New Companion!!!

Hello Friends and Family!

Well this week has been one of the best weeks in my mission. Tuesday, I met my new comp at the bus terminal. He was coming in from Talca about 2 hours away. His name is Elder Arroyo. It is really quite funny because he is about 6´4¨. I look tiny next to him. He grew up in Mexico in a city called Nogales that is right on the border, but lived in the U.S. for nine years for school. Whenever we have Conferences he is in charge on translating if it is needed. So basically he knows English. He´s about to kill me though... I have literally never worked so hard, walked so far, or taught so many lessons in one day. We get back to the house plan, and after I hit the bed and am dead tired.

Basically, my comp before lost the trust of everyone, even the Bishop. We have been trying to gain the trust back. Basically everyone was happy to see him go. Everyone knew he was chueco. It is nice to finally have a comp that is really good. He had been in the office with prez so I know that prez had to have trusted him. He is the District leader here so He´s got us working really hard.

I don´t know if I told you guys but we have a member that has a husband that for almost 13 years has hated the missionaries. About a month and a half ago he started coming to church with his wife and kids. The wife told us to hold off for a little while. Last week we had lunch with his family and after lunch kind of shyly he asked us if we could come by and teach him. He told us he wanted to be baptized. We have heard that this whole thing has been a miracle. Multiple people have told us that he hated the church and missionaries so bad that if he got home from work and they were there, he would kick them out. He is one of the nicest guys I have ever talked to. He owns a little vegetable store and we passed by the other day to say hi and ended up buying some food. What should have been about $8 he gave to us for about $2. We just found out that his daughter that was baptized, her registro is also missing from the computer. So... We are baptizing them both.

This whole week has just been really spiritual. Church was awesome, the bishop and his counselor gave to great talks that they didn´t know they were having to give. After church we did divisions with a couple priests in the ward. We were able to meet our contacts goal which was 140 right on the dot. We ended up teaching a ton of lessons and finding 14 people this week. This cambio is going to be great. We found out that none of the priests wanted to leave with us because none of them liked my old comp.

Well we found out they found Robinsons registro. Which means his daughter wasn´t going to be one of our baptisms. The Bishop said his registro still isn´t in the system so we can still baptize her this Saturday. The Bishop is really funny. If we end up coming back we have to come visit him and his family. He and his wife have the cutest little baby girl. I think I sent you guys a picture of them a couple weeks ago.

We have really sacrificed a lot this week. We have been walking almost 3 miles to get out to a newer part of the city to find people. I tried to tell my comp before that we needed to contact out there but he was too lazy to walk out there. Guess where we found the 14 news this week.

We found a girl that is pregnant that is really good. She has wanted to come to church but everytime she tries she gets sick. Please pray for her that she wont get sick and will make it to church this next sunday. Her name is Carolina.

Well I´ve gotta write prez. So I love you guys and miss you tons!

Con Amor,

Elder Torgersen

Here you go Joe

Hello Friends and Family!

 

Well, I dont have much time to write so this will be pretty quick. This week has been a little frustrating. The last week of the Cambio is always the worst. I´m usually sick of my companion and they are worthless because they know they are being changed. It has definitely been a long week.

 

We had a day this week that we contacted 25 houses straight and all my comp wanted to do was fight with the Catholics. It was a waste of time, I was ticked and it did us no good.

 

Our ward went to the Santiago temple last week and said they met a missionary that knew me. I have no idea who it is though. They couldn´t remember his name, they just said a tall gringo. I have no idea who it could have been.

 

We got a call from the DL this morning telling us the Cambios. I am staying in Los Volcanes, Chillán. I am getting a new comp though! WOO! His name is Elder Aroyo. You´ll have to tell Cristian I´m about to have another Mexican friend. My comp is coming from Talca which is about 2 hours away. I´ll meet up with him tomorrow morning in the Terminal. A couple cambios before E´ Aroyo was in the office. He is one of the better missionaries in the mission and he is quite tall so this will be pretty funny. I´m excited to work with him. I feel horrible about this last cambio because anything I tried to tell my comp he wouldn´t listen. We lost a lot of time in members and recent converts houses. We had a mini cambio about every week with the DL so he could kinda keep an eye on him. 

 

I have been a little frustrated this last week because of the whole losing time, worthless comp deal. Then to make things worse I had heard that my comp from the MTC was just called to be a Zone Leader. I´m trying not to be jealous or angry about it. I just feel I´ve kinda been jipped in my mission. The last two companions I have had have been kinda crappy and it really shows in our numbers and success.

 

We did receive good news that the sister missionaries got the mail and name tags back. Luckily, there wasn´t anything of real importance in it. But the last week at our District Class I did get a letter from Grandma Kratchen. I sent out a couple letters last week and I´m working on the last few. I´m sending a letter to you guys that has multiple letters in it. I just need you to throw a stamp on them and put them in the mail.

 

This last week we had lunch with a member that the husband has not wanted anything to do with the church. I guess before the missionaries had to hurry and eat because He didn´t even like them in the house. The husband has been going to church recently but the wife told us to hold off for a little while. Yesterday during lunch he told us that he wanted to be baptized. Hermana Yeny told us that it is a miracle that he is now wanting to get baptized. We are going to meet with him on wed. Pray that everything goes well.

 

We ate prietas the other day and i almost threw up. They sausages with meat soaked in blood with chopped onion. I think if we were to have eaten it at a different house it would have been better.

 

Well I dont have much more time. SO i will write more next week. Love you guys and miss you tons.

 

Con amor,

Elder Torgersen

Hello Friends and family!

 

Well this week has been absolutely crazy. Lots of stuff happening. This last week I ordered a couple new name tags and was waiting for them and some mail to come. A missionary from the other zone, (sister missionary) had a Doctors appointment in Conce. She ended up taking the mail and our name tags for our zone with her to bring to our zone. During the process, don't ask me how...., she lost all the mail, our name tags, money for one of the missionaries, and a cell phone chip. I don´t know how she managed to do it... so lets hope we find our tags and letters. This is the same missionary that gave us a couple references that were horrible. No joke she sent us a reference that was Benjamin, Volcanes 3 green house. Basically if I was to say Lindon, Utah red brick house... that would be the reference. Obviously if the person doesn´t give you the house number they aren´t gonna want to listen to us anyway. I´ve learned if you recieve references from the hermanas they usually aren´t worth your time.

 

This last week I had a mini cambio with an elder from Peru. I wasn´t really looking forward to it because my comp said he was really weird. I have really been trying to not rag on old companions or missionaries that I do mini cambios. I worked with this elder and my comp had been saying that he is really weird and different... but after the mini cambio I thought he was a really great missionary. We had a great day and taught some great lessons. Anytime my comp starts to talk bad about a missionary I have really tried to say nice things about him or good things he does.

 

My comp is really starting to get sector trunky. He basically knows he´s leaving this cambio. I don´t know how to deal with it because we are starting to waste a lot of time at members and recent converts. When I say we need to go... he doesn´t listen. If anyone has any suggestions they would be great. We can sit in a members house and watch soccer highlights or watch someone play PlayStation for a ton of time but when I wanna stop and get something to eat its an inconvenience. Need some help!!

 

I´m really hoping I am a senior companion this next cambio. I´m sick of following people around.

 

It was sad to hear that Traci isn´t pregnant. I was just going to write that her and Dan should adopt a little kid. I´m sure that there is a little kid that really needs parents like Dan and Traci. 

 

The other day we did a total of 50 contacts in one day and no one wanted to listen. It crossed my mind that if the people really knew what we had for them... no one would reject us. My district leader told us about this little scenario that after this life we will be in heaven and God will be in front of all these people that rejected us and he will say I sent you these two elders to your house to help you and you rejected them. That hit me kinda hard that in one day 50 people didn´t listen. I have really tried to make sure that what they are rejecting is really important.

 

While doing contacts that same day we were walking in a street and out front was a fat lady with purple hair that seductively said, ¨Me gusta los gringitos and merenitos....¨ We both stopped and looked at each other and said  ¨Que!!¨ next thing i know my comp flips around and walks back and says¨what did you say...? She then mumbles something and says she bored of us and walks away. We later talked to a member that lives in that area and he said that have a problem with prostitution in that area. It freaked me out. I can tell you what... I won´t be contacting in that area.

We had a surprise baptism this week that counted as one of ours. Hermana Yeny has a daughter and a son. The son is on a mission in Argentina and the daughter.... Ex communicated. Kinda ironic I know... The daughter has two kids... The one named David just turned 8 this Sunday. Which means our baptism. It was kinda crazy... We ended up having to call President to ask him if it was our baptism or the ward... It was kinda funny. We didn´t really do anything and he already knew everything because he had been in primary since he was born.

 

I don´t know how many times I have to say this.... Hermana yeny is our Ropa lady. We give her $15 every month and she washes what we tell her to wash. She is a member... obviously because you have to be to wash our garments.

 

Also yes Raul and Raquell got married and baptized. I got a call from Elder Lulla saying they got baptized. I´m counting them as converts.

Tell dad I´m happy he found a shop. Is he renting or is it his? I want pictures. Tell Ethan to take that crap off the window of the truck... it looks ridiculous. ;)

 

I was wondering if you could find the book Day of Defense. I guess it is about two missionaries that answer questions about the church using the bible to defend the church. Also I want an updated version of my priesthood line of authority.

 

That´s about it for the week. We are continuing to teach Robinson and his daughter and are excited to see their progress. Thank you all for the support and prayers. I am sending a couple letters tomorrow that I had written forever ago so If you receive a letter that was written almost over a year ago... I´m sorry.

 

Love you guys and miss you tons! Tell Ainsley it´s been awhile since I got a letter from her and I´m missing them.

 

Su Hijo Amado,

Elder Torgersen