Called to Serve: May 5, 2014 ~ Week 41

Monday, May 5, 2014

May 5, 2014 ~ Week 41

So... This week it rained... A LOT. The first half of the week it rained nonstop. This isn't just a little Utah sprinkle either. It was pouring rain! The streets of Reading were flooding! The Schuylkill River was OVERFLOWING! Babies were crying! THE WIND WAS BLOWING. The thunder was clapping!

The tempest raged! I was rather fearful of my own sanity and of my own happiness at times! Why couldn't everything have just gone better? We planned last week to be the week of 30 lessons and we had a game plan! It was going to be great and perfect and we had all the lessons set up and planned. Sometimes I found myself asking like the Apostles did in Mark 4... "Master, carest thou not that we (Our plans) perish?" We did everything we could do to make this week perfect and amazing, but it's all washed up now. So that's how I felt. Soggy, wet, and full of despair.

We come to Wednesday night. Wednesday we had 10 set appointments with investigators and it was going to be the busiest, best day ever. We ended up only having 2 of them hold. It came to the end of the night and I was pretty down on myself. We had about 45 minutes before we were to go home, and I just wanted to give up. But we decided to visit 2 more names before the night was over. I turned to Heavenly Father and said, "Master, carest thou not that we perish?" Then ya know what happened? "And he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, 'Peace, be still.' And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm." Now it was still raining. But there was a tempest raging within ME. We went and knocked on a former investigator named William's door. Everytime we go over he tells us about how he needs to make some changes in his life before he can start meeting with us again and talks his way out of us having a lesson with him. He's a real sad guy who has next to nothing. This time, however, we went in and we taught him about faith. We taught him how having faith is going to change his life. We taught him how he can make his faith grow. We taught him how he can keep his faith when times get hard. It was such a great lesson. The Spirit was really talking to me, and you know what he said to me? "And he said unto them, Why are ye so fearful? how is it that ye have no faith?"

Yup! My life is the scriptures! More than anything I'm just grateful that we have a loving Heavenly Father, who is not just someone that helps us when we are doing everything right, but who helps us when we are weak. One who corrects our mistakes and helps us to be better. I'm so grateful for that powerful reminder that God is aware of me and the trials and struggles that I'm going through. In that lesson we also helped William quit smoking. He mentioned how he wanted to, so we were able, through the help of the Spirit, to convince him to crush the pack in his pocket and throw it out into the rain. Now we didn't have a 30 lesson week BUT the rest of the week was amazing nonetheless. There are never any wasted moments and no wasted efforts. I know Heavenly Father is proud of me. I apologize if this email doesn't make sense. I'm kind of a scatterbrain... :) Love you!

~Elder Jorgensen

WE FINALLY GOT SOME PICTURES....HAPPY DAY!