Monday, April 7, 2014

Sacramento Week 21

Dear Family & Friends,
You hear a happy knock at your door. You find two cute, adorable, smiling sister missionaries on your doorstep. What do you do? Some people listen, some people give us the nice "thanks but no thanks". Last night it was, "just turn yourself around and go away!" SLAM. Gotta love being a Mormon missionary. It's my life, rain or shine! But honestly, I wouldn't have it any other way (and really we only go tracting when we are super desperate). Just as so many talks from General Conference encouraged us to do, we must be true to our faith! Valiantly live the gospel and defend our beliefs with love and compassion.
Let me tell you about our new investigator Carl. We met Carl on the street one day. He's an older man, probably in his 70's, and he's one of those creepy, scruffy, homeless-looking people that you would probably lock your car doors around if you passed him. But he's not homeless so we are allowed to teach him and he really wants to be baptized. He told us the reason he came here to live in Sacramento was so he could find us missionaries. Do you know what's so great able to the gospel? It changes people. Inside and out. Despite Carl's hearing and vision problems, he enjoyed watching a session of conference with us at the church building. Teaching him has been quite interesting to say the least. I'll keep you posted!
We're still working with our other investigators. We did service for Amanda this week and her husband Craig actually went to the Priesthood session of conference with one of the members in our ward. Woohoo! I wish I had something amazing to report on Larry but he's still being stubborn about a baptism date. One of the less-actives we have been working with came to the church to watch both Sunday sessions with us so that was HUGE. Yay for General Conference weekend!
We watched all the sessions at the church building with the other missionaries and their investigators so that was fun. I really enjoyed listening to all the uplifting messages, talks, and music. SO many things said during conference were just for me. One theme that really stuck out to me was that of LOVE. Of all the topics our prophet could have chosen to speak on, that's what he felt the world needed to hear. I just need to keep loving my mission and everything about it! Love my area, love my companion, and truly love the people we teach and see them as the Lord does.
I also gained insight for my trial of waiting for my visa. I'm here in Sacramento to build my faith. I am like a tree growing in strong wind and because of this wind, I am becoming stronger (Elder Andersen's talk). This trial of my faith is giving me the "spiritual load" I need to rely on my Father in Heaven to make something more out of me than I could ever achieve on my own (Elder Bednar's talk). This mission is like my golden "4 minute performance" that I have been preparing for my whole life (Bishop Stevenson's talk). I only have 18 months to serve, but an eternity to remember. I'm going to continue to work on being grateful in my circumstances (President Uchtdorf's talk). More than anything, throughout conference, I just felt like God is aware of me personally. He knows my worries, what I stress about, what I yearn for. He is building my faith and testimony of Him so I can be firm and unshakable (Elder Holland's talk).
Just like President Monson said, I want to be ever found doing the work of the Lord. I hope you each take the time to review your notes from conference and make some personal goals about what you can do to be a better disciple of our Savior Jesus Christ. I want to thank each of you for the examples you are to me. Thank you for your testimonies and thank you for cheering me on in my journey of serving the Lord!
Love,
Sister Jorgensen
P.S. P-day is on Tuesday next week because we have interviews with President Lewis on Monday. And the week after that is transfers! Enjoy the pics- my companion and I with the ASL sisters in our zone during conference weekend. One of the pics is of Sister Enggas and I. She is fully deaf and I amazed by her each and every day. If she can be a missionary, so can I!



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