cody to ask for permission??He was NOT kidding either.

16.  wanted us to experience the "ghetto" life so he sent home Christmas gifts from a "ghetto" store?

17.  does not like LONG garments.  They hang to his knees.  ;)

18.  can go to the Washington DC temple if a convert they baptize goes?

19.  FINALLY found his camera cord so we should be getting some pictures soon?
20.  has no CENTRAL HEAT in his house?  They use radiators.
21.  prefers city life (complete with the crazies) over country quiet life?

22.  misses EVERYONE and wants everyone to have a very Merry Christmas?

At one point, 38 minutes into our call, his phone died.  NO!!!!!  That can't be how this call was going to end.  Elder Jorgensen quickly called back and said that he lost the signal on his phone.  PHEW!!!!

We continued for about 20 more minutes and then he announced, that his time was about up.  At that point, we were about to have family prayer together when 2 of OUR cordless phones died.   ARE YOU KIDDING ME?  Fortunately, we were also using a regular corded phone so we didn't lose the connection completely.  We all ran upstairs and individually said our good-byes.  I wish I could say I kept it together but as soon as I saw Elder Jorgensen's sweet sister say good-bye with tears streaming down her face, I lost it.  I told him I was trying to be brave but I just couldn't do it.  I told him how I loved him and how very proud I was of him.  I told him that I missed him every single moment of every day and that he is ALWAYS in my heart and my prayers.  He told me that he loved me and that was it.  As I hung up the phone, the flood gates opened and I fell to my knees and thanked my Father in Heaven for blessing our family with such a great kid.  Then Scott and I hugged for a few minutes and everyone went about their day....me with a slightly broken heart again but so very grateful for the gift of hearing Elder Jorgensen's sweet voice on this BEAUTIFUL Christmas Day.

Remind me why we do this again???

Oh, yes I remember....

Because THAT'S what we do.

Couldn't of thought of a more appropriate gift for the Savior on this beautiful

 Christmas Day than to give Him my son for 2 years.

December 23, 2013 ~ Week 22

Merry Christmas!

Hello everyone! So this week... It's been pretty good. One thing about being companions with the district leader is that we go on exchanges a ton! So I was on exchange for most of the week, and to be honest, I don't really remember much of what we did on those days... We did do quite a bit of tracting, so that was fun. Thursday we had our zone Christmas conference, so we drove down in the East Elders car to the Nazareth chapel and we had it there! We watched "Ephraim's Rescue," which by the way is super super good, and I highly encourage everyone watch it. Then there was a talent show... I didn't do anything in it because I'm boring. :) But it was super fun! They brought all of our Christmas presents to it, and Elder Jones in the office likes to pick on me because my mom loves me. :P Which I'm totally fine with. He would make me kneel down and beg for each present I got in front of everyone.  It would have been funnier if it was someone other than me, but I'm me and it was totally fine. So that was great!

 We had church as a ward yesterday rather than in the groups, and can I just say, that we have the most awesome ward leaders ever. They are the most legit ever.  They do so much to make sure that the ward and it's members are taken care of. We watched "Joy to the World" in Sunday School, and that was the first time I ever watched it. It was definitely nothing like I would have expected. It was funny. So then Elder Turpin called home yesterday cause his family was all in town for that day only, (He got permission) So far I have no plans for Christmas besides calling home, but that's the best part right? I'll make sure that Christmas feels like Christmas no matter what happens!  Thursday we are going to the Rieder, Oustrich, Jones, "After Christmas Party." Everyone in our ward is related, so it's pretty much a group Christmas party. I will send some pictures next week when I find my cord. Today for P-day I am going to go buy a pair of Basketball shoes with the money my Grandma and Grandad sent me for my birthday. We are at the library right now, then taking the bus to the Dickson City mall! FUN stuff!  Well everyone...Thank you for your prayers and being awesome! 

During these last few days before Christmas, let us remember:

"Christmas is the spirit of giving without a thought of getting. It is happiness because we see joy in people. It is forgetting self and finding time for others. It is discarding the meaningless and stressing the true values. It is peace because we have found peace in the Savior’s teachings. It is the time we realize most deeply that the more love is expended, the more there is of it for others." —Thomas S Monson

Love you all!

~Elder Jorgensen

December 16, 2013 ~ Week 21

Hello Everyone,
So I'm in my new area.  I am now serving in the Scranton Ward. But, in this ward they decided to break the ward off into a bunch of different 'twigs' because the ward is so spread out. So there are 6 different 'twigs' and each one has a different set of missionaries. I'm serving in the Taylor 'twig' which consists of 3 cities: Taylor, Moosic, and Old Forge. We live on the top floor of a members home. It's pretty nice....the house is more than 100 years old. This place feels like we're in the middle of nowhere. Like honestly it feels like a small town in Utah. Imagine like Nephi or Beaver. 

We only had 2 lessons this week.  THAT is where this area is as far as gators but we will leave it better than when I got here. We are teaching a part member family so that's nice.  We don't have a car, so we have to get rides if we need to go pretty much anywhere. We went to church yesterday, and there were only about 25ish people there. We have church in the group leaders archery shop. It was weird and he (Brother Jones) had me talk for like 10 minutes to fill the time. It is really weird here. There's really not much to do here besides just tracting so that is weird. I never went tracting in my last area so it's a new experience. All in all, that is all that's going on with me! We didn't get much done this week.   I love you all.

~Elder Jorgensen

December 9, 2013 ~ Week 20

Dear Everyone,

So first off, THANK YOU to everyone who sent me Happy Birthday messages! There were 40 of them, but sadly I don't have time to respond to all of them today.  Thank you all for those! They made me happy. 

Now many of you know already, but I am being transferred. I will know Tuesday where I am going. Upper Darby has been fun and all, but I'm ready for something new. I really don't have much to say this week.  Next week I will have a lot more stuff to say though! 

Oh! One thing, We totally taught Santa at Wendy's. No success, but we planted some seeds! I have attached a picture. These past couple days have mostly just been goodbyes and stuff like that.  Please forgive me for this poor letter, but I have birthday stuff to go do! :)  Love you all.

~ Elder Jorgensen

December 2, 2013 ~ Week 19

Hello hello hello! 
Everyone! I have important news to announce! So remember how I'm fat now? I weighed myself the other day for the first time since coming out... and..... I weigh the exact same weight as I did when I came out. Funny right? I totally figured I weighed like 160 lbs. But I do not. So do not worry about me coming home and being all obese and disgusting and eww.... It is not happening! I promise! Since we are on the subject of obesity, however, I do have some announcements to make....

This past Thursday, was a funny day. Apparently it was a day where the mission president doesn't want us to go out proselyting. Strange right? What's even stranger is that early in the morning Elder Pitt and Brown showed up at our apartment and told us that we were going to go play football.... Now you could imagine my confusion. It wasn't P-Day... It was cold outside... Exercise is for fat people.....Nothing was making sense, but I decided to just roll with it. We jogged up West Chester Pike to a park up in Mormonville. Now you could understand my amazement as the entire Elders quorum was there to greet us! Now I was puzzled. I sat there, thought about it, and could not come up to a logical conclusion, so as I do whenever I can't come up with a logical conclusion, I made my own! You see, as I was sleeping Wednesday night, I must have rolled over funny and pinched a nerve in my brain that caused my whole entire understanding of the world to be changed. I also came to the conclusion that I must have just slept for several days. It was really Sunday you see! We were at church in Elders quorum! We weren't at a park. Football was just an analogy or something like that. Who knows? But I decided to just go with it, and hopefully sooner or later my reasoning would return to the way it should be. We played football for a while, then we had chocolate milk and Krispy Kreme doughnuts. A pleasant enough surprise for an Elders quorum lesson. Following our football game (For some reason everyone was calling it a turkey bowl) we headed back to our apartment to shower and change. 

We then headed to church to do some online proselyting! We got a call from Chrislin. He asked us what we were doing and told us to come to his house, and his mother would feed us. So off we went! I'll tell you this, they are from Haiti... They stuffed us. Haitian Turkey, and rice, and mac N' Cheese, purple potato salad, the works! Not your typical meal... But It was delicious! So fun! 

Then we went over to the Colts house as we usually do on Thursday nights. We walked in, and it was just warm and happy. They were all dressed up for some reason, and the table had a nice table cloth over it. There was tons of food sitting in the corner, and them being the Mexicans they are, wouldn't let us stop eating. But it was alright! There was something special about it, all their family was there as well. The room really was full of so much love. That was the part of the day where I started to realize, maybe this day wasn't just another day. It was a day for love, and family, and warmth, and full bellies. I liked this day. I wish it could have happened more often. We left the Colt's home after singing hymn 219 with them. So much happy!!!

 Then we went over to see Donko and his family! (The family from Lao) As we were walking (I was bringing a bowl of blue jello to contribute) we ran into Donko! We found out his nephew was in the hospital and all his family was there with him. So we walked Donko to the hospital. (About a 40 minute walk... wasn't bad.) Donko wasn't in the best mind set, and he made it seem like L-smith (The nephew) was dying. He said that he was in a coma and all sorts of bad things. We kept Donko calm though, and we taught him a bit. We got to the hospital, and it was just food poisoning. But seeing their family, gathered around L-Smith, was touching. They were so grateful that he was alright... that nothing was wrong. There was so much love in that room. It made me think about the past day, and what was important. The love I felt throughout the day, from the Elders quorum playing football, to Donko being worried about his nephew, was all centered around FAMILY. 

There is no greater love and happiness that can exist on this earth than that which can be found in families. Whether it be your church family, your quorum family, your extended family, your immediate family, or just you and your cat, family is the most important and sacred gift our Heavenly Father has given to us. I'm so grateful I get to spend the rest of eternity with the family I have, and the family I will one day have. So in honor of this amazing day I had, and the love that was felt therein, I, Elder Jorgensen, hereby declare that the 4th Thursday of every November be named FamilyLoveFoodDay. A day where we give thanks for the love that we have in our families, and eat lots of food. Now I'm pretty sure my brain got fixed after that night, so that's all good. Felicity and Cynthia are doing alright. They are taking it step by step, but I have the utmost faith that they will gain that testimony. I can see it happening. Slowly but surely. I'm so grateful. I love all of you! 'Til next week!

-Elder Jorgensen.