Hey guys!

So the craziest thing that happened this week was that I interpreted a dream of a recent convert/less active. The story goes a little something like this. When she got baptized 8 months ago, she said she had a dream wherein she saw the missionaries walking around in her complex, and she knew that they were messengers from God. So she listened to everything they said and got baptized. Well, a little over a month ago, she had another dream, where she saw Elder Bair and Tuten, (Tuten was here before I was with bair,) in a room, but then she saw some other doors representing other churches, and chose the catholic church, and then she said the doors of our church closed on her. So there's not much we could do there.

This week, when we saw her, however, the dream had changed; This time she told us that in her dream she had seen a Book of Mormon and a Bible placed on a table, had felt like she could only choose one, and so she chose the Bible and later when she tried to come to our church, the doors were closed and everything was dark. All of the sudden my mouth opened and the next think I was doing, I was asking her why she had chosen the Bible, and explained to her that a testimony of our Church, or even just of Christ, can't be adequately sustained just with the BIble. Both the Book of Mormon and the Bible are needed.

Maybe even more miraculously, she understood what I was saying! Usually she is very hard to teach but she understood that perfectly! So that was just a cool little experience I guess.

What else is new? Not much really... except for FREAK guys I've only got 12 weeks left. That smacked me in the face this weekend, getting calls and finding out that Bair was leaving... It was hard to see him go and even harder for me to realize that I only have one more transfer call. As much as I have complained and as hard as some of my areas have been, I have loved my mission, and part of me doesn't want it to end. Coop also went home today... that was freaking weird, let me just say. I was not a fan of that.

We get to see Elder Holland this week! He is coming to speak to the Mission on Saturday! He's gonna freaking singe everybody's eyebrows off!

The area is going good. We set 2 baptismal dates last week. One of them is with a 15 year old kid named VVVVV He is super legit. We found him a few weeks ago, and it reminds me almost exactly of what happened when we taught Eric. We started teaching just Eric, and then slowly integrated his family. Tonight we are going to go play soccer with VVVV and his dad. I'm pumped. There is another cool young couple named LLLL and SSSS and they both recognize and feel the Spirit very well, they wanna know more! The other investigator with a baptismal date is QQQQ, she is 19 and our problem with her is that her mom doesn't want her talking to us... but we're working on it!

Wes way to go man on not letting that deacon be a punk!

.

anyways.. all of those plans sound good. Elder Bair's family wants to come to Oregon too... maybe, if you wanted, you could email them and tell them some of our plans and then maybe we could hang out at the coast or something together!

I love you guys! the pics are of bair and I, and the 2 spanish zones playing soccer last week... Talk to you guys later!

Familia!!

Alright well do I have some stories to tell this week!! Should I start off with the spiritual one or the funny one... I'm gonna go with spiritual because if I go funny first the spiritual one might get shafted....

So we did 2 exchanges this week. One was tuesday to wednesday, and the other was wednesday to thursday, back to back. On Tuesday I left and went to Hillsboro with a new missionary, and then on Wednesday I was here in Beaverton with an Elder from Portland. His name is Elder Gregory, he got to Portland (which is a pretty slow, hard area) when I got to Tigard, he was trained by Elder Goff, and came out right after Soriano. he is a farmer hick kid from somewhere in Utah...

and anyways since we've served around each other we've become pretty close. When I was his district leader, calling people every night, he was always very open and willing to ask for help. There have even been a couple of times this transfer when he's been having a rough time and has called me because he said that's what he felt like he should do after he prayed. Anyways, those are all unnecessary details, but the point is we know each other pretty well and we did this exchange because he called and asked if we could.

So anyways it was around 4 on Wednesday (this exchange had started at 2 after district meeting), and we were just leaving the library, we had been doing some online teaching on FB. As we were leaving, a man stopped us and asked us for money, explaining his story which I don't remember a lot of, but their house was getting fumigated that night and they needed a place to stay. Anyways, I've been asked by people quite a few times for money, and he seemed pretty legit. But, when he asked, deep down I really just didn't want to give him any. Elder Gregory pulled out his wallet and gave the man $7. As we were walking away, I felt ashamed for being so selfish. I remembered what President Eyring had said in Conference about helping others,

and silently said a prayer asking Heavenly Father that driving away from the library I would be able to see him again to give him some money. As we exited the parking lot my prayer was answered, I pulled over, got my wallet, and went to give him $3, but a 5 came out with it, so I gave him 8. Elder Gregory told me that the same thing had happened to him, he had only meant to give him $2, but the 5 came out. I felt better afterwards. Now here is the cool part. For dinner that night, a lady had signed up to feed us, and she didn't have any males in the house, so she just gave us $20 for the two of us. Curiously, she had 2 friends over, each of whom decided they each wanted to give us $5.... so we were up to $30. Elder Gregory had never had Sushi before, and here they do Sushi restaurants that just have like little samplers on a conveyor belt, and different colored plates are different prices. So we walk into the place, sit down, and start eating a few plates. There was no one else inside. About halfway through our time there, the cashier came and told us that someone had put $10 towards our bill. That was all we spent, so we got a free dinner. And the whole time I knew why this was all happening... it was because of the man we had helped. So although nothing huge, I feel like that was just a soft little reminder that God is watching over me.

Ok story time.  (edited for content :)  for details, please ask Elder Jorgensen in person anytime after July14 ;)

mom as to your questions about being a zone leader on sundays... there are 3 sets of spanish missionaries attached to our group, so the 3 of us cover the stake. we are an appendage of the Beaverton ward, but are in charge of the group. so no,thankfully no other meetings... the extra meetings are 2 district meetings every week instead of just 1, and MLC (mission leadership council) every month.

anyways... I love you guys! Have a good week! 

Ferzulis also got baptized!!

 

 mi iPad

Hey Peeps!!

Well... I'm just going to start off by asking if anyone else noticed a huge get married theme for young adults of ??....That was kind of weird... but definitely hit on a lot... Bair and I both decided that we are exempt to that counsel and that we are too immature to get married... anyways... so... yeah... I've become a girl-phobe on my mission...

I don't know how to talk to one without saying, "Hey, I'm your missionary in the area..." sooo... bair and I are gonna be hermits abt BYU:D

However, in obedience (selective obedience) to the counsel given yesterday to prepare to be a father... Both bair and I let a 3 yr old nina put nail polish on our fingernails... it was removable... but it was purple and blue and green and pink... 

And, for my vent session for the day, we have a family of recent converts who got into the church as a result of their 18 year old son, he converted when he lived in montana... well now, 6 months later, he's freaking drinking and doing stupid stuff with chicks, just this week he got piercings in his ear, he never wants to talk to us and HOLY COW I'm trying my hardest not to rage at him. The other day at is house we found a corona cap that was from him... obviously I know we need to love him and be patient with him, but its just frustrating for me because I want to help him but the only way I can think of to do that would be bold and straightforward... which would make him mad... In the perfect world, afterwards there would be the chance to calm him down and help him improve... the whole bring someone down in order to bring them higher aspect...

The ankle brace is working fine. I played ultimate frisbee last week in the morning and the week before, no brace, ran 4 miles.... It's still kinda swollen, I kinda tweaked it again this week chasing elder Bair around trying to put a flower in his hair... but it's all good.

The training went pretty well. I guess. No one said otherwise...

Alright... well that's about it for me... I'm loving the area, it's kind of frustrating because there are so many hispanics, and we set up a ton of lessons every week, but they all freaking cancel!!!!!

That is my rant! 

 

 

mi iPad

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