August 26, 2013 ~Week 5

Hey everyone! 
So I have decided that one reason why I am not supposed to wear shoes is because of blisters. I swear I have a blister that is half the size of my toe. That wouldn't happen if I didn't wear shoes.... But then again if I didn't wear shoes around here, my feet would be all cut up and full of glass... It wouldn't matter too much though because all the hot cigarette butts that would cauterize the cuts closed. Then the only thing I would have to worry about would be all the STD's running rampant through my body due to the bodily fluids that would get in my cuts before cauterization... Oh well... Blisters aren't that bad. What is that bad is the humidity!!! I don't believe I've stopped sweating since I got off the plane... It's terrible. I feel like I'm going to drown every time I go outside!!! But I'm getting used to it... using plenty of laundry detergent... and deodorant... and drinking lots of water...  The worst night of every week, is when we play basketball on Fridays. I honestly hate the game of basketball with such a passion. Maybe it would help if I was any good at it, but seeing how I can't play without fouling someone every 3 seconds because my wrestling instincts kick in, I'm not the favorite person to play with anyways. 

This last week has been pretty darn cool if I say so myself. One of the cool experiences I've had has been that I got to baptize Crystal! It was such a cool experience. I felt kind of bad though since I wasn't really much a part of her conversion experience. But it was awesome!

This is Titus and Crystal and Titus Jr. Right after the baptism! 

Sorry I didn't have the chance to get a picture with us in white.

This week I went on exchange with Elder Pitt. He got here the same day I did. We went to West Philly which was his area. It was interesting. We had an awesome lesson with Basil, who is moving out to Eagle Mountain in a couple weeks. He is getting married to Sister Colombo who lives out there from what I understand. I don't know Sister Colombo's first name. One miracle experience this week has been Jamar. So me and Elder Hopkins were walking down the street one day and we say Jamar just riding his bike around. We started talking to him and he asked us who we were. We started talking about what we do and stuff. We left him a Book of Mormon and our phone number and went our separate ways, though it was an amazing experience because we were having a pretty no good morning. He seemed pretty interested. So yesterday we were supposed to go give Francis, a 60 year old Liberian lady with an eye infection, a blessing, but were unable to because our member that was supposed to come with us couldn't make it. So we went around visiting members and seeing if any of them could come with us to no avail. After a while I had the impression that we should go visit the Colts, a less active family that doesn't speak much English, when lo and behold we ran into Jamar on his way home from work. We asked Jamar if he was willing to come with us. It was a bit awkward for him, but we told him just to sit down and listen. We gave Francis the blessing, which was an amazing experience in of itself. Afterwards we left and found out that Jamar had actually read from the Book of Mormon we gave him and had some questions about it. They were mostly questions that he would have answered if he kept reading, so we encouraged him to do so. Then as we were walking down the street talking about the experience, he told us how he felt during the blessing, which as you could expect, was amazing, and we asked him if he wanted to be able to feel that way always. He said that it would be a big responsibility. One cool thing about Jamar, is that he wholeheartedly believes everything we teach him, not because we are so perfect at teaching it, or anything like that, but because every single time we've talked to him, the spirit has been there. It has been strong. I know now more about how important it is to constantly be perfectly obedient. You never know who you are going to run into, and you never know how important it is to listen to the Spirit, and go where it directs you, until after you've experienced just how miraculous it is.  I honestly 100% believe that we found Jamar because Heavenly Father had been preparing him, and had placed us in his path. I know that as long as we listen to that still small voice, Heavenly Father will always place us exactly where He wants us to be. We have a lesson on Friday with Jamar and I honestly can't wait. Just a little example of how strong the spirit is when we talk to him, after we gave Francis the blessing we were walking down a street where 99% of the time the Spirit probably couldn't dwell. But as we walked down the street, you could see in Jamar's eyes that he was being touched by the Spirit. This is the hardest thing I have ever done. But it's the best. I am truly amazed by my Heavenly Father. He works. I love you so much. I love hearing from you all so much. Until next week.

~Elder Jorgensen