17 September 2012 - We are all enlisted

I'm going to Taiwan TOMORROW! Ahhh!

I forgot to tell all of you that I've gotten to perform a few times at the MTC. I was part of a boy’s choral group singing "Come Thou Fount" for a fireside, and I accompanied Sister Chord in Sacrament and Relief Society meetings. They went really well, it was a lot of fun.

This week I got a real wake-up call as far as the seriousness of my calling to serve as a missionary. Yesterday, we had the Director of Proselyting, W. Tracy Watson, speak to us yesterday about the importance of The Book of Mormon. He then did something I wouldn't have expected in a million years in the MTC: he showed us a video of the opening number of the Broadway Musical "The Book of Mormon". It was weird hearing it. Before I came on a mission I probably would have laughed at the jokes. But now, when I am actually a missionary, I just felt uncomfortable and sick. We are supposed to be viewed as representatives of Jesus Christ, not as overzealous, earnest young men with badges.

We are at war. Satan is using every tool in his arsenal to confuse the children of God to keep them from ever discovering their true divine identity and potential; he desires that "all might be miserable like unto himself." How do we combat the degrading images of Mormons that the adversary is displaying? My opinion is that we should love. It really is that simple. We love. Only then will people see us for who we really are as disciples of Christ. We, all of us members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, have been given a charge to share the gospel. Every member a missionary! It is time we shared this message, to step out of our comfort zone and show the world who we really are. I believe very strongly that our timidity and shyness to share the gospel, our fear of rejection, is what has caused Anti-Mormon literature like the musical "The Book of Mormon" to have so much prevalence and critical acclaim in our world today.

Did you know that in 1999 (I think), President Hinckley said that we were having on average 300,000 convert baptisms each year. That's great! That means 300,000 people are taking part in the necessary covenants to start on the path to salvation. But he said we could double that number. 600,000. That was the benchmark he set. And as of last year, we had about 280,000. The fact is, in order for us to be able to meet this goal, everyone must be missionaries. Not officially, but just sharing the gospel with your community, with your friends. It really is that simple.

Now if you are reading this, and you are not Mormon, I challenge you to read The Book of Mormon. Read it. Study it. Ponder it. And then pray about it. For if it is false, then Joseph Smith was not a prophet, and therefore the doctrines of the church crumble. But if it is true, then this gospel truly is from God. Read the book! Only through The Book of Mormon can you know if this church is true, that our claims are correct. Yes, I concede, Google can tell you a lot of answers. But Google cannot give you the divine witness from the Holy Ghost that this church is true. The Book of Mormon can do that. You may have many questions about the validity of the church, some of which may not have any answer. But in the end, if you know the book is true, you have no more questions. If you know it is true, then so is everything that goes with it.

I promise you that if you have a sincere desire to know if it is true, you will receive an answer that it is true. I have done this myself, many times. As a missionary, I stand as a witness of the divinity of The Book of Mormon, that it indeed contains the fullness of the gospel of Jesus Christ as we claim, and that "a man can get closer to God by abiding by its precepts, than by any other book" (Joseph Smith, Introduction). I know it is true, beyond a doubt. I add my testimony to millions of others, that Jesus is the Christ, and that he is the head of this church.

I love you all! God be with you 'till we meet again,
-Elder Jorgensen

Elder Jorgensen and Elder Bastian, a friend from our Stake who will also be serving in Taiwan.

11 September 2012 - A teacher who cared

Hello all,

It's the last week!!! Man, it's weird to think I've been here for 10 whole weeks. The best way I can put it is that the days are super long, but the time flies by very, very fast.

I've been keeping a running list of nicknames/accidental names that I've been called since I've been here at the MTC:

-Elder Jacobson

-Sister Jorgensen

-Elder Yourgensen

-Jorgie-bear

-Ammon (due to my "Team Ammon" T-shirt)

-Elder Hendrickson

-The Mailman

-The Music Man

-Elder Chang Ge ("Ge" is my Chinese name, but "Chang Ge" means "sing a song")

-Dr. Seuss (I have a tie that reminds Elder Deal of The Cat in the Hat)

It seems to get longer every day... Most of them are purely accidental, but the "Jorgie-bear" one is just plain weird. But the guy who calls me that calls everyone that.

Yesterday I was sitting in the corner of the classroom studying, when I just glanced up for a moment and saw my teacher Sister Weinheimer watching me. I just treated it as a funny, awkward moment and went back to studying. It was clear to me, however, that she was getting some sort of prompting from the Spirit, because she pulled up a chair and asked me how I was doing. She then asked me what I was most worried about for when I left to Taiwan, and the thing that I told her that has been worrying me for a while is that I don't want to be a burden to my companion. I told her that I've been learning the language at a slower pace than most (I've had to have Zone Resource, or private tutors, help me), and that I don't want my companion to feel compelled to do all the work and me just sit there like a big dead-weight. She then said that she wanted to talk with me because "people with [my] personality type tend to be unnecessarily hard on themselves." She asked me why I was so concerned about my ability as a missionary, and my mind was immediately flooded with all the people I know and love in my life. I told her that I came on this mission expecting that somehow my work here would help those I love back home, and that I was very worried that I wasn't doing enough. She told me that someone she loved very much was inactive in the church and jobless before she left on her own mission, and that while she was gone he got a job and became active. However, when she returned, he was inactive again. She said that everyone has their agency, and that I do not have any power to make someone do the right choice. She then told me that it is too easy to set our standards higher than the Lord's standards. He doesn't expect us to be perfect. In fact, he expects us to make mistakes. That's part of the purpose of life. We learn through our mistakes. She told me not to measure my success by how many people I help. I need to measure my success by who I become through this mission. There's only one convert that the Lord expects us to make, and that is ourselves.

I saw a fantastic video this week on "Mormon Messages", and I wanted to share it. The man who's speaking is Apostle David A. Bednar. It explains really well what a conscience is, and the process in which we all receive revelation.

 http://youtu.be/fycvkAhYz1I

And one other video, that I think all would enjoy, illustrates just what kind of world I will be immersed in, in the very near future:

http://mormon.org/zho/mao

Translation of the first segment: "I live in Taiwan. I know Taiwan personally. I know Taiwan has given me many blessings. Therefore, I love Taiwan."

And so I go so soon... I'm very excited! I love you all, you are in my prayers.

-Elder Jorgensen

4 September 2012

Hey! (And that's Chinese for Hello, by the way!)
So I've gotta fill you in on that meeting, now, don't I? I suppose I could just not say anything, but that would be a little rude, since I know a number of you were waiting impatiently on the edge of your seats. So I proceed:
Dad, you were close on your guess, but not quite. The guy who came was one of the Seventy, who was an area authority in China for the last 5(?) years. It started out mainly as a pep talk about how the Chinese people are very nice, and that they are very interested in what the gospel has to offer, particularly around having eternal families. And then he opened it up to questions, and people began hammering him with questions about if China is opening soon and little details around that.

Moving on to other stuff... Our teacher pulled my companionship aside a few days ago and said, "I take back what I said before. You have a lot of love toward your investigator. You have a great amount of faith. But your Mandarin is, uh..." I jumped in, "--terrible?" "--Terrible!" He quickly pulled back saying, "Just kidding, just kidding!" When we replied that we really wanted to know what he thought, and that we wouldn't be offended, he said, "Yeah, it's terrible." He continued to say that we have some wonderful things to say that would truly help the needs of the investigators, but we just lack the language to communicate them. That, and our grammar is totally atrocious. Which I take more of the blame for: usually in lessons it's me asking Elder Christianson what the investigator was saying, and me asking him for vocabulary when I'm trying to speak. I feel like I have this annoying problem of forgetting everything. But I'm not letting this get me down. The fact is, I was called to do this by the Lord, and he qualifies whom he calls. "And I will do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that he giveth no commandment unto the children of men save he shall prepare a way for them to accomplish the thing which he commandeth them" (1 Nephi 3:7). As I try to improve myself each day through the Atonement of Jesus Christ, I can accomplish all trials. As I exercise my faith, I can become the missionary the Lord has foreordained me to be.

Some news on Isaac Hales: I sat by him in a Sunday night devotional, and I learned he was going to Mosambique (sp?), Africa, Portuguese speaking. Crazy. We reminisced on the good times we had when we were younger, such as me throwing giant rocks at his head because he made me angry at a campout. Good thing he doesn't remember that episode. It was so crazy running into him, talk about slim chances.

Congrats to Adam Price to going to Taipei, Taiwan. You're gonna speak more Chinese!!! :D

And I just got the news about my best friend Dillon. 糟糕！不好意思。Man, that's a huge bummer. Get all the way through the mission paperwork process, only to have to start over because it accidentally got deleted. For those of you who don't know, it takes a long time to get through all that paperwork. Because you could get sent pretty much anywhere in the world, you have a lot of medical information to fill out. My mom said this, and I agree: Clearly the Lord is preparing a special mission for him, but it's just not quite ready to have him there yet. Good job staying positive through all this Dillon; you're gonna have a great story to tell during dinners at the MTC. I'm rooting for ya!

How about a Chinese lesson, eh? Let's do a simple phrase:

nǐ hǎo! wǒ shì ____. Nǐ shì shéi?

(Hello! I am _____. You are who?)

See those little markings above the vowels? Those are called tones. They are extremely important to get exactly right. If you want to know how they sound, just match the line to your pitch. For example, if it is a rising line, just make your pitch go low to high as you speak the word. If it's a dip, make your voice dip as you speak it.

"nǐ hǎo" literally translated means "You good", but is commonly understood as "Hello". Keep in mind that this is a very formal greeting. Normally, people in China just say "Hey" or "Hi", or my favorite (translated), "Oh, your doing ____ right now."

"wǒ" means "I". "shì" means "am", or "is", in the literal sense. If you were saying that someone is dead, you cannot say "Tā shì sǐwáng" ("He/she is death"), because they are not literally "death" itself. So you have to add "de" after the word for death ("de" is a descriptive word, meaning "type"), in order to say "He/she is death type person." See how the meaning changed to something that makes more sense? (Oh, and don't go around saying "sǐ", it's bad luck. And all the Chinese hate the number four, because it sounds very close to "sǐ".)

"shéi" is a question word, meaning "who?" Because Mandarin is a tonal language, you cannot use a rising tone like English to indicate you are asking a question. You have to use some word or sentence particle to indicate that you are asking a question. If "shéi" is used, people know you are asking them for some person as an answer. In this case, if someone asked me "Nǐ shì shéi?", I would respond with "wǒ shì David". In this case, it's implied that you are asking for a name, but in reality I could answer with a variety of things, such as "wǒ shì chǔanjiàoshì" ("I am a missionary").

And that's about it for now. You may want to take everything I say with a grain of salt, because apparently, my Chinese is terrible.

Love you all, and write you again next week! Oh, and before I forget, I will be going to Taiwan in two weeks, so if you want to send letters, I'd start sending them to this address, because it takes about 2 weeks for letters to reach me from the US:

Elder David Hendrick Jorgensen

Taiwan Taichung Mission

#498-11, Wu Chuan Road

Taichung 404-46

Taiwan

And international flat rate is a heaping 3 stamps (I think, don't quote me on that one).

See ya later,

-Elder Jorgensen

28 August 2012

Another week has flown by, and this time I have 很多的 cool stuff to report.

First of all, last Tuesday night we had a fireside, and Apostle Neil L. Anderson from the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles came to speak. That day was Prophet Thomas S. Monson's birthday, so he talked about what President Monson would say to us had he been there. How important it is that we have a smile on our faces! This is a gospel of happiness, so by golly, let's be happy! I was thoroughly reminded of the importance of becoming Christ like. As a missionary, I am a representative of Christ, and I must act how he would act. Through the enabling power of Christ's sacrifice for us, I can become like him.

A little tidbit I learned this week: Christ's sacrifice, or the Atonement, has two parts, mercy and grace. Mercy is an event. We apologize and make restitution, and then we are forgiven. Grace, on the other hand, is a process. Grace is the power Christ gives us to become like Him. As Elder Fronk put it: "Mercy is when God gives us what we don't deserve. Grace is when God doesn't give us what we do deserve." Stew on that one for a while.

That night, the head of operations at the MTC came to our district meeting. He told us about how the church works with major airline companies (like American Airlines and other foreign companies) in getting discounts on flying missionaries to their assigned fields. They've discovered that the negotiation process goes much better when the executives of these companies can meet missionaries in person. This happens once every year. And then he told us that for some reason or another our class was picked to be the MTC missionary representatives and that they would be coming to see us the next morning at 9 am. He then told us that there would be about 5 people, and he prepped us on the kinds of questions they would be asking, such as, "Why did you decide to serve a mission?", "Why are you willing to do this on your own funding?", and, "How do you feel about the current presidential candidate Mitt Romney?". We were pretty stressed, to say the least.

The next morning, 12 people shuffled into the room, and they asked a few questions about the language. These people were not Mormon, so they were new to everything we did as missionaries. We ran through a language exercise for them. We were lucky they didn't understand Chinese: Elder Raley said a sentence that didn't make any sense whatsoever. It was everything we could do to keep from laughing. Luckily, they didn't say anything else besides how long we've been here, so no Mitt Romney questions. One lady with Delta airlines (I think) was especially ecstatic about our accents, saying they were "spot on". Afterwards, we went outside and took a picture together, and that was it. Crazy, but it went well. If you look at the big picture, this little meeting saves the church hundreds of thousands of dollars. I feel really blessed to be of help to the church that way.

I saw Issac Hales today! He was my friend that moved away when I was 12, and I just happened to see him in the cafeteria. His voice is mega low. He's going to a Spanish speaking mission I believe, but I forgot where (curse my brain!). He just came in last week. I'll make sure to get a picture before I leave.

Last but not least, I must leave you all in anticipation. President Brown, President of the MTC, came around to all the Chinese speaking missionaries and told us that we were going to have a special meeting on Tuesday only for us, and that a General Authority (Apostle or one of the Seventy)would be speaking to us. This led to immediate speculation. Currently, mainland China is not open to missionaries, only Hong Kong and Taiwan. The church has felt for quite some time now that China was close to opening, but there has been little if any word on the church's progress. There are two likely possibilities: Either mainland China has opened and they will be reassigning us, or it's just a pep talk about how we can learn the language. Of course, there is a whole slew of things that they could talk about, so I'm just not going to get too excited and just see what happens. What is extremely interesting though is that nobody, not even President Brown, knows what the meeting is about.

Quick shout out to Elder Davis, going to Paris, France! WOOHOO! You are going to have a blast!

I love you all, God bless you.

我知道神爱你们！我也爱你们。

-Elder Jorgensen （葛长老）

21 August 2012

On Sunday I was sitting on the temple grounds by the MTC (our district's Sunday getaway), and I thought about families.

Isn't it incredible how everyone is brought into this world into this automatic social unit? I mean, the mother and father don't even know the kid, but they love them unconditionally right off the bat. God provided us families so we can learn and grow together, in an environment of reverent, sacred love. Wouldn't it be sad if our families couldn't continue after this life?

God bestowed upon Elijah the priesthood keys, or authority, to seal families together for eternity. "...[H]e shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers" (see Malachi 4:5-6). That priesthood power is present in our day. Inside our holy Temples, we have the opportunity to have this blessing.

Even more amazing is that those that never received this ordinance in this life can still have this blessing. In the Temple, we can stand in proxy for those that have passed on, and do the saving ordinances for them, so they can choose to accept this work done for them.

Everyone will have a fair chance to hear and accept the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.

I'm excited to start my own eternal family. I strive every day to live up to the covenants and promises I have made with God so I can be worthy to be married in the Temple. Heaven would not be heaven to me if I didn't get to keep these sacred relationships. To know that my father will always be my father, my mother will always be my mother, I will always have my siblings and wife and children... It gives my life so much purpose. It makes me want to make sure that I treat my family with love and respect, that I don't do things I would regret later. When you have this eternal perspective, the meaning of life completely changes. Every action you make is influenced by this knowledge. I am so grateful for my testimony that my family truly can remain together forever.

...

This week was hard. We got a new investigator, but he was really tough and we were stressed, and he kind of rushed us out the door and told us he didn't want to meet with us anymore. Our teacher said to the class that this was a result of lacking motivation to become good missionaries, and said directly to me and my companion that we "did not have enough faith." This was a soul crusher. I have never been more afraid of failure in my life. The idea that we are, as our teacher said, "losing souls" is terrifying. I started having very powerful doubts that I was not up to the task, that I couldn't do this work. Or rather, that I did have the potential, but that I would never reach it. When I would have hard days like this, I would usually talk with my mom, but I couldn't since I'm here, so I just stayed up late writing a letter to them.

It's clear the Lord is looking out for me. I got a letter from my dad two days later. It was remarkable because it said exactly what I needed to hear, even though by that time they had not received my letter yet. He said: "Whenever we talk about the Martin Willy Handcart Company we usually share the couple of harrowing days at the end, when really the real story is the day-on-day drudgery of pulling a 300 lbs. handcart for many months." (Not exact quote, don't have the letter with me.) I quickly realized that one failure is not what defines my entire mission, and how successful I will be. It's how hard I work every single day and how I grow from that which determines if it was a success.

I later listened to a talk by the church Apostle, Elder Bednar, who said that "success is a gift from God. We may be working as hard as we possibly can and doing everything right, but we must remember that we do not earn gifts from God. We do not deserve anything from him. He will give us gifts according to his time-table, according to his wisdom. We just need to be worthy to receive them when the time comes that he is ready to give us those gifts."

I appreciate all the kind words from everyone the past few weeks; it's really helped me pull through. I can't believe I was so vain to worry about how much mail I was getting at the beginning of my time here. I've gotten the nickname "The Mailman" because I now get at least one letter every day. Lesson learned: when I forget about myself and love those whom I serve, that's when the Lord will bless you. I have such amazing friends and family, I love you all so much!

I hope you enjoy the new slew of pictures! Let me know if there's anything specific that you want me to document before I leave the MTC on September 18th.

And a quick shout out to John: CONGRATULATIONS on your mission call!!! Have fun in Memphis, beware of the Elvis impersonators! I'm so pumped for you!

And one joke from Elder Deal: "James walks into a bar and sees John sitting there. James says to John, 'Ni de tongban zai nali?' ('Hey, where's your companion?')"

Ah, dumb multilingual missionary church humor.

Love you all,

Elder Jorgensen

What a great brother—he remembered Britta’s birthday. She felt very special!

MTC Campus

Elder Raley and Elder Fronks—dorm mates with Elder Jorgensen and Elder Christiansen.

Elder Christiansen—Elder Jorgensen’s awesome companion. We think he resembles our good friend Mark Davis (or how we imagine Mark to look when he’s grown up.)

Do you see the “Y”? Elder Jorgensen and his dad hiked to the “Y” when he was about five years old.

Language notes sampling.

Krispy Kreme treats for all!

I see gratitude in those eyes. :)

Intense?

Beautiful Provo temple.

On the temple grounds where the Chinese speakers hang.

We love you Elder Jorgensen.

Sister Newman and Sister Chord (on the left). They will be serving in the Taichung mission as well.

Elder Jorgensen’s MTC district.

MTC District—including the Sisters.

Elder Christiansen. Don’t you agree? He looks like a grown up version of Mark with brown hair. :)

14 August 2012

What a loooooong week. Very, very busy.

So I have to tell you about what learning the language is like. Imagine being dunked into a cold lake. Yep. You are placed into this environment where everyone only speaks Chinese, except for a few occasional English words for clarification. Our first day, our teacher walked in and gave us all of our instructions for our first assignment in fluent Mandarin. Imagine then, 11 pairs of wide, glazed over eyes. Thus, the teachers have to pantomime a lot of their words as they say them; they get a pretty good workout!

So here's the philosophy: if we devote all of our time to listening to and speaking Chinese, then the Spirit will kick in and grant us the gift of tongues. Fact: No ordinary 19 year old teenager can learn this language on their own in twelve weeks. But, with the Lord's help, we can accomplish anything that is in line with His will. And right now He wants me to learn Mandarin. The Lord qualifies whom He calls. I've learned way more here in six weeks than I learned in High School Chinese class in three years.

Just to give you an idea, at six weeks I'm expected to be able to speak 70% of the time in Mandarin. Needless to say, there is a lot of pressure on us missionaries. The crazy thing is that last year they were running a pilot program where the Chinese speakers only had nine weeks, not twelve. Yes, reliance on the Spirit is completely necessary to be successful. This. Is. Hard. It means giving all your energy to doing this stuff, then praying that the Lord can help you the rest of the way. We have to completely eliminate any sense of pride inside us, which is difficult for me. Unfortunately, I can be pretty self-centered.

And now for some other things...

The chief of security here is this huge, bald dude that constantly scowls. We think he was a Navy Seal. But the thing that makes him so epically awesome is his name: Magnum Angus. Ooooh yeah. He was born for his job!

Another Elder in my district is running a blog, and he's going to Taichung as well. Check out www.blakeraley.com if you'd like (there's probably more pictures of me there, because I'm not the one holding the camera).

In the scriptures, particularly 1 Corinthians 13, it talks about how Charity is the best Christ like attribute we can have. Charity is the eternal love that God has for his children. When we have Charity, we want to serve those around us the best we possibly can because we love them and want them to be happy. I'm trying hard to develop this characteristic in myself. My companion and I have been pushing ourselves to do little planned acts of service for others in our district, like compliments and little notes about how we appreciate their examples and things they did. This is easy in itself, but the hard thing is delivering these compliments in secret. I've learned that the best acts of service are the ones where the recipient never finds out who served them. Being in drama, I love the applause after a performance. It's addicting. If you are not careful, your main motivation for acting would change from entertaining people to getting recognition. When you eliminate the possibility of recognition, you focus more on your love for the person, and therefore the act of kindness is much more sincere. I hope I can embody that kind of love in myself as I serve others. I have a feeling it's gonna take my whole life long. But it's worth it, because "charity never faileth". As a missionary, I can teach them and help them and bear my testimony all I want, but if love is not present, it all is in vain. With charity, I can succeed in accomplishing my purpose to invite and help others to come unto Christ.

We had a cloudy day yesterday. Man, I miss Washington.

I sent an SD card with about 230 pictures home today, so you all will have those to look forward to pretty soon!

And one more fun fact: If you want to say hello in Thai, just say "So what eh cup!"

I love you all, and I wish you all the best! Until next week,

Love,

Elder Jorgensen

8/7/2012 Halfway Through The MTC

 

大家好！

So I decided to keep a note card on me to record what happens during the week, and it resulted in a whole bunch of uncorrelated, random bullet points. Forgive my apparent case of ADHD.

You know the band Imagine Dragons, that popular rock band that popped up out of nowhere in the last few months? Turns out, Elder Teshima knows the lead singer personally because they are in the same Stake (geographical location that contains several smaller congregations). AND Imagine Dragons just recently released a new EP, which news made me severely depressed because of the strict music rules on my mission. Ah well, I guess something to look forward to when I get back, right? (Mom and Dad, birthday present for when I get back!? Maybe!? )

This week the older generation of Chinese speakers leave for their mission fields (one is going to Ireland! Weird!). It's really sad to see them go. They were a great inspiration to me. But the cool part is that their departure marks my generation's halfway point of our stay in the MTC. Six down, six more weeks to go!!!

For those of you who have seen the movie "Joseph Smith: The Prophet of the Restoration" (and if you haven't the whole thing's on YouTube!), the actor for the younger Joseph Smith is at the MTC right now. I've been itching to get a picture with him, but all the opportunities I have with him are horrid, like in the temple or during a fireside. I believe he's serving in Virginia... Still gotta ask him. I often have to look at him twice because he has red hair, but in the movie he's blond.

Sunday I watched the church film "The Testaments" in Mandarin. I've done this before at home, but unlike previous experience, I actually understood about 1/3 to 1/4 of the words that were said. It's times like these when I realize my time at the MTC is paying off.

This week was one of the first weeks where receiving letters was almost completely out of mind. This week was also the week where I got two to three letters a day! I'm learning more and more that the Lord is a perfect teacher, and will do whatever is the best way to teach us the lessons we need to learn. For me, it was "Forget your darned self and get to work!" So for those of you who send me letters, forgive me if it takes a while to reply, I'm trying to write back in the order I got them. And thank you, thank you, thank you so much for all your kind words! It's clear that I am greatly loved, and I am very humbled to have such great friends and family.

My dad gave me a Portuguese nametag that he got from his cousin while he was at the MTC, and I decided to wear it one day this week. It gave me nothing but trouble. One elder sat down next to me at lunch and started speaking Portuguese, and he was so frustrated when I couldn't understand. And then when I was teaching our progressing investigator, the investigator pointed at the end of the lesson and asked me what was up with my tag. It was so fun, I might do it again!

A few more funny quotes to add on to last week:

"Dude, that's the thing with crushes. Sometimes you just gotta burn down cities. Just burn 'em down." -Elder Deal (While talking about Alexander the Great and Cleopatra.)

"I was upset when English was decided as the official language of the Church. That meant I had to learn it. But don't get cocky, English speakers, because you will have to learn a new language too. I am convinced that in the celestial kingdom, we will be speaking German." -Apostle Dieter F. Uchtdorf

"You're a stud. Now get outta here." -Elder Christianson

And an inspiring quote:

"You can't write a paper unless your pen's moving." -Elder Greer

Before I go, I just want to take a moment to testify of the divinity of The Book of Mormon. Many say that The Book of Mormon is a fraud, that it was devised in the mind of Joseph Smith or the minds of a party of people. But when I read this book, I know without a doubt that no mortal man could ever write a book such as this. I add my witness that this book is another testament of Jesus Christ, and that a man can get closer to God by abiding by its precepts, than by any other book. I testify that The Book of Mormon contains God's word, and that Joseph Smith translated the ancient records that comprised the book by the power of God. I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet, and that through him, Christ restored his church to the earth today as it was when he established it in his mortal ministry. This is His gospel. His church is the only way whereby man can be saved. I exhort you, member or non-member, to receive this knowledge for yourselves through the power of the Holy Ghost. If you study it out, ponder its message, and pray with the sincere desire and real intent to know if it is true, I can promise you that God will give you an answer.

I love you all, and stay cool!

Love,

Elder Jorgensen