ST JOHNS, FLORIDA
COMPANION: ELDER BORE
district leaders
This week was WARM! Wow. There was a lot of tracting and a lot of
raining and in Florida that means humidity. We'd be riding our bikes
at 9 PM and it would be so wet and hot that steam would be coming off
the sidewalk so thickly that it actually obscured our vision. Not fog,
steam from the road. Warm.
I love the heat!!!!! Oh yeah! Nothing better. Cleansing. Makes you
feel like you're really working! My poor Canadian companion is less of
a fan, but he is leaving tomorrow to go serve in downtown
Jacksonville. That's right! Transfers have come and after 12 weeks
together my trainee is off to conquer the world. I'm still here, my
district only changed three of it's ten missionaries which isn't that
bad (although they were the ones I had assigned to give trainings and
whatnot in District Meeting on Thursday, so we'll see how that goes)
and my new companion is on a plane from the MTC even as we speak! Yep,
training again. An extra hour of studies every day, it'll be joyous,
and my FOURTH time through the training program with SIX companions. I
guess I must have missed something with the first five because the
Lord keeps having me rinse and repeat! Anyway, hopefully the new
missionary will be from Scotland so that I can visit him after the
mission and we can sound awesome in door approaches.
We're working on Austin, Aubrey's 15 year old brother. After a crazy
teaching roller coaster, he has committed to be baptized at the end of
the month! We're pretty excited.
daughter we baptized) and Austin (the son we are teaching).
This week was pretty standard. Meetings, biking, knocking on doors,
teaching the doctrine, inviting with love and perhaps a little more
boldness than is absolutely necessary. I've found this new trick where
you just keep talking. If they start closing the door, you just keep
talking even after they have actually closed the door. Dozens of
people have slammed the door but kept their hand on the doorknob and
at the realization that I have not, in fact, paused in my sentence
they will open the door back up and wait for me to have to take a
breath. Darn breathing. It really holds me back. Luckily we
Jorgensen's are champion breath-holders. I can get through the
restoration and half the plan of salvation without so much as gasp.
Other tricks include asking them their favorite part of the Bible.
Everyone here (EVERYONE) is Christian and everyone will answer either
Psalms, Proverbs, Matthew, or Revelations. Just memorize a few verses
from each and similar corresponding Book of Mormon verses and you're
in!
"There are just too many differences between what I believe and Mormonism!"
"Oh yeah? Like what."
"Well I don't know, you're the preacher, you tell me!"
"Okay!"
That one is hilarious. People accidentally ask to be taught the
gospel. You can see the little look of horror when they realize what
they've done, but by then it's way too late. They've already got a
pamphlet in their hands and here come the words: "I saw a pillar of
light..."
People still call me the Preacher. The Holy Ghost does not allow me to
get all fiery with people very often. Occasionally. But even though I
don't talk that way much, I guess there's a glimpse somewhere in my
face or eyes that communicates a whiff of what I feel to say of
certain things. Sigh. But I don't. Because when I open my mouth to do
it, I choke on the words and others come through. I asked this week
about why. Why not? Why should I not have the wish of mine heart, that
I might go forth and speak with the trump of God, with a voice to
shake the earth, and cry repentance unto every people? Yea, I would
declare unto every soul, as with the voice of thunder, repentance and
the plan of redemption, that they should repent and come unto our God,
that there might not be more sorrow upon all the face of the earth.
And I got an answer. Well, not so much an answer. I got an
explanation. That's not the way the apostles do it, and I am on an
apostolic mission. It is their work I am assisting in. They are the
special witnesses of the name of Christ. This is their work and
mission to the world, and I have been called to assist them. I bring
very little to the table besides your and the capacity to be somewhere
that they are not. But that's pretty much all they ask, so it works
out! I emulate the apostles. They speak with love, with charity, with
patience, with boldness and frankness but with gentle grace. They
allow people the choice of whether to listen and follow, or not. And
so must I.
Hard though. I'd rather have a trump.
When I was in the MTC, Elder Bednar came and talked to us about the
apostolic mission. He said that he is a special witness of the NAME of
Christ (his emphasis, not mine).
Well what on earth does THAT mean?
I've been thinking about it for 9 months now. I still have a primitive
understanding at best. But if I were to offer a guess, it would be
this:
What is the name of Christ? It is Messiah. Deliverer. Savior.
Redeemer. There is saving in this world. There is deliverance. There
is redemption. If not from Christ, from whence could it flow? Are
there any natural forces in the universe independent of God from
whence redemption flows? Is there a food to eat or a river to bathe in
or a sight to see or a sound to hear that brings saving to the soul?
He is the Light. Truth. Word. Who among us has not experienced a
moment of understanding, a splash of inspiration, a hint of guidance
and direction? Who has not marveled at the inception of intelligence
of any sort? Did a capacity to sense morality develop of dust and
stone? Does sudden clarity, invention, or beauty in expression develop
out of muscle and bone? Man is more than flesh and electrical impulse!
There is one Truth and one Light and one Word in this sphere, and it
is He, of whom the prophets have written.
He is Master, Chieftain, High Priest, Lord, and King. Is there not
order? Is there not structure? From whence does it come? The laws of
physics prohibit it. The scheme of matter denies. And yet we see
symmetry and elegance all around us. We have but to glance at the
natural world or even our own bodies to experience awe. Who then,
reigns? It is He.
There is but one Source of Peace and Strength. There is but one
Foundation and Rock. There is but one Way and there IS a Way! There IS
Truth Pilate! There IS a balm in Gilead! There is, and it is Him.
We are witnesses of all that He is and all that He means, to us and to
the world. There is naught but the soulless vacuum without our God.
There is naught but terror without our Peace. For where else shall ye
go? Contemplate, in all the massive magnitude of the universe, or of
the mind, where is solace? Where is purity? Where is certainty? Where
is deliverance? Where is the beginning, or the end?
Here it is! All ye people of this earth, here it can be found! For He
is Immanuel. He is with us. He is Alpha and Omega. In a world where
the most brilliant among us grapple even with the reality of their own
existence, our Lord is the great "I Am". In a mortality of decay,
aging, and death, He declares: "I am the resurrection and the life".
Never could any understand the questions of life so deeply as to even
begin to appreciate the wholeness of those answers provided by the
King of the Jews (for there is a regent, and not just chaos) the
mighty one of Israel (for there is might, and not only transient
strength), Jesus the Christ.
“Oh that my words were now written! oh that they were printed in a
book! That they were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock for
ever! For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at
the latter day upon the earth: And though after my skin worms destroy
this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God: Whom I shall see for
myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins
be consumed within me.”
Sigh? Speaking of the questions of life, it is question time! Do you
know the top three people who have been written about?
1) Jesus Christ. No shockers there.
2) Napoleon Bonaparte. A little peculiar right? But he is a pretty
significant, interesting fellow. So alright.
3) Hamlet.
Yes, the fictional Shakespeare Character has more written about him
than all of the real people who have ever lived on this earth besides
Jesus Christ and Napoleon.
One of the most fascinating questions spoken by Hamlet through the
Playwright is this:
"To be, or not to be--that is the question. …
To die, to sleep--
… and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to ‘Tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wished. To die, to sleep,
To sleep--perchance to dream. Aye, there’s the rub,
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil
Must give us pause. There’s the respect
That makes calamity of so long life,
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
The oppressor’s wrong, the proud man’s contumely
The pangs of despised love, the law’s delay,
The insolence of office and the spurns
That patient merit of the unworthy takes,
When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin? Who would fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscovered country from whose bourn
No traveler returns, puzzles the will,
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?"
Gorgeous language. But can the mystique of the question ever compare
to the joy of the answer? Alma, across the millennia, replies: "Now,
concerning the state of the soul between death and the
resurrection--Behold, it has been made known unto me by an angel, that
the spirits of all men, as soon as they are departed from this mortal
body, yea, the spirits of all men, whether they be good or evil, are
taken home to that God who gave them life. And then shall it come to
pass, that the spirits of those who are righteous are received into a
state of happiness, which is called paradise, a state of rest, a state
of peace, where they shall rest from all their troubles and from all
care, and sorrow."
If only Hamlet could have heard!!!! If only he knew of this promise
from our God:
"The soul that on Jesus hath leaned for repose
I will not, I cannot, desert to his foes;
That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake,
I’ll never, no never, no never forsake!"
That promise is not only significant in death. It is a promise of
life! For life! To life!
"I’d like to think that I can look at death and smile and say,
All I have left now is my final breath, take that away
And you must either leave me dust or dreams or in far flight
The soul that wanders where the stardust streams through endless night.
"I’d rather think that I can look at life with this to say,
Send what you will of struggle or of strife, blue skies or gray,
I’ll stand against the final charge of hate by peak and pit
And nothing in the steel clad fist of fate can make me quit."
Send, for we will stand. Come, for we will not go. We know what 'tis
nobler in the mind! We now bow to none, but we kneel to One.
There is an account in the New Testament of Jesus Christ cleansing the
temple. In the account, it does not say that the Lord exhibited
superhuman strength, nor that he was resisted or assisted. How is it
that one man, in the most heavily populated and guarded part of the
city, could clear out its most prosperous market?
Jesus Christ had the confidence of the righteous and those before Him
were terminally afflicted with the cowardice bred by wickedness.
Nothing is stronger in all the world than the surety and conviction of
truth. Nothing is weaker than the sneaking, fretting fragility
incident to the soul-rot of sin.
How then, can I make such a confidence mine? I wish to be like Him. I
long to be with Him. Confucius said that the nature of men is always
the same. It is their habits that separate them. Thank God then, for
this Church, that trains me to put off what I have been, to forget!
"In some ways, being able to forget is almost as valuable as being
able to remember." Glory be to God for the blessed training on worth,
on leadership, on love, on devotion, on fidelity, on faith. It is
because of Him I learned what manner of man I ought to be! It is he
fullness of the gospel of Jesus Christ as taught by the Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that "set our hearts afire with
devotion to the truth... make(s) obedience to duty seem the essence of
manhood". What a gift it is to me.
A ‘Mormon’ Boy, a ‘Mormon’ Boy
I am a ‘Mormon’ Boy.
I might be envied by a king,
For I am a ‘Mormon’ Boy.
In His church we are taught to serve, to love, to comfort, and to
lift. We are taught to work, to help, to educate, to sacrifice, and to
do so joyously! We are taught to save and to love it, to sweat and to
revel in it, to wear ourselves out in the service of The Lord and
thank God for it. And I do. I have had enough of nothingness. "It has
been said that even the very fiends weave ropes of sand rather than to
face the pure hell of idleness.
Thank God for work, for the Church, for exemplars, and for mothers.
Gandhi, one of my dearest role-models, must have had a mother much
like mine, who imbued him with the confidence of the righteous. "When
Gandhi was very young, he took a pledge to his mother that he would
remain a vegetarian throughout his life. Many years after Gandhi’s
mother had died, Gandhi became very ill, and the doctors tried to
persuade him that if he would drink a little beef broth it might save
his life. But Gandhi said, 'Even for life itself, we may not do
certain things. There is only one course open to me, to die, but never
to break my pledge.'"
Oh to be Gandhi! Oh to be so firm in my own faith, so true, so stout of heart.
Give me some men who are stout-hearted men,
Who will fight for the right they adore.
Start me with ten who are stout-hearted men,
And I’ll soon give you ten thousand more.
That is what I crave. Ten THOUSAND more. No more of drips and drops
let this gospel FLOOD our earth. Let us have success! It has been said
that: "Anyone seeking success in athletics or in life must have two
qualities. Number one, he must have the ability to give a big punch,
and number two, he must have the ability to take a big punch."
"For in this teeming hive
Those who can take a beating
Are those who will survive."
But we do not need 10,000 conversions to be successful. “The
reasonable man will know that the actual magnitude of success obtained
bears no real relation to the amount of pleasure that is conveyed; the
man who becomes prime minister or wins a Nobel prize is not really
more elated than he who secures a trophy for playing Ping Pong or wins
a bronze medal for growing large chrysanthemums.” (Harold Necholson.)
To baptize 10,000 could not bring me any deeper joy than the ones I
have worked with. To convert a nation could not bring more
satisfaction than my own conversion of just my own simple little soul
has brought to me.
This Church will survive. It will never again be taken from the earth.
It will win out. "The kingdom of God is a winner. Isn’t it great to be
part of a winner? Don’t you love a winner? I do. I confess I hate to
lose. I think I’m the worst loser in all the world. I don’t believe in
it. Some say it matters not whether you win or lose but how you play
the game. Don’t you believe it; it makes a lot of difference whether
you win or not. We came to this earth to win, and we will win if we
stick with the Lord, because the Lord is not going to lose. He can’t
lose. The kingdom is a winner, and when we do it his way, we will win
with him. The promise is sure." (Hartman Rector Jr.)
Perhaps I have rambled a bit. I confess I do so dearly love to write.
The great joy of my life is to imagine the words I write in such
fervor that I am unable to speak to those here that I serve who lock
themselves away behind doors and cars and windows and earphone and
computer monitors and habit and heritage and hate falling upon the
hearts of you, who I love so dearly. I do hope they distill upon your
soul, but I am guilty of rambling on, speaking simply for the pleasure
of your company. But allow one thing at least to be perfectly clear:
We. Will. Win.
"The Standard of Truth has been erected; no unhallowed hand can stop
the work from progressing; persecutions may rage, mobs may combine,
armies may assemble, calumny may defame, but the truth of God will go
forth boldly, nobly, and independent, till it has penetrated every
continent, visited every clime, swept every country, and sounded in
every ear, till the purposes of God shall be accomplished, and the
Great Jehovah shall say the work is done." (Joseph Smith)
NO unhallowed hand. None. Not his, not hers, not theirs, not mine.
Nothing will slow, stop, frustrate, detour, or delay this mighty
mission of eternal proportion. We will WIN! Every knee shall bow!
Every tongue confess! Every soul ever to live will hear, will be
offered the saving ordinances, will meet at the bar of their God. All
are free to doubt. All are free to choose. But we will win.
15 million members is not enough. 80,000 missionaries is NOT enough.
140+ temples IS NOT ENOUGH. For GOD is our King and we will go forth
in BILLIONS, with THOUSANDS and TENS OF THOUSANDS of temples covering
this planet. Let there be no fear nor trembling at what the future may
bring to our families, our society, or our God. We are trudging not to
battle, unsure of where we stand. But marching on to victory, and in
the promised land! Such is the destiny of this Kingdom. Such is the
destiny of the soul.
“If it takes a hundred years, it will be a pity, but I will not cease
to work for it as long as I live.”
I love this Church, because it belongs, is maintained, was founded,
and will be upheld by that glorious Being who is the object of my
passion, my worship, my adoration, and my love. My family, this week,
I have fought the good fight, I have warred the good warfare, and I
have kept the Faith. That glorious, marvelous faith of our Father, in
the Son, borne through the Holy Ghost. I love them. I need them. I
will follow them.
I bear my witness of the name of Christ. I pledge my life to His
service. I know the Master that I serve and it is Him. It is. In the
name of the Almighty God I declare that it is! One day very soon that
name will pierce each heart and shake each soul, yea even the earths
we inhabit shall tremble at its majesty. One day none shall dare
withstand, nor could they, for they shall hear it in the presence of
our Lord. The hour is not yet, but is nigh at hand. Now I go, to
hasten its coming.
In the meantime, there will be trails. There will be suffering. There
will be sorrow. There will be confusion. There will be temptation.
What else would there be? Why else would you be here? What other
purpose to life could there possibly be but that strength and depth
and experience and faithfulness borne of such things? To loath trial
is to abhor life! And what a WASTE such a man would be. So remember.
Remember the name. Remember why you came to this earth. It was not to
be patted on the head and then to run along and pick marigolds.
Remember whom we worship. Remember from whence you came. And then
shall you say, "The Lord giveth, and the Lord taketh away. Blessed be
the name of the Lord."
Remember, my weak soul! Remember that He has given all. Oh remember,
remember, for once you swore to do just that. Once you stood
unshakable beside Him. Once His banner was on your breast, once you
sang His song and fought His war and cried aloud in mind-shattering
ecstasy at His victory! I know it. I was there. He was there. And so
were you. Oh wretched man that I am, remember, and be sure.
And as YOU remember, sweet family, if ever you find a moment, spare a
thought for me. I am Elder Jorgensen. I know that what I say is true.
I love you dearly. You are so dear to me.
~Elder Jorgensen
Elders Bao, Joseph, Jorgensen, Bore. Front row: Sisters McBride,
Merchant, Bowers, Stockett, Richardson, and McCann.