JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA
COMPANION: ELDER CORDON
ASSISTANTS
So Many Things!!!!!!
It's just been a whirlwind of adventure. Happy New Year!!!!! We talked about goals already. I love goals. I love my mission. I've got a long way to go.
Fun story from last week I forgot to include: We were asked to bless the sacrament. So we go up, sit down on the stage, feel very spiritual, stand up, uncover the table as everyone begins singing, and... there's no bread there! HAH! So there's one moment of completely uncomprehending stupor... And then we get to work!
Missionaries work. That's what we do. We are the fixers! We are the closers. I love missionary work. Sometimes we just have to get things done whatever it takes! Sometimes it takes a lot. We always get it done.
So we talked to some people and ran around a bit and procured some bread and broke it and blessed it and all is well. Hehehee, fun times.
What else happened this week? We go on a lot of exchanges. Most weeks we have... many. Last week it was mostly in the north side of Jacksonville. This coming week though I will be in Ocala (which the missionaries have nicknamed "Slow-cala". It's a very rustic area on the Southern edge of the mission) and then all the way north to Georgia the next day, and then back down to the city and across the river to the west side the day after that! And then I'll be back downtown and Elder Cordon will stay there for another day. So I'll leave him on Tuesday morning and won't reunite until what, Saturday? It'll be a good time.
I love asking questions. All day every day on these exchanges, I ask questions. It's going to drive all of the missionaries CRAZY! But that's just too bad for them. I love questions. I want to ask everyone everything. I am even reading through the standard works highlighting all the questions and asking them to people. I lie awake at night with questions running through my head. It's so fun.
One thing that we have a lot of access to is the numbers for the whole mission. We create all the paperwork and reports so I get to see the history of areas over the last year. It has taught me a beautiful life lesson. It is the missionary, not the area, that makes the difference. Areas are incredibly productive in some companionships, and absolutely dead in others. And it's not just the area. Whole stakes change with the transfer in or out of a single companionship. Life isn't the story of circumstance. It's the story of people. The Lord's way is to send people, to have people change things. The adversary's way is to have things change people.
We had MLC this week. MLC is Mission Leadership Council and happens at the beginning of every month. It was fun! President focuses a lot on how to set goals and make plans to achieve that goals. It is a VERY foreign concept to me. I'm not really sure what to make of it. I read Chapter 8 in Preach My Gospel a lot. I'll work on it. Lots of things to work on.
This week we talked about happiness mostly. Alma and Ammon Benjamin had some particularly helpful insights. See if you can find the verses in the Book of Mormon where people are so happy they are incapable of expressing how joyful they are. See what causes that. Try to imagine it. Let it fill you up. It fills me up.
Alma is a funny fellow. He writes 45 chapters of the Book of Mormon (isn). Alma lived one of the greatest lives any human being has ever lived... Ever. EVER! And what does he spend a QUARTER of his entry in the Book of Mormon on? Ammon. Nephi spends almost half his room talking about Jacob and Isaiah! These men knew how to rejoice in the success of others. These men knew how to identify what really matters.
Quick aside on Ammon: I think he married Abish. Only five women are mentioned by name in the Book of Mormon. Mary and Ever are obvious choices and Sariah is mentioned by name by Nephi, but the only other person who ever says a name is Alma and he brings up two. Isabel (of whom he is NOT a fan) and Abish. So Alma is writing this story, getting all his information from Ammon. Why does Ammon talk about her by name? Why does Alma decide to include her by name? We have all this backstory on Abish, we know what her conversion story is and what she was feeling and thinking about Ammon... Someone knew Abish on a very intimate level. Not even Lamoni's wife gets a name! So, yes. Ammon and Abish. That was quite the tangent.
We have a lot of sign language missionaries. They think Sam was deaf. Thoughts?
I love the Book of Mormon. It is one of the fundamentals of life. Study the Book of Mormon every day, sincerely pray often, (more than once a day) and keep the sabbath day holy (particularly by attending church and partaking of the sacrament) are the fundamentals of life. If life was baseball, read, pray, and church would be the equivalent to "keep your eye on the ball". Or "dribble, pass, shoot" for basketball. Master the fundamentals first, and then second, master them again.
MLC, meetings, numbers, trade-offs, paperwork, driving everywhere in our mini van, zone meetings, district meetings, teaching, getting people to church (7 investigators in church this week. Wooo!) more meetings... It's a lot! It's a lot of fun. Being a missionary is incredible. I recommend it.
I love my mission. I love reading the Book of Mormon. I love reading it by topic, by author, backwards, forwards, by story, with a question, as a novel, as a history book, as a journal, as a conference talk, looking for an answer, looking for something new... I love that book. My best friends are in that book. It takes a lot of faith and humility to realize that no problem is too complicated or dark or old or new or multi-faceted or obvious or hidden to be resolved by the Book of Mormon. I can't manage to humble myself quickly enough or repent quickly enough or rely humbly enough to keep up with all the progress and excitement and learning and love that sweeps past me. But when I cant keep up on my own it just sweeps me up with it and that's fine with me.
Happy New Year. I hope you made some goals. I hope one was to get to know my friends in the Book of Mormon. They are fascinating. They are brilliant, they have anxiety and depression sometimes, some are a little hot-headed! Some are great with families and others are still working out how to prioritize their lives. They are geniuses. They are prophets of God. They are worth getting to know better.
The best person to try and get to know through the Book of Mormon is Jesus Christ, but that is quite the process. He loves you. I do too.
~Elder Jorgensen
JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA
COMPANION: ELDER CORDON
assistants to the president