Week 5...Another one rides the bus...

Hey all! So this week was great:)  Remember how I was sick a couple weeks ago? Well I got over it in about a week, right after I got over it Elder Knorpp got sick.  No one has really gotten over being sick but me. (For like the first time in forever).  Summary of athletics this week: We played the district that 2 weeks older than us in Volley ball.  It got really heated because the new districts that had just come in were taking sides. We lost because certain members of our team who shall not be named did not bring their celestial game.  I played a lot of basketball and then of course there is always 4 Square.  Russian rule for today:  Generally Russian is pronounced how its written unless its not. Apparently if you say every word exactly right, you are over pronouncing it. I love it. If anyone wants to send me a page of math problems to do in my free time that would be greatly appreciated, I am starting to lose my mind.  The absence of music has caused my Dom and I to create our own.  The other night we were totally nailing "7 nation army", I was the Bass player.  The Devotionals this week were really good and had really great messages.  I learned from both, yesterday was my favorite though. He talked about how when he was a kid he always looked up to and wanted to be a super hero.  He continued and explained that when he found the Church he had real super heroes to look up to.  The prophets and apostles, the book of mormon heroes, Bible heroes, and us missionaries.  He said that we would go to our mission and the people we help will see us as superheroes.  That hit me hard because my entire life Ive always wanted to be like Spiderman, or Batman, or Superman, and I loved dressing up as them, but sometime in the near future, I am gonna help a family.  I can only hope that the children I help can look at me and say "I wanna dress up like a missionary on Sunday".  I am super excited for conference on Saturday and Sunday.  On Monday we watched Elder Richard G. Scott's Funeral, it was really touching to see how happy everyone was and how hopeful they all were.  When the motab sang "Come thou fount of every blessing"  That song gives me the spirit so strong everytime.  My favorite line in it now that I am a missionary is "Prone to wander lord I feel it, prone to leave the God I love, Here's my heart, O take and Seal it, Seal it for thy courts above".  I like to change the part " Prone to wander Lord I feel it" to "Prone to wander Lord I fear it"  Because my worst fear is that I will lose my faith.  I am so excited for my mission, I love you all and really appreciate the letters and packages and emails, Josh please tell Mr. Frisch I expect some math problems from him for Christmas. Also Tell Mr. Vance that my companion doesnt believe me when I try and tell him that my english teachers picture is in the PMG. 

-- 

Elder Jaxon Hunter Jorgensen

To Mom-

I cant get you picture of the cupcakes because I didnt get the notification until we ate them all, It was really funny though. All of the sisters had made a goal to be more healthy that day and then they heard me describing how you make cupcakes, I had them at homemade Buttercream Frosting. I am really happy here and I love it here.  Things are definitely improving with my comp, we dont really argue as much, he has stopped being negative, and is starting to be really helpful in this companionship.  So a couple weeks ago I was praying and pleading that we would sing a childs prayer for one of the Devotionals, and then guess what? We sang it for the Devo on Sunday, I almost cried!  Z bars are good, Im loving the poptarts, If I think of anything else Ill let you know in my letter.

Its funny that you say that because on sunday the guy that spoke said the people in your heart cant see whats in your heart so tell them that you love them everyday!

 I need to go now, By I love you!   

                                  

4 down...100 more to go!

Well, this week was really good.  I memorized all 6 Cases for the language, and Elder Knorpp and I are getting along much better(Especially since now he is the sick one, and couldnt talk the last 2 days).  The adverse consequence of him being unable to talk is that I had to teach the lesson to our investigators basically all by myself.  He is getting better though and were seeing the doctor today so thats good.  Remember last week when I said that Russians could talk like Yoda and still be understood? It was so much worse than I could ever had imagined.  Heres how it works:  IF you wanted to convey to the investigator that God wants them to pray, and you just translated that exactly, they would hear: God wants you.(however you want to interperet that) To pray.  It literally makes no sense to them if you dont do it exactly right, and if it sounds stupid when you say it in english, then your doing it right, to get that same message across you would have to say.  "God wants so that you prayed to him" and in english that means "God wants you to pray to him".  It only makes sense in Russian.  So amongst the strange rules and cases, I am slowly getting better, unfortunately Elder Knorpp is struggling with the language and that may have been the cause of some of our contention.  He is getting slowly better though and I know that if he works hard he can do it.  We get new Elders and Sisters in our zone today and I am stoked!!!  ITs like Christmas morning but instead of presents you get people!  I appreciate the letters, emails, and packages, sometimes looking forward to reading my mail gets me through the day.  The best things that happened this week Language: I memorized the cases

Companion: We got to take a nap yesterday because he was sick

In general: So this one is really kind of terrible but outstandingly hillarious becasue it wasnt me.  SO in one of the english districts on our floor, an elder got a jar of Queso from his family, his district, takes 24 laxative pills and dissolves it into the queso while he is gone.  THey are supposed to leave at 6 am for poccatello Idaho, He eats, the entire jar of queso.  And his district thought it was funny! They freaking poisoned the Elder and they thought it was funny!  30 minutes later hes in the bathroom wondering what in the world happened, they tell him and he ends up having to go to the front desk to find out if he needs to go to the hospital, I just went to bed so I dont know if he went or not, but he had to stay here for a couple of days to make sure it was out of his system.  That got me to wondering, what would 24 laxitives do to you? Id imagine hes spent most of his time in the bathroom while his companion who had to stay with him is rethinking his decision to help poison his companion.  THere is a rumor the elder ate the queso on a Dare, but either way that was the stupidest thing Ive seen yet.  Thats one of those things that is really funny unless it happpens to you.  Other than that it was an uneventful week here at the MTC, Im getting my haircut today so this will be the first time IVe let anyone but my mom touch my hair, really nervous!

-Elder Jaxon Hunter Jorgensen

3 Weeks Down!!!

Group Email-week 3

This week was your average week in the MTC, and so fittingly there is a lot of stuff to talk about.  So my comp and I werent getting along as well as we wanted too (we are polar opposite personality types) i.e.)he hates being noticed and thinks everyone is judging him, while I dont care if people judge me and am perfectly fine with having all eyes on me.)  So during our comp inventory we got together and made a list of things that we thought were great about the other person, and things we though the other could do better or not do.  Among the dislikes on his list for me were: Constantly singing(Im sorry Josh, I was a huge hyppocrite and feel terrible for telling to stop singing the last 16 years.), saying/doing weird things( thank you so much edmunds family! I just dont think he appreciates how strangely gifted I am;)),  and apparently when he cracks Jokes I dont laugh at them( they werent very funny! i couldnt even tell if they were jokes),  also he says that I need to talk more quietly.  After that we talked about how we could compromise to get along, I have agreed to trade in my singing for whistling so now ill just whistle everything, with the humor ill just have to try to get the joke, and as for saying/doing weird things, that cannot be helped, he will just have to live with it.  That was on saturday, the following Tuesday, we had to teach a lesson to our investigator, I was on mucinex because im sick and lets just say my head was not in the game.  It was really hard for me to actually feel the spirit, but it still just guided me.  I said things on "accident" that we hadnt planned for, and Elder knorpp after was like, "Wow the spirit was so strong in there! we did great! and he even committed to baptism!" and I had not felt anything, i just felt really funny from the mucinex.  THat is just a testament to me that the spirit can guide us to do or say things without us even realizing it.  WE are getting a long better now.  My englis is slowwly degrading because everytime I right, I want to use a c instead of s and a P instead of R and a backwards N it is really hard to keep it all straight.  The language is beautiful, my favorit word right now (english spelling) is Shto it means what.  I can pray, bear my testimony, and teach lessons, and have small conversations all because of the help the Lord has given me.  Learning Russian and spanish has shown me how stupid of a language english is.  The world should just speak Russian, the words are said how their spelt and there is no variations to that rule.  Also sentence structure in Russian is non existent so I you could say "Love you I" and they would still understand it as "I love you".  THat is about all for this week Ill send my mom some pics, the system for emails is subpar, which makes it really difficult to send pictures.  You I love all, for support thank you I do. (Yes Russians talk like Yoda they can)

-- 

Elder Jaxon Hunter Jorgensen

Mom- 

So all I really need now is to know if i need to send home my white slacks and belt? The language is going better for me than it is for most, but I know that's only because the Lord is helping me.  I can pray, bear my testimony and have short conversations in Russian.  I can read slowly, and I can write fairly well.  Im really happy here, the atmosphere here is amazing and the weeks are starting to really fly by.  I cannot believe ive already been in for 3 weeks.  MY only complaint is that my companion can be really negative at times, Ill talk more about that in the group email though.  He is going to my mission, none of the others in my district are going to it though. There is another district made up entirely of elders going to the Dnepper(there I said it) mission.  In all right now there are 14 of us going, there used to be 15 but he went home because he had some major difficulties learning the language, his family had 17 kids(mostly adopted) and my guess is he had some form of learning disability he was a lot like Jordy.  BTW Elder Tucker and whitney were like best friends apparently so get me her email because he wants it.  He is in my district.  There isnt going to be a missionary choir in GC this year so im sorry to disappoint.  Love you too!

Week 2/104

  

This week has been amazing, and it flew by!!! I only have 47 days left here in the MTC! I am losing my MIIINNNDDD! I cant spell english words correctly anymore, and I keep on writing my N backwards as well as using a c instead of an S. So you could say its getting pretty serious with the Russian here. The last few weeks have been really confusing for me. Its like God is rebuilding my testimony with a stronger foundation. All of those things I learned in Seminary and that I had such strong faith in all got wiped and all that was left was the doctrine. So God has been rebuilding my Testimony from the ground up, by basing my foundation of Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and the power of the atonement. I think the spirit is working on me like that so that when I am in the Ukraine, my testimony will be able to stand up to the questions, doubts, and fears thrown at me. He always gives me just enough questions to have to think about it and ask for help on a subject, but never too much to make me doubt. The spirit here is amazing and I have loved the devotionals here. This week had someone from the 70s here, he said exactly what I needed to here, the theme of his talk was that a Bold missionary is a humble missionary. IT was really awesome and I loved it. I got a "Love note" from my"Secret Admirer" on monday. Turns out it was just my district messing around with me and my comp, it was really funny and I saved the note. We had an elder go home on Monday as well. He was really having a tuff time with the language and he had some learning disablities, he is where he needs to be now, and plans to learn the language at his own pace until he feels he is ready to come back here again. It was really hard watching someone struggle so much with something that they had been called to do. Thanks for the Letters and Emails, I am out of poptarts, but dont send anymore candy because I am starting to get chubby, im gonna have to start running for gym time and going to the weight gym to fix it, only problem, my comp only ever wants to play 4 square when I want to exercise, and I only ever wanna play V ball or 4 square while he wants to lift. We will work on it.

Mom-So this week was good, I really appreciate all the socks and packages.  Ill send some good pics to the whole group in a minute, I havent had an opprotunity to get a pic of all of the dnepper people yet because most of them are in the other district.  So far Ive only had 1 night mare here and it was hilarious. (not for the blog;)  And then I woke up.  Here in the MTC, with no *****.  I just groaned and got out of bed got ready and went about my business, I told all of my Dom mates about it and they thought it was hillarious.  I love all the letters and they are the highlight of my day, at the end of the day to destress, I just sit there and organize the letters into the binder.  I miss you all so much and I almost cry everytime I read a letter.  The food here is starting to get to me, Ive felt kinda sick the last few days, and one of the Elders in the other district got food poisoning from the chicken.  The chocolate milk is great though.  My companion is a lot like Kade, except not nearly as happy as Kade always was.  We joke and laugh and have a good time.  My district is so hilarious and they are a really intelligent group of people.  I re-started the Bom on August 27 and am already to Helaman, I love reading it now, its like watching TV for me because its one of the few things not in Russian.

First Week at the MTC...

Thanks so much for all the packages and letters everyone.  I got 3 letters in one day all from my mom, and all my district was asking about which girl was writing me so much(were not aloud to open mail till like 9:00).  So I was like wow 3 letters, who would write me, and then they all started drilling me on whether or not I had a girl friend, and that if she writes that much she must really miss me.  But it was all from my mom and so they lost interest.  I can only check my email on wednesdays, but I can recieve mail any day of the week, I just cant reply till wednesday. My MTC mailing address is : "Elder Jaxon Hunter Jorgensen OCT27 UKR-DNE 2009 N 900 E Unit 165 Provo UT 84602".  They estimate that Ill depart on the 27 of october so thats kinda a long time from now.  My zone is really chill, like extremely relaxed.  We are all so close because we know that we are all struggling together and that we have to live with eachother for 9 weeks.  Dallin H. Oaks spoke at our devotional on tuesday and I sang in the choir for it, it was really cool. My companions name is Elder Knorpp, he hasnt recieved any mail yet, but he loves that I share my supply of oreos, poptart, and pringles with him(I keep the York Peppermint Patties for myself).  On Sunday we watched a talk from David A. Bednar, it was called "Come unto Christ"  It was really cool, and I learned a lot from it.  Its about how selfish we can be some times, and how much better missionaries we could be if we thought about others first.  Exhibit A:I dont want to put away chairs, they have 200 other missionaries that can do that. Yeah, dont be that guy.​  The food here is wonderful and I am practically drowning in Chocolate milk.  No one drinks the orange juice because apparently its really concentrated and it will make you super sick if you do, some guys can handle it but im not going to risk it.  Everyone in my room get along really well, whenerver we have loose change we put it on the table and then at the end of the day we take it down to the vending machines and buy whatever we want.  Everyday feels like a year, but every week feels like a day.  They keep our schedules so packed, we put in 16 hours of work everyday, and then 8 hours of sleep.  Its insane how many sister missionaries there are, its so weird now when we go to the temple and see people on the sidewalk dressed in something other than a skirt.  To all you people who were telling me to lock my heart, thank you for your advice, and I told my ZL(zone leader) that.  He said "Your heart may be locked, but your eyes are not blind". Me and my companion just died.  Also, there are like an infinity of napoleon Dynamite jokes here.  Like our spare time and lunch is filled with napoleon dynamite and Nacho libre references. Well, the computer system is weird, so the computer might be a bodaget and not send the pictures, if that happens, sorry, ill try and figure it out.  I miss you all so much!

First Official Email to Mom...

Hey mom its Jax! Its been so great here, my P day is Wednesday here so thats why I havent been too responsive.  I really have loved all the mail and packages, Ive been shareing with my Dom(home in Russian) Mates.  The food here is wonderful except for it starts to make you feel heavy if you eat to much.  My companions name is Elder Knorpp, he is so awesome.  We get along really well and are on the same page as far as obedience goes.  He is struggling a little bit with the alphabet and so we have both been working on it.  We have already learned so much Russian its crazy.  The days here feel like weeks and the first week here felt like a day, its really weird and you cant really understand what I mean unless you have been here.  The rest of the Elders in our zone our pretty chill. Most of the time we just mess around in Dom unless we have class.  The spirit here is really strong and I am so happy to be here.  God has been speaking to me through music this week. I was unable to make it to choir, so I just showed up on Tuesday for our devotional.  For some reason this whole week Id had Lead Kindly Light stuck in my head and I couldnt shake it so I just sang it all week and annoyed everyone, guess what we sang in the devotional?? Lead Kindly Light!!!!!!  I had no idea but the Lord had been preparing me to sing for the devotional.  Guess who the speaker was?  Dallin ​H. Oaks, we were all so lucky and surprised, they broadcast it world wide to all the other MTC's.  My daily schedule is pretty much Wake up, eat, class, eat, additional study, class, gym, eat, class, plan, sleep. We went to the temple this morning and it was really cool, I liked it alot.  A couple of the Elders in my zone played Ultimate, unfortunately its banned for being to dangerous, yet they let us play soccer.  I only saw Abby once, and I didnt have a chance to get a picture with her.  Let me know if the pictures dont work, the system here is really complicated and I cant figure out if it will let you see it yet. I miss you all so much and wish I could be home sometimes.  Tell Kaestli and Cam i only have 107 weeks left!  Tell all the kiddos good luck with school and tell Traci good luck with her job!  Im so happy for her and am so excited for her!

Loss Perspective...

Loss perspective is the lesson I've learned this week...

I sent my oldest son to the MTC last Wednesday. He was 6 when his dad died and has been by far my greatest compensatory blessing in the last 11.5 years. He is my best friend, biggest helper with the house and the kids. My new husband is great...but works a lot and doesn't help a ton with my kids because of that. So I have been a wreck preparing for Jax to leave. I have had countless people...I'd say 95% of Missionary moms tell me that it's like a funeral, feels like they died, how it was WAY harder than they thought it would be...then turn around and tell me how the 3 months before they left they fought all the time and couldn't wait to get them out of the house. 

Well, this info left me in a panic. I like my son..in fact wish he would never leave my house and he is my biggest help. Also I had someone die! I know how bad that was and the thought of feeling like again that was terrifying. I figured I would have massive post traumatic stress and lose my mind.

So the 2 weeks before he left were amazing. I cried a little here and there while we packed him up etc. but mostly just had this great feeling of peace, love and a profound feeling of how pleased I am with him and his choices. I thought it was a blessing to just enjoy him while he was here and then I could lose it after he left.

Then we dropped him off. He was so ready, we pulled up to the MTC and he said, "I'm ready and I'm worthy." and then opened the car door. That still gives me chills. He is the most amazing person I know. We cried and hugged and said good bye. It was perfect. That day I cried now and then but just felt at peace.

The next few days I was FINE. Surprisingly fine. Wondered why I was fine...just a blessing, being buoyed up?? I had mostly worried about myself before he left, but that shifted to worrying about him once he left. But still really fine. 

And then it hit me....

It's NOT a funeral!!!!! They are NOT dead!!!!! All these people describing it have never lost someone close...a spouse or child! To them this is the greatest loss they have ever experienced. It is a loss, don't get me wrong. But when you have buried your husband when you are a young pregnant mother...now THAT is LOSS!! This is no where close. He is alive! He is serving God!!! He is learning to speak Russian!!! He is LOVING his life...and HE CAN SEND AN EMAIL!!!! (wouldn't emails from heaven be awesome!) So no...this is not a death or a funeral...it's just not...at all.

So hope to you young widows and the fear of sending out your first born on a mission, it won't feel like your spouse dying all over again. That was my fear. I may experience days of worry and heartache for him...but I have lived through worse. And with 2 special needs kids...I have more worries with them than I can keep track of so I even have "kid worry perspective" too I guess.

When Jake died when I was 26 I remember thinking if your trials prepare you for harder things to come...I'm screwed. Well, turns out that having your spouse die when they are young just gives you awesome perspective and anything less than death is a welcome trial and feels like a walk in the park sometimes;)

I'm just hoping that this feeling lasts as time goes on.

First missionary mom lesson and the first letter from Jax.

Hoping the first email has a lot more info than this.  I was so grateful to get this letter though.  I was worried sick about him.  I had a great lesson I learned before getting this letter.

I was expecting an email saying about this much.  No email came.  I began to worry, called the MTC to ask when I could expect an email, they wouldn't tell me.  On Sunday I went to church.  The other mom that sent a missionary out the same day started talking with me.  She mentioned she got an email from her Elder.  I couldn't believe it.  Why didn't I get one??  Then later she mentioned that she got 2 emails actually.  Well, this was too much.  I was so bugged that she got 2 and I didn't get any!

Curtis was talking with a High Councilmen from our ward and mentioned me being upset about the email situation.  He looked at Curtis and said, "she didn't get an email because he is being obedient.  They shouldn't email until their first p-day."  When Curtis told me this I felt a wave of peace wash over my entire body.  Did I want Jax to be blessed for being obedient or do I want an email with a smiley face?  I realized that it would be important for Jax to be obedient to his mission and I need to be supportive of that, even when it is hard for me.

I posted this experience on Facebook Sunday evening and one of the moms that sent a missionary out the same day as Jax to the exact same mission posted that she had received a letter in the mail on Saturday, because the Elder's were allowed to write home and let their family know they were ok.  I had checked my mail on Saturday but it was empty.  I raced out to my mail box at midnight Sunday to find this letter that I had desperately wanted sitting inside.  I'm grateful for the lesson I learned and also the letter waiting for me once I learned it.  Heavenly Father knows us so well, and knows exactly what we need.  It was a short letter...but I cherish every word!


Dear Mom and Dad,

I am here at the MTC.  My companion is amazing.  The spirit is really strong here.  I can't wait to speak Russian fluently.  I already have the name tag with Jorgensen on it.  We packed way too much stuff, it doesn't all fit in my closet.  I am so excited about everything.

Miss you all, Love you
Sincerely,

Elder Jorgensen