The Drinks decided to leave their containers

 Written January 13, 2014

Dear dad,
We have not been able to do much service

 lately, but we hope to start
doing some more soon. This week we were 

really busy with teaching. We
taught 23 lessons this past week. This week

 we have a goal to teach 24
through, so we should be really busy this

 week. I am happy with
getting 23 lessons in, because the

 standards of excellence for our
mission is 20 total lessons. But,

 most areas don't quite hit that.
Right now our zone average is only

 13 lessons a week.
 And I know what you mean about

 people not knowing how
to drive in those conditions. 

Whenever we have freezing rain or a tiny
bit of snow they won't let us 

drive or ride bikes. It's not 

because we aren't capable, but 

because no one here knows how 

to drive in those conditions. 

On Friday in Greensboro 

(a city about the size of Boise)
we had a zone meeting. It was 

raining super hard, and had been all
day, so the roads were somewhat

 slick. I was asked earlier in the week
to give a training on talking

 with everyone and teaching when we find them.

 (Not just talking to them and setting 

up a return appointment,but we should 

teach them as soon as we find them.) 

After zone meeting we could go and 

get something to eat and bring it back to the stake
center so that we could have lunch as a zone. So my companion and I
went to Wendy's since I had a gift card to there. On our way back to
the stake center we stopped at a stop light, but the car behind us
didn't quite come to a stop in time. So....I was in a car accident on
my mission already!! Haha it wasn't super bad, and most of the damage
was done to the interior of our car :/ we had gotten our drinks and
another set of Elders drinks to bring back with us in a drink carrier.
Well when we were hit, the drinks decided to leave their container.
So, I was covered in fruit punch, root beer, and sprite. It was
great!!! Haha
 
My week went pretty good. It was really fast, which is nice.
 We have a couple new investigators. We found Marvin
and miss Connie this past week, and we were able to teach them a lot
this week. Both of them came to church this week along with the
Taylor's and mike. Marvin has a baptism date for the 25th of this
month, but he smokes. We are teaching the stop smoking to him today
though, so if he stops today, then he will be able to be baptized
then. He is so excited to be baptized, and has already been to church
twice :)
Miss Connie is a friend of a lady that we are re-activating. It is
good because then miss Connie has a friend with her, and the less active
has to come to church because she has to pick up her friend. And when
less actives have the opportunity to bear their testimony to them it
helps them grow in their own faith as well.
Mike is crazy!! I think I may have told you about him, but he is a
Vietnam veteran, so he has a little PTSD as well. He called us over to
his house yesterday before church, and we weren't planning on him
being at church. We convinced him to come though, and had someone pick
him up.
 He has a love for the scriptures. We told him about

 the Doctrine & Covenants, and Pearl of
Great Price. He immediately wanted them. He knows that all of the
standard works are true, and that they are the word of God. He has a
huge desire to be baptized as well. He said that he wants to be
baptized more than anything else. But, he smokes and is an alcoholic.
He is committed to stop though, and he hopefully smoked his last
cigarette last night. We will see how it go's though. He just has to
get his life in order and meet the qualifications so that he can be
baptized.
The Last two Taylor's are committed to be baptized in February sometime.
I'm so glad that you are spiritually feeding your soul. You should
watch the Mormon message "daily bread". It is so good. D. Todd
Christofferson does an amazing job expressing our need for daily
nourishment. Also the talk "my soul hungered and my stomach growled"
is a great one from Hank Smith.
That is so amazing that Cris won 3rd place!!! Way to go Cris!!!!!!!
I'm so glad the spirit whispered to you to have dad give Cris a
blessing. I know that it helped. I hope that was able to not only
build his confidence in himself, but also build all of your faith.
That is so amazing! We got in late last night because someone called
us at like 9:20 and said that someone needed a blessing, so went and
gave one. 
Has Randi been at any of the wrestling matches? What is she up to?
Thank you so much for the letters and the packages. All of the
seasoning is so useful, as we have started to cook a lot now. I'm back
down to 250 pounds! Yay!!!
It was really cold here! Haha at home I can handle 10 or 15 degree
temperatures, but here it is crazy cold. I just cuts right through you
chills you from like the inside out it seems like. But the past few
days it has been like 60 degrees, so thats not too bad :)
 
I know that it isn't your birthday yet, but HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO THE BEST
MOM IN THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD!!!!!!!!! I LOVE YOU SO MUCH!!!!! I'm going
to send you a card, but it won't get to you quite in time :/ just know
that I love you and pray for you every night, and you are always in my
heart no matter how far away we are from each other.
 
For our district activity Elder Snow and I came up with the idea to
have a marshmallow gun fight!! Haha it should be so fun. We are going
to go to Home Depot and get the parts to build them today :) we
thought it should be cheap, but also pretty fun :) and the sisters
will pay us back for our expenses :) haha I was
curious how the missionary's in our stake are doing? Are they being
obedient and everything? Do they have many investigators?
Oh, and I wanted you to look at a page too :) in the gospel library,
under missionary there is the hastening the work stuff. You and dad
should look at that, because it really explains what the members role
is, and how they should work with the missionary's. And if you want to
see exactly  what being a missionary is like, you could watch the
districts. That is my life to a Tee haha.
I love you all so much, and I pray for you all the time. Have a great
week and I will hear from you soon :)
Love,
Elder Jorgensen

I Love Missionary work though Service

                     Written December 30, 2013

Hey mom dad and family!! 

It was so good to see y'all on Christmas too!!
 I feel like I really have grown so much in my
 understanding of the savior and his doctrine.
I hope at home y'all have been able to grow your
 own testimonies and become more converted to
 the gospel of Jesus Christ. We didn't have any
 investigators at church this past week :/
so we went to the gospel doctrine class.
 I had never been to the gospel doctrine class,
 but it was really good. We talked about the first
 chapter of Moses and what happened to Moses.
Moses went up on top of the mountain and there
was able to see god (Jesus Christ). God showed
 him every part of the world and there was not a
single thing that Moses was not able to see by the
power of discernment from Christ. Moses is even
reminded of who is when he is called "Son of God".
This also reminds Moses that by being the son of god,
 he is then able to progress to be like god. But after
Moses's "vision" was over he was very weak from all
the spirt leaving him. He realizes just how weak man truly is.
 In this time of weakness for Moses, Satan strikes his hardest.
 Even after Moses has just witnessed the power and divinity of god,
 Satan has the audacity to come to him and tempt him telling Moses "Son of Man, worship me!" Satan commands Moses to worship him. Four times Moses has to tell Satan to depart hence from his presence and leave him alone. I think this story can really be used to draw parallels between ourselves and Moses. Even after we have received great spiritual witness, Satan still tries to get at us. Indeed, it could be that the times Satan works his hardest on us would be at these moments when we feel that we are spiritually the strongest. 

I love being able to liken the Scriptures to myself and see all of the parallels that God has given us. There is great power that come to us as we study the scriptures and compare them to ourselves. 

This past week we were also able to do some more service. I love being able to do service. Sometimes I think I would rather just do and do service all day than actually teach haha. I think I like to do missionary work like Alma of old did. When we serve the people first, their hearts are softened toward us and then we are able to help them progress in the gospel and teach them.

One of the sisters in the ward is remodeling her house and her brother is helping her do it. He wasn't quite sure how to do some things so we decided to help. The bathroom was wired wrong, so we had to re-wire the switches so that the light and fan would turn on. Then we laid some pergo flooring in the front room that her brother had framed in. When we got closer to the door we realized that the door was not high enough and would not open with the flooring down. So, we had them go and get a smaller door, that way we wouldn't have to re-frame the whole for the door and we could just put some OSB under the door to get it up over the floor. (This is an exterior door) come to find out the whole he framed for the door is not even close to square so we will still have to cut into the sheet rock and kinda re-frame the opening right? What would you suggest we do? Oh, and I have a little grinder now. Should I just keep it with me out here in case we need it, or should I send it home? 

Think y'all for all of the Christmas and birthday package's! We had pancakes and some of your homemade syrup for breakfast and it was super good!! Thank you so much! Sadie sent me a package as well. Pretty much an entire birthday party in a box. She even put cake in cans for my companion and I. I was super surprised by all of that! I was also really surprised when I got a Christmas package from Josey and her family! It was a stocking filled with some stuff and some pictures. Sadie's had the twelve days of Christmas packages like y'all's and on Christmas it was a handmade box that played music. It was pretty sweet! Thank y'all so much for the ties and everything! It was so great. The speakers work great too. Thank you! I like the idea of replacing the bulbs with LEDs. That will be so great! Could dad put LEDs in the garage too so that he will be able to work out there without it costing as much? 

So, I figured I would answer some of the questions that you wanted to ask me. Flying? I'm not the biggest fan of it. Take off was pretty cool, but right after take off I felt kinda sick :/ I think I get plane sick. But it was fun to be able to talk to people. Pic sat kinda by a Sister Kronmiller. We talked for a bit and I found out she was from south Ogden. She actually knew exactly where the chevron by grandmas house was and she said she lived just up that hill, so she can't live more then a few miles from grandmas house! Crazy huh!! The mission home is pretty nice. It is just bascily like a good size house in the city. Nothing fancy. The MTC food was great! I would honestly go back to the MTC in a heartbeat. Everything was great about it. Not many missionaries liked the MTC, but I loved it. I think some of that is because I was on the west campus maybe? In some ways seeing y'all made me a little homesick, but in others it made me less homesick, which is good. Lately I had been struggling to stay focused on the work, but after talking to and seeing y'all I was more ready and inspired or get to work! It was good. 

That is so good that Brenna is going on a mission. Wish her luck for me. She will do Great. It will be hard, but so worth it. That is nice that you were able to see Leah as well and that she talked to y'all. Whom The Lord calls he qualifies. Wish Cris good luck for me! He will do great. All he has to do is do his best. I miss Paxten and Keasa, but I know that they are fine :) I hope they are having fun!! I will send my Christmas gifts for y'all in the mail today as well :) oh, and I would love more random ties and sweaters :) 

Love y'all so much and merry Christmas!!! 

Happy new year!!

Love, 

Elder Jorgensen

Christmas Devotional

 Written on December 23, 2013

I'm glad that your week was really

 busy and full! I feel like when our
weeks are really full and busy the

 week just goes so much faster and
it is easier. It was a good week 

here for us, but it was a kinda long
week for me. We had transfers on 

Tuesday and I am now companions with
Elder Snow. He is from New Mexico. 

Overall he is a pretty good elder.
It was kinda a stressful week 

taking over the area and we haven't had
a lot of investigators lately, 

so we have been door to door contacting
a lot. Door to door contacting 

is probably the least effective way to
do missionary work, and it is hard.

 That is why members are so
important, and it is so important

 for the members to give us referrals
of people that we can teach. 

But this week we didn't have much on our
plans, so we were left with 

knocking on doors.One man that we did find 

knocking on doors about 3 weeks ago is
progressing towards baptism though! We 

are so excited for him. He has
already stopped drinking alcohol, 

and now we just have to help him
stop smoking and drinking tea. 

It is amazing to see how much he has
progressed in just the past few weeks.
It seems like everyone is sick here!! Haha so we are hoping that even
with giving all of these blessings that we don't get sick. And lots of
people have been dying in the ward lately :/ this week we will have
the third memorial service for a member of the ward. That is crazy!
Grandmas Christmas party sounds like it must have been so fun!!! I
love Italian food! Haha speaking of food, my companion and I decided
that we were going to start a diet today so that we could lose some
weight. We are also going to ride our bikes more and go running every
morning. Hopefully we actually do it haha. Then maybe I can come home
under 220 pounds :)
I'm glad that Keasa liked her present. I'm sorry it took so long to
get there. My companion and I are going to go shopping today, so I
will hopefully send another package today which would be the Christmas
package. Sorry it might not get there before Christmas :/ thank you so
much for my Christmas package! It has been something that I really
look forward to every morning to be able to open a little present from
you and one from Sadie. Thank you so much for everything!!
Sometimes it is nice to get mail.I can't wait for Christmas to get hear.
Last night we had our Christmas devotional with president craven and
our zone. They provided a great little dinner for us, and then we went
to the relief society room and played a game of jeopardy. The
category's were Book of Mormon, preach my gospel, the Cravens, NCCM,
and a misc. column. It was so much fun and all of us laughed almost
the entire time! Our group had to sing the mission theme song and it
was so embarrassing!!! Haha
But after the game we went to the chapel and had a testimony meeting.
It was so amazing, and such a spiritual experience. I know that The
Book of Mormon is the word of god. The most important thing that we
can gain a testimony of is the Book of Mormon. It is the keystone of
our religion, and without it, This church, Christ church, would fail.
President Craven talked a lot about Mosiah 3:4-11. His insight was
amazing on these few verses that talk about the Christ child's humble
birth.Jesus Christ, creator of this world and the very Begotten son of 

God, came to this earth in the humble circumstances. Wrapped in
swaddling clothes. Think about that. The very God who helped to create
the very world he would atone for, was wrapped in cloth. Totally and
completely dependent on others for his every care and need.
 
I'm glad you were able to talk to Leah and that she is doing well!! I
would love to hear from her and hear how she is doing!! :) 
Got the box and a few letters from the ward last night at the
devotional. It was so nice of them, and there are so many great things
in there! Thank you so much! I will make sure to write them a thank
you card :)
I'm not sure when we will be on skype, but it will most likely be
around 5 or 6 our time. We will be skypeing from the clays. They said
thank you so much for the Christmas present! They loved it! And Pres.and

 Sister Craven also said thank you so much for their gift.
They said that was the first time they have received a Christmas gift from
a missionary's family. Haha so way to go!
 Well, I will see you soon :)
Love,
Elder Jorgensen.

Such a Great Week!

               Written December 16, 2013

Dear family,
I can't even begin to tell you how

 great my week was here! Haha the
only thing that I think could have

 made it better would be if we had
the car. (But, I found out on Saturday

night that we will be getting a
new car at transfers, so that 

will be so nice! I am so excited to be
full car, and not go an entire week

 without one.) And yes, Elder
Letalu-Lokeni is getting transferred,

 and he will be a Zone Leader
now. I guess that is what happens 

when your district isn't doing very
well before you become district leader,

 and then they start to really take
off after you do ;) We have had 5

 baptisms in our district in the past
3 months. And 3 of those have 

been ours!! :)
So this Saturday was an amazing

 experience! Anthony and Ferin were
baptized. I had the honor or baptizing 

Anthony on Saturday and
confirming Ferin a member of the church 

and conferring upon her the gift
of the Holy Ghost. It was an amazing opportunity.

 Natalie and Alex have yet to be baptized,

 but we hope that they soon will be. 

 Since Elder Letalu-Loken is leaving,

 It means that I will have to take over
this area. I'm now responsible for knowing all

 that I can about the investigators both past

 and present, as well as the members, and
knowing the city an my way around it. Kinda scary!! Haha

 but I guess whom The Lord calls he qualifies.

 I just have to try my hardest, be obedient, and do my best,

 and The Lord will make up the rest.
I'm so glad that dad and uncle Mike were able to get the well fixed so
that y'all will have water again! It sounds like if it took them till 7
it was a pretty big and crazy job though! Was it?
The adjusting to missionary life is a great little booklet that they
gave everyone in our mission shortly after I came out. I will have to
see if I can get you one or something. Haha.
I'm sure that you did great on teaching the gospel principles class!
My companion and I taught the member/ward missionary class this week
as well. I think my favorite scripture to use when I teach about
tithes and fast offerings is 3 Nephi 24:11. It is a great scripture!!
Thank you so much for the package that I got this week!!!! I love the
tree and the boots, and everything!! Now I have two trees! Sadie sent
me a tree with her package that came about the same time all y'all's
did. She did a 12 days of Christmas thing too, and she put a lot of
work into it. Seeing how much work y'all have put into this for me is
so humbling. Thank y'all so much. I love my family!!! I have the
greatest family on the world! It is so tempting to open this huge pile
of gifts under our tree, but I force myself to wait... Elder L is like
the devils advocate though. He's like "just do it. you know you want
to. They'll never know. I opened mine, you can open yours. Come on, I
want to see what's in all of those packages before I have to leave."
Haha he is so funny! 
It does look kinda like that here in a nice storm, but if is different
too. Instead of it looking like a frosty glass on everything, here it
is like a think completely clear glass coating. Everything is clear
all the way through, but it sparkles in the sunlight too. It's pretty
neat!
So, for the big news this week we got our new I-pads!!! They are so
sweet, and we love them already! Our entire area book and planner is
all on here. We have the gospel library to, so we have all of that as
well. We can download videos to show to our investigators, and even
people that we just meet on the street. We can also pull up a map of
our ward and see where all of the members and investigators live in
relation to one another which really helps with planning. They are so
sweet!! I'll send you a screen shot so you can see what they look like
:) This helps the work move forward so much. The Lord is truly
hastening his work in every part of the church. The members of the
church and technology is the two biggest tools that he is using to do
that. Social media has become a huge tool for sharing the gospel with
others. Don't be afraid to talk to everyone that you know is not a
member of the church, or that you think might be struggling with their
testimonies. All it takes is an invitation and as ward missionary's
that is your job. It states In preach my gospel, that "People are not
likely to change unless they are invited to do so" all it takes is an
invitation. The worst that could happen is they say "No thank you".
Good luck with all of your missionary efforts at home. I love y'all so
much and miss you! Hopefully we will just work hard over this holiday
season and have lots of good things happen. We are continually finding
the elect and inviting them to come to Christ. Being a missionary and
being able to share what I know to be true is an amazing experience in
itself, but an even more amazing experience is to share this amazing
message with someone and have them change their lives because of it.
Sometimes even in very unexpected ways! Like, this Sunday Anthony came
to church and he had shaved off his beard and was in a suit! We had
never even mentioned anything like that to him, but the spirit
whispered to his heart what he needed to do and he did it!! It is so
amazing to see. There is a noticeable difference in Anthony and Ferin
from Friday to today. It is a startling and amazing change, and it is
all brought about by the spirit. It has nothing to even do with us.
The most amazing changes are the little changes that the spirit
whispers to their heart they need to make.  Anyways, it is time for me
to go, but I love you and will see y'all soon! Thank you so much for
all that you have done for me and continue to do for me! I love you!!
 
Oh, I was thinking just for fun y'all could write a list of what
everyone wants for Christmas so I could see it :) haha did I mention I love y'all.

 And hey I LOVE MY BOOTS!!!!!!! Haha I
can only where them on P-day and at night when we are in our
apartment, but still.. Haha and tell Sadie thanks for me. I'm pretty
sure she thought I hated her or something for a while cause it took me
like 4 weeks to write her back with everything that we had going on
haha. Well...again, I love you!!!
Love,
Elder Jorgensen