Hermana Ashlyn Jorgensen: Choices are critical

August 25, 2014

wow this week will be rushed because we only have 45 minutes but i wanted to just share a little experience that happened this week.

My companion and I don't really understand why these things keep happening to us. First Byron and now Paola.. ANYWAYS.

We get this text on Sunday night from an inactive that said "i still love Kevin and Mimi" it was like at 1 in the morning.. so we just thought oh she is drunk or ohh something was mistakenly sent to us. anyways on Monday morning we go out early and we see Mimi and Kevin walking with someone else.. at like 6:30... we were like super confused. well we had an appointment with them that night that we set with them on Saturday because we passed by there on Saturday..

Paola the mom called us and was like hey can you come over.. we were like uhhh sure? something is up we had no idea.. we go over and literally the family is just a mess.. her kids got taken by the state.. this lady is so STRONG. like she doesn't cry over anything she doesn't like show emotion that she is stressed or sad.. like she is just so strong. She also said now she has to go to court and do this yadadyaya and she is sitting there telling us and then ASKING US ( two twenty year old girls what she should do.) my heart sunk as we sat there and listened to what she was saying... it really made me reflect on my life.. always.. this whole mission just makes me reflect on everything..

My companion and i were just sitting there and praying we had NO IDEA WHAT TO SAY... but the spirit was there. What was said was i know for sure what Heavenly Father wanted her to hear. As we were ending the lesson she gets a knock on the door... The police came.. and arrested her right in front of us.. We asked them if we could just end with a prayer, and then they came and took her away.. My companion and i were left sitting to think what in the world just happened?

As we were walking home we both just started crying.. Honestly my heart just broke. but HOLY COW i immediately just went home and thanked God for the parents i have. Mimi and I have been in the same situation in life.. (mine not as extreme) but i look at how Paola, the mom, has handled it. There are times in our life i feel that we need to take as opportunities to help correct, teach, and love them when those you love have gone astray instead of ridicule and abuse.. God has given us this opportunity to here in mortality to choose. CHOICES that is all that will make you sincerely happy or completely miserable. I am so grateful that God chose my family that i have here on this earth today. That God chose parents and siblings that love me dearly, that even though I went astray, that they were there for me and that they loved and HELPED teach me the way.

This Gospel is true. it blesses lives. The choices we make here in this life are so CRITICAL to who we will become and to where we will end up. I love my Heavenly Father. He is truly my Father who loves me and watches over me. He is ever so merciful and full of forgiveness. Let us all think about the daily choices we make, and repent for the ones that lead us away from Him above.

Love Hermana J #2 now #1

ps. saw this girl with down syndrome this week. i cried literally when i saw her we hugged and laughed for HOURS. oh my gosh.i miss my baby AND i want to work with kids with disabilities.... they are my life i totally forgot

and pss... we had a Muslim man come to church yesterday.. our "investigator" we found him in the street... he took his shoes off in church and wore his "dress clothes" .. you can only imagine it was a new experience for all of us...

xoxx