Temblor!! WOO HOO

Hello Friends and Family!

Well this week was full of crazy happenings.I´m not sure where to start. I´ll start off small and work my way up. I´ve got a lot of time to write today so hopefully this will be a good one....

This last week I had had a mini cambio with the ZL´s and my DL. They couldn´t figure out what to do with my comp because he wasn´t talking to me and he was being stubborn, and he was really just being a jerk about everything. After a couple Cambio´s with the ZL and DL they decided we were going to have a group Consejo. We went to the other elders house and we all sat down and opened with a prayer. We basically threw it all out on the table. He basically had no reason to be acting the way he was and the other Elders kind of called him out on it. I basically threw out everything that he had been doing that bugged me. I learned you can´t keep things to yourself, you need to be open with your comp and say it how it is. It went really smooth though. It was really weird because you could tell we all had the Spirit and it was done out of love. We settled everything and we are better then when he got off the bus here in Linares. 

I just noticed I have callouses on the palms of my hands from riding bikes so much. There is a good chance I get transferred this next cambio so I´m wondering what I should do with my bike, Do I try and have a member sell it for like $40 or just give it to the mission...? 

It is amazing how many people are too ¨ocupado¨ for a message about God. Sometimes I get frustrated with people and how quick they are to reject a message about God. I honestly think the world is getting worse and worse. I´m so surprised at how many people don´t even believe there is a God.

Sunday we had an awesome lesson by the Elders quorum Pres. He taught us about the stand in holy places talk by Thomas S. Monson. We learned that the home should be a place of the spirit and a place where you feel safe. He quickly drew a map and drew a house and circled it and said this house is the most safe and blessed house out of all of these others. This house is the house of a member of the church. In this house is a family that is worthy to have the priesthood and is a house of the spirit. He said that the home can feel just like a temple or a church. The home is a place where we can be safe, feel the spirit, and feel loved. It made me realize that often, our house wasn´t like that. We really need to have  a house where these feelings can be felt. The whole family is united and not fighting. With the consejo we had with my comp, I also learned that there´s an easier way to settling things, with out punching or fighting (no matter how bad you wanna hit someone). You just need to sit down, pray, and settle things with the spirit.

Last week we went to a big river with Eduardo and Paola. We spent all morning at this huge river taking photos. Eduardo and Paola were the ones in the photo with me. It was a blast. We are really trying to get this family baptized but I swear they all have ADHD. We have trouble teaching them sometimes. This last week the older daughter broke up with her boyfriend and basically the whole family was suffering from it. Eduardo was happy and laughing the whole time because the boyfriend is a jerk and always swears and yells at the daughter. Paola had been crying because Nicol, the daughter, had been crying all day. And the little sister kept asking what was going on. We finally sat them down and taught them a lesson and told Nicol she needs to listen to her parents. I realized I should have looked to you guys more for some of the problems I had. You guys had been through the same kind of situations. After we finally calmed her down. Yesterday we got Eduardo and his family to church. Later after lunch we got a call from him saying we needed to come over ASAP because they had good news. We went over and they sat us down and they all sat down and said, ¨We really want to thank you guys for helping us and teaching us about the gospel, so we decided....¨ At this point I´m thinking... yes they want to be baptized. ¨we wanted to get you guys a couple gifts.¨ they then brought out a Tie and a couple other gifts. My comps suit was really old and had started to fade to a weird color. I guess they had noticed because they bought him a brand new suit with a tie and two shirts. I was pretty excited for him.

We had been teaching a family the past couple weeks but haven´t been able to get them to church because the husband is super catholic and didn´t let them go. We had tried a couple times to invite him to listen but he would go into his room and shut the door. One day we were teaching them and he walked in the door. We invited him and he said no and went to his room. During the lesson he left with his younger daughter and came back as we were saying the closing prayer. We started talking to him about soccer and sports. After we started teaching a little. He finally sat down and started listening. We asked if his wife could go to church. He finally agreed and she came to church on Sunday with her daughter. We have seen him in the street and he is super nice now. We told him we are going to have to go play soccer with him on a P-Day. We were supposed to have a family night with them but they couldn´t.

Last night we decided to visit a member who had problems with his knee and his health. He hadn´t been able to go to church for almost a month so we have been visiting him. When we first walked in I thought, ¨he hasn´t been to church in awhile, I wonder if we should give him the sacrament¨. Not even ten seconds after my comp turns to me and asks if we should give him the sacrament. It was really cool. I finally felt like we were on the same page. We probably should have gotten permission from the President of the ward but we decided to give him the sacrament. After about 5 minutes of getting bread, water, and a white cloth we were finally ready. My companion blessed the bread and after gave it to him. In between the bread and the water we swapped. All of a sudden, his wife starts screaming ¨TEMBLOR¨ we didn't feel anything until a couple seconds later. The ground started to shake and the glass on the shelf started to rattle. It went on for about a minute and a half. She had been in the city where the big earthquake had been 2 years ago so she was freaking out. I don´t know why but me and my comp were completely calm and just sat there. Right after we finished the sacrament and made sure she was alright. It was sheer panic down here. The roads were crowded with people and everyone was running and driving cars. I´ve never seen so many people freaking out. There had been a temblor of 7.2 in a city just north of us. It was one of the coolest experiences of my life. The people were all over the place after though. It was really sad to see the panic and fear in peoples faces. Later in the night we had 3 different families bring us treats and make sure we weren´t scared or nervous. You could definitely tell this sector had girl missionaries in it before because we were getting visits every 10 minutes. 

Well we are doing great now. As a companionship are doing great and are excited to finish this cambio with some success. Love you guys and miss you tons!

Con amor,

Elder Torgersen 

Earthquake

Hey fam! 

Just thought I would send a quick letter early this morning. We had quite the experience last night. Eduardo is taking us to go buy somethings this morning and he told us on CNN it is talking about the temblor we had last night. So he said to write you guys and tell you everything is fine. This isn´t my letter just thought I would send you guys a letter saying everything is all good. We had a 7.2 temblor. Coolest experience of my life. but I´ll more about it later today. Love you guys! Miss you tons!

Elder Torgersen

PRIMER BAUTISMO!!

Hello Friends and Family!

Well This week was a whole lot better... Where to start...?

Well on Tuesday we had a Mission Conference. Me and my comp both got our new packages. Thank you so much for everything. The only thing is my comp turned in our DVD player to the mission because we just got 30 new missionaries and they need them to train. So we have no way to play our music or DVD´s. Hopefully soon we get it back. Conference was awesome.... minus one part. The zone leaders told us the wrong time for the bus to get to conference early  and they forgot to tell us to wear short sleeve shirts because we were getting flu shots (like I haven´t received enough shots in the last week and a half.) Good thing is... I´m feeling a whole lot better. Tell Dad thanks... I was feeling a little Bieber fever. jaja

The night before the Conference we had a little disagreement with my comp. I decided to shine his shoes while he was upstairs. I shined both pairs of shoes and the next day... I found out he had a third pair... Guess which pair he wore.

I felt completely Chilean this week. I carried 2 kilos of raspberries on my bike on the handlebars, painted a fence, and swept dirt this last week. The hermano we do service for told us ¨we are representatives of Christ and the patch of dirt in the front yard was covered in garbage and weeds. We cleaned the outside of the house for service this week. I´ve even started thinking and counting in Spanish. haha

One of our investigators this week had on a blue shirt. I didn´t realize what it said till we were walking out. He was totally rocking a Utah State shirt. I asked him where he bought it and he said he bought it at a ropa americana store here in Linares. I thought it was really funny. I told him that that was the University I´m going to go to.

This week has been the roughest week with my comp. I don´t know what I did... I found out this week that he has kind of the rep in the mission for not making the best decisions, not getting along with many people and not being very excited about the work. We haven´t had a companionship study in about a week, we haven´t had a solid planning session in about a week and anytime I ask him something he barks the answer back at me. He only talks to me when it´s mission related and he won´t talk about what´s going on. I´ve talked to both the DL and the ZL´s. They are trying to figure out what to do. 

Other than all the crap with my companion and him being stubborn and a little girl... This week was great...

This week I had my first legit Chilean baptism! Her name is Paola. Hopefully within the next month her sons and maybe her husband will be baptized. 

That was an awesome experience. Even though it was all in Spanish... for some reason I was completely relaxed. I said everything perfect and it all went perfect. The husband is having some problems and some doubts and really didn´t want her to get baptized. We are hoping to meet with him and explain some things.

Even during the baptism my comp wasn´t excited or happy. I really don't know what is going on. He did although receive the package. I probably won´t be with him the next cambio so I don´t know what to do with the package situation. And no you don´t have to put H. Andrade. 

Eduardo, one of our awesome investigators, has starting looking up ¨mormons¨ on YouTube. He´s found a bunch of garbage like anti Mormonism stuff. We´ve tried to tell him that if he wants to learn about the church to go to the church website. I even Bookmarked like 5 Church websites on his computer. I´m not quite sure what to do.. Need Help!!

Well this week was awesome. Hopefully we figure things out with my comp and everything goes better. Tell McKay I haven´t gotten any of his letters except his last one. Tell him he probably has the wrong address. Also I had a notebook with a bunch of email addresses in it. See if you can find it, scan it, and send it to me. I love you guys and miss you tons!

Con amor,

Elder Torgersen

P.S. Send pictures of Ally´s wedding.

Better Week

Hello Family!

Well this week was much better. I´m getting over my sickness and feeling much better. It was pretty rough for awhile there. We had lots of great things happen this week. So here we go...

Well first, I started my 4th cambio here in Linares. I´m still serving with elder Andrade. I´m excited to still be here in Linares. We should have some baptisms this month. We have a lady with a fecha for next Saturday so pray that it goes through and we don´t have any problems. 

Yes I did order some stuff off of the LDS online store. I had bought Raul and Raquel some Scriptures. That was a really cool experience. We were supposed to meet with them on Saturday but I had gotten sick. We met with them on Wed. I had just gotten their scriptures and were going to give them to them on Saturday but couldn´t because I was sick. I decided to give them to them on Wed. While we were meeting with them Raul decided to check his email. Right after I had given them their scriptures they opened an email with the form for Raquel's divorce. They are officially ready to be married and baptized. Within this month they should be ready to go. It was pretty awesome. I gave them a present and they got their divorce papers. They even made us pop open a bottle of bubbly (Cheap Chilean soda that´s as cheap as water.) and celebrate a little. I´m hoping they ask me to baptize them. Raul wants to get baptized in a River. 

This week was full of random acts of service and random gifts. We were waiting at a stop light and we looked behind us to see a guy in a car. He was one of the guys that was drives a car that is full of the fresh bread that they take to all of the nogotios. He waved and we waved back. Next he pulled up next to us and reached back and pulled out some bread. With out a word he bagged the bread and gave it to us. We said thanks and he drove off. It was really random but the bread was amazing.

This last Wed I received some really funny letters from some little cousins. I enjoyed reading them. Henry, Gracie, and Cash wrote me some letters and they were really funny. I enjoyed getting letters from them. I also got a letter from Aunt Kay. Make sure to give her a hug and a kiss. And tell her thanks for the money. I enjoyed her letter. It was a spiritual lift for the week. 

I got some good news yesterday. We were visiting a member that had had some problems with his knee. We found out that it was his daughter that had just had the little baby girl that was in the hospital with a blood disease when I first got here. We were supposed to go give a blessing but our bike broke and were 5 minutes too late. I found out the little girl is perfectly fine now. I should have gotten a pic with her because she is the cutest little girl. It made me happy to see that even though we didn´t get to the hospital in time to give her a blessing she was fine. 

The other day while on a mini cambio we saw a grandpa on a BMX bike with pegs and we just about died laughing. Here in Chile, anything goes. It is really quite funny.It's amazing what they can carry or how many people they can get on one bike. It´s amazing.

During my cambio I learned some great stuff. I am no longer the only gringo in my house which has been a whole lot better. His name is E´ Lulla.   On Friday we had a little cambio to mix things up a little. We had a lot of citas fall so we had lots of time to talk. First had a little venting session and then we started talking about how we can make this cambio better. My attitude and excitement had been completely drained. I hadn´t had a cambio in almost 2 months. He really helped me get excited and have a better attitude about things. He is really positive and I really look up to him. Both of our companions are Latin and a little different. We have decided that if we can be happy and excited while we have different or difficult companions it will be %100 better when you have an awesome comp. I really learned a lot about staying positive.

We read a talk by elder Ballard. It talks about thinking baptism 100 percent of the time. Think success = You will have success. I´m really trying to do that. 

The guy in the picture is Hermano Alberto. He is the brother we do service for. He is awesome. 

Not much has happened this week. I´ve never prayed so hard as I did on Sunday. My comp decided it was more important to go to a meeting with the ward before church than to go get investigators. I had been praying the whole ride to the church that one of our investigators would come to church. 15 minutes into church she finally came. She is now able to be baptized on Saturday. So hopefully it all goes well. 

I´ve got a little time today so it´s kinda short. Well, I love you guys and miss you tons. 

Con amor,

Elder Torgersen

Elder Torgersen and Eduardo

Elder Torgersen and Elder Andrade

uh-oh

Hello family...

Well where to start this week...? This has definitely been the worst/longest week of my life.  Well lets start with the bad and finish off with the good. Woo I´ve got some stories for you guys. I´ve never wanted to be home so bad in my life. 

Around Wednesday I started to get a cough, congested nose and body aches. By Thursday the symptoms had gotten worse but were at least bearable until Saturday. We woke up got ready and my companion made me go to a doctor because he also wasn´t feeling well. We went to the doctor and met a guy from Canada that had a really cool but long story. His dad had died 15 years ago here in Linares in a helicopter accident.. He hadn´t had the money to come visit where his dad died. He had been praying for 15 years that he could some how get to Chile. He didn´t speak any Spanish and He didn´t know anyone from Chile. While hiking to the spot he thought it was he had a picture of the spot and tried talking to a guy with little Spanish that he knew. The guy on the trail ended up being a worker for his dad. He told us all these miracles that had happened since he got there. There´s more detail to it but I 've got a short amount of time. 

After the doctor they gave us a couple pills. We headed off to do some service. While we were doing service I started getting a bad Migraine and started feeling really dizzy. After we went to lunch. The hermana we had lunch with said I looked really sick and should go home and rest. That's what we ended up doing. about 2 hours after lunch, around 4, I started getting a bad fever and body aches. By 6 I had the chills and a fever and a head ache. I had felt horrible because obviously I was sick but we wasted a full day of work. I was depressed, sick, and I couldn´t get comfortable enough to sleep because of the fever. By 11 in the night my comp called Eduardo, One of our investigators, to come get us. He and his wife hurried to our house and by then I was completely out of it. I was super dizzy and felt like I was gonna throw up. 

They took us to the hospital and it took about 45 minutes just to get me in. I couldn´t get comfortable in the stupid chairs and I felt so sick. Eduardo finally went in and got me a wheel chair. They finally called my name and they rolled me in. They took me into the separated rooms with the curtains and laid me on a bed. The guy in the next curtain over was completely wasted and was throwing up beer by the liter. The smell of that made me even sicker. Then a drunk guy with a cut on his face was yelling at the doctor. They ended up calling the cops and taking him out. Finally the doctor came in and asked where I hurt and tried to explain with all of the Chilean words they have for body parts. Then he said, ¨Oh Gringito¨ He checked my throat, stomach, and breathing. About 10 minutes later a nurse comes in and tells me to lay on my stomach. I lay on my stomach and then I feel a cold metal plate thrown on my legs. She then pulls my shorts down a little and sticks me with the longest freaking shot 

I´ve ever gotten. Eduardo forgot to tell me they just give you basically an ¨all purpose¨ shot. The worst injection I´ve ever had. I still can´t walk because my butt hurts so bad. After they told me I was done so I jumped up and basically ran out. And that´s about when everything went black. Next thing I know I´m back in the wheel chair rolling to the car. Worst Hospital experience ever. I HATE HOSPITALS!! Apparently I have Rinofaringitis Aguda...? I have no idea what it is and how I got it. 

Sunday I was still too sick to go to church. We had to find a member to come stay with me. I was taking about 3 different kinds of pills. I decided to take an Ibuprofen. And that's when my comp saw all the pills I had from the Amoxicillin to the Excedrin. He told me ¨Elder... That´s a lot of pills¨ He basically then called me a druggy and said I needed to stop taking pills. 

For the good news... I got my packages on Tuesday! The shoes and the hat are awesome. And the shaver works!! It was like Christmas again. After I got my packages I had three or four letters. For the rest of the day my comp was kind of a jerk to me. Every one could tell he was jealous and mad about it. But he got over it. 

Service on Saturday was horrible. We helped a lady put pieces of wood under the over hang on the roof of her house. My comp wouldn´t let me do anything... Wouldn´t let me help or anything so I let him do his thing. He ended up cutting two pieces way to short and his accuracy with a hammer was like a three year old. It really drives me nuts how stubborn he is. After the work he had done looked so bad. I felt really bad because the lady was trying to make her house look good and he totally screwed it up.

I was wondering what I can say when A person asks me if I was born into the church. They always come up with the excuse that it is ¨tradition¨ not a matter of truth or not. People always say,¨well of course you´re part of this religion. That´s what your parents are.¨

You guys need to send me Pictures!! especially a picture of dad and Ethan with their shirts. I can´t believe you guys always see someone famous every time you go to Disneyland. What did Jon Heder have to say? How´d you get talking about missions? Tell Kim she can take me on a vacation when I get home and we can stop and every wide spot in the road. 

Well not much else happening. Today we had cambios but I´m still staying where I am. Which means next cambio (6 weeks) I´ll most likely be going. hopefully this cambio goes a little smoother. I love you guys and miss you tons. 

Con Amor

Elder Torgersen

Febuary 27, 2012

Hola familia y amigos!

Well this week is my official 6th month mark. I can´t believe I´m 1/4 of the way done with my mission. It´s kind of sad. I can´t believe how quick it is going by. How do I get it to slow down??! This week was full of activities. So... where to start..

Well this week I finally got my custom handmade scripture covers. They are sweet. Two brothers here in Chile have a leather drawing company and they sell scripture covers to the missionaries. I sent pictures so you guys could see them. I really liked them. 

I have had a headache/migraine for the past month and a half. It really has started to be frustrating. I don´t know what´s causing it. I just feel stressed and tired all the time. I finally talked to my district leader and he went and bought some Excedrin (Chilean brand though). It had 100mg of caffeine and my companion told me I was breaking the Word of Wisdom and he was dead serious. I just kinda let it go.

We are starting to get along a lot better. We have some disagreements and stuff but we just have to get back to work. He still does a couple things that really bother me. While doing contacts... He´ll just start to poke me with his pen CONSTANTLY! During lessons he kicks me or nudges me or something when he wants me to say something. He always has to sit right next to me so that he can nudge me. I´ve started moving just out of reach where it would be obvious of him kicking me or nudging me. It really bugs me because I´ve been here long enough in the mission that I know when and when not to talk. We had a lesson with a recent convert and she hadn´t had a real strong testimony and he basically fought with her and kind of yelled at her. I felt like it was the wrong approach. I´m still confused at the way he does stuff.

We found out the reason we didn´t have lunch this week... The other two elders that are here are always at members houses eating or just chilling. When we do have lunch one of the other elders eats a ton and I guess nobody wants to give us lunch now. Luckily we have investigators that invite us to eat at their house. The other elders ate at the house this whole week. I felt bad but then again they don´t teach lessons instead they go to members houses to eat and chill.

I finally got enough courage on one of the nights we weren´t fighting to ask what happened to his dad. I learned a lot about him that night. He told me that his dad was a poor farmer and had just started to have some success and make some money. His dad was at a bar and a guy that had gotten jealous told him to buy him a drink in a snoody way and his dad bought him one and left. As he was leaving the guy pulled a pistol out and shot him in the back twice. This made me kind of realize why my companion does some of the stuff he does. I knew his dad had died but I didn´t know he was murdered. His grandparents (the dad of his dad) were rough people. My companion told me they were into drug smuggling. He told me the brother of his dad ended up finding the guy that killed him and shot him. He also told me his best friend that lived next door was also shot and murdered. He told me at at the hospital the police wouldn´t do anything and were laughing and joking at the hospital when his friend died. There was quite a long story with all this so this just sums it up. I then realized a lot about my companion. I´m now slower to anger when he does something. I feel really bad for him.

While doing contacts one day we found one lady that was a complete jerk. She asked us why we weren´t serving in our own countries. She then went on to say that the U.S. has enough problems and should be preaching to them. It kinda made me mad. The next house over was an orphanage of about 7 little kids from 8 to about 14. We ended up teaching them and giving them a couple folletos and a couple pass along cards. I ended up getting a random hug from one of the little kids. It was really funny. We also learned that there are a lot of gays in Linares. We were riding to lunch and a guy yelled ¨buenas bombones¨ Which means nice buns. It freaked us out. The members in the church heard about it and now when they see us that say it. We also had a handicap girl kiss me and my companion. She was bigger than me and basically grabbed me and kissed my cheek. My companion was laughing at me until she came after him. 

We had a pretty cool experience with some investigators and a recent convert. They had both been praying for help with something and while they were praying we showed up at their door. I thought it was really cool. They told us it was really cool that they had their prayers answered that quick.

I sent a couple pictures of us eating a popular food in Chile. They take corn and blend it up and then boil it, and then put on top of onions, chicken, and olives and then bake it for awhile. I loved it. 

Well not much more this week. I sent an email to dad and talked to him about some other stuff. I love you guys and miss you all.

Con amor,

Elder Torgersen

PS. I want the ensign in Spanish and English. Also did you send two separate packages to me and Andrade? I don´t know how long i´m gonna be with him so hopefully you sent it in two.