My new companion is Elder Engman, he just came from Milwaukie, and he was trained by Elder Warenski, he has also been companions with Elder Goff and Elder Soriano. We served around each other for the first 9ish months of my mission, he goes home one transfer before me. We are gonna get work DONE!!!

As for High adventure, heck yeah dad I want in on that. I hope everyone is feeling well... I can't really think of much else to update you on, but if I do I'll let you know! And you don't need to worry too much about how I am doing emotionally, we went to the Temple today as part of our Pday and that helped out a ton.

Pics coming soon!

Ps Both Dad and mom thank you for those emails you sent last week, they helped a ton!!!

Love,

Elder Travis David Jorgensen!

Mother freaking heck it was a long, stressful week here in Tigard.

I'm just gonna break it down for you day by day... here it comes.

So things started to get a little hectic on Tuesday when, as I was pulling in to a parking space, the lady next to me didn't see me behind her and proceeded to back into me.

All is well, no one got hurt, the driver's door has a pretty good dent in it and the lady is also trying to blame me for what happened... but really the most stressful part about that was all the freaking paperwork.

Legitimately, after it happened, we did paperwork all Tuesday and Wednesday, we didn't have any time to work, which kind of made me mad. As far as insurance and whatnot, I really don't know, I just know I did the paperwork and I haven't heard anything about it since... so if you have any questions, the mission office is the place to ask.

So that was like the warm-up...Editors' note suffice to say that the missionaries in Travis' zone have had a stressful couple of weeks. Our prayers are with them.

I don't know if I explained that very well, but by yesterday at about noon I was drained and feeling pretty down on... life. I read Jacob 3 for studies yesterday morning and what stuck out to me was not worrying about yourself, but worrying about other people, which is mentioned in my Patriarchal Blessing... but still, by around noon yesterday, I was feeling pretty freaking drained and not knowing how I'm gonna get through however much longer this lasts... My zone leaders still don't know how serious things are, and the rest of my district knows something is up, but not how bad... Pretty much the water is already pretty warm and about the only thing that can happen is that it will heat up even more. I decided I needed a blessing from someone who has no clue about anything that is going on, so I asked one for my good friends in English Elder Christensen. Holy freaking cow, that was the best blessing I have had on my mission and probably in several years. (Elder Christensen was one of the ones who helped me move Michael in Milwaukie.) He told me I have been called upon to do several hard things during my mission, but "perhaps the most taxing is that of... being a friend." Holy freaking cow, I have not cried in close to 3 years now, but when he said that, I came very close to tearing up. He went on to say that right now I just need to focus on being my brother's keeper,

or something like that, and he didn't make it sound like things were gonna get any easier, but he did make it sound like I'd be able to handle it. 

As an interesting side-note, due to all of the accumulated stress, we went on a 12 mile run Saturday morning:) We woke up at 530 and went running for an hour and a half, it was freaking the bomb.

Ok well.... yeah:) Love you guys! Thanks for your prayers and support!! Any counsel and wisdom, at anytime you feel inspired to between this week and next, is always appreciated, the stuff you guys told me last week was right on point, although mom I did have a little laugh to myself when you called me mature:) Dad, you asked how I've seen myself change, and I think I'm still the same in a lot of respects. I've dealt with a lot of hard crap, but I think that I will forever be that kid who is making jokes at inappropriate times and just having everyone roll their eyes asking themselves, "will this kid ever grow up??:)

I freaking miss my long hair a lot too... I just feel like it's more me.

Mom you will be fantastic in your calling, good ole K-15 will have the best looking ward bulletin on this side of the Mississippi!

There's not really a whole bunch to report on this week. XXXX the lady we freaking helped move my first few weeks here, is progressing way well, her son went to Church yesterday, and hopefully we should be able to hit her with a fetcha (date) this week.

Oh, well I guess I did get to meet an Apostle this week. Is that a big deal? You'll never guess which one... yep, you got it, Elder Ballard!

He came and spoke to us on Friday and it was a memorable experience. He even took pics with each of our zones, so that should be coming to you guys sometime soon! I think the most memorable part was when he asked us if we have been to Gethsemane in our minds

... that was a thought provoker. So anyways I got to shake his hand and feel his spirit... It was a good meeting, really we just talked about missionary work the whole time, which is good, but our mission has been hitting that hard lately so it was kind of like beating a dead horse, only the Apostle was the one dishing the beating so it was more bearable.

I also had an interesting experience on Thursday... so one of the English Elders I am serving around I served around in Milwaukie for 4 and a half months... he gets a lot of migraines and depression so several times we've done mini exchanges with them so his comp can go out and work... that happened again this week, only he wasn't depressed nor did he have a migraine, he was struggling personally and needed someone to talk to, so he called me. It ended up being like a 2 hour long talk, and I don't remember much of what I said, but I know the Spirit was there guiding me to say it,

and by the end of the night he was feeling better. It was kind of like a sneak peek into what being a Bishop would be like, where people come and just lay their problems on you, and I decided it'll be ok with me if I'm never a Bishop.... anyways... I don't know, it was just a spiritual and personal experience that made me think, and I felt the Spirit super strongly for the rest of the night.

Alright, well I love yall, have a good week!

Elder Travis Jorgensen!

Hey guys!! Happy new year!!! weird weird weird...

so the biggest freaking news of all is that WARENSKI IS FREAKING ENGAGED!!!!!

HE IS PROBABLY GONNA BE MARRIED BEFORE I GET HOME!!!!! WHAT THE $%@^#%$#%#^@!!!!!!!!!  He straight proposed to his fiance on New Year's eve, and supposedly they are gonna get married on freaking May 9th!!!! That has thrown me for a loop, a hard loop. I must have said "wow. freaking warenski is getting married" at least 50 times. sometimes, to quote cooper, all that can be said is "what the hey" And freaking Coop goes home in like 3 months. just wow. my mind has been blown.

wow.

 I have to give a training and practice at zone meeting tomorrow,

Sorry this took so long to send... I just got busy today. And Warenski is engaged.... freaking freaking freak.  Mann is well, the area is well, this last week was just kinda slow which I'll be honest it was nice because not everything was happening at a million miles an hour. I gotta go, but I love you guys!! have a good week!

Oh... And in other news.. HAIRCUT!!!

                                                                          Peeps!!

I have come to a conclusion about something... and that conclusion is that this area is the most stressful area of my mission as far as just crazy things happening all the freakin time! 

Example number 1.... guess what I did last night? Freaking was at the hospital from 10 pm until 7 am... yes, you read that right. One of the recent converts in the area has a diabetic foot ulcer that is infected, and it has been making her progressively more and more sick. Yesterday, we went to take the Sacrament to her, (she stayed home because of her foot,) so we freaking walk in, and she is walking around her apt, with her oozing foot wound, BAREFOOT!!!! there was blood EVERYWHERE!!!!! she said she had a fever of 102, and a whole bunch of other stuff... So we told her that she freaking needs to see a doctor, and she said she would go later because her husband works the graveyard shift and she had to take him to work at 10. We didn't want her to be alone in the ER all night, because we were a little worried that she might lose her foot, so we went and hung out with her. I guess I can check that one off the bucket list of things that I never thought would happen on my mission. I also decided that it'd be ok with me if I never have to go to an emergency room ever again... they're not as fun as I remember.

The other sad part about yesterday is Ester, the lady we helped moved my first week here and this week. We stopped by her to teach her, hopefully the Restoration, but when we walked in, we could tell she was stressed. It turns out that she got that apartment by a miracle (she had like no money so we aren't quite sure what deal was made or what...) Anyways, as a result of getting the apt without having much money to pay for it, by next month she owes 2 months rent or something, and one of her friends stole her credit card and spent all the money she had saved up, and at her job currently, she works like 20 hrs a week, minimum wage. So both of those situations were hard because I couldn't do anything in either one of them...

On the upside... I didn't get out of bed until like 1 in the afternoon today....:D :D :D that felt SO FREAKIN GOOD!!!!! 

The other upside to this is that my comp and I are pretty good friends. I'm glad we're comps because when things just get freaking stressful we handle it pretty well, there is always a joke to be had or something to lift us up in one form or another.

Ok rereading this I realize I sound like a whiney little girl... I really am doing well, that's just like the major update so I figured I'd fill you guys in on la vida loca.

Randomly, Dad are you saving all the pics I send you guys? I just gotta make sure because... I take my pics seriously.

Alright fam I think that's all, I love ya, I hope you have a good new year! Can you believe it's almost 2015?? Aka... THE YEAR I COME HOME!!!!

Love, Elder Travis David Jorgensen