July 20, 2015 ~ Week 104

{Missionaries leaving the PPM with President & Sister Anderson}

Well everyone,
Here we are. Just a little over 24 hours away from not being a full time missionary. Mixed emotions. 2 years ago when my mommy dropped me off at the MTC I had absolutely no clue what I was getting myself into..... At all. I hadn't really given it any serious thought. So imagine my surprise when I figured out that the next two years of my life would be full of uncomfortable situations, angry people, annoying companions, and terrible food. But wait, there's more... They would also be full of humbling testimonies, lives changed, miracles seen,
lessons learned, and my own conversion to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The greatest thing I have gained from my mission that is absolutely priceless is the knowledge I have of my Savior. I have come to know Him. I have also come to know how little I do know about Him. I am so excited to be able to spend the rest of my life learning of him, and serving him. I've done my best to work hard these past two years, and I know that far greater are the blessings I've received than are the services I've given. God has been gracious with me, and He is gracious, and merciful to all who would follow his son. It's late Sunday night, and I've got a big long day ahead of me. 

I love you all and I will see you on Tuesday!

Love,
Elder Jorgensen

Missionaries leaving the PPM at Washington D.C Temple

Elders leaving the PPM with President Anderson at Washington D.C. Temple

July 13, 2015 ~ Week 103

With the craziness of his last week in the field, Elder Jorgensen did not have time to send a blog email this week.  CRAZY that this sweet boy will be home in 8 days!  

Single Digits...9 days to go

9 days from today will be one of the happiest days of my life!

July 6, 2015 ~ Week 102

No official email today but we did get a few pictures and he did write me a little reply to my email. It seems that his heart is a little heavy. 

"I can't wait to see you!  I Love you! Sorry for being unnecessarily emotional. I'm feeling way too many emotions right now, and I'm going to pretty much be an emotional wreck these next 3 or 4 weeks. So... Good luck with that one! I'll do my best to keep it under wraps, but no promises. Love you! See you soon!"  

Poor guy.  He has loved his mission and I think it's getting real that he will be coming home soon. {15 days but who's counting?  ME!}

Elder Jorgensen and Elder Bergman at Washington DC temple with The Harshes

Elder Jorgensen and Elder Bergman at Washington DC temple

Elder Jorgensen at Freedom Foundation

Elder Jorgensen at Freedom Foundation

June 29, 2015 ~ Week 101

Hello again!

This past week has been full of a lot of ups and downs, but in the end proved to be a really good week. After P-day we were driving to a member's house for dinner and there was a tornado warning in the area.  It was a torrential downpour of rain. We couldn't see 10 feet in front of us. It was very wet. This whole week has actually been just very wet. Lots of rain. 

After dinner we headed to the church to have a lesson with Jacqui and her two kids. It was so good! We gave them a church tour and spent some time in the chapel at first, just explaining to the kids what would be happening at church, so they would be comfortable. We let them know that we sang songs and how to find the words in the hymn book, where they could find the hymns, and what to do when the bread and water came. Then we let them talk in the microphone.  8 year old Jackson stood up and announced all the hymns to the imaginary congregation. It was so darn cute. We asked them about what they knew about Jesus Christ and it was probably the most special thing ever. Kellen (7) told us about how Jesus was killed by robbers for us, and then told some more, which I don't entirely remember.  Then Jackson says, "Now I'm going to tell you a story. Jesus was born to Mary and Joseph. Now, this is going to sound completely crazy, but Mary was pregnant, and I don't know how it happened. But Joseph took Mary to a farm, and the farmer said that they couldn't stay there, but that they could go have a baby in the pen with the animals. But the craziest part was Joseph wasn't even Jesus' dad." Well then who was? "It was God." Cutest, most adorable thing ever. Jacqui is doing really well. She wants to be baptized and is so solid.  It seems that it's just going to take some time for her.

Have a great week!

Love,
Elder Jorgensen

Elder Jorgensen, Jackson, and Kellen

June 22, 2015 ~ WEEK 100

Hey there everyone! 
It's been a real swell week. Or actually, it's been a rather Swoll week. If you didn't know, Elder Bergman really
likes to lift, and stuff like that, and so that's what we do. We take our early morning workouts very seriously here in the Valley Forge West Zone. "Get big, stay huge" that's our motto. The only thing we take more seriously than pec day is... Well... Umm.... This is awkward...  

But anyways, due to our diligence to strictly living the word of Wisdom, we have seen blessings bigger than our biceps (now that's saying something.) Jacqui came to church this week! We had a lesson with her on Friday where we taught her the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is amazing to see the growth that she has made. She is the single most prepared person I have ever met. She had to work until 3 am and still came to 9AM church, and was there early. She took her own initiative to go and meet people and loved it. We are teaching her again tonight. We also had zone conference yesterday with Elder Katcher of the 70. It was an amazing experience. He taught us about mind sets, and how to not set limitations on yourself. We talked about working with the Ward council, and a whole bunch of stuff. I bore my testimony at the end, and I'll tell Ya, that was cake. The most difficult thing in the world was singing our mission hymn one last time at the end... Rough stuff. But I got through it. Stuff is getting real here. But, I'm ready to take all I learned at zone conference and apply it. Our goal is to be hitting 30 lessons a week by the end of the transfer and 200 as a zone. Very possible, and everyone is very prepared. I think I'm smelling some miracles on the horizon... Or maybe that's ammonia... Maybe a little of both... Anyways! 

I love you all! Remember to squeeze those scapula!

Love,
Elder Jorgensen

June 13, 2015 ~Week 99 (A couple days early)

Hey everyone! 

So I went to the temple today( Saturday) so therefore today is P-day! Hooray! Whoopie! So I don't have a whole lot of time, but quick update on investigators... Jaqui is doing amazing. She read a few chapters from the Book of Mormon, spent some time on Mormon.org, and is so excited because everything just makes sense to her. We taught her the plan of salvation this week and before hand she gave us a list of questions she had.  We answered all of them perfectly. It was amazing. We taught a really interesting person yesterday, who claimed
that he didn't need no Moses, or no prophets, and all you need is Jesus and the bible. Because the bible wasn't written by prophets... God wrote the Ten Commandments... Therefore he wrote the rest of the bible too, not prophets. Then after contradicting himself a dozen times, we said a prayer, started to walk away, and he started telling us about how he really needs to cut this short as we are walking away. These kinds of lessons happen all the time when you spend so much time in the city. Love it. We had that lesson right after Jaqui so it was a striking contrast. On Wednesday the youth had mutual... They had a jello fight... It was the greatest thing I've ever seen. We were there to meet a members friend she brought. But a jello fight... So great. We went to the temple with a couple we've been working with to see them sealed. It was such a great experience. I love the temple and wish I could go more often. 

I love you all! Talk to ya next week!
~Elder Jorgensen

Lunch after the temple.  Did you even know there was Cafe Rio back East???

This sweet family sent me these pictures.  LOVE them all.

June 8, 2015 ~ Week 98

Why hello everyone!
This message is going to be a little on the short side this week, so brace yourselves!
A few highlights of the week were teaching Jaqui. She was a referral from a member far away, and we went in and taught her the restoration. It all made sense to her, and as we were talking and getting to know her, she basically taught us the first half of the plan of salvation without even realizing it. She is so prepared. It is amazing.  We've been working hard and finding lots of new investigators that disappear after teaching them once. So it's super nice to see Heavenly Father blessing us for our efforts. 

We had zone training this week, and it went really well. It was on "Follow Up."  I taught a breakout session on real intent, which I felt was appropriate to following up. If there is any one thing I've learned on my mission it's how important real intent is and not just knowing what it is, but seeing all that it applies to. Because it applies to everything. If we aren't doing the right things for the right reasons, we might as well not do them at all.
(Moroni 7)
6 For behold, God hath said a man being evil cannot do that which is good; for if he offereth a gift, or prayeth unto God, except he shall do it with real intent it profiteth him nothing.
7 For behold, it is not counted unto him for righteousness.
8 For behold, if a man being evil giveth a gift, he doeth it grudgingly; wherefore it is counted unto him the same as if he had retained the gift; wherefore he is counted evil before God.
9 And likewise also is it counted evil unto a man, if he shall pray and not with real intent of heart; yea, and it profiteth him nothing, for God receiveth none such.
10 Wherefore, a man being evil cannot do that which is good; neither will he give a good gift.

Good things are happening always! Love you!

~Elder Jorgensen

June 1, 2015 ~ Week 97

Hey everyone! 

This past week has been a little on the slow side, but has still been super great. Memorial Day last week we went and crashed the second wards picnic. It was a lot of fun. We played frisbee, and football. It was over 90 degrees though and super humid. I was about ready to die. Summer came on way too quickly for my liking. Afterwards we went to a members house for dinner. Then went and taught Sheila and kids a lesson on the 10 commandments.

Tuesday:
We had 5 appointments fall through, and so we ended up walking around Norristown for 5 hours... It was hot... Then that night we helped a member who is moving bag up all his clothes and get it all out of his house.

Wednesday:
We went and helped out at the food pantry, then had lunch with a recent convert. We then attempted to weekly plan. I say attempted because we didn't have a whole lot of time. Then we had dinner with the player family... Funny story... They were the very first members that had me over for dinner at the beginning of my mission. They moved from that Ward to this Ward, and it's weird because their kids aren't babies anymore... Funny what 2 years does. Afterwards we had a really good lesson with our investigator, Izzy. We taught him the last few points of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and really just tried to drive home the point that he needs to do everything in his power to have the spirit with him. It was a fantastic lesson, and I was really proud of my little friend. Izzy is 17, and awesome. He lives in our apartment complex and is one of the funniest guys I've ever met.

Thursday:
I went on exchange with Elder Moreira from west Chester after district meeting. We walked around Norristown, picked up some new potentials, had dinner with some members and had an appointment fall through
during the night, so we went and took a survey we were supposed to take at Zwahlens, which is a super good ice cream place some members own.

Friday we had MLC.... It was a super long, tiring day. We had to go
pick up the Dover Zone Leaders from Pep Boys because their car needed
to get emissions done, and one jumped in the car, and I started
driving off while Elder Readhead was still standing outside with the
door open. He was just like, "where are you going?" It was a great
moment. During MLC I got to see some of my favorite people in the
world. Elder Eves, and Morris. It made me really happy to see them.
Elder Eves goes home in 8 days... Crazy... I'll tell Ya though, Only
the savior can make you feel more loved than elder Eves. He always
sees the best in people, and knows how to help anyone feel successful.
After MLC we had a lesson with Sheila and kids about scripture study,
and then had a bunch of paperwork to do for transfers. Long, fun day.

Saturday:
We had to fill out some reports for the stake, which took forever...
Mostly because we locked ourselves out of the library... Yeah...  Then
we went on a 4 hour exchange with elder Weeks. We had a competition
between elder Mask and Bergman, and me and Weeks to see who could get
the most new potentials. We talked to 32 people in that time, and we
found 9 people. the other Elders talked to 40 and found 9... It was a
tie so we all bought our own ice cream rather than buying it for each
other. We had Nutella ice cream. It was great. Then we had to try to
finish our reports.

Sunday:
We had church, and Izzy came! I was so excited, and he loved it so, so
much. We had a lesson with him later in the day, and he said that he
felt amazing the whole time, and the spirit was so strong. He had a
couple of the youth he knew from school as well. It was fantastic. We
had a few more lessons, and finished out some more reports.


In conclusion we haven't had a whole lot of proselyting time this
week, and we had about 10 appointments fall through. It's still been
super good, and I'm still loving it!
Love you bye!

May 25, 2015 ~ Week 96

Hey everyone! 
It's been a crazy week it has. I can't remember much that happened at the moment, so I'll give you a day by day!

Monday:
After P-day was over we went to a members house to help out a recent convert with her family history work. She started with nothing and within 20 minutes of me and her just sitting down and going at it, we were able to find a line, and go back to the 1300's..... She was so excited to tell all of her family members, and also because there was another person in her family that is a member. She was so excited.

Tuesday:
We had a couple appointments fall through in the morning so we walked around and talked to people in Norristown, to no success. Then we went and had a lesson with an investigator whose kids all have been baptized; she's still a work in progress though. It was really good though. We went over baptismal interview questions and found some doctrinal potholes to fill in. We had lunch with a recent convert who has some parrots that talk to you. They were entertaining. We helped a less active older member clean his apartment because he can' too it himself and had dinner with a great couple that we're helping get to the temple. Then we visited a recent convert who is going through a really hard time.

Wednesday:
I went on exchanges with Elder Dalton over in Kennet Square. It was fun even though he's a Spanish elder so that meant I basically just followed him around while he talked to people in Spanish all day long. :)

Thursday:
We went to Kennet Square district meeting, then spent 5 hours walking the streets of Norristown talking to people. I also had a bird poop on my face. It was terribly funny. We had a few guys who show some potential we found. Then we had dinner with a member, and I, due to my sometimes rather slow filter, told them their couch would make a great ugly tie. Oops! They weren't offended though, so it was great.

Friday:
We went and helped out in the food pantry up in Schwenksville, then weekly planned, went to dinner with a recent convert, then had lessons with a few less actives. Then that night we had a lesson with someone in our apartment complex who is 17.  He loves meeting with us and we had a great lesson on faith and repentance. Some of the guys that live next door to us (members who are selling pest control for the summer) came with us and it was fantastic.

Saturday:
We spent all day finding some people to teach, and found 3 new investigators. It was great. We were working hard trying to talk to everyone that we could, and just weren't seeing any success, and then some guy pulled his car over to talk to us and he was super sincere and didn't yell at us. It was nice. Then we had two other ladies call us over to talk to them. They had recently visited the temple in SLC and were interested in coming to church. We'll be seeing them later this week.

Sunday:
We had stake coordination meeting with our mission president and the stake presidency. It was a great meeting and I learned a ton. We went and had another lesson with the part member family we saw earlier in the week and spent some time finding in Norristown! It's great!

So as you can see, we have had a super great week and I'm excited to keep going! I love you all!

~Elder Jorgensen

May 18, 2015 ~ Week 95

Hey everyone!

This week has been really great in our area and in our zone. We have a lot of people that we were able to teach this week but probably my favorite lesson this week was when we taught a less active member named Steve. He has a whole awful lot going on in his life right now and we talked to him about what he wanted out of life.   He wants to be happy, content, peaceful, and other things like such. We taught him about the Holy Ghost and how the only way to find joy, happiness, peace, or anything that is good is through the Holy Ghost. It had a huge impact on him and you could just see the change happening in him as he got it. We helped him know what changes he needed to make in his life to have the Spirit with him more often. That lesson and the thought and study that proceeded it, have helped me to learn a lot of the doctrine of Christ.
The only goal any of us need to set, or reach is to have the spirit with us, and everything in the gospel only leads to that. It really is so simple.

In our zone we have seen a huge increase in motivation and faith and that has shown its face in an increase of numbers. It's been an incredible difference and what we have been doing to help it along is just teaching, and being committed to the concept of accountability. People feel responsible for what they do, and they take pride in it. Cool to see. Anyways, stuff is going great.


Love you!
~Elder Jorgensen

Elder Jorgensen found an EFY friend at the Washington DC Temple!

May 11, 2015 ~ Week 94

No email this week!  Instead....I got to talk/skype my sweet missionary on Sunday for Mother's Day. He is doing so good.  He looks/sounds great.  He shared his testimony of the Book of Mormon and offered family prayer.  I can not believe how much that boy has grown.  I am eternally grateful for his example to me and those around him.  He has done more for our family than he will ever know.  I love the experiences we have shared with him through this journey.  I am so very thankful to my Savior for comforting me through the moments/days that I did not think I could make it without him.  I love this gospel with all my heart and I couldn't imagine having him anywhere else.

May 4, 2015 ~ Week 93

Hey everyone!
So, if I might give you a brief recap of the week...
Tuesday we spent the day saying goodbye to people, teaching a few lessons, and making sure everything was nice and organized before I left the area.

Wednesday we woke up, I finished up getting packed, we drove to the church, and waited for the Fletchers to get there.  The Fletchers are some awesome members in the Bayview Ward that always drive the missionaries to transfers.  We hopped in Brother Fletcher's truck then headed off to transfers! 

Transfers were super intense. I knew I was going to be a zone leader, so that meant I had a few options for where I would go. That was stressful. It was getting towards the end of everyone being announced and I thought that the only person left was Elder Morris.  I thought I was just going to move from my ward to the YSA in Delaware. I was excited and nervous, but then SURPRISE! I'm in Valley Forge West zone! We live right next to Valley Forge park and technically we live in Norristown. My companion is Elder Dalyn Bergman from Tremonton, Utah.  He's a wrestler and a fantastic guy. We have pretty different personalities but in the best way. Ever since we've been companions, I have gained a huge amount of respect for him and I'm very excited to keep working with him. Ever since I've gotten here it's just been go-go-go and I LOVE it. Never a second to spare. 

The past few days all pretty much blend together in my head, so I'll give you some highlights. We have 2 investigators with baptismal dates that are progressing. Will and Nancy...they are really cool. We met with them and taught them about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and helped them to realize how it could help them overcome some of the particular struggles they are facing in their lives. It was fantastic. We've been really focusing on talking to everyone and as a result we have a ton of new people to teach. We've probably found 15-16 new potentials since Wednesday. It's so much fun. We have Norristown in our area, which is a dense city, and there are so many people to talk to. When you've been in Delaware for 6 months, the city is so refreshing. Now the challenge isn't finding people, but finding people who keep commitments. It's nice because we don't only have city though. We have a lot of nicer area, which is a good contrast.

I'm having a ton of fun, and I am really enjoying it here. 

Love you! Talk to you next week! 

~Elder Jorgensen

{Note from the mom....Funny story.....in my email today I told Elder Jorgensen to keep his head in the game and stay focussed.  His reply was, "MOM, I AM VERY FOCUSED. EVERYONE ELSE WHO EMAILS ME NEEDS TO STAY FOCUSED. Y'ALL ARE THE TRUNKIEST PEOPLE I'VE EVER MET."}  :) 

Thanks to Brother F for the pictures....again.

Elder Jorgensen and Elder Bergman at transfers