May 26, 2014 ~ Week 44

Good morning fellow citizens! Happy Memorial Day! 

You all should remember stuff, because it's Memorial Day. That sounds like a good thing to do. I'm going to try and remember stuff too. Let's see what sort of stuff do I remember? Aha! I remember that baths still are the most miserable experience ever. I also remember that one time when Elder Goates was sick and so not much got done. I also remember when the EVIL TOAD KING ATTACKED!!!!! It was on Thursday... I think... And all of the sudden he appeared in the sky! He challenged me to a battle, and me, being the super amazing, powerful super hero I am, accepted the call to fight evil! He began to spit huge balls of ice at me, but I did not fear!

{This picture was borrowed from a Reading member's FB page.}

 I shielded myself from his barrage of frozen droplets with our roof, and managed to protect my ailing, afflicted, sleeping companion as well. I had to be smart, I had to keep my cool. Sooner or later the evil king had to get tired, seeing as I had no immediate counter attack options, I decided to wait out his attack.
Unfortunately, as I was buying time, waiting for the precise moment to take the offense, the city of Reading was being destroyed! It was terrible! But the worst of the battle had yet to come! Soon enough the toad grew weary, and descended down to do battle with me mono, y mono. The battle was long, the battle was hard, and yet, I came out victorious! As a result of our battle I was able to receive an important clue in advancing the missionary work in the area! I was told that someone wanted to meet us! Someone who we had stopped seeing due to a lack of progression! He told us he wanted to get baptized, and he was willing to do whatever it took. So that was great. He came to church too! Thus, we see that the end of my time in Reading was spent well.

So it hailed a lot. Cars were destroyed, most of the windows at the hospital were broken, I was told it made national news, but I don't know that for myself. We were fine. Besides that elder Goates was sick so we weren't really able to do anything. Fernando is getting baptized now so that's cool! I am getting transferred, so I will live somewhere else tomorrow! I don't know where yet! I'll let all you know next week though! Have a great one! Happy Memorial Day!

~Elder Jorgensen

{So thankful for this sweet member in Reading...she was an answer to this mama's prayers.}

Reading and Pottstown Missionaries

Silly Missionaries

Elder Jorgensen and Sister Singleton

Happy 300th Day!

Happy 300th Day!  

I can't believe it's already been 300 days since he left.  Some days are harder than others but there is NO WHERE I would rather him be.  So very THANKFUL for my sweet missionary and the GREAT example he is to his friends and family.  

May 19, 2014 ~ Week 43

Hello everyone! I'd like to introduce you to my best friend. His name is Gilbert!

Now if you hadn't noticed yet, Gilbert is a frog. You could possibly say that's a little odd for a missionary to be best friends with a frog and odd it is! Even odder are the circumstances that led to our friendship. Let me elaborate! So once upon a Friday, amidst a tumultuous downpour of the wettest water one has ever been drenched by, there scurried two Elder missionaries. After a long day of appointments and finding people to share the restored gospel with, they had their hearts set upon returning home, and proceeding with the night's events. Those being: to plan for another great day of the greatest job in the world and sleep. Though their hearts were set upon reaching that pillow, an alternate course of events unfolded, contrary to that which was expected. A flurry of movement in the corner of one's eye diverted the attention from thoughts of a good nights sleep. The two, being of a most adventurous nature, quested after the source of this movement. They were led to a patch of grass, not far from whence they came. Upon arrival at their new destination they were astounded to find that this source of movement they were inspecting, came from an incy wincy frog. What excitement! What wonder! There was a tiny amphibian hopping around their front yard! The small creature was scooped up and brought inside for a photo shoot. It was promptly named, and given the highest of honors, that being the title, Elder Jorgensen's best friend. Then when it was time for Gilbert to complete his quest he was carrying out before fate had intervened, a quick hug was given, and off he went. A distant land awaited him, full of monsters to be slain, and flies to consume, but within his heart, he will always remember the day he met the missionaries.  Long story short, we found a frog, took pictures with it, and let it go. It was great!

The rest of my week was a great one. I was on exchange on Wednesday with another missionary, and it was cool because I ended up having to do everything myself, and I actually did it well. Who'da thunk I could do something right? Not I! I'm just kidding though. I feel great. Our teaching pool is always in limbo and there is so many new people every week, and the ones we have will disappear for a couple weeks then randomly pop back up. Don't know what's up with that, but it's all good! I keep pushing through! I will tell you one thing that is weird... All the senior couples that were out when I came out, just went home... That means that I am older than all the senior couples... mission wise. That means I'm almost half done, which is scary and terrifying because I'm finally starting to get the hang of this whole missionary work thing. But do you know what the best part is? The glass isn't really half empty. It's not half full either! Luckily I've still got the rest of my life to be a missionary! Everything really is going great though. 

I've been studying the New Testament a lot recently and I've been reading Mark 4 this morning... This is honestly one of my favorite chapters. There is so much to thing about, and so many concepts you can study from it. It's crazy!! Me and Elder Goates are pretty much best friends. We get along so great! I'll be sad when our time together is over because we work so great together. Transfers are next Tuesday and I'll find out what's happening on Friday. So I'll let all you know what sort of Jawn is going on next week. As for now, the gospel is true, I'm still as scatterbrained as ever, and missionary work rocks! Oh... Also, for all you people that are graduating in the next coming weeks, I better be getting some announcements! Love you all!

~Elder Jorgensen

Gilbert giving me a hug good-bye

Elder Goates and Gilbert

I like Pennsylvania...It's pretty!

May 12, 2014 ~ Week 42

Hey everyone! 
It's me again! Ready to tell you all about my week. It's been a really, really long week, for a couple reasons. First off,last Monday, after doing normal P-day stuff, we went with Elder Beatty and Fawcett to Cabelas. Elder Goates and I usually would rather just do nothing on P-days because we are always tired. Elder Beatty doesn't like that, so he took us to Cabelas! It was really weird going there because it's just like the one in Lehi. I bet Cabelas is really cool
to people who aren't from out west. It felt like home, and it was super strange. 

Anyways! On Tuesday I went on exchange with the zone leaders. That was also strange, due to the fact that they have the same area as us for the most part, they just teach the Spanish people. I didn't do a whole lot of teaching on that exchange, due to the fact that I don't speak Spanish. BUT it was crazy cool to see that for the most part I could understand the conversations that were going on.

Then Wednesday we had zone conference with the Lehigh Valley and Scranton
zones, which was pretty darn cool. We had the doctor in charge of medical
issues for like 10 of the missions around here come and talk to us a lot about stress, and how to manage it. Ya know, the stress and anxiety problems that missionaries have seems to be such a huge problem. One thing I love about my mission is that a lot of the problems missionaries have with stress and anxiety, are problems I had before I was even on my mission. Now I'm actually learning how to manage them, so it's super nice. The rest of the week has been a blur. I can't remember much of it, but I know we were busy because there are days missing from my journal. At least we know that I was working hard right? So today I was looking through my journal and I feel impressed to share my journal entry from the day I left the MTC.

August 6th 2013
So this morning I woke up 10 minutes before we had to leave. I was still one of the people ready first. Then we went to the travel office and got on the bus. Me and Elder Meline were then kicked off. We waited for the next bus and still got there on time. I didn't have much time to call my mom, but I did anyways. It made me pretty sad. Then I got on the plane and slept all the way to Detroit. Then on the way to Philly I sat alone, but halfway through, I tricked Sister Clark into sitting by me. Then the Prez came and picked us up! We all packed into a van and got to the mission home, had cold cheesesteaks, and did some training, now I'm laying here, waiting for tomorrow.

It's crazy to think about how I felt at that time. I never would have guessed I would have the amount of growth and change I've had so far on my mission, and I'm not even half through! I am so happy that I get to be here serving my Father in Heaven. I have the best calling in the whole entire world. Love you guys! Keep on reading your scriptures!

~Elder Jorgensen

{I got some cute pictures of Elder Jorgensen.  Thanks Sister Singleton!}

Roasting Hot Dogs

Elder J and Elder Goates....cute boys

Elder J and Elder Beatty plowing at the Reading Farm

May 5, 2014 ~ Week 41

So... This week it rained... A LOT. The first half of the week it rained nonstop. This isn't just a little Utah sprinkle either. It was pouring rain! The streets of Reading were flooding! The Schuylkill River was OVERFLOWING! Babies were crying! THE WIND WAS BLOWING. The thunder was clapping! 

The tempest raged! I was rather fearful of my own sanity and of my own happiness at times! Why couldn't everything have just gone better? We planned last week to be the week of 30 lessons and we had a game plan! It was going to be great and perfect and we had all the lessons set up and planned. Sometimes I found myself asking like the Apostles did in Mark 4... "Master, carest thou not that we (Our plans) perish?" We did everything we could do to make this week perfect and amazing, but it's all washed up now. So that's how I felt. Soggy, wet, and full of despair. 

We come to Wednesday night. Wednesday we had 10 set appointments with investigators and it was going to be the busiest, best day ever. We ended up only having 2 of them hold. It came to the end of the night and I was pretty down on myself. We had about 45 minutes before we were to go home, and I just wanted to give up. But we decided to visit 2 more names before the night was over. I turned to Heavenly Father and said, "Master, carest thou not that we perish?" Then ya know what happened? "And he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, 'Peace, be still.' And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm." Now it was still raining. But there was a tempest raging within ME. We went and knocked on a former investigator named William's door. Everytime we go over he tells us about how he needs to make some changes in his life before he can start meeting with us again and talks his way out of us having a lesson with him. He's a real sad guy who has next to nothing. This time, however, we went in and we taught him about faith. We taught him how having faith is going to change his life. We taught him how he can make his faith grow. We taught him how he can keep his faith when times get hard. It was such a great lesson. The Spirit was really talking to me, and you know what he said to me? "And he said unto them, Why are ye so fearful? how is it that ye have no faith?" 

Yup! My life is the scriptures! More than anything I'm just grateful that we have a loving Heavenly Father, who is not just someone that helps us when we are doing everything right, but who helps us when we are weak. One who corrects our mistakes and helps us to be better. I'm so grateful for that powerful reminder that God is aware of me and the trials and struggles that I'm going through. In that lesson we also helped William quit smoking. He mentioned how he wanted to, so we were able, through the help of the Spirit, to convince him to crush the pack in his pocket and throw it out into the rain. Now we didn't have a 30 lesson week BUT the rest of the week was amazing nonetheless. There are never any wasted moments and no wasted efforts. I know Heavenly Father is proud of me. I apologize if this email doesn't make sense. I'm kind of a scatterbrain... :) Love you!

~Elder Jorgensen

WE FINALLY GOT SOME PICTURES....HAPPY DAY!

It's ALL Good!

Selfie with Elder Goates...Nice ;)

Reading Zone

Lunch in the Park

Happy Bump Day! -January 24, 2014
{Finally got a picture!}