After Pday ended last week we got a call from an investigator we taught a few weeks ago. He wanted us to start teaching his friend. So we all met up and it turns out that his friend is a journalist and has investigated a ton about the church. He is of another religion and they believe that God and Christ are the exact same person. Which I honestly didn't understand so I asked him some questions but it still doesn't make sense to me. That was only the second time I've ever bible bashed on my mission. We still walked away as friends though so it wasn't too bad.
On Friday we got to do some service at the fair with Special Angels. Every year they open up the fair for all the groups in Houston that work with special needs. We helped get them to all the rides and whatnot. It was fun! Earlier in the week we also got to help them out with a banquet they have every year to raise money for their organization. It's actually a really cool cause and I had no idea there were so many programs for kids with special needs.
We went knocking quite a bit this week and found some great new investigators. One of them has two nephews serving missions. We knocked into another lady and she looked at us and said, "come in." That was easy. We found another group of people that are in their 20's. It was very interesting teaching them. They had a lot of great questions and couldn't understand that Hermana H and I don't smoke or drink.
We were on campus for the first time this week! Super fun and very different from anything I've ever done as a missionary. We get to go to institute, play sports, and teach family history! It's pretty neat!
We read something really cool in district meeting that I would love to share. As a mission we have learned the importance of family history work. It truly is an amazing work and I have learned so much from it. My heart really has been turned:
Frederick William Hurst was working as a gold miner in Australia when he first heard Latter-day Saint missionaries preach the restored gospel. He and his brother Charles were baptized in January 1854. He tried to help his other family members become converted, but they rejected him and the truths he taught. Fred settled in Salt Lake City four years after joining the Church, and he served faithfully as a missionary in several different countries. He also worked as a painter in the Salt Lake Temple. In one of his final journal entries, he wrote:
“Along about the 1st of March, 1893, I found myself alone in the dining room,
all had gone to bed. I was sitting at the table when to my great surprise my elder
brother Alfred walked in and sat down opposite me at the table and smiled. I said
to him (he looked so natural): ‘When did you arrive in Utah?’
“He said: ‘I have just come from the Spirit World, this is not my body that you see,
it is lying in the tomb. I want to tell you that whenyou were on your mission you told
me many things about the Gospel, and the hereafter, and about the Spirit World
being as real and tangible as the earth. I could not believe you, but when I died and
went there and saw for myself I realized that you had told the truth. I attended
the Mormon meetings.’ He raised his hand and said with much warmth: ‘I believe in
the Lord Jesus Christ with all my heart. I believe in faith, and repentance and baptism
for the remission of sins, but that is as far as I can go. I look to you to do the work for
me in the temple. … You are watched closely. … We are all looking to you as our
head in this great work. I want to tell you that there are a great many spirits who weep
and mourn because they have relatives in the Church here who are careless and are
doing nothing for them”
(Diary of Frederick William Hurst, comp. Samuel H. and Ida Hurst [1961], 204).
By doing missionary work, we do not only help the people we teach, but thousands of those that have already passed on. I'm excited to start working on M's family history with her!
M's baptism was incredible! We got to stand inside the doors and help her when she got out of the font. She gave me a big hug and it was one of the best moments of my life. While she was changing, Hermana H and I taught the restoration to all of her nonmember friends and family that were there. There were quite a few people that didn't speak Spanish so we got to do it in both Spanish and English. I don't think I've ever felt the spirit that much while saying the first vision or testifying of Joseph Smith. The nonmembers loved it and the spirit was so strong in the room.
Con amor, Hermana Jorgensen
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