Oh mi Padre

It was my last week in the Woodlands! We have transfers tomorrow and both of us will be taken out of the area due to the lack of Spanish sisters in the mission. We are sad but I'm excited to get into a new area!

I was quite sick most of the week so my comp and I had to hang out in the apartment most of the week so it wasn't too eventful.

V the Argentine is the best!! She told us this week she wants to be baptized. We're passing her off to the elders so hopefully they can progress her :)

M found a bunch of names to be baptized for soon! We're so excited!! I'm so sad to leave her.

On Sunday, I got to sing in a Spanish fireside. I sang "Oh My Father" and it was an awesome experience. I had never felt the words to a song like I did last night.

"Then, at length, when I’ve completed
All you sent me forth to do,
With your mutual approbation
Let me come and dwell with you."

I have felt God's love for me so strongly here. In every tribulation I have faced, I've seen God's hand. I'm so grateful for His love and how He has shown it to me. Happiness and love don't fill our lives by having fun all the time, but by learning from mistakes and trials. I love my Father in Heaven. I know that one day I will be able to dwell with Him.

Con amor, Hermana Jorgensen

Quiche

M is officially a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints! She told us over and over when we went to see her this week. :) she's so happy and has talked to both her mom and brother about speaking to missionaries!

We got the best referrals this week! One was a lady from Argentina. She has been attending an English ward up in Conroe with her sister and brother in law who were just baptized. She doesn't speak a ton of English so we convinced her to come to the  Spanish ward this week. :) She's really sweet and she asked us in our first lesson what it takes to become a member of the church!

We were invited to a Guatemalan birthday party this week. It was pretty fun until we realized only her close family was invited... And us. Not to mention they spoke the dialect of Quiche so we had no idea what they were saying. At least we got some tres leches.

I finished Mormon in the Book of Mormon this week! I'm almost finished with the whole book in Spanish! It's a bummer that all that amazing stuff happened when Christ  visited the Nephites, but they quickly forgot and were destroyed. There's still hope though. I love Moroni's words at the end of the book:

Mormon 9:
36 And behold, these things which we have desired concerning our
brethren, yea, even their restoration to the knowledge of Christ, are
according to the prayers of all the saints who have dwelt in the land.

37 And may the Lord Jesus Christ grant that their prayers may be
answered according to their faith; and may God the Father remember the
covenant which he hath made with the house of Israel; and may he bless
them forever, through faith on the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Through our faith we can restore others to a knowledge of Christ.

Hermana Jorgensen

Tacos de Trompo

Feliz lunes,

After Pday ended last week we got a call from an investigator we taught a few weeks ago. He wanted us to start teaching his friend. So we all met up and it turns out that his friend is a journalist and has investigated a ton about the church. He is of another religion and they believe that God and Christ are the exact same person. Which I honestly didn't understand so I asked him some questions but it still doesn't make sense to me. That was only the second time I've ever bible bashed on my mission. We still walked away as friends though so it wasn't too bad.

On Friday we got to do some service at the fair with Special Angels. Every year they open up the fair for all the groups in Houston that work with special needs. We helped get them to all the rides and whatnot. It was fun! Earlier in the week we also got to help them out with a banquet they have every year to raise money for their organization. It's actually a really cool cause and I had no idea there were so many programs for kids with special needs.

We went knocking quite a bit this week and found some great new investigators. One of them has two nephews serving missions. We knocked into another lady and she looked at us and said, "come in." That was easy. We found another group of people that are in their 20's. It was very interesting teaching them. They had a lot of great questions and couldn't understand that Hermana H and I don't smoke or drink.

We were on campus for the first time this week! Super fun and very different from anything I've ever done as a missionary. We get to go to institute, play sports, and teach family history! It's pretty neat!

We read something really cool in district meeting that I would love to share. As a mission we have learned the importance of family history work. It truly is an amazing work and I have learned so much from it. My heart really has been turned:

Frederick William Hurst was working as a gold miner in Australia when he first heard Latter-day Saint missionaries preach the restored gospel. He and his brother Charles were baptized in January 1854. He tried to help his other family members become converted, but they rejected him and the truths he taught. Fred settled in Salt Lake City four years after joining the Church, and he served faithfully as a missionary in several different countries. He also worked as a painter in the Salt Lake Temple. In one of his final journal entries, he wrote:
“Along about the 1st of March, 1893, I found myself alone in the dining room,
all had gone to bed. I was sitting at the table when to my great surprise my elder
brother Alfred walked in and sat down opposite me at the table and smiled. I said
to him (he looked so natural): ‘When did you arrive in Utah?’
“He said: ‘I have just come from the Spirit World, this is not my body that you see,
it is lying in the tomb. I want to tell you that whenyou were on your mission you told
me many things about the Gospel, and the hereafter, and about the Spirit World
being as real and tangible as the earth. I could not believe you, but when I died and
went there and saw for myself I realized that you had told the truth. I attended
the Mormon meetings.’ He raised his hand and said with much warmth: ‘I believe in
the Lord Jesus Christ with all my heart. I believe in faith, and repentance and baptism
for the remission of sins, but that is as far as I can go. I look to you to do the work for
me in the temple. … You are watched closely. … We are all looking to you as our
head in this great work. I want to tell you that there are a great many spirits who weep
and mourn because they have relatives in the Church here who are careless and are
doing nothing for them”
(Diary of Frederick William Hurst, comp. Samuel H. and Ida Hurst [1961], 204).

By doing missionary work, we do not only help the people we teach, but thousands of those that have already passed on. I'm excited to start working on M's family history with her!

M's baptism was incredible! We got to stand inside the doors and help her when she got out of the font. She gave me a big hug and it was one of the best moments of my life. While she was changing, Hermana H and I taught the restoration to all of her nonmember friends and family that were there. There were quite a few people that didn't speak Spanish so we got to do it in both Spanish and English. I don't think I've ever felt the spirit that much while saying the first vision or testifying of Joseph Smith. The nonmembers loved it and the spirit was so strong in the room.

Con amor, Hermana Jorgensen

Indian tracting

Hello!

We went finding quite a bit this week and knocked into some interesting people. My particular favorite was an Indian. Their door mat said "bienvenidos" so I was excited that I already knew the family was Hispanic. We knocked and they opened but the guy didn't look very Hispanic to me. I got confused and I don't know why but the first words that came out of my mouth were, "Do you speak Spanish?"
Him: No...
Me: *pointing to the door mat* Why not?!
Haha it was probably the worst door contact I've ever done... He ended up being Indian so that was a plus.

We went to a laundromat to give out some fliers for our English class and a drunk man started talking to us and kissed us on the hand...
That's all.

We were walking by a taco truck and I asked the woman when she was going to teach us how to make tortillas. She told us to get onto the truck so she taught us right there! It brought me back to my Waffle Love days. Then we got free tacos and horchata :)

Mili got her interview this Sunday! Everything is looking perfect for her baptism this Saturday. Her mom is flying in from Mexico for her baptism! She is so excited! She loved conference and she's an angel.

Well, bad news. Mari, our other investigator with a baptismal date, lost her job on Friday and her boss made her move out. She moved out of the mission so we can't teach her anymore. :( We are working to contact the missionaries there and get her taught again, so everything will work out just fine. It's a bummer but I know the Lord is aware of her.

Hermana Homer was teaching a family in her last area that was going to be baptized in March. A lot of hermanas finished their missions in January so there were a few areas where sister missionaries had to be taken out. After they left, the family stopped progressing. We just got permission this week to teach them. We will need your prayers because we have to get them baptized by the end of the month... It will all work out. They have four girls and it's a mad house but they are all really sweet.

We got a call from our mission president and got some exciting news! I'm now a YSA missionary! We get to cover both the Spanish ward and the YSA ward that meets in our building. I get to go on a campus every morning and do some other cool stuff! I'm super excited!

Conference was amazing! Two of my favorite talks were by Bonnie L Oscarson and Patrick Kearon. I loved that she talked about defining moments we all have. We all know the doctrine, but we have to believe it! I loved talk on the refugee effort. Even though the world is crumbling, it was so beautiful to me that there are still people with good hearts. It reminded me that I need to lend a greater hand to those in need. I couldn't believe that it was my last conference in the mission field. Time has flown by. I can still remember my very first conference in my first transfer in the field. I was reflecting a lot about all that I have learned on my mission. I am further in debt to my savior and my Heavenly Father for all that I have experienced. They have taught me so much. One theme I noticed throughout conference was our divine heritage as children of a loving Heavenly Father. Something I have learned throughout the past 14 months is the worth of a soul. I will never truly comprehend the love that God has for me but I have seen a glimpse of the love he has for his children, especially here in Houston.

Con amor, Hermana Jorgensen