September 29, 2014 ~ Week 62

Hey everyone! 

So right now I'm in Pottsville with Elder Lovaas again. The last P-day of someone's mission, all the dying missionaries go to the mission home and they tour around Philly, and do other stuff, so that's where Elder Kitsell is. We woke up at 4 this morning and drove down to Pottsville.  Then Elders Kitsell and Mansell drove down to Broomall, which is where the mission home is. I'll get my new companion at transfer meeting tomorrow. One thing I know for sure is I'm not district leader this transfer. I'm ok with it. Now I get to study whatever I want, rather than spending all week preparing district meeting! Yay! Being District Leader was fun though. I definitely learned a ton, and I loved being able to serve in a different capacity. One thing I have realized is how amazing God's plan is, and how perfect it is. 

This past week has been rather uneventful. Nothing super exciting happened, but lots of good stuff has happened. We've been teaching a lot of lessons recently, and have stayed busy working hard. Boy do I feel it! Getting like 4 hours of sleep, and then driving two hours down to Pottsville kind of got me pooped, on top of the normal exhaustion of just being a missionary. And tomorrow I get to do it again!!! Yay!!! But It's all good! Because the church is true yo! No matter what sort of Jawn goes on, the church will always be true! Have a great week! I'm taking a nap! 

~Elder Jorgensen

{I found some cute pictures on FB this week.  Not sure what they all are but they're pictures none the less.}

Elder Jorgensen with Brother N

Black Light Fun {Primary Activity?}

Primary Activity Day ~Thanks Sister D

Elder Wilford W. Andersen, a member of the Second Quorum of the Seventy of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints toured the Pennsylvania Philadelphia Mission last week. Elder Anderson

taught us our purpose as missionaries 

. 

September 22, 2014 ~ Week 61

Hey everyone,

Throughout my mission I have seen certain themes developing in things I am learning. What I mean by this is that in a certain amount of time, there will be one aspect of the Gospel that keeps coming up over and over again in lessons, meetings, conversations, and studies. A few examples of this are: When I was in Reading one thing that frequently came up was priesthood keys. When I first got to Wilkes-Barre the theme seemed to be spiritual death. Currently the theme that is prevailing has been the great paradoxes of the Gospel. An example of this is that God is both a merciful God, and a just God. How can he be both at the same time? (To get this answer read ALMA 42) Or another example is: We are to cease to be idle, but not run more than we are able.  Where's the balance? Or another is, "For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel’s, the same shall save it." Mark 8:35

But the biggest paradox I have seen in the last week is: How I can be doing so well at everything I'm doing, but still feel like crap? This last week has been awesome. We've had more lessons than have been taught in this area in about a year. We've had a ton of less active members become reactivated. We've had more investigators at church than we ever have, and yet I feel like nothing I've done, or am doing is good enough. How can this be? Obviously everyone can see how successful I am. Everyone else says that I should be happy with my efforts. The whole world can tell me these things, yet I feel like a failure.

So how can there be so many paradoxes? If the Gospel is supposed to make sense, why is it so confusing? Why are the messages we receive so contradictory? How can the natural man that is within us, be perfect, even as our Father in Heaven is perfect? It is because of the atonement of our Savior Jesus Christ. Nothing makes sense without it. Relating back to my examples, God is a just God, no unclean thing can dwell in His presence, but He also can forgive us. Because Jesus Christ suffered for our sins and payed our spiritual debts, we can be made clean. We can cease to be idle, and yet we can rest from all our troubles, and all our care and sorrow, because the atonement of Jesus Christ can make up the rest. We can give all that we have to our Heavenly Father, and yet, our lives will be saved. All because Jesus Christ has shown us the way, and has given everything He has for us. I can be grateful to my Heavenly Father for all that he has given me, and I can rely on the atonement to change me, to reform me, to refine me until I become who my Heavenly Father wants me to be. In this earthly life I will never be good enough, I will never be giving all I can, but as long as I am relying on the atonement, and repenting, I can know that my Heavenly Father is proud of me, and I can know that Jesus Christ has made up the difference. Nothing in life makes sense without the atonement of Jesus Christ. This is fundamental to the plan of Salvation. I know that is true. I know that despite the trials, the frustrations, and the disappointments I face, I am doing the best I can, and that I am a successful missionary, not because of my numbers, my testimony, or my scriptural knowledge, but because I have felt of God's confirming answer to my prayers. He's proud of me, and He is proud of any and all His children as they strive to follow Him as best they can. I say this in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Have a GREAT Week!
~Elder Jorgensen

September 15, 2014 ~Week 60

Hey Everyone,

Man oh man, this week has seemed like the longest week in all of existence... Well, close to it. But it's weird, because it's been a really good week. Again,BecauseOfHim it all blends together in my head, I'm just going to go through it day by day. It's a whole lot easier that way.

Monday: Nothing really eventful happened.

Tuesday: We spent nearly the whole day with brother yoder, an older retired member. We went and did all of his home teaching with him. It was a really good day. I wish so much at I had known how to be a good hometeacher before my mission. Then at night we had dinner with Sister A and a recent convert, Lindsey, and one of the other Elder's investigators. It was an awesome lesson. We taught them about agency and choice.

Wednesday: We were able to see Crystal again! We set her with a baptismal date, which is pretty solid. She is progressing so well. She just needs to get to church now. But the ward has reached out to her so well, and the only thing that will keep her from coming next week is her own agency. We were able to have dinner with a member as well.  They were fun. We taught the kids all about how important it is to know that we are all family, and that a lot of their family doesn't know their dad, so we need to introduce them. 

Thursday:
We had district meeting. I taught it on "how members help us accomplish our mission vision, and how the members really are our mission vision."

Our Mission Vision is to:
1 Teach to conversion
2 Support and strengthen members
3 Get them on the road to the temple.

I did this by teaching from PMG {Preach my Gospel} that we should "Work with members of the Church to find people to teach. The ideal situation is when members invite others to be taught and are present for the teaching. When members do this, more people are baptized and remain active in the Church." PMG:160

And that we should take members teaching not just to strengthen the investigator, but also the member. And that we should always have the temple as a goal. It went super awesome.

Friday: We had Elder Anderson, a member of the Seventy come and teach us. We had to be in Nazareth by 7 AM so that meant we had to get up at 4:00 AM.... I didn't like that... Then I had to drive for nearly two hours. I was pooped by the time we got there! But it was such an awesome training. He taught us about covenants and ordinances. What's important are the covenants, but the only way to make the covenants are through the ordinances. I learned so much. Especially as we went through the covenants we make for salvation and discussed what they meant.... As far as we were able to. Then after the conference I went on exchange with Elder Bierman up in Tunkhannock. That meant I was able to drive the truck.., because Tunkhannock is the middle of nowhere and they need a truck to get around their area. It sucked. When you're used to driving a corolla, driving a truck is hard, I never parked correctly on the first try. Parallel parking in the truck??? Yeah right. Me and Elder Bierman had a good time though. It was weird, because he's only been out a few weeks, so I was able to think about what I was like at that time, and see how much I've grown. It was crazy!

Saturday: We spent the day running from appointment to appointment, and
having correlation with our ward mission leader. We had dinner with Sister D, who is the best in the world, even though she tried to kill me with her super spicy zucchini. It was death. Then we saw Crystal again. She is so worried to come to church cause she's afraid of being judged. Luckily that's a problem we can work with. She just needs love, which the ward can, and will give.

Sunday: Sunday was pretty crazy. We went to church of course, and Crystal didn't come. :( but she'll get there next week just you wait! But the rest of the day kind of flew by, but was so good anyways!

Well...that's it.  I love you all! Have a great week!

~Elder Jorgensen

September 8, 2014 ~ Week 59

Hey everyone,

Sorry it's been a while, but here I am! I'm still sort of alive! Yayyy!!! This past week has been super crazy. We haven't gotten a whole lot of missionary work done this week unfortunately, due to some circumstances. So let's go through this day by day, and I'll let you know how incredible my life is.

Monday! (Labor Day)
We didn't have P-day on this day. What we did was we had a day of service. Our ward is super awesome, and everyone works so hard. We decided we would do something to give back a little bit, and build the trust of the members and missionaries. So we started by heading over to Brother M's house to help him clean it out! He recently moved, but he had to finish cleaning out the old house, so we were there to save the day! Hooray! During this time, unfortunately, I had to play with the kitties... They were scared, and terrified because their house was empty, and there was a billion people there... I picked one up and she kind of destroyed my hand... Shout out to Keara! I'm grateful for a kitty who doesn't beat me up with her sharp claws. But it was fun to serve and help anyways. Then we headed over to the greatest, most wonderful, hardest working, best cooking, member, who just so happens to be the fairest in all the land, Sister Dean's house. We helped her and Brother Dean do some work around the house, Elder Rosell and I washed and cut all the dog's hair. It was different and so fun! They really are the best though. Sister Dean is the member who sends my wisdom teeth video to everyone in the ward and posts my baby pictures on Facebook... Not sure how she gets those... (COUGH COUGH MOM COUGH COUGH) then they made us super good whole wheat pancakes. Then we headed over to the M's who recently moved in and we helped them paint their house. It was an adventure!

Tuesday:
We had P-day. Then at night time we went and taught Crystal. She is progressing so well, and I'm so excited for her. She keeps just about all her commitments, she loves it when we keep daily contact with her, and she wants to change her life, and she knows we can help. She just needs to use the enabling power of the atonement some more.

Wednesday:
I was on exchange with Elder Dopp... Which was kind of weird. So the district leader goes on exchange with everyone in their district once a transfer. During this exchange the district leader trains the missionaries and sets goals with them, and leaves them commitments to help them grow closer to Christ, and in their ability as a missionary. Elder Dopp was my district leader the last two transfers. Now I'm the district leader and having the roles switched was strange. It was good though. We taught a lot of less actives that day, and walked a lot,
because we were in his area and they don't have a car.

Thursday:
So at the end of your mission, President takes all the dying missionaries to the temple. This was Elder Kitsell's day at the temple. We had zone training in the morning, then I had this huge prompting to go and see this certain potential... So we did. I was so excited because I was so sure I was supposed to be there for some reason. Tracy wasn't home...but I still felt like we were supposed to be there... So I wanted to leave a card, but I didn't have one. I ran to the trunk, set down the keys, which were in my pocket, grabbed a card, wrote on it, ran and put it on the door, ran back to the car, and stared at the closed trunk with the keys inside... Aawwww man. Elder Kitsell shut the trunk... And I left the keys in there... We called Elder Jones, and he told us what to do. We called Sister Dean and she told us what to do. Then there was this guy getting out of his car so we went and asked him for help. He came over and helped us. He was so nice, and it was awesome! We thanked him, and then went on to hop in our car, and drive off... Then I realized why we were supposed to go there, and why we were supposed to lock our keys in the car... All to meet this man... And I didn't even ask his name, or share the gospel with him. On this day I failed to do Heavenly Fathers will. What's funny is for some reason, I'm not beating myself up about it. I understand that what I did was wrong, and I resolved to change it. No anxiety, stress or grief involved whatsoever. Goes to show how much I'm learning, and how much I've grown.,. I love it. Then we drove down to Pottsville, and I stayed with Elder Lovaas while Elder Mansell and Kitsell drove down to the mission home. Pottsville was an interesting place. We will leave it at that. :)

Friday:
Spent the day in Pottsville

Saturday:
We went to a party at the Badilla's. The purpose of this party was missionary work. No one was allowed to come unless they brought a nonmember friend for us to meet... Unfortunately no one that spoke English really came except for a few active members from our ward. It was a lot of fun, but not the most productive of our time, sadly.

Sunday: 
We had church, then we set a bunch of appointments up for our next week so it wasn't as dead as this one was. This next week should be awesome. We've got a lot of great plans, and a lot of lessons were learned in this past week to make next week great!

Well, that was exhausting!!! But I wrote a good letter this week! That's something I'm terrible at, but I'm working on being better. I love you!

~Elder Jorgensen

September 2, 2014 ~ Week 58

Because of the holiday yesterday, I figured email would come today.  NOTHING!  I did get a quick reply to MY email so I know he is breathing.  At least now we only have 6 days wait.  :)

This week I did receive the CUTEST picture from a member.  Thanks Sister A.

Elder Jorgensen & Elder Kitsell

AND a GREAT message from a member....Thanks Sister D.

"Yesterday we went and taught a lesson with him. He did so good that I got teary eye. He asked what was wrong. And I said. I am thinking of your Mom. And I wish she would see the man you are. And how great you share and love the Gospel. He also taught a 7 year old how to pray. She never did it before."

SO proud of that sweet boy. I love his guts....EVEN if he doesn't write his mama.