COMPANION: ELDER COLLETT
There is a fire in Starke! We love it. People are CRAZY. And wonderful. And I love them.
It's a metaphorical fire. A fire of the spirit. Just making that clear...
Jerry and Raphael and Clint and Larry have all committed to be baptized!! Jason and Brandi are doing their utmost to obey the word of wisdom so that they can progress, and Pam can get baptized as soon as she comes to church!!!!!!!!! Wonderful success. The best kind of success though is the walking around aimlessly in the million degree heat and leaning into people's cars and inviting them to come unto Christ and hearing that they only believe in "holiness" but preaching to them anyway! Muhaha.
Who else did we preach to this week?
Oh! My companion had a birthday! He is now 20. Right now we are walking along a grass path across a lake! It ends right in the middle of the lake with a little bench and grassy spot. The whole way there was lined with wild blackberry bushes, and they were just starting to ripen. I ate approximately all of them.
Even saw an alligator! Look!
This week someone told me I couldn't "prove" the Book of Mormon is true. Often we, in the world of religion, accept that assertion of our secular society. This is nonsense. We can prove anything that is true.
How do you know the Book of Mormon is true? Because I have put it to the test!
I know there is a sun in the sky because I see it rise, I feel its warmth, by it's light I see everything, without it I know I would only be capable of darkness and death. Same with my book. I know China exists because people tell me so! People have seen it with their eyes. How is this different than heaven? Prove. Hah! It would take me ages to list the witnesses, physical and spiritual (let there be no confusion, a physical experience is not more certain than a spiritual one! My eyes can be fooled and my mind confused by illusions on a cereal box for heaven's sake. But my soul, wound up in the Spirit of The Lord, cannot be deceived.) of the Book of Mormon, and of Jesus Christ.
Lamoni saw Him. Moroni saw Him. Jacob and Nephi and Isaiah saw Him. Thousands of nephites were ministered unto in the flesh. Thomas and the other 10 and Mary and those two on the road to Emaeus and hundreds others SAW him. Sigh. When will it be enough?
I love being a missionary. I would happily give everything to be here. Sometimes I forget that. There are so many incredible missionaries here with illustrious pasts and unfettered futures, it is difficult to, in my admiration, avoid the pitfalls of comparison! I suppose that is a common struggle. But all it takes is one precious moment, the small silence after a testimony, the unfelt tear fallen onto the well-marked verse, the handful of wild blackberries or the jolt of adrenaline from an alligator sighting (these things can run 30 mph and jump 20 ft., by the way), that reminds me that what I have is everything. I am so, so grateful.
We went on SPLITS this week! Our very first. The first in Starke in a very, very long time. I went with one member and Elder Collett went with another, because we had too many appointments for just our companionship. The work hastens, the gospel is true, I have everything, and I love being a missionary.
Hope your week was the best week ever.
~Elder Jorgensen
Lamoni saw Him. Moroni saw Him. Jacob and Nephi and Isaiah saw Him. Thousands of nephites were ministered unto in the flesh. Thomas and the other 10 and Mary and those two on the road to Emaeus and hundreds others SAW him. Sigh. When will it be enough?
I love being a missionary. I would happily give everything to be here. Sometimes I forget that. There are so many incredible missionaries here with illustrious pasts and unfettered futures, it is difficult to, in my admiration, avoid the pitfalls of comparison! I suppose that is a common struggle. But all it takes is one precious moment, the small silence after a testimony, the unfelt tear fallen onto the well-marked verse, the handful of wild blackberries or the jolt of adrenaline from an alligator sighting (these things can run 30 mph and jump 20 ft., by the way), that reminds me that what I have is everything. I am so, so grateful.
We went on SPLITS this week! Our very first. The first in Starke in a very, very long time. I went with one member and Elder Collett went with another, because we had too many appointments for just our companionship. The work hastens, the gospel is true, I have everything, and I love being a missionary.
Hope your week was the best week ever.
~Elder Jorgensen