Ice storm

                                                                             Written December 9, 2013

Yes, we had a little ice storm come through yesterday and last night. It was pretty cool. Here in Danville it didn't get too bad, but out in the country areas I heard it did a little bit. Because of the storm, they actually canceled church for our ward. We just had the sacrament, the bishop shared a little spiritual message with us, and then everyone went home. An Ice Storm is really not like a blizzard or anything scary like that. It just rains and when the rain hits the ground or anything else it freezes. It basically encases the power lines and stuff in a layer of ice. That is why it is so bad, because the ice gets heavy enough to snap the line, or branches of trees, or something like that. But it is slightly warmer here now, so everything is melting now.

Thank you for sending me a Christmas Box! I'm sure that I will love it. Thank you so much! I finally went to the Post Office to send off my package to Keasa, and the line was SO long, and we didn't have time to wait, but Elder Letalu-Lokeni promised we would send it tomorrow! :)

That is so neat that you ran into Micheal McClean though! I'm jealous!! ;) It is a great show, and I'm so glad Andy was able to see It! And I will Definitely E-Mail Grandma a Happy Birthday! I'm so happy for Chloe too! That is so great!!

 And Anthony is hopefully getting baptized on this Saturday. And he is connected to the Taylor's. He is their "adopted" son. We hope that the three of them will make the decision to be Baptized this Saturday too. They have all accepted the date, but we will see. They are all progressing still. We know, and can see that they are ready for baptism, and we see how much it will bless their lives.   We pray for them all day and we pray to receive guidance for how we can help them make this covenant with their Father in Heaven. 

The sister that I taught the other week with the Zone leader is going good we think. We went back and were told by someone else to not come back, so we haven't been able to. The people that she lives with have some kinda hard hearts, but we are praying that they will be able to have their hearts softened and let her hear our message. The message that will change all of their lives. But, We did have a miracle happen with her none the less. One night last week the Sisters were teaching someone across and down the street from her house. The girl went over to their house when she saw the Sisters there and told them something amazing. She said that she was very sorry and hurt that one of the people in that house had told us not to come back, but that she had been reading from the pamphlet we left with her and the Book of Mormon. She said that she felt in her heart that what we had shared with her was true. She confessed that she had a burning desire to be baptized, even though she was unable to be right now. She even is trying very hard to convince her husband to read the Book of Mormon with her, because she knows that if he will, he will feel the same way that he does about it!! Is that not amazing!! How great is the work that we have all been called to. Full time missionary or member missionary it is the same!

I'm not going to lie. It is hard out here. It's really hard, but it is far more rewarding than it is hard! I never knew that such great joy could come into your life from sharing a simple message with someone; teaching them in a way that the spirit can testify to them that it is true. So I am doing good, and I am happy!

I hope that Cris will be able to do a really good job this week. He is so smart and strong. I know that he can do it. All it takes is faith in himself and that the lord can help him.

 Sometimes the P-day is more stressful than the rest of the week haha.

Thank you for all of the love and support that you give me! Work hard at home and share the gospel with everyone that you can! Hasten the Work!!

Love you all so much!

Elder Jorgensen

A White Christmas

                                                                                         Written December 2, 2013

I love Grandma Call too! That is so great that y'all were able to go and see the entire Call family again. There all such great people. It will be great to have her house all trimmed and painted too. I think it will almost look like a different house when y'all are done with it. I hope she is able to keep going, and have the energy to do what she wants to accomplish. I'm so happy to hear that y'all are going to the Forgotten Carols again this year too! That was such a great show. Thank you for sending me the music to it. We have been listening to it while we study and do our Facebook time. It is great! Is Andy taking a date to it like I did?

We have a Zone activity in Greensboro today. We have been trying to stay warm here :) The thermals really helped, so thank you so much! We had our heat fixed, but we are only allowed to have our house be 70 degrees, so I pretty much live in sweats and a sweatshirt when we are at home at night, and my sweater the rest of the time. Thank you for the gloves, they worked great!

One day this week we went on exchanges, so Elder Killpack came up here to Danville and we worked for the day. That was kinda scary, because now I was the one that had to tell him about the area, and direct the work here for the day. And he is our Zone Leader ;) It rained so hard here all day, and we were biking, so it was cold, but it was good. We pushed through the cold, and we kept knocking on doors and talking to people. We came to a door, we knocked. A miracle happened. A young man answered the door, and he started to talk to us. He said he wasn't really interested in what we had to say, and it was cold outside, so he began to shut the door. But, then his wife walked up behind him and asked who we were. We told her who we were, and she said "oh okay! well, I'll stand outside and I'll listen to what you have to say. She walked out and shut the door. She only had on a t-shirt and a bath robe. She didn't even have shoes on! So on her porch we began to teach her the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We tried to make it a quick lesson so she wouldn't freeze. She stood there and listened to us, and participated in the lesson for 30-40 minutes. And then, We invited her to be baptized, and she said that she would. She even said the closing prayer. It was a great prayer, and we hope that she will continue to progress in the gospel. We have another appointment with her today. Right now we are planning on having four baptisms this month. This will be a White Christmas.

We were able to play football here as well. We had what is called a Turkey Bowl, and a bunch of the members of our ward got together and we were invited to come and play football with them. It was so much fun!! But, The next morning my companion and I were so sore that we could barley role out of bed. The next three days we didn't get on our bikes because we were afraid that we couldn't do it. haha so we walked everywhere for 3 days :) But we had someone come and play with us who was not a member, and didn't know much about the church. We invited him to play basketball with us Wednesday nights, so we hope he will come and we can teach him more. 

We found out this last week that we will be receiving Mini-ipads on the 12th of this month. they are just regular i-pads for the most part.

We have been working with the Taylor family alot lately. We will invite them to be baptized on the 14th of this month, and we are hoping for that. So sad story with all of that. Finally the Taylor's received a copy of a lease from her and all she had to do was sign it. Before signing it she looked over it, and read it. In the lease it said that the land lord could come and go as she pleased day or night, and without any notice, for the first 31 days. It also said that at the Taylor's expense, they had to put up a wood fence around the property, and have a storage shed placed or built on the property. Needless to say, they did not sign the lease. But, a family in the ward has as double wide trailer that they were using as an office that they said the Taylor's could stay in for a few months until they find a new place. So for now, the Taylor's are situated and will hopefully be getting baptized soon!

And I know right! The Evans family is crazy awesome! Just the father served there, but he has taught his wife most of the language. They speak in it to each other quite a bit. We don't spend alot of time with them. We just have dinner with them twice a month or so.

Elder Holland is one of my favorite speakers as well. We have a couple of CD's that are just full of his talks that we listen to in the car or whatever. I love to listen to him speaker, because he is such a great speaker. You can really hear the love and conviction in his voice. The Mormon Message that I shared on my wall has an excerpt from Safety for the Soul, and it is my favorite. I feel the Spirit so strong when I listen to it. I will keep trying to push you :) haha An High Priest of Good Things to Come is a great Talk as well.

Love,

Elder Jorgensen :)