Monday, May 25, 2015

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

Monday, May 18, 2015

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!

Monday, May 11, 2015

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.

Monday, May 4, 2015

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