Monday, September 10, 2012

Coihueco


Hello Friends and Family!

Well none of you will be able to guess what has happened this week. It has definitely been a crazy one. Well, Monday night after I had written you guys... as I`m getting ready to go to bed we get a call from the Zone leaders. As I`m getting into bed they call to tell me I`m going on an emergency cambio. They said I had until 8:00 in the morning to get everything packed into my bags and on the bus. Let me tell you I was pretty mad... I just got everything UN-packed from the last cambio. 11:30 they called me and 3:00 I was in bed. I have never been so stressed in my life. I was so tired the next day. I had basically 4 hours of sleep.

The next morning I was in a taxi and a bus all day long traveling from South Chillan to North Chillan. I am now in a small city called Coihueco. It really reminds me of going to church in New Harmony. Yesterday I had to give the opening prayer, pass the sacrament and teach part of our class. It`s like visiting grandma`s house. There is an average of 35 people in church every Sunday. 

Wednesday in the morning we had to wake up at 5 to travel 3 hours north to a small city for a meeting with President and the Assistants. They are working with all the small town wards and branches to try and get them growing and keeping people in church. We were there pretty much all day long. It was really cool learning from president and the president of this small branch. He was actually a member in Linares that I knew so it was cool to see him again. He travels about an hour every Sunday to go to this little town since he is the President of the branch. He shared with us some really cool stories.

Well I moved from one of the nicest houses to one of the crappiest, oldest, most dirty house in the mission. I took pictures but I`m not going to share them with you. You might get a little worried. I spent more than half of my P-day cleaning the house. It was a pain but it is really clean now. I talked to the landlords and told them that we were both new in our sector and that we were going to fix the house up and clean it. They were really nice and told us if we needed anything they could help us. Good news is... We have our own washing machine. Bad news... No dryers in Chile. We have to hang everything to dry and it takes forever because it is still kind of cold down here. I like cleaning my own clothes but drying them is a pain.

Guess who`s the next Sr. Comp. Yeah that`s right! Elder Torgersen is finally a Sr. Comp. I can tell you now it is going to be difficult, especially in the situation I`m in now. I really think I have been through all the crap that has happened to help prepare me for what I`m doing now. I don`t think if I hadn`t had those experiences I wouldn`t have been ready for what I`m doing now. 

My comp is one of the most humble elders ever. He is from Peru. He is really kind of short, quiet and has got one of the strongest testimonies I have ever Heard. 17 days into the mission, during an interview with Pres. He found out his dad passed away. He has been struggling to stay positive and keep his mind off it. He is awesome. He told me last night that he was happy I was here as his comp. The last comp was a jerk and didn`t do anything. (same elder I had to do the mini cambio with a couple months ago.) He said he likes that I joke around but still do work in the mission. I guess the last comp made him do everything. He sometimes gets depressed thinking about his dad. I feel really bad for him. I always try to make sure I`m lifting him up with the things I say to him. It is really weird going from really stubborn, and prideful comps and then the exact opposite. I`m really excited to work with him. His testimony is awesome!

Oh yeah, I`m still in a threesome... with a dog. There is a dog here that has followed the missionaries around for almost 3 years. Some dumb elder made the mistake to feed him and now he follows us to every lesson and if he loses us he waits at the church or at the house. I`m not quite sure what to do with him because the mission rules say we can`t have pets but he follows us everywhere. My comp feels bad for him and tries to feed him. I keep trying to tell him he can`t because it is against mission rules. I`m going to talk to pres about it today. 

President told me the other day that what we did with the emergency cambio is called a white wash. Basically we are starting from nothing. We have maybe 2 investigators and nothing in our Area Book. I`m in charge of rebuilding this sector. I`m in charge of basically reviving it. I`ve been super stressed because I feel like President is really trying me to see what I can do. This week went well. We had 11 news and almost met our goal for contacts. but we also missed 2 days for meetings. The missionaries here before were really disobedient and really didn`t care about the sector. There were two missionaries here that one was finishing his mission and the other has almost a year in the mission and not a single one of them knew how to give blessings. People in the branch would ask for blessings and they just wouldn`t give them. It is really kind of sad what has happened to this little town. We are now in charge of bringing it back to life.

But...Yes you can give Melissa my email address. And as far as Larry tell him I would love to come and use those guns he has... Tell him i`ll be there in about a year. especially if he has more of the guns like he brought the last time. ha

Well I will keep you informed on our success and what`s happening here in Coihueco. Thank you all for everything. I`m really excited to eat lots of empanadas and learn how to dance the cueca. Thank you all! Love you!


Elder Torgersen

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