COMPANION: ELDER COLLETT
My companion and I run around getting ourselves into ridiculous situations. This week we walked up to a man and asked,
"Do you know Japan?" We were thinking of one of our investigators and he was thinking of the country, so a hilarious conversation ensued.
"What?"
"Do you know Japan?"
"... I don't know."
"You don't know if you know Japan?"
"WHAT?"
"Is Japan here?"
"No, Japan is somewhere else."
"So you know where Japan is?"
"Yes."
"But I thought you didn't know Japan!"
"WHAT? How could I KNOW JAPAN? Who are you people?"
"We're missionaries! Can we talk to Japan?"
"What are you SAYING?"
"Okay sir, let's start over. What is a phone number that we can reach Japan on?"
"I don't know that!"
"Well, can you give us any information at all? When was the last time you SAW Japan?"
"I've never been to Japan!!!!!!!"
"What?? I thought you said you know where Japan is! Who are you?"
"Who are YOU?"
"We're the missionaries!!
We are looking for Japan!"
"WHAT? WHY??"
"Well, so that we can share a message about Jesus Christ."
"You can do that HERE!"
"Great! Can we start so a prayer?"
"What? No! Not with me, in America!"
"Not with you in America??? Where else would we do it?"
"JAPAN!"
"You'd like us to teach you with Japan? That would be
perfect! When will Japan be here?"
"...WHAT????????"
Etc.
The conversation went on for a significant amount time. When we finally realized the misunderstanding, we just burst out laughing. We didn't even say anything else. We just laughed ourselves to tears. It was wonderful. Never did find Japan.
That story is pretty indicative of the week. I want to emphasize, needlessly I am sure, that I am not the best missionary. But I may be enjoying myself the most. Missionary work is HARD. Super hard. But when you give up on anything ever going according to plan or the way you think it should, it gets very easy. We just go out and preach the gospel, even to people who don't know Japan. And we share our testimonies. To hostile boyfriends and kind retirees, over the phone to out-of-state relatives and over fences to the bewildered neighbors who most certainly do not know Japan. In Pizza Hut to the waitress that I drank myself sick on water to get to keep coming back to the table until we finally set an appointment with her, and in the middle of the street to kids playing basketball. No one escapes! Muahahaha!
And neither do you, sweetest family. I have a testimony of Jesus Christ. Ours is not a casual relationship. Mine is not a fleeting hope. It is a sweet assurance and a conviction born of a depth and intimacy I cannot describe. That this is His church, that the Book of Mormon is His word, and that every single word that comes from the mouth of our Prophet deserves that sacred epithet "Thus Saith The Lord" is my inescapable testimony. I love you. I love it. So much.
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Letters Home
Excerpts to Kent:
Happy St. Patrick's Day!!
I am absolutely wearing my brightest green tie. No pinching for me! I have been healthyish. Nothing to keep me on bed or anything. We are finding tons of people to teach. They just appear from nowhere. To quote one fabulous movie, "They just pop out of the snow! Like daisies!"
Goodness I would love to hear that talk from Bishop Konold! He is an incredible man. Happy Anniversary to grandma and grandpa Carpenter!
The relationships we have are the sweetest part of life. I can't even tell you how grateful I am for how much more I appreciate our family since being on a mission! I may not be able to find the words for my feelings, but you'll see the evidence for a looooooooong time.
Eternity is the perfect place to be a family.
I am so glad they are playing chess!!! I am way out of practice.
Cassidy's sweet compliments touch me deeply. They make me want to be the person she seems to think I am!
Thank you so much for your concern and generosity. It has been an incredible prove page to want for nothing my entire life and I know I have you to thank. Your willingness to help prompted me to splurge on naked juice at the store today!! Hehehee but I am usually exceedingly frugal and all my needs are met just fine. Thank you. I love you.
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Excerpts to the Family
Let's tell a story or two.
Last night. Ohhhhh last night. So we're sitting down to teach a less active member in a member's home, and the family pulls out the Saratov Approach. Well we can't watch the Saratov Approach, so we leave, offending them slightly but oh well. So we stop by one of our investigators houses. He is burning his porkchops and only has time to say at he'll see us the next day at 12, right in the middle of P day. Then the bishop calls and tells us to drain and clean the baptismal font, also during p day hours. Then we are led by what was either the spirit playing a prank on us or just a random set of feelings to a young couple sitting by the road. We taught them and prayed with them and committed them and everything in the dark by the side of the road in what was easily the most awkward experience of my entire life. Then we wandered around the neighborhood, trying to find a way to get home without passing by them again. Then our iPads wouldn't sync so we couldn't report numbers properly. All in an hour.
One hour! A comparatively uneventful hour at that!! Was it successful? Was it terrible? It was hilarious is what it was. The Lord was like, "Want to teach? Want to find some new people? Want appointments? Alright, let's see how you do with THIS!" The district leader asks how our week was every Monday morning, and my response is always, "A whirlwind of adventure!" He has yet to laugh, but it always makes me smile.
Elder Collett is deathly allergic to bees. So we had some fun sprinting away from giant bumblebees of death in the throes of irrational terror this week. He's actually pretty relaxed about it, I'M the terrified one. Vicarious terror.
We met our neighbors! The conversation goes more or less like this:
"We're not interested! Go away, you oddly dressed children."
"No no, we're your neighbors."
"Oh! Well don't I feel foolish! Come on by sometime and teach me the gospel."
Not everyone is that friendly but Donny is great and if Barbara ever comes back into town we will start teaching her too! It's a great approach. We've started telling people we're their neighbors all over town. "We're the new neighbors! We just moved in a few houses down! Give or take 20 miles. When can we come by and get to know y'all?"
Interviews with the mission president are tomorrow. I am going to ask him about six month mission extensions. Apparently the requests are not granted under any circumstances. I've got two years to wear him down so I'd better get started!
Those are my stories. Do you have any advice on how to prepare rice and beans? Love you! I need lots of encouragement!
I'm not sure why. I love it here. I have everything I want or need. My companion and I are best friends. i laugh all the time. The pain from my various parts can be excruciating but is swallowed up by the work. We are having more success than this area has ever had. We get calls from the zone leaders and emails from the mission president lauding the success The Lord has provided.
So why am I so TIRED? Why doesn't The Lord fill up my cruse with oil and my barrel with meal instead of making one handful last and last?? Why does he wait until I have stopped breathing to bring me back to life?? Rhetorical questions. I am deeply grateful for the reminders of from whence my strength comes. I love the opportunity to seek daily manna sufficient to sustain another day. It's a miracle getting up every morning, because every night I go to bed thinking, "Well, I am never getting out of bed again! Fetch me some cookies and a book or two, I shall not be moved."
I guess if The Lord can move mountains, He can pull me from under the covers.
I love being a missionary. I love the training that my life has been for this, and that this is for my life. I hope to be different. I hope to be better. I have hope, and so life is sweet, and tomorrow will be sweeter.
Love,
-Elder Jorgensen
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Nope, no leprechauns. We have no food dye! But I did wear my green tie to the store!
…….
I always wonder what impact the wives had in the Book of Mormon. Laman and Lemuel get a lot more intense after they get married (they pick up the girls and immediately try to murder Nephi for the first time), and Nephi seems a lot more of a man (hunting of his own accord says PROVIDER and PATRIARCH to me a lot more than the first 10 chapters).
I am SO glad they are playing chess!! I love that game. It's good for you. I should actually learn how to play at some point. Courtney is great at it I can't wait to have her whip me in two years. I love you.