April 28, 2014 ~ Week 40

Hey Everyone...
This week has been amazing! Lots and lots of miracles have been going
on. Sorry this letter is going to be kind of short and to the point. I don't have much time. 

Quick update on some investigators: Trey is doing great! He's
still on schedule for baptism and he decided he wants to go to the YSA ward,
so that's super exciting! I think at this point he's the only investigator we have that you guys know about. But we have 2 other awesome people that came up miraculously out of nowhere. One is Aisha, who Elder Beatty and Fawcett were teaching but just handed off to us. She is supposed to get baptized in 2 weeks which is super exciting! It's weird though because we've only had one lesson with her and that was the hand off lesson. She came to church though! It's super awesome. She's really good friends with one of the youth in the ward. So that is working out beautifully! The other one is Wilmary who is a friend of a member, Staline, and she knows basically nothing about God, but she is just so ready, and excited to learn about Him! In our lesson with her she asked us if she could get baptized and she barely even knew what that was. It was way cool! Things are crazy here. We are teaching record amounts of lessons right now, and we have a ton of stuff to do all the time. I gotta go now, but I'll update you guys better next week! The church is true! Read your scriptures!

~Elder Jorgensen

April 21, 2014 ~ Week 39

Hey everyone! First off, this has been a super great week. For those that don't know, Pennsylvania is such a stinkin' beautiful place. One of my favorite things in the world is waking up in the morning, going outside as the sun is just coming up, hearing all of the different wildlife sounds, and seeing all the different kinds of trees and plants. It is so peaceful. Honestly, I don't know what I'm going to do without hearing the geese honk, and the woodpeckers peck in the mornings. It's going to be so weird! 

Anyways, down to business. Looking back at the week it has been forever long. It seems like the first week of a transfer is always the longest, I just figured it was because you had a new companion, or were in a new area, or both, but I've got the same companion and I'm in the same area, so it's weird. So there have been a ton of changes in the zone, and we now have both sets of Elders in the Spanish ward in our district, one set being the zone leaders. So it's a lot different having Elders in our district again. Before it was just me, Elder Goates, and 2 sets of sisters. We get to go on exchanges again and I'm so excited for that! For the past 2 transfers all the exchanges I've been on have been with the Zone Leaders. That was after my transfer in Scranton where we went on exchanges almost 2 times a week. So I'm excited for that again! 

As far as actual missionary work goes, it's great! Our one super awesome investigator Trey, is still doing amazing. Every time we teach him it seriously feels like we are teaching a member already. He went to institute on Wednesday and we went with him. It was kind of nerve-wracking though because he totally got singled out the whole time, but it was in a good way. The teacher kept bringing up that he was getting baptized and she was so excited for him and that if he had any questions to ask. It was way funny because at one point he had a question of, "Who's talking in that scripture?" And she went on to summarize the entire book of Mosiah in 60 seconds. He was so confused, but it all works out in the end because the Spirit is awesome. Our District Meeting last week was on using Family History in finding, which was super good. It is honestly such a fun way to do missionary work. With that, I've been doing a ton of Family History work, both for myself, and for investigators. It is so fun and so exciting when you find someone, but even more exciting when you get the chance to get some names to send off to your family to go do in the temple. Honestly one of the best feelings ever!

 As far as how I am doing? I am having the time of my life. I love being a missionary so much, and I wouldn't trade the lessons I'm learning, and the experiences I'm having for anything in the whole entire world! I know that this Gospel is true. I know that anyone who follows it and learns it with wholeness of heart, will be immeasurably more happy in this life than they would without it. Thanks for all your love and support!!!

~Elder Jorgensen

{I found these gems on FB. (Thanks Dianne!)  From what I can tell, they were acting out a scene (Helaman 9) from the Book of Mormon for the Youth's Murder Mystery dinner!}

April 14, 2014 ~ Week 38

Why hello there! My name is Elder Jorgensen! I just wanted to let you know how this past week has gone... Are you ready? Here we go!

So... compared to the last couple weeks it's been pretty slow here. Given, we are still getting more numbers than I've gotten in any other area on my mission, but that's just because it's Reading. Again, the funny thing about this area is that 80% of the people you talk to will set a return appointment with you, but only like 10% of those will keep their return appointment! and out of those 10% maybe only 20% will keep their commitments. It's incredibly frustrating at times, but we are definitely being blessed for our efforts. Lately we have seen a huge spike of media referrals coming in. Don't know where they are coming from, but it's super nice because usually those are the people who are really investigating the church, not just people who are willing to give you a shot. We have one of those people, Trey, who is so golden... so solid. He is the product of some great member missionary work in another ward. He grew up with some LDS friends and for the past year or so he has been going to church off and on with them. He already has a testimony, he reads the Book of Mormon every night, and studies it too. It almost feels with him like we are teaching a member. He could honestly get baptized next week but his date is for May 17th as of now. We'll see how it goes with him! Besides him we have a couple people that have some potential but none that are really noteworthy as of yet. 

Right now Elder Goates and I are trying to get our washing machine out of our apartment. It broke and we are getting it out so that one of the ward members can bring the replacement one they got. It's a lot of fun moving washing machines ya know! Oh! And Elder Goates just broke the dishwasher a lot, while trying to fix it a little. So many adventures happening here! So there is this Goodwill here in Exeter (the township of Reading that we live in... don't ask... I don't even get it.) where you literally buy clothing by the pound... It's like a dollar a pound... So that means you can buy like 30 ties for around 5 dollars.  That's just an estimate, but it's crazy! On a side note, Elder Goates is having a very educational experience as he is attempting to get the hose from the dishwasher to stop spraying everywhere. Fun times are to be had for all.

 So...something from the scriptures... Sometimes being a missionary can be a bit overwhelming, especially in a city like Reading. Now I don't know for sure how many, but there are a LOT of people here. How am I supposed to preach the Gospel to all of them? There is just one me and just one Elder Goates. What are they among so many? How can the little bit I am be able to give help to so many people that need my help? Here's the part where the scriptures come in. Now think of my situation as you read these scriptures I am about to copy paste from the New Testament.  (John 6:5-14)

5 ¶When Jesus then lifted up his eyes, and saw a great company come unto him, he saith unto Philip, Whence shall we buy bread, that these may eat?

6 And this he said to prove him: for he himself knew what he would do.

7 Philip answered him, Two hundred pennyworth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may take a little.

8 One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, saith unto him,

9 There is a lad here, which hath five barley loaves, and two small fishes: but what are they among so many?

10 And Jesus said, Make the men sit down. Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, in number about five thousand.

11 And Jesus took the loaves; and when he had given thanks, he distributed to the disciples, and the disciples to them that were set down; and likewise of the fishes as much as they would.

12 When they were filled, he said unto his disciples, Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost.

13 Therefore they gathered them together, and filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves, which remained over and above unto them that had eaten.

14 Then those men, when they had seen the miracle that Jesus did, said, This is of a truth that prophet that should come into the world.

If Jesus can feed 5000 with 5 loaves and two fishes, why can't he spiritually feed the people of Reading with the words I bring from Him? He can and He will. It will just take some patience on my part. One other point I would like to point out... Imagine how you would feel if you had 5 loaves of bread and 2 fishes, that you brought so that you wouldn't have to starve while you were out in the wilderness, and Christ asks you to give all of it to Him, so that he can feed all these people who weren't prepared? Christ doesn't ask for us to give Him some of it, he asks us to give all that we can, and when we do, we not only feed the 5 thousand, in addition to ourselves, but we have 12 extra baskets! There wasn't even that much to begin with. In closing, I know that Christ truly does bless and consecrate my efforts. I know that He is proud of me when I give my all and I know that He lives. Me and Him have been working pretty closely together lately, so I know He is using my efforts to feed far more than I ever could. 

One last note, I need everyone to get on all social media and use the hashtag #BecauseOfHim and share the video from Mormon.org.   The first presidency wants us to do an all out media BLITZ on FB. Keep posting things as often as you can. Post until you can't post no more! Also visitMormon.org/BecauseofHim it is such an awesome website and everyone who is able to see it will have their life blessed. 

Love you all!

~Elder Jorgensen

April 7, 2014 ~ Week 37

Well everyone, this week has been exciting, and great in Reading but I have come to an important conclusion... Conference really isn't JUST for me. It really isn't. I came to this conclusion on Saturday evening during priesthood session. Throughout the day I had been watching conference, taking notes, and feeling the spirit so strongly, but not once did I ever have a moment where I thought, "hey I really needed that!" But I will tell you one thing, and that is that as I was sitting there I kept having all of these names popping into my head, of people who needed to hear what the speaker was teaching. It made me think about all the things I will need to make sure I teach my kids when they start showing up. It made me think about all the ways that the prophet, and apostles, and other speakers were preparing everyone in the church for the battles to come. If you didn't watch conference, then that makes me sad. Mostly because there was something from conference that you were meant to share with another, but were unable to. Now this little bit of my email didn't turn out nearly as well as I had planned out in my head, but yeah. The only way you can come to Christ is by helping others come unto Him... And reading your scriptures and saying your prayers, and being an example and stuff. That's good too. But yeah! Conference was great! We didn't have any investigators watching, but it was good nonetheless. 

Missionary work in this area is kind of overwhelming sometimes... Well a lot of the time. We are working with 40-50 different people right now. In the last 2 weeks we have 31 new investigators, but most of them didn't keep their return appointment so that is the real struggle here.....Getting people to take this seriously. I'm honestly doing so great though. With the way things are, I get to teach people all day everyday, which means the spirit is fully with me all day... every day... That may not make sense to people who haven't had the experience to teach the gospel, but it is amazing. The Morales family that I mentioned last week, had to cancel an appointment, and with them not having a phone, it's been real hard to get in contact with them, so not much has changed there, but besides that I just have so many names and people I want to talk about, without enough patience, or time to talk about them! So I will talk maybe just about one experience I particularly enjoyed. We were walking down the streets of Reading and there were all these kids playing in the streets and a mom and a grandma sitting there watching them. We started talking to them, as missionaries do, and mind you this is right after a zone training that talked a lot about family history work in missionary work, they said their names.  The kid's names were: Jesus, Jade, Jelexa, Jared, and Jess. I was able to bring up my families ever lasting problem of being Cody, Kylie, Cayden, and Kiera. {I think it's funny Elder J included our cat as a kid name in our family.} They laughed when I told them that and then I bore my testimony about families, and God's eternal plan for them.  It was one of the most solid, personal street contacts I've had in a while. It was way cool! But yeah! 

Transfer calls come on Friday, so I will let you all know what my fate is next week! Know that this Gospel is true, and that conference is the best, and that there is absolutely no reason for any of us to not be strictly following the commandments of God. Bye!!!

~Elder Jorgensen

{Luncheon between conference sessions...Thanks for the pictures Sharon!} 

Elder Jorgensen and Elder Beatty from back home

FINALLY...a picture of Elder Jorgensen and Elder Goates

Cute Reading Elders

Nathan's Baptism from last week

Proud Parent