Week 43 --- Wow . . .

Squad!!!!!!!!!  I´m so delighted to be able to write all you wonderful people this fine Monday morning. Things happened this week, not a whole lot, but a few things that I would like to share with you, if that´s alright. Sadly we didn't find many new investigators, but we found an old one that we hadn´t seen in 6 weeks. So we didn´t plan on going there, just one day we ended up passing by his house, so we were like maybe he is home, so we clapped, and he came out, and was like come in. So we had left him a Book of Mormon, and we asked have you been able to read it, and he said yes, he read to Alma! So we then asked how do you feel about the book, he told us that he knew it was true. What a blessing, we couldn´t meet with him for 6 weeks, and we pass by and he had been reading the whole time. We had been praying about him the whole time. Boy am I glad that God hears and answers our prayers. 

Another thing that happened, we went to teach this lady Gabriela right? Well she doesn´t believe very much in men leading a church, she believes in God, and in Jesus Christ, but not in prophets. So I had a video of the Restoration, ya know about Joseph Smith, she was so touched she made her kids leave so she wouldn´t be bothered, and then when the video finished all she said was "wow" that´s why I titled this email wow, and I wanted to share this story because the story of the restoration is something powerful, if you haven´t seen it, you should do it. There is also a movie, Joseph Smith the Prophet of the Restoration. You should all see it if you haven´t, if you don´t have a testimony, you will get one, if you already have one, it will be strengthened.

That´s all I got for this week love you all byeeeeeeeeee!

Elder Keaton Jorgensen

Argentina Mendoza Mission

Today I saw my trainer and Victor in Centro, so we had to take a nice little pic together

Week 42 --- Transfers . . .

Squad. We received our transfer call last night and ... I´m staying in Rawson with Elder Burnett.  I have been in San Juan for a really long time, but I´m happy to be here. We’re about to put in the work.

So I think I might just tell yall about the week I had. Not gonna lie not much happened, but I´m gonna write some stuff so you have something to read. Actually we had a powerful experience with an inactive member this week, so I´m gonna share that. So this week we went to lunch at a member’s house, and she had to leave so she left us with her 18-year-old son that had just moved back in with her. So we asked him why he doesn´t go to church, he told us that he doesn´t really have a reason, just felt a little too pressured to serve a mission, but anyways he told us a story about the time he spent living with his dad. One day he was just chillin in the streets walking home, and he saw some missionaries, and he felt like he should follow them, so he did, and in the process he came across a girl hidden in a vacant building and she was about to commit suicide, so he called the missionaries over, and all he did was take a Book of Mormon from them, and testify that it is a powerful book that will change her life, and she took it, and she ended up being baptized and is preparing to leave for a mission.

I wanted to share that story because, when I heard it, two things popped in my mind, the power of the Book of Mormon, and the importance of following the promptings of the Spirit. We always learn that the Book of Mormon is the key to our religion, and that is so true, but it also will give us comfort and strength when we need it. It brings me back to Mosiah 24:14. God really does visit us in our afflictions, he does help us, and the Book of Mormon is a great way to receive this help. Also,always always always follow the promptings of the Spirit, if he never turned down that street, he wouldn´t have found this girl who needed help. If you think the Spirit is telling you to do something do it, if it´s something good why hesitate, 9 times out of 10 I promise it is the Spirit.

Moroni 7:13

13 But behold, that which is of God inviteth and enticeth to do good continually; wherefore, every thing which inviteth and enticeth to do good, and to love God, and to serve him, is inspired of God.

Anyways that´s all I got for this week, I don´t even have pictures, sorry. bye!

 ​

-- 

Elder Keaton Jorgensen

Argentina Mendoza Mission

Week 41 --- BAPTISM!!!!!!!!!!!!!

SQUAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It is such a pleasure to write you this fine day, I hope all you mothers out there had a nice day yesterday, I know mine did. Wanna know why? Because she got to skype her favorite missionary who is currently in the field right now! That´s meeeeeeeeee! It was such a good time. If she tells you otherwise, it´s a lie.

Anyway I´m gonna tell you a little about my week. So unfortunately we weren't able to teach very many lessons, we dealt with a lot of appointments falling through, and it was a little sad not gonna lie, but we just kept going, until we decided to pass by a house that we had already tried 2 times before, it was a family, and at first it didn't seem like they were interested, they kept having things to do and couldn't meet with us, but ya know the third time's the charm, entonces, we decided to back one more time... and guess what! They let us in and we taught a bomb lesson about the Restoration. They both accepted baptismal dates. The cool thing is that they are married, because we don't see that a lot here, it's mostly just people who live together with kids, but they are married, so this next lesson we are gonna teach the Plan of Salvation, and focus on eternal families, because I'm pretty sure every family wants to be a family eternal am I right?

Other cool thing that happened, this week we did this thing called tormenta blanca, and so what we do is we go to the area of another companionship, to help them find some new investigators, and so we went to San Juan Centro, and found this little apartment thing, with a few houses, so rang all the doorbells obviously, and no one came out, so we went down the street, and por suerte my comp took a glance back and saw a guy at the gate where we had just rang all the doorbells, so we ran back, and we were like hey we are missionaries, we want to share a message about Jesus Christ, he said "sure" so we went in and taught him about the Restoration, ohhhhh this was an investigator of GOLD, he was asking questions throughout the entire lesson, questions that were actually about the things that we were teaching, and that doesn't happen often in Argentina, well anyways we got to the point where we were gonna testify about the Book of Mormon, and we explained that God gave us another set of scripture, to help us realize the truthfulness of the Restoration, and we explained that God led Joseph Smith to gold plates that were buried in the earth, and then we presented the Book of Mormon, and he asked us " These scriptures are the gold plates?" It wasn't even a sarcastic question, he was actually captivated by the fact that God had given us more of his word. So he was really excited to start reading it. So we leave him a chapter to read, and then invited him to be baptized... and he said yes. So that was such a cool experience.

We also learned how to make some pretty bomb empanadas from Hermana Yacante, that family is the GOAT of all families just so you know.

Anyways that's all for this week so I'm gonna end with a scripture Romans 13:8-10

8 Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law.

9 For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

10 Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.

I thought this was really cool, it explains that to keep the commandments all we need is love, love is all you need. Well obviously we need some more things but I wanted to say that phrase because I think I have heard it in a song or something, but really if you love your neighbour as thyself, you aren't gonna sin against them, so I thought that was kinda cool, and that is all I have for you I love you all and I will talk to you next week.

--

Elder Keaton Jorgensen

Argentina Mendoza Mission

So in these here pictures we have the:

Baptism of Pedro

Pics of Hermana Yacante teaching us how to make empanadas, the picture of the really pretty empanada was the first one I did, the rest didn’t turn out so well...

There was also a pretty important soccer game that day, River vs Boca, and the house we were in are all fans of River, I too am a fan of River, and after River spanked Boca, Hermano Yacante shot some fireworks to the house of his neighbor who was a boca fan, so that was fun, don't worry we didn't take part in the fireworks.

Mother's Day - Skype

Week 40 --- Perserverar hasta el fin

Squad. So I only put a period because this week wasn't too crazy, so I decided to keep it classy, but a few things went down so I´ll just tell you about those few things. Sooo we had interviews with our mission president this week, and sadly it was our last with President Goates, because he will be leaving us in a few short weeks, 

​it's kinda sad not gonna lie, but I had the opportunity to have a nice chat with him, so it´s alright, but I named the email perserverar hasta el fin because of the capacitation that Hermana Goates gave us that day, about enduring to the end. She gave us a talk about enduring to the end, and one part of that talk that I loveddddd was when it said something along the lines of, the key to enduring to the end is recognizing who we are, we are children of God, with the purpose of returning to him, and now every time I remember that I am motivated to keep pressing forward. Obviously it 

​isn't 

easy enduring to the end, but in D&C 24:8 it tells us why we can endure.

8 Be patient in afflictions, for thou shalt have many; but endure them, for, lo, Iam with theeeven unto the end of thy days.

I know without a doubt that the promise in that scripture is true, and I testify that no matter how hard life gets, we can always get through it because our Heavenly Father loves us, and is always there to help us.

I also did exchanges with Elder Kitchen, it was fun, we

​ didn't 

get to teach anyone, cuz our area has been pretty much cursed recently, but after a lot of prayer we were able to get out of that slump, and we found 5 new people, and set 4 new baptismal dates, so that was cool.

That´s all I got this week, so I am gonna share a scripture to end Romans 8:16-17

16 The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:

17 And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.

It´s weird to think about it but we are really joint-heirs with Christ, and if we want to be glorified like him, we must be willing to suffer like him (obviously not exactly like him) but we have to be willling to suffer a little. I just really liked that scripture.

That´s all for this week! Byeee!!!!!!!!!!!

--

Elder Keaton Jorgensen

Argentina Mendoza Mission

Like I said not much happened

Happy Cinco de Mayo

This Missionary Momma LOVES to receive unexpected photos
from members in Argentina.

 

Week 39 --- Heisman

SQUAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Soooooooooo I didn't know what to title this email, so I put ​Heisman, because this last week, the 4 Elders that you will see in the photo that I sent, we started striking that pose every time something crazy happened, or if we heard something lit. So we sent a lit pic.  So we ​ didn't have a lot success this week, not gonna lie, but we did have Zone conference, it might have been the last one with our current mission president, and my birthday was this month so the mission president and his wife sang a sweet little song to all the missionaries that had​ birthdays in the month of April.  I would send a video of it, but none of the videos I want to send will send.  We also received ​vaccinations for strep this week, and don´t worry I was tuff, and ​didn't even cry... that much. Not gonna lie, I was a little iffy before the shot healthwise, but I thought I was okay right, because you can´t get shots when you​'re sick, but I thought I was okay, but now I´m thinking I was wrong cuz I´m feelin a little off now, not gonna lie, but it´s whatever.  We were also able to take part in a ​Capilla abierta (open chapel)​.  It´s like a​n​  open house for the chapel, to invite people to come in and learn about our church, and I was in the baptismal font room with Elder ​Sharp, and for 3 hours I was able to teach and testify about the saving ordinance of baptism. I'm just so grateful that our Father in Heaven has given us the opportunity to be born again through baptism, so that we may be cleansed and can return to our Heavenly Father (remember 2 Nephi 31:21​)​:

21 And now, behold, my beloved brethren, this is the way; and there is none other way nor name given under heaven whereby man can be saved in the kingdom of God. And now, behold, this is the doctrine of Christ, and the only and true doctrine of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, which is one God, without end. Amen.

Not much else happened this week so I´ll share something that I learned in my studies this week, Romans 3:23-24​:​

23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;

24 Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:  We are all sinners, but thanks to the grace of our Savior Jesus Christ, we will be okay, he came to the world to redeem us from our sins.

That´s all for this week.   I´ll talk to you next week.

-- 

Elder Keaton Jorgensen

Argentina Mendoza Mission

The Heisman squad, Zone Conference, a cake we bought to celebrate my birthday, and the 6 month mark for my comp, and the other day I was feelin a little American, and I happened to open up my package of Ramen, and y​'all ready know that I​, too, am a product from the USA.