December 29, 2014 ~ Week 75

Hey everyone! 
Christmas was like 5 days ago, but Merry Christmas nonetheless! 

This week has gone by like a blur. We haven't had a whole lot of teaching opportunities between Christmas and everything. But Christmas was super fun. We had an appointment for every hour of the day on Christmas Eve, and Christmas Day. It was crazy! On Christmas Eve we went to a members house and had homemade pizza, and we made graham cracker houses. It was fun... Mine sucked though... Maybe there is a reason I'm not an architect. Whatever though. Then Christmas was just craziness. We had cinnamon rolls for breakfast at home, then we went form appointment to appointment. It was such a great experience being able to see how so many different people celebrate Christmas. By the last appointment I nearly fell asleep at the dinner table. Such a long day. 

The rest of the week was pretty slow. But I love it.  I've gotta go, short on time. 

Love you! Bye!
~Elder Jorgensen

Merry Christmas from Elder J and Elder Engelman
{The best part of our morning was having family prayer right before we hung up.}

December 22, 2014 ~ Week 74

Hey everyone! 
Missionary work is going strong in Newark! My new companion is Elder Engelman. He's from Huntington Beach, California. He goes home in 6 weeks, and he's awesome. He's something like 6'5" so he's pretty tall. It's funny because he just came from New Castle Ward which borders our ward. He already knows a lot of people in the ward and sometimes I feel like he knows the area better than I do.... It's all great and dandy though. 

Elder Jorgensen and Elder Engelman

Missionary work is exploding lately and it seems like we are finding solid new people all over the place. One person that I'm particularly excited about is Kim. We talked to her 13 year old son on the street and asked him for referrals. He told us to go see his mom so we did. She's super awesome and I'm excited to go teach her. 

UMMM so I'll tell you more about my area. It's pretty much just all suburbs, but we have some apartment complexes that we find a ton of people in as well. I'm just about out of time for today, but I wish you all a very merry Christmas! I'll talk to you next week! 

Love you!
~Elder Jorgensen

December 15, 2014 ~ Week 73

Hey everyone!
So first off, transfers have come, and my companion is leaving tomorrow. The past week has been pretty good, thank you to everyone that wished me a happy birthday! 

We had one lesson this week that was really, really good. It was with a PM family, and he, the dad, who is not a member, has been working towards baptism for a long time.  We went and read Mosiah 27 with him and taught him about repentance, and the process we must go through to actually exhibit a change in ourselves. It was a fantastic lesson, and it was special to see his face light up when it finally clicked. I'm excited for him. I confirmed Sadik in sacrament meeting yesterday and it was pretty cool. That kid has a bright future ahead of him. 

I'll share with you one of my favorite scriptures to end this email.
14 And then cometh the judgment of the Holy One upon them; and then cometh the time that he that is filthy shall be filthy still; and he that is righteous shall be righteous still; he that is happy shall be happy still; and he that is unhappy shall be unhappy still.  Mormon 9:14

If you aren't happy, you better fix it, fast!
Love you!
~Elder Jorgensen



P.S.
AWWW man. Elder Pitt just called me and told me that I am also the district leader again. Emotions are mixed. But I am excited to see if I can do a better job this time than I did last time. Plus I have a great district. So it'll be great. So we'll see how that goes! Love you! Figured I'd share the update.

December 8, 2014 ~ Week 72

Hey everyone, so first things first, Sadik was baptized yesterday!! Hooray! It was so powerful and awesome I loved it. The spirit was so special, and there were so many people from the ward there to support him. It was awesome. All his family was there, and the experience as a whole was just perfect. 

Besides that, not a whole lot has happened this week. We spent a lot of time making sure that Sadik would be ready for his baptism, and I went on exchange with Elder Pollman over in Bayview Ward as well. Thursday we had zone training and it was absolutely incredible. It was on family history work, and the zone leaders did such a great job at it. It's funny, when I was with Elder Goates we used family history so much, but once we parted our ways I kind of stopped using it. I hope to use it a whole lot more effectively now. 

So for those who may not know, today is my last day as a teenager ever. I turn 20 tomorrow... That means I'll not even be a big kid anymore... I'll be a grown up... Gross. It's all good though. Growing up isn't so bad really. Sure you have opposition, and you can't do all the things you used to do, and you have to take more responsibility for things, but it is in essence the growing process we all go through. I'm growing physically, emotionally, and socially, but I'm also growing spiritually, and for that I'm grateful. One thing I would ask of you guys is this: please pray for me. I'm having a great deal of difficulty with a relationship, and I could really use some extra help. The learning and growing process is great, but sometimes the Refiner's fire gets hotter than we can handle alone. But I'm pretty grateful that my Heavenly Father can trust me with trials. It shows me that I really can do it, and throughout our trials we learn that we can't depend on our own talents, skills and nature, but must rely on our Father in Heaven. I'm grateful for growth. Most of all though, I'm grateful for my Savior Jesus Christ, who is with me, and has been there. I love you all! Have a great week and #ShareTheGift!

~Elder Jorgensen

Happy 500th Day!

What's that you ask??? THAT'S how many days Elder Jorgensen had been serving the great people of Philly.  The first-100 days were a year in itself, but I cannot believe how fast the past 400 days have flown. (Tender Mercy for sure!)  So excited to have my sweet boy home in just 230 (give or take a few) DAYS!  

December 1, 2014 ~ Week 71

Guess what everyone?

I can listen to Christmas music, and put up the Christmas tree, and drink eggnog, and have sugar plums dance through my dreams! :)

That one holiday that we had last week where people just fed me a lot is over and now nothing can restrict me from being cheey, and excited because Santa's on his way! So pull out your fruit cake and open up to Luke 2, because now is the time that is set apart from the year where we remember Jesus Christ's birth. 

But I suppose I'm getting ahead of myself, although I really am excited for Christmas, my mom wants to hear about Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving was super awesome. Although I'll be completely honest, it didn't really feel like Thanksgiving. In the morning we went and played football with a few members of the ward. Including us, there were 5 people in total. It was fun, but the grown ups got tired really fast. :P Then we went to the church. There was a big thanksgiving lunch type deal there. We stayed for a little bit and participated in a hand turkey decorating contest (Lots of fun, picture of my turkey should make it next week) Afterwards we went to a member family for our second Thanksgiving meal. I sat at the kids table. It was weird, and I realized I don't know how to talk to teenagers anymore. I can talk to adults and little kids, but not teenagers. Oh well. I'll learn that skill again when I ever need to. Afterwards we went to our third meal at another member's house. By this point I was getting a little full, but I was fine. Then we went to Janet and Rey's house for our 4th Thanksgiving... I was nearly asleep halfway through my plate. It was so hard, but so good at the same time. Sadik is getting baptized next week so we are getting him all ready for that. Exciting stuff! But right now I'm drinking ginger ale, eating brownies, and listening to Christmas music in the light of our glistening tree. It's gorgeous really. I'm so excited for Christmas, and if you aren't yet...check out  Christmas.mormon.org #HeIsTheGift.  It's sure to get you excited! Awesome stuff is happening here, and I hope you all have an awesome week! 

Love you!
~Elder Jorgensen

Thanks Bro and Sis W for this GREAT picture!

November 24, 2014 ~ Week 70

Well everyone, this week has been crazy. Super crazy. But all in all its been amazing. 
A couple highlights being: Going on exchange with the zone leaders and having an awesome time with them and setting Sadek, a 13 year old we are teaching, with a baptismal date. He's Janet and Rey's son and for some reason Janet and Rey have been taught all the lessons, but no one thought to ask Sadek if he wanted to be baptized. So he's been taught nothing, but we are working on it. He's excited to be baptized though, and he has been going to scouts and church and can't wait to pass the sacrament. Exciting stuff! We also found and taught a Chinese student who has absolutely no knowledge or belief in God. It was so hard to teach him and I ended up leaving frustrated, but it was the best experience. Hopefully we'll see him again sometime soon. 

The work is going really well and we are finding lots of new investigators which is awesome. All in all I am learning and growing so much right now and I'm amazed at how far I've come and also at how far I've yet to go. It seems like the further I get along the path, the further I have to go. Good thing I have the rest of eternity to get it though, right? 

Seeing as how it's Thanksgiving week, I figure I could end this email with some of the things I'm most grateful for. I'm grateful for my family. They are the most amazing, most supportive ever. They serve me and love me in ways that I could never even imagine, and they make me feel so loved. I'm grateful I get to be with them forever. I'm grateful for God's plan for me. He knows what I need and I couldn't ever imagine being where I am without his guidance and protection. I'm grateful for my weakness. I'm amazed at how merciful God was when he decided that I shouldn't be perfect right away. Being able to work diligently at improving myself is such a blessing. I'm grateful for the knowledge I've been blessed with. Heavenly Father has taught me so much about life, and the scriptures, and people.  The understanding that I have helps me to have a whole lot of peace in this life. I'm grateful for friends that I've been sent and people that pray for me and care for me. I'm grateful for the emails, and the letters. But more than anything, I'm grateful for my Savior. I really am. He means so much to me, and I know He is with me. 

Take care my friends. Be grateful!

~Elder Jorgensen

I have sent my boy a lot of packages but this was by far my favorite.  His sweet smile and genuine happiness in this picture made it ALL worth it.  Happy Thanksgiving!

Friends From Wilkes-Barre

November 17, 2014 ~ Week 69

Hello everyone! 

How's the weather you ask? Cold you ask? OH YEA, although luckily I haven't had much snow yet. It's nice because the day after I left Wilkes-Barre, it snowed up there. 

Oh yeah! I'm in Newark, Delaware now serving in the Newark 1st ward. It's weird because my whole mission
I've been in NEPA for the most part, and now all the sudden I'm not. It's really quite strange. The reason it's strange, is people are nice down here.... It almost doesn't even feel like missionary work. We still have our problems: people still avoid us, and the success rate is still about the same as it was in Wilkes-Barre, but it's nice when you aren't being ignored, yelled at, or having doors slammed into your face. Makes the work a little more pleasant. Now I'm still not 100% in the groove of our area yet, but we have 2 investigators who are really
quite awesome... Their names are Janet and Rey. They are a kind African couple... I would say 2nd generation probably, and they are just super de dupety solid. They just need to get married, and then they will be ready! So that's awesome. I'll make sure I keep you updated on them. My companion is Elder Jesse Saltzgiver. He is from Bountiful Utah, and he came out at the same time as me. In our area, as far as I know, there are 3 cities we cover. Newark, Delaware, Bear, Delaware, and Elkton, Maryland. So now I just need to serve in Jersey and I will have served in every state in the PPM. It's exciting to be here, and exciting to be serving the lord!

 Have a good week everyone!
~Elder Jorgensen

November 10, 2014 ~ Week 68

Hello everyone! 

This week has been super awesome. First things first, of course, I'm being transferred away from Wilkes-Barre. To be honest, I'm kind of sad because this ward is so awesome and I love everyone here so much. But it's alright, they are still going to exist after I leave. Plus I'm excited to go to a new place with new people. Change is very necessary. 

Oh by the way, last week when I wrote, my goal was to write the most over dramatic, Elder Holland like email I could. I felt like I did an alright job.  :)

Elder Soon just found out he's training a new missionary, so that's cool. This last week was awesome. So in this mission with our goals, we set a two week goal that we are accountable to the district leader on. This was the second week of our accountability and at the beginning of the week we only had 5/22 total lessons for the two week period. Well, one thing about Elder Soon and I, is  we never set a goal we don't intend to reach. So we set goals, made plans, went home, and made our goal, teaching more lessons than this area has ever seen. It was awesome. Numbers aren't everything though...the coolest part of the week was seeing how when we were trying our hardest to reach this goal, Heavenly Father provided a way for us and we saw miracle after miracle after miracle. Things like a LA {less active} member telling us she was committed to come back to church, and get to the temple, and having her follow through on her promises. Or having everything work out perfectly to see a family at a member's house, that we totally didn't expect to be there. Miracles are everywhere! It's so good to see. 

I don't have a lot of time because I still have to pack, and we are going to the airport to greet a returning missionary to this ward for our P-day. But know that God is real, and he answers prayers. 

Love you!

~Elder Jorgensen

We got pictures this week.......of his CLOTHES!  I would have rather had him IN the clothes but it's a picture!  I sure LOVE that boy of mine!

November 3, 2014 ~ Week 67

Brothers and Sisters,

I speak unto you by way of exhortation. Be not deceived. There is a force working against you, a force which has lulled many into a state of idle worship, a state of dishonesty, even a state of despair. This force I speak of is the adversary, Satan. He is the father of all lies. He is the tempter, the deceiving one. He is miserable and he wants you to be as well. Throughout this day, and week I have reflected upon his many lies, and methods of leading people down to destruction. Earlier in the day I read in the Book of Mormon about a man named Giddianhi. Giddianhi was an evil man, who was the leader of the Gadianton robbers, a group of people who were well accustomed to the secret abominations of the adversary. The scriptures tell us of a certain epistle he sent to Lachoneus, governor of the Nephites. In this epistle, Giddianhi shows us an example of the lies, and also the evils of Satan. He begins his epistle by using flattery. By praising
Lachoneus for his firmness, and his bravery in upholding that which he
believes to be right. He then calls Lachoneus foolish for believing that he could stand against so many of Giddianhi's men. He uses intimidation to attempt to make Lachoneus believe there is no hope. Then he goes to say that Lachoneus and his men had done wrong unto the Gadianton robbers, that they had retained from them their right of government. He demands that Lachoneus give up all land, all cities, and become their brethren, becoming acquainted with their secret works.

"And now it came to pass when Lachoneus received this epistle he was exceedingly astonished, because of the boldness of Giddianhi demanding the possession of the land of the Nephites, and also of threatening the people and avenging the wrongs of those that had received no wrong, save it were they had wronged themselves by dissenting away unto those wicked and abominable robbers. Now behold, this Lachoneus, the governor, was a just man, and could not be frightened by the
demands and the threatenings of a robber; therefore he did not hearken to the epistle of Giddianhi, the governor of the robbers, but he did cause that his people should cry unto the Lord for strength against the time that the robbers should come down against them." 3 Nephi 3:11-12

Lachoneus understood that Giddianhi was a liar, and that he would not keep his promise. He also understood that only through reliance on Heavenly Father, could his people remain free. Lachoneus had his people construct a great fortification where they would all gather and stay safe. He taught his people that they must repent, and rely on God for both their physical and temporal salvation. And they did fortify themselves against their enemies; and they did dwell in one land, and in one body, and they did fear the words which had been spoken by Lachoneus, insomuch that they did repent of all their sins; and they did put up their prayers unto the Lord their God, that he would deliver them in the time that their enemies should come down against them to battle. 3 Nephi 3:25

Satan wants us to believe that we don't need God. Satan wants us to believe that we are helpless before his power. He wants us to believe that his way is the better way. He wants us to believe we were meant to be miserable. He is wrong. There is only one thing he can do to any of us, and that is lie, and that is why I exhort you to be not deceived. Learn of his trickery and cunning. God has given us the scriptures, particularly the Book of Mormon so that we may know of the
pitfalls that await us while we are along this earthly travail. The prize of eternal life is too great of one to lose to the likes of a miserable, bitter, angry fool who believes the world owes him something for nothing. He doesn't even have a body. Yet his lies are slight, and his craftiness is careful. We must protect ourselves. We must take refuge in the fortifications that we have been commanded to prepare. This is the home. This is the church. These places must be
built strongly. They must be safe, and they must be a place where we can be protected from the lies of this world. Earlier today we went on an adventure to the mall, I can personally testify to each of you that Satan's subtle craftiness is all around us. Therefore be not deceived.

I love you all! Hope you have a great week!
~Elder Jorgensen

October 27, 2014 ~ Week 66

Hey everyone,

So this week here in the Scranton Pennsylvania Stake, we had Stake Conference. Elder Andersen of the Seventy was there. He is the same one that toured our mission last month. It was cool to see him again. One thing that I've been learning a lot about is how love changes people. Elder Andersen spoke about this in his talk in the general session of Stake Conference. He spoke about how to have power, respect, and trust flow TO you, rather than FROM you. It was amazing! 

As far as missionary work goes, it's going great! We are teaching a part member
family that's less active. The only unbaptized one, Quideerah is 10 and we set a baptismal date this week for January. She is such a smart kid, and knows mostly all of the things we teach her already. The only thing that will stop her from progressing is the progress of her family. But they are doing well. 

In this ward we have been working with the young men a lot. There aren't a whole ton of young men, but these kids are awesome. I've caught the vision of their leaders as far as the kids getting their Eagle goes. They are focusing on the Duty to God program in relation to Scouts, and it is working wonders. Two things I never did were get my Eagle award or my Duty to God. If I had done these two things, I would be so much more prepared for life, and my mission, and be a much better person. So you youth out there, do it. It's so important. God has a plan for each of us, and as we use the structure He has given us, we will be much happier, and much more productive in our efforts! 

Have a great week! 

~Elder Jorgensen

October 20, 2014 ~ Week 65

Hey everyone,
First off, last week I typed and sent my email on Monday, but it didn't send until I got into wi-fi range on Tuesday. The same will be happening this week, as I'm at my apartment, wherein there is no wi-fi.

So this week was good but also pretty weird at the same time. Monday we had some awesome stuff happen. So we went to dinner and FHE at the Alder's. They are a great family. There's 8 kids and 2 are on missions. So we went over there and also had Crystal and her kids come as well. It was super cool and there was lots of fellowship. So what was interesting is that the Alder's daughter hit a deer that day. We saw the car and the grill is all smashed in and stuff. Twas weird
because she was super nonchalant about it. I thought that was funny.

Tuesday was interesting because nothing we planned for worked out but volleyball did and lots of people showed up. It was super fun. I enjoyed it a whole bunch.   
So on Wednesday it was pouring really bad. Like it was a lot. So we stopped by some people and tried to stay dry. Then we had a handoff lesson with Trish and the other elders because she moved to the area. It made me sad but such is missionary life. It was good. Then we went to Young Men's because we help out there every week. But they decided to watch the Home Teachers movie so we had to leave. But we got to talk to people that we needed to because all the moms kinda hang out in he foyer because the church is too far for them to go back home, so that was good. 

Thursday we had district meeting and planning and a lesson with a 10 year old, who isn't baptized and the rest of their family, who are less active. It was great.  Then we had coordination meeting. 

Friday we had like three lessons right in a row, which was refreshing, seeing how things have slowed down a little bit recently.  We went to a guys house at a trailer park that we set up a lesson with but it was really creepy. Like every cat in that complex was there. We were being surrounded by cats. There was even a baby kitty there. Also a cat came out of the recycling bin. It was like a twilight zone moment hahaha. Then we had a lesson with a less active, ️Austin, that got interrupted by a guy from Aaron's Rent that was going to repo their fridge if they didn't pay. It was just really weird and random.  After that we had to drop a couple of our investigators, Anthony and Roseanne, because it would be best for their progression. I've been working with them since I got here, so it made me a little sad. Then we had a lesson with Crystal, and she un expectedly made us dinner even though we had a dinner scheduled right after that. We had the Bishop with us for that lesson and it was super good but bishop only had a half an hour and we had to eat and teach a lesson. It was super good though and Bishop was able to help address her concerns. Then we has a second dinner with a member family that is moving today and we are going to help them later. 

Saturday was just interesting. All of our plans fell though. So we went an did Facebook and taught a couple lessons on there. Then we had dinner and a lesson with a recent convert. She made a really good lasagna. Our lesson was really good and spiritual. 

Sunday was good. Church was really good. The lessons were on point. The talks in sacrament were too. We also had another dinner lesson but with an investigator again. This time it was the member's daughter's boyfriend, William. There were also random people that the family invited. It was the owner of a car lot and his wife that the family made friends with while buying their daughter a new car. The
members here are legit because they always invite us with their friends there and we teach a lesson. So that was our crazy week!

Something I learned from my studies: secret combinations are bad.

Love you!
~Elder Jorgensen

RANDOM PICTURES FROM ELDER JORGENSEN

BUT WHO'S COMPLAINING?  NOT ME...WE ACTUALLY GOT PICTURES!!

Elder Jorgensen and Elder Soon

Breathtaking- Wilkes-Barre, PA

Isn't he the most adorable??

He sure LOVES the animals!