Week 72 in Lufkin, Texas (3-30-15)

Hey Everybody

today was a crazy week. Monday night the told us about a meeting in Dallas for all of the district leaders on Thursday, and since my companion is a district leader they sent him. i couldn't go so i went on an exchange with the Henderson district leader. we exchanged on Wednesday night. and my companion and the district leader in Henderson went to Longview to stay with the zone leaders so they could wake up early and leave for Dallas. At 4:00 the assistance called a missionary companionship in Nacagdouches and wanted him to go to Dallas so he had to cancel all of his plans for the day drive to Henderson wake us up and take us to a place called Kilgore to meet up with the zone leaders so he could go to the meeting with him and i got put in a Trio and we headed back to Henderson to work. the meeting for my companion was from 9-4, but it went longer and ended at 5. then the mission president told them to have a zone meeting about what was taught the next day. so i had to sleep another night in Henderson and we went to Longview the next morning for the zone meeting and then left around 1 and didn't return to Lufkin until 3. my companion had driven 600 miles in three days and he was exhausted. we were both exhausted. 

We got a new video to show people. it is called #becausehelives it is an awesome video to get us prepared for Easter. you should go and watch it and fill in the blank "Because He Lives........."

i cant wait for this general conference. #missionarysuperbowl

 

Miles driven in March

New Sunglasses

Exchanges this week

 

Week 71 in Lufkin, Texas (3-23-15)

this week was honestly kind of slow there were a couple of highlights.

1 since the senior couple in Hemp Hill had to go home my district was combined with Nacadouches and Henderson.  Every Tuesday we have to drive to Nacadoches to have a district meeting, and we willl be playing basketball there in the mornings. It will add a special twist to everything. 

2 Every Friday the spanish branch plays sports here at the church and this week they played basketball and for the first half, I was on fire. It actually looked like i knew what i was doing. 

3 Stake parties here are alot more fun than up in Utah. no offense but it was fun here. they did a steak carnival for the youth and we helped prepare and helped maintain it. it was a blast. 

Still been going strong. Elder B***** and i have been working hard for the ward. we now have our vision for the area and are doing great working though it. 

I hope that you all had a great week. bye

District

Perfect gum wrapper separation!

Texas ward party

Week 70 in Lufkin, Texas (3-16-15)

hey so this week was one crazy week for me. we had so much to do and it filed up all of our time. so here we go,

on Monday right after i get done emailing we were told that we were going to go to Nacadoches for a sleep over. the assistant's were going on exchanges with us on Tuesday and they didn't want us to have to wake up super early for their meeting that they were going to have so they told us to sleep over at the elders apartment there. we got there and found out that they had tile floors everywhere. luckily they had two couches, but we were then told that 2 of the 3 Assistants were sleeping over there too. it was packed in that tiny apartment. oh and i for got to say that Elder S**** is an assistant and he was there. we actually went on an exchange with him on Tuesday. it was so awesome to see him again. 

Tuesday came and we had a huge breakfast before the meeting and then the meeting went longer than expected. we left there around 2 with a 30 min drive back to our area and went to a couple appointments with him. he has to be back to Nac by 5 so we didn't get much time with him, but it was still great to see him again. 

then on Wednesday we had another big trip. since there was going top be a big meeting on Thursday with Elder Foster of the 70, we got permission to do another sleep over in Dallas with the assistants. so we drove the 3 and a half hours to Dallas and got there around 10. the assistants had just barely got back from another exchange with other missionaries in East Texas when we got there. and they still had more stuff to do so they told us to go to sleep and they will see us in the morning. they had to wake up early in the morning so we didn't get to see them very much but that was ok because we had a great meeting with elder Foster.

one of the first things he talked about was IPADS. yes IPADS. well he mentioned them and said that we need to be obedient and then went on to talk about missionary work, expectations, and how great God is. it was a really great meeting. i was glad he came. after he had a meeting with all the district leaders and since my companion was a district leader he got to go, and in that meeting Elder Foster told them that ipads will be here in 2 months. so that means in about 3 months i will be able to use one and that my last month in the mission will be a really great one. 

then on Friday it was normal missionary day, but on Saturday we prepared for a baptism. J***** got baptized. it was so awesome and he was so exited. the baptism went really great and there was a lot of support there. it was a really great week.

oh and some transfer news. drum roll...........................i am staying. wooooo. well i hope that you all had a great week. love you.

 

Meeting with Elder Foster of the 70's

Elder Jorgensen and Elder S******

Baptism!!!

 

Week 69 in Lufkin, Texas (3-9-15)

Hey everyone. hope that y'all had a great week.

To start off. Funny story. we were leaving target and we decide to just contact a worker who was picking up trash on our way out from the store. Elder B**** asked her "excuse me, Are you enjoying the cold?" she looked surprised and responded "What!?!" Elder B**** repeated "are you enjoying the cold?" she took out an earphone and said "oh that is what you said, i thought that you said do you want to join our cult." ..........i am glad we represent the church well. we do as 3rd nephi 3:7. Join our Secret works.

We helped a Spanish member remodel his kitchen. We stripped wall paper, worst invention ever! and we helped his pregnant wife build a dog pen for their 3 Chihuahuas. they were just living on their porch, which is 3 feet from the ground and has no stairs.  We sprayed it off and bleached it. it looks soooooo much better now. the dogs just love their new spot. 

And on Saturday we are having a baptism. Ji***** is getting baptized. he is so exited for this. he went up and bore his testimony last Sunday on his baptism. 

On the sad side we had a really strong investigator drop us. She didn't really give us a reason why. she even had a date set out for this Saturday too. oh well that is how it goes. 

well i love you all and hope that you have a great week.

 

Lufkin District

Elder and Sister Donaldson

Youth Activity: Hungry, Hungry Hippos

 

Week 68 in Lufkin, Texas (3-2-15)

Hey Everyone. hope that you all had a great week. it has been crazy down here. the weather went from the 30's to the 60's in just a week. and i thought that Utah had crazy weather. on wensday we were the only missionaries that were aloud to drive. well us and another set in Nacadoches. the rest of the mission was in a couple of inches of snow. and were not aloud to leave the apartment. sad for them.

So at church we go to 2 sacrament meetings since we are covering a branch and a ward. and both of them talked about this dress. that is black and blue, but people see it as white and gold. we had no clue what that was. we had to have a member show it to us and explain. after the explanation we understood what they meant in the meeting. the speakers related it to the gospel and how we interpret the scriptures and how the apostasy came about. he also explained how grateful he was to have a prophet to clarify the things of importance so we didn't have to worry if that dress was blue and black or if it was white and gold. i thought that that was pretty cool.

we have had a lot of miracles this week. when we have had down time we go tracting and everyone knows how efficient that is. and he has blessed us with people to serve. one example is we started to knock some doors and about 2 minutes into it a truck with a moving trailer shows up and parks next to where we were at. we went over and offered to help and they accepted. which is an unusual thing. usually people don't accept. as we were helping he started to ask questions about our work and how long we had been out. it turns out that he had helped with scouts in another state and it was held at the LDS church. he also started family history. we let him know about the library here and he was exited to go. he wasn't interested to hear a message from us, but i would rather have good relation with one person rather than bug 100 and get nowhere. another seed was planted and a family was helped. 

our date for the 14 of march is so far still a go. he just has to quit smoking. we are working with him on that and it is going great so far. thank you for all your prayers and support. i love you all and hope that you all have a great week.

 

The aftermath of Elder B**** driving off the road to park and getting stuck. #chey4x4sucks

 

Week 67 in Lufkin, Texas ( 2-24-15)

So yesterday was kind of disappointing. We were supposed to have a meeting with Elder Foster, but because of the weather it was canceled because of the weather. And also because of the weather we couldn't leave the apartment. Which was kind of lame because we woke up and it was 35 degrees out side and nothing had frozen. it was wet from the rain last night but it didn't freeze at all. there wasn't even any frost on the car. but at like 1 they gave us permission to leave the apartment but only if we walked on the safe roads and only if it was absolutely necessary to be out of the apartment. And we got hungry and were on the point of starvation, so we ate lunch at McDonald and walked around the mall for a little bit then we headed back home took a nap and went to an appointment that lived about a mile away from the apartment. it is a part member family and the husband is looking to be baptized, but he has to conquer a smoking habit first. so we helped him make a plan for that.

We have had a miracle happen. there was this old investigator that was taking the lessons but she stopped because her mother died. She called us randomly and said that she would like to be baptized. we had a lesson with her and set up a date for the 14 of march. She is really solid and we showed her the baptismal font and she said that she was ready right then and there that she was ready to be baptized. 

things here are going pretty good. hope you all had a great week

Week 66 in Lufkin, Texas (2-16-15)

Holy Crap it has been warm here. it got up to 85 degrees here. Super strange in febuary. alot of people have been saying it is suposed to get really cold here. like below freesing in the next couple days. it is raining here so i hope that it doesnt freeze. well if it does we have a truck, #bestmissionvehicle, #chevycoloradoforlife. something like that. it has 55,000 miles on it and it will be retired soon. then we will get a chevy equinox.   

we have been having these mission wide initiatives. last month was the book of mormon and this month is family history. we have been encouraging all of our members to do the family history or to index. the cool thing that i found is that you can put memories on the family search and other pictures. the zone leaders want to hear cool stories about our ansestors so if you have any cool stories can you please send them in. thank you. 

this area is very service oriented. we try to serve everyone we meet and have a lot of service for non members and they have been asking alot of questions about us. so even if it doesnt turn into a actual teaching we are planting that seed and helping them understand more about the mormons. it has been a ton a raking leaves. i am really glad that the leaves are not that bad in utah. #golawnmower #rakingsucks. 

well i hope you all had a great valentines day and i hope that hashtags havent gone out of style yet. #missionlife

 

Old TV they scrounged up-doesn't work

Valentines

Valentine Party

 

Breakfast

Elder B****

Jesse is always on the look out for awesome cars!

Week 65 in Lufkin, Texas (2-9-15)

Well, one week done in Lufkin here with Elder B***. He has been out a month more than I have. He is super funny and he loves to laugh. He is from a little town north of Seattle in Washington, and doesn't like it when people mention the last Sea Hawk game. i wouldn't blame him. Lufkin is a bit interesting. it took us 5 hours to get here from Dallas. it is really far out here. I am the farthest south you can get on the mission. There is only one farther area and that is Hemp Hill. A senior couple is there. They are pretty cool. They are from Australia. We will see them at least once a week. They are the only other missionaries in our district. We are so far out from everyone else and like Sherman there is not much to do. Luckly there are elders from Nacadouches that are coming down today to play basketball. That will make it more fun.

We have been doing a lot of service lately. Elder B*** and the last elder have been offering a lot of service to everyone and we have had a lot of time serving friends of the members. We have mostly been raking leaves. I am so glad that i don't have to rake leaves like this back in Utah. There are so many trees here. I cant believe this. Compared to Dallas this is a whole other state. 

I have been trying to get to know the ward. We had an activity with the youth last Wednesday were they pretended to be missionaries. Everyone liked it and had fun. They learned how to sew and iron. They had fake doors to knock and share their testimony and then we had a mini district meeting where we taught them how to use the scripture mysteries to help them teach and how to apply it to themselves. 

It was a good week here and thing are building up. Elder B*** and i are going to have fun.

 

Now I know what these elders do to blow off steam!  I'm glad I spent so much time over the years nagging Jesse to keep his room clean. I can tell from the video that it has all paid off :/

 

Awesome Sherman Elders

Transfer Day Pictures.  Saying goodbye to some great Elders!

Lunch Time!!!!

 

New Companion...Elder B***

Week 64 in Sherman, Texas (2-2-15)

Well this week was extremely busy. on Tuesday we had an interview with the mission president. it was down in Plano which is about an our away from here. We got to see a lot of missionaries there. There were a couple of missionaries who were giving trainings that were going home and they just made of joke of their training which was too bad, but there were a couple of good ones. Sister Taylor did one on staying physically fit and how that affects your spirituality.  She is going to do a 5k in May and she wants all of us to run in it. Hope i can do well. I need to start practicing.

Then on Friday we had a meeting with Elder Russell M Nelson and Lynn G Robbins of the 70's come to speak with us. Lynn went first and he talked to us about not giving up and to know that our Heavenly Father knows best and that he puts us in positions for a reason. He started out by asking if we could tell the future. We said no and he pointed to a random sister in the front row to pull out her I pad and ............ he stopped there and turned and asked the mission president if we had Ipads here. and of course we didn't. he turned red and continued with, well "PEOPLE" can look on their I pads and see tomorrows weather forecast. then he tied it in somehow. 

After Elder Nelson came up and announced that he had a granddaughter in the mission and she got to go up on the stage and hug her grandpa and ask a couple of questions to him. Then he talked about the Abrahamic covenant and how that applies to us. It was really neat and it went into deep detail about the significance of the tribe and the names of the sons of Jacob. i liked it.

Then on Saturday we had a baptism. Isaac V***. he is nine years old. he asked me to do a talk on baptism at his baptism. So I had a great object lesson I do with cups. There are three cups with labels. Satan, Us, and Jesus. Water is poured into Satan, and in this water is bad, and then Satan tempts us and it gets poured into us and then we get baptized or repent and we pour it into Jesus. then I take the Jesus cup and hold it upside down and the water disappears. It doesn't fall out. It is just gone. I was going to send a video of this, but i forgot. anyway i wanted to make the lesson special so i poured Mio into the water to make it red. Then when I started to pour it into the US cup it spilled down the side and dripped red onto the white table cloth they have in the relief society room. So it is now stained red in a spot. When that happened i said ," oh crap!" and everyone laughed. Then when i poured it into the Jesus cup. what was supposed to happen, didn't and I had to explain what should have happened. Which was really embarrassing. I will try to send a video of it working next week. Then i was a witness for the baptism. It was a double baptism and the first person to go her dad banged her head against the wall and I flinched and snickered. I felt so bad. 

Well Breaking news. I just got a call while i was typing and i am being transferred. don't know where and don't know who, but i am leaving Sherman. 

good bye.

Mission meeting with Elder Nelson

Sherman Elder's goodbye meal together

Jesse gave Elder G*** a Real Jersey and shirt for his goodbye present.  Elder G*** loves soccer :)

V*** baptism

Week 63 in Sherman, TX (1-26-15)

hey whats up everyone? so some big news....... this week Russel M Nelson is coming to the mission on Friday. i am so exited to hear from him and the things that he will tell us. we have been trying to prepare by reading the entire Book of Mormon. i am a little behind on it. we are supposed to be in 3 Nephi somewhere but so far i am in Helaman. i want to catch up by then. there is also talk of us finally getting i pads. that would be a nice surprise for us.

we had an interesting experience this last week. a member took us out to Cici's for dinner. we got in there and we started to eat. It was an older couple that took us. the husband is not all there most of the time and we usually just talk to the wife. so as we are eating there is a guy sitting a couple tables down from us and there is no food on his table and he is just staring at us. he is completely sideways on his chair and just staring. we ignore him and we are having a nice conversation with our members. then this guy comes over and sits next to us and starts a conversation about what he has learned from the bible and other books that were taken out of the bible. he said something about Jesus being Jehovah. i tried to introduce the Book of Mormon and start something up with him and the husband decides to bear his testimony on the church being the true church and he only church. Then a battle starts between this guy and and the member. both of them are just saying random stuff. sometimes i got to wonder how some people add 2+2 and =7. so that went on for 30 min and we had to go so we just left. and to make the whole Cici's moment even more awkward is we were tracting just right before we got there. one of the homes we knocked into was a preacher. and guess where we see him. yep at Cici's. he also kept staring at us. that was a whole hour of awkwardness for us right then.

well have a great week.

 

squid lunch

District

Taco Lunch

 

Week 62 in Sherman, TX (1-19-15)

I had a sweet week last week. there were lots of fun adventures. 

as you can see i think i out did last years birthday cake. the big 20. earlier we celebrated the day by going tracting. we met some pretty interesting people. we helped one old guy put his licence plate back on his truck. he talked to us for about an hour. he has a ton of religious books. he likes to collect them. reading them is another story i think. none of them looked used. there was really no mean people on the street, which was really surprising. usually there is that one guy that is soooooooo offended that two dirty little mormon boys happened to darken his porch that it is funny to watch his reaction. 

so we helped out this person in the second ward last week. she wanted the other elders to help put in cabnet shelf liners. they wanted to hurry and get it over with because they are kind of weird. so we go to the appartment and the member is pulling out food from her cabnet and butting it in bags. she was kind of struggling with it and so Elder G and i took over and started doing it for her. now keep in mind that there is bug crap all over the walls of the cabnet and what should have been a white shelf was yellow. that should have been a warning flag for us. but we continued and we got to the top shelf and Elder G pulled a mustard out and on it was 5 roaches. and there was like 6 more that scattered out from behind it. now the appartment was clean. it looked vaccumed and neat but this was discusting. we finnished cleanning out the food. and we asked her if there was bug spray and she gave us an old rusty empty can. we couldnt do much with it so Elder R and I went to the dollar general and bought lysol wipes and roach spray. we started spraying in there and from behind every little crack the roaches came out and started running everywhere.  i used that entire spray. it was discusting. she ,the member, got mad at us that we went out and bought new spray when she "had some". no, no she didnt. then we offered to clean up all the dead roaches and she just said no. just put the mats on top and call it good. i tried to tell her no give me your vaccume so we can suck it up and clean it up for you. and all she said was" just but the mats over it and it will be good" after a little convincing she gave us a broom. but i was soo mad at her. then we went home and i took a shower.

there was no other crazy stories for this week. our investigator that we have is progressing really well. he comes to church every week and loves it. he told us yeaterday that he was exited it was sunday. it is his highlight because of how he feels afterward.so greatfull for the spirit.

i love the cubs shirt. it is so awesome. i think my favorite is the shoes. i had a hunch that they were waiting for me. i love them so much. the other elders are jealous. elder G*** surprised me. he took me to a soccer shop and bought me a jersey and put my name on it. it is the one in the pictures. i will have to do something special for him this next two weeks. i was already trying to think of something that i could do for him, but now i need to step up my game. any ideas?

i got your letter finally on Saturday and i also got grandma Jorgensen's and Christy's. 

it has been really warm down here too. we are like 65 right now.

sweet i get a nice new bed. i hate the one here.  i already flipped it over and turned it around, but it still sucks. i have even sometimes just slept on our couch. our couch is really comfy. 

ok love y'all and have a great week.

                                                                     Pictures from birthday!

Driving Duties

Elder L***

Roaches!!!