Hello Friends and Family
Well Sorry I´m
writing so late. We just sacrificed a couple hours of our P-day to have
an amazing baptism. Everything went great. We´ll talk about that a
little more down the page.
Well first off this week was great. We ended up having
our mini cambio on Tuesday and I learned how my leaders are having 30
lessons every week. They enter into a house, say a prayer, invite to
read the folleto we have and then set a time to come back. Tuesday we
had a total of 9 lessons with 2 lessons with a less active. Wednesday We
had a conference In Talca and had to take a bus 3 hours North instead
of going an hour south to Conce. It was a great conference. We are now
expected to memorize over 30 scriptures, word for word, so that we can
teach with scriptures more clearly. It is going to be really difficult.
President has also put a goal for the mission to baptize over a 140
people every month. They did the math and if every companionship who
isnt a leader has one baptism, DL´s have 2, and ZL´s have 3-4, we can
complete the goal for a 140 baptisms. We have hit 126 the past couple
months.
They want us to work better in our sectors using our
time more wisely, work with members and know the lessons better. It is
going to be really hard. The assistontos printed out maps for us and our
map was horrible. It doesn't have any street names and it is missing
like four parts. We spent a little time trying to write down the street
names. We still have parts of the city that aren´t on the map. We have
been asked to divide our maps into four or five sectors and only work in
that sector certain days of the week. It is kind of hard because our
map is missing some stuff.
Things I have learned this week (for you Traci)
1. Assistontos are the worst brown nosers.
2.
Doesn´t matter how you get the baptism, Numbers are what counts. (if I
buy you a bike, will you get baptised?, How about a cake? That is a load
of crap.)
3. The dog has now started to interrupt our work.
4. We
have three options with our dog, Call a dog pound (doesn´t exist here),
Call a member to take the dog into the campo and leave it there, or kill
it.
5. DL, ZL, and president are all really excited and happy for the
work we are doing here in Coihueco. We are completely destroying it down
here. We had 22 lessons with 2 people progressing, Baptism today and
also Saturday, with a church attendance that is slowly increasing.
6. Our Branch mission leader is the most grumpy guy I have ever
met. He came from Santiago. The church and missionaries have been there
for more that 50 years. The little branch of around 35 people
isn´t going to be as strong as your Ward in Santiago. I really think I
am going to talk to our President to change him. We have 2 returned
missionaries that would be great.
During our Conference we had a missionary that was here
in Coihueco, teaching us in the conference. We have heard from a lot of
the members that he bought bikes, cakes, and a whole bunch of other
stuff for his investigators. Obviously if you are buying stuff for them
every time you visit them they will get baptised. Huge surprise here,
His converts here in Coihueco... Completely inactive. They have called
us multiple times to ask for money and other things. Anyway this elder
was teaching us in our Conference. I found it extremely hard to listen
to what he was saying. What a joke... I have learned it doesn´t matter
how they get baptised or if they stay in the church, as long as you have
good numbers = LEADER in the mission. I´m not gonna lie we have a lot
of really good leaders but there are a lot that I have no idea why they
are leaders.
I am just about fed up with the stupid dog, it has
fleas, ticks, smells horrible and is interrupting with our contacts.
Every time we contact people they are either yelling at the dog to go
away or they are scared of it. When we contact houses that have dogs,
they bark at it and we can´t even talk to the people. The three leaders I
have had mini cambios with have told me I have to get rid of it. My
comp is being a baby about having to get rid of it. We visited a family
the other day and I told them I had to get rid of the dog. They told me
they didn´t want to help because it is one of gods living creatures. Who
cares... It´s not ours, and its messing with the lords work. Then my
comp starts in on it also.
I told my leader today I needed a mini cambio so we
could get rid of the dog. Our president let us in on a little secret and
said there is a vet around the corner and if we take it in there saying
¨our dog is really old, has fleas and ticks and is suffering¨ they will
put it to sleep. The thing has been following missionaries around for 5
years. I don´t know how they have done it. It is driving me insane. I
might sound a little harsh but if you had a dog following you around
that has fleas, ticks, and smells horrible... You would want to get rid
of it also.
Well today went great. We got up this morning, Studied,
and headed to the church. We had 11 guys at the church playing baby
with us. (I bought a baby soccer ball and I´m totally going to teach our
ward how to play when I get home. It is so fun.) Today I completed my
goal of having a goal with my head. It was pretty dope. We seriously
played for 3 hours. But our president said he was going to pass by and
drop the keys off to start the font. We had called all morning, passed
by his house and we couldn´t find him. Finally 2 hours before the
baptism we ran to his house and luckily found his uncle there to get the
keys. We ran to the church, started the font, ran to lunch and ran home
to shower. We got to the church 10 minutes early to take pictures and
get started. Our mission leader was there and he wasn´t too happy. The
family of Daniela still wasn´t all there and so we couldn´t have started
anyway. We took pictures and got started. The uncle of Daniela ended up
baptising her and we were the witnesses. Our mission leader first got
mad because we had our hands in our pockets, then he got mad because he
claimed she wasn´t completely submerged in the water. (She was
completely submerged and as she was coming out of the water her knee
came out.) They ended up baptising her again but he was ticked. We have
no idea why he is so bitter. We are the first missionaries here to have a
baptism in over 5 months and actually have people going to church. I
feel like we are working as hard as we can so I have just been
letting the stupid things that he says go.
After the baptism, Daniela´s dad had a BBQ and we
played soccer. It was the coolest baptism ever. Our leaders ended up
coming down to it and they were completely stoked. We had two
investigators in the baptism and we should have another baptism
Saturday.
We have a family we are teaching that had a really
close friend pass away. I guess earlier this past week an 18 year girl
that was pregnant was driving into chillan and got hit head on by a
truck. Her and the baby ended up dying. It was a really close friend of
the family and they were all really sad. We ended up passing by them a
couple days after to see how they were doing. Their neighbors were
outside when we stopped by. They came out and ran back inside to get
something and said they would be back. Meanwhile, they neighbor was
outside telling us to pass by another day because they were too busy for
us ¨mormones¨. I told they lady we really needed to talk to them and
she said they were ¨too busy¨. I told her what we had to talk to them
about was more important than anything they could be doing. The next
thing we know they come walking out and tell us to come in. I looked at
her neighbor and gave her a smug grin as I walked in the gate. I thought
it was hilarious. We got into the house and read Alma 40 and about the
spirit world. We talked to them about the plan of salvation and they
really seemed to calm down. It was an awesome lesson. My comp bore his
testimony about his dad passing away but he knows that some day he will
see his dad again. We are hopefully going to pass by them today.
Yes I got an email the other week from Grandma and Grandpa. I will write them back ASAP. I really don't have much time.
Yes, mom we have lots of other investigators.
My comp was a little down after our lesson with the family that
their friend died. He was really depressed after that. He is a little
different. The other day my DL dropped the hammer on him for going to
bed early and he said he wasn´t in the mission to be pushed around by
other missionaries. It kind of reminded me of Nefi and his brothers
finding the truth to be hard. He said he wasn´t going to listen to
anyone but president. It has kind of made me mad.
Next transfer is November 12. I really hope I get to stay here. We are about to explode with baptisms.
No email from Keaton yet. I haven´t gotten any from Easton or Melissa... You gotta get on them for that. Haha
I have no idea as far as Christmas. I was given a calendar today and it had all the way until the end of my mission to the month. That kind of scared me.
Well
we also have interviews this week so We are going to be seing Pres and
the asistontos again. Whoo hoo. Well thank you for the love and support
love you all.
Con Amor,
Elder Torgersen
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