Companion: Elder Welsh
Jacksonville, FL
Assistants
Ian and Me
Hi! Happy Mother's Day. Stories from the week:
1) Tuesday we had dinner at 9 PM (and by dinner I mean we made ourselves a giant banana peanut butter shake) and then went back out until 11! We also get up at 6 to play tennis. I am pretty bad at tennis. Gotta practice I guess!
2) Wednesday we were in Lake City. Lake City is the part of our mission that borders up against Georgia and gets pretty close to Alabama. We got to give a Church Tour to a beautiful young family being baptized there next weekend. We also went to dinner with a part-member family at a Bar-B-Que place. The people in the south are extremely proud of their Bar-B-Que. I made the mistake on wednesday of ordering fish. Well, that, apparently, is not Bar-B-Que. The man we were with (who mercifully took out his chewing tobacco at least while we were eating) called the waitress back, demanded she cancel the order, and instead had her make me a pulled-pork sandwich on garlic bread. She brought it out with mustard, and Bar-B-Que sauce. That was literally the only thing on the table: a large wad of meat, two slices of garlic bread, mustard, and bar-b-que sauce. I was just... confused. But I ate it and of course it was delicious! Southern cooking. Southern people.
3) Wednesday we spent the afternoon proselyting on the campus of University of Florida (the Gators. Where Tim Tebow went to college!) with the YSA Elders. They have two "freedom of speech" squares where we can go and talk to people. THAT was interesting. It's a gorgeous campus. The buildings are all red brick and there a trees EVERYWHERE. And 53,000 students. LOTS of people to talk to there! Kids need to take their earphones out of their ears and LOOK. UP. I practically need to jump up and down in front of these kids to get them to notice there is a world of wonder going on outside their text message and latest Ke$ha hit.
4) Thursday morning I was still in Gainesville, and my companion for the day (Elder Trajan Pili, who played football for BYU. Google him!) woke me up at 5:50 to go run "stadiums" where we run from the top of the bottom of the steps in the stadium over and over) at the Gator's football arena. Elder Pili is a large man. He went up a lot more step than I did. I think I caught him breathing a little heavier than normal by the end. I walked with a limp for three days.
5) Friday I took down Christmas lights (yes, it is May) and we provided some other miscellaneous service. We pulled up to a house where this little-old toothless and very sassy black lady named Ms. Betty was mowing her lawn and Elder Welsh ran up to her and said, "Hello! Elder Jorgensen would like to give you a hug!" So Ms. Betty throws her arms in the air and says, "Hey Baby! Come give me some sugar!" and hugs me while she laughs hysterically. Elder Welsh used the opportunity to grab the lawn mower and we finished her yardwork for her as soon as she let me go (which was not quite as soon as I'd have liked).
Baptism!!
Me, Ian, sister missionary, Haley, Lana, Bishop & sister missionary
(The Bishop baptized Lana. I got to baptize the kids)
6) Ian, Haley, and Lana got baptized Saturday morning! They're a family Elder Cordon and I met and started teaching a couple months ago. They came to church and mutual for a month straight and were taught the first three lessons at the church. Then we found out they lived downtown (they'd been driving 45 minutes each way to Church!!!) and we had to pass them off to the Sisters in the other ward. Ah! Saddest day of my life!! (President says I can be a little melodramatic sometimes...) BUT! I got a call this week saying they were being baptized and that Ian and Haley had asked that I be the one to baptize them! So that happened Saturday. When Haley came up out of the water, she jumped up and down, clapped her hands, and threw her arms around me. For a missionary, it seems like I do a lot of hugging... I was so happy I cried a little. Alright a lot. Alright all morning. Plus for lunch I had a vegetarian avocado burrito at a latin american restaurant. But don't tell anyone who lives in Lake City. Another funny story about lake city. The missionary I was with on wednesday there is Nicaraguan and he is quite dark-skinned. I lost track of how many people who we were meeting fro the first time looked at him and asked, "Hey! Are you Mexican? No? Do you speak spanish? No? Oh. Well I was just wondering." Hah! People.
7) We split wood for three hours and then went to a second baptism (this time in our own ward) on Saturday. We have kind of a strange life. Strangely awesome. Then we had Mother's Day Call home on Sunday and I got to see my sweet, perfect, gorgeous, wonderful, marvelous family and talk to them on the phone and on Skype and hear their stories and be rejuvenated and uplifted by their love. What a gift. What a blessing. What a marvelous life.
I love my family. I love them so much. Crazy much. So, so so much. It is hard to think of leaving them ever. Hard to imagine being apart from their incredible goodness and support and love. For anyone who has even a glimpse of the passionate and deeply-rooted feelings I have for my large and incredible family, it would be hard to imagine that I left them for 2 1/2 years because of what a 14-year old said he saw 200 years ago in the woods. But I did. I have. I will. Because it matters.
Wise is the man who says what needs to be said, but not all that could be said. ~Marvin J. Ashton
So I won't say all that could be said. But I will say this about why knowing matters.
"Whoso believeth in God might with surety hope for a better world, yea, even a place at the right hand of God, which hope cometh of faith, maketh an anchor to the souls of men, which would make them sure and steadfast, always abounding in good works, being led to glorify God."
"We have known great sorrow, but we have seen the power of the Savior turn our most devastating defeats into glorious spiritual victories. We who once lived with daily depression, anxiety, fear, and debilitating anger now experience joy and peace. We have witnessed miracles in our own lives and in the lives of others."
"20 And oh, what joy, and what marvelous light I did behold; yea, my soul was filled with joy as exceeding as was my pain!
"21 Yea, I say unto you, my son, that there could be nothing so exquisite and so bitter as were my pains. Yea, and again I say unto you, my son, that on the other hand, there can be nothing so exquisite and sweet as was my joy."
"27 And I have been supported under trials and troubles of every kind, yea, and in all manner of afflictions; yea, God has delivered me from prison, and from bonds, and from death; yea, and I do put my trust in him, and he will still deliver me."
"wherefore my soul did rest".
This is why it matters to me. All men must one day know why it matters to them. As a living and loving modern oracle of God has said, "The great question which all men in our day must answer--and that at the peril of their own salvation--is: Was Joseph Smith called of God?"
And there's a way to know
“Anything besides that influence [of the Spirit], will fail to convince any person of the truth of the Gospel of salvation. …
Brigham Young then spoke of his long process of investigation of the church, and how after years of learning he was still not convinced.
“… But when I saw a man without eloquence, or talents for public speaking, who could only say, ‘I know, by the power of the Holy Ghost, that the Book of Mormon is true, that Joseph Smith is a Prophet of the Lord,’ the Holy Ghost proceeding from that individual illuminated my understanding, and light, glory, and immortality were before me. I was encircled by them, filled with them, and I knew for myself that the testimony of the man was true. … My own judgment, natural endowments, and education bowed to this simple, but mighty testimony. There sits the man who baptized me, (brother Eleazer Miller.) It filled my system with light, and my soul with joy. The world, with all its wisdom and power, and with all the glory and gilded show of its kings or potentates, sinks into perfect insignificance, compared with the simple, unadorned testimony of the servant of God” (in Journal of Discourses, 1:90–91).
My system is filled with light, and my soul with joy. What I say I say in the name of Jesus Christ, which is as bold a claim as I can conceive to make. It removes the possibility of relative truth or of doctrinal conglomerations. The use of the name of Jesus pulls me from any fence-sitting and entrenches me firmly on one side or another of the great contest for the souls of men. The employment of that Everlasting name brands me either a witness or a blasphemer, my words either as scripture or sacrilege. The weight of His name, sacrosanct to the believer, rests heavy on my lips every day, and I dare employ it only after decades of study, sacrifice, witness, experience, fasting, prayer, and testing.
I declare in the holy name of Jesus Christ that I know by the power of the Holy Ghost, that the Book of Mormon is true, that Joseph Smith is a Prophet of the Lord.
~Elder Jorgensen
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Letters Home
To Kent:My week has been great. It was so good to see y'all yesterday. I love you. Swimming! What a fantastic workout and bonding experience! The mission is doing very well. We are all excited about "Mighty Miracle May". Yes, we travel around a lot still. Push ally two or three days a week we're out of Jacksonville in the mission, doing what we can.
President and Sister Craig LOVED talking to mom. They said she and I are very similar. Hehe. So true. I LOVED reading the talk you wrote!
Thank you for sharing. I love you!!
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To Mom:
Hi. (:
I am so glad you were made so happy. I love you. I love being missed but I like it best when you are all filled up and glad. We finally got it right! Hehehehe and it might be the last one! That fits.
I love you! I think I would like to go to BYU for spring semester (starts in April) after I return home. Would you look into that for me? If there are things that need to be done before January, we can get rolling on it in a few months.
You are fantastic. Happy Mighty Miracle May!
~Elder Jorgensen