April 1, 2013
HELLO DEAR FAMILIA!
Happy LATE Easter! It sounds like
yesterday was a great day..... Mom spoke in church, you had the traditional
family dinner, and you fed the missionaries (way to be, I'm sure they loved
it!), and not to mention this whole last week was spring break, QUE DIVERTIDO!
So, I finally found out where Kaleb's going!!!! YAY!!!! Oh man, I'm so so
excited for him! As I watched the video, I was just tearing up. It's so wierd,
on the mission you can be told that things are changing at home but it's almost
like your brain doesn't register that it is actually happening, and so seeing
the video really made it real for me. It was so fun to get to see and hear
everyone's voices! In all honesty, I wasn't thinking Japan for him (secretly, I
was hoping he would follow mine and Ashy's trend so we could all talk to
each other when we get home, but now none of us will know what in the world he's
saying). I can just imagine him towering over everyone there! hahaha Ahhhhh,
our family is becoming such a missionary family! CONGRATS KALEB (or Elder
Bailey)! Bailey's thank you so much for the package! I loved it! It brought me
back to the night we were all tying that blanket! And Mom, Dad, and the rest of
the fam bam, muchas gracias for my Easter package!
So, where to begin with this
week....... seriously, missionary work is always a complete rollarcoaster ride!
One day will be absolutely perfect and then the next is a disaster (or it some
cases, this happens hourly haha). So last Monday night (P-days end at 6 and
then we have three hours of prosyliting time), we were so so so excited because
we had an appointment with this lady named Brianna. I'm not sure if I mentioned
her at all in the last email, but we met her two days before that and she was
just the nicest and so so prepared. She has two little girls and is married and
told us this was something she was looking for. As we went to the door, we
could hear everyone right there, so we knocked three different times but they
wouldn't come. We tried to call her and she wouldn't answer. We were
devastated! My companion was crying. It's so hard when you know that these
people need this and some of them are truly searching, and then they will not
listen. We feel like maybe her husband refused to let her listen or something,
but who knows. All we know is she was just sitting in there. We have gone back
a couple times this week and tried to text her but she hasn't ever answered. :(
So, that night, as we were about to just go back home because it was snowing
really hard, we felt like we should just go try to see this other lady that
lived in the next apartment that we had met a couple weeks previous. She was
there! She opened the door and invited us in and her husband and two sons were
there too! We taught the whole first lesson and gave their family two Books of
Mormon and it was just such a great visit. It was all in Spanish, and for the
first time I felt like I was actually contributing a little bit to the lesson!
We invited Maria (the mom) to pray at the end, and she prayed and thanked God
for bringing her more of His truth. We left there on cloud nine, smiling from
ear to ear! I cannot describe the feeling you get as a missionary when you meet
a new investigator or come out of a lesson that just went so well.
My companion and I get so giddy and can't stop talking about it all day!
And this is what I mean by it being a rollarcoaster, within minutes we were so
sad and then an hour later we are so excited! But, to continue the story about
this family, so we go back two days later for our appointment and they DON'T
answer the door. It was the exact same situation with Brianna, we can hear them
in there living room right by the door but they just don't want to get it. So,
we call her and she wispers that they are sleeping. :( Then we are completely
heartbroken again! hahah This is a continuous cycle as a missionary. It's so
hard because most people, like in these two situations, won't be just
straightfoward and honest with us, but it's okay, we just keep knocking doors
and sharing the gospel!
Our buddy Victor is still on date to
be baptized on April 13th! :) Please keep praying for him! This week we
finished teaching him about the Plan of Salvation and we also taught him about
the Word of Wisdom because he smokes. Since the day we taught him, he told us
he has quit cold turkey. We really really hope so, the other day when we came,
the room seemed quite smokey, but all we can do is take his word and keep
praying for him. He is such an incredible guy! He already knows so much. He
studied the Bible at some church school or seminary or something all growing up
so he can quote like every scripture we start talking about in the Bible. He
came to church on Sunday with his wife June (who's a member of our ward) and he
loved it.
This week I went on exchanges again.
I went about thirty minutes away to a city called Overland Park. Aparently, the
county that this city is in is one of the top ten richest counties in the US,
and let me tell you, compared to Kansas City, this place was so so nice. I was
in quite shock! Literally like mansions everywhere! This made for quite an
interesting day! For the first time, I experienced getting completely rejected
with the doors slammed in our face! The work is so slow here because nobody
wants to listen. They already have a good life and don't feel like they need
any changes and many people that we talked to didn't feel like they needed God.
It was so sad to see. It helped me to really experience and see that the humble
are those that will accept our message. The highlight of the day there though,
was when we went and visited a part member family that the sisters have
been teaching there. The parents weren't home, only the grandma, and she only
spoke spanish. As we were walking up the stairs my companion for the day,
Sister Crick, told me I'd probably have to talk the whole time because she
didn't know any spanish. OH HEAVENS! So I said a prayer in my heart that I
would be able to communicate with her. Heavenly Father is so good to me. For
the hour that we were there, I was able to understand almost everything that
she said, and I was able to communicate. It wasn't the most beautiful spanish,
very very basic, but Heavenly Father helped me to communicate with her. This
was such a neat experience for me because all other times before this I had
always had Hermana Thorne with me and so she always takes the lead in
discussions since I don't know too much, but this situation forced me to speak
the whole time and it helped me to see that through Heavenly Father, I can
learn spanish.
Church was quite interesting this
sunday! There were quite a few investigators there between our three
companionships, which was wonderful. Having investigators at church is so
great, but it also makes it quite draining because we are constantly making
sure everything is okay. There were many times throughout the three hours that
Hna. Thorne and I would just pinch eachother or else we were going to laugh.
During the sacrament meeting, Victor kept saying Amen after like every
statement ( I think that must be what they would do at his church). Luckily it
wasn't too loud where everyone was looking at us. And then, Victor and June brought
one of their friends, Jimmy. He was quite the character! Hna. Thorne and I
would get so nervous in sunday school because he would just blurt out random
things always at the most spiritual times of the lesson and then at one point
he put his arm around the back of my chair and my companion then put her arm on
the back of my chair to prevent him from doing it and then he grabbed her hand!
hahaha Needless to say, we are not sure if Jimmy will be one of our new
investigators! We might pass him off to the Elders! hahaha On a serious note
though, as we began to sing our opening song yesterday in Sacrament Meeting,
"He is Risen", I just began to get really emotional. We are so so
blessed..... to have the gospel, to have our family and friends, to have a
Father in Heaven who loves us and knows us individually, to have a Savior who
atoned for each of us. I am so grateful for this time of year, to reflect about
the Savior. I know that Christ is our Savior and Reedemer and because He has
risen, we will all be resurrected. He has conquerred physical and spiritual
death so that we may also. I love you guys mucho mucho and my heart just feels
so full of joy today of gratitude for all the many blessings we have been
given!
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1. Jennifer and her baby Anna Marie.
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2. This is a little girl in our ward. I promise she was
actually happy! Everytime we would ask her to smile, this is the face she would
make.
3. Easter Egg
hunt with these little munchkins
4. This is Sister Crabtree! She is
seriouly probably my favorite lady in our ward! She's a hoot. This is her three
month old granddaughter and they're feeding her chocolate from our easter egg hunt
(pretty sure babys arent suppose to have chocolate, but this is how they do it
here I guess! hahah )
LES AMO!
Hermana Lexi Annmarie Jorgensen
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