April 2nd

Hello Family and Friends!

We had a great week this week listening to the Prophet and his apostles. This week I was traveling all over the place.

This week I have still kind of struggled with my companion. Today he got mad at me because I spit the shells from my sunflower seeds into the gutter on a street. He yelled at me and asked me if I did that in my country. I held my ground and finally stood up to him and said. ¨Yes actually we do. They are sunflower seeds. They are bio-degradable. They come from flowers. ¨ He walked off with a disgusted look. I thought it was funny. The things he says and does just blows my mind. Hopefully my next comp is better. Wait, I can´t say that. My district leader has been helping me stay positive. We have decided there are No ¨what if´s.... (for example... What if I was comps with so and so... we would do work.) We have to work and focus on where we are now not in the future.

We have District Class every Tuesday in our church. The whole Zone meets and we learn from the ZL´s and the DL´s. We also get mail about every 3 weeks. That´s how it is being on the ¨outside¨. Hopefully I get our Easter packages tomorrow. Last week at district class they told me 3 hours before I was supposed to leave that I would be going to Concepcion for a Newbie Conference. I´m 5 months out in Chile and 7 months into my mission and I´m starting to get a hold on things and then they call me a newbie again. Tuesday night at about 5 my companion and I went to the Bus terminal and that's when we split up and I took a 3 and a half hour bus ride to Concepcion....alone. That was the weirdest feeling knowing that I was alone without a companion on the bus. I met the assistants at the terminal in Conce and we headed off to their house. I got there and found out I was staying for two days instead of one. Not only did I find out I was supposed to leave 3 hours before I had to go, they didn´t tell me I would be staying for 2 days. I only had one change of clothes. Luckily I stayed at the assistants house where they have a washer and a dryer. (dryers are super rare here in Chile)

There in Conce we had training for all the ¨new¨ missionaries. We had 2 classes of 2 hours each before lunch and 2 more after lunch.  We practiced teaching in English (which I couldn´t do, I kept saying things in Spanish.) We had Domino´s and Subway for lunch the two days we were there.  The first day after classes we had cambios with the missionaries around Conce. I worked with Elder Broadhead in Centro de Conce. The first time really working in a huge city. I absolutely loved it. The city was huge. I also sang a hymn for the first time in one of our lessons. (thought that was super weird, but just went with it.) 

During classes I asked Pres. if I could talk to him after. After the classes we went into a room and I asked him what I could do with my comp. He basically said that my comp has always been super prideful, stubborn, and not excited about the work. He told me to just ¨work hard because you only have 2 weeks left with him.¨ So basically I know I will be going this cambio. President basically didn´t really say much. 

On the way to the bus terminal in conce to go home I met my comps old comp. He told me he was sorry I was with my comp and said good luck. He told me he was the most stuck up, prideful, jerk of a companion he has ever had. (that really didn´t help.) I guess from what I heard my comp hasn´t gotten along with anyone. I made really good friends with one of the assistants and he sent me an email saying that president and the assistants know more than we think. They know all of the struggles I´m having with my comp and basically just gave me some advice. It really helped knowing that they really know what´s going on.

On the bus ride home I was paired up with an elder that came with me to Chile. His name is elder west. He was going to Parral which is about an hour from Linares. I rode with him up until Parral and then sat in the back of the bus with some other elders. The bus pulled into Linares and next thing I know the bus kid tells me I have to get off here if I want to stay inLinares. They dropped me off on a street miles from the house and miles from any members. I was left alone, again. I walked to our bishops house and his son, our mission leader answered the door. He thought I was joking when he found me alone. My comp and a joven in our ward was with my comp at the terminal. We had to call him and meet up in centro. 

We woke up Saturday morning and made some bomb German pancakes. I got a recipe from one of the Assistants that is super easy. We can buy great value syrup down here for pretty cheap so we ate German pancakes on Saturday and Sunday morning. Wasn´t quite Dad´s waffles and moms buttermilk syrup but we tried. They were so good!! 

We don´t have a Macey´s down here so I couldn´t buy bin candy.... SO I did the next best thing. We went to a store down here that is basically a Costco. This store sells stuff in bulk and sells to all the mini stores we have on each corner. Everything is super cheap and you can buy it in bulk. We bought a ton of candy and snacks for conference. 

Saturday morning we got to the church and the president of the rama was having problems with the projector and receiver. After about 5 minutes I had it fixed and running in Spanish. They had the wires in the wrong port and didn´t really know what they were doing. You´ll have to tell Jonathan thanks for the work and lesson´s with projectors and stuff. The Chileans would have been lost with out me here.

During the conference the MTC choir sang. I don´t know if you guys saw it but David archuletta was on the front row. He got his mission call to the mission right above ours. Everyone was freaking out because he was so close to coming to our mission.

The choir also Sang ¨let us all speak kind words¨. The whole time moms voice kept popping into my head. So thanks mom. The whole conference thing made me a little trunky. It reminded me of home and going to priesthood with dad, Ethan, grandpa and Cristian. 

We all loved General Conference. They had in the chapel, conference in Spanish, and the ¨Gringos¨ were upstairs listening to it in English. I was amazed at how much junk food the other missionaries had. They had Jugo by the gallons, cans of pringles, and candy by the pounds. It was insane. I felt kinda bad because the Latin companions didn´t buy anything and were stuck down in the chapel. It basically looked like a party. The funny thing is, when someone made a sound with a wrapper during conference or was talking all the other elder would tell them to shut up. We all took over 20 pages of notes from Conference. 

Well I should find out tomorrow if I got the packages. I have been getting Colt and dads emails but what I meant with dad is that I wanted more stories and experiences from his mission. I don´t always have that much time to write everyone. It´s either do something awesome on P-day or have 3 hours to write everyone. Sorry... but I´d rather have time to do something cool in a country I only have 2 years in. Especially because we only get to explore and do stuff cool on P-days. If I don´t write you back right away... Sorry.

I´m glad that kyle Harline saw me as a good example. I guess I had no idea that I was really being watched that much. That really made me feel good. When you see him next, give him and hug or a high five or something, tell him he´s awesome and tell him it was from Elder Torgersen.

I sent a couple pictures from this last week. The blond crazy kid is our DL. Elder Lulla. He´s hilarious. Love the kid. Well I love you guys and miss you tons. hope everyone is doing great. 

 Con amor,

Elder Torgersen

P.S. Can you get me a list of Birthday´s Like family birthday´s and a couple friends. Also can you get me The Harline´s address? I figured I would try to write Kyle a letter. What was Ethan´s job with Bruce? Also Tell Ainsley thanks for the grow alien. It was awesome!!