Hey peeps!!

Sooo.... this week was pretty good. On Monday we had a super cool experience. So there is a family of recent converts, one of whom is 18 and just got back from a vacation to mexico. And supposedly since he's been back, he's been acting worse towards us since he came back But every time we teach them, we teach their whole family. And we needed a lesson with just him. So we prayed for a way to be able to teach just him, and Monday night when we went to teach his family, at like 7, everyone in his whole family had fallen asleep, except for him. So we just got to talk to him and see how he was, it was a spiritual lesson and a cool miracle.

We also found a lot of new investigators this week. Out of all the Spanish areas in the mission, this one is probably the best as far as population of hispanics goes. Everywhere we go there are just a plethora of hispanics, so finding isn't hard, but both Elder Bair and I are kind of tired of talking to people who don't care,

so we are just freaking praying for the golden investigators! Fetch.

Uuuummm as far as Elder Bair goes, I like him a lot, he is a hard worker but he isn't a robot, he's just a good comp to have.  We did get new ipads like a month ago... The zone conference training will be march 31st, I think I told you but bair and I are assigned to talk about teaching simply and asking inspired questions.... which is super broad and back to basics so again any advice/thoughts/experiences would be appreciated... we don't wanna give a boring training and practice...

not really a lot else happening... Wes you better write me this week! OH and you guys are sending me an ankle brace right? I know this is knitpicky of me but could you try to get it to me by the end of the week? next week we are playing capture the flag and I'm gonna get it approved to play by my physical therapist this week...:)

freak guys I don't know what else to tell you... we were driving today and some dude freaking almost changed lanes right into our car. that was stupid.

Ok guys... sorry... I don't really have any updates to give this week... another week down!

Have a good one! I love ya!

Elder Travis Jorgensen!

Well, if I could summarize this week with one sentence, it would be summarized thusly: The church has to be freaking true otherwise no one would put up with all the mother fetching meetings. ho. lee. 

to quote Cooper... fetch. Am I whining? yes. should I be? no. But, God still loves me;)

Ok so it wasn't really that bad of a week... as a zl I have to go to both district meetings now, and on Friday we had a meeting called MLC with President Ballard for zone leaders and sister training leaders, it was kind of a cool one, it was pretty productive, but it took until like 4. and then Saturday before we had our second district meeting, we had SPC for the stake... I don't know what that acronym stands for... I could think of some inappropriate substitutes but I won't do that pues.

So anyways the Stake was just talking about how to make missionary work more effective, but mostly from the digital aspect, and... I don't like meetings... that's all I'm gonna say. And THEN, the stake President wanted to talk with the Spanish zone leaders... us... and ask about how things could be better in the group. Because I'm back in a group that means we aren't officially recognized by Salt Lake as a unit yet, so our group is an appendage to the Beaverton ward. There are 3 spanish sets in the group, along with a trio of sisters, so 9 missionaries in the beaverton ward. And it's hard for the beaverton ward because a lot of our investigators need rides to church, and the beaverton ward can't do it all alone, so they are looking outside for help, but no other wards want to help, so the stake president wants to break us up into 3 groups instead of one... all I have to say to that is that is EDITED. I didn't say anything in the meeting, i figured I probably shouldn't make enemies with the stake president my first week... but wow the whole time I was just thinking to myself "I hate politics."

Anyways, there's my rant. It was actually a super cool week. On Tuesday, right after dinner, the very first kid we talked to, we just talked to in the street, and it turns out he is looking for a church to join

and has been through a lot of crap, and it was just cool the way it happened because right before we got out of the car I felt like we should grab an english BOM, which took a few extra seconds, and then those seconds turned out to be the difference in meeting PPPP, and we gave him the English Bom. that was a good way to start of the companionship.

Thursday was also a cool learning experience. We were supposed to do weekly planning in the early afternoon, but also had a lesson set up at 12, and one at 2. in between those lessons, when we got wifi and tried to sync our ipads and plans, and my ipad wouldn't sync, and Elder Bair's, which had all the plans for the day, crashed and his area book app deleted everything... legitimately all plans and investigators. gone. so, anyways we were kind of pissed about that, but then I just figured if our plans got deleted, it was because God wanted us to do something else that day. so we were finishing dinner by this time, at around 6, and we had a meeting at 7 but nothing else. We could have planned or tried fixing our ipads but neither of us felt like doing that, we wanted to work. We prayed and asked for what we could do in that hour, what God wanted us to do.

Elder Bair felt impressed to go by a cool family that they hadn't seen in awhile, and I agreed with him. As we were driving there, we saw a less active member waiting at the bus stop, we had tried to see her earlier but were unable to do so... so we knew we had to talk to her. we flipped our car around, and as we did so we saw that the car of the family that we wanted to see was home, which was a rarity. we still felt like we should go see DDDD, the less active. It was cool because the first thing she said to us when we went up to her was "I knew you would come back" (she had seen us drive by). we shared a message with her and went back to the other family, the LLLL's', but they weren't there. we went to our meeting, and afterwards once again prayed to seek Heavenly Father's will. we both felt like seeing the LLLLs

again, and did so, and they weren't home. it was 8 by this time. we knew we needed to see them. We said another prayer, telling Heavenly Father that we would be back at 845 and asking that they would be home too. We ended up going back early, at 830, and they weren't there. we talked to some people, and just as we were leaving at 841, they pulled up, and we talked to them and set up an appt. I don't know if how I just described it was as cool as it actually was, but DANG, that was a cool day. I like Elder Bair a lot, this is my first companionship in 9 months, since I was with warenski, where my comp will get out of bed without me getting after them about it, and will help me plan,

Not Travis, but it could be.

wow. life is good.

Wes, write me bro!

Ok I love you guys! The Church is true! do you need anything? oh and ps... my comp and I got free hair cuts from sports clips today... we got scalp massages and a steamed towel... it's a $24 haircut, we got for freeeeee because of a certificate. that was very enjoyable!

and my shirt is from nike:) i was in one of those moods this morning... I had to rebel somehow:)

 

So, sometimes I think the Lord works in mysterious ways. My new companion is Elder Bair, the one I emailed you about saying we might room at BYU. He was my zone leader. Now he's my companion.

which, by default, means that I'm a zone leader. Fetch. Didn't see that one coming. I thought I was too old to be a zone leader. But on Saturday President Ballard called me and asked if I would be willing to serve as a zone leader... I couldn't really say no... So I'm in Beaverton, right next to my greenie area. But in a group instead of a ward. There's a good chance I could die here. I would love to die training but my comp has been here for 6 months already so next transfer he is out and I will stay probably, and then my last transfer who knows what will happen.. anyways... I think they send you guys a letter in the mail or something... I guess you'll have to tell me if they do. So I'm still in the same district, and all of the companionships got transferred but in the same district. So that's kind of cool I guess.... How am I feeling about it you may be wondering... I'm kind of stressed.

I didn't want to really leave Tigard and I for sure don't feel like I should be a zl... not quite as bad as when I went dl, but same feeling...

The ankle is doing pretty good... all the bruising is pretty much gone and the swelling is still going away slowly. my range of motion is getting better... so all is well in that department!

So it sounds like everybody got their birthday present!

Freak it sounds like you guys are just changing everything up... Wes you have the freaking hook up I hope you know that!

As far as missionary experiences last week.... I cant really remember any. Saying goodbye was hard... Oh ok I remember a good lesson we taught with a recent convert family who is going less active. we read the talk The Atonement and the Journey of Mortality by Bednar with them, it talks about how we can access the atonement daily and is BOMB!! They needed to hear it!

Alright well I know this is a super short email... Sorry, there's not much big news except for transfers... it sucks because every times someone I know has gone zl I've given them crap for it, and boy oh boy am I reaping what I sew. There was one Elder who called me on Sunday night, and the conversation proceeded as follows.

"Jorgi, i hear you're going zone leader!" I hung up:D When he called back I didn't pick up!

I love you guys! Have a good week! Wes you copied my shoes! write me a letter!

Hey Guys!!!

First of all, mom thank you for working on and taking care of housing for me, it means a lot. Thank you for all you are doing to help me be ready for when I come home.

I hope you had a good birthday, Wes I hope your birthday is good today, and Dad happy birthday later this week. There is a present coming. 

Freak guys, it's march. What the heck. This is the last transfer of this week, and then after that I have 3 transfers left. So 19 weeks.

Wes, first of all I am PUMPED that you are doing track. I wrote you a letter about it so I won't say too much, but what I will say is don't doubt yourself and your abilities. If you want to make it to districts, you can make it to districts. It's all gonna come down to how hard you wanna push and how bad you are willing to hurt. But especially with Tookey as your coach, you can do anything. Talk with him about it, he will help you out.

Also, I have a request to make... could I please get an occasional picture/video so I know what's going on? Like when meets start coming up of Wes racing, or if he has anymore indoor games left... you can upload 55 second videos through a smart phone/tablet just as an attachment in an email... I miss you guys!

Alright, that's all for that... Well actually, Jonah didn't make it into BYU:( That really kind of freaking sucks and I'm pretty bummed about it actually...

So I guess that means that I have another request... Please pray that I get a cool roommate... And keep me posted on it... also keep me posted on anything else you need me to do, Dad if you ever sent that email about all my questions of what to do with the rest of my life, I never got it... Mom I would love any input from you too! 

As far as missionary work goes.... this week was SLOW!!! Freak. We had 3 meetings, 2 doctors appointments, a physical therapy appt, which I LOVED! It was so nice... I just got to lay there and relax for like an hour while my ankle got massaged and iced. I left a better person.

Really not a lot happened this week. My ankle is doing a lot better, all of the coloration has left the foot.. The ankle and shin are still swollen, But I can walk without a limp and my lateral ROM is increasing.

The pictures I just barely took... at pt they put some kinesio tape on my ankle, and when I took it off after 4 days it took a lot of leg hair with it.

That's about all I think... This week should be better, but nothing really huge happened last week... 

I love you guys! Have a good week!

Sent from my iPad

Hey guys!!!

So, I'm not gonna lie, this week was one of the most painful weeks of my life! My ankle HURTS!!! House arrest was rough but I made it through...

So friday morning comes along, and I woke up, tried to stand up, and my ankle hurt BAD! I straight couldn't put any weight on it so I had to elevate it and warm it up for like 30 minutes... anyways... that was not really a good start to my day because it was supposed to be my first day being able to be back, and there was a part of me, ever so small, that wanted to use the pain in my ankle as an excuse to stay in another day... when I prayed that morning, it was pretty intense, I was just feeling out of it for all sorts of reasons, so my prayer that morning was like a 20 minute vent session. And I didn't see an angel nor hear any voices of thunder, but after I did that, I got up from my knees, and felt better. I felt understood. I haven't had a prayer like that in awhile, but it was a testimony builder that God listens to us.

And then, I had a doctor's appt yesterday, and the very first thing the doctor said when he saw it was, "that looks broken, have you had it xrayed? yes? well, I want you to get another one." so I got some more, and they said they would get the results to me last night, but they never ever did, so I was loosing my mind last night afraid of what would happen if it was broken (see below). this morning I finally called them and asked, and they told me that everything was good, so that was a relief.

Thank you for your prayers and words of counsel last week, I could feel them keeping me sane. Dad, that talk by Elder Christofferson is one of my favorites. Speaking of talks, I found a couple more BYU devos that I would appreciate if you could send to me... they are

our identity and our destiny

achieving your full potential

I forget who they are by but if you need more than that let me know.

We also got a temple trip this week, in the celestial room I read Mosiah 4:11-12 and they hit me pretty hard! I like them a lot!

Alright guys! I love you! sorry this is short but not much happened this week! Have a good week wes keep killing it in soccer!!

Love, 

Elder Travis Jorgensen!

Sent from my iPad

Hey Family!

Well... Twas a crazy week here in Tigard. In a good way, for the most part. To start off with, just a random side note, so Dillon Jonah Cody and I came up with a quick test our senior year to check how chill a girl is. A very simple thing. From our observations, girls who have seen the movie cool runnings

are generally 10x cooler than those that haven't. It's a real life example of small and simple things bringing to pass great works. This week, I decided to put it through the trial of faith, and ask a sister in my district if she has seen Cool Runnings. And, hallelujah, she hasn't seen it!!! Don't take that the wrong way, I'm not looking to date any of the sisters I'm serving around, my heart is locked and I am focused, but, it was just nice to put it to the test, my comp and I had a good little laugh.

ALSO, just so everybody knows, I haven't sworn since before I went through the Temple the first time. Which, after what just barely happened to me, is an accomplishment! Freaking we were playing soccer and an Elder in my district did a dirty little little cheap shot and slide tackled me. Boy my left ankle is HUGE.

freak that hurt. I was on the ground for like 5 minutes, however, to my credit, I did not swear in English nor Spanish!

And we are about to go play frisbee golf, my ankle is gonna have my game off but that's ok.

On Wednesday/Thursday we did an exchange, I went with Elder Smith to Beaverton #2. It's been a year since we did an exchange, I was with him when the snow storm hit last year. It was a bomb exchange, their area is brand new so we just did some finding and taught some good lessons.  Later that night we made a fire in their apts fire place and cooked up some smores... It was good to just chillax a little bit.

Thursday was a freaking rough, trunky day! It started at like 6, we went by Ester and Ferzulis, and they were watching Divergent, and as we walked in it was right in the middle of an intense make out scene... Engman and I just looked at each other, and back at the tv, and at each other, both of us were just thinking freaking heck...

And then, like every apt we went to for the rest of the night, people were playing video games or something. It's not so much the video games that I miss, but the just being able to chill and not have to worry about what I'm doing every second for the night... anyways... glad we made it through that little stretch.

Freaking last night I was legitimately afraid that I was going to get kissed by a man.... We were knocking on the door for an appt, and a guy was walking by us, so I said hi and asked how he was doing. He said good, how are you? When I told him I was good, he got super confrontational and was asking "are you sure?! how do you know?!" and then I don't remember what I said, but he told us to go up the stairs and talk to him, so we did. He was a little drunk, that should have been our first hint, anyways the interesting part came when I asked if he believed that God loved him enough to call a prophet to guide him today. He said "yeah, I believe that God loves me. For example, if we were at war, and someone were to shoot you, and I were to take the bullet for you (at this point he had his arms on either side of me and was pinning me against a wall,

trying to shield me from danger. my only thought was if he tries to kiss me, I'm going to freaking lose it)... anyways, thankfully, he didn't kiss me. We talked for like an hour and then he had to go in and tell his mom what he had been doing (40 years old and still lives with his mommy.... hrm). Then he wanted us to meet his mother, who is Buhdist, and he pulls us inside, and to introduce us, he grabbed my arm and said, "Mom, look at this kid! He's @#$%^& beautiful, and I'm not even gay!" What a weird, strange experience.

I don't have much else to say... our district is still on fire, last week we picked up like 37 news as a district... that puts us at close to 90 as a district in 3 weeks... last month our zone found 103 and killed everyone else. So if you are looking for things to keep in your prayers, BBB needs to know where her husband lives so that she can get divorced and baptized, and she also needs to not work on LLLL's baptism....

Any other questions? I love you guys!

Oh and ps dad thanks for sending your conversion story, I used the part where you talked about how you didn't really get a confirmation it was right until after all was said and done, and I used that when I was teaching on the exchange, talking about how sometimes God makes us wait a little.

Anyways... thought you'd wanna know!

And actually this took so long to send because as I was saying earlier about spraining my ankle... the mission nurse wanted me to go to the urgent care center to get it checked out because I really could barely walk on it, its swollen as freak, and anyways... so just made it back from that, and nothing is broken, but pretty much everything is torn, and it will be a 6-8 weeks in the boot... pictures to come... the pic of my foot was taken like around 430 any questions hit me up with them and I'll get back to you.

Hey family!

Well, last week was pretty good here in Tigard. We set 3 baptismal dates, all with members of HHHH's family. The best one was her son, VVVV's. Yesterday was his 10th birthday, and no one else in his family could come to church, so we got him a ride and he came all by himself. Later  that day we passed by to wish him a happy birthday, and we started talking about baptism, he said it was something he wants to do. HHHH was right there and she said she was fine with it. HHHH is also super solid. We can show her like a 3 minute mormon message and she gives us a 5 minute explanation about it. Every time Elder Engman and I teach her, we always say she should teach us. So what's impeding her from baptism currently is that she wants to get divorced. She doesn't need to according to the rules, but it's something she really wants to do and when she told us about it, both Elder Engman and I felt like it was something she needs to do. She can't do it though because she needs to know her husband's current address, which she doesn't  know because they aren't in communication and he won't give it to her... so that is our current dilemma here in Tigard... however, my district is getting work done.

So my district is 6 companionships, one of which is a senior couple. My branch is my area, a set of sisters, and the senior couple, we cover the Tualatin and Lake Oswego Stakes. And then the other half of the district is the beaverton group (different than the ward I was serving in). There are 3 companionships in that group, one of which is the zone leaders, and the other is a brand new area that just got made 2 weeks ago. So my district is my area, the sister's area, the senior couple, the zone leaders, and 2 other companionships of Elders. It is the biggest district in the mission by 2 companionships, which I think I said already, but, anyways, we are DOING WORK!!! In the first 2 weeks of the transfer, as a district, and not counting the senior couple's numbers, we have found 58 new investigators. That is more than most English zones of 10 companionships find in a month.

Everyone is working hard and I love it. I'm glad I'm in Tigard, I feel like I haven't actually liked an area that I was in since I served in Nike.

Other random sidenote, we are still giving a crazy amount of blessings here. Last week we gave 7 blessings in 2 days, probably the hardest one was to a 14 year old in the branch who was hit by a car going 45 mph when he ran across the freeway. Miraculously, externally there wasn't a lot of damage. He had bleeding in is brain has been recovering quickly. The other one was to Elder White, the Elder in the senior couple, he had a blood clot in his lung but he is doing better too.

Elder Engman comes from a decent sized family, he is number 3 of 4.

Ok Mom I will send you another email about housing later... I love you guys, I hope Wes gets feeling better! Maybe during his time of illness he could take time to remember his long lost brother!!