Week 52 --- Por Fin!

Squad!!!!!!!!! So I don´t have a whole lot to tell you guys this week but I'll tell yall what went down. So like 2 weeks ago we knocked some guys door, named Gasper, and he said we could come back another day, well this past week we finally found him, and I thought we had a bomb lesson, and we invited him to read the Book of Mormon and to pray to know that what we shared was true, and well he said "nah I'm good" and that was it. He said he only let us in to be nice, not gonna lie it hurt me deeply.

Other thing that happened, we taught this bomb family 2 weeks ago, and we had another appointment with them a few days ago, and so we show up, and knock on the door right? They answered the door with their Book of Mormon in hand ready to return it. They said they just don't have time right now, and that they just aren't feeling it, but I felt like we shouldn't take the Book of Mormon from them, so we told him to keep it, because the Book of Mormon is just too powerful, I thought that they might give it a try one day. So we will see what happens.

But this week wasn't all bad, we had found a family like 5 weeks ago, who had recently lost their baby girl. We hadn´t been able to find them forever, and we decided to stop by their house a little bit before one of our appointments, they weren't there. So we decided to go to our appointment, but for some reason we both just started walking in the wrong direction, and when we realized this, we happened to run into this family that was just returning home, so we asked if we could visit with them for a little. We had an amazing lesson. The mom thinks that her baby died because God was angry with her. So we just talked with them forever about how much God really loves them. We were able to testify that God loves them so much that he sent his son to suffer and die for us. John 3:16:

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

That really hit them hard. It was such a great experience. I´m so grateful that God loves us so much.

Well that´s all I got for this week, so I'm gonna end by sharing a scripture that I came across the other day.  Alma 5:26:

And now behold, I say unto you, my brethren, if ye have experienced a change of heart, and if ye have felt to sing the song of redeeming love, I would ask, can ye feel so now?

When we accept the Gospel of Jesus Christ we feel this change in our lives, a desire to follow Christ, and it is such a wonderful feeling, so the question is are we all doing what we need to, so we can still feel this in our hearts? If you can't you gotta do something about that.

Well thank you all for you support, I love you , and I will talk to you next Monday.  Chau!

--
Elder Keaton Jorgensen
Argentina Mendoza Mission

Week 51 --- Man Cake

SQUAD!!!!!!!!!!! I hope you all are swell! Sooooo we did more stuff this week so I'm gonna share a little bit if y'all don't mind. So to start off we did an actividad with our ward, called Man Cake, and well only 3 people showed up, but we made an awesome cake, so I´ll send some pictures of that. It also tasted pretty darn good, not gonna lie.

We also did a family home evening with our bishop, they invited a friend and her daughter, and he told us to teach the restoration, so we watched the video of the restauration. I love that video it is so darn powerful. We are gonna do another one tonight with them. The little girl has already attended church many times, so it's very likely that she will be baptized, the problem is her mom, she is a little more stubborn.

We also had interviews with our new president this week, and we had zone conference. In the zone conference our president talked a lot about the power and authority that we have as missionaries, He told us that because of the authority that we have there is absolutely no reason to be afraid to teach, and to share the gospel, because when we are obedient, and we have the promise that as we strive to share with everyone the Spirit will be with us, and the Spirit is a much better teacher than I. I just think about all the people I should have talked with but didn't, because I was nervous, now I just gotta do it ya know. I gotta talk with everyone. This doesn't just apply with missionaries but with everyone. Yall also have the privilege to receive this kind of help from the Spirit. So I encourage you all to be not afraid, and share with everyone.

Also we had lunch with one of the families in our ward, and it was the first time I had been to their house, and to arrive we started with a 50 minute bus ride, then we get off in front of a finca, I don't know if finca is a Spanish word or not that's just what it´s called, and then we walk straight for an hour, and that's how we got to lunch Saturday, it was a long time, but after the family asked a favor from one of the guys workin in the finca, he was driving a semi, with a big load that was goin to our area, so we rode in a semi with a stranger for 45 minutes back to our pension it was sick.

Now to end with a scripture Alma 36:3:

Whosoever shall put their trust in God shall be supported in their trials, and their troubles, and their afflictions, and shall be lifted up at the last day.

Whatever trial you may face, if you put your trust in God you can overcome all.

That´s all I got this week, Bye!!!

Elder Keaton Jorgensen
Argentina Mendoza Mission

Well we started off burning the cake, so we had to shave it ya know? Then we filled it with chocolate frosting, and dulce de leche, then we covered it with vanilla frosting, then we covered it with some nuts ya know? Then we finished with some flowers on top and drizzlin a little dulce de leche on top.

Then we have the zone pic.

Then we walked on that dirt road for an hour it was fun.

And members randomly send us home with food and treats it's swell.

Week 50 - I finally did some real service, kinda...

SQUAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Soooo like the title says I did some frickin service, and I don't  have pictures to prove it, because I was too busy workin my tail off, I couldn't take pictures. Well we were helpin a member build his house, ya know, and I was filling a wheelbarrow full of dirt, and carrying to the house to fill in the floor, and then I got to make some cement, and stuff, it was chill.

Oh btw in 1 year from today I will no longer be a missionary.  Just so y’all know,  it breaks my heart, time is runnin out.

So last week was a struggle workwise ya know, and I was feelin a little down not gonna lie, but that´s alright now, because we had a great week this week.  We were able to find a great family of 5. We were able to set baptismal dates with them. It was the coolest thing, a few days earlier we talked to one of the sons who was probably around 16, and he said he couldn´t receive us that day, but he said the following Saturday, if we came by at 7, we could find the whole family.  We show up and we see him just flyin on his bike to get back to his house for us. That does not happen as often as we would like, that when someone says come back this day at this time, they are actually there waiting for us. It was great, we had a great lesson with them.

Oh another thing that went down, one of the members in our ward had a birthday ya know, so obviously he invited us, we ate A LOT of food, but the whole time he talked to us about Marvel comics and movies, about all the movies that are coming out, and all the movies that have already come out, that he has seen, and now I'm just dying to watch some movies, but it's whatever. Also this member won´t talk to me in Spanish, he only talks to me in English, I don't know why, but it´s funny. His name is Facundo.

Oh last P-Day it was the birthday of one of our Zone Leaders, so we got together and ate like men, and I will send a picture of the meal that we had, but it was swell.

Oh so Saturday the Bishop asked me to speak in Sacrament Meeting, so I prepared a talk with the little time I had, and it was a pretty good one if I do say so myself, and well, the first person to talk ended up reading an entire talk from General Conference, and testifying about every paragraph, and it lasted about 25 minutes, and by that time there wasn't time for me to talk, but it was about missionary work, and as I prepared this awesome talk the importance of sharing the gospel hit me like a train, not only because I´m a missionary, but because I should have shared a lot more before the mission.   D&C 88:77:

77 And I give unto you a commandment that you shall teach one another the doctrine of the kingdom.

To share the gospel is a commandment.  D&C 4:3

3 Therefore, if ye have desires to serve God ye are called to the work;

With only the desire we have to serve God, we are already called to his work, which is to share the gospel.  D&C 24:12

12 And at all times, and in all places, he shall open his mouth and declare my gospel as with the voice of a trump, both day and night. And I will give unto him strength such as is not known among men.

Do it with valiance! With the voice of a trump. God will give you the strength to do so.

So my invitation to all who read this email is to share the gospel in every opportunity that you get.

That´s all I got for this week bye!

Elder Keaton Jorgensen

Argentina Mendoza Mission

Description of photos:

10 kilos of meat, and that was our birthday meal, then we got Elder Call fanning the fire so it would start up again, and then my boy Elder Christensen, swinging, chileno cake, and the birthday boy himself, Elder Lucero.  

Week 49 - Well that's new . . .

SQUAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Sooooooooooooo I'm about to tell yall about some cool stuff that happened this past week! Well not a whole lot happened, but a few things went down, so I´ll tell ya about it. Well first to explain the title of this email, yesterday we were knockin doors ya know, like missionaries do, and we get to this one house, and a little girl opens the door, probably was like 4 years old, and in probably the cutest and most innocent way I had ever seen, she rejected us like bad, she was all like" we don't want nothing!" and shut the door, but it was too cute to get mad about so ya.

I also went on exchanges ya know with my boy Elder Call, you will find his picture below, anyways it was raining hard, and it was cold, so we got dirty, like really dirty, there was mud in places where mud should not be. All the appointments had fallen until the very end of the night, when we went to teach a young couple, who needed to get married so they could be baptised,  and well they had had this same problem for months, and I happened to know about a scripture in the Bible that drops a bit of Cain. The scripture asked if you would rather get married or burn, so it was a little strong, but it got to them, and it seems like they are really working towards marriage now.

Oh the other day we were walking in the street right, and we saw a member so we started chatting with him, and it was about lunch time, and he asked us if we had lunch, and we did, then he was like do you guys want a little money to buy some more food, I don't have a lot but I got a little. It just frickin breaks my heart, that someone without a lot of money would offer that, just because we are missionaries. It makes me feel like maybe I was a little selfish before the mission, like I probably had to give, but didn´t give. It made me think of a bomb scripture in 1 Corinthians 13:13

13 And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of  these is charity.

You gotta have charity, it says that it's greater than faith and hope! So learn to give.

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

Elder Keaton Jorgensen

Argentina Mendoza Mission

Ma boy Elder Call

We travel by train tracks and there is, indeed, a neighborhood on the other side of that there desert.

Week 48 - Awkward...

SQUAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Unfortunately not much happened this week, and for that I apologize. So this email might not be too lit, but I´m gonna try anyway. I´ll just start off explaining the title of this email. So I have shared a little about a back problem I have had, well I started physical therapy, and when I arrived I found out that the doctor was a woman. So that was weird, then when I started the session, she asked me to remove my shirt, more awkward, and after she finished this treatment thing, she started to massage my back. I wasn't a fan, it felt a little weird not gonna lie, but it's whatever. Turns out that I can´t finish the physical therapy, because the church has a rule that if it requires more than a certain number of sessions, I have to go home to do it, so I´ll just wait it out ya know?

Well this week we didn't get to teach a whole lot, but we were about to do a family home evening with one of the families in our ward. Well there were a few children present, and well it was rough, we tried to do a game to teach our lesson, and it turned into a brawl among the children, I´m not sure if they learned the lesson we were trying to teach, but it's whatever. The game was that each person had to ask if they could put something in a cup, and the only way you could put something in is if you said thanks when you received the cup from someone. We wanted to teach that many times we forget to give thanks for the things we receive, especially with Our Heavenly Father, who gives us everything, but I don't think that they received that message, but it's whatever. They also gave us some food ya know, because they always do, and well I happened to be fasting, so I got to suffer, and watch my comp, and everyone else eat some delightful snackage. So that was rough, but it was worth it, because the blessings that come from a sincere fast, are a lot better than any type of food.

So I don´t know if I already mentioned this, but we have a new mission president, Presidente Panzacchi, from Uruguay. We had a special little meeting the other day so we could meet him. He´s a chill guy. The only other thing that happened this week is that a frickin bird decided that my back was a great place to relieve himself. Yes that is what the picture below is showing.

Well I got nothing else so scripture time. Ether 12:12:

12 For if there be no faith among the children of men God can do no  miracle among them; wherefore, he showed not himself until after  their  faith.

If you want any type of help from God, don't even ask until you show your faith first. I liked this scripture so I shared it.

That´s all for today. Bye!!!!!!!

-- 

Elder Keaton Jorgensen

Argentina Mendoza Mission

District, and you know the other pictures