COMPANION: ELDER WELSH
ASSISTANTS
Well Hello! Happy Memorial Day! Wanna hear about my week? It was pretty packed.
1) Monday we had dinner with a wonderful family at a super classy Italian restaurant. The waitress asked us where we were from and it came out that she grew up in Utah! She told us to try the veal, and we told her
to try the gospel! Well, she didn't really, but that would have been perfect. Anyway we got her name and phone number and will be teaching her shortly. Dinnertime=proselyting time!
2) After dinner Monday we had family night with Sister Whitehouse. She invited all her friends and four different families came and we taught and sang and watched mormon messages together and it was awesome. All she did was invite people over to have a good time and talk and learn and in one swoop she did more member missionary work than I did in my entire life! How easy it is. How simple. To invite friends and family and missionaries to talk and laugh and play. If every member behaved like Sister Whitehouse, we would have many millions more brothers and sisters enjoying the blessings of this gospel with us. It makes me tremble to think of accounting to those I love who missed the opportunities I enjoy because of my timidity, hesitancy, or fear. It makes my heart glow to hope that list will never grow any larger.
3) Tuesday and Wednesday were all-day conferences. Well, no. Actually, Tuesday we skipped the first four hours of our meeting (meetings shmeetings) to help a family move to Michigan! They made it safely and are now meeting with the missionaries there.
Before the move, they cooked us the HUGEST BREAKFAST. Three pounds of bacon, at least two loaves of french toast, and mountains of perfect scrambled eggs (the secret apparently is to cook them on medium with milk and a dash of salt) served with gallons of orange juice and chocolate milk. We were literally full the entire day. Then on Wednesday we ate dinner with a part-member family at a restaurant that was so fancy there were no prices listed on the menu! Think about THAT level of fanciness if you can! After our meal, they brought us steaming wet hand-towels. Elder Welsh and I mentioned that we live like we are billionaires. We drive all over the place, constantly wear suits, work 24 hours a day and eat at ridiculously nice restaurants. Who'd have thought the line between missionaries and millionaires would be so fine?
I can just hear people who served in Latin America or Africa rolling their eyes at me right now. Hah!
4. Thursday was the temple day. We took the missionaries down to Orlando and had the most wondrous time. The peace and the power was unreal. In the car with us were Elder Collett and Elder Cordon, two of my former companions. It was fun riding down with them and getting to have that experience all together. I wish I could say more about it. It's a holy place.
With Elders Welsh and Cordon
With Elder Collett
5) Friday we did... things? Who knows. Oh! I remember. Lots of wedding-prep stuff. Planning it out, getting the agenda, making the food, etc. Then we had two dinner appointments (I know. I know.) One with a recent convert (lasagna, yum). We brought a senior couple to that one and they got along with out recent convert so well that we just left them there and went to a meeting real quick. Then we had dinner #2 with Tom! Tom make smoked bar-b-que chicken and shrimp over a wood/charcol combo fire in his grill/smoker. The shrimp he seasoned and then made into a shishkabob. The chicken he covered in bacon, and then melted cheese over it to hold it in place. We ate all that with red potatoes on the side. Then we taught them about the Book of Mormon!
6) Saturday was the WEDDING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We spent all morning setting it up. Then it happened. IT HAPPENED!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was lovely. Cody and Leah are as married as you can be. Now we're got to get THEM to the temple! Baby steps. Immediately after the wedding we ran home, threw some service clothes on, and within 20 minutes I was 20 feet up a tree taking down Christmas lights! There were DOZENS of strands in this ENORMOUS tree, and there I was at the top branches snapping left and right, trying to get these lights off. I only fell a couple times. Anyway, I'm up at the top, taking calls and texting while I work (set up two appointments in that tree!) and I get a call from Cody saying "Hello! Do you want to get dinner in 15 minutes?" I look down at Elder Welsh, who is filling an above-ground pool and teaching a little family, and at myself, covered in twigs and leaves and dirt and sweat and bleeding a little bit, and say, "Um... yes! It might be more like 20 minutes..." So I jumped out of the tree, we told the family that if they come to Church three times we can baptize them in their new pool, (the kids were pretty excited about that) and then we flew over to dinner at another amazing Italian restaurant. Yum.
7) Sunday was wonderful. We had a great dinner at the Bishops house with his family (he has 8 kids) and two other families and all three sets of missionaries in the ward. It was a PARTY! We also taught a hindu man who speaks rather little english. We used a lot of pictures and hand motions and facial expressions. I'm sure it was a sight.
On Sunday the question was presented, "Why do we need a modern day prophet?" It's one of our investigators hang-ups. He can answer every question on the baptismal interview no problem, but he objects to "Do you believe Thomas S. Monson is the Lord's prophet on the part today" even being on the interview. He says whether or not someone believes in Thomas S. Monson shouldn't stop them from being baptized. Isn't that a unique concern? Everyone is so wonderfully different. I'll quote here what I quoted when the concern was raised. It's from a conference talk entitled, "The Way Home".
"The restoration of the gospel dispels the gloom described in our time by the noted educator Robert Gordon Sproul. He had looked at the churches of America and declared:
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| Robert Gordon Sproul 11th president of University of California |
"'We have … the peculiar spectacle of a nation which, to some imperfect but nevertheless considerable extent, practices Christianity without actively believing in Christianity. We are asked to turn to the church for our enlightenment, but when we do so we find that the voice of the church is not inspired. The voice of the church today, we find, is the echo of our own voices. And the result of this experience, already manifest, is disillusionment. There is only one way out of the spiral. The way out is the sound of a voice, not our voice, but a voice coming from something not ourselves, in the existence of which we cannot disbelieve. It is the earthly task of the pastors to hear this voice, to cause us to hear it, and to tell us what it says. If they cannot hear it, or if they fail to tell us, we, as laymen, are utterly lost. Without it we are no more capable of saving the world than we were capable of creating it in the first place.” (Vital Speeches, Sept. 1, 1940, p. 701.)
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| Winston Churchill |
"Perhaps the famed Winston Churchill best declared the world’s pressing need. Said he: 'I have lived perhaps longer experience than almost anyone, and I have never brooded over a situation which demanded more patience, composure, courage and perseverance than that which unfolds itself before us today: The need of a prophet.'”
It's an awesome talk, if you care to read it. We need a modern-day prophet. We thank God for him. We love him and testify of him and follow him. We rise to his call. We wear ourselves out in obedience to his instruction, for it is the will of the Lord, the mind of the Lord, the word of the Lord unto salvation. I know that Thomas S. Monson is a prophet of God. No man taketh this honor unto himself. He was called and foreordained. He is the chosen, holy oracle. I love him very much.
And I love you.
~Elder Jorgensen
P.S. A story from a long time ago:
One night, we were driving to our next appointment after a lesson, and I had been given a delicious cupcake. It had frosting and sprinkles and everything. Well, I'm not really a cupcake person. I prefer... carrots. Hard to believe now that I LOOK like a cupcake, but it's true. Anyway, I offered my cupcake to Elder Welsh. He says no very firmly. So I said, "that's alright, our cup holders can now be cupcake holders!" and placed it in the nearest slot. Without saying a word as we drive down the highway, he reaches it over, grabs it in his right hand, rolls down his window, and throws it out as hard as he can.
"WHAT THE... HEY! YOU THREW MY CUPCAKE OUT THE WINDOW!!!!!!!!!!!!"
"You gave it to me."
"BUT YOU THREW MY CUPCAKE OUT THE WINDOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
"You weren't going to eat it. You were going to put it in the cup-holder, then call all the cup-holders "cupcake-holders" for a few days, then forget about it, and then next p-day when we clean the car you'd remember it was there and I'd have to throw it away. I was not going to clean it up all stale and crumbley."
"... YOU THREW MY CUPCAKE OUT THE WINDOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
Road trips. Always an adventure.
Letters Home
To Mom:
Yep! Wonder and urgency. That characterizes my style pretty well. You are wonderful mama. I love you. How was your week? Was it awesome?? Hope so. We get new missionaries tomorrow!!! And a lot go home, including a lot of my mission friends. Elder Collett and Elder Cordon both go home! Sigh. Times flies and flies.
I am so glad you obeyed! I love that [lds.org Meet the Missionaries]video! There [Uncle Mel & Aunt Marlene] they are! Just, being related to us! And Famous!!!!!
YOU HAVEN'T SEEN MEET THE MORMONS????????? Mom. That is tragic. You must purchase a copy of the film and view it forthwith. It is excellent and it has mormons in it! Gotta meet the mormons!!!! [Actually, the whole family saw it last fall in the theaters, but Elder Joshua’s post prompted me to purchase the video too!]
Courtney and I can be gluten-free together one day. Did you know President Craig is Gluten Free? So I always get to eat gluten-free when we're together. [Cassidy is reading ] Dystopian novels huh? Has she read Animal Farm? Alas Babylon might be fun for her too. Not a dystopia, but it's a modern-day craziness one.
Wow, Aquatica/Boomers fun! No more ballet for Courtney. Sad day. Do we own a ukulele now? Family coming in to town!!!!!! Y'all can all watch Mel and Marlene be famous together!!!!!!!
I love you too mama! I love the updates! Happy May!