Week 16 in Plano, TX

This week is transfer week.  Jesse doesn't know if he is staying or going.  Hold off sending anything in the mail for a couple of weeks until we know what the Lord has in store for him.  Jesse had to talk in Sacrament meeting a few weeks back.  He sent us his talk (which I am posting).  It is good to see him have to stretch and get out of his comfort zone and speak. As always, his letter this week is short, sweet, and to the point :)

Been doing some hard work. The splits didn't go so well this week. The first day we had three appointments cancel. The second day went well and the third day was ward temple night. We will be doing the same thing this week. We dropped B****. We did have Elder E**** from the seventy come and speak to us. He gave a missionary training on Friday, did an adult session for stake conference on Saturday.  He gave a talk in stake conference on Sunday. He was good. Other than that nothing special happened here. Have a great week.

Talk given on Sunday, December 22, 2013

     Hello, brothers and sisters.  My name is Elder Jorgensen.  The topic that I was assigned to talk to you about today is Elder David A. Bednar's talk "Becoming a Preach my Gospel Missionary." Ths talk was given to missionaries in the MTC in Provo on June 24, 2011.  Now Just because it was given to missionaries doesn't mean that you can just tune yourselves out and not listen because it still can apply to you today.
     The first point "Understand that you serve and represent Jesus Christ".  So what is a representative? it is kind of self explanitory. It is someone who represents some else.  Now as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we all promised to be representatives of Jesus Christ.  Don't believe me, well let me read a scripture that should be familiar to you.  It is found in the Book of Moroni 4:3.  It reads, "O God the eternal Father, we ask thee in the name of thy son Jexus Christ to bless and sactify this bread to the souls of all those who partake of it; that they may eat in remembrance of the body of thy son and witness unto thee O Goad the Eternal Father, that they are willing to take upon them the name of thy Son and always remember him and keep his commandments which He hath given them that they may always have thy spirit to be with them, Amen."
     In there it says that we are willing to take uypon the name of thy son Jesus Christ.  Taking a name upon you sounds like representing Jesus Christ.  So now athat all of you are representitives of Jesus.  You are one step closer to becoming Preach My Gospel Missionaries.
The second point is to be worthy.  When someone chooses someone else to represent them, they want to choose someone that won't make them look bad.  Jesus Christ was perfect and now he trusts you to be His representative. So how do we be worthy of being his representative?  We can be worthy and clean through repentance.  Elder Bednar says something in his talk that I really like.  It says, "Repentance is a principal of hope and healing- not of discouragement and despair. Repentance indeed is humbling-but not frightening.  Repentance is a priceless gift made possible though the atonement of Him who we love, serve and follow".  We shouldn't be afraid to repent. How are we supposed to be representatives of the cleanes person who has ever been on the earth if we are spotted with the world's dirt.  In D&C 121:37 it reads.  That they may be conferred upon us, it is true; but when we undertake to cover our sins, or to gratify our pride, our vain ambition, or to exercise control or dominion or compulsion upon the souls of the childeren of men, in any degree of unrighteousness, behold, the heavens withdraw themselves; the Spirit of the Lord is grieved; and when it is withdrawn, Amen to the priesthood or the authority of that man. " It says here that the authority that we possess as a representative is gone if we sin.  Isiah tells us how we can be clean again.  In Isaiah 1:18 it says, "Come now, and let us reason together, saith the lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool."  Now this is only possible through repentance.  So don't be scared to repent.  Be happy that you have this opportunity to be clan once again.
     The third point is to treasure up the words of Christ.  As Nephi liks to say in 2 Nephi 32:3, Angels speak gy the power of the Holy Ghost; wherefore, they speak the words of Christ.  Werefore, I said unto you, feast upon the words of Christ; for behold, words of Christ will tell you all things what ye should do.  Feast on the words of Christ."  The words conained in thse scriptures tell you and help you how to return to live with Christ once again.  The word contained in these scriptures are the most valuable things on earth.  They are worth more than all the gold, silver and diamonds on their eargh combined.  These words should not be for snatching purposes only.  Now there are people that read the scriptures and do it every night, but don't get anything out of it.  This is called platoeing.  I am a runner and plateoing is very common inn the world of running.  There are people that just can't get any faster.  Every race they are hitting the same time and the are frustrated because of it.  These people are have trained trained hard but they fall into doing the same thing over and over again. They go through the motions.  My coach had a remendy for such platoeing.  He said that you won't get any better until yuou increase one of three things, time, tempo, or intensity.  Time for how hard you do the workout. Tempo for how many times you do a workout and intensity for how hard you do the workout.  Just like running you can escape the studying platoes by increasing one or more of these.  For time, you can study the scriptures longer each day.  For tempo baybe you can study twice or more each day.  Intensity, study hard with no distractions and have a purpose you are shooting for.  Now that we treasure up the word we know what we ate taling about and how to better represent Jesus.
     The fourth point is to understand taht hte Holy Ghost is the ultimate and true teacher.  There is a simple fact that we need to understand which is hard for even us missionaries.  The fact is that we can't convince anyone of the truth of the Church.  We can't convince anyone that Joseph Smith was a proghet and that the Book of Mormon is true.  Our job is to bring the spirit so that the Holy Ghost can teach them that it is all true,  All the credit we have as missionaries goes to the Holy Ghost.  this concept is very hard for people to understand, but the sooner you learn this fact the easier it will be in the long run.  That is why being worthy is before this point.  How can we possible bring the sprit to the hearts of all thoses we meet if we are dirty. As alma states in Alma 7:21 and "he doth not dwell in unclean temples."  That is why brothers and sisters we need to repent and be clean.  This point leads to the last point, which is teaching is much more than talking and telling.  Even though we can't convince anyone of the truth of all things we can answer their questions. that is what missionaries do when they teach is they answer questions.  When we are teaching we need to be listening as well.  Elder Ballard said "missionaries who talk without observing, listening, and discerning, teach neither lessons nor people rather they talk to themselves in front of people."  This thene is true for me as a missionary and you shoring your testimony as a friend.  it is like telling a friend who has a question about who we believe God is and you sharing your testimony about Joseph Smith.  We need to listen and know what they need.  Which is why we need the spirit and why we need to study.  If we don't have the spirit then we don't have that perfect teacher and if we didn't study then how will the spirit bring to your rememberance like it says in John 14:26, "but the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my mane, he shall bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you."
     Now all of you can be great Preach my Gospel Missionaries. You just need to remember that you represent Jesus Christ, and because you represent him you need to be worthy and clean.  You need to study the scriptures so that the Holy Ghost can bring the things you studied into your remembrance, so you can teach and share your testimony and answer questions that your friends might have.  I know, brothers and sisters, that you can become great preach my gospel missionaries and be great representatives of the Lord.  I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen
  

Week 15 in Plano, Texas

     Well this week was a bit slower. We had five appointments bail out on us on Tuesday and Wednesday. We were able to reschedule one of them for last week but the other four we couldn't till this week.
     Let me tell you about a lesson we had with a recent convert family. It is the J**** family. We bumped into him a week ago and he had moved from another house that was in the ward. He hadn't had missionaries over for a while so we set an appointment for last Friday. The family has a mom a dad and three children. The oldest is a boy about 10 then a girl at 7 and another girl at 4 or 5. We taught them about how Satan makes bad seem good. (so back story. Last Monday we went to an Asian market and I bought two bags of candy. One bag was good and the other was just disgusting. It tasted like the Mexican candy.) Anyway I brought that bag and five of the alpine chocolate bars and gave them a decision to have one small chocolate or to have an entire bag of candy. The bag was really shiny and kind of looked like shiny tootsie rolls.  At the end of the lesson we made them decide which they wanted. Everyone wanted the chocolate except for the little four year old. She wanted the bag. So we handed out the candy and she was so proud that she had a bag of candy and everyone else just got a little candy until she put it into her mouth. Then her face just dropped. The dad was even teasing her making her keep it into her mouth. Her eyes got teary and she was about to cry. It was so cute and funny. Finally the mom let her throw it away. The family really liked the lesson.
     Well that was my week I hope that you all had a great week yourselves.
Love ya.

They dressed up like Book of Mormon characters and read the scriptures.

Night time entertainment (I don't know what it is of really :))

Snow!  1/4 inch of real snow, not ice.

Week 14 in Plano, TX

      This week was really awesome. The awesomeness really started on Wednesday. We contacted a referral named B*** M****. This guy is so cool. He is from Z***** and he really wants to know more about the church. He is so good, he referred himself. Then after we met him we got a call and it was another referral from one of our members. They had already set up a time for us to meet them that night. It was lucky we had that time for tracting and were able to change and teach her. Her name is J**** H*****. That lesson also went great.
     Then on Friday the weather got in the 70's. Then it got in the 30's on Saturday.
     But then we had this fireside to top off the week. The speaker was named Read Moon. He is a collector of rare books. He first brought out two bibles that were 500-600 years old. Then he showed us a first print of Common Sense. Then he brought out an original Book of Mormon first print. That was owned by........ guess who..............Joseph Smith. His name was in the front cover! Then he pulled out a thumb bible also owned by Joseph Smith. A little note, he said that there were only 2 Book of Mormons that we know of that Joseph owned and this was one of them and he said that he has the only thumb bible owned by him. Then he brought out a Doctrine and Covenants owned by Heber J Grant. And of all these books I was able to hold and look through both bibles and the Book of Mormon. I held Joseph Smith's Book of Mormon! This guy was so cool. One of the other books that he had, but didn't bring was King James's King James Bible. He said that King James had two and at one point he owned both of them. This was a really great week. My only regret was that I did not bring my camera to take any pictures. But other than that and the cold, this has got to be one of the best weeks of my life!