Week 44 --- Elder Libby...what a stud!!

So this week has been super awesome! On Monday we went and saw Sister Jordan. I thought it went super awesome. Elder Alvarez said goodbye and what not, then we did the same for Mike, the recent convert, and Miguel a less active we work with.

Wednesday morning, we went into Paris and I picked up my new companion, Elder Libby. I can't explain how cool this guy is! We have the same taste in movies (we'll quote a super obscure movie and we always get the reference haha), similar sense of humor, and we even kind of look alike (sort of). Haha. But in all seriousness he's a super hard worker, he got along so well with the members, and I'm incredibly excited about our transfer together!

On Thursday, we were out contacting and we talked to this lady named Elizabeth. She used to believe in God, because of serious trials she's faced the last 40 years she has lost her faith. We talked to her for about 20 minutes, testified of God's love, explained Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon, and encouraged her to learn more. She said that she had tried to find answers in many churches and this would be the last one she would try (Obviously we weren't too worried about that ;) ). She actually lives in Reims where Elder Libby was just the day before, so we were able to get her in contact with the missionaries there. It was a really cool experience.

We also got Miguel to come to church this Sunday! Elder Libby and I saw him on Saturday and shared a good lesson on his duty as a priesthood holder, and he showed up the next day!

Fun little side note, Elder Libby has now got me hooked on the Joseph Smith Papers Project. A documentary thing that KJZZ did with the church. Every night after we plan, we close the shutters, get a bowl of cereal, turn off the lights, and have our little movie night. :) They are actually really interesting!

Well I love all you guys! Shoot me an email/letter with pictures because I'd love to hear what's new in all of your lives :)

Have a great week!

Elder Bronson Jorgensen

PICTURES:

Elder Libby is from Kaysville and is one transfer older than me in the mission. The other picture is me, Elder Alvarez, and Mike the recent convert.

Week 43 --- Round 3 of Dunkerque

So as you can tell from the subject, I'm staying in Dunkerque, and my new companion's name is Elder Libby. None of the Elders in my district know him, neither does Elder Smith (who by the way is going to be a district leader in Luxembourg. I love that guy! We still keep in touch fairly often). I'm not sure what to expect but I'm really excited for this transfer rather than nervous. Elder Alvarez is going to a town just outside Paris called Meaux (pronounced mo). All the members say it's a super rich, and nice area, so Elder Alvarez is pretty excited.

This week was really good. We were able to see all the recent converts and less actives we're working with. I gave a couple of blessings to some members that needed them. I still can't get over how powerful an experience it is to give a blessing and be guided by the Holy Ghost to say the things that are needed for the people. Yesterday was one of those times. We went to visit a less active who is going through some difficulties right now, and out of the blue she asked me to give her a blessing. It was really powerful and afterward she was so grateful and she had a new light in her eyes. In addition her almost 12 year old son was there and I feel like that we made an impression on him.

We also went tracting with Jean-Paul this Saturday . . . That was interesting....Haha!  He walks with a cane and is really slow, so we didn't talk to too many people, but he was super excited about it and because someone recognized Jean-Paul they talked to us for a couple minutes and accepted a brochure.

This past Tuesday was Bastille Day (pretty much French 4th of July).  We stood out on our balcony and saw some pretty cool fireworks and heard the music (it was funny because more than half the songs were American! Like footloose, what a feeling, and celebrate.) the only problem was they kept going until 1:00 and we can hear everything through our windows.... suffice it to say we were really tired the next morning :)

Not too much else for this week. Love you all!

Elder Bronson Jorgensen


Our last district meeting picture

Week 42

I'm going to apologize in advance, this email will be pretty short. We went on exchanges again this week in St. Omer. I got to work with Elder Nord. He's probably my best friend In the mission.

They have a car, so me and Nord got to drive out to this really little town and do some tracting. We talked to a ton of super nice young families and there were a couple who were pretty interested. It was probably the most fun exchange I've ever done! Also I discovered one of the funniest and most awkward movies of all time. On gospel library under the feature films section, you can find "the phone call" based on a story from the new era in 1974. The four of us watched it together and couldn't keep from laughing. None of us is sure why it's in gospel library, but it's worth watching at least once :) haha

This week we're going to Lille (a huge city about an hour away) for an eye appointment for Elder Alvarez, he needs glasses so the mission is going to get him some. That'll be a fun adventure:) 

Love you all!

Elder Bronson Jorgensen

(Elder Nord and I in a park in St. Omer)

Week 41 --- She Came!!!

So there isn't much to talk about this week. Unfortunately, Elder Alvarez and I are having a tough time finding investigators. Apparently this is like a district-wide problem, so we're going to do exchanges two more times this transfer to give both of our sectors an extra boost. That'll be really great because our district leader and his companion are awesome and I'm really good friends with them both. 

So cool story for the week, we had someone at church this week! Her name is Sister Jordain but everyone calls her Mado. She has been inactive for a long time because she got offended at church (which seems to happen all the time in French wards... oh well!). The Elders have been working with her the entire time she's been inactive, and finally Elder Alvarez and I were able to get her to come to Sacrament Meeting! She said she felt really good about it, and we're going to see her again this week to follow up and hopefully get her to come again. 

It was really crazy to hear about the passing of President Packer. If you haven't, look at the articles the Church has released about him on lds.org. They are really inspirational. There's been a lot of speculation from members and missionaries about what is going to happen with the new apostles, who else will pass on before President Monson, etc. In my studies this week, I happened to come across this quote in the "Teachings of the Living Prophets" institute manual: "President Harold B. Lee suggested that speculating on the succession of the Presidency is 'not pleasing in the sight of the Lord.' He said that 'those who try to guess ahead of time as to who is going to be the next President of the Church are just gambling as they might be on a horse race, because only the Lord has the time table' (in Conference Report, Oct. 1972, 129; or Ensign, Jan. 1973, 107)."

Only the Lord knows who he needs to be his prophet and special witnesses. What WE know is that the Lord has called a prophet who holds the keys of the kingdom and receives divine revelation to direct the affairs of His church. Whomever the Lord chooses we should sustain  with our faith, prayers, and service. 

I know that President Monson is truly the prophet of God, and that through an unbroken line from the Prophet Joseph Smith, he holds all the keys necessary to direct our Heavenly Father's children on the path to eternal salvation.

I love you all very much!

Elder Jorgensen

Pictures

I Love Sunsets From Our Balcony!

Elder Godfrey's last Zone Conference - June 23, 2015

Jean-Paul and I

Week 40 --- iPads!!!!

So this week we went to Brussels which was awesome! We were there for a zone conference where we got our iPads. It was a super cool conference and I got to see a lot of old friends. It was really special because Elder Godfrey is going to die at the end of this transfer. He gave his "dying testimony" along with others who are finishing their missions. It turns out at the conference were half of the companions that he had on his mission, so he got a picture of him with all of us. It was a great time! Only problem with this trip was our trains... So because of technical problems we weren't able to print out our return tickets before we left for Belgium. So we get to the train station and try to get our tickets. Turns out, if you buy the tickets in France (which the mission does) you cannot retrieve your tickets in Belgium without the card that was used to purchase them (which the mission office has). So we missed our train and had to buy new tickets. To add to all the frustration of that we're carrying a bag full of pots and pans for our apartment, our overnight bags, and our normal proselyting bags. ALSO, there was a demonstration at the tunnel the train uses to go from France to England (some workers lit a bonfire or something on the tracks). So the station is PACKED full of angry impatient travelers! It was so stressful. Thankfully we made it back home that night...but not until 10:00 :(

This Sunday we went and ate at Jean-Paul's house again. I made hamburgers, fries, and Jean-Paul made a "salad" haha 😃  (lettuce drenched in oil and vinegar) but the meal turned out pretty good.

So cool story for the week:

We were doing some contacting Saturday but there was a triathlon, model T festival, and huge "yard sale" markets going on in Dunkerque. So, we took a bus out of town and started working. There was hardly anybody out and it was getting close to dinner, so we decided to head back. We were sitting at the bus stop and the bus we were going to take didn't show up. Like it wasn't late, definitely wasn't early, it just didn't come. Just after the bus was supposed to come a man in his 60's walked up and I started talking to him. He was a little hesitant to talk at first but I just kept up the small talk until he opened up. We ended up taking the same bus as him, and we continued talking.  Février (February in French) loves history and politics and so he and I got along super well, and we carried on a conversation about philosophy history and politics for 45 minutes (which I attribute to the gift of tongues because there was nothing gospel related in that conversation haha!). Right before we had to get off he told me that he had seen missionaries around a lot, and didn't have a great opinion of us, but now it was completely changed. He took a restoration pamphlet and said he'd read it. It was just so cool to see how much difference a little bit of love and kindness can make. I encourage all of us to take the time to be friendly with those around us especially those who aren't friendly to us.

Love you all!

Elder Bronson Jorgensen

Week 39 --- I Love Exchanges!

So this week was pretty sweet. We had a great exchange on Wednesday.  Our new district leader, Elder Wilson, was Elder Godfrey's companion in La Rochelle right before me. So we talked a lot about the ward and the investigators there. He's a really great guy. Then on Thursday we had district meeting. Our training was on how we will use iPads to proselyte online, and the new schedules we'll have. Speaking of which... we're getting iPads tomorrow!!!! We are sleeping over in another town tonight and then going to Brussels tomorrow morning for our zone conference. 

Also, we are just getting done having our Branch Day. We had Branch Council meeting and then we all ate together. We seriously have the coolest branch here. The members are so great! Speaking of our little branch, there was a huge neighbourhood market festival thing this last Sunday and all the roads were blocked to get to the church, so we had church at the Deslypper's house (rich family we ate with a couple weeks ago.) It was the weirdest church experience! The couch was the stand, their dog was chilling in the branch president's seat while he blessed the sacrament with me, etc. But, it was super cool.

So the reason why I love exchanges so much is because we have twice the work getting done in our area for a day. And because of that, we got a new ami who is interested, has a family, doesn't smoke, and doesn't drink! It's so cool! Elder Alvarez and Elder Wilson found him. Anyway I got to go so we can make our train :)

Love you all!

Elder Jorgensen