Week 80: Elder Zwick

WEKK 80:  Elder Zwick

February 23, 2015

JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA

COMPANION:  ELDER CORDON

ASSISTANTS

Do you remember Elder Zwick? He gave the, "What Are You Thinking?" talk in the last general conference. Lets do a little review of people who have visited our mission:

August: Elder D. Todd Christofferson (Apostle) and Elder Larry Katcher (70)

September: Elder Golden (70)

October: Elder Soares (Presidency of the 70)

January: Elder Anderson (Apostle) and Sister Anderson

February: Elder Zwick (70) and Brother Hemingway (director of proselyting in the Missionary Department)

March: Elder Kapishke (sp?) (70)

Yeah. We're the best mission in the world. No big deal.

So! This week was awesome! There are so many stories! I will share this one:

It's Saturday night. It has been a very long day of not very much going on. The most productive parts of our day were dinner (we taught the people we ate with), and the time we had to stop to use the bathroom at a gas station (we taught two teenagers with the munchies and gave them a Book of Mormon). So! A little sad. Although our Ward Mission Leader said that on his mission, while serving as an assistant to the President, he and his companion taught five lessons in 12 weeks! TWELVE WEEKS! I did the math, and if you include sleep and eating and meetings and whatnot, that's about 1 lesson for every 120 hours of proselyting time. Think about the diligence and with and work ethic required for THAT! We have an awesome ward mission leader. His name is Brother Smith. Guess where he served? Alabama. Yep! I think his mission either borders ours or is one mission separated. Deep South for LIFE! Where even the vegetables are fried. Anyway...

So go back with me. It is 8:40 on Saturday night, we have to be in at 9 if not teaching a lesson and we are a 14 minute drive from our apartment. So we kneel down in the grass next to the road and pray (for about the 50th time that day) that in the next 15 minutes someone who has been prepared to receive our message will cross our path. We knocked on two doors, no one was there, we turned around to walk up the stairs and there was a woman walking her dog with her daughter.

Yep. They were amazing. The daughter is 8 (such a beautiful age) and the two of them have been looking so hard for the "right Church" that they currently attend a brazilian congregation where they only speak portugese and of course this woman and her daughter do not speak portugese so they just listen through the headset to try and investigate. They live MAYBE 5 minutes away from out building. She asked for the Book of Mormon before I could even offer it to her. We showed her a video of Thomas S. Monson and she said, "As soon as he came on the screen, I felt a tug at my heart. I know that that man is a prophet."

So you know, good times.

I spent one day downtown this week (Jacksonville is SO weird. This area is Dowtown, as in its border is the actual city skyline, and as we're driving around we take one wrong turn and we are on a dirt road in a forest with trailer-homes scattered randomly through it, and then one more turn and you're back to apartment complexes or another turn into a gated community with mansions!) and another day back in Ocala with the Spanish missionaries there. We had two meal appointments and I got to laugh about how much latin food is different here vs. California. Here? It is fried, boiled, or sweetened, just like everything else. It is a delicious place to live and I'm sure the elastic waistband industry is thriving.

This week is just more excitement. We have a meeting with every leader (district leaders, sister training leaders, sister-training coordinators, zone leaders, etc.) on wednesday here in Jacksonville, then the temple again on thursday, then two of the zone meetings are on friday. I'll be out in Lake City with Elder Collett again on Friday (back in Lake City with Elder Collett!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Goodness I'm excited. We served together almost a year ago now in a different part of Lake City. It'll be like going back in time). And then from friday to Saturday Elder Cordon will be in Georgia. And then Saturday evening there are three PERFECT souls awaiting baptism. Aniya, who passed her interview yesterday. She is 12 and last week taught an hour long lesson on Service to a class of 18 people. Yes. That's Aniya. Her little sister Cheyenne has her baptismal interview tonight. Cheyenne has a rewards system where every time we see her we get a gold coin. You can cash in 6 gold coins for a prize. Marquez is 14 and lives on one of the crazy dirt roads in the forest in between a mall and a car dealership, bordering the freeway (what????) Our bishop is meeting with his grandmother this week. The 1st counselor in the bishopric, the ward mission leader, and the high priest group leader have all come to lessons with them as well as several other members. The ward makes all the difference.

That's what's happening. We've started a program where we write a paragraph on every person we've ever baptized and put them all into a giant "Florida Jacksonville Mission Book of Remembrance". It's my job to compile it. I'll be working on that a lot this week. Gonna be fun!!!!!!!

Hey, I love you. I love this Church and this gospel, and I have a testimony.

I have a testimony of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is the equation of salvation. I have a testimony of the ordinances of the gospel and the law of the celestial kingdom. They are the function of exaltation.

I have a testimony of the importance of the family. I am shocked by the love and selfless service shown by my own family, and am anxious for that love to intensfy and be perpetuated into eternity.

I have a testimony of the Atonement. That we may be as white as snow, that we may be enabled and redeemed, that we may have peace of conscience and change in nature. That we may love those who have wronged us as deeply and unreservedly as those we have wronged.

I have a testimony of the Restoration. I have been told by God that He visited Joseph Smith with His son Jesus Christ. Heavenly Father communicated this to me through the Holy Ghost. It has happened many, many times. These experiences are not emotional or intellectual. They are spiritual. I have no doubt or qualms about their origin, reality, and nature.

I have a testimony of Thomas S. Monson. In the solemn assembly of the General Conference when he was sustained as the Prophet, I received a witness, also from the Holy Ghost, that that man is a prophet, seer, and revelator, and the mouthpiece of the Lord. I can put my arm up and sustain him and his counselors without hesitation, for I know them to be just and holy men.

I have a testimony of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. I am certain of His love. I am certain of His power, His priesthood, His resurrection, and His word. My obsession is to know His will. My hope is to learn of Him for He is meek, and lowly in heart. He has called me, this gospel is His word, these men and women and children of the South are His people. Oh to be with Him again. To have His everlasting life... I love Him. I need Him. He makes my soul still. He is on my side. He is patient, ordered, and provides. He is faithful. He is joyful. He is the best. He is my confidence and my hope, my brightness and my guide. He rules my fiber and my time. He has dispelled my disappointment, grief, fear, and sorrow, and substituted love's purest joy. I am safe and blessed. I love being a missionary. I have been sent by a prophet of God to share what I know. I know that my message is true.

I know it.

~Elder Jorgensen

Letters Home

WEEK 79: From the Bug Mobile

JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA

COMPANION:  ELDER CORDON

ASSISTANTS

KINGSLAND, GA on Tuesday 

ST. JOHNS on Wednesday

I am riding in the backseat of a cream-colored Volkswagen Beetle. It's quite the experience.

Our week was pretty packed! We had zone conferences this week. Missionaries are organized in the following ways:

Companionship: usually two missionaries per companionship. A "trio" is three. Each companionship has a senior companion.

District: the average district has 4-5 companionships. Each district has a district leader.

Zone: Each zone has one companionship of "zone leaders" that care for the zone as a whole and one companionship of "sister training leaders" that pay special attention to the sisters. Our smallest zone (Lake City) has 11 companionships, the largest (JAX South) has 16. Each of the 8 zones has three districts (except for mandarin and JAX East zones, which have two largish ones) There was a dramatic reduction in zone and district size over the last year as the total number of missionaries in the mission has dropped from 284 to 212. It's about 45% Sister missionaries and 55% elders.

Bet you wanted to know all that!!! We have six stakes in our mission, from corner to corner the mission would take five hours to drive across. And once a quarter we engage in a joyous series of meetings called "zone conference". Zone conference usually lasts about 10 hours. We had them on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Tuesday we had:

1) Kingsland. The Georgia zone. Georgia is true "Deep South". Think of a Deep South stereotype. What comes to your mind? Those things, that's Kingsland. I desperately want to serve there. It's my favorite place to go.

2) JAX East. It's really the north side of Jacksonville. The name is super misleading. It includes the downtown area and the low income parts of the city, and also the three really nice beach cities along the coast).

Wednesday was:

1) JAX South, which is really diverse, and does not include any of the actual city of Jacksonville. Again, weird naming choices. The northern district is the St. John's district and is all extremely wealthy suburbs of Jacksonville, the middle district is entirely St. Augustine, the gorgeous beach city of my dreams, and the southern district is Palatka, which is a small rural "other side of the tracks" sort of town and the surrounding countryside. It's probably the most diverse zone. I served there twice so far so it's pretty well known that it's my favorite one.

2) JAX West. The St. John's River runs through the city of Jacksonville. Everything on the west side of the river is "west side". It's kind of the working mans zone. It reminds me a LOT of Chula Vista/ National City area. Working people, big roads, growing fast and maybe a little too fast to keep up with itself.

3) Mandarin. I call it "Mandarin Mountain". It's the City still, but the southside of the city. Named after the Orange, not the language. We have the YSA branch for the whole city of Jacksonville and mostly huge apartment buildings that we work in. We serve in mandarin zone now.

Thursday was:

1) Lake City. This is the other truly "Deep South" zone. Locals refer to it as "Old Flordia". It is as country as you can imagine out there. I have yet to see anyone eat anything but barbecue, and I was there for five months.

2) Gainesville. The college town with the University of Florida Campus. The city is dominated by the university and most of the members are attending the apparently very highly ranked medical school. I started my mission in Gainesville.

3) Ocala. Ocala is the far southern border of the mission. It's all huge horse ranches. So random! But Yep! Horses and ranches and migrant workers and tiny country towns. It's just so... Random! Ocala is a gorgeous place. Lots of Spanish work to be done there. I think I get to go down... Tomorrow? Maybe? Yes pretty sure.

So we went around and had our meetings with the missionaries. 30 hours of meetings in three days! President and Sister Craig do most of the teaching and training, but we have our little segment too. It was "Talk With Everyone". Seems pretty basic, but we had some fun with it. Sister Craig's trainings were on the enabling power of the atonement and professionalism. Presidents trainings were based around a talk entitled "becoming a preach my gospel missionary", having a balanced work, and how to become fundamentally different from your former (pre-mission) self. 

Story time!

1) The Wednesday conference was in St. John's, and overlapped seminary. So while we waited for everyone to get situated, we gave a pass-along card to every youth in the whole stake and committed them to give it to one of their friends that day. It was so fun to see so many of the people I'd grown to love when I served there.

2) The Tuesday conference was in Georgia. While we were there we taught a man the Restoration in the dollar store where we were attempting to purchase some last-minute supplies (we had everyone write down a personal goal for this year on a sticky white label and put it on the backside of their nametag). We tried the same thing in Lake City a couple days later, but the man we tried to give a Book of Mormon to turned out to already be a member of the Church! Darn Mormons!

3) One night we were on our way home at 9:15ish at night after a lesson and realized we were about to run out of gas! So we stopped and while Elder Cordon got gas, I went inside under the pretense of using the restroom but really to talk to people. Talked to two people in line, the lady at the register, and two people pumping gas, but no luck! As we were getting into the car, a lady pulled up and hopped out of the drivers seat so fast she startled me! I yelped a little and she looked at me and I offered her a card for the Book of Mormon and told her its Ne best book I've ever read. She smiled and accepted. 9:17 gas station successes!!

4) We went Tracting on trade-offs. I was with a missionary that we had had to separate from his companion and it was approaching 9 PM or so and he was lingering a bit behind me BUT I walked up and knocked on the door anyway. A very, very large unclad man with crazy eyes swings the door open, squeals "We're Jehovah's Witnesses!" and then slams it closed. I almost fell back into my crazy temporary companion! Tracting stories are interesting.

5) we have so many people we are teaching that we don't get a ton of time to find new investigators. It was 8:45 Sunday night (Sunday is the end of our weekly reporting period) and we had found zero. We said a prayer and ran around a little bit and 15 minutes later we had two!!! Two breathtaking people wi a divine heritage who heard about the Restoration for the first time in those 15 minutes.

6) I have petitioned at length for white boards for our apartment. We went to Lowes with a senior couple and, in addition to the three medium-sized ones we already had, we got two 4x8 boards. That's 64 square feet of whiteboard. Think of how much revelation you can fit into 64 feet!!!!! Of course we bought 12 colors of dry-erase markers at Wal mart immediately after. Look for the bare (bear?) necessities!

7) We were running a little latish (super late) to a dinner appointment and we got to the apartment complex but at the last second we doubted ourselves and went sprinting off in the other direction looking for the right apartment. As we were running (Elder Cordon jogging along like a gazelle, me sweating and panting and stumbling behind) a dog leaps out of the bushes onto us! Ah! The dog's owner comes running out in a panic, apologizes, and was a little confused by our offer to teacher her a lesson about Jesus Christ. But she accepted! So we stood on her porch and taught her about the Book of Mormon. She's a lawyer, so we talked at length about the judiciary outline of the Book of Mormon. We told her the book of Alma, although primarily a witness of Jesus Christ, can also be read as a documentary of the most brilliant legal achievement of ancient times (and perhaps of any time). When she heard about the first vision, she threw her hands in the air, exclaimed, "That's phenomenal!" and asked for a copy of the book, which we of course had.

Time runs short here in our bug mobile. I took some time in our training this week in the zone conferences to rebuke the virus of perfectionism that creeps through the missionaries I love. We do what we can. We try our hardest. And when we do our best, that is good enough. Your best and then trust Jesus with the rest.

The first vision IS phenomenal. It happened. I am sure. Love,

~Elder Jorgensen

Some quotes we used in Zone Conference:

1) "If great joy is the reward of saving one soul, then how terrible must be the remorse of ode whose timid efforts have allowed a child of God to go unwarned or unaided so that he has to wait till a dependable servant of God comes along." ~Thomas S. Monson

2) “I’m part of the fellowship of the unashamed, the die has been cast, I have stepped over the line, the decision has been made- I’m a disciple of Jesus Christ. I won’t look back, let up, slow down, back away or be still.

My past is redeemed, my present makes sense, my future is secure. I’m finished and done with low living, small planning, smooth knees, colorless dreams, tainted vision, worldly talking, cheap giving & dwarfed goals.

I no longer need pre-eminence, positions, promotions, plaudits, or popularity. I now live by faith, lean on his presence, walk with patience, am uplifted by prayer, and labor with power. My face is set, my gait is fast, my goal is heaven, my road is narrow, my way is rough, my companions are few, my guide is reliable, my mission is clear. 

I cannot be bought, compromised, detoured, lured away, divided or delayed. I will not flinch in the face of sacrifice, hesitate in the presence of the adversary, negotiate at the table of the enemy, ponder at the pool of popularity, or meander in the maze of mediocrity,

I won’t give up, shut up, let up until I have stayed up, stored up, prayed up for the cause of Jesus Christ. I must go till He comes, give till I drop, preach till [everyone knows], work till He stops me & when He comes for His own, He will have no trouble recognizing me. My banner will be clear.”        

-Henry B. Eyring 

WEEK 78: 13 Miracles

JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA

COMPANION:  ELDER CORDON

ASSISTANTS

This week we spent quite a bit of time downtown. Let me paint you a word picture.

The St. Johns River runs lazily through the Jacksonville skyline. The river is super, super wide. There are several bridges and skyscrapers on both sides. The downtown area is ridiculously small horizontally although it towers vertically. Only two freeway exits for the whole downtown! There are traintracks that run through the city and "the Landing" which is a two story, crescent shaped outdoor mall, is one of the main attractions.

There is a beautiful walkway along the river with benches and pavilions only a couple feet above the water level. The moon was full and we were out with the strongest, most dedicated missionaries the mission could produce, and it was an breathtaking adventure for sure.

The Theatre where the musical played seats over 2000 people and there were 8 performances. So it was a lot of talk to everyone. During the show, we walked through the night, feeling the cool wind off the water and preaching the gospel to joggers, homeless people, police officers, street performers, late-night shoppers, lost tourists, etc. After the show, the people came out in waves. 2000 patrons exiting two sets of doors in 15 minutes. It was a wild ride. We stood on a corner with a book raised in one hand, testifying, inviting, and offering copies to any sincere seekers. Over the course of the week, our group gave out over 1000 copies. We were limited by supply, not demand.

It was an incredible thing. It was a thrill. I'll never forget it.

So that was a big chunk of our week. The rest of our time we did as best we could to teach all of the people the Lord has entrusted to us. It went very well. Our companionship had 13 investigators at Church, mostly brought by members or other investigators. Three nights we got calls at 9:50 (we have to turn off our phones at 10) from members of the ward announcing that they had found someone for us to teach and would like to set up a lesson and bring them to Church. We saw a transformation in one 25 year old who started out yelling at us for being Jehovah's Witnesses (I really need a second nametag that says, "Elder Jorgensen, not a Jehovah's Witness") and within 24 hours had read a sizable chunk of the Book of Mormon, prayed, received an answer from the Holy Ghost that it is true, and decided to be baptized.

We saw light come one in the eyes of an aging man when we leaned forward on over-stuffed armchairs in his home, looked right through his sharp blue eyes, and testified that it is our conviction, our knowledge, our hope, our faith, our joy, our confidence, and our absolute witness that the Book of Mormon is the holy word of God. That the Almighty had answered the pleading of our prayers through the unmistakable and matchless power of the Holy Ghost, and we were unyieldingly certain of the impugnable veracity of this sacred tome.

We taught on doorsteps, beside rivers, in homes and in the shade of trees. In the rain, in the dark, under moon and stars or noonday sun. We drove, walked, ran, climbed, whispered, shouted, invited, begged, admonished, commanded, instructed, taught, and testified. We saw doors slam and heard the unrepeatable. We saw lives change and experienced the inexplicable. Oh what joy, and what marvelous light I did behold. It was a mighty work and wa wonder this week.

One young indian family invited us right into their home. They announced, in very thick indian accents, that they are Catholic! We invited them to read the Book of Mormon. Another time we had 30 minutes at the end of the night, prayed about where to go, and were lead to a building we'd already seen everyone in! So we went to the building behind it and taught the whole message of the restoration to three different families. We were a little late getting home that night. Seems like we're late a lot. There's so much to do! I have not the advantage of my ancient namesake, whose time-management skills included stopping the sun and the moon in the sky until his work was done. I'm looking into that though.

There are three scriptural passages we memorize here in the Florida Jacksonville Mission that we recite at the beginning of every meeting. The first one is 3 Nephi 5:13. It reminds us of our purpose. The second one is D&C Section 4. It reminds us of our method. The third one is a quote from Joseph Smith that reminds us of our future:

"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 froth boldly, nobly, and independent. 'Till it has penetrated every continent, visited ever 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."

I've seen persecutions and we actually had the beginnings of a mob once! But this week we swept this country. We taught an 80 year old blind Cherokee lady the Plan of Salvation and she accepted every work and had her children and grandchildren and great-grand children come and speak to us and learn from the Book of Mormon.

We taught a beautiful young schizophrenic woman how to recognize the holy ghost. We taught primary at Church. We sang "scripture power" in two different lessons and punctuated doctrine with the singing of hymns in a couple others. We taught tithing to the financially destitute and faith to the fervent empiricist. We gave a priesthood blessing kneeling in the middle section of a mini-van and ate an entire box of the most delicious coconut-cherry macaroons you can imagine, homemade by a recent convert. I learned to pray from my companion. I learned to be humble from my investigators. I am always learning. There are always more stories than there are moments to share them.

It was a unique experience hearing hundreds and hundreds of times this week, "yeah, the play is really rude and mocks you. We love mormons. We're just going for the laughs." I'd just like it to be known, off the record, that I am deeply offended by the patronization of hatefulness of any kind by any member of my society. To mock and demean and assault the best efforts of a member of your community is unacceptable, and hurtful to me. Entertainment of even the greatest degree is a defense insufficient to justify any level of bigotry. There one day will be a reckoning for the use of our freedom, including our freedom of speech and the freedom we have to choose what we listen to, view, or amuse ourselves with.

On the record, all I have to say is, "The Book is Always Better!"

And it is. You could spend the whole history of time attending every university and learning from the knee of every master teacher in this world. You could have access to every dusty volume, cutting-edge discovery, and meticulous method ever created or that ever will be created. You could have a 200 IQ and an unstoppable intuition and talent. And it would all be as dross beside the 531 pages of the Book of Mormon. The sum total of all secular achievement is swallowed into the infinity of the eternal when juxtaposed with even a single revelation from the lips of the Everlasting I Am. Praise to the Lord, the Almighty, the King of Creation. Oh my soul praise Him, for He is thy help and salvation.

I love being a missionary. Very much. I have no doubt that I am more confident in the truthfulness of the message of the Restoration than a mountain is of its own foundation. I have a greater desire for every living creature of the earth to hear this message than the will of the inanimate to remain silent. I have more love for the promised land than the sea has of its own borders and depth. And so it is that, if needs be, oceans will split and the earth will cry aloud and the hills of the Everlasting will leap to obey, for the purposes of God shall be accomplished, and the Great Jehovah shall say, "The work is done."

So I'm off to do the work. I love the book. I am very, very sure that it is true.

~Elder Jorgensen

WEEK 77: Book of Mormon Musical this Week

JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA

COMPANION:  ELDER CORDON

ASSISTANTS

So this is a bit short... Sorry!

Last week we had a ton of fun! We are focusing on humility as a mission.

This coming week the Book of Mormon musical (which is filthy trash) is coming to trash, and I am excited because....

WE ARE PROSELYTING OUTSIDE THE THEATRE!

Yep, 23,000 people will be given Book of Mormons by yours truly over the course of 8 performances. That's pretty much what we will be doing all week. It's going to be awesome.

8 investigators came to church. One bore his testimony! I am being taught an enormous amount by the mission president's wife, Sister Craig. She says so many wonderful things. Sister Craig says that if you are worthy of a temple recommend you will receive exaltation. She also says that anyone can make a marriage work with anyone else, as long as both are righteous. She's phenomenal. And makes delicious cookies. And the mission president is phenomenal. And Elder Cordon is phenomenal. And everything is awesome.

I love my mission! I am ridiculously exhausted but having so much fun. Did you see the #discoverthebook event? It was created by our mission, was trending on Facebook last weekend, and was even written about in desert news! Look it up! I will include my Discover the Book picture at the bottom.

I have a little too much fanaticism and not enough discipline. I am working now on zealous balance. Thoughts?

The Holy Ghost feels like confidence to me.

I can read Spanish! But I can't understand it. Does that count as reading? One of our exchanges was in a Spanish area which is why I ask.

I'm looking for favorite scriptures to memorize. Please feel free to submit your list.

Guided by the spirit we went down a street that was a dead end into a forest. But we were confident in our prompting. So we got out of the mini-Van, and walked into the forest towards a light we could sort of see. turned out to be the door of a for,er investigator who we taught and committed to read the Book of Mormon. Awesome. Hope she didn't see us just walk out of the woods onto her doorstep. Anyway.

Also one of the members has a two year old son that can swish a full-sized basketball through a fisher-price hoop from four feet away. Super impressive.

What else?

There are the most incredible members in this Ward! Elders quorum is just a flood of revelation! Here are some quotes from the past couple weeks.

"You can act yourself into a new way of thinking, but you cannot think yourself into a new way of acting."

"Honesty without love is cruelty."

~Brother Crews

Authority doesn't make you the boss, it just make you the most responsible.

~Brother Queen

How awesome is that???

We are having enormous fun. We spent a lot of time in the car this week. So much. Drove all the way to Gainesville and back. All we listen to is MoTab. I love the MoTab.

Things are better when you decide to do something no matter what. That way you don't have to question and reevaluate at every twist and turn. So no matter what, I will be happy. No matter what, I will love completely and unreservedly. No matter what, I will preach the gospel. No matter what, I will serve a mission. No matter what, I will make it home. The real home. The home where we belong. No matter what.

I love you!!!!!! Thanks for enduring my wild storytelling. Best week ever!

~Elder Jorgensen