Murray 32nd Ward May Newsletter

GARAGE SALE WITH YOUNG WOMEN

MISSIONARY MOMENTS

Elder Tanner Jorgenson

The weather here is really psyching me out haha. Today it's gorgeous, but Saturday man, Saturday was the worst. Near-freezing rain made it pretty hard to street contact anyone! We ended up bussing all over to parts of Madison I've never seen to contact less-active members. Ended up spending the whole day and having the only person to answer turn out to only speak Hmong so that was fun!

Church this Sunday was really good, we really thought Rebekah was going to come this time, but she called us with a headache at about 9:30. So that sucked. Plus summer's coming! So Rebekah (and all the other students) will be going back to their various homes in a week or two. I honestly don't know what we're going to do all summer! Hopefully at least a few people decide that summer semester is a good time to go to college haha.

But things are going well! This has probably been one of the hardest weeks of my mission, but honestly it's been one of the most spiritual times as well. It's a shame that we only truly turn to the Lord at times when we really need his help. But I can say that I'm so grateful that he really is there when we need it, and our adversity really is for our gain at the end of the day. We're coming back from a slump right now but I'm more committed than ever to open my mouth at all times! And I know he won't let me down, because he never has before.

Love you all! Talk to you next week!

Elder Jorgensen

308 Forest St. Apt #5

Madison, WI 53726

So this week was kinda tough, not a lot happened honestly. Except we did find this awesome Chinese student named Yasin (pronounced yee-shen... we're not sure he knows quite how to spell in English yet) who we're meeting up with on Friday. It'll be sweet to get some of the semi-active Chinese-speaking members involved in teaching and fellowshipping again. Other than that a pretty ineffective week! Everyone is stressed about finals.

BUT then Sunday was the most dreamy day haha, it just kinda floated by. First of all Rebekah AND Jie came to church! Which is a prayer answered right there. Especially since Rebekah leaves to go back to Marshfield next week. So Jie brought Elder Newman and I some gifts as well, two big canisters of green tea like direct from China, super authentic stuff. Hahaha after having Melissa explain to him how we don't drink tea he said we could have it anyways, totally keeping it as a memento. He was just beaming when he gave it to us, man why couldn't I get called to China for my mission I love these guys haha.

In other news, calling home went great, it felt really good to just kind of let everything go for 45 minutes! And we spent the day at Braden's with a couple of other Elders, and he is just AWESOME. So solid.

Basically, life's good! I know that I'm fulfilling my purpose out here and that what I'm teaching is the truth. The gospel of Jesus Christ blesses lives and I've seen it! I love my family a ton and am excited to work on the task of uniting others' families. Peace out til next week!

Elder Jorgensen

308 Forest St. #5

Madison, WI 53726

So it's been an interesting week, haha here our success is like completely dependent on the schedule of the students. So with finals and graduation this week, let's just say it's been a little tough hahaha. Everyone running around frantically downtown or packing to move out or whatever. But it's been a fun week nonetheless! So it looks like over the next few weeks of pre-summer semester we'll become aimlessly roving the street referral-makers for the 1st ward elders hahaha. We'll see how it goes.

On the plus side Jie came to church again and we had a really good lesson with him. Xilu has been indispensable as a translator, it's been great. We've had some cool experiences too, yesterday we watched a homeless guy roll a joint on a crowded bus right next to us. Well I guess not really that cool but whatevs. He didn't even spill so props to him I guess. :) And we saw a sweet family of owls. Okay I give up trying it was a pretty boring week hahaha.

Love ya'll and have a great week!

Elder Jorgensen

308 Forest St. #5

Madison, WI 53726

*****************************************************************************************

Sister Monica Adams

Hola todos!! 

Happy Late Mother's Day! 

It was so good to skype and talk with eveyone yesterday  I can't believe that it is already Mayo! I feel like just last month we skyped for Christmas.. The time is just flying by!! 

I dont' really have tons to tell since we just talked yesterday... But I wanted to say how grateful I am for my family 

In Argentina marriage isn't a very common thing. A lot of couples have been together for 20+ years but don't ever want to get married. It's always really cool to teach the plan of salvation and explain that we can live with our families for eternity. I love to teach and talk about the sealing power of temples. We are so lucky to have 14+ temples ALL in Utah and close to our house. Our mission theme is "Prepare the Patagonia for a Temple". When Hermana Crofts arrived in the Comodoro Rivadavia Mission... the MISSION was having about 9 bauptisms a month... The WHOLE mission... But this last month we had 25 as a mission. We are progressing as a mission and it's so cool to see the Lord preparing His children. This month the mission has a goal of 62 baptisms... We are going ot have a fast as a mission and this month we are going to be working SOOOOO hard to reach that goal! After this transfer we will be getting our new mission president. It will be sad to see President and Sister Rogers go, and it will be a big change but that's okay! 

The gospel of jesus Christ is so amazing! I love learning new things and recieving answers to my prayers. We are so blessed to have the fullness of the gospel and the restored church on the earth today. I invite you to go to the temple this week: I miss the temple so much and can't wait to go when I get home. I love being a missionary! I love our Savior Jesucristo and will forever be grateful for his sacrifice for us. 

Much loveeeeeee,

Hermana Adams

Hola Todos,

Well, it's now my Second transfer in Rawson  My companion is Hermana Johnson. She has 10 months in the mission and is from Utah. She just came from Rio Gallegos with Hermana Woodbury! We are working hard together and are really excited for what these two transfers together will do. We put a goal to do 140 contacts and 18 lessons a week. That is a very big goal that we are working hard to meet it!! 

We just had conference with President and Hermana Rogers (that's why I am writing today) and this was the last time we will see them because they go home in the very beginning of July and then we have our new President and Hermana. We were all really sad to say goodbye to them and there were lots of tears from everyone.. But the good news is that they are from Utah so I will be able to see them again! They have been such great examples of the love they have for the Lord, this work and the people of Argentina. They love all the missionaries so much in our Mission and we can always feel that love when we have conferences or interviews with them. 

Our new mission President y Hermana Salerno sound like good people.(I found this tiny story on them) http://www.ldsdaily.com/church-lds/8-new-mission-presidents-called/

He studied at BYU and has his masters in Buisness, he speaks portugues, ingles and italiano. His wife speaks ingles. They are very excited and nervous to come be presidents and it will be very fun to get to know them. 

In several weeks we will travel to Puerto Mardyn and we will go see the Whales!! Every year they migrate from the south to give birth to their babies from June to December. I am super excited to go see them because everyone says that it's just so exciting to so see so many of them! I have heard that many people go the little town of Puerto Madryn around this time of year, just to see this migration! I hope I get to go there and serve, I've heard it's really pretty there! 

Thursday we had correlacion (don't know what that is called en ingles) where we meet with the mission leader and talk about our investigators and we were talking with the Elders in our ward and I said how one of my goals in the mission is to teach a lesson in English (Don't know why, but I want to) so on Friday we had to go to Trelew and when we got back to Rawson we got off the bus and I noticed some ladies speaking English. So, I decided to talk to them. They are from Polland, one is here working as a Marine Biologist and the other was her friend who just arrived here from Polland to visit. They were surpised that we spoke English and we shared who we were and why we were here and what we believe and so it turns out that we taught them a lesson in English! It was a cool little milagro that showed me that our Heavenly Father truly does hear our prayers, knows where we are, and the intentions of our hearts, and blesses us to accomplish our goals.  

I was reading in John 17 y Romanos 8 this morning for Studies. I love reading about the love that the Lord our Savior has for us. We are all children of a Heavenly Father who loves us SO much that he sent His son.  He loves all of his children equally, and desires to bless them. I am learning to see others as He does, and have this same love for my investigators and the people here in Argentina.

Love you all. Have an amazing week! 

Hermana Adams 

Murray 32nd April 2016





MISSIONARY MOMENTS:

SISTER ADAMS:

What's good in the hooooood?

This week was so busy! I arrived at 2pm and by 5 pm we were out working!! And we have already seen the blessing of working hard!!

So my companion Hermana Crofts is such an amazing missionary! I feel like I have already learned SO much from her in just one week!! She is so loving and you can just see how much she loves the people and this work! We are working hard with all of the recent converts and the investigators that we have. 

Milagro of the week: We have two recent converts, Sandra and Muriel (mother and daughter). In this family the father and son want absolutly nothing to do with the church, but they both came to the baptism for Sandra and Muriel. We learned that Sandra has been praying and asking the Lord to soften the hearts of her son and husband.. well, the husbad watched all four sessions with her and her daughter AND then he went to the preisthood session all by himself!! WE talked to him after one session and he said the talks were so beautiful and powerful!! WE are so excited! They are such a great family. We are hoping to pass by and talk with the husband and ask him what he thought! 

This truly IS the Lords work and I am so happy and loving the opportunity I have to see HIS hand in everything!! I am so grateful that we were able to watch and hear from our beloved Prophet. How exciting that we will have 4 more houses of the Lord in the world. Ourt mission moto is prepare the Patagonia for a Temple. We are working and praying for the pepple here in this mission so that these wonderful people can one day have a temple near to them . We are so lucky to have the gospel in our lives and all the many blessing that it brings. 

I am so grateful to my wonderful family and friends for the great examples you have been to me in my life! I hope you guys loved conference as much as I did!! 

Have a wonderful week.

con amor,

Hermana Adams

Another week… and another P-day,

Yesterday Hermana Crofts and I were talking and we decided that our bodies seem to know when it’s almost PDay.. Our area is VERY big, so we are walking a lot of the day and by the end of the day we are just so tired!! It's always good to come home after being so tired from working.

This week we learned how to make Pan y Ñoquis! :) We spent the morning on Saturday with one of our Recent Converts (Sandra y Muriel) because they really wanted to teach us how to make bread and ñoquis. We each made our very own loaf  of bread (and mine came out better! ) They gave us the recipes and then we had lunch with them. They are such a great family!!

So… it turns out that there are quite a few dogs here.. Well, there is an Hermana in the Ward who has a dog that just follows her EVERYWHERE. So when she goes to church this dog comes along and sits outside by the door. At any and every opportunity this dog tries to sneak inside to the meetings. Well, during sacrament meeting the dog got in to the foyer and was scratching at the chapel doors … we were sitting in the front row, right next to the doors. We tried to ignore the scratching, and then all of a sudden the dog is on its hind legs and looking in through the little window.  We looked over at him and I was trying so hard not to laugh! hahahahah Someone came in late and sat in the back (and the dog’s owner was sitting in the very front next to us) well the dog came in when the door opened and walked along the isle searching the rows to find her.. Now there’s something you don’t see everyday!! hahah it was so funny!! 

I met two more of our investigators this week. Two little girls names Valentina and Milagros. Vale as she is called is 13 and Mili is 8.. They are SO cute and they need lots of love. They live with their grandparents because their mom has had some challenges and now she doesn’t have custody of them. Their grandparents are almost never home.. so Vale is in charge of watching and finding food for her three younger siblings. It’s honestly so sad but they are amazing kids. It’s very humbling to see the way this little 13 year old cares for these children. They ALWAYS want us to sing hymns. 

Before I arrived, the Hermanas had taught them about the Plan of Salvation.  When we stopped by the other day we could only talk with Mili and decided to ask her about God and what she thinks he is like… She said that He is fun and He is probably sad because we aren’t living with him right now :) She is a very smart 8 year old and remembers a lot! She says that we were invisible because we didn’t have bodies, when we lived with him before we came to earth. The little girls want to be baptized it’s hard to be so young and not have support of parents to help them stay active. We are going to keep visiting them and just show them love. They need someone that they can count on. 

I have considering the blessings that have always been a part of my life. We are so lucky to live where we do, to be able to get an education, have the opportunities and the many things we do. In Argentina, it is VERY common to see 15 year olds with a toddler. A lot of kids smoke, drink and do things that 14 year olds shouldn’t do.. It’s very humbling to see their circumstances and it also gives me hope and I pray to find and teach these people that they can change and choose to be different from the rest. There are so many who simply follow the examples of those around them in Argentina…  I am grateful everyday for this chance to share my knowledge and testimony of the gospel and to be an example of the happiness that comes from living what we teach.  

I hope everyone has a great weekend. Count your blessings everyday!!

Hermana Adams

The weeks are flying by!!!!!!!!!

This week on Monday we found a new investigator, her name is Jessica. She has several different challenges that she needs to overcome but she is VERY honest, never has been baptized and wants to go to church. We taught her and invited her to get baptized! She agreed and we have a great feeling about her!

Yesterday I gave a talk in Church  Every 4th Sunday is Missionary Sunday.. So I talked, Elder Clark talked (District Leader) and then our Mission Leader talked. My topic was El Libro de Mormon and the role for missionaries. I re-read the talk given by Elder Holland in 2009. We have used the Mormon Message of him and this talk before and everytime we do it just gives me the chills and makes me tear up. We are so lucky that the Lord loves us SO MUCH that He gave us ANOTHER book of scripture to provide guidance for us!! 

I love 2 Nephi 29:8-9

8. Wherefore murmur ye, because that ye shall receive more of my word? Know ye not that the testimony of two nations is a witness unto you that I am God, that I remember one nation like unto another? Wherefore, I speak the same words unto one nation like unto another. And when the two nations shall run together the testimony of the two nations shall run together also.

 9. And I do this that I may prove unto many that I am the same yesterday, today, and forever; and that I speak forth my words according to mine own pleasure. And because that I have spoken one word ye need not suppose that I cannot speak another; for my work is not yet finished; neither shall it be until the end of man, neither from that time henceforth and forever.

A lot of people here are Evangélicas and Católicas... And they don't want to accept the Book of Mormon or they just try and find scriptures in the Bible that say we can’t have other books.. It's really hard. But we are trying really hard to help them see the importance of having a second witness of Christ.  I have discovered a new love for the Book of Mormon! It has the power to change lives! It has changed mine!! I understand more now as I read it than I did before. I love reading it and thinking of my purpose as a missionary and how I can apply everything to missionary work! 

Next Pday we are having a 'Super' PDay.. Which is just a really long Pday and we get to go  and do something special! For our Super Pday we are going to Gaiman. It is a really pretty little town about two hours from where we are. We don’t really know what we are going to do there, for sure, and we will have a big Asado as a Zone and play games. The last super Pday they went and saw the Penguins!! Go figure it was the Pday before I got here.. I JUST MISSED IT! 

Fun fact about Gaiman... It's known for it's Tea House.. In Argentina they have a thing where during the middle of the day, EVERYONE drinks tea… So in Gaiman there is a place to have tea and it's about 200 pesos for a cup of tea and cake and some tarts.. kind of pricey, but hey, that's Argentina.. 

Well I hope everyone is doing good and enjoying spring!!

Con amor, 

Hermana Adams

ELDER DRAPER

Hello Everyone, Unfortunately, I will have to keep this one short, because we have got to get to an appointment. The cool thing that happened this week is that we got a guy on baptismal date. He is the one that we found last week at the bus stop. I have been thinking a lot about how much my mission really means to me. I have really experienced a lot. It is hard to summarize it. I have definitely learned what it means to have a loving Heavenly Father who truly tries to reach out to all of His children. I have learned that the best opportunities come when we least expect them, to learn and teach about the gospel. It is truly great to learn and teach the gospel of Christ, because it is the very thing that I need and the thing that everyone else needs. This is the most precious of gifts. It is the key to living with God after this life. There is a life after death, I know it. This is an important time to live on the earth. There is no other effort that is more important than trying to follow Christ. With Him at the head of our lives, we can truly do anything. We would triumph over all sorrows, misunderstandings, trials and losses. His only goal in life was to bless others and he will do that with us today. I promise that the Savior can bless you today! He has done it for me over and over. Times get hard, but that is okay. It only supports our steadfastness in Him, who has given us life. Elder Draper Von meinem iPad gesendet ------------------------------------------------------------------ Elder Draper is now home!! ELDER TANNER JORGENSON Elder Tanner Jorgenson So pretty unexpected news, Elder Cox is leaving! Pretty disappointing to have him go after only 1 transfer but I honestly do know it's for the best! Maybe we goofed off a little too much hahah. My new companion is Elder Sam Newman from MURRAY UT. I literally sat next to this guy in English. How crazy is that haha? I'm pretty psyched for this next transfer, even though it'll be sad to see E Cox go on Wednesday. I really do love being right where I'm at right now though. The gospel works and mission presidents are inspired! We did exchanges with the Zone Leaders earlier this week, we blitzed campus so essentially there were 6 elders split contacting all over campus today haha. But we hit our goal of teaching 70 lessons this week which was really solid. We got a couple return appointments out of it so we'll see how those go. The hard thing about this area is that we teach a ton of lessons but finding someone who's willing to take time away from studying and friends to meet up is tough! But if nothing else, I'll plant plenty of seeds for the future in the rest of my time here. Rebekah was unable to come to church this week because of midterms, so that was disappointing as well but we're still keeping in contact! Life is good! Love you all! Have a great week. Elder Jorgensen 308 Forest St Apt #5 Madison, WI 53726 yeah so it's not really summer but it sure as heck feels like it! The last couple days have been consistently in the upper 70s and totally clear, and walking around in white shirts in the humidity is kind of horrible. Summer (when it actually gets hot) is going to be rough here on campus! Other than that though it's been an awesome week, we met with Rebekah and committed her to a "soft" baptismal date for May 21st. She's pretty unsure about it but she's hoping to get an answer about the Book of Mormon by then. And she's reading even with school conflicts so that's awesome! Saturday we basically just tried to do a ton of less-active visiting across the city. It was pretty rough because we found out that like half of the people we were trying to find had moved and the rest weren't home. One of the perks of trying to work with students I guess! Anyways I'm pretty sunburnt from biking and walking everywhere. It's been great though! Elder Newman and I have been working hard and my testimony has definitely grown as a result. I know that the gospel of Jesus Christ is real and blesses lives. We're praying for miracles every day and are loving planting seeds of faith with amazing new people every day. Love ya'll and talk to you next week! Elder Jorgensen 308 Forest St Apt #5 Madison, WI 43726 -We've bowled on P-day like the last 3 weeks, it's been a blast haha So this week we worked hard and got a couple new investigators, from China and India. I love the members of this ward - we talked to on older Chinese man named Jie on the street the other day and he speaks VERY little English. But when we told him our church building was RIGHT there (we were across the street from the institute) he was super excited to come try it out. When he arrived Sunday morning Xi Lu, a recent convert himself, jumped right up and welcomed him, and talked him through everything. When we talked to Jie afterward all he said was "I feel good." The spirit that exists in a group of people worshipping God is very real! Sometimes I think we take those basic "good" feelings for granted - at the end of the day, that's the best way to describe the spirit. We don't always understand it, but we do know it's good. Well other than that not a lot happened this week! Rebekah is doing well, she definitely has some concerns to work through but she has the desire in her heart to know the truth and she feels good about her path right now. Elder Newman and I have been working hard and even though college students rarely have softened hearts our efforts have been worth it! Talk to you all next week! Elder Jorgensen 308 Forest St #5 Madison, WI 53726 --Pictures of our new loft lighting system and foxes chillin on campus! Spring is sweet

March 2016 Murray 32nd Ward

Primary Party to Celebrate the Articles of Faith

PARTY ON!!!

MISSIONARY MEMORIES

BETHANY COMES HOME

Madison week 2 down! Well this was a tougher week, E Cox was super sick all week so we didn't get a ton of work done (we still taught like 25 lessons but whatevs) but man am I glad to be serving here. It's so awesome to work with college kids all day every day! I feel like I'm already in college. Except instead of going to class we just walk around talking to people all day. So really not that much like college.

It's kinda tough getting a lot of teaching done because most of the students here are SUPER busy with school and work and all... So we have a lot of appointment cancellations etc. And a lot of investigators drop purely out of time concerns. Actually our most promising gator, Wei, dropped us yesterday because he has a really big project coming up in his PhD program, and if he doesn't do well he loses his funding and has to go back to China. So that was pretty sad but he'll be back in the future!

The other day we had James Fullmer, who's the institute teacher here, give an awesome fireside. He's a pretty successful church artist who studies the Book of Mormon more intensely than anyone I have ever met! The whole fireside was about visualizing scripture stories as a study tactic. It was pretty awesome because he read super deep into several Book of Mormon stories and we came up with a TON of detail about what we thought happened based on the few verses of scripture. He also had a bunch of models of ancient weapons, including props from the Hercules movie that just came out that he let us play with hahaha.

Anyways love you all! I'm loving it here and I hope you are all well too! Talk to ya soon!

~Elder J

308 Forest St. Apt #5

Madison, WI 53726

It's been a pretty slow week honestly! Some of them just drag on forever hahaha. Well it's my third week in Madison, coming here felt like I was starting my mission all over again. I've got a long way to go still but I'm doing well! It rained a lot this week, nothing too torrential but just enough to be annoying haha. We're working on building back up our investigator pool right now so we had a bunch of lessons. Most of them feel pretty pointless, but we had some pretty solid sit-down lessons, including with this girl from UW who is super legit named Rebecca, she's really focused on branching out from her religious background to see if she can find what's true. It was really cool to see the changes in her throughout the first lesson, even things like her attitude and posture changed. We definitely felt the spirit and could feel it working with her as well. Later that night she texted us with a ton of questions, including when church was! She was planning on coming, but woke up with a big headache so wasn't able to make it. We're super excited to meet with her tomorrow again though. These are the kind of investigators we live for haha.

Our district here is pretty awesome, it's just the four of us Elders, the other two do Madison 1st work as well as some work on campus with YSA. It's weird having such a small district, especially since we're so close together we see them like every day. The polar opposite of Iron Mt where we saw other missionaries at most once a week.

We're trying to hit hard on member work here as well, the YSA ward definitely has plenty of less-actives to work with. We've been doing a lot of cold calls, which sucks, but we're meeting with several new people this week so that's exciting. We're trying to get some of them to go to FHE (with the whole ward) and basketball on Fridays (which is a blast).

Keep it up guys! God is very real and the gospel is very true. My testimony has grown so much since coming to this area. If you're currently working on yours, keep it up because it's worth it!

Love you all!
Elder Jorgensen

308 Forest St Apt #5

Madison, WI 53726

Sooooo spring break started this week. So literally all our investigators went out of town. Hahaha, campus is SO dead right now, it's usually so crowded, but I think we saw like 3 students total walking around on Friday. The ones who did stay in town just party at the frats and then sleep all day lol. Anyways, for the rest of break we'll probably end up tracting and doing some work for the Madison 1st ward haha. It's been fun though, me and E Cox have gotten a ton closer in the last little bit. Going back to teaching 3 lessons a day from 15 really stinks, but it's only temporary!

So yesterday me and E Merrill spoke in church, we were told by the bishopric that we wouldn't be given a topic but that there was someone in the ward who needed to hear what we had to say, so we should pray about the topic. So when we came to church, me and E Merrill found out we both prepared talks on really similar topics, basically receiving personal revelation, answers to prayers, and how that helps our testimony etc. Our talks just worked SUPER well together, building off of one another, and the spirit was so strong. Afterwards, Bro Aguirre said that he had been talking to one of the ward members a lot recently and the other day he had expressed a lot of concerns, but that through our talks me and E Merrill addressed EVERYTHING that he was having problems with. I probably didn't do a great job of explaining that, but it was definitely one of the biggest miracles of my mission. God is great haha. And when we qualify for the guidance of the spirit miracles always follow in one way or another.

I'm doing great right now, thank you all for the support! And happy Easter next week! Peace.

E Jorgensen

308 Forest St Apt #5

Madison, WI 53726

Hi guys,

This week's been really weird! But that's alright. Spring break was here in full force, so we didn't get to talk to hardly any students. So instead we went and tracted in this low-income housing near campus. Which was an awesome experience. A lot of the people living there are young, foreign families. So all of the investigators we got have to be passed off to the normal Madison Elders. But that's alright. It was a cool experience because most of the people we talked to have no Christian background at all. At times it felt like I was tracting in China. Except for we were speaking English. Whatever. :) It was the perfect opportunity to teach people about Easter and why it's so important. We also did exchanges with the Madison 1 Elders this week, which was pretty sweet. We talked to this recent convert, Richard, and showed him how he could watch all the Bible videos on LDS.org. (By the way, if you haven't seen all them, DO IT. https://www.lds.org/bible-videos/videos?lang=eng)

Anyways, this week has been an amazing opportunity to testify of the Savior, the Atonement, and the Resurrection. We've been sharing with everyone the Easter video. If you haven't yet, go watch it at FollowHim.mormon.org. I know that Christ lives and he has established his church here on the Earth. This knowledge gets me through every struggle. Love you all and talk to you next week!

Elder Jorgensen

308 Forest St. Apt #5

Madison, WI 53726

----------Sister Adams  (below) -----------

Hola familia y amigos!

This week seemed to go by slow pero rápido también! 

Monday we had a Noche de Hogar (Family Home Evening) with some menos activas (less actives) y their families. We planned on having the little kids there too and so we made and cut out a little family and built a house for them out of Prayer, Church, Scriptures and Love. It was cute but then the little kids didn't come after all, so we made this little house with 50+ hermanas and hermanos haha but its okay! Afterwards we had pizza and it was so good! Here pizza is really common and SO good, its different than the states. 

Every Thursday we play volleyball in the capilla and everyone is invited. This last week we had a bunch of investigators and less actives come and it was really fun!! I love having activities in the week for everyone to come. One of the investigators said, "The other day I was walking by the capllia and the door was locked,... it's NEVER locked!! I love the fact that there is always an activity!" Our Branch down here is really great! All the branches down here are awesome!! We always have a lunch appointment. The wife of the branch president is always finding us lunch appointments.... and when we don't have one, she calls on everyone or feeds us herself. They are really nice about giving us rides and everything. We walk everywhere, and it is getting colder. The other day is was 8 oclock and we were walking and contacting (it was windy and SO cold) we walked by a members house and she was waiting outside and said "Ive been waiting for you guys!!" She invited us in and gave us hot chocolate and a slice of cake. it was such a blessing!! 

We found two new investigators this week! Uno is Nora, she is 19 and just moved here from Salta (top of Argentina) she was really receptive and said that we could stop by whenever! She works every Sunday so that is really hard, but it's okay we have lots of hope for her! The other is Vito, he isn't religious but he believes in Dios and we shared the plan of salvation with him and he was really impressed and asked us to pass by un otro dia! We are working hard, making the most of each day and seeking the spirit for guidance. There's only two weeks left till  transfers.  

I'm out of time, but I love you all!!! 

Con Amor,

Hermana Adams 

Hola a todos!

Well, this week seemed pretty slow, even though the months are passing fast! Today Cumple 5 Meses! I have been a missionary now for 5 months!! 

I woke up to a cute little carta on my desk from Hermana Villavicencio :} I told her yesterday that she is my Latina Hermana that I never had! We are getting a long great and working hard! We love to laugh and have fun and always work we work hard.

 Saturday we had 5 lessons and three were during contacting! The last conference we had with president he talked a lot about contacting and how we should make more of an effort to teach when we contact. 

We have a contact lesson we teach called "The contact de amor" and it's pretty much explaining how Heavenly Father loves all of his children and because He loves them He calls profetas to speak to us, then we teach them about the Prophet Joseph Smith and his first vision. 

It is a great thing to explain that God is the same yesterday, today and forever, and because He loves us, He continues to speak to us through his living prophets. It's is so amazing to know this truth and to share it with those who have never considered it.

Sometimes when we contact, we ask if they have ten minutes for a short message and that works really well too. We did this with a lady and we did a five minute version of the plan of salvacion with her on her patio and Hermana Villavicencio talked about how families can be together for eternity and this lady started tearing up, she said, "thank you for your message", gave us a hug and kiss and quickly went inside. IT was an interesting visit and we plan to pass by this week to see her again. 

Since this month is Easter, and probably my last month here in this area, I want to try and figure out a way to dye Easter Eggs!! Hermana Villavicencio has never done it before. She said they don't really do much for Easter in Ecuador, but I want to make her a cute card and get her a few treats to celebrate and maybe dye a few eggs!! 

Easter Sunday is the day before I will leave Ushuaia so I will be busy packing on the 28th and getting everything gathered but it will be interesting to see if people do anyhing for Pascua here.

This week weren't  able to find our two new investigators which has been frustrating. One of them works until 7 and every time we pass by his sister says he is still working or not home. 

The other has her vacation time but when we pass by she hasn't been home either. Next week is when most of the kids start back to school so my guess is she is doing something with her son before he goes back to school. 

The kids in the Branch start Seminary next Monday.. They have to be in the Church for Seminary at 6 in the morning.. I am so glad that I was able to take seminary during the school day!! 

Well, as you can see, not much happened this week... We are still praying to see milagros every day!!  I Love and pray for you all muchismo!!!!

Con Amor,

Hermana Adams

Happy Easter!! (next sunday)

How is everyone!? 

The days are starting to pass faster and faster... it's crazy! This week on Friday we will receive transfer notice. I am excited and also very sad to leave.. This transfer has gone by incredibly fast!! Hermana Villavicencio said that she has been writing President Rogers every week asking him to let me stay one more transfer and the other night she said she is going to fast to let me stay ha,ha,ha I love her!! 

This week during my personal study, I read a lot about the Prophet Joseph Smith. I've been reading the book Our Heritage and it's been really interesting! A lot of the things I already knew but there were a few new things that I've learned. I was reading in the Book of Mormon and it's interesting to hear that account from Moroni's words too.  I have come to LOVE reading and studying the Doctrine and Covenants more and more thanks to the mission!! I have really felt my testimony strengthened. I am so grateful for the Prophet Joseph Smith and the courage and the challenges he faced in order to restore the gospel of Jesus Christ to the earth for us. We have EVERY truth restored in the church now because of him... What a blessing!!

With General Conference just around the corner, I'm going to extend the same invitation we have extended to the members here. Think and pray about a specific question you have and want answered. Watch conference and have this question in your mind.. and you'll recieve an answer! I'm very excited to hear and recieve revelation from our living prophets and leaders of this wonderful iglesia! 

With Easter Sunday coming up.. I want everyone to think about the wonderful gift we have been given through our Savior, Jesus Christ. The Atonement is so amazing. I am still learning  about how to access the enabling power of this priceless gift. I am grateful for the things I am learning which bring me peace. I love being here, to have this oportunity to share my testimony with others about the blessings that are available to us through the atonement. 

I hope everyone has a great week!! Love you all! 

Con Amor,

Hermana Adams

March 29, 2016

Hola!

I just arrived in my second area! I went from the bottom of the mission in Ushuaia to almost the top of the mission in a small city called Rawson!  Rawson is 20 minutes away from Trelew. There are two zones in Trelew. We have our own

Capilla here in Rawson and we have 8 recent converts! 

My new companion is Hermana Crofts de Texas! (her family just moved to Utah) Hermana Crofts has been a year in the mission and will go home in September with Hermana Woodbury! Speaking of Hermana Woodbury, when I was traveling to come to my new area I saw her and waited with her for two hours before we had to leave again! She is doing good and looked so happy! 

We left Ushuaia at 5 in the morning yesterday, arrived in Rio Grande at 8, switched buses, arrived in Rio Gallegos at 5, waited till 8:40 for our ultra bus to Comodoro Rivadavia… Left Comodoro around 9 and arrived in Trelew at about 2, then had to take a 20 minute taxi to my little town… You could say I am sick of buses and traveling!! The buses aren’t that bad… You get food and they play movies.. but I can’t sleep good on them so that’s a downside.. Also the movies they play sometimes aren’t edited... so that’s also a bummer.  

I left Ushuaia with boots and a jacket and arrived here and am dying of heat!!! It is honestly so hot ha,ha,ha but thats okay!! I will get adjusted quick. This Saturday and Sunday is Conferencia General and I’m so excited!! We are so lucky to have the chance to hear from our Profeta y Apóstoles two times in one year!! It feels like only two months ago that we were having conference in October! I love you all and hope you enjoy conference! 

Con amor,

February 2016 Murray 32nd Ward

Touring the nw Provo Temple

Missionary Moments:

From Tanner Jorgensen

Well let's see, this week just kind of flew by. I'm emailing way earlier than normal today because later we're helping a family move! They're less-active and live over an hour away from Iron Mountain, but they decided to move closer! And they promised to come to church every week now. Yea. So that's pretty sweet.

Earlier this week we had an awesome appointment with Jessie, she is in her 20s, has two kids, her husband is awesome, and they're open. She's a little iffy on coming to church yet because she's been going to Maranatha for like 5 years, but she's reading and praying and asking great questions and that's the most promise I've seen yet in Iron Mountain! We're excited.

Yesterday I gave a talk AND a Priesthood/RS lesson in church, so it was pretty much our Sunday. My talk was on temple work, and let me tell you, if you want to develop a testimony on a subject one of the best things you can do is prepare a talk on it! Through preparing for this (definitely the longest talk I've ever given, I had to take up all of Sacrament meeting other than Elder Harmon's 15 minutes) my testimony of temples and the work that takes place there has grown so much. It's just always made sense to me - if we have a perfectly loving Heavenly Father, how could he not provide a way for every single one of his children to make it back to him? I'm so grateful for Christ's sacrifice that made all of this possible.

This week I got to experience a "Yooper scooper" a.k.a. giant metal shovel used by everyone from the U.P. We're supposed to get some solid snow next week so we're expecting plenty of shoveling! (Not that we haven't already done plenty..)

Well love ya'll, I'll talk to you next week!

Elder Jorgensen

414 East D St

Iron Mountain, MI 49801

t's been a solid week! Breezed by real quick. Well at Stake Conference in Green Bay this week we brought Ken and Debbie, our older investigators, they sat next to us for the whole 2 hour drive there so that's dedication! Debbie especially is really psyched to learn. But man she can talk! Elder Wilford W. Andersen of the Seventy spoke at our Stake Conference and gave an awesome talk. We got to introduce him to our investigators too! I don't think they quite realized how much of a big deal that was but oh well we loved it. :) We also got to give several blessings this week so that was great.

Let's see, I didn't even realize it was Superbowl Sunday until Saturday night! We were trying to think of anyone who would possibly not be watching it to stop by on Sunday but we eventually found some. Can I just restate that the Darley's are awesome? They had us over for dinner as usual but invited a nonmember friend and also gave us more referrals! We'll see how that goes.

Well I didn't take any pictures this week somehow, but maybe next week hahah. Personally I've been following recently the counsel of the General Authorities in making the Sabbath a delight and not partaking of the sacrament "robotically." Prepare for it and think about it! This is the only "ordinance" we get to do for ourselves weekly, and it can make such a huge difference.

Love ya'll! Talk to you soon!

Elder Jorgensen

414 East D St.

Iron Mountain, MI 49801

So first week in MADISON is down. I could not have been sent somewhere more crazy different than tiny Iron Mountain, MI. So my companion is Elder Cox, he just finished being trained and he is a BALLER. He's super psyched to talk to everyone, totally willing to take the lead because I have sure as heck never experienced half the things that happen here before!

So we work with the Madison YSA ward here, there's about 60 active members and we just meet in the basement of the Institute building so that's pretty cool. Our apartment is right off campus and about two blocks away from the Institute. The work here at Madcamp consists of walking around campus through all the daylight hours and talking to everyone we see. There's about 45,000 students here so we teach lessons constantly. This week we taught 36 lessons total and that was even with basically 3 days lost because of transfers. But it's a loooot of walking and we don't have a car... 

The members here are pretty darn sweet, about half of them are students at UW and the rest are just single and work at Epic, which is a medical engineering firm here which apparently hires everyone who graduates BYU. The university is super diverse so we talk to people from all over the world. Our area technically covers the entire Madison stake but 80% of the time we stay around campus.

My favorite person I've met so far is our prime investigator, Wei. He's from China and is getting his Doctorate degree right now at UW. He's like the nicest person I've ever met, always gets us little snacks when we come over, just whatever he has. He is trying to learn English but doesn't know 90% of religious words so the teaching is slow but I love it! He is coming to church every week and it's been awesome! He loves learning about God!

Anyways I'm doing awesome and loving everything so far! Love ya'll and I'll talk to ya next week!

By the way I suck at remembering to take pictures so have a super awkward one of us walking around campus last night.

Oh and also my new address is:

308 Forest St. Apt #5

Madison, WI 53726

~Elder Jorgensen

Emily Adams

It's hard to believe Febrero is almost finished!! Time just seems to fly especially when you are busy teaching! And we love teaching!!! 

Primero... FELIZ CUMPLEAÑOS to Grandma Cia & to my Papa Bear!!! 

I wanted to share a few funny things from the week....

- So, I asked Hermana V if they celebrate the 5 de Mayo holiday in Ecuador.... She looked at me and was like "No? What's the 5 de Mayo holiday?" HahAH... I forgot... that's only a Mexico thing...

-I learned  that at home her friends call her China, because she has really small eyes... She was quick to point out, that We have that in common!!!  She was like... "with eyes like ours, we could be sisters!!!  ha,ha, ha

 

-Hermana V studied English for a couple of years before the mission the other day she used a word I didn't recognize... I looked at her like WHAT? (Confused face) So, she looked it up in the Dictionary and she was trying to say "Fungi" but was taught to say "Fonge" and we both just busted up laughing!! hahah  (the words she says...and when I help her by saying the words correctly, she mutters... "Freaking English Teacher!!  She didn't even know English!!" hahahah

I went to an Argentine Missionary Homecoming! The returned missionary was a sister that served in Brazil. Her family had a little fiesta during the week instead of having it on Sunday. There was food, a foto slideshow of pictures, and her parents talked and then they played some games. It was fun and interesting! She gave a talk on Sunday but it wasn't like a bunch of people invited or anyhting, just a normal Sunday! It was really nice!!

This week has been good. We are starting to contact A TON. We are trying to widen our pool of investigators, and it's going good!  We are getting along really well!, and I can already feel my Castellano getting better!! There are still a few times when my companion says something and I have no idea, ...but that doesn't happen too much these days!  She knows enough English to help me understand or explains things in Castellano in a different way. 

We had two investigators with bauptism dates but they both fell through.. But its okay, we are working hard, and using great faith, and we are going to have a great week and Transfer!! Yesterday was her 9 months.. I made a sign and we bought balloons! This week are going to eat hamburgers to celebrate :) 

We watched God's Army last Monday for "Family Night" we had our own companionship family night :) I had never seen God's Army, and I really liked it!! I actually cried when it was over.. Hahaha the mission has turned me into a cry baby.. I cant help it!! 

I am so grateful for this opportunity to serve and make these wonderful memories! Les Amo, que tengan una buena semana! 

Con Mucho Amor,

hermana Adams :} 

Dylan Draper

Hi everyone,

So this week was really good.

I went on exchange with Elder Bailey, one of the Hamburg Zone Leaders.
We actually ended up having no appointment, so we basically just did
street contacting the whole time. It was really good though. The first
people that we found were pretty interesting. They were very nice and
definitely interested in learning more about Christ. I asked them
where they come from and they said that they actually don't  have a
country and they come from everywhere, but still have their own
language. So... They are gypsies. I am not sure if that is the best
way to put it. I am really excited to meet them. We told them that we
would bring them a Book of Mormon and the 6 year old daughter was
basically jumping with joy upon hearing that.

We had an eating appointment with our Persian member this week. It was
awesome. He made us some Iranian food. It was basically a ton of
cooked parsley, I mean like 75% of the meal's content, kidney beans,
beef, and sauce all on top of rice. I ate like three plates. It was
way good.

We did other important things too, but they were just normal
missionary life experiences.

I just wanted to share my thoughts today on the atonement. I read a
sentence in Preach My Gospel, that described that the atonement makes
up for everything that is unfair in our lives. Every dilemma that we
may ever have and every sad circumstance that we will have can be made
up in the end through the atonement. We were talking to a man on the
street the other day and he said that he had tried to serve God his
whole life and he had a son who was born with extremely fragile bones.
He said that there could not be a God, because He would want to reward
him for his good work with a healthy son, but He didn't. Of course I
do not know the reason why this happened, but I do know that in the
end it can be made right through the atonement of the Savior. He is
the one that makes up for all of our shortcomings and pain in life.
Through this atonement we can literally be cleansed and be found
worthy to receive all that God has. That is the greatest miracle that
has every happened and that continues to work throughout all eternity.
I will never be able to thank the Savior enough for what he did for
me. I have felt his redeeming love and I know that I am no small thing
to Him. It is the same for every person on this planet. We are the
world to Him. He is the way back to our Father.

Elder Draper