From Joram's 12/29 emails:
Thanks again for the packages and the effort of making me feel like i was at home by sending me the same stuff i would always get and giving me a few decorations to put up. [Mom sent Joram a small Lego set, Captain Crunch cereal, PJs, and a Pez] Thanks a ton I love you so much. Sounds like things are going busy there as usual. Well i guess starting to get busy, same with us. Things have been really slow, but as soon as the Mexicans come back life will pick up again. We had 15 Hispanic people at church yesterday. AMAZING!!! A monster difference between that and the 2 when i got here. So the work is progressing amazingly and the lord is blessing us. We are getting ready to start a district, we just need a bit of time.
Sounds like the usual Utah, crazy weather, man what i wouldn't give for snow. I read a poem the other day that was the story of my life, it was called "if only", and it was all about not enjoying what you have until its gone and always looking forward to something in the present. It talks about when you are in the MTC you cant wait to get into the mission field, and then when you get out you wish you could go back to the MTC. I will send it next week. Anyway my point is that when it was cold I would wish it was hot, and when it is hot i would give anything for cold. Anyway my random stuff for the day.
We talked to P. yesterday and he told us some amazing stories. When he was in Mexico he was a member of the Zettas (Z's) a massive gang in Mexico that has hook ups all the way up the political system there. He was a smuggler that would bring Marijuana across the boarder to the United States. He was also a Coyote, which is the people that take people across the border. I asked him what made him look and find God. He told me that when he got caught and thrown in jail in Houston and lost his job and his wife, he decided to start a better life. So he moved here and started reading the bible. He has read it through, i think three times now. So a pretty amazing story. He got confirmed yesterday, so that was pretty amazing.
So thats all folks. I am pretty sure i will get transfered next week but you never know.
Thanks for the packages and the love.
Love Elder Jensen
Monday, December 29, 2008
Monday, December 22, 2008
Pablo
From Joram's 12/22 email:
Like literally all of our investigators and members have gone, we are down to about 5 investigators, so we teach the same people everyday and spend alot of time in spanish stores and Wal Mart looking for new people. On the good news we baptized yesterday, his name is Pablo and we have been working with him for a while and he was struggling with the fact that he didn't think he knew enough to be baptized, so i told him that when i started my mission i knew pretty much nothing, i mean i knew the stories and stuff, but doctrine, where to find stuff, nothing, so i told him he knows that the Church is true and that it will be an act of faith to be baptized and i promised him a powerful answer to his prayers if he asked as Moroni and James promise, with real intent, and faith, he would recieve his answer. So he prayed that night, called us in the morning and told us he wanted to be baptized. Miracles, the Lord apparently gave him his answer. So yeah that was amazing miracle that happened this week.
Thanks so much for the packages, i have been a good boy and not opened the presents like you told me. So they are just sitting on my desk waiting. Anyway thanks so much, i cant wait to do my puzzle. Thanks for the stories of Tyson, those are always exciting and make me sit here in the Library and laugh and everyone stares at me. Well thats all i've got, I hope you are having an awesome Christmas holiday and remembering the importance of this day. I hope you are having a good time celebrating the birth of our Savior. Cant wait to talk to you in a few days.
Love Elder Jensen
Like literally all of our investigators and members have gone, we are down to about 5 investigators, so we teach the same people everyday and spend alot of time in spanish stores and Wal Mart looking for new people. On the good news we baptized yesterday, his name is Pablo and we have been working with him for a while and he was struggling with the fact that he didn't think he knew enough to be baptized, so i told him that when i started my mission i knew pretty much nothing, i mean i knew the stories and stuff, but doctrine, where to find stuff, nothing, so i told him he knows that the Church is true and that it will be an act of faith to be baptized and i promised him a powerful answer to his prayers if he asked as Moroni and James promise, with real intent, and faith, he would recieve his answer. So he prayed that night, called us in the morning and told us he wanted to be baptized. Miracles, the Lord apparently gave him his answer. So yeah that was amazing miracle that happened this week.
Thanks so much for the packages, i have been a good boy and not opened the presents like you told me. So they are just sitting on my desk waiting. Anyway thanks so much, i cant wait to do my puzzle. Thanks for the stories of Tyson, those are always exciting and make me sit here in the Library and laugh and everyone stares at me. Well thats all i've got, I hope you are having an awesome Christmas holiday and remembering the importance of this day. I hope you are having a good time celebrating the birth of our Savior. Cant wait to talk to you in a few days.
Love Elder Jensen
Monday, December 15, 2008
Christmastime in Louisiana
From Joram's 12/15 letter and email:
It's interesting because it doesn't feel like Christmas but at the same time it feels more like it. Like I am not thinking about snow, or movies, or awesome dates at temple square or traditions I normally associate with Christmas so it doesn't feel like it that was but in the other way all I think about is Christ so it just seems like the norm.
Reina keeps finding people for us to teach so that is always amazing. Yes she harasses me if i go over there and don't wear the coat. She is an amazing person and always gives us tons of food when we go over to her house to eat on sunday. She just pretty much buys two of everything and gives us half. So yeah i will be way sad when i have to leave. We didn't get any snow down here so that was way disappointing. I was in the hospital with my companion and saw a piece of the news the morning it was happening and Baton Rouge got about 6 inches and pretty much every school shut down. if they did that is utah we would never go to school.
Missionary Gingerbread House (made from: Cheese, Raman, Cheerios, Flour Paste, Year old suckers)
It's interesting because it doesn't feel like Christmas but at the same time it feels more like it. Like I am not thinking about snow, or movies, or awesome dates at temple square or traditions I normally associate with Christmas so it doesn't feel like it that was but in the other way all I think about is Christ so it just seems like the norm.
Reina keeps finding people for us to teach so that is always amazing. Yes she harasses me if i go over there and don't wear the coat. She is an amazing person and always gives us tons of food when we go over to her house to eat on sunday. She just pretty much buys two of everything and gives us half. So yeah i will be way sad when i have to leave. We didn't get any snow down here so that was way disappointing. I was in the hospital with my companion and saw a piece of the news the morning it was happening and Baton Rouge got about 6 inches and pretty much every school shut down. if they did that is utah we would never go to school.
Missionary Gingerbread House (made from: Cheese, Raman, Cheerios, Flour Paste, Year old suckers)
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Amazing Reina
From Joram's 12/8 email:
Wow i am so behind, i had no idea Elder Wirthlin died, i don't know how i missed that but oh well. This week was good, we had two baptisms. We finally got the 13 year old girl Odet to get baptized and then we got a guy named Enrique from Honduras. So miracles. The story of Enrique was pretty cool. His is from Honduras and he had a baptism date there and had attended church but then left for here and got lost in the process. But our amazing member Reina who is the best member in the world just was talking to random people she worked with about how awesome the church is and how it is a blessing in her life. So he approached her and she invited him to come over to her house. We then had an awesome lesson with her and him and two weeks later he was baptized. Blessings. So cool. She is amazing, she was harassing me about being outside in the "cold" (50 degrees) without a jacket, so she went and bought me one the next week. It is good to know that my mother sends her spirit to other people wherever i go. When i was arguing with her about taking the jacket she bought me it reminded me of the arguements i have had about a billion times with mom, so that was funny. She loves the missionaries and the program so much. She used to have the missionaries live in her house in Honduras with her family and take care of them and everything. So she loves us and buys us tons of food every week. So she is pretty much amazing. That was our week pretty much. We are rappidly loosing investigators that are heading back to mexico for christmas, but the lord will provide something for us to do. Have a great day.
Love Elder Jensen
Wow i am so behind, i had no idea Elder Wirthlin died, i don't know how i missed that but oh well. This week was good, we had two baptisms. We finally got the 13 year old girl Odet to get baptized and then we got a guy named Enrique from Honduras. So miracles. The story of Enrique was pretty cool. His is from Honduras and he had a baptism date there and had attended church but then left for here and got lost in the process. But our amazing member Reina who is the best member in the world just was talking to random people she worked with about how awesome the church is and how it is a blessing in her life. So he approached her and she invited him to come over to her house. We then had an awesome lesson with her and him and two weeks later he was baptized. Blessings. So cool. She is amazing, she was harassing me about being outside in the "cold" (50 degrees) without a jacket, so she went and bought me one the next week. It is good to know that my mother sends her spirit to other people wherever i go. When i was arguing with her about taking the jacket she bought me it reminded me of the arguements i have had about a billion times with mom, so that was funny. She loves the missionaries and the program so much. She used to have the missionaries live in her house in Honduras with her family and take care of them and everything. So she loves us and buys us tons of food every week. So she is pretty much amazing. That was our week pretty much. We are rappidly loosing investigators that are heading back to mexico for christmas, but the lord will provide something for us to do. Have a great day.
Love Elder Jensen
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Monday, December 1, 2008
3 Thanksgivings
From Joram's 12/1 email:
Our week was pretty awesome. On thanksgiving we went and had three meals with families from the ward. So yeah i was stuffed for about three days. Everyone gave us food so our frigde is so full we cant eat it fast enough before it goes bad. We ate with the Gores, which is an awesome family who fed us turkey, sweet potates, stuffing, and pecan pie, then the Alberts which was a hawaiian thanksgiving so we had sweet pinapple ham, and more sweet potatoes and some oyster salad, nasty, but i ate it anyway. and then we had just a normal thanksgiving with Turkey at the Fontenotes. I ate so much freaking rice you would be proud.
Our baptism that was supposed to happen last saturday fell through because they had to leave to houston for some reason. But we should baptize her this saturday and also another guy named Enrique that we have been working with but we will see what happens this week.
In other news the guy i baptized two weeks ago, Noe, he got back from Mexico earlier than planned. So we talked with him yesterday and he is doing awesome and his wife and 2 kids are recieving the missionary discussions, so miracles. So thats about everything the Lord is providing massive amounts of blessings. I have been a little discouraged because on December 15 pretty much everyone we teach will be leaving for mexico, but the Lord has provided us with new people that will be staying, so blessings. Thanks for the love and the support, hope you have a merry holiday season.
Love Elder Jensen
Our week was pretty awesome. On thanksgiving we went and had three meals with families from the ward. So yeah i was stuffed for about three days. Everyone gave us food so our frigde is so full we cant eat it fast enough before it goes bad. We ate with the Gores, which is an awesome family who fed us turkey, sweet potates, stuffing, and pecan pie, then the Alberts which was a hawaiian thanksgiving so we had sweet pinapple ham, and more sweet potatoes and some oyster salad, nasty, but i ate it anyway. and then we had just a normal thanksgiving with Turkey at the Fontenotes. I ate so much freaking rice you would be proud.
Our baptism that was supposed to happen last saturday fell through because they had to leave to houston for some reason. But we should baptize her this saturday and also another guy named Enrique that we have been working with but we will see what happens this week.
In other news the guy i baptized two weeks ago, Noe, he got back from Mexico earlier than planned. So we talked with him yesterday and he is doing awesome and his wife and 2 kids are recieving the missionary discussions, so miracles. So thats about everything the Lord is providing massive amounts of blessings. I have been a little discouraged because on December 15 pretty much everyone we teach will be leaving for mexico, but the Lord has provided us with new people that will be staying, so blessings. Thanks for the love and the support, hope you have a merry holiday season.
Love Elder Jensen
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Stayin Put
From Joram's 11/25 emails:
"I am staying here for another transfer, my companion is leaving and my new companions name is Elder Knight, i don't know anything about him."
"I am ok with staying here we should have at least 3 baptisms. One is the daughter of one of the members here, her name is Odet and she should get baptized this saturday, she had the interview and is good to go we will see. The other two are two guys that one of our members introduced us to, but they both had baptism dates set up in Honduras but had to leave before it happened. So they should be ready to go we will just teach them everything. We taught them at one of our members house a way spiritual first lesson and commited them both for the 6th of December so we will see how they progress."
"I just read the talk of Come What May, and Love It this morning and also Joy in the Journey. So thats my goals for the week."
"Thank you so much [for the care package. The] pomegranate exploded on my shirt. But the pomegranate was amazing so it was worth it."
"I am staying here for another transfer, my companion is leaving and my new companions name is Elder Knight, i don't know anything about him."
"I am ok with staying here we should have at least 3 baptisms. One is the daughter of one of the members here, her name is Odet and she should get baptized this saturday, she had the interview and is good to go we will see. The other two are two guys that one of our members introduced us to, but they both had baptism dates set up in Honduras but had to leave before it happened. So they should be ready to go we will just teach them everything. We taught them at one of our members house a way spiritual first lesson and commited them both for the 6th of December so we will see how they progress."
"I just read the talk of Come What May, and Love It this morning and also Joy in the Journey. So thats my goals for the week."
"Thank you so much [for the care package. The] pomegranate exploded on my shirt. But the pomegranate was amazing so it was worth it."
Monday, November 17, 2008
Cookie the Alligator
From Joram's 11/17 email:
"Well first of all about the alligator, he isn't really considered a pet because he can eat us, and second yes i did catch an alligator and stick it in the bath tub for about a week. We found him in a ditch riding bikes and i called the english elders and said we needed a car. I then threw a blanket over him and like my hero steve irwin, i grabbed him and put him in the trunk. I wont even tell you how i got him out of there, because you will kill me. Anyway his name was Cookie and he was about 4 feet long."
"This week was pretty discouraging for some reason. I was feeling depressed all week. I guess it started on tuesday when we were riding bikes and i had 2 cigarrettes flicked at me, 2 middle fingers and one guy swerved into me crossing the bridge. I was just feeling bad all week and then on Friday we were riding bikes again and we had about a ten mile ride ahead of us and the wind was blowing against us like mad and i was just getting angrier and angrier at everything and everyone, i was like Heavenly Father i am trying to do good and obey all the rules and do missionary work and you are making this hard on me. So i kept going just being stubborn and trying to push the wind back, i ended up about a mile ahead of my companion by the time we got back and i was so angry. After we went inside our house i just laid down and was fuming and all of a sudden just this tranquility entered and everything just made sense i can't even explain it but nothing mattered anymore and i just felt this calm sense over me. I have no idea but I was just happy and everything was fine. Then on Sunday i had the opportunity to give Noe the Holy Ghost and i just felt so calm and peaceful. After that he told me he felt that a power or force decending on him when i said recieve the Holy Ghost so that was an amazing experience."
"I learned this week that when you have time on your hands discouragement sets in and the attacks like crazy."
"Well first of all about the alligator, he isn't really considered a pet because he can eat us, and second yes i did catch an alligator and stick it in the bath tub for about a week. We found him in a ditch riding bikes and i called the english elders and said we needed a car. I then threw a blanket over him and like my hero steve irwin, i grabbed him and put him in the trunk. I wont even tell you how i got him out of there, because you will kill me. Anyway his name was Cookie and he was about 4 feet long."
"This week was pretty discouraging for some reason. I was feeling depressed all week. I guess it started on tuesday when we were riding bikes and i had 2 cigarrettes flicked at me, 2 middle fingers and one guy swerved into me crossing the bridge. I was just feeling bad all week and then on Friday we were riding bikes again and we had about a ten mile ride ahead of us and the wind was blowing against us like mad and i was just getting angrier and angrier at everything and everyone, i was like Heavenly Father i am trying to do good and obey all the rules and do missionary work and you are making this hard on me. So i kept going just being stubborn and trying to push the wind back, i ended up about a mile ahead of my companion by the time we got back and i was so angry. After we went inside our house i just laid down and was fuming and all of a sudden just this tranquility entered and everything just made sense i can't even explain it but nothing mattered anymore and i just felt this calm sense over me. I have no idea but I was just happy and everything was fine. Then on Sunday i had the opportunity to give Noe the Holy Ghost and i just felt so calm and peaceful. After that he told me he felt that a power or force decending on him when i said recieve the Holy Ghost so that was an amazing experience."
"I learned this week that when you have time on your hands discouragement sets in and the attacks like crazy."
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Noah's Baptism
From Joram's 11/10 emails:
"Hey everybody
We had an awesome week here in patterson. Anyway the week was hard we did a lot of work and nothing happened. Pretty much all of our investigators and every other hispanic visa expires this month so they are all heading back to mexico for the holliday. So we are running out of things to do fast and there are many times where we just have to go park the car and think and try to find something to do. We have a few cool people left but you can only visit them everyother day and everyday we get more people telling us they are sick of us so that blows. But on Wednesday i had an exchange in Lafayette with ELDER BAKER!!! the one from AF it was quite awesome, he is so funny. So we did some english work, got chased by a wolf chow chow mix, yeah that dog almost ate me. And then at night we got a call from his companion and Elder Jensen saying that one of our investigators had decided to get baptized and so we did that yesterday. So that was way awesome. It was a way good experience to see that. His name is Noe (Noah) Garcia and was a friend of a member who just decided to go to church with him one day and three weeks later we baptized him. Miracle.
I don't know if i told you about Joseph the RM that pulled us over and helped us. Well we had been trying to talk to him and get him to church and to stop drinking but it hadn't been going anywhere, but he came to church yesterday and enjoyed it. I think he was worried of being chastized but this branch is so desperate for people that everyone was just glad to see someone at church. So that was way awesome."
answers to several emailed questions:
How big is your area? "we have for our area the entire parish of St Mary, it goes from up by Franklin down to about Bayou Louis. It is the biggest spanish area in the mission by far and we don't have a ton of miles so we are rationing them."
How is the weather? "it has been raining cats and dogs in the morning, so bad one morning we had to sandbag our apartment and then it is in the high 70s in the afternoon. I seriously forget what month it is, it feels like September here but hotter. Anyway things are going great and thanks a ton for the package and lens cleaner."
"Hey everybody
We had an awesome week here in patterson. Anyway the week was hard we did a lot of work and nothing happened. Pretty much all of our investigators and every other hispanic visa expires this month so they are all heading back to mexico for the holliday. So we are running out of things to do fast and there are many times where we just have to go park the car and think and try to find something to do. We have a few cool people left but you can only visit them everyother day and everyday we get more people telling us they are sick of us so that blows. But on Wednesday i had an exchange in Lafayette with ELDER BAKER!!! the one from AF it was quite awesome, he is so funny. So we did some english work, got chased by a wolf chow chow mix, yeah that dog almost ate me. And then at night we got a call from his companion and Elder Jensen saying that one of our investigators had decided to get baptized and so we did that yesterday. So that was way awesome. It was a way good experience to see that. His name is Noe (Noah) Garcia and was a friend of a member who just decided to go to church with him one day and three weeks later we baptized him. Miracle.
I don't know if i told you about Joseph the RM that pulled us over and helped us. Well we had been trying to talk to him and get him to church and to stop drinking but it hadn't been going anywhere, but he came to church yesterday and enjoyed it. I think he was worried of being chastized but this branch is so desperate for people that everyone was just glad to see someone at church. So that was way awesome."
answers to several emailed questions:
How big is your area? "we have for our area the entire parish of St Mary, it goes from up by Franklin down to about Bayou Louis. It is the biggest spanish area in the mission by far and we don't have a ton of miles so we are rationing them."
How is the weather? "it has been raining cats and dogs in the morning, so bad one morning we had to sandbag our apartment and then it is in the high 70s in the afternoon. I seriously forget what month it is, it feels like September here but hotter. Anyway things are going great and thanks a ton for the package and lens cleaner."
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Shrimp & Petroleum Festival - Mmm Yummy
From Joram's 11/3 email:
"My week was pretty interesting and pretty good. We were on lockdown for halloween night and the mood in the apartment was pretty depressed, so i wrote a few letters and we just ate and did nothing, nobody came to our apartment so pretty quiet night and everybody was in bed by 10 because there was nothing to do. This week in Morgan City they had the Shrimp and Petroleum Festival which is pretty big here, so we went and did some contacting and tried to find some spanish people. Turns out not very many spanish people came but the other two elders in the branch that live with us found some cool people to teach. I ate a ton of good food there, i had aligator on a stick, which is pretty much like chicken just a bit slimier, i also had shark ka bobs, which weren't very good. Lets see i also ate a ton of deep fried shrimp. so yeah tons of food.
This week we went to a members house with the English elders who had a monkey. so i got to play with a monkey while they talked. It was so cool, it would just kind of sit on the couch next to me and would occasionally hold my hand or put its hand on my knee or something wierd like that."
Pictures from Patterson
Pictures from Metairie
"My week was pretty interesting and pretty good. We were on lockdown for halloween night and the mood in the apartment was pretty depressed, so i wrote a few letters and we just ate and did nothing, nobody came to our apartment so pretty quiet night and everybody was in bed by 10 because there was nothing to do. This week in Morgan City they had the Shrimp and Petroleum Festival which is pretty big here, so we went and did some contacting and tried to find some spanish people. Turns out not very many spanish people came but the other two elders in the branch that live with us found some cool people to teach. I ate a ton of good food there, i had aligator on a stick, which is pretty much like chicken just a bit slimier, i also had shark ka bobs, which weren't very good. Lets see i also ate a ton of deep fried shrimp. so yeah tons of food.
This week we went to a members house with the English elders who had a monkey. so i got to play with a monkey while they talked. It was so cool, it would just kind of sit on the couch next to me and would occasionally hold my hand or put its hand on my knee or something wierd like that."
Pictures from Patterson
Pictures from Metairie
Monday, October 27, 2008
Keep on Bikin
From Joram's 10/27 Letter:
Things are going pretty good here. We have still been biking about 30 miles a day and it is pretty rough ride, we have to go up and over a massive bridge [YouTube video of this bridge] over the I90 into morgan city, it is a big bridge and a rough ride but oh well. Its getting harder and harder to stay busy, everyday we are losing people to teach because they are sick of us and we have found every Spanish person in this entire area. So our numbers were pretty dang bad but we are doing our best and always trying to do the Lords work so thats good. I don't mind the little towns, its nice and the branch is strong, but small. My branch president is a Doctor so i have had some good talks with him. ... They are way cool, President Albert is from Hawaii and his wife is from Tonga. They have some pretty good stories. Apparently her grandpa was the king of Tonga but when he was baptized they told him to pick one or the other, so he said he would rather be a deacon than the king, so pretty cool stuff. "
[We asked about a Bro. Rivero who we bought a Spanish Triple for] "Bro. Rivero is a member in New Orleans who helped us out with rides for our investigators all the time and he gave his triple to a member that couldn't get one. It is hard to get triples for some reason, anyway i told him i would try to get one and you guys did so that is cool. It is also amazing that the companion i am with now actually baptized him a year ago so we get to go to the temple with him next month! So i will give that to him and watch him go through the temple. So that is way cool and i am excited. ... And the highlight of last week was when we were biking some guy stopped and pulled us over and talked to us and we found out he was an RM about 4 years ago but had fallen away. He had been drinking and stuff, but he took us to get food, gave us a ride to our apartment, saved us about 20 miles of biking, and tuned up my bike, AND he came to church for the first time in a year with us on Sunday, so that was amazing. We are trying to get him back on track and hopefully it will work.
Things are going pretty good here. We have still been biking about 30 miles a day and it is pretty rough ride, we have to go up and over a massive bridge [YouTube video of this bridge] over the I90 into morgan city, it is a big bridge and a rough ride but oh well. Its getting harder and harder to stay busy, everyday we are losing people to teach because they are sick of us and we have found every Spanish person in this entire area. So our numbers were pretty dang bad but we are doing our best and always trying to do the Lords work so thats good. I don't mind the little towns, its nice and the branch is strong, but small. My branch president is a Doctor so i have had some good talks with him. ... They are way cool, President Albert is from Hawaii and his wife is from Tonga. They have some pretty good stories. Apparently her grandpa was the king of Tonga but when he was baptized they told him to pick one or the other, so he said he would rather be a deacon than the king, so pretty cool stuff. "
[We asked about a Bro. Rivero who we bought a Spanish Triple for] "Bro. Rivero is a member in New Orleans who helped us out with rides for our investigators all the time and he gave his triple to a member that couldn't get one. It is hard to get triples for some reason, anyway i told him i would try to get one and you guys did so that is cool. It is also amazing that the companion i am with now actually baptized him a year ago so we get to go to the temple with him next month! So i will give that to him and watch him go through the temple. So that is way cool and i am excited. ... And the highlight of last week was when we were biking some guy stopped and pulled us over and talked to us and we found out he was an RM about 4 years ago but had fallen away. He had been drinking and stuff, but he took us to get food, gave us a ride to our apartment, saved us about 20 miles of biking, and tuned up my bike, AND he came to church for the first time in a year with us on Sunday, so that was amazing. We are trying to get him back on track and hopefully it will work.
Monday, October 20, 2008
New Area
From Joram's 10/20 Letter:
"Hey everybody, things are going pretty good here. Yes my new area is patterson and it is the largest spanish area by far and also it has the least spanish people. We are also out of miles for the month so we have been riding bicycles. Yeah so it is a hard area, Saturday we rode about 40 miles to and from a little town called Amelia. It is rough but oh well at least i am doing missionary work again. ... We are in a small branch and i met someone from Pleasant Grove who knows the Hanks and Diamonds and Warnicks. Man everyone knows the warnicks. So that was cool to talk to them."
Joram's new address is:
PO Box 902
Patterson LA, 70392
Apartment is on Progresso Road
"Hey everybody, things are going pretty good here. Yes my new area is patterson and it is the largest spanish area by far and also it has the least spanish people. We are also out of miles for the month so we have been riding bicycles. Yeah so it is a hard area, Saturday we rode about 40 miles to and from a little town called Amelia. It is rough but oh well at least i am doing missionary work again. ... We are in a small branch and i met someone from Pleasant Grove who knows the Hanks and Diamonds and Warnicks. Man everyone knows the warnicks. So that was cool to talk to them."
Joram's new address is:
PO Box 902
Patterson LA, 70392
Apartment is on Progresso Road
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
It's Transfer Time
From Joram's 10/14 Letters:
"Lets see i received a call from president last night and i am getting transfered!!! ... I am going to an area called Patterson which is pretty much the swamp lands of Louisiana so that is cool. I am going with Elder Jensen from Pleasant Grove, no lies." and "yes giggle giggle he lives up on the hill behind keetchs and apparently is 6:2 180 and funny. I think we might just tell everyone we are related to save energy."
"Lets see i received a call from president last night and i am getting transfered!!! ... I am going to an area called Patterson which is pretty much the swamp lands of Louisiana so that is cool. I am going with Elder Jensen from Pleasant Grove, no lies." and "yes giggle giggle he lives up on the hill behind keetchs and apparently is 6:2 180 and funny. I think we might just tell everyone we are related to save energy."
Monday, October 6, 2008
General Conference
From Joram's 10/6 Letter
"We baptized our family yesterday [10/5]. It was crazy. We baptized Jacklyn the mother between sessions on Saturday and then we decided to wait until next week and hope the rest of the family would be ready. But they all came to the priesthood session and really enjoyed it. I didn't think anything about it until they called us at 12:30 and said that they all wanted to be baptized. They had been struggling with the idea of prophets in this day but after hearing President Monson they apparently felt the Spirit way strong and decided to get baptized. So we [baptized] Allen, Bernardo, and Leonel before the first session on Sunday. Crazy!!!"
"We baptized our family yesterday [10/5]. It was crazy. We baptized Jacklyn the mother between sessions on Saturday and then we decided to wait until next week and hope the rest of the family would be ready. But they all came to the priesthood session and really enjoyed it. I didn't think anything about it until they called us at 12:30 and said that they all wanted to be baptized. They had been struggling with the idea of prophets in this day but after hearing President Monson they apparently felt the Spirit way strong and decided to get baptized. So we [baptized] Allen, Bernardo, and Leonel before the first session on Sunday. Crazy!!!"
Monday, September 29, 2008
9/29 Letter
From Joram's 9/29 Letter:
"Bernardo and Jacklyn are doing great, we didn't baptize them because the dad wasn't ready but we are hoping this week that after confrence they will all be ready. He loves church and always asks questions, so that is good and sunday school turns into discussions and our teacher is way good at answering them and he seems content. There son that is Jaces age loves church and wants to get baptized and wants to set the example for his dad."
and
"I am picking up some italian and portugese and french while i am here, they are all very similar and i can understand italian very well, so thats cool"
"Bernardo and Jacklyn are doing great, we didn't baptize them because the dad wasn't ready but we are hoping this week that after confrence they will all be ready. He loves church and always asks questions, so that is good and sunday school turns into discussions and our teacher is way good at answering them and he seems content. There son that is Jaces age loves church and wants to get baptized and wants to set the example for his dad."
and
"I am picking up some italian and portugese and french while i am here, they are all very similar and i can understand italian very well, so thats cool"
Monday, September 22, 2008
Neat Family
From Joram's 9/22 Letter:
"We are working with a ton of cool people.
First we have a family of 3 that we tracted into that are amazing. Bernardo, Jacklyn and their 11 year old son Allen are the most ready people and willing to accept i will ever see. They have the attitude of "well its hard but its from God so it will help me" with everything, word of wisdom, chastity, tithing, everything so that is good. They also bring one of their neighbors with them to church. I was thinking about how we were lead to them and how everything was perfect timing. His mother just died on Saturday and it is amazing how perfect that 2 days before we taught them the plan of salvation. We went over on saturday and just said a prayer and the spirit was so strong there."
"We are working with a ton of cool people.
First we have a family of 3 that we tracted into that are amazing. Bernardo, Jacklyn and their 11 year old son Allen are the most ready people and willing to accept i will ever see. They have the attitude of "well its hard but its from God so it will help me" with everything, word of wisdom, chastity, tithing, everything so that is good. They also bring one of their neighbors with them to church. I was thinking about how we were lead to them and how everything was perfect timing. His mother just died on Saturday and it is amazing how perfect that 2 days before we taught them the plan of salvation. We went over on saturday and just said a prayer and the spirit was so strong there."
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Gustav
From Joram's 9/9 Letter:
"Alright i don't even know where to start, it has been a crazy few weeks and i have about a thousand emails to answer so let see. This has been insane. One friday the 29 or something we evacuated New Orleans and headed up to Baton Rouge, they put all of us in a different missionaries house. We ended up in a city called Gonzolas about 10 minutes south of Baton Rouge. We were staying with quite a few different missionaries. Pretty much every pad has anywhere from 6 to 8 missionaries. On sunday we had an abreviated Sacrament Meeting and then were on lock down in members homes until Tuesday. We didn't get hit bad at all where we were at but pretty much every other area got nailed. New Orleans didn't get anything but Baton Rouge was hit pretty dang hard. So since then we have been going out in our yellow Mormon Helping Hands shirts and helping the members and pretty much everybody else. Its been quite interesting and also it has been a interresting change from prosliting everyday to serving. It was wierd to put a white shirt and tie on yesterday for the first time. On sunday we had church in our yellow shirts on the hill of the stake center looking at the temple. It was pretty cool, we had Elder Gay of the 70 come and talk to us so that was cool.. So yeah this week has been crazy. After Tuesday we moved out of the members homes and have been cramped 8 to an appartment with out power until Saturday. So that was nice to get AC back again. ... With the hurricane we were supposed to have transfer calls a week ago, but we just barely got them last night. I am staying in metairie, which is was cool, we have tons of good investigators so that is cool."
more pictures
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Evacuation Notice
Email from Mission President on 8/28:
"This message is to inform you that we are monitoring Gustav very closely. Landfall, if it comes, is not expected until Tuesday, September 2nd. The missionaries who are in areas around New Orleans and other impacted areas will be evacuated by 12:00 Noon, Friday the 29th.
President Woods"
We didn't hear anything else until Sept 9th.
"This message is to inform you that we are monitoring Gustav very closely. Landfall, if it comes, is not expected until Tuesday, September 2nd. The missionaries who are in areas around New Orleans and other impacted areas will be evacuated by 12:00 Noon, Friday the 29th.
President Woods"
We didn't hear anything else until Sept 9th.
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
The Kiss!
On the way to Joram's mission they had a layover in Dallas Tx. Unfortunately, the flight to Baton Rouge was canceled and the missionaries ended up having to stay overnight at a hotel in Dallas. It turned out that his Uncle Darin was in Dallas for a business trip. Darin found out what hotel they were staying at and ran over to quickly say hi (and give him a big kiss from Alyssa).
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
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