Week 6: CONFERENCE!!

As you can tell from my subject line, I loved conference.  I learned so much from it.  What scares me is that Ive had the opprotunity to watch tons conferences just like it in my life time, and yet I havent.  Wathcing conference as a missionary is a totally different deal. Its like they condition you with hour long devotionals to where time during a talk is no longer noticable.  We always get way hyped whenever a General Authourity comes here to speak, and so conference was like Christmas because we got to hear from so many of them.  It was so cool to sit there and literally listent to my questions get anwered. I recieved an answer to every question I had, and even some I did not know I had, which just goes to show that God knows us better than we know us.  It is so great to be surrounded by the spirit here.  

  One of the Elders in my district, Elder Allred, shared a really neat experience with us on Saturday night.  His Dads best friend, and his best friends Father, is having a really rough go of it.  His name is kip.  None of his sons were baptized, but he was when he was a kid.  He has fallen away from the church and has had a really tough life.  He is currently battling severe cancer and is going to have to go out of country to get special kemo for it because they dont do that kind here(Legally).  Elder ALlred has been pretty focused on finding scriptures the last 6 weeks, and he is kind of behind in the Language.  He finally opened up after conference, and told us all about Kip and how he is going through the BoM looking for scriptures that might help Kip come back to the Gospel.  He said he didnt think Kip had much time left and so thats why he had to pick good scriptures, and wrote his testimony in the back of the book.  He told us he didnt think Kip had long to live, and he said Kip had told his dad to"Take care of my boys".  After he said that I started crying, because my Grandpa recieved that exact same message from my Dad after he died.  It made me start thinking about how as missionaries, God has told us to "Take care of his boys" (and girls), and how universal and powerful a good fathers Love is.  After thinking this I realized how prepared I was to do so because of my Grandfather's example to me.  He has shown me how to have sincere love for others and I am so grateful for that.  Now I get to pay it forward and be a missionary that helps the people of the Ukraine, regardless of whether or not they accept the gospel.  I am so excited to be able to love people that deeply.  Kip is in Mexico right now and we are all praying for him, I hope that he will be able to re-accept the gospel before he dies, and that maybe in so doing, his new found faith in christ could help heal him.

  Russian concept for the week: Pronunciation and stress- The phrase for He loves is :(Он любит) and the word for "he beats" is(Он бьет), if you stress the second part of the word for HE loves which would sound like looBEET, all they will here is BEET, and will think you said he beats, which can be a very confusing roadblock when you are trying to explain that "God is our heavenly father, and he loves you."  Needless to say, pronunciation is key, the stress should be on the first part of the word so it would sound like "LOObeet".  

  Elder knorpp is better now, and back to playing 4 square. Im still playing basket ball for gym time.  The food here is sketch sometimes, but i know what days I need to tap into my pop tart rations. We should get our flight plans next Friday so I will let you all know whats going to happen with that!  The temple is alway great and we eat breakfest there on PDay.  They make these amazing omelettes, and the Russian word for temple is "Krom" so we call them Kromlettes.  Thank you so much for all the support and letters, I love you all.   

Elder Jorgensen

On Wed, Oct 7, 2015 at 12:28 AM,

Hey buddy

How are you doing?  I hope everyone is better. Here are my questions...

Do you like when I send you things I've written? Do you want more?

Do you need any medicine replenished after being sick?  That's the biggest thing for you to take.

How's the language and companionship?

I'm trying to ensure mail is coming everyday...is it? At least mostly??

Do you need anything else?

Are you happy?  Are they teaching you about the Ukraine culture?

Love you so much!!!!
Make time for letters too this week please.
Mom

1.  I am not sick anymore, and most of the rest of us are back up to full strength.  2. I love it when I get those things from you, they help me alot sometimes and I appreciate reading them.  3. No I didnt really use up any medicine while I was sick, so Im good.  4.  The companionship is alot better everyweek, we only argue a little, and  he is no longer so critical of me. The language is coming really good, the gift of tounges is a real thing. 5. I am getting mail almost everyday, in fact in my District they used to say that I had a mail streak because I got mail everyday.  6. I know I needed something but I cant remember what it was. 7. I am really happy here and conference was great.  Dad is gonna be really Jealous because our sunday night devo after conference was Vocal Point came and sang and shared missionary stories with us.  He would have loved it! No they are not teaching us nearly anything about the culture, but one of the teachers here is from Ukraine, so weve learned a bit from her.  I will definately get letters through this week.  Ill also try to send some pictures later.  By Love you, Im off to do my laundry.