Contacting without a mask on - June 15, 2020

Family and Friends, 

How's everyone hanging in there! I hear things are starting to get lifted as far as restrictions wise, but we are still pretty lockdown here in Maryland. Though we are in stage 2 as of right now, so getting a little better. The "rumor has it" by many people that we aren't going to go back to church here at least until October, because the virus has been really bad here! So we're hoping that we will be able to return sooner than that!

But this week has been super awesome! We were able to find this man named Aaron and he is so amazing!!!! We have been in contact with him the past couple of weeks, but because of his crazy schedule we haven't been able to teach him until yesterday! But he is so awesome! He remembers so much of what the missionaries taught him in the past and he was saying that he was reading and praying everyday, and even after the missionaries stopped passing by he read, but after a while he stopped. And so over the phone he started apologizing to us for not reading more! So we are super excited for him!

Also milestone today, made my first contact without my mask on! 

What had happened was we were waiting in the walmart parking lot for the other Elders who we share the car with and this man approaches us, and because there was no one around at the time I had taken my mask off! But then he came up and started talking to him about what we believe and he felt really bad because he had chased missionaries off his property in the past and so he was coming over to apoligize! And then he asked if we had any literature, and so we asked if he wanted a Book of Mormon and he said no, so we gave him a restoration pamphlet instead! Super awesome dude!

I love you all and have a blessed week!

Elder Jorgensen

Pics:

1-3: Trio.Life

4: Scoop your poop

5: Cafe Rio!!!!!!

Trio Life #4 - June 8, 2020

Family and Friends,

How are we doing? Things are starting to get a little more relaxed here in this mission! Big time news, we can now go get haricuts on preparation days!!!! They are starting to let us go to more and more places, little by little, but progress is progress!

I have also learned a lot of new tricks while I have been in this quarantine state which has been pretty nice! Here are some of my favorite things:

1. I may have to write a crockpot recipie book, because I am getting pretty good at using one

2. I may look into the english profession because there are a lot of latinos that want to learn English, so my teaching skills are getting pretty good!

3. My stalking skills have gotten pretty high trying to find specific people on Facebook! Won't come in handy in the future though

4.Starting random conversations of Facebook (AKA Sliding into DM's) has actually started to become quite a fun thing to do!! Watch out haha

But we also saw a huge miracle this week! So one of the things my mission president has advised us to do is make connnections and build relationships with people before just immediately jumping into sharing the gospel! So I joined a local facebook page here in Frederick and posted this message just asking what the coolest places are to see here in Frederick while everything is still on lockdown!

I then had this one lady respond to me telling me about this 24-7 Prayer room in donwtown Frederick. She then put me in contact with the person who runs it! Who just happens to be a local minister for a United Methodist Church!

So we were able to set up a zoom call with her this past week and we talked with her about this project and what we could do to help! She was super nice and wanted us to participate because she wanted as many churches to join in on this project! So we are basicall friends with a minister now which is pretty cool! 

The only thing is we don't know exactly what we can do to help out since we are still in quarantine so we are just kind of waiting until we are able to be released! 

And also, de received a new companion with us this week! His name is Elder Bethers and he's from Bountiful, and was serving it Guatemala! We have about the same amount of time in the mission which is pretty fun too!

Love you ALL,

Elder Jorgensen

Every Thorn Has Its Rose - June 1, 2020

Dear Family and Friends,

First off sorry for the lame letter last week! We have only been able to leave our apartment every 2 weeks to go get food and so when we actually get to leave and go to the store we may or may not spend a decent amount of time there! Like check every inch of the store once or twice, just to make sure we haven't forgotten anything! I have come to find the Joy in shopping! Crazy huh, look at what quarantine does to you ;)

But glad to announce that we are now allowed to leave ever preparation day now to go buy food, but we can only go to the grocery store! So still no going to other stores, restaurants, and we still can't go to the church during the week to do missionary work. But I'm still loving it!

But now onto the title of my email, as most of you probably already know it comes from the song "every rose has it's thorn" which basically means that every good thing also has a bad thing with it! 

But I decided to change and instead of look at it negatively, change and see that every bad thing also has a good thing that comes with it! And that's been the biggest lessson that has hit me this week!

So many of you may already know this, but I lost my grandpa about 3 weeks ago now! And it has been hard on me, but I have still been able to see miracles that have come from it! 

So this week we contacted a man named Nelson and he picked up the phone and said that he would be interested in learning more, and so we called him and sent him a text later in the week and no response! (And then the real latino contacting came in! For some reason, I don't know why, but the majority of the people we contact won't respond to a simple text, but if we make them a 2 minute video and read a bible scripture they will!)

So that's what we did with Nelson and then he responded but said that it has being really hard for him right now because his mom died like a couple of days ago! He then sent us videos of her funeral and casket and it was so sad! We then started talking a little more and he sent me a picture of her, so I sent him a picture of my grandpa and then was able to testify of forever families and able to send him some more things! We then contacted him a couple days later and texted back and forth about Jesus Christ and basically taught him a full lesson and were able to set up a video chat lesson with him tonight!!! 

So just remember that whenever there is a tough situation and you get caught in a "thorn bush" just look for the roses and they will be there!

Love your favorite Corona Missionary,

Elder Jorgensen 

Pics: 

1-2: our ride this morning through historic downtown frederick

3. Me and Elder Hiserman 

4. When Corona hits hard 

New ideas - May 25, 2020

Hello to all my friends and family!

So this week we hit our 10 week mark in quarantine and oh my that is just crazy to thing as I am writing this!

This was has been a crazy week, it has been a good week though. We have been able to try a lot of new things this week to find people which has been really fun! I have been able to call people that were contacted in the past, teach a couple of English classes, make different facebook post, and I was able to reach out to and teach an old friend. So that has been a lot of fun!

This week we also got the announcement that we can have baptisms here in Maryland but we can only have 4 persons in the baptisms! So the work is still going on and still progressing! We are super super excited!

Sorry this is short!

I hope you all have a great week!

Elder Jorgensen 

Aqui en Frederick - May 18, 2020

Dear Family and Friends,

This has been a rollercoaster of a week for sure! There have been a lot of trials that has popped up this week, but it has definitely been a learning opportunity and a beautiful experience that I have had to grow closer to my savior each and every single day!

But this week has also had it share of miracles as well! Again another super successful way we have seen to find more people has been through offering free English classes. We have joined local Facebook groups here in Frederick and just put out an ad offering English classes and there have been so many people who want to learn. It has been pretty neat!

Another cool thing we have started to start doing is what we call miracle time! Because we want to end each of our nights on a high note, we do what we call miracle time which is from 8:55-9:00! So during that time we just scroll and find a random night in ou records and just call it! We push really hard to share a scripture and set up a return appointment and it has been amazing how much the lord has blessed us for our efforts and faith! It's been super fun!

I am grateful for each and everyone of you, and hope that you have a blessed week!

Elder Jorgensen 

1. Allan and his momma dropping off food for us our last day in Lancaster! #masksandsocialdistancing

2. Trio!!!

3. Me and my new companion Elder Hiserman 

Ain't it funny how life changes - May 11, 2020

Dear Beloveds,

What a week it has been! What a week it has been, let me give you a little bit about what this week has been like!

So as I said last week, transfer boards came out two Saturdays ago and I found out that I was staying here in Lancaster, and I was super excited to say here and keep working.

And so then last Monday around 7, we got a call from the assistants and they said that the Lord had called me to serve in Frederick Maryland to serve with Elder Harris and I was supposed to leave on Wednesday! So I had packed all my bags and got ready to go. And then on Tuesday in the afternoon we got a call from the assistants again and the plans had changed again. So the new plan was Elder Harris was going to come up and we were going to be a trio with us in Lancaster and then when the new wave of missionaries came in, we would go to Frederick! And we also had to drive down to Maryland to pick him up, so we did that in Wednesday, and it was so weird driving back through my old area in Baltimore! So we've been in a trio with Elder Harris this past week and it has been a lot of fun! 

So then Friday came around and the assistants called again and the plans had changed again, and this time I was still called to serve in Frederick, but I have also been called to train a friend from the Online MTC!!!!!

So this Wednesday I am going back to Maryland and I get to meet my new companion and we get to go to Frederick! I am super super super excited, because there is also a really nice basketball court right next to my apartment, so morning workouts are going to be really fun!

But even with all these changes we have been able to get down and work! I am truly going to miss this area, but I know that the Lord has something in store for me in Frederick!

Elder Jorgensen 

Pics: 

1. Roadtrippin to Baltimore 

2. Visor bros

3. Trio life x3

4. If you ever need your apartment cleaned, hit me up

Peat here in Lancaster - May 4, 2020

Hello Family and Friends,

What a week it has been again! I cannot believe that 7 weeks ago we went into quarantine! Time truly has been starting to fly by and we are looking forward to the day when we can finally come out of quarantine! Although we dont know when it will be, we are still just being patient through our trials! 

We got some exciting news though, next transfer we will be receiving a batch of 40 missionaries who are getting reassigned. So it's about to be a big party!

But this week has been really awesome, the biggest success we have been having this week is through English classes! We had a super fat miracle too!

What we do is we do a Facebook live teaching the lesson and then share a little spiritual message at the end. We then do personalized classes throughout the week to help them learn and we are able to share more spiritual messages based on their needs. We were teaching this one lady and then we shared a message at the end and she was like I just moved here to the united states 11 months ago and she was looking for a church and how she was like send me the church address and I'll go! It was pretty cool! 

Allan is also still going super strong. He made a plan to share the gospel with his family and he's already thinking of people he can share the gospel with! He has a couple of friends and he said, "When we get out of this quarantine I want to you to come with me to my friend's house and we can start teaching him the gospel. Because he can really benefit from it!"

So as soon as this quarantine ends, this mission is gonna BOOM! 

I love you all and I hope you are staying sane! 

Elder Jorgensen 

1. Snake Kings

2. Make sure you wear your masks 

3. Walks in the rain

TRUST April 27, 2020

Dear Family and Friends,

What a week it has been, this has definitely been the hardest week of this quarantine period. Like we hit rock bottom. But the best part about that, is we are taught in 2 Nephi 2:11, "There must needs be an opposition in all things!" 

We had interviews with President Mutombo this past week and I was explaining the situation to him, he was able to offer me some pretty profound advice! He told me to not be scared when I feel stuck or don't know what to do, because when I feel that way, that is when my Father in Heaven and Christ want me to turn to them!

So that's what I did, I had a pretty good conversation with God one night, and he answered my prayer!

The biggest thing we are excited about is we are going to be teaching large scale and personalized English classes over zoom and Facebook messenger! I am so excited and we have already like had 20+ people sign up! So the work is booming again and we are super excited! Like whoohoooooo!!!!!!!!!!!

And I just definitely know that if there are any of you that are feeling like you are stuck/dont know what the future, turn to God and he will 100% guide you, because that is a promise that we have in Proverbs 3:5-6

"5 Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.

6 In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths."

I love you all and have a blessed week!

Elder Jorgensen 

Pics: 

1&2. Social Distancing in Costco, also dont go the wrong way in Costco. People give you mean looks 

3. Quarantine photoshoot

4. Not photoshopped 

Strong and Powerful Like a Dolphin - April 20, 2020

Dear Family and Friends,

It's been 36 days in quarantine and we are still going strong! It's still amazing to see how willing people are here to just hear a simple message, and honestly I have started to see this way work even better.

Because some people are apprehensive about letting random strangers into their homes or even stopping them in the street and talking to them! But they are so much more willing to respond to a scripture text or be willing to listen to a 10-15 minute message over the phone!

And the best part is we have been able to get back in contact with a lot of people we had lost contact with before the quarantine started, which has been really nice!

We saw a very big miracle this week! So our most progressive person who is being taught named Allan has been just blowing off the charts! He finished the entire Book of Mormon and is just beaming with the spirit! We have been able to share little messages of the Book of Mormon testifying of the Bible and then he turns around and shares it with his Mom and Dad! He said that he's seeing a change in them too! And we also just started teaching his aunt too, who is basically like his second mom! So they are definitely an elect family!

This past week we also had our last zone conference with our beloved President Mutombo! It was definitely super spiritual and we were all crying by the end of it! But he left us with a last invitation, by telling us that if he doesn't see us again in this life, he will see us again before the judgment bar of God because he will do all he can to make sure he will be there! He also told us to be strong and powerful like a dolphin!

I love you all!

Elder Jorgensen 

Count your many blessings - April 13,2020

 

Family and Friends,

Happy Easter! I hope everyone had a blessed day yesterday remembering Jesus Christ's atoning sacrifice and triumphant victory over death! We had a great day and were able to share a lot of Easter messages with people which was super awesome!

We also got some pretty awesome news! We were told that we will be inside for at least two more weeks, and we're excited to see what kind of blessings come our way this week!

But this week has definitely been full on a lot of tender mercies and little miracles that keep us going when the going gets rough!

There was this lady who when we got here we tried contacting and it was not successful. We tried knocking on her door and some men opened and told us she was of a different religion and shewed us away with their hands! And so ended up having to stop teaching her, which was kinda sad because the other Elders had told us that she was super legit and had so much potential! But fast forward to this week and she had reached out to one of the other Elders that had taught her but had since been transferred and he put us in contact with her and she's right back on the progressing path! We're having multiple lessons a week and she even participated in the world wide fast this past Friday which was super awesome! We are really excited about her!

We then have been trying new ways to find people, and so we went on a Facebook page for Lancaster, PA and did some digging around and found a Latina! We then just sent her a message hoping for the best and she actually responded and we have a lesson set up with her tonight!

And just like 30 minutes ago, we just get this random call from this man named Jose and he said that he was returning a call! He was confused who we were, but we were able to set up a lesson for this next weekend! We then looked in our records and there was no number and then we looked in our call history and we have never contacted him! So not really sure how he got our number but God is good!

But something that really hit me this week as I was going back and studying the conference talks from this past session I was hit by the line in President Dallin H. Oaks talk where he said that the spirit world now has many mortally trained missionaries who are there right now helping the work progress even faster! And I got to thinking if they think the work is fast right now, just wait until the coronatine (Corona + Quarantine) missionaries get up there! Then the work will be going by so fast!

I love you all so very much and stay safe! 

Elder Jorgensen 

The Work is Hastening - April 6, 2020

Family and Friends,

What a week it has been! What a blessing it is to still be one if the Lord's chosen servants in this time! My heart goes out to all of those who have had to return home early and are now in a limbo deciding what to do next in their lives. But I know that the Lord definitely is mindful of every single one of us and has a perfect plan! And the lord truly does bless his missionaries!

But this week has definitely been a long one! Quarantine makes the days go by so much longer and this week felt like an eternity. But it's also a very fun time. 

As I was studying my scriptures this week and talking with the Zone Leaders, we came across as scripture that truly describes what the Lord is doing with his missionaries right now who are in quarantine!

In DyC 88:73 it says, "Behold, I will hasten my work in its time!"

And we got to thinking about how true that is. Never before now has the work of missionaries been faster! We are keeping our lessons for 15 minutes each, we don't have to worry about travel time, we can reach a large number of people through the phone or Facebook, and we are doing this all within the walls of our own homes! It is amazing to see how the Lord truly is hastening his work. There have been a couple of times this week were we have taught 4 or 5 lessons just between 6:00-9:00, what an amazing time it has been.

And all this stems from the council we have received from our mission President, who actually just got called to be a General Authority 70 (which we were all sad about), but President/Elder Mutombo told us this wasn't a time to slack off, this wasn't a time to rest as many other missionaries may be thinking. He didn't want us going to the church to mess around, he wanted us to always be in missionary clothing to respect the dignity of our calling, and he didn't want any distractions coming in! So basically he wanted us to get down and work, because he knew the power that we could have during this time! So it has been #grindseason

And we have seen some pretty big miracles:

1. So because or lessons are short and over the phone we have had contact with the person we are teaching who is progressing the most and his name is Allan! And he is the most prepared person I have ever met in my entire life! So basically at the beginning of this quarantine we taught him all the lessons over again and then we asked him what he felt like he needed to improve. And he said that he wanted to improve his understanding of President Nelson and Joseph Smith. And so this week we have been preparing him to watch conference! And he ABSOLUTELY LOVED conference! He was sending us texts after every single session with screen shots of his favorite speakers and stuff he learned! And  we also experienced another miracle. So the thing that has been holding him up from being baptized is his mom, and we could teel that he has always been a little apprehensive about talking to his mom about church things because he has been a little scared! But we invited him to invite him mom to watch conference with him! And so he invited her to watch Sunday morning with him and she DID!! And not just his mom, but his dad, and his younger sister, and his other younger sister! His got his whole family to sit down and watch conference together! And he said that they all did the Hosanna should together! Ohhhhhh my goodness we almost died of joy when Allan told us that! He is such a stud!

2. We received a referral from a member and so we have been in contact with her this week, but she has been a little flaky! But yesterday we were able invite her to watch the conference as well and she loved it as well! She was also saying how she has seen a change in the life of her brother and parents since they joined the church and she really admires them, so we asked her if she wants to change too, and she said yes, and we said we are here to help you do that! And so hopefully this week even more miracles are gonna come pouring down!

But I am truly grateful for this wonderful time that I have to truly grow my testimony and to grow closer to my savior and to suffer and struggle a bit so that I can come to know him better! I love what Elder Uchtdorf said in Conference yesterday, I don't remember the exact quote but it was something upon the lines of sometimes we need to struggle to learn important lessons that we otherwise wouldn't learn if we had an easy, stress and worry free life!

I love you and have a blessed week!

Elder Jorgensen 

Pics:

1 and 2. Nature walks are fun

A Blessed Week - March 30, 2020

Dear family and friend,

What a week it has been! The Lord truly is pouring out his blessings upon us and I am so happy that I still have this opportunity to be out here still serving the Lord! It truly is a blessing!

I just wanted to share a quick little insight that I had this week while I was reading the Book of Mormon! At the beginning of this week, it was definitely hard to stay positive and I was trying the best I could, but I just felt like Satan was attacking me with by all means necessary. I decided one day to study about the Lord's mercy and how He truly is merciful to those who put their trust in him! 

As I was studying I was turned to 2 Nephi 4! And at this time Lehi had just died, Nephi is remembering all his past sins, and Satan is basically just attacking him! But as Nephi was going through this he had a change of heart! And he had the change of heart when he turned to Christ and focused him rather than all the bad things happening in his world! 

He said 

"28 Awake, my soul! No longer droop in sin. Rejoice, O my heart, and give place no more for the enemy of my soul.

29 Do not anger again because of mine enemies. Do not slacken my strength because of mine afflictions.

30 Rejoice, O my heart, and cry unto the Lord, and say: O Lord, I will praise thee forever; yea, my soul will rejoice in thee, my God, and the rock of my salvation."

And even though I'm not living a life of sin this scripture spoke to me! I was told that why should I focus on all the negatives of the world, why should I choose how others make me feel, why should I let corona put a damper on my rays of sunlight! I have Christ and I know Christ, and I can be happy no matter the situation! He's everything to me and he's the source of all my happiness and joy and when I build my foundation on him, I have everything!

Also this week has been stocked full of miracles! We are teaching lessons right and left, literally having booked days and I'm loving it! 

I hope that you all have a blessed week and I love you! 

Elder Jorgensen 

7 down, ? Left to Go

Dear Family and Friends,

What an interesting week it has been! Right after preparation day last week as we were on our way to our first appointment we got a text saying, "Go home you are in quarantine don't talk to anyone, go straight home!" So that started our quarantine and it has been a full week now, and we dont know how long we are going to be inside for. We had a call with our mission President and he said that it's only getting worse, and he doesn't see us being released after the end of these two weeks! But we are staying optimistic and loving the opportunity that we still have to be representatives of Jesus Christ everyday and continually wear his name on our chests! I love it!

But we have seen some really cool miracles from this past week! 

So back in Baltimore we found thus guy on the street who was just really awesome and super willing to meet up with us again, we had two lessons with him and he just asked for money both times to get back to El Salvador, but we told him we help out with Spiritual needs and not temporal needs. So we gave him a Book of Mormon and promised that if he would read the Book of Mormon everyday he would find a way to get back to El Slavador. And then we didn't hear from him again!

Fast forward to this past week. We get a random call from him, so we answered it and started talking to him. Turns out that he made it to El Salvador and is reading the book of Mormon almost everyday!!!!!! He said how he didn't believe it at the beginning, but as he saw that it strengthened his testimony he wanted to learn more! So we got his address and are going to send him to the missionaries down in El Salvador!!!!

We also had a video call with a family in the Branch, and we just taught them a little message from Come Follow Me this past week about members being apart of the gathering of Israel and how, "Scattered Israel Hangs around Gathered Israel!" We then just simply expressed how much we loved their family and how much they mean to us, and then right before he hung up. He said wait wait wait, before you go, let me give you my sister's contact information and I want you to reach out to her! He then told us a couple of stories and she sounds super super super awesome and hopefully we can bring her the peace that she's searching for!

But this week has been a little sad. All the older missionaries are being sent home, and basically everyone from my first district in the field is gone! But the Lord's work will still go on! Hoorah Hoorah For Israel!!

Elder Jorgensen

Pics: 

1.Quarantine cuts

2. Quarantine!!!!

The Boldness of a Missionary

Dear Family and Friends,

What an absolutely insane week it has been. We have not been quarantined yet, but today we were instructed to go and buy 2 weeks worth of food and it's looking like we will get locked up this week! So that's not gonna be fun, but hopefully we won't have to worry about that!

But this week has been a little interesting with all the changes that have been happening. There are definitely a lot of people who are freaking out, but I am definitely glad of the knowledge I have as a representative of Jesus Chrsit and the peace she comfort I can bring to all of those around me!

But we have had some super awesome miracles. On Monday night we were invited over to Allan's house to ear dinner with his family. So after preparation we went and sat down and had some super yummy arroz con habichuelas! And the funniest thing was Allan wasn't even there so we basically just sat down and ate dinner with the family. But as we were talking we carefully guided the conversation over to the importance of families in our lives. The mom was just walking around the house doing other things, but then as we started talking about Family History she sat down at the table and didn't move for the rest of the time. WE HAD HER HOOKED! She was just so amazed by it all and she was wanting to learn so much more, and I was able to show her that on the family search app there are over 2,000,000 records for people from the Domincan Republic and she was astonished! She was telling her husband that the whole family needed to go to the family History center at the church and find their ancestors! So we had a super solid day set up, we were going to bring all of them to the church on Saturday morning with the Temple and family History consultant, and it was going to be super awesome, and then the church got shut down, so we are still working on trying to reset that, but it's gonna be awesome when we can!

But I hope all of you are having a blessed time, thank you so much to everyone for the birthday wishes yesterday, I truly felt loved! Have a great week! 

Funnies:

1. We met this one super duper wack lady, who loves to talk to the young Elders of the church. She is super nice, she just doesn't always use the nicest of words. And she loves to say how she's "flirting with these two cute young men." 

So we've learned to not park our bikes on that street anymore and stay away if possible!

2. I met the most drunk person I have ever seen in my entire life. Like he could take maybe two or three steps and then would fall down! But he was yelling at us, because he thought we were amish or something, but then he said I have a question for you, What color is your mother's underwear, and then he proceeded to fall over again! Pretty wack stuff!

3. I was on exchanges with the other Elders on the other side of Lancaster this week! And we were walking down this street and this African man called out to us, we were going to have a lesson with him later that day, but we decided to go over and talk to him then. He was probably on this second beer and he was just crying saying why me, why me?!? Why do I have to have this? Why can't I be like you, why can't I talk about Jesus! So after a little bit of trying to talk to him and looking at his countenance and just seeing how sad he was, I looked at the trashcan and the spirit told me to be bold. So I straight up told him, I'm going to throw your beer away! And ge said do it and walked inside. So we took two full 6 packs and 2 separate bottles and went down the alley and chucked them in the trash! 

I love having the boldness of a missionary!

Love,

Elder Jorgensen 

Pics:

1. 3 mile island!

2. LDS

3. A massive tree

4. ¡Amén!

5. Lancaster sunsets