Baby it's cold outside

February 4, 2014

Dearest Fam and Friends,

Oh my goodness it is so cold and so so snowy! This has been the weirdest P-day! We're not allowed to use our cars because of the snow storm, and it looks like we might be in all day long! The weather here in Missouri is so bipolar, I don't get it! I thought Provo was like that, but it doesn't even compare to the weather here. In a way though, I kind of like when the weather is bad because it is easier to get into people's homes because they feel sorry for us! haha The best though, is when were knocking doors and people say, "You guys need to get in doors.", yet they don't invite us in. I still don't get that one, but it definitely cracks me up!

This week has been a good one! I can't really remember too many specific things that have made it great, but all in all, looking back it was wonderful. We got to teach a lot this week! Thursday is our full proselyting day and it was a really good day. We got to see so many people and by the end of the day I was completely exhausted. We got to finally visit a less active lady in our ward, Sister Chinnery. She use to be RLDS and then joined our church and then had some interesting/ crazy things happen with the bishop so she stopped coming. Sister Heylen and I have been trying to see her for weeks, but every time we went, she was never home or didn't answer. Finally, on Thursday she answered and she let us in! She is the coolest lady! She's adopted like 6 kids and 4 of them have disabilities. I talked to her about Aubsy and showed her a picture and she loved it. She talked about some of her concerns, but through it all she would make comments like, "this church has to be true though because it's the only one of the restoration churches that is growing". Her daughter and son were there and she said they both are begging her to let them get baptized. They are 15 and 13. Anyway, this is a family I have felt for a long time that we needed to go see and I'm excited to go back.

It's interesting being in Independence, because you run into all sorts of people who believe in the Book of Mormon and the prophet Joseph Smith. So, we have to take a whole different teaching approach to help them to understand the church. Before I came out here, I knew there were different groups that broke off, but I didn't understand what they believed in and I had no idea there were so many break offs. I'm learning all sorts of things here!

Sad news, Karen definitely will not be getting baptized this Friday. :( Her mom doesn't think she knows enough and says that she has already been baptized. I do think she'll get baptized, it's only a matter of time. We are just going to continue to teach her. She's such a champ, she goes to seminary almost every morning at 6 am!

Well, that's really all for this week! Transfers are in two days and I'm almost positive Sister Heylen and I will be splitting up. She's been here for 6 months and that's typically the longest you stay in areas. I'm not going to lie, it's been a hard transfer, but through it all, I have learned so much about myself and most importantly my Savior. I am grateful for trials and hard times that help us to come closer to the Savior. Right now I am reading the New Testament and Jesus the Christ, and  I am completely obsessed with them. I truly have come to know my Savior in such a different way this transfer than any other. I love Him! I know that He can heal and sanctify us. He LIVES! Love you all!

love always,

            Hermana  Jorgensen

Wearing Out My Shoes in the Service of My Lord

January 28, 2014

Fam Bam and Friends!

HELLLOOOOOOO! Well, it's been a great week, not too many things happened. I mean, nothing can really compare to the news of the Burchs last week! :) Let's see, updates for the week....

- Karen came to church!!! This was huge! She hasn't come at all since I've been here! She's dating a boy in our ward and is going to be getting baptized February 7th! She loves young women's and the Book of Mormon. She's awesome!

- Eleanor Tali was at church! :) I don't know if you guys remember her, but she's a less active lady that Sister Rackham and I found in Liberty and we tried working with her the entire time I was there. Anyway, I guess her parents are in this ward and her kids come to our ward too. It was such a miracle to see her on Sunday at church!

- Liberty just seems to be following me! In the past few weeks, the Lord has blessed me to be able to see so many people that I love from there. Yesterday, we were at the doctors office for my comp. and it's in Liberty. As we were just sitting in the waiting room, Sister MacDonald and her son walked in and I was in complete shock. I mean, what are the odds that I'm going to see someone I know! haha It was the best! They were like one of my homes away from home while I served there! In fact, Sister MacDonald said she had just gotten off of the phone with you mom getting your peppermint ice cream dessert recipe! haha It was such a tender mercy to see her! Heavenly Father is in the details of our lives!

- Our investigator Marilyn is the best! She reminds me of Jynx off of the district! You guys probably have no idea what I'm talking about, but I'll show you the district when I get home! It's a missionary training program, and one of the investigators on there reminds me of Marilyn. It was the best, the entire time we taught Marilyn about the doctrine of Jesus Christ, she had her little notepad out so that she could write down on all the scriptures and study them later. She is super sincere!

So, this past week, I've been studying the talk, the Fourth Missionary, for like the 10th time on the mission. It's by Elder Corbridge ( I think he's the guy that's related to the Shamos?) My goodness, do I love this talk! It talks all about how there are different kinds of missionaries and it is just loaded with so many incredible quotes. One of my favorite things he says is, " Every challenge you face, every hard thing you confront, every bad thing that happens to you, every unfairness, every conflict, every sadness, tragedy, every disappointment and heartache, every temptation and every opposition happens for one purpose only: to give you the opportunity to respond by applying in your life the teachings of Jesus. As you do so you are changed to become more like Him." I absolutely love this quote! Just in the past week, as I have shifted my mindset, I have been able to respond to things in a different way. I know that this is true. That we are given opposition so that we can develop Christ-like attributes. If you haven't read this talk, you totally should! Even though, it's specifically geared towards missionaries, it will seriously change your life! Well, I love you all so much! Know that I am happy doing the work of the Lord! Have a wonderful week! LOVE YOU!

love always,

        Sister Jorgensen

1. Wholey shoes! Guess I've been wearing these ones too much! haha It's the weirdest thing though, its only on one foot that they get worn out like that!

2. Good eatin'! Yes, that's a cake! It was huge!

The Burches are going to the temple :)

January 21, 2014

Dearest Fam and Friends,

     Oh what a week it has been! It's been filled with lots of ups and downs. Actually, that's pretty much missionary work every week! The good always outweighs the bad though, that's for sure.

      I'm just going to start with the sad parts of the week so we can get those out of the way. Amy and Felipe dropped us :( They said that a lot of their views didn't line up with the church's views. It's so hard because we really only taught them a few times but they researched it out themselves online. I'm not saying researching it out isn't good, but there just is a lot of stuff out there that isn't true or is half true and so it leads people to have a lot of misconceptions and to harden their hearts before we can even teach. Also, another one of our investigators Charity sort of dropped us. It was the weirdest thing. She has been totally fine all along and then she watched the Testaments this past week and was crying and just loved it. We texted her afterward to see how she was feeling and she texted us back saying that she didn't want to be baptized. She is suppose to be getting baptized in like 2 weeks. :( So, we don't really know whats going on. We're going over there this week to try and figure it out.

     Now for the happiest thing of this week (or more like the happiest thing of my whole mission). The Burch's came into the VC last night with Sister Sommer and her comp. We did the history presentation down stairs and then we went through God's Plan for His Family (in this presentation you follow a family through the years and you end at the temple and how important temples are to God's plan). Going through with them brought flashbacks to when Sister Rackham and I took them through almost 6 months ago. So many things have changed since then! It was so neat to reflect on the changes that have happened as we went through the presentation. After it was all over, I asked them how they were feeling and to share some of their thought. In unison, they both held up temple recommends!!!! Can you believe it?! I asked them when we were going. They said in April and that they will be getting SEALED! What in the world! Oh, happy day! I thought we were going to be going to do baptisms but no! This was seriously the happiest news ever! We all hugged and cried together! Oh, I just love them so much. I am so grateful for a Heavenly Father who can see the potential that each one of His children have. When Sister Rackham and I first started meeting with them, nobody would have thought that they would be where they are at today, but because our Father in Heaven gave us a glimpse of where he knew the Burch's could be, they are going to the temple!  I cannot even begin to describe to you the joy that feels my heart!

     I am so grateful for our Savior Jesus Christ. I know that it is through Him that we can change, that we can repent, and grow. I know that this is His work because I have seen Him change and bless those that we teach. I love Him!

love always,

             Hermana Jorgensen

1. Lessons with Lexi! She's the girl that's 9 and is getting baptized in February.

2. TRACTING :)

John and Lisa holding up their temple recommends!!! :)

Miracle of the week

January 14, 2014

Dearest fam and friends,

     There have been so many miracles this week! We have been so very blessed! The weather is even cooperating! ;) haha My heart is so full this week of gratitude of the blessing it is to be a missionary and to witness so many tender mercies!

Highlights of this week:

- I had the blessing to be a part of a miracle presentation at the VC (and when I say VC I mean the visitor center) this week. One of our investigators Diane brought in her friend Karen this past Wednseday. Karen has been searching for something more. The more I got to talk to her, the more I could feel of her strong faith in Christ and her desire to find truth. The cool thing about the VC, is that they have it set up in just a way that you can teach the entire first lesson (the Restoration) using different presentations. Had never done it before, but I decided I was going to try it with her. The spirit was so strong as I shared the first vision and she was crying during the entire hour we were together. My favorite thing about being a missionary, is being able to feel the spirit work through me to touch those that I'm teaching. Lastly, we took her to the Christus and bore testimony of our Savior. My goodness, was the spirit strong! Anyway, just such a huge miracle that helped me to love the VC more and understand why I am called here. The story doesn't really end that happy though. Two days later Diane called us and said Karen doesn't believe anything. I asked her why and she started listing off all these things. I could tell that she had been looking all these things up on an anti-Mormon site (believe me, serving in this area, we have heard all the anti stuff). Anyway, so she said Karen didn't want to meet with us that Sunday. Oh, my heart just sank. I'm so done with this anti stuff! I can't tell you how many investigators have stopped learning from us because of it! There is still hope though. I'm going to try and call her this week, and if all else fails, I know that she felt the spirit and that hopefully someday she will come to know that it is true.

- We found all of this out on Thursday (Karen and the anti stuff), and we were just having kind of a bummer of a day all week, but our very last appointment, we were blessed to witness such a huge miracle. We had an appointment with Karen. I'm not sure if I've told you about her, but if not, she's dating a kid in our ward and has been coming to church with him. We've been teaching her for the past few weeks, but her big hold up was her family because they are Catholic. On Thursday though, she told us her family is supportive of her getting baptized now! She was the happiest we've ever seen her! Seriously, like a totally different person. She asked us when she could get baptized. What in the world! Nobody ever asks that question!? haha So, she is planning on getting baptized February 1st! She's so cute, she wants us to text her every night to remind her to read her scriptures and she absolutely LOVES the Book of Mormon. The cool thing too, is that her whole family is from Mexico and her mom doesn't really speak English, so hopefully I'm going to get to talk to her mom soon. :) Who knows though, my Spanish is seriously about as a good as it was when I left the MTC! haha

- We had another miracle this past Saturday too! We went over to a members house to do some service and have lunch with her, and her granddaughter, Lexi, was there. She's 9 and really wants to get baptized. We have no idea why she isn't baptized yet, she comes to church every week. Anyway, protocol is that if kids are 9 and older, they need to receive the lessons. So, we taught her the first lesson. It was the best! It's so fun to teach kids! We asked her to tell us the story of Joseph Smith, and she talked about how Joseph was praying and then the 3 wise men came to see him! :) haha She's so cute, I told her that my name is Lexi too, so she just started calling me Lexi and that was the weirdest! It's so weird, I don't even feel like that's my name anymore! We're so excited for her though! She's going to be getting baptized on February 22nd!

    

     Wow, I feel like this email is so long! Too many miracles this week! The Lord always fulfills His promises as we do what He asks! That, I have a testimony of. I am so grateful to be serving in Independence! It truly is a sacred place. Yes, it was hard to leave Liberty, and a piece of my heart will ALWAYS be there, but I know this is where the Lord wants me right now. I am grateful to be a visitor center sister. WHAT!? Can you believe I said that!? I thought I would never say that! haha But really, it is incredible to get to be able to do both proselyting and serve at the VC. It's so cool because the Lord truly makes up for the time that we spend in the VC and we are able to teach about as many lessons a week as the elders. THIS IS HIS WORK! I am so grateful to be His representative here. I know He lives. With all my heart, I know that Jesus is the Christ. I love you guys so much! Have a wonderful week :)

love always,

          Sister Jorgensen

It's a new year.

January 7,2013

My dearest Fam and Friends,

     It has been oh so cold here! I loved reading Ashy's letter because I feel like were in the same boat as far as weather goes! Yesterday it was -3 with a wind-chill of -20. What in the world!? I guess it kind of just feels like Wisconsin weather in the winter but we only stay there for a week and let me tell you, it's way different living in it. Ashy, I agree, never do I ever think I could live somewhere so cold. I thought I was use to the cold and snow since I lived in Provo, but it's way different then that cold. We're spoiled though, we have a car almost every single day so we don't have to walk too much and pretty much 6 hours of everyday are spent in the lovely heated VC.

    

 Highlights of the week...…

- One of our investigators, Melissa, called us earlier this week at like 8:30 in the morning crying. We asked her why she was so sad and she told us it was because she heard about how Joseph Smith died. She already knew that he had been killed but she had never been told how. She was so upset. She was so funny, she told us she wanted to go to Carthage and seek revenge! haha The whole thing was just really sweet. She really loves the prophet and has such a strong testimony of his divine role in restoring the church. She knows the church is true and bears her testimony with strong conviction to us all the time. She has some hold ups that were trying to work through with her. I know that it will only be a matter of time until she and her 9 year old son Theo are baptized. I have really grown to love her!

- VALERIE WAS BAPTIZED! Oh, you guys would just love her! She is the funniest lady! It's been such a blessing to be able to be apart of teaching her. They started teaching her about 2 or 3 weeks before I got there and then Sister Heylen and I got to teach her for about 2 and a half weeks and help prepare her for her baptism. Her baptism was so special! The spirit was ever present the entire service. From the moment we started singing the opening song to the very end of the service, Valerie was in tears the entire time. She has changed so much and it has been so neat to see how the Lord has prepared her to receive the gospel.

- I got to see Lhaylla! This was such a tender mercy! I've thought and prayed a lot for everyone I was working with in Liberty and it has been the biggest blessing to first see the Burchs and then her! It was for just a minute because she was going into the VC when I was leaving, but it was the best! I gave her a hug and got to see how she was doing. She's doing so good!

     That's kind of it for the week! All in all, the work is really going well here in the Independence 1st ward. I truly believe it's progressing the way it is because many of the members have caught the vision the Lord has for them in helping with missionary work. If there is something I've learned on the mission, it's how to be a better member missionary for the rest of my life. As a missionary I have been able to see how crucial members roles are in helping with the work. Honestly, before the mission, I didn't have a clue how to be a good member missionary. I mean, I tried to be an example, but it's more than being an example. We should all strive to be good examples just because we are striving to be like our Savior. The Lord needs members who will go the extra mile to hasten His work. Some ideas I've had at how we can do this are....... Opening our homes for the missionaries to teach investigators at, invite missionaries to bring people they are working with when they come to dinners, pray by name for those that the missionaries are working with, and the list could go on forever and ever! haha I really hope I don't sound preachy, but being out here has just really opened my eyes to see how critical members are in helping the work progress! Think of how many lives would be touched if we could all catch the vision our Father in Heaven has for this work!

     Well, I love you all so very much! You have no idea how much your love and support has helped me this past year! I want you to know that I know that Jesus is the Christ. I know He LIVES and that this very work of salvation is His. Make it a wonderful week! LOVE YOU! XOXOX

love always,

      Hermana Jorgensen

1. Valerie teary up as she reads her program:) it was the sweetest!

2. BAPTISM DAY!!!

3. Shoveling snow. Love it!

CAN YOU BELIEVE I'VE BEEN A MISSIONARY FOR A WHOLE YEAR?!?!?!

December 31, 2013

My dearest fam and friends,

     Oh my goodness, skyping was the best!!!! I don't know why, but every time I get so nervous that it's going to be awkward or weird because I haven't seen you guys in so long, but then it's completely normal and so good! You guys looked so happy! That was the best Christmas present I could have asked for! I would have to agree with Ashy, Christmas was great, but I'm so excited that we all get to be together next Christmas. :)

     Holidays are the weirdest on the mission. They don't really feel like holidays, which I think is actually a good thing because then it doesn't make me that sad or homesick. This Christmas was really special though. One never to be forgotten. I got to serve at the Visitor Center for the first part of the day and then latter that night we got to sing at the Old Folks Home. The residents there were so happy and we could tell it made their whole day. I'm thinking that could be a new Christmas tradition. It just so felt so good to be thinking about others on that day. We also went to visit some of the recent converts in our ward that night. We asked how their Christmas went and if it was fun opening presents and they were really quiet and then said they didn't get any presents. So, we gathered up a whole bunch of stuff from the sisters and wrapped it all, and the next day brought over a ton of presents. Their faces were priceless. As President Monson said, the spirit of Christmas truly is the spirit of Christ.

     On Saturday, I had a surprise visit from the Burchs! Oh, it made my whole day! I've been having a little bit of a hard time adjusting to my new area, the VC, and a new companion, and seeing them was like seeing family and it really helped me a lot. Tomorrows the day. They're completely quitting coffee so they can go to the temple soon! How exciting is that?! Boy, do I love them!

     Our investigator Valarie is getting baptized this week and were so excited for her!!!!

     Miracle of the week..... So, my second day in the area, a member we were visiting said her neighbors just moved in, so we went over to visit them. Their names are Amy and Felipe and they have a little two year old son named Zethan. Since then, we have taught them two lessons and they've come to church! :) This past week, they told us they really feel like us meeting them was not an accident and they said they want to get baptized in February. The only problem is that they need to get married. They're engaged, so hopefully it won't be too big of a deal. Pray for them! They are like too good to be true and so so normal!

     Lastly, I finished the book, "Our Heritage", this week. It was all about church history and I loved it. I seriously think I'm going to be completely obsessed with church history when I get home. I already kind of am, from serving here. I just love learning about all the incredible stories of those who've gone before us. They are so inspiring and faith promoting. I have already learned so much from learning about the Saints who settled here in Jackson County. They are amazing examples. They were willing to give up everything, and in doing so, were still happy because "it was for the gospel's sake". They've taught me about the importance of having a positive attitude despite the trials we face in our lives. I'm so grateful to be a missionary here in Independence! I know I kind of had mixed thoughts when I got my call, but I can honestly say that I love it here and wouldn't want to be anywhere else. I know this is where the Lord needed me and still needs me. I'm so blessed!

     Well, I sure do love you guys! Have such a wonderful week! HAPPY NEW YEAR!

love always,

            Hermana Jorgensen