Week 91 - BLESSINGS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

SQUAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Soooo it´s Monday... I got nothing else to do, so I decided to write you guys. Hha psych! Nah fo real though, it’s so good to be able to write y’all this fine Monday morning! 

So this week was a good one... We were able to find new people and stuff. So yeah, but I´m gonna share with y’all a few things that happened that I thought were just outstanding. To start it´s important that you know that we might have been a little short on money this last week, and we decided to start going to parts of our area where we had never gone before, because it´s very far, and we have to take buses to get there. Sooooo we were out in the boonies and we had to get back quickly, and we didn´t know if we had enough money to get back, and a taxi stopped and asked where we were goin, we told him where we were heading, and he took us for free. BLESSING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The interesting thing he didn´t even believe in God, he simply wanted to do a good deed, but we were able to teach him about the plan of salvation in his taxi. It was a great experience.

Another day, we had lunch with a family really far away, and we walked there to save some money, and after lunch we had a lesson, so we couldn´t walk back, because we didn´t have time, and another car pulled up and said get in. It was a couple that listened to the missionaries before, and they took us to the lesson! BLESSING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Am I right?

On another one of our adventures this week, we got off the bus, and just started walking to the boonies, ya know the usual, and we ran into this guy, we share a little with him, but he was drunk, so that was pretty normal, so we just kept walking and walking until we arrived at these little houses made of bricks and mud. We met a dude, his name is Dario, and he was a member, a member very inactive, hadn´t been to church in 14 years. He invited us in, and said he was going through some tough times, and didn´t think it was just a coincidence that we happened to wander all the way to his house. He told us it was time to come back, and we were able to teach him and his wife, who was not a member, the restoration. BLESSING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Other story, we were on our way home one night, and we decided to knock one more, and a kind old lady came out, and we were like we´re missionaries and all that good stuff, and she was like come in. We were a good 20 minutes into the lesson, and she was like, " yeah I´m a member" and I was like woooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! She was struggling to pay her rent and all that stuff, and at the end of the lesson, she tried to give us 100 pesos, it was so sweet of her to offer, obviously we denied. But the fact that she didn´t have money for rent and wanted to give us money was amazing, only because she loves the missionaries.

We also found 24 new people this week.  it was grand, that´s all I got for this week, bye!!!!!!!

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Elder Keaton Jorgensen

Argentina Mendoza Mission

Week 90 - General Authority

SQUAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! First off, my mother pointed out to me that last week I didn´t start my email with SQUAD!!!!!!!!!!! So I apologize to all those who were disappointed. Well this week was pretty good, I guess, I´m gonna tell you about the General Authority that came to our mission this week. Elder Teixeira, this last General Conference he was called as a member of the Presidency of Seventy. So Thursday we all went to Mendoza for a special conference. Sooo he isn´t a native Spanish speaker, soooo his Spanish was a little iffy, and every now and then he would blurt out a world in English, which isn´t his native tongue either, and it was quite entertaining, but he gave a good lesson, it mostly had to do with teaching more lessons. The wife of Elder Teixeira doesn´t speak very much Spanish... or English, sooooo we had a translator for her lesson. It was impressive, because he talked in English, kinda, and an Elder from Guatemala translated like perfectly everything. 

Other thing, my brother got engaged on my birthday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He wrote me today telling me he got me a birthday gift, it was a sister... in law, but I´m not gonna use the in law part because I grew up with only brothers, soooooo yeah it´s gonna be different having another lady around during the holidays. Oh speaking of my birthday, well Saturday I turned 20 years old!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And some Sister missionaries in my district planned a pretty dope party with some members in our branch. They made some bomb pizza, and the sister missionaries gave me some dope gifts, shown in the picture below.

Well I´m heading out, I´ll talk to y’all next week. Bye!

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Elder Keaton Jorgensen

Argentina Mendoza Mission

Birthday Celebration

 

Photos and video received from Facundo Agüero 

Photo received from Claudia Pereyra de Luna

Week 89 - BAPTISM!!!!!!!!!!!

I don´t have a lot of time, SORRY! but the Carmona family got baptized!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This is a family that has been inactive for a very long time like 7 years, and well we started teaching them, and finally their last 3 kids were baptized.  The littlest one, Abril, asked me to baptize her, it was such a great experience. I love being a missionary, I get to see people obtain, or regain, their testimonies.

D&C 15:6

6 And now, behold, I say unto you, that the thing which will be of the most worth unto you will be to declare repentance unto this people, that you may bring souls unto me, that you may rest with them in the kingdom of my Father. Amen. 

I really have noticed that it really has become of the most worth for me, as well as it should be for each and every one of you. I truly do know that God lives, that he is our Father, and that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is the true church of Christ. Before my mission I believed these things and now I know them to be true. I love you all and I will talk to you next week.

Elder Keaton Jorgensen

Argentina Mendoza Mission

Week 88 --- Coincidence... I think not

Squad. I heard from my dear mother that Wayne Lindsay, a beloved member from my ward back home, passed away last week. I just want you all to know that he was a great man. I had the privilege to be a home teacher for the Lindsay family, and I got to know Wayne quite well. He and his wife, Anita, were always so kind, and helped soooo much the youth of our ward, inviting them over Sundays to eat, or to watch a movie. Wayne was a great example of what a Christian life should look like. I am soooo grateful for God´s plan of happiness for his children.

Now to tell you about my week.  On Wednesday, we were working right, and all of a sudden a little dog started to follow us. I was thinking it was gonna return home in a few minutes, but noooooooooooooooooooooooo it followed us for 3 hours and we walked very far. At the end, we were returning back to our apartment, and we heard some people yelling “come here!”  So, we went to see what they needed, turns out it was their dog and they had been looking for it for a few hours.  They were like it´s not a coincidence that you guys passed by with our dog right when we were outside, and they invited us in to teach them. God works in mysterious ways...

Also we had taught a lady over 2 weeks ago, she said she was gonna read the Book of Mormon and pray about it, and give us her answer later.  Well for these last 2 weeks, we couldn´t get in contact with her, and finally this week we found her, and we had a lesson and she gave one of the most sincere testimonies of the Book of Mormon that I have ever heard. She said there is no doubt that this book comes from God. She then asked if she could be baptized. It was soooo cool. 

Well that´s all for this week.  Ohhh and we have 3 baptisms this Saturday, wooooooooooooooooooo. Bye.

-- 

Elder Keaton Jorgensen

Argentina Mendoza Mission

 

 

Week 87 --- Conference

SQUAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Well this week was kinda off; we started off doing an activity in my district, we all worked in one area that was having difficulties and we had some pretty good success.  Later in the week, I went to the doctor because, for the past 4 weeks, I have had a problem with my foot, and we went and got it looked at.  Well, for these last 4 weeks, I shouldn´t have been working. Now the doctor said I can´t work, and I can`t even use shoes until I`m all healed up, sooooo I`ve been strollin ‘around in Crocs. I even went to conference in my suit, wearing crocs. Soooo I didn't get to work too much this week, and I don`t even know how long this will last.

I did, however, get to enjoy General Conference, it was a good one. I hope you all watched it and enjoyed it as well. I’ve got to say it was quite the Conference, and because I couldn´t really work this week, I don´t have any great stories but I´d like to share with you perhaps my favorite talk from conference. It was given by Lynn G Robbins. He talked about failure, and how many people do not understand the concept of failure. He explained that failure is a tutor and not a tragedy. Failing does not mean we are failures, it simply means that we are learning. He also taught that true success is being able to fail without losing hope. He taught that we must never lose hope for Christ has given us a second chance. His suffered for us so that we would have a second chance, so that we could repent. He also said "Repentance isn´t a backup plan in case we fail, repentance is the plan, knowing that we will fail."  Failure is the plan, there is no way to progress if we do not fail. Do not fear failure or repentance.  Welcome it because, like he said, failure and repentance is God´s plan for us.

Well, like I said, I couldn´t work, so I don´t have stories, but maybe next week I will. Bye!!!!!!!!!!!

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Elder Keaton Jorgensen

Argentina Mendoza Mission

Note from Mom:  Keaton said I couldn’t share pictures of his foot injury (it happened while he was playing soccer).