Editor's note!!

I blinked and it has been three weeks since Elder Jorgensen's blog has been updated.  I do apologize. I will update chronologically, so the first you see is the latest from last week.  Thank you to all who keep looking at the blog.

Editor Dad.

11 10 14

Hey guys!!!

So, first of all, Elder Jessen is GREAT!!!!!!! We have so much fun together! He is definitely one of my favorite companions, up there with Cooper and Goff. Don't get me wrong, I've loved all of my companions, but there haven't been that many that I can just be myself and have fun with. We stay up talking until like midnight every night and we are laughing all day. We laugh so hard we almost cry pretty much every day! It's not really anything big, but just little things every day that we get a kick out of. He is a freaking hick,

his graduating class had 40 people in it, but he ran track and cross country.... He has just been having a hard time thus far out in the field.

Mom, as far as the package goes, I need some more of that lotion if that would be acceptable.

We had a meeting with the Stake President last night and he wanted to know what's going on in our area, apparently it has been doing better than it has ever done, so that was cool.

Alright one story from how well Elder Jessen and I get along. So on Saturday we played ultimate frisbee, and Elder Jessen sprained his ankle awhile ago so he hasn't been to active, but we played, for almost 3 hours. So yesterday he was SORE!!! And I walked up as many stairs as i could:)

And then we had to finish some weekly planning, which we usually do at the church, but he didn't want to walk all the way over there, so I made him do 50 squats so that we could stay at home:) It was FANTASTIC I was laughing at him the whole time and then he finished and was just not very happy but we both laughed about it. He also has never kissed a woman, 4 of my 7 comps now have not kissed a girl...

Ok one more story actually!!!! So our members have a little white dog that came from hell I swear, it is obnoxious and dumb and poops everywhere and barks at everything

and is a very needy creature. He likes to go in our room and get into our garbage. So Eddie (the dog) did that one day, and I may or may not have been tense already, so when i saw that he had made a mess of our room, I grabbed my companion's nerf bow

and chased the dog around the house for 10 minutes shooting him with it! Curiously, now every time he sees me, he barks even more!

Stake conference was this weekend, and guess who I saw? None other than my favorite man ever, Jose Salazar! It was good to be able to see him again, he is going to get the Melchezidek Priesthood soon and I am stoked for him!!

 11 4 14

Hey guys!!

So... Transfers happened! Elder Peterson left to go be a zone leader in Tualatin, which is HILARIOUS because the whole 6 weeks we were companions, I was telling him he was gonna go into leadership. To take it to the next level, friday night, the night before we got transfer calls, I had a DREAM that Petey was going into the upper echelons!! I woke up and told him, and he was not happy at all. And calls didn't come freaking like all day long, and we did service all day to help stay distracted, so we had gotten back and I was showering, I got out of the shower, was walking to our bedroom and Elder Peterson stops me and hands me the phone. I look down and it's President Ballard on the line. As I started talking to him he told me that he was giving me my new companion because he's had a rocky start to his mission and Pres wants me to work him hard, help him have fun, and help him realize that this was the right decision. At transfers yesterday President told me that I "am one of his work horses"

and he knows he can trust me to get the job done. But back to Saturday, I was ok with it, and at the same time part of me was nervous because out of my 7 comps, this is only my second who is younger than me time wise in the mish. His name is Elder Jessen, he's from.... yep, Utah, and he came out the same time that Elder Soriano did. He barely turned 19 and he is a hick. That's ok though, one of his good friends is also one of my good friends who reminds me of Jonah a lot (the 2 of us together are SUPER immature and just laugh about very childish things sometimes... but mom you can still be proud of me because I am immature!)

Petey and I saw a miracle happen on Thursday, I'm just gonna copy and paste from my email to pres..

Miracle. The beginning of this week was kind of slow, and we weren't finding as much as we had set goals to do. On Thursday morning in our companionship prayer, I asked that that day we would be able to give away a Book of Mormon to someone who would receive it well. As we were walking to our Halloween Party that night we talked to a homeless man

who was going through some hardships and gratefully accepted the Book of Mormon from us. What made it such a miracle was we almost went to the Ward party a lot sooner than we did and if we would have I don't think we would have met JJJJ.

Other than that, we had a pretty cool Halloween party on Thursday night, we took some good pics.

It's been awhile, so here's some pics! I love you guys have a good week! let me know if I missed anything! 




10 27 14 

Hey President!

Companion. I feel like I say the same things about Elder Peterson every week but he is a hard working, good, solid missionary. He is always up for the crazy ideas I have and always willing to try something new, and to go out and work. This week we really made sure we focused on being out of bed by 630

and not wasting time on FB. It has helped us increase in the Spirit tremendously. Elder Peterson is such a good example to me about the areas in missionary work that I need to improve, such as nightly planning, goal setting, weekly planning

Area. This week was kind of slow. What we need now is to get some of our new investigators progressing. The ward is more than willing to help us out, our only problem is getting stuff for them to help us with. We have an XX year old who wants to be baptized, named Hoooby Joooby, the only problem is getting his guardians approval. His parents are on drugs and in prison, and his guardians are parents of the friends and not necessarily fans of the Church. His only contact is the Church is his grandma, but she is a very strong willed and able lady so we are confident that she will be able to get it done.

Miracle. Our miracles took place yesterday night from 8-9. At 730 we knocked on one of our less active's door, and he was sick. After that we had some other less actives planned, or even some planning to do, but I did NOT feel like doing either of those things! So I told Elder Peterson, and we prayed about it. We both felt very strongly like we needed to be in the Southern part of our area, in downtown Hillsboro. We walked to the place I was thinking of, and nothing happened. At that point I thought it was just a trial run to see if we'd follow it. However, as we kept walking, we passed a tram station, and Elder Peterson felt like we should sit down on a bench. Alright. We waited for about 10 minutes, and just as we were getting ready to leave, we saw a guy walking on the other side of the street from the right, and a couple from the left. I talked to the guy first. His name is DDDD and he had moved from New Mexico 4 weeeks ago, he went to our Church for a few years when he was younger, but he said he would like to talk to us... the only problem is that he lives outside of our area... He is however a Spanish Speaker, so I was wondering what you felt about that. We talked to him for about 20 minutes, which was great, and then we went and talked to the couple, who also spoke Spanish. One of them had to go on the tram but the other, VVVV, talked to us for a good 30 minutes and asked all the right questions. Sadly, we had not restocked on Books of Mormon... but we got his contact info. So, after he left, both Elder Peterson and I were stoked out of our minds, and it was 9, so we started our 30 minute walk home. A few minutes later, as we rounded a corner, we ran into one of our potential investigators who was just coming back from studying for a test, and he wants to have us over for dinner next week. His name is abby gabby. Soo... Elder Peterson and I can't figure out what we prayed for yesterday, but we're happy we did.

Personal. I'm not going to lie, towards the end of the week I was feeling super trunky. I missed sports, I missed girls, I missed my friends

, and I just wanted to be home. Saturday night and Sunday morning were freaking hard to make it through. However, because being trunky is not something I'm a fan of, on Saturday night before I went to bed I started a fast to be able to focus more and be distracted less. By yesterday I evening I was feeling a lot better (probably due to our miracles that God gave us) and even this morning I was just excited to be a missionary. I love fasting, it really calls down blessings from heaven.

Studies..... This week in studies as I was reading in the first Book of Nephi it really just stood out to me how Laman and Lemuel had so many opportunities to pray and receive a witness for themselves if what they were hearing was true. Prayer makes the difference in our own lives as well in those of our investigators.

Excchange. On Thursday evening we started our second exchange with Glencoe. I went there with Elder McMahan to GLencoe and Elder Tanner came here. I learned a lot from Elder McMahan about the importance of planning and we worked hard that day.

Elder Jorgensen

Sent from my iPad

Hey guys!

I'm gonna start off with a story because it's been awhile. So on Tuesday evening, we were at the Stake Center (our church building) doing... something I can't remember why we where there. There was a relief society activity going on, they had done like a potluck. One of the Sisters came out and practically forced us in the relief society room to get some food, even though we had just eaten. And may I just say, that was AWKWARD!

So we go through the line, and really just grab little tidbits here and there to appease the Sisters. At the very end was ice cream. I didn't need any; we had already had a big dessert. So my companion goes for some of it and I just said, "Atta boy, Elder Peterson. Grab some of that ice cream! And THEN he freaking tries to take the scoop he was gonna put on his plate, and put it on my plate! NO! That was not happening! Dad, it  was like green beans at camp Morrison all over again. So, Elder Peterson in effect dumped a scoop of ice cream on the floor in front of the entire relief society!! I was laughing SO hard! It was great!

The other cool thing that happened this week was the Stake I'm in is doing ultimate frisbee on Saturday mornings for the next 2 months almost. We went on this passed week and it was great!  non-member came and we started talking to him and he wants to hang out this week, so we're gonna see what we can make happen.

uuuummmm... my toe is doing good. I wanted to take the stitches out myself but the nursing couple made me go to the urgent care center again... that kind of frustrated me. Oh and Dad there is a book coming your way about... I think it's a WWII story, written by the uncle of the mission nurse. I saw it in their car and asked them to send a copy home so I can read it when I get back. 

We are going to teach a 13 year old named HHHH tonight. She is a friend of one of the members we ate dinner with, the same family that had their dad get up and bear his testimony on how much he enjoyed having us in his home. Fingers crossed!

Hrrrmmmmmm I can't really think of anything else to tell you guys. Part of me, sometimes, might be excited to come home. But don't tell anybody I said that.

I learned something cool in studies today... I wrote about it to Prez so I'm just gonna copy and paste. Dad, btw Prez reminds me of you sometimes. He played rugby for Highland when he was in HS, and Larry Gelwix.

His team has their pic in the end of Forever Strong.

Studies. This morning I had a really good personal study that answered my prayers. I have been praying lately that I have the determination and drive to do all the little things I know I should be doing. The reason I bring that up is because my senior year, running was my life. Anything and everything that I could do to help me become a better runner, I did it, and I didn't let anything get me off track. So as far as dedication goes, running is the standard of comparison for me.

How dedicated am I to my mission versus how dedicated was I to my senior year of running? I've been praying to be able to get the 2 equal and eventually be able to say that my mission is the most dedicated I've ever been to something. But I haven't been able to figure out how to make it happen. This morning I was reading in 1 Nephi 14 and 15. In 15 Nephi has just finished seeing the destruction of his people, and verse 5 says that he was overcome with grief. I think that is the only time that the scriptures ever mention Nephi having a hard time. But as soon as he gets his strength back, he went right back to trying to help out his brothers. The thing that stood out to me is how hard Nephi worked for the rest of his life, even with the knowledge that ultimately nothing he did would save his people. That gave him the perfect excuse to sit down and stop trying at each trial he faced. But he never did. Next to the Savior, Nephi is one of the greatest examples of "not shrinking."

Dad, this week's requested talk is "Of Souls, Symbols, and Sacraments" by Elder Holland, he gave it as a talk at BYU in 87 or 88.

The reason I ask you to send them to me is because on the ipad pretty much every website other than LDS.org is restricted. So when you send it to me as an attachment I can download it to the ipad.

Alright, I love you guys, I'll send you a message on FB tomorrow about the fenders. Thanks, love you, bye!

Elder Travis Jorgensen

Hey Guys!Well.. I'll start out with my adventure for the week! Mom... you might not like this too much, but you told me if anything ever happened to tell you about it, so I am gonna be pretty descriptive so that you know what happened. and it might bring out the momma bear in you:)

but I'm asking you to please refrain because there isn't anything you could say that I haven't already heard or done... and if it was too much, tell me! So on Friday night we did exchanges and I went to a different part of Hillsboro. The Elders there live with members who have a slamball court in their backyard (trampoline in the ground, 2 hoops on opposite sides, weighted down so that you could dunk on them).

I was more interested in jumping and doing tricks than slamball, so I was just messing around. We've been over there a few times so I've done it quite a bit. Well, one time I jumped from the balcony to the tramp and did a backflip (I'd been doing it for like 10 minutes), and this time I backflipped too far and fell through the springs.

Not really Travis.  do not attempt this at home...

It kinda hurt. But, the family jewels were ok and nothing appeared to be out of order, so I pulled myself out and started walking around. As I was doing so, I noticed that my left foot was sticking to the ground and I couldn't figure out why. I looked, and low and behold 2 cuts on my foot, both bleeding something fierce

The first was like what happens when you get a deep blister on your foot, and pops, and you peel the skin off. That was right in the ball of my foot and boy did it hurt. The skin was still attached, so I had to cut it with scissors later (I would say it was about the thickness of a quarter). Because that's where all the pain was, I didn't notice the other one for a few minutes. Dad you know how my toes are super curled? Well, right in the top joint of what would equate to the index finger on my left foot, there was a cut. The sucker was DEEP so deep I could almost see the bone. The weird part was that it didn't hurt at all. It was bleeding like CRAZY, but no pain. The Elder I was with, Elder Tanner, was playing slamball and talking, so I just sat there listening, and after about 20 minutes I asked him if he had any neosporin and such. He asked what was wrong and I pointed to the drops of blood on the deck surrounding my foot:) I rinsed it off, and BOY did that one on the ball of my foot hurt, but the toe didn't, it just bled. I got both of them all cleaned up, sprayed some antiseptic on them, and gauzed and athletic taped them both. The problem was... MY TOE KEPT BLEEDING! So I asked Elder Tanner for a blessing, he gave me one, and we went to bed.The next morning, the bleeding had slowed down, but had totally bled through the gauze... I figured at that point it would be a good moment to call Sister Ballard... I went out and worked on it all day, limping like a fool

, and later that night after the exchange was over, went to the urgent care center and got some stitches:) That's the first time I've got stitches since the bike accident on my chin... All is well now

 So, no need to worry, all is taken care of, and the lady in urgent care even told me I bandaged my wounds well:)In other news... so yesterday was fast Sunday and a member got up and bore his testimony about how much he enjoyed having us in his home... It was SUPER legit I'd never had that happen before. But I like this ward, everyone wants to help, and our ward mission leader even has connections to Nike:) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) Freak, I have waited a long time for an area with connections like this:) And we fasted with all of our ward missionaries yesterday to find a family who will get baptized, that was a cool experience!Ummm... shoes. No, I don't have any new shoes. My area is TINY, there's nothing inside it, and right now we don't have connections to drive us places My bike is still in a box... Again.... no car to take it to the member who can put it together. But, it's all good, because seriously walking is working miracles here, we've found like 10 news in 3 weeks. And I never read the Road. Thank you guys for being so diligent about the blog, it means a lot!Elder Peterson is doing good. He works hard, we get along well...  Aight.... anything else? I love you guys, hope you have a good week!Elder Travis Jorgensen!

About the bike...  The Mission home did deliver it to me and it does have all the stuff that helmet the lock... Everything, however the mission office was not able to get it to a bike shop, so it is currently sitting in the garage.

The less active member who speaks Spanish that I gave a blessing to last week is a bike mechanic and he said he would help us out. The only problem is making time to get it over there. However, our area is TINY,

I have no idea how big his area is, but this is all I could find.

so walking isn't too big of a problem. This last week we got five new investigators, and almost all of them were people we saw walking in the street. One of them we had a super good experience with.

So last week we are out walking it was probably 8 o'clock at night, and I don't remember if I told you guys about this already, but somebody drove by and honked their horn at us super loud And it kind of scared us. But as we kept walking, we saw a guy in the street and started talking to him. His name is BBBB he just barely graduated, and is leaving for the Marines in a few months.

He didn't have time to talk last week or the week before technically, so we went back on Thursday to talk to him. He ended up being out in the street and he invited us in. It was probably 830 at night and we also got to talk to his mom, whose name is ZZZZ. They are very Catholic, but as we started teaching, The spirit was superstrong. They didn't have any questions, and accepted the book of Mormon.

OK, NOT Travis, but still a cool picture.

It was perfect timing too, because Matt left the next day for a hunting trip. The even bigger miracle is that we had a book of Mormon to give them. Before this week we had not given out any, but Thursday, we gave out the only one I had in my backpack. Right before we went for a lesson with BBBB and ZZZZ, we went to another lesson with an old lady named PPPP. She didn't want to talk much, she came out with her book of Mormon that she had, and gave it to us saying she didn't want to know anymore.

I won't lie I kind of frustrated me, but then when We went to BBBB and ZZZZ, it was a miracle that we had a book of Mormon to give them. So BBBB went hunting the next day, and we hope that he took the book of Mormon with him. We were going to stop by ZZZZ the next day to give her one, but we tried four different times and she never answered the door... So we will see how that goes, I'm hoping we get to talk to her again. This Sunday, our ward is doing fast Sunday, and so we,  The ward mission leader, and the ward missionaries, are all going to fast for a family that will be baptized, and also help us find more people to teach and baptize.

Alright, is there anything else? If there is let me know. I love you guys and hope you have a good week.

Love, Elder Travis Jorgensen!

Ok, you guys said you wanted to know my opinion of transfers... Well, my reaction when I first got the call went a little something like this. "What. The. HEY!!!???!?"

I was not expecting that at all, Spanish Elders have gone English before, but the transition has always been Spanish District leader to English Zone leader. And now I'm whitewashing as a district leader when my companion has been out longer than me and was a district leader for 4 transfers, I bumped down the district leader who was already in the district, and there is another Elder in the district that I don't know very well but he's a super good missionary. So I would say right now stress factor #1 is being a district leader when I know nothing about what is going on.

Stress factor #2 is... well, whitewashing, and freaking the area that I'm in. From what I've heard, it's like the deadest area in the mission. For the past 6 months the missionaries here have been covering this ward and a neighboring ward, because this area has nothing going on in it. There is nothing in the area book, no nobody to work with, and it's freaking small which is something I've never had to worry about before.

Don't get me wrong, I know that a negative attitude won't do anything and I'm excited to be working here, but Im just stressed right now, I don't know what to do...

Dad there is a talk I would appreciate if you could send to me, it was given by Elder Holland at a BYU speech, it's called "Remember Lot's Wife."

If you could send me it in a PDF, soon, that would be great! And, also, if you have any thoughts, please don't wait until next week to tell me, because by then you will have forgotten them and I need to here them sooner rather than later.

To make things even crazier, although this is a good crazy, I'm living with a senior couple of missionaries for a week. Their name is the Holts and they are from Alberta, Canada.

They are my adopted grandparents, they're letting us eat their food and making us breakfast and Sister Holt is working on some of my shirts, which I'm good on by the way, and they're just nice, loving people:) So that helps!  (Editor's note:  we discovered that Elder Jorgensen's dad played football with Bro and Sister Holt's son Ben in High School in Cardston.  Small world)

My companions name is Elder Peterson and he is from Alpine, Utah... he's been out about a year and a half and we both just finished training... except him for his third time and me for my first (again with the whole why I am I district leader deal)....

Ok so all in all... I'm doing good. I really am, I'm just trying to get used to the new... stuff... and right now there's a lot to get used to! I love you guys and I'll talk to you next week!

Elder Travis Jorgensen

Sorry, today was a crappy pday 


and we wasted all of our time so this
is just a straight copy and paste of what I wrote pres.
 
Hey President!
This last week of our training I am going to
have him step it up quite a bit. I'm pretty much just going to act
like I'm a greenie and don't know what is going on so that he can
start taking lead in lessons and talking to people. I have talked with
him about stepping up and helping more and that doesn't seem to get
anywhere... so I'm going to give this a try.
A-Area. We both know that Milwaukie had some TERRIBLE numbers this
week. However, there is a pretty good reason for it, and that is
because this week in Milwaukie we had ourselves an Ammon experience


We spent almost our whole week, literally from Monday to Friday,
helping BBBB HHHHHH move. He is the white guy who Elder Soriano
and I found last week in Moreland because the Spirit put us right in
his path. So anyways, when we started helping him move this week we
thought it was just gonna take a few hours, he made it sound like
there was nothing too crazy and it would all be quick.






WRONG. He hurt
his back 25 years ago and has practically been bedridden ever since,
but before that, he used to be a car mechanic. So from Monday until
Wednesday we were moving car stuff into his car. Such as a 1000 lb car
hoist, and a 600 lb air compressor, and the largest toolbox I have
ever seen in my life.
Objects in picture may be bigger than they appear...
Those items alone took several hours apiece.
Thankfully, Elder Christiansen and Elder Ballard of Moreland were
there otherwise there would have been no feasible way of moving those
things. So by halfway through Wednesday we were done with the car
stuff, and we thought he was getting evicted that night, and the way
he made it sound was like inside of his house he just had a few boxes
all packed up and ready to go. Once again, WRONG! Like I previously
mentioned, he just barely started walking again 6 months ago, and
before that he had been bedridden for 25 years. His house was
DISGUSTING.
not his actual house. visual effects only.
I can honestly say it was the grossest thing I have ever
seen. Imagine those tv shows about hoarders, but worse. It was so bad
because while he had been sick, he had had several different
roommates, and none of them had taken care of the place. One of them
had 28 cats,
no cats were harmed in the taking of this picture...
and one of the most pungent odors was that of cat urine.
As we were moving some boxes around, we found 2 of the 28 cats. Both
of which were dead in between some boxes and by the looks of it had
been dead longer than I have been alive. So... I don't think I need to
describe too much further in detail, I think you get the picture(but,
some of the longest and hottest showers of my life were taken after
getting home on those days, and we also washed our clothes 2 or 3
times.) The kicker is that no one came to evict him until Friday. So
every day we would help and every day there would be more to do, and
we couldn't just leave him, so we helped him out. On top of that, he
doesn't know where he is going. Just somewhere in Encinitas,
California. Today Elder Soriano, the Moreland Elders, and I fasted
that he makes it there ok and that once he does he can make contact
with the Church, because there is no way he will be able to unload all
of that stuff by himself.
The crazy part is that HHHHH is the most prepared person to receive
the Gospel that I have ever met. We taught him about the Atonement and
the first 2 lessons, and he says he wants to be baptized and receive
the Priesthood. The challenge for me was to still be able to look at
him the same way after we got inside of his house. Trying to see him
like God sees him


by the time Friday came around put me to the test.
So that is why our numbers were so low, because we were there every
day for most of the day from Monday until Friday. But I know it was
supposed to happen because God set it up, and it just felt right.
M-Miracle. I think the story I just told was a miracle, the fact that
we pretty much got him all packed up by Friday.
P-Personal. I am doing good. S-Studies. This week with our recent convert we read Ether 12 and
faith (surprising, right?) stuck out to me a lot, especially when it
comes to miracles. Something that Elder Cooper taught me is that even
when the miracle we are asking for makes perfect sense, we still need
to have faith that it can happen. Like Alma the Younger's parents
praying for him to turn around...


that is a logical thing to pray for,
but the scriptures still point out that Alma the Younger's dad had
faith as he prayed about it.
E-Exchange. This week on Thursday we did an exchange with the
Wilsonville Elders, Elder Laing and Elder Richardson. I went to
Wilsonville with Elder Laing and Elder Richardson came here. It was
such a good exchange, Elder Laing was my MTC companion and I really
haven't gotten to serve around him until this transfer. He is a hard
working, obedient, funny, good missionary. We taught a few lessons
together and halfway through one of them I realized we weren't using
the pamphlets, so I pulled it out and started teaching from it, and I
think it helped.
Alright President I love you! Thanks for all you do!
Elder Jorgensen
 
Ok guys sorry you are the best, Wes I'll get you a letter his week,
this might be my last week in Milwaukie but we will see.

Transfers are the 21s or 22nd, whatever day happens to be Monday, so potentially I am coming down to the last couple of weeks here in Milwaukie. I am preparing myself to stay though, because last time when I stayed and thought I was leaving it was hard to swallow. I'll keep you guys posted.

Aight, so just so I can make sure, all of the music on the Ipod does NOT have to be Church Music.

When I was listening to music the other day with Cooper he had some OneRepublic on, as in Apologize, Feel Again, and some stuff off of their newest album. A good guideline to follow is that as long as it doesn't swear and doesn't talk about sex, there shouldn't be a problem! I'm begging you guys... hook me up!

President Ballard is all about using our mission as a time to form habits that we will be able to use for the rest of our lives.

As far as the fast for Eric went, supposedly it went pretty good. I was talking to him on FB on Saturday and it was kind of a hard convo for me to have, I asked him if he could go back to when he first started talking to Coop and I if he still would, he told me he didn't know, and he also told me he wanted to go inactive sometimes. But fasting was also his idea and apparently Coop talked to him yesterday and it was a good convo. I don't know the deets yet but when Coop and I fast together, good things usually happen.

Mom you never told me how it was talking with Karla?

Ummmmmmm... is there anything else? I love you guys... we just played a game of ping sting except instead of smacking a ping pong ball at them, we chucked a tennis ball at each other:) I went undefeated for 6 rounds and then we all were kind of tired of playing... I have an AWESOME pic I'll try to send later.

Love you guys!

Elder Jorgensen!