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!