ˇHola familia!
Como están? I just finished my first week in Chile! It has been absolutely insane! The plane rides were rough. Every flight I had, I had an aisle seat. I would fall asleep for about five minutes and then wake up. I didn´t get any sleep at all. We had to run between flights to make it to the gates. Two elders almost missed the flight because they were messing around trying to get money. We had told them to wait and get it later but they didn´t listen. The phone calls were awesome though it was nice to finally talk to everyone. I did get to call Mckay for a min. It wasn´t long but it was great.
We met the Mission president and his wife at the airport and they picked us up and took us to the mission office. There, we met with President and got our visas figured out. We talked to some of the office missionaries and they showed us around a little bit and told us some basic rules and tips. We then took micros (little buses) to the church where we had a welcome lunch and were assigned to a city and a trainer. For lunch we had bread bowls from homemade pan (bread). I was so sick from the flights and so nervous I didn´t really eat. We then met in the chapel and we all gave our testimonies and were assigned to our trainers and told which part of the city we would go to. My trainers name is Elder Teske from Idaho. He has been out for a little over a year and knows a lot of Spanish. He´s really cool and we get along great. He´s almost like an older brother. We got my luggage and headed to a bus to drive 4 hours north to Linares. The busses look nice from the outside but inside it´s a whole different story. One of the elders was telling me that Brazil makes the buses and all the busses say radio/Air conditioning/TV/etc on the outside of the bus. The Elder told me Chile gets the busses for really cheap because they are all stripped of those things. So basically it´s a big box on wheels. When we got to the apartment we dropped our stuff off and went to the Walmart of Linares. It´s a store called Lider. I guess its owned by Walmart. I got some groceries and some supplies and then went home and went to sleep. Our apartment is kind of in bad shape. It definitely needs some cleaning. We are gonna do some of that today. It´s pretty basic though. I don´t have anything to really worry about except for dogs and fleas. The dogs are everywhere. You can sit on a street corner and count probably 10 just from where you´re sitting. I guess people will get dogs and then not have money to feed them and they just roam the streets eating garbage. It´s pretty sad. I haven´t had to kick any yet.
I was assigned to a city called Linares. It´s a smaller city (still pretty big) that has a lot of people. The streets are pretty dirty with garbage and graffiti and such but the people are really nice. Every house has a front gate with a fence and it´s locked. All the windows have bars on them. To get someone to answer the door we sit outside the gate and say ¨Ahlo¨ It´s kind of a mix between hello and hola. We also don´t knock doors we touch them. They say tocar la puerta. Which translates to touch the door. So we always say ¨hey go touch that door.¨ We actually get to use bikes which is really nice because we have a lot of space to cover. Our schedule for the mission is a little different than the normal. We don´t wake up until 7:30 but we don´t go to bed until 11:30. We also have lunch at a members house. Lunch here is huge. People take time off from 1-3 to make and then eat lunch and take a nap. Members make us the biggest lunches and I´m nervous I´m not going to be able to finish it and offend them. We eat crazy amounts of food.
My first day here, I was dead tired. We wake up, exercise, shower, eat and get dressed. We then have personal study and then 2 hours of Companion study. However my first day here we had to go to the Government building. I had no idea what was going on. We got there and went into a smaller room with a stage. My companion then told me we would be judging a Public speaking Contest. Luckily, it was in English. (some of the more educated people speak a little English). That was quite funny because they talked about John Lennon and other Americans they had done research on. It was hilarious. The kids were ages 12-14. It was quite the sight.
I have met some awesome people here in Chile. One thing I´ve learned is that the church is the same everywhere. We have some really cool investigators. One of my favorites is a guy named Victor. He´s 55 years old and had a bad motorcycle crash about 5 years ago. He crushed the left side of his face and lost one of his eyes. He shattered the left side of his face and busted one of his knees. He has a full metal knee now. He´s very humble and just awesome. He´s obviously my favorite. We had taught him the first lesson and he loved it. He had a problem with smoking and drinking, so basically the whole word of wisdom, so we taught him about it. He told us he would stop then and there. He hasn´t drank or smoked since. We invited him to church and he came.
We went to church and my companion said there was a good chance i would have to share my testimony. We confirmed a young girl that had been baptized the week before and sure enough right after I had to give my testimony. I basically said ¨Hola, Me llamo Elder Torgersen. Soy de Los estados Unidos. Mi espońal no es perfecto, ni cerca.¨ (my Spanish isn´t perfect, not even close.) The people laughed pretty hard when I said that. I then gave my testimony. It was fun. I then sat back down and tried to understand what was going on. While I was sitting there a door behind me opened and Victor came walking in. I have never been so happy to see him. He works with metal, making fences, so he´s usually pretty dirty. He had showered, shaved and put on a shirt and tie. It was so cool. We were pretty happy to see him.
We have been doing a lot of contacts. While doing contacts we met a lady who had a 2 year old son. She let us in and we started teaching her. She definitely felt the spirit. It was really spiritual up until one point in the lesson. We had been teaching her for about 20 minutes. She had her son on her lap and he was getting fussy. All of a sudden she started breastfeeding him. The kid was old enough to be walking around and talking. It freaked me out! My companion after the lesson then told me that it was completely normal and happens quite often. I told him thanks for the heads-up after it had happened. He also forgot to tell me about the Besos. After the Judging my first day a girl came up to thank us and say bye and she practically grabbed me and kissed me. So far that´s happened twice. It also happened after a lesson with an older lady. The lady was awesome though. She was another one of my favorites.
In our lesson´s I just kind of try and listen and say a couple sentences here and there. I swear it´s a totally different language. The about a thousand different ways to say ¨how are you, where are you from, how old are you, and how long have you been here.¨ I´ve pretty much memorized the ways they say them so when they ask I know what to say. The people always say i speak really well but that´s because I have it memorized. I don´t know how or why, but people say I speak well. In the lessons I´m pretty much the companion that shares the testimony, Prays, and teaches how to pray. The last couple days have been better I´ve gotten better and can actually speak more.
My P-day is now on Monday so I´ll start sending mail on Monday. I´ve been looking for a couple small things to buy Ainsley. If I find anything cool I´ll send something. This week has been crazy. Hopefully I´ll get used to it. Well I´ve got to go finish some stuff so I will write to you next week. I love you all and miss you tons.
Con Amor,
Elder Torgersen
P.S. I forgot my camera at the apartment so I´ll send pics next week. Also, we are having a mission conference with an apostle this Thursday so I´ll tell you how it goes.
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