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
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