Week 34 --- Frickin Drunks...

Squad!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So you will not believe the week we just had!!!!!!!!!!! Blessings!!!!!! So we have had some troubles finding people, and getting people to attend church. So obviously we have prayed, and fasted for some help, because we know our Heavenly Father is always willing to help. So a family in our ward, the family of Gustavo, is really big, and por fin, they have been working with their family, and because of their help in the work, we have 7 new investigators, with real desires to follow Christ. They all came to church yesterday. We had 11 investigators in total attend church. What a blessing!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Soooo I gave this email a title, a little weird, but not when I explain why I did it. So yesterday we had a lesson with an inactive member's daughter, who is the only one of the family who isn't baptized. So we showed up, and when we were waiting for someone to answer our clapping, because that's how we do it down here, we noticed 2 drunks getting yelled at by the neighbor right? I don't know what they did because we showed up in the middle of the yelling, but it was crazy, and well they started to walk our way, and at this time we were talking with the mom, who was saying that they didn't have time, but the drunks came over and asked me "Are you a preacher?"  I didn't answer, because he was drunk and I was talking with the lady, and he kept asking me are you a preacher because this guy needs to know Jesus, he has a demon inside him, he needs Jesus, but finally the lady was like "hey you're interrupting a conversation" and they started to walk away, but she felt like it would be safer if we came in. So we did, and we ended up being able to teach, and she wants her daughter to be baptized, and the daughter also wants to be baptized... So we set a baptismal date. This sounds kinda weird but those drunks were a blessing.

Also this week we had interviews with President Goates, and also his wife gave a little lesson about obedience, and one of the examples she gave was Jesus Christ, obviously he would be a great example. Well we talked about his sacrifice in Gethsemane, and how even when he was experiencing every pain and affliction that we have, and as he took upon his self the load of all our sins, he still would not disobey his God. Matthew 26:39:

39 And he went a little further, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.

That's the kind of obedience we should have, obviously we will never experience the kind of suffering that he did, but we should be willing to suffer a little sometimes, to be obedient to our Heavenly Father.

That's all for this week, I will talk to you later!

-- 

Elder Keaton Jorgensen

Argentina Mendoza Mission 

Week 33 -Perserverar hasta el fin

Squad. It's a pleasure to be able to talk with you all this fine Monday morning. Another week has gone by, stuff has happened, so I'm gonna share some stuff. So the reason I titled this email Perserverar hasta el fin (endure to the end) is because of the things that happened this week. So I thought maybe you all would like to hear. 

So not gonna lie, the start of this last week was a little rough, we knocked on doors for hours, and couldn't find anyone, all of our appointments with our investigators were falling through. It was rough, we did not have a lot of desire to work, but guess what? We kept working anyway, and that is why by the end of the week, we had some sweet success. One experience that really hit me pretty hard was the other day just a few minutes before lunch. We were knocking doors and having absolutely no luck, and it was about time for lunch, and we were close to the member’s house, so we decided to just head over a little early. So we just started walking to lunch, we were like a block away, and we passed an open door and we saw a family, so we said hola and kept walking, but then we both knew, like at the same time that we needed to try just one more time, so we went back to the house, introduced ourselves, and said we had a message about the amazing plan that God has for us. They said sure but for like 5 minutes because they were about to leave, so we entered, and started to teach. Turns out they really liked this plan, and said it really helped them. We ended up teaching for a solid 30 minutes, because they liked it so much! Endure to the end in all things!

Romans 2:7

7 To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality, eternal life:

We need to be patient in difficult times, and keep working no matter what, and we will receive eternal life.

Oh also I forgot — for the first time in my mission I was asked to speak in Sacrament meeting, I mean before when I was new in the ward, I just gave a simple testimony, but this time I gave a frickin talk, about James 1:5, it was kinda hard to fill up time while talking about one scripture, but I did it, don't think I did too bad either... Soooo yeah. and because I talked about that scripture I might as well share it and testify and stuff. So James 1:5-6:

5 If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.

6 But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.

We can ask God in all things, whenever we lack wisdom, or if we need help, He giveth to all liberally, but ask in faith, so you won't be tossed easily, so you won't be lost, and confused. He will give us what we need.

That's all for this week, it's been lit, I will write you again next week.

-- 

Elder Keaton Jorgensen

Argentina Mendoza Mission

Only have the one pic this week, but we indeed got our McFlurry on! (Elders: Sharp, Tew, Mogollon, Jorgensen; Hermanas: Mena, Bullock)​

Week 32 - Baptism

SQUAD!!!!!!!! Sooooooo I want to start off by saying that por fin Gustavo was baptized!!!!!! It was not too easy for him, but he did it. He had a few habits he had to fix, and lack of support from his family at times, but he knew what he had to do, and he overcame every trial to be able to be baptized. It was so awesome how emotional he was that day, it was like a kid waiting to open his Christmas presents on Christmas Day. Then the next day he was confirmed a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints! and then he received the Aaronic Priesthood! He's already offering to come with us to teach some people, and he gave us some references that he's gonna help us teach. I love this guy, he really has changed a ton! And his desire to follow Christ is very strong! Ya know we were talking with him one day, and he told us that it was really difficult to drop a few habits, drinking, and smoking, but he told us that prayer is something that helped him a lot, and I'm gonna share a scripture about prayer that I really like D&C 10:5.

5 Pray always, that you may come off conqueror; yea, that you may conquer Satan, and that you may escape the hands of the servants of Satan that do uphold his work.

I know that with constant prayer, our Heavenly Father will help us overcome whatever trial we face, and we need to pray often, so that Satan can't have power over us.

Oh and I just received an email from Victor, the convert from Albardon, and he just told me that he received the Melchizedek Priesthood!!!!!! What?! Isn't that awesome, and that he is preparing to serve a mission!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm pretty stoked right now not gonna lie.

Sooooo we also had Zone Conference this week, and I think the lesson that I liked the most was from Hermana Goates, President's wife, and talking about searching for the help of the Holy Ghost. She explained that always we should be seeking the guidance of the Holy Ghost, because the Holy Ghost will never lead us astray. That in times when we need to make a decision, we should pray, and ask specifically for the things we need. I just hope that you all are searching for the guide of the Holy Ghost in your life, it's a gift that God has given us, and we need to use it often. Galatians 5:22-23

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,

23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.

This is what the Holy Ghost brings into our life, what a blessing, it's very important that we strive to recognize the promptings of the Spirit in our everyday lives, because the Holy Ghost testifies of God the Father and of his son Jesus Christ, and everything The Holy Ghost prompts us to do helps us become to them.

That's all I got this week for ya. I love you all, and I will write you next week.

​-- 

Elder Keaton Jorgensen

Argentina Mendoza Mission

The baptism pics, Gustavo, Matias, Elder Mogollon, me, and Pedro our investigator that wanted to be in the pic. Then we have Good ol

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 Elder Sharp, lookin

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 all classy and what not. Then during Zone Conference, I got to see Elder Udall again, my MTC comp

One more picture --- this one was received from Elder Sharp's mom.

Week 31 --- The true homie... Pedro

SQUAD!!!! I just wanted to start off by saying how grateful I am to have this opportunity to write you all! So I'm guessing you all are wondering who is Pedro... If you weren't wondering, I'm gonna tell you anyway because the other day we were in a trio, because this other missionary, from Paraguay, was waiting for his new companion to arrive, anyways we were walking down the street and we started to talk to this guy, Pedro. Well we talked for a bit and he said something that really hit me. ya know, right in the corazon, heart, anyways he said " I love to see this, 3 people from 3 different countries united in one cause" and I was like thinking, wow he is right. That's what the gospel does, it brings people together. So I just thought I should share that little story with y’all. I hope you liked it.

So this past week we were just chillin ya know, walkin back to the pension because it was late, and a man stopped us and was like "I need your help" and so we were like "what can we do for you?" and he explained to us that recently in his house he has experienced some disturbances right, so he asked us if we could come and throw the holy water around his house. Obviously we don't do that, so we said we could come in and ask for a blessing for the home in prayer. So we did, and then we thought, we are already in his house, so ended up teaching him about the Restoration. We invited him to be baptized, and he said.... wait for it..... keep waiting... yes, he said yes. So on the 15th of April he's gonna be baptized, it was an awesome experience, he trusted in us so much to help him, and I know if he keeps these desires to follow Christ, he will receive all the help he needs.

Also during this fine week, we met this nice old lady named Adoralinda. Well we stopped for a bit to chat, because we had a little time to spare before our next appointment, well it wasn't so short the conversation. She likes to talk. We said we had to go to because we were late for an appointment, so we asked if we could say a prayer before we left. She started talking about her daughter. So I said is it alright if I say a prayer, because we need to go now, so I started praying, and then in the middle she starting talking again about her other daughter from Buenos Aires, it was quite entertaining, not gonna lie. Eventually we were able to depart. She was a nice lady.

Oh also I almost forgot, tomorrow we are gonna have the baptismal interview for Gustavo! Por fin! So this weekend we be havin’ a baptism. I'm so happy to see the change that he has made, his desires to follow Christ are strong, let me tell ya. So I'll be sure to have pictures next Monday. I do not have any pictures this week, so forgive me.

So I started reading the Bible right, because there are a lot of Catholics here, and they like the Bible, so I was thinking that maybe I should study the Bible a little more, and I found a swell scripture that I would like to share with you. This scripture is in Matthew 7:21”

21 Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.

You know the phrase "actions speak louder than words" … well as you can see in this scripture it's true. In the scriptures many times it talks about real intent, well this means acting when we receive answers from God. If he tells us that this is the truth you’ve got to act, God wants to help us, but the things we say mean nothing if they aren't accompanied by true intent. So I liked this scripture.

That is all that I have to share with you this week. I love you, I appreciate you, and I will talk to you next week.

--

Elder Keaton Jorgensen

Argentina Mendoza Mission