ST AUGUSTINE, FLORIDA
COMPANION: ELDER BURTON
ZONE LEADERS
1) There is a street here called St. George street in the middle of downtown on the waterfront. On one side is the cathedral, lit up by the nights of lights. On one side is the Matanzas River, crossed by the gorgeous Bridge of Lions. On one side are the shops (basically a smaller, more packed Marina Village) and on the fourth side is the grassy open area with the trees and pavilion and whatnot.
There are THOUSANDS of people there at night. THOUSANDS. We go and we talk to ALL of them. We bring HUGE stacks of He is the Gift pass-along cards and we go EVERYWHERE. It is a phenomenally good time. Holy cow do we talk to a lot of people. Probably I have talked to everyone in Florida by now. Yep. Probably.
2) The people here in St. Augustine have been incredibly generous in their gift giving. As you all know it is my birthday today, and Christmas on Thursday, and people have gone NUTS! We have fudge and food and candy and by noon 57 people had posted birthday wishes on my Facebook wall and I got emails from past companions and a text from my current bishop and an email from the mission office and a text from the mission president's wife and ward members gave us Christmas cards with beautiful compliments and sentiments and gift cards and money and the first presidency sent us a Christmas card and people are feeding us on Christmas and missionaries all over are calling and texting wishing happy Pday birthday! Pday Birthday for life!!! One special gift came from the bishop in the St. John's ward, which I left about 2 months ago to come to downtown St. Augustine. He is a brilliant man, and he and I share a great love for books. He walked into the church with a giant present in his hands. There was a wonderful card, and in the present was a book. Let me go into a little more detail here. It was a book by President Packer. Well, no, let's go deeper. It was a giant (at least two feet tall), leather bound (brown, soft, beautiful leather) collection of President Packer's instructions and thoughts and photographs complied and organized by topic. Limited edition (number 704 out of 775), huge, and 581 pages long, not including the index. Elder Burton says it is probably the coolest thing I will ever own.
All of this is in addition to the absolute flood of gifts and cards and emails and packages and love I have received from you my dearest friends and family. I have had the greatest birthday and Christmas season EVER. Holy cow. So many incredible gifts, so much time and attention and affection. I have been absolutely flooded in love and am soaking all of it in a little greedily. I love you and am so, so grateful.
3) More Elder Burton stories. To celebrate the magnificence of birthday Pday, we stayed up until midnight. Now, nobody panic. We were obedient. We were in bed, lights were out... But we DID talk about Star Wars. For hours. And then we celebrated the beginning of birthday Pday at midnight. It. Was. Grand. We definitely decided that we will have lightsabers in the celestial kingdom.
4) It is going to be Christmas on Thursday. I am so, so, SO EXCITED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OH YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
5) Elizabeth got confirmed on Sunday! She is now a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Glory. Glory. Hallelujah.
6) We just got back from district Pday where we played Signs and Ultimate frisbee on top of the hill next to the 400+ year old fort overlooking the ocean across the street from the downtown part of the city. The grass was green, we all wore shorts and tshirts... It was fantastic. This is our city! I have been technically in the city of St. Augustine for 6 months now and we are the only Elders downtown. This is our town, and I love it here. Being a missionary is stinking fun.
7) Yesterday at church, I taught a 40 minute lesson to an Elder's quorum from a manual I had never read! THAT was a good time. Every single person contributed at least TWO comments, and we did not read from the manual. All elders quorum teachers everywhere will REJOICE!!
8) I am just in a list-making mood. Merry Christmas, my wondrous family and friends. It is my absolute certainty that Jesus Christ, He who is Annointed to Deliver, was born at the meridian of time, and that He will still deliver me. I love you.
~Elder Jorgensen
ST AUGUSTINE, FLORIDA
COMPANION: ELDER BURTON
zone leaders
Excerpts from Letters Home
To Mom:
First things first. Skype call!!!! We are planning on 2:30 our time, which would be 11:30 your time. Let me know if that does not work! Also let me know if it does work! Also send me the Skype name you will be using. The call will be approximately 45 minutes long. There is some flexibility but definitely shorter than 1 hour. I am so, SO excited.
IT'S MY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! PDay Birthday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
IT'S MY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! PDay Birthday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I love you mama! I am so sorry. I did not get your Christmas package sent last week and so it will probably be late and then in my rush to send it I forgot to include the note explaining what everything in it is!!!!!!! Sorry!!!! And now I'm in an awkward situation where I can't explain because it will ruin the surprise but if I don't explain you won't know how awesome and special the things in there are!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I'm 23!!!!! Thanks for having me. Good work on that. I have all my toes and everything! Elder Burton and I talk all the time about how phenomenal our mothers are. We also talk a lot about Star Wars. I love you!
~Elder Jorgensen
***********************
To Kent:
Happy Christmas Dad! Thank you for the sentiments you and mom expressed in the emails to the mission office! Those were printed out and given to us on Thursday. It was grand. I love You!