Editor's NOTE:

 

We didn't post last week as it was Mother's Day and his email was brief as our awesome skype convo was LONG! WOO HOO!, so here is the latest post, 19 May 2013.

 

Hey guys!!! 

Thanks for the birthday wishes...

although i am not going to lie I'm not looking forward to this bday that much... I have been the only 18 year old in the zone recently and I have kind of enjoyed it...  I don't know part of me just felt like it would never come.

Anywho moving on.... No I'm not out in Sandy. Still chillin here in Milwaukie but there is a good chance I'll move somewhere next transfer... this one is a short one it is only 5 weeks. And then a week after that President Morby leaves...

WEIRD! He has done some great things with this mission and I will miss him...

Oh before I forget yesterday at Church Bro Webb saw me and the first thing he said was "you have some outstanding parents"

to which I told him I know and I am a pretty lucky kid:) AND some people who have been emailing me lately who have also been keeping up on the blog say you guys are doing a really god job with it so thank you! I imagine it probably takes awhile to do but I appreciate it!

Ok storytime!! As far as the work goes not much happened this week it was kind of slow... but I have some funny experiences to share! The first one comes from Wednesday... I think. I don't really remember the day... anyways Elder Warenski and I were coming here to the Church to do some facebooking... usually there is a couch we sit on and just do it on our ipads... well on Wed when we went to go sit on it we found it occupied . HOW she was occupying it is the amusing part... She was laying face down, passed out, and snoring like I've heard no one snore since I have been edited! She was out! So Elder Warenski and I looked at each other both thinking the same thought... picture time!!

We took it and I have it... but my camera is at home so I'll try to send it next week! So we did that, did some fb, and during fb someone was setting up for some activity later that night and they had Studio C hooked up to the audio system in the whole building!! We had to leave because I knew the episodes they were playing and it was NOT making it easy for me to focus!

Story #2... We haven't been able to teach WWW and his family (the ones with 7 kids) in awhile so yesterday when we went out to Sandy we made a point of stopping by them... We knocked on the door, and finally after a few minutes someone opened up. Who it was I couldn't tell you. But I did see WWW in the background with a few Corona's which would explain why the guy who answered the door was looking at us kind of crosseyed and wobbling so hard he could barely stand. Guy was PLASTERED! He looked at us, tried to mumble a thank you, and then shut the door! Needless to say... THAT KIND OF IRRITATED ME!!!!! I REALLY wanted to knock it again, I kept thinking to myself "there is no way that just happened" but in the end I realized if WWW was drunk it was probably the best way things could turn out.

We did have one pretty intense lesson happen. It was with MMMM the 17 year old we found awhile ago, the one who I just randomly felt like sharing my story with our first lesson together and it paid off... I have been feeling lately like I should ask him why he keeps letting us come back because we usually see him a couple times a week. His response was kind of the opposite of what we were hoping for... he said he would feel rude if he didn't... so we bore some strong testimony about the importance of him knowing for himself if this was something God wanted him to do...

he told us he would read so we will see what happens. I think that's the first time I've honestly understood what people mean when they say it's heartbreaking when people don't keep their commitments... I really hope he reads!

Ok I gotta go guys!!.

I love you guys!

Elder Travis Jorgensen

HEY!!!

So first of all, SKYPE HAS BEEN APPROVED!!!!

Elder Warenski and I are planning on calling around 930ish here, 1030ish for you guys. But for me to make the call I am going to need your skype info, so after you make your profiles send me an email with the info of your name, your email, and all the stuff you put down to make your profile so that way I can call yall. We will have one hour!! I'm pumped!!!

My Cinco de Mayo has been... alright... We went and played some soccer and we are gonna do FHE with one of the families here tonight.... so it'll be good.

This week was...alright. We had a lesson drought in the middle we almost went 2 days without being able to get in and teach anybody, which was FRUSTRATING, but in the end things worked out. Yesterday we went to the Visitor's center with one of our investigators...

I would say that that was probably the highlight of the week...

I'm trying to think of stuff to tell you guys... but really not much comes to mind. It was a good week but there wasn't really anything that stood out and made me say "oh snap, can't wait to tell everybody about this one."

Dad your line about the talking donkey in the Bible being a smart a** made me laugh.

.. I read it to Elder Warenski and he said "actually, that explains a lot about your sense of humor..."

The meet the Mormons program sounds aight... I don't know it probably helps to have people not so intimidated by the Church...

OH actually yes I do have one cool story. So our most progressing investigator is named HHHH... he is a super cool guy and things just make sense to him. He's changed a lot too he's opened up to us about how he used to be a drug dealer and do a lot of other stuff but now he is one of the nicest people I have met out here. So in one of our lessons with him this week he told us a pretty crazy story about a life changing event he had...

to give you just a few deets it involved him getting kidnapped from some people of his past life, having a gun put to his head and when the gunshot sounded miraculously nothing happened. There is more but that's the basics and it's CRAZY. Anyways the part that kinda blows my mind is WHEN it happened... April 20th of last year. And then the next day, on April 21st, I randomly made the decision to come serve a mission... kinda makes me think. ANYWHO he is EXACTLY what we need to be able to start the branch because he is older, he probably won't move away, and once he fully accepts the gospel he is gonna be such an awesome convert. The main problem is is that he is going through some separation issues and was gonna move up to Washington to get a job, but then a friend offered him a sheetrocking job locally... he can't decide what to do. I am PRAYING that he stays here

, but to do that he has to find a new place to live... but he is SO awesome you guys wouldn't believe.

Aight I gotta go, don't forget to email me with that skype info!!!

Love,

Elder Travis Jorgensen

Hey!

So this week was CRAZY!!!!

We saw little miracles happening almost every day. A cool one was Thursday night during planning we just felt like we should go to a specific part of our area... we didn't know why how long or what was going to happen but we did it. As we pulled up there was a group of kids just chilling talking and after awhile we decided we should probably go talk to them... and they were WAY receptive and liked talking to us. Describing it is hard but it was just cool to see happen.

Also yesterday was EPIC! So I don't remember if I've told you this or not yet but Elder Warenski and I are fasting every week to start the area going. It's been working. Yesterday we were fasting to be able to find some of our news weve taught recently and keep teaching them. It was a ROUGH fast too...

during Church I was having a hard time paying attention and keeping a conversation was hard. I almost broke it a couple times because I didn't know HOW I was gonna be able to teach anyone. But, after Church we left for Sandy and Gresham... we had some referrals to go contact in Gresham so we went and did that... and even after we had contacted everybody I still felt like we should stay out there a little longer... didn't know why I just did. After 20 or so more minutes nothing had happened so I felt like we could go... and we made it out to Sandy to an investigator's house... His name is KKKK and he and his wife both were taking the discussions about 18 years ago in California.. he has 7 kids:D We found him a couple weeks ago by knocking, last week he wasn't home but we taught 2 oldest sons, and yesterday we talked to the same 2 oldest sons for a bit, and then the parents came home from getting groceries. We taught the WHOLE FAMILY, 8 of which are at baptismal age:) AND, his oldest son, LLLL, has only had a Book of Mormon for a week and he is already into 2nd Nephi.. CRAZY!

So by the time we got out of that lesson, it was like 730... we usually don't eat dinner on Sundays because we don't know any members out in Sandy and it is too hard on the days schedule to interrupt the run and come back for dinner. Anyways after that we went and knocked on the door of a family I haven't taught since I was with Elder Goff.

They opened up, invited us in, and told us they were just finishing up dinner and offered us some. It was Mexican food and I loved it SO much... Lately I haven't eaten much mexi food we usually eat with the white members. But it was GOOD.

The dad was a little bit drunk..:) He was playing his guitar and singing for us, and after we ate we asked if we could share a spiritual thought, and read Alma 36 with them. We asked BBB (the dad) if he wanted to read and he just looked at us and was like "probably not." It was the funniest thing though, the whole time while we were reading he just had this look on his face like he was having his mind blown and randomly sometimes he'd just say "wow"... it was pretty funny.

And today... I got in with some English Elders to buy some new ties. They had a deal from a member where they ordered a 60 pound box of ties... We split it 5 ways and each came away with about 100 ties and it only cost $25:D I have some pictures..

. but I left my camera at home today...:( Next week, I promise, I'll catch you guys up on pics!

Ok I think that's about it. Elder Warenski and I are doing WORK I've never had a bond between me, my comp, and the Spirit so strong before.

Since we've been companions, in 3 weeks, we've found 18 news. We still have half the transfer and when Elder Goff and I were together we only found 19 that whole transfer... So I'm just hoping we can get some people progressing, coming to Church, and then baptized!!! That is the goal and that is what I ask that you guys pray for!

Love,

Elder Travis Jorgensen!

Hey guys!!

Thanks for the emails!!  I feel like its been awhile since I got to write a good email so imma tell y'all about the WORK!!!

I think I told you this already but on this area we are trying to start a group/branch... Which is hard because we are doing it out of an English ward so for now durning sacrament meeting we have to do a translation, we have our own Spanish Gospel principles class and we don't have anything figured out for priesthood or relief society yet but thusfar it hasn't been a problem...

And our area is about to freaking explode!!,

Elder Warenski is a pretty experienced Elder and we are doing work together. In the last 2 weeks we have found 12 new investigators and legitimately all of them have potential so we're hoping to see some baptisms here soon. The problem, as I have been complaining about recently, is that nobody will come to church... But that's ok we're hoping to see that start climbing. Elder Warenski and I both feel like baptizing weekly is something that we can get done if we work up to it so we are going to start fasting weekly to make it happen. This week was our second week doing it and it seems to be working.

Fun fact for y'all... Today is Elder Coopers hump day.

It is also a year ago today that we had that youth fireside and I prayed about serving at 18... I don't think that it's a coincidence that that was Elder Cooper's first day out...

You guys should send me some pics I feel like I don't know anything that is going at home anymore!!!

Ok I actually have some pics for you guys we just finished another hike... Thankfully nobody almost died today it was just some good walking and pictures... Not to mention there have just been some picture worthy moments... The problem with emails these days is that we usually do them from our iPads and the pics are on my camera... But one of these days when we don't do something for pday I'll send some...

Ok well I think that is all... As far as calling home i think there will be a good chance that we will be allowed to skype. No promises it just seems reasonable. And you don't really need to send me an Easter package I just barely got one... I mean I'd like it bbbuutttt... No worries.

K I think that's it... Til next week pray that God softens the heart of my investigators!!

Love,

Elder Travis Jorgensen

UPDATE UPDATE, READ ALL ABOUT IT!!
Editor's note--the last two weeks are updated below.  Many apologies for the delay...

Sup Peeps!!

So... I'm gonna start off with a vent! NOBODY WILL COME TO FREAKING CHURCH!!!! IT IS IRRITATING ME SO MUCH!!! NOT EVEN OUR RECENT CONVERTS WHO HAVE A WHOLE FAMILY WHO COULD BY BAPTIZED BY THE RECENT CONVERTS EXAMPLE!!!!

The Stake Presidency is waiting, itching, to get a group an official thing, but we need the bodies to make it happen, and we can't get anybody to come to Church!!! AAAARRRRRRRGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!

Another editor's note:   right about here is where the blog site stopped letting me add pictures to the commentary, so all you get for the rest is commentary...

Aight other than that Elder Warenski and I had a pretty good week. We found 5 new investigators and a couple of them I have really high hopes for. One's name is DDDD and he is 17... we got in the door and I could tell right off the bat that he didn't really want to talk to us because he got the Church dude vibe from us... so I opened up and told him the story of why I decided to serve, and the Spirit was STRONG!!!(Picture of Travis sitting in Stake Conference hearing the Spirit telling him he needs to go on his mission...) I tell that story to people quite a bit because it is pretty cool but I haven't felt anything that strongly probably since it happened. And we could see it on his face, too, he felt it. And afterwards it kinda helped him open up and we are gonna go back tonight. Another one was all the fetching way out in Sandy, and it was an apartment complex only for migrant workers... sadly most of them are super hard hearted... anywho I haven't been out there for awhile, so yesterday Elder Warenski and I made a Sandy run to meet some people. I thought I remembered the door of one of the cooler people I had taught, but I went up to it, and it wasn't the one I thought it was... so we knocked it anyways. The guy opened up, and just immediately told us to come in. That NEVER happens. EVER. We got in and started talking with him, and it turns out he used to live in California 18 years ago and was taking the discussions back then. He remembers EVERYTHING perfectly!!!!! He has a wife and 7 kids...:D  (Picture a family of 9 dressed in white in front of the Temple, and happy missionaries in the background...:) So... I'm pretty excited for that.

OH mom before I forget... we are probably going to start teaching an English class... anyways...mom do you have any suggestions?

Random fact for you... a year ago this Friday is when I decided I should probably serve a mission... that's SUPER weird.Elder Warenski is good. We get along pretty well. He is experienced in the mish.

Ok last part sorry I'm scatterbrained today... last night in the Visitor's Center for the Temple there was a devotional for recent converts of within a year. Pretty much no one we invited went, but we still got to go, and Jose Salazar got to speak. DANG do I miss that family. (Picture of Elder Jorgensen AND the Salazar family)  It is SO cool to see how they have progressed and last night was just one of those tender mercies on the mish. Love it.

I feel like I have more to tell yall... but I can't remember... sssssooooo... until next week...:D

Love,

Elder Travis Jorgensen

P.s. mom and dad next week could you tell me about some of your mission stories??



Week of 7 April...

Hey guys!!!

So... Elder Goff left me and I have a new comp... Elder Warenski!! I'll tell you more about him in a sec though first I got some stories for y'all.

First of all, dad I wore that para cord tie you made me and people LOVED it!!!! Everyone who saw it asked where it came from, and then errybody from there said that you should sell them. I guarantee as many as you want to make I can find a missionary to give to. Actually I think Elder Cooper would REALLY like one so I'm not asking you to because I know you are busy but if you want to I can get you his address.

So Elder Goff and I had a pretty good lady week. We tracted some GHETTO areas...GHETTO, sketchy areas.

I have some pictures I'll send you next week. And one of our investigators works for he government and he told us the area we were knocking was full of like drug addicts and people with mental problems...:) that was good.

And then... Our last night together... Elder Goff got the stomach flu. He was up from 2 in the morning puking...

Except I didn't wake up until the alarm went off. HOW I don't know because he said he was puking so hard it came out his nose... And I think I must have died that night for him not to have woken me up because the bathroom is right next to our bedroom... I just don't know.

Conference was GREAT I'm not going to be able to give the same run down I did last time because I don't have my notebook with me and I don't have time... But I'll hit a few talks. I really liked President Eyrings talk in Priesthood about being examples... Dad that one made me think of you. Elder Hollands testimony on Saturday Morning gave me a glimpse of what the scriptures mean when they say the prophets spoke with voices of thunder. My favorite talk was probably President Uchtdorfs on Sunday morning.

So Elder Warenski.... The situations are almost EXACTLYthe same it is right after a good companionship, and Elder Warenski only has 3 transfers left in the mish.... But there are some differences and I am going to work them to my advantage... We served around each other for 4 transfers my first 3 he was in the ward with me and my last transfer in the ward he was one of my Zone leaders.. I am optimistic though... It will be a good learning and growing experience.

Oh and to finish up... NO MORE FREAKING SUITS!!!!!!!!!!!!! That's right I said NO MORE SUITS!!!! I am on my iPad emailing in the sunshine right now and I LOVE IT!!!!! 

this is not Travis, but you get the idea...

And mom to answer your questions... I don't have much time so you are right the boring ones I probably won't answer. Milwaukie is a pretty isolated areas only times we see our fellow Spanish brethren have been at meetings and some p days... Like today we've been chilling with coop:) we usually get dinners and Fred Meyer has been and I'm pretty sure will continue to be the location at which I shop. We have been getting a lot of rain but it's been bipolar either rainy or sunny... The pair of shoes I brought out here for like tracting and stuff is done for... I'm trashing them because I wore through the soles.

I couldn't even stand on wet pavement without my shoes getting wet:) the Spanish is... Coming. I could always improve. One of the things I have realized about my mission is that I was sent here to see how hard I could push myself. Ok I think that's all and if not let me know!!!

Elder Travis Jorgensen!

WE FINALLY GOT AN INVESTIGATOR TO COME TO CHURCH!!!! AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

It's  been like a transfer since anyone was at church!!!! And he really liked it too, his name is (I can't tell you...:) and he has seen a lot in life... So when we are teaching him he always likes to point out how young we are...

But... Sal good.

I also had to speak in Sacrament yesterday... I was told to plan a 10 or 15 minute talk and I was the concluding speaker... And when i got up there I had 20 minutes left... I think I did aight though I had to talk about the Holy Ghost so I filled some time by telling stories... People told me they liked it sooo... Idk...

I got you guys package!!! It was pretty cool!!  Dad that para cord tie is like the most inspiring thing I've ever seen in my life!!! How long did it take you to make it?? And question... Where did those other ties come from? They are way legit I like them a lot. And the journals are pretty cool, thank you!! So this second journal will probably take another 8 months to fill out... And then I'll be ready for another one!!

I don't know where all you guys looked but I've heard bookstores have some pretty good deals sometimes... Is it possible to like buy a plain leather one and get some pictures put into the leather?? Idk..

So did one of the sisters who ate over know Elder Cooper?? He texted me a couple days before and told me a girl from his district was serving in Kuna and he got an email from her saying errybody freaked when you guys found that out.

Not much happened this week... So I'll tell you guys some stories from a couple weeks ago that we're pretty powerful... We were eating dinner with this dude from Hawaii, and he is just starting to be active again after 30 years of inactivity... He went inactive like right after his mission. So he was telling us one of his stories when a set of elders was going to buy an investigator a steak so he could be baptized... Bryan (the member feeding us) went up to them, stopped them, and said in his cool Hawaiian accent, "the Gospel is NOT a commodity."

And he said that, and I was just kinda like...dang. Powerful. It made me stop and think about what this Gospel means to me...

Ok well I think that's all... Wes as far as your knee I'm pretty sure it's because you've even growing so much so eat and drink healthy, stay hydrated, and stretch. Dad is like mister myogi

so he will fix you up.

I don't think there is anything else that I need right now, although mom you were a prophetic angel with what you threw in the last one, it was all stuff I was gonna have to buy today... Thanks guys I love you!

Oh and whasis name.. The kid I gave my scriptures to... I got them back we are teaching his family about once a week we just need to figure out something for church for them...

Love

Elder Travis Jorgensen!

Hey peeps!! What's up? How've you been? Wes I heard you got the deed done, I expect dem dirty deets:D

Alright so it was an interesting week. I think I'm gonna start of with... the spirtit'chal things because the stories are good but it was a good week also. First of all, on Friday I got permission to go with Eric's family to the Temple to do Baptisms for the Dead. That was AWESOME.

I couldn't do much because everybody kept acting like because we were Elders we were diseased so mostly I just got to sit and watch it happen, but all 4 of them who have been baptized went. Jose afterwards said he liked it a lot, that he could really feel the Spirit. And it was just nice to see Eric again.

The first half of the week was pretty slow. Monday was the whole hiking incident,

As a parent, should I be concerned about the facial expressions of Elder Goff and Elder Jorgensen????

Tuesday was a zone conference, and Wednesday and thursday like nothing happened... no one was home, we couldn't get any news, in the first 5 days of the week we got like 3 lessons, and not for lack of trying. And friday was the Temple so that took up some time too. But on Saturday we received a lot of revelation... We were out and about, after already having had like 3 or 4 lessons fall through, and both Elder Goff and I were pretty frustrated. So we were at the house of one of the people who bailed on us, and they still had their Christmas lights up in their trees... and I just wanted to take them down!!

I was so irritated I wanted to do some service to lighten my soul! But I couldn't decide whether or not to do it... I didn't want to get them mad at me for doing something without their permission, but I wanted to get it done! And I literally could not make a decision which was just frustrating me more because we had other people to go see... but, in the midst of my trying to make a decision, the neighbors of the people we were at got home, and they were Mexican..... so... we went and talked to them!! And if I hadn't been fighting with the decision of whether or not to take them down, we would have missed them.

And then, right after that, we were walking around just trying to find some people, and I felt like we should knock a door. So it took us awhile, but we finally got to it, and a white dude opened up the door. My first though was "oh, great..." but he turned out to be very interested and as we taught him a mini version of the restoration, I could see it in his face, it made sense!!! We have to hand him off to the English but I'm glad we found him.

Then later on Saturday I legitimately got hit on my a 40 year old mexican woman!!! UGH!!! We tried teaching her, and she just kept going off about how good looking I was for more than half an hour... NASTAY!!!! As we were walking away, there was a chick with bright red dyed hair smoking a cigarette in a stairwell, so I said "Hey how's it going."

And then yesterday we got to teach HHHH's family (the ones who remind me of Eric) and it went really well. I am excited to see where they go.

Aight guys I gotta go! Love you!

Editor's Note:  If we correctly gather the little information that we have, it seems that Elder Jorgensen may need some prosthetic services as he apparently is working his butt off and did not have time to email home this week...stay tuned