editor's note!

Sorry folks, we have been on vacation for a while.  I will update Travis' last two weeks of emails, the most recent will be first, the earlier will be later, to keep things chronological.  Thanks for watching his blog.

Editor Dad.

Four Generations

 Week of 30 June 2014

Hey guys!!!

So... It's been a good week. I love mijo.

Our first lesson together was to a drunk white dude, the husband of one of our less actives, and he was going off the whole time about how he misses smoking marijuana and how its good for you and how he has a hard life and... yeah. And Elder Soriano is usually a pretty timid guy, but he opened his mouth and one of the first things he said was, "All I hear is excuses." My jaw kind of dropped in that instant

I was not expecting that much fire AT ALL!!! But hey... it all worked out pretty well.

We have also had some pretty colorful tracting experiences together. Wednesday was our first full pross (proselyting--trying to find people to teach) day and we need some new investigators so we hit the streets and tracted. (knocked on doors) No one really opened up, but those who did left us with some good memories for sure. There was one dude who we had to knock 3 times to get to open up. We heard noise inside and knew someone was in there so I was pretty persistent. Finally the door opened up, and there was a white dude standing in his briefs with his pants around his ankles and a wild look on his face, and he asked us, "Who wants to party?!?" Mijo was kind of stunned so I just spoke what came to my mind, "not us." He said, "Sorry, can't help you then," and slammed the door. Afterwards we heard some good laughter and if I'd had a hat on I would have tipped it to the guy,

if you're gonna reject us, might as well have some fun at it. The next door we knocked this lady opened up and told us she was a less active and that they had company over. She introduced us to her daughter. I asked who the company was. Out of nowhere a 3rd woman popped out and the daughter told us it was her girlfriend... nice. Good times.

Yesterday we had a good lesson with some new investigators. We found them knocking on Friday, the kid's name is UUUU, he is 18 and from Honduras. So yesterday we taught him and he opened up and told us when he was 16-18 he was in prison.. .don't know why yet but when he told us that I had the very strong impression that he is ready for this message.

Because I know you are dying to know mijo is doing pretty good. He's definitely green and kind of clingy... when we went out to eat a couple times he ordered what I ordered, he always stops praying right after I do and he always waits for me to go through a door first... but he is always happy and humble so... sal good.

Aight peeps, gotta go.

Elder Travis Jorgensen

Week of 6 24

I HAVE AN HIJO!!!!!!!!

(meaning he is now training a new missionary, like someone did for him when he first went to Portland).

This weekend waiting for transfer calls was STRESSFUL!!!!!!! How President does them is people who are going to train get their calls first, and then later come the ones for if you are going to move or not. Usually training calls come between 10 and 12. By 11:59 I was about ready to kick a baby... and then 30 minutes later when I had all but pulled my hair out, President Morby called me and asked me if I would train. I was PUMPED!!! Both Warenski and I were also both assuming that I would go out to Sandy to do it too, because this is Elder Warenski's last transfer and it just wouldn't make sense to send him there. So that call came and I was a little disappointed I'm not going to lie. I have had a lot of cool experiences out in Sandy and feel really close to a lot of those families. So I took it pretty hard. Thankfully God gave me an attitude adjustment. After the calls came we went by a member who was one of the first converts in Paraguay. She spent 10 years of her life living in the wilderness because of the persecution she faced for being a member

. And then, her husband went from being active to inactive and abusive. After 10 years of that, she decided she couldn't take it anymore, so she said a prayer asking God to help her in leaving her husband. In the middle of a prayer, an angel appeared to her, put his hand on her shoulder, and said, "He is important to God. You are the only one who can bring him back."

And then left. So she spent another 10 years in an abusive relationship, when finally her husband turned things around only to die shortly thereafter. The Spirit kind of smacked me in the face a little bit during that story. It's not that I don't like Milwaukie, but things in Sandy are honestly just going to take off now that it has its own set, and we don't have a whole lot here. Or I guess we do kind of this area has just kind of gotten old to me. It's lost the "newness" factor. Elder Warenski and I shifted through about 20-30 investigators in our companionship and only got 1 to come to Church and the rest didn't care... So I guess that's one of the reasons God gave me a greenie. I feel pretty honored... no new Spanish Elders have come into the mission since October and there are lots of Elders who still need to train... 2 that are a transfer older than me, all the other 5 of my generation, and 3 in the generation younger. Yesterday 2 Spanish greenies came in and I got one of them. President Morby told us in our trainer's meeting that because he is leaving (on Saturday:( he wanted to leave the mission with the best trainers he could think of. I think he was edited for content but whatever;) However, Elder Warenski and I had an interesting conversation about how big of a role training someone plays in where you get called on your mission. As in sometimes you get called to the mission you do so you can train a greenie there.

I have definitely felt like that in respect to Cooper and Eric... so I am maybe just feeling slightly overwhelmed... just a little. Any advice or stories?? I'm all ears... and you don't have to wait until next monday to do it either if something comes type it up and send me it!!

Luckily something that is taking the stress of is that mijo, Elder Soriano,

is already fluent and native. So he's gonna teach me the language:) AND he's from Arizona, so he broke the streak of white companions I've had from Utah since I got out to the field. As far as how he is... only time will tell. My first impressions of him are that he is a big, giant, innocent teddy bear.

Oh, humble too. He is technically a convert he was baptized at age 9 with his family. But he seems excited to work so that's good. All in all I am excited.

So... randomly, I am getting quite the list of books I want to read when I get home. Like The Lincoln Thesis that I saw in Deseret Book the other day. And The Lost Language of Symbolism. And Lectures on Faith, the Autobiography of Parley P. Pratt, and a lot more. I can't do anything about it out here, because I can't read them so if I bought them I'd just haul them around, but maybe if you see them in stores on sale you could keep me in mind.

Alright I love you guys!! 

Elder Travis Jorgensen