STARKE, FL
COMPANION: ELDER COLLETT
Lake City Zone
Transfer calls came through last night! I will be transferred out of Starke in the Lake City Zone (country) to St. Johns in the Jacksonville South Zone (City). I'll miss the wide open spaces and the friendly country people and the miles of NOTHING here in Starke. We'll see what St. Johns is like. Probably amazing. I hope their baptismal font is big enough for all of the thousands of people we'll be using it for.
Miracles keep happening everywhere. We prayed that people we didn't expect would come to church and investigators just showed up! People we hadn't worked with in MONTHS or people we had never even met and less-active members that hadn't been to church in years. Miracles and miracles. After one very long trade-off, we got back to Starke about 8:45 PM (we have to be in the house at 9) and went street-contacting for the 10 minutes we had left and found and taught a whole family that was out sitting in their front yard! Hah! Miracles.
Miracles accompany faith. Always. That has been a new lesson for me. It accompanies the lesson I am working on learning now: "Everything good that I ask for from Father in the name of Jesus Christ, believing that I will receive it, I will receive." That's a bold promise, but the Book of Mormon says so! I believe in prayer. I believe that when I pray, I am heard, and my prayers are answered. But this is more specific than that. Mormon promises me that EVERYTHING I ask for that is good I WILL get. Goodness gracious. Everything? Always? And all it has to be is good? There are a lot of good things. I can have them all? As soon as I ask for them?
If I will believe.
Moroni 7 says we must have charity, and it says that charity believeth ALL things. Joseph Smith says, in the 13th article of faith, that "we believe all things". We don't get to pick and choose, apparently! We believe ALL things. That's a lot. I'm pretty set on a few things. But believe I am a moment of prayer away from faith, hope, charity, strength, patience, knowledge, memory, energy, happiness, discernment, money to pay tithing, tools to do the work, guidance for where to go, all good things, the moment I ask?? That's great! WHOOOOOOOOOOOOO! All I need is belief.
So I am experimenting. Every day I pray for one specific thing that I want, that is good, and that I believe I will receive. I pray for it in every prayer throughout the day, and at the end of the day I examine the results. The next day I pray for something that requires a little more faith, a bit of stretch in my belief. I'm hoping to work my way up. Wish I could skip to the end. Wish I could be Mahonri. Wish I didn't fret. Sigh. Ah well. Poco a poco.
I had a new experience this week. I was asked to serve outside of my Zone for about a day and a half. We drove out to a much more wealthy, densely populated area, and I was placed with a missionary who was struggling significantly. I was as encouraging as I could be. I smiled, I complimented, I expressed respect and highlighted those things he was doing that were right. I supported all of his efforts. Unfortunately, this missionary was struggling with obedience. As he broke the rules, I smiled, I did my best to love him and to encourage anything he did that was obedient, and when he gave instruction on how I was to behave while in his area, I worked within the limits he defined as well as I could think to. When he chose to remain in the apartment, I studied my scriptures. When he chose to walk around the grocery store, I smiled and greeted as many people as I could. I thought I did what I was supposed to. As it turns out, I was very much mistaken! I love to be mistaken. Perfection is stagnation. Only in fault do we find opportunity to grow, and GROWTH is celestial.
After returning to Starke, I received a telephone call from the Mission President, and he provided some constructive correction. For the last year I have understood that to be Christ-like, I must be silent! To be meek I must do whatever I am told. To be loving I must never correct. I have been such a critical, confrontational, demanding, passionately opinionated person my entire life. I wanted to very much to change, but I had missed the mark. As I sat on my bed that night with the phone to my ear and reported my activities to the President, and had to give an accounting for my lack of work and for my lack of obedience that day, I had to hear the disappointment in his voice. As I gave a rather exacting report of each wasted moment, I had to hear his tone grow weary, and to feel a corrosive shame. He, fantastic man that he is, did not criticize, but he made it clear what was expected of me in future assignments.
So this week, I learned a LOT. I learned to stand for what is right. It is never loving to compromise. It is never acceptable to allow yourself or those under your stewardship to violate the commandments, statutes, or judgements of God for any reason, even for a day and a half. There is no loyalty in enabling sin. There is no kindness in paving a pathway to regression! Be loving and BOLD! Be merciful, and EXACT. Silence is not Christ-like. Jesus Christ taught even those who sought to MURDER Him. Surely we can teach in love even to those who seek to rebel.
There is no room for rudeness, contention, anger, condemnation, moral judgement, contempt, comparison, or fanaticism in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, but a disciple of Jesus Christ must never compromise his convictions, transgress the commandments, or condone disobedience, even with silence. Sigh. I love my Savior. This week, I learned how I am expected to represent Him in the coming years. I am so thankful.
It was an incredible week. I laughed and played and worked and actually shattered the darn machete (pansy machete. Broke the blade in two places and the handle in half) and said a couple of special goodbyes. We ate at an amazing all-you can eat restaurant and I was the marvel of the entire establishment. One day we went street-contacting for EIGHT HOURS. I got sunburned every day and a couple of my 10 million bug-bites are so swollen I have to walk with a weird little waddle/limp. There was a storm so enormous it blocked out the entire sky, made the day as dark as night, ripped the branches and leaves from about every tree in town, thundered so loud the house shook and flashed lightening so bright we were momentarily blinded (which was fine because it was dumping rain so hard you could barely see your hand at arm's length anyway). But what I will probably remember most about this week in my life, one of only a few thousand or so that I will spend in this probationary state, is the feeling of reporting. One day, I will return and report. One day I will stand before Father and the Master, and I will speak to them of each moment of my little life. They are not dispassionate beings. I will see their expressions, I will hear their tone, I will recount every single action, and their reactions will be emblazoned into my soul for eternity. I now have very strong feelings about exactly how I want that interview to go, and to NOT go! Hehehee I guess I'm that much more prepared for it.
That's what this life is for, you know; to prepare to meet God. Important to know.
I love you and I love my Savior. I learn so much, mostly about how much I don't know. I hope your week was as fun and exciting as mine was. I'll let you know what St. Johns is like.
Love,
~Elder Jorgensen