March 31, 2014 ~ Week 36

Hey everyone...
So...Remember how I was talking about last week being a low week? This was a very, very good week!! First of all, Nathan got baptized yesterday! It went so good! He almost had a little melt down because he was impatient, and just wanted to get baptized, but it all worked out. I was so proud of him for being able to wait. He's such a trooper. 

This week we got 18 new investigators, and 8 of them have a baptismal date, so we have a lot of work ahead of us. I'm spending most of my studies trying to figure out how I can help them all to progress and make their goal. It's amazing how when you have a question, and are receptive and worthy to feel the spirit, the scriptures truly unfold to you the mysteries of life. It is incredible how many questions I have had answered while reading scriptures, that may or may not even apply to what I'm reading. But Heavenly Father answers our prayers. 

We have a family of 7 that we are teaching now. The 5 old enough to be baptized all have a date, and they have a car, and it's amazing. We went to teach them, and the father, Robert, asked us if there are any churches around here that speak English... ;) His family was going to a Catholic Spanish church because he wanted to be closer to God, but he didn't know how, so he did his very best. When we taught the restoration, all the kids understood it, and all were excited to read the Book of Mormon. Then we asked the dad to say the closing prayer, and he was nervous at first, and told us he didn't know how... What came next was amazing. We taught him how to pray, and without hesitation he said a wonderful, sincere prayer, that brought the spirit in so strongly. Afterwards he said, "Wow!  That was different, it felt so good." It was awesome. They are getting baptized at the beginning of June, and we are seeing them on Tuesday. When we pray for families to teach, and work as hard as we can to find those families, the Lord answers our prayers. So...Good things happening here in Reading. :)  P.S. I rock at tennis now too...but nbd. (no big deal) 

Have a great week everyone!

~Elder Jorgensen

Heavenly Father is Our Personal Life Coach ~ FB Post

"So as a 13 year old at about 4 feet 11 inches and weighing a whopping 80 pounds I decided I wanted to go out for my community's little league football team. I soon realized that playing football wasn't going to be quite as easy as I once thought, due to the fact that I was SIGNIFICANTLY SMALLER than the rest of the team. Despite this minor set back I resolved to work my hardest. So I did just that. I was never the best kid on the team, I was never making the huge plays, but I listened to my coaches advice. They helped me to enjoy playing the sport. This is a picture of me after the last game of the season. I was happy because I chose to work hard, and never quit. Our Heavenly Father is our personal life coach. He trains us, give us our plays and helps us know what we can do to be happy. As we give him our all we can know that no matter how small we may seem to the world, in the eyes of our Heavenly Father, our potential, and our heart, is oh so very tall." ~Elder Jorgensen

March 24, 2014 ~ Week 35

Hey everyone-

So Reading is a silly place. Now when I say silly, it can mean a great number of different things. But the one aspect of Reading's silliness I would like to talk about today, is about what I call the Reading Cycle. Now I'm sure that this cycle isn't just specific to Reading, but it is the place I have associated it with. So,here is how it works. We have a huge resolve to work super hard, and we decide where the Reading temple will be located, and we make goals and plans, and have a solid plan of action to translate Reading. Then we go out, work super hard, and see huge success. Then the next week rolls along and we have either been dropped, or been unable to contact 80% of our investigators. Now isn't that silly? But the work goes on right? So although this week has been a challenging one, and the Reading cycle has done some work on my stress levels, I know that as I press forward in faith, there is nothing that can stop me. You see, I have this brother... His name is Jesus Christ. He knows what I am going through, and he knows what places I'm struggling in, and he helps me. He knows what it feels like to suffer for the worst of the worst and he doesn't want me to have to feel that way, ever. So he is giving me the challenges and the resources that I need right now, so that I never have to suffer the really terrible things that he knows will happen if I don't keep the commandments. 

Highlights of this week! 

Highlight #1
In a lesson with Nathan we asked him if he had any questions about the gospel. Nathan responded with, "yeah! Who made it?" To which we responded, "Heavenly Father." To which he exclaimed, "Oh! Well that makes a lot of sense!" Love him. So excited for him to get baptized, when we asked him who he wanted to talk at his baptism he screamed, "I WANT ELDER JORGENSEN." That made me laugh. He's such a great kid. 

Another highlight! We were having dinner with a member family that was having some struggles. They asked us to give them a blessing. Mid blessing the rain starts pounding on the roof. It was deafening, especially because they lived in a trailer home. What popped into my mind was Helaman 5:12. Go read that, and see the power behind it in this situation. It was amazing. {Helaman 5:12 ~ And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall."}


Highlight #3! We bought tennis rackets and now play tennis every morning for our work out. It is so much fun! But the first day we played we locked ourselves out of our apartment on accident, so we had to wait until the leasing office opened to get isn't our apartment...That was at 10... We started playing tennis at 6:30.... We ended up playing tennis for 3 hours straight that day because we had nothing better to do. That was a fun day! 

Anyways, there is my week! It's been pretty great! Oh... One more thing... The post office is broken I guess. Every single letter I have sent in the past month has come back to me. It's happened to other people in the ward too so it's not just my handwriting. Plus it finds it's way back, so that is a positive as well. Oh! Another announcement! I just finished my 3rd tube of toothpaste on my mission! That doesn't sound like a lot... But I promise that I brush my teeth at least 3 times a day. I don't know where that tangent came from... But yeah! Happy things! Oh also, there are two kinds of tired you get on your mission... Tired because you never stop working, and tired because you never stop getting fed. I felt both of those this week, in bulk. Anyways, the church is true!!! 

~Elder Jorgensen

March 17, 2014 ~ Week 34

Dear everyone,

First I would like to apologize for not sending my big email out last week. You see what had happened was that as I was typing it, the Reading 2nd elders showed up, and we went to lunch... We all know that if I don't finish something when I start it, the chances of me remembering it are slim... So yeah! 

Anyways, these past two weeks have been full of miracles. Amazing things are happening in our area. My new companion is Elder Caleb Goates. He is from Levan, Utah.  He went to BYU for 2 years to be a physics teacher and now he is here! He has been out for a year and a half and was a zone leader for the past 5 transfers. He is super awesome. I would say the biggest strength that me and Elder Goates have together is seriously just our vision. We both understand what
we want our area to be like and what we want for our investigators. It's so much easier and more effective when we both are working towards a common goal. 

Keeping that in mind, the past two weeks we have 7 new investigators we are working with which is so awesome. We have 3 new less actives we've been working with, and the ward is behind us 100%. We are seeing so many miracles I don't even know where to begin! But I will talk about Jayda and Nathan a little bit. So Jayda is a member's friend. She's 12 years old, and we had only talked to her when we were at the members home, once, like a month ago. I have been talking to her and teaching her on Facebook, and she's been loving everything, but because of various things we were never able to meet with her again. But then she came to church yesterday! It was so awesome. The member brought her. She had an amazing time in young women's and afterwards the teacher of the class came up to me and started asking us what she could do to help us teach her, and that was insane! Oh also Kyle (he is autistic and has some social problems) came up to us at church and just asked us what he could do to help his friend join the church. So exciting and awesome.  Kyle is a stud and I love him so much. Ok!

Then there is Nathan. I've come to find this kid as like my best friend. He's 12, and he's autistic, but I love talking to him so much. Every time we teach him, me and him have set apart the last 15 minutes to just talk about video games. It's the only way we can kind of keep him on topic. Every time he gets off I promise to talk to him about it for the last 15 minutes. I enjoy that so much. He's such a great kid, and I love him to death. 

One last miracle...We finally saw Fernando again! He will pretty much for sure get baptized. He just has some changes he has to make, but he expressed to us how badly he wants to make them, and how he really just wants to keep meeting with us. He keeps his commitments so I'm not too worried about him as long as he keeps up with that. I honestly love that guy so much. It's really really hard for me because I understand exactly where he is in his conversion. I was kind of where he is right now mentally, just a few months ago. I just kind of want to yell at him and tell him what his problem is, but it doesn't work that way. A study of true doctrine changes behavior faster than a study of behavior changes behavior. 

So that is how my life is going. It is full of ups and downs and struggles and successes, but I know that this gospel is true and that the efforts I'm making now are helping me change into the person I need to be, in
order to be happy for the rest of eternity. I love you all! Have a great week. :)

~Elder Jorgensen

Reading Zone??? (Not sure what it is actually called)

Silly Missionaries!

March 10, 2014 ~ Week 33

I am telling myself that Elder Jorgensen is soooooo busy finding those ready for the gospel that he did not have time to send us a post this week. ;)  I did get a personal email though and he told me that his new companion is Elder Caleb Goates from Levan, UT.  Elder J  is doing well and LOVES Reading, PA.  Until next week....here are a few pictures I have found on Facebook. 

Haircut Day

Elder Jorgensen, Elder Jorgensen, Elder Eldredge, & Elder Winegardner

Reading District

MISS that cute face everyday!

March 3, 2014 ~ Week 32

Hey everyone, 

So this week has been pretty slow because I've been sick the past couple of days, and I am still sick today! So this letter might not be very long.

Elder Eldredge is getting transferred. We pretty much knew that from day one though. Love him a bunch! But I knew he was leaving so I'm not too heartbroken. Ummmmmm I apologize but I really really don't have much more to say. Oh!

So we are teaching this kid, whose parents are members, but he just wasn't ready to be baptized when he was 8.  Bishop said he's ready now, and his mom wants us to teach him.  He has autism.  It was sad though, when we taught him the Plan of Salvation he started crying because when he is in the celestial kingdom he would miss his friends, and his computers but he found solace in the fact that he could talk to the composers who wrote the music for the Sonic games. We nearly had another disaster as he became very concerned about what would happen if the Telestial kingdom blew up.  Also, he was concerned with the fact that when he gets there he is going to have to tell all the actors that their TV shows got canceled.  He's awesome though and a really smart kid.  We just need to teach him really simply.

Anyways, I'm going to go back to sleep now!  Love you all! Have a great week! 

~Elder Jorgensen 

{Poor Sick Elder Jorgensen...His eyes tell all.
Thanks Sis. Moore for the picture}