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
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-
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,
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