November 19th-25th

Hello Friends and Family!

Well this week didn't go as planned. We had kind of a crazy week.

We were planning on having 4 baptisms this week... but only came through with two. Our Mission Leader is not willing to take time off work, or try and work with us to baptize Ricardo. He has chosen to push his Baptism date back another month. We are hoping that he doesn't lose interest. If he does... It will be our mission leaders fault. We have tried everything we can to try and get Ricardo to choose someone else to baptize him. Nothing will change his mind. We are now having to wait until the 22 of December.

We had our interviews this week with Evelin, Rodrigo, and Cristobal. I have literally never been so worried, and so frustrated in my mission with an INV. She tells us one thing and during the interview tells our ZL the opposite. She had told us she had stopped drinking tea and was reading and everything. She gets into the interview and says she hasn't done anything. I was really frustrated with her. Obviously she didn't pass the interview. But her two kids knew everything. They passed the interview and somehow managed to make it to the baptismal font. With all of us fasting and praying all week, and many phone calls from there mom with doubts, we managed to get them into the water on Saturday.

After Evelin failed her interview we went to a store to buy some herbal tea. We ended up running into the ex President. He asked us how we were doing and told him that we had a family that the mom failed the interview. He asked us who it was and we told him... He then told us that Evelin the mom, had been baptized in 1989. We ended up having to call the office and send her name into SLC to see if she is member. We are still waiting for an answer. ha

Saturday was awesome! One of the most Spiritual baptisms I have ever had. My Comp and a member ended up baptizing the two kids. Our mission leader wasn't there and everything went really smooth. The family and friends obviously felt the spirit but had fun. It was really just kind of a relaxed baptism. Rodrigo, we aren't quite sure what is wrong with him but he has a couple health problems. We don't know if he is handicapped or autistic. But his mom said he can't remember the things he learns in school but caught on really quick with the stuff we taught him. He knew all of the ten commandments. We taught him the ten commandments with hand actions and he caught on right away. We were still debating if he needed to be baptized but he passed the interview and understood everything we taught him. After his baptism, while everyone was welcoming him in, he started crying. It was a really spiritual moment. We know that he ended up feeling something.

Sunday was a busy day for me. We got to church and I ended up having to give the opening prayer, Bless the sacrament, and do two confirmations. During the confirmation of her two kids, Evelin started to cry. It was really cool. We have been visiting a lot of the members and less actives and a lot of the recent converts and this week the total number of people in church was 67. We are now breaking numbers of 4 of the WARDS in our Zone. We are a BRANCH and we are getting more people to church than the 4 wards in our zone. The ZL's, Assistants, and President have all called to say how great of job we are doing. We have doubled the number since I got here.

The assistants had called me during the week and said they were coming to Coihueco to do a mini cambio with us. I was a little nervous because there are really two reasons why they do them...

1.We have been disobedient or have been doing something wrong (I knew it wasn't the reason)

2. They are looking for future leaders.

I had also called president to help us get rid of the stupid dog because more people had been stopping us telling us that if we were really representatives of Christ we would give it food and water. (missionary handbook Specifically says do not give food to any animal). If I could I would go back in time and beat the stupid elder that had the genius idea of giving this dog food. President said he was going to send the Assistants out to help us. The Assistants came but without the truck... Which means they were looking for future leaders.

Just like every mini cambio, all of our appointments fell. We did end up teaching 3 lessons with 4 new people.

I have learned again this week that Chile has THE BEST FRUIT! We bought a kilo of strawberries for about $2. We have been munching on strawberries and bananas all week.

We have had an investigator that hasn't really been progressing that we decided to drop for a little. We ended up visiting her again and she now wants her daughter to get baptized. She isn't married and is living with her boyfriend. Her next door neighbor would always whistle and yell out the window at me. We decided to pass by her house one day and she let us in. To our surprise she was pretty much golden. She accepted a date right away and said she would go to church this next Sunday. She and her daughter are preparing for the 29 of December. Her name is Maria and her daughter is Valentina.

This weekend I ended up getting a pretty bad cold. We had so much to do I couldn't really take any time to sleep or try and get over it. We had tried just about everything to try and get rid of it. A member told us we needed to go buy honey and some lemons, mix the two and drink it. They also said Honey with Garlic. I tried them both and it worked like a miracle. I can actually breathe today. We couldn't find honey anywhere and we ended up finding a house that sells it. An older man walked out and told us "NO NO NO." We told him wait, we just want to buy honey. He then said okay come on in. We walked in, talked to this older couple and they ended up giving the honey to us for free and then we ended up teaching him. It was really funny. I'm gonna start making up excuses to get into houses. "No we just need to use the bathroom, no we just need some water...!" I think it will work haha.

Well we are going to find a lot of people this week and hopefully get them with baptismal dates. We are going to have a couple weeks without baptisms. We kind of stopped finding people because we were really worried about the people we had.

Yes I finally have been getting some sleep. I found a natural sleeping pill that is amazing. I'm sleeping like a baby now.

I would like some new pants. My other pair ripped and now I only have my skinnies. I would like another pair of those though. I don't need pajamas.

Not much else happening. Love you all and miss you tons.

Elder Torgersen

1 Down 4 to go

Hello friends and family!

Well this week has been awesome! We have been having a lot of success. Lots of good things happening and better things to come.

Well this last week we found out we are both staying in Coihueco. It was kind of a surprise but... I can´t change the outcome. This transfer will only be 5 weeks instead of the normal 6. If we would have kept the normal 6 weeks, Christmas would have been the same day as transfers. We will now be getting transferred the week before Christmas. I´m not sure who will end up going. I found out this week that my old comp in Los Volcanes had problems with his knee and is now back in the office, his comp for some reason was taken out, and two completely new Elders were put in Los Volcanes. We have no idea what happened and why they were changed out so quickly. I guess Obispo Richy Orellana was pretty happy that they left. I guess the members really didn´t like them and they ate a lot.

This week we had our interview for Ignacio. We had been really worried because DL and I passed by his house and he wasn´t there. He and his mom weren´t answering their phones. Finally about an hour and half later he called and said he got stuck at school doing some project. We went to his house and had his interview. He was really nervous. His mom later told me he had never been so nervous. She said he had studied all the pamphlets that we gave him the night before his interview. My DL said he answered every question perfectly. My DL said that Ignacio said that abortion was like killing an angel. I thought that was pretty funny but true.

Saturday we had a service project with the family... LEPEZ. From Los Volcanes. They had bought a piece of property close to Coihueco and are now in our branch. They came to church last Sunday and were really surprised to see me there. They needed help building part of their house so... My comp, Presidente, others from the elders quorum passed by and fixed a lot of the house for them. They made a breakfast and lunch. We had to get up and leave the house by about 6:30 to be there by 7. They were really surprised with the work we had done and how fast we did it. We ended up driving back and going right to the church to start the font. We got there and found out that the switch to drain the water last time was turned on but didn´t suck the water out. We had to switch it on and off a couple times to get the water out. We then filled the font with clean water. We made sure to start it early so that we had a lot of water so the mission leader wouldn´t complain.

We got everything ready, setting up chairs, cleaning the chapel, and sweeping. Ignacio showed up right on time and we told him to hurry and change. Our mission leader last time got made because we took pictures with the family and stupid stuff like that. Before he showed up we took some awesome pictures. The last time he got mad because we were laughing and joking around with David. It just took all the fun out of the baptism... so we took pictures before he got there. He told us that we shouldn´t be laughing that it should be a serious, spiritual moment. I´m sorry but I don´t have to be as serious as him to feel the spirit. Ignacio was really happy, his family was really happy and they thought it was awesome. His dad had taken off work and traveled all the way from Santiago to come see his baptism. When he showed up we were completely stunned. It was so cool to have the whole family there. I sent some pictures of the family, the youth, and the kid that baptized him.

So... our mission leader shows up and without telling us changes rooms in where we were starting. We had already set up chairs in the room we always start in. Also, Richy (Ricardo) our investigator that is supposed to get baptized this next Saturday, walks over to us and says, ¨hey did you guys hear we changed my baptismal date?¨ I look at my comp and said ¨who changed it?¨ He says Hermano Lobos. (our mission Leader) Let me tell you I have never been so ticked in my life. First off, he has no authority over our INV´s. Second, He didn´t even tell us. Third he got mad because we keep baptising people on Saturday so they can get confirmed right away on Sunday(that was info directly from Elder Arnold from the Seventy. Elder Arnold told us that NEVER EVER again should we baptize someone on a day other than Saturday unless there is a special occasion.) He ended up ¨changing¨ his date to the 28th... a Wednesday. I was ticked. We got into the baptism and we were sitting in front with Ignacio. Our ML starts the meeting and announces everything, talks are then given and we start to head into the font. All of a sudden he steps over to my comp and asks him if he wants to be a witness, without even looking at me. My comp says yes and then he walks over and gets right into my grill and asks¨We good¨ or Estamos Bien?¨ I look at him and answer yes and walk away. Not saying I ever would but I could have easily dropped him. I was so ticked that he just steps up into my grill and asks me that. I seriously have no idea why he has so many problems with us. We have gotten multiple less active families back to church, baptized more in the first month here... When the missionaries before hadn´t had a baptism in over 6 months... and have gotten the attendance up to 62. My ZL´s ended up coming to our baptism and ended up seeing everything. We had to basically hold one of them back from punching our ML. They were ready to go off on him about changing our baptismal dates. but the Baptism and every thing went well and after the meeting our ML left right after before our ZL´s could even talk to him.

Sunday we got to church and didn´t have enough chairs to fit everyone. We had a total of 62 people in this little tiny chapel. This last week we visited a lot of the people that have a date to get baptized and a lot of less actives.

Sunday morning we get to church and of course Richy comes over and says, ¨hey did you guys hear we changed my baptismal date again?¨ He says, ¨yeah we changed it to the 22 of December.¨ Just because our ML won´t take time off work and can´t be there for the baptism he thinks we are going to wait a full month and a week to baptize him. I DON´T THINK SO!! A lot of stuff can happen in a month. Our purpose here in the mission is to find the chosen people and invite them to follow Christ by being baptized. I´m not going to wait a month and a week to baptize someone that is prepared and ready to make this promise with god. After church we met with the BP and his counselor and told them all the stuff that has been happening. They agreed but said we just had to have patience. While we were waiting to talk to President... My ZL´s and my DL called to see how many we had in church and I had to tell them both that the ML keeps changing the baptismal date. The ZL´s told me if I didn´t give them his phone number I would lose my P day. haha I guess they called him and were really nice to him and just asked how Richy was doing and why his date kept changing. They said he is ready and willing to be baptized and if he isn´t going to be there to baptize him they needed to find someone else to do it. I guess our ML stuttered and then hung up on them. Our ZL´s called to tell us that they were calling the Stake president to have him released... Guess who we have lunch with tomorrow.... yup, that's right ML´s family.

But not everything is bad news... This next week we should have a total of 4 baptisms including a Part member family. The Mom (Evelin) and the two sons (Rodrigo and Cristobal) should be getting baptized this Saturday... Along with Richy. We have a meeting with the two today. We are going to meet with Richy and after with Evelin and her family. Pray that the ML will not be a stumbling stone this week with his baptism. My DL, ZL´s asistontos, and president are still amazed at how much success we are having. At the end of this last cambio we had the goal of 2 baptisms this month and now we are saving the Zone with 5!! We are really excited.

The picture of Ainsley was hilarious. What is Breaking Dawn? I don´t know what that is.

Tell dad to take pictures of the $12,000 table.

Ethan.... Taking first assistant seriously? Wow what happened? Are we talking about Ethan Torgersen? The punk that was always teasing his sisters, wearing my clothes and using my stuff... That Ethan? Tell him he better be taking it seriously. Tell him he better be taking Seminary and mission prep Seriously also. But that does sound about right. Even with the size that he has, he never did hit or fight with anyone except me.

The empty bottles, weren´t empty. They had water in them. They were frozen in the Freezer. Yes we do clean. You would be surprised how much I have cleaned here in the mission. That is one thing I have learned. Our stupid crack house was crappy and small but at least was clean. I´m getting so sick of tiny, moldy, stinky, dirty Chilean mission houses.

As far as more missionaries, I have no idea. also being with my comp for Christmas... NO idea. We have transfers right before Christmas. But he doesn´t get very many letters or packages.

These past 3 weeks I haven´t slept at all. I have been so stressed, worried and frustrated that I´m tired during the day and at night I´m so worried and stressed that I can´t sleep. I have talked with Sister Humphrey and she said if I can´t sleep I´m going to have to go into Conce. I have been so tired that by about 5 i´m literally just dead tired. Throughout the day=dead tired. Night=Restless. We are out in the middle of nowhere with only us two. We don´t have really anyone watching over us so it is really hard to wake up on time when I´m just so tired. I´ve literally never been so tired, exhausted, and stressed in my life. If it doesn´t get any better I have to go see the Doctor for the mission in Conce. I have tried natural sleeping pills, sleeping pills, and just about every herb that the members have given me to try and relax and sleep.

Well Not much else happening. Pray for our INV´s and for me so that I can sleep. Love you all!

Elder Torgersen

I'm Staying

Hello Friends and Family:

 

Well we had transfers today and.... I¨M STAYING! and so is my comp. I was a little stunned that my comp ended up staying also. I am a little bummed I was looking forward to getting a new comp. I guess the asistontos said that we were working so great together they decided to keep us where we were... It kind of bothered me because my comp... doesn´t do anything. He doesn´t help plan, he doesn´t help with our area book and we are pretty sure he´s saving the mission money. I´m a little bummed but I know there is still something I haven´t learned with him. We all thought for sure he was leaving this cambio.

 

Well this Saturday we are having our third baptism here in Coihueco. His name is Ignacio Lagos. He is completely stoked about getting baptized. He got to church yesterday 30 minutes Early. He was the kid that asked the young men's leader what he had to do to be part of the church. We told him he had to come to church yesterday or he couldn´t be baptized. It was really funny. He told us he had one and only one thing planned this week. GO TO CHURCH. He has gone to every young men's activity and has completely loved it. We planned everything for this Saturday for his baptism.

 

This week we had a mini cambio with my DL. We found 8 news and taught 7 lessons in one day. It was awesome. We went to go visit a family that is less active and they have about 5 boys from about 18-8. About three of them were playing soccer in a dirt soccer field. They had played there so much that the dirt had been turned into straight dust. They had all been trying to use the Chilean multi tool, the broom, to sweep off all the dust. My DL looks at me and says, ¨We have to play.¨ It was our last hour and a half in the day and had basically taught all the lessons we needed. We stopped and played with them for a little while. I have never laughed so hard in my life. The 8 year old of the family loves to play goalie and has a pair of gloves that are huge. He rolls and dives to block the ball from going in. It was hilarious it looked like he was eating dirt. They had been playing with a volleyball that the cover was starting to come off... The dust pretty much stuck to the ball. The elder I was with is from Antofogasta, Chile and plays basketball for Chile professionally. He´s a pretty big kid. One of the little kids kicked the ball and my comp starts to run for it while it´s in the air. He thought it was going to go farther and didn´t notice but the ball fell directly on the back of his white shirt. There was a circle of dust on his shirt all of the little kids were busting up laughing.

 

Now I realize It probably wasn't the best use of our time but It really bugs me when we walk past a group of kids playing and we only look at them say Hi and keep walking. We justified our actions by saying that we were planting seeds. My DL said there are tons of missionaries that pass little kids playing like that all the time. They start to believe that we are robots and can´t have any fun. I have always thought that was true. He said that maybe it won't be right away but those kids will remember the two guys in white shirts that stopped to play soccer with them. He said that maybe later on we will contact there houses and they will remember that experience and will let us in to teach them. He told me that he never thought he would people in some of the ways they have. He said they worst way to find people is by contacting door to door. He was a rapper in Antofogasta... The other day he and his comp were walking down the street and saw a group of kids listening to music and rapping. He walked over with his comp and starting acting like a gringo saying he wanted to rap with them. He busted out with a rap and he said by the end all the kids took out there phones and were recording it. They later passed by one of the kids houses and he let them in. The next lesson the whole family of 6 was there listening. 3 weeks later they were baptized. He Said he never would have guessed he would have found a family by rapping.

 

The other day while we were teaching a less active family it started pouring rain. We were really confused because when we walked into the house the sun was shining and was perfect. We walk out 35 minutes later and its pouring. We didn´t have anything to protect against the rain and we had to run to our house to get umbrellas. We were soaking wet when we got to the house. We got home, changed clothes, and left with the umbrellas. We were visiting another family when all of a sudden the lights go out.  I guess a tree got hit by lightning and fell on some power lines and killed the power in all of Coihueco. We ended up having to go home because it was pitch black and people had starting stealing stuff. I guess whenever a natural disaster happens its a free pass to steal stuff... We ended up going home an hour early and had to plan by candle light. Tell Chris thanks for the Flashlight. The little thing is amazing.

 

We did all hear that Mitt Romney had lost the election. I think the missionaries should be able to vote. Then he would have won. A lot of people down here were saying the Mitt Romney had made a lot of racist comments and that´s why he lost...?

 

I´m excited for Alex. That will be great for him. We have a missionary here serving in Brazil and he sends his family pictures all the time. It looks awesome. He sent his family a picture of a city where I guess Michael Jackson filmed a music video. The houses were all different colors and it looked really cool. Tell Alex to take lots of pictures.

 

We have a meeting in the church with Ricardo tomorrow. We are going to be straight up with him and ask him what would keep him from being baptized. He seriously goes to church every Sunday and goes to every Activity.

 

Tell Grandma and Grandpa Kratchen they need to save me some ribs and some pork in the freezer till I get home so I can have my last rack of ribs and pork sandwich from the Cafe pig. What did they end up doing with their boat? They are getting rid of everything before I even get home. Tell them to slow down a little.

 

I did get the picture of the snow. I would kill to roll around in it. I has been about 80 to 90 degrees this week, with a little rain.

 

Today while stuck in the house because my comp never wants to do anything, I decided to clean out our fridge. The ice around the freezer was about 3 inches thick. I unplugged it and threw hot water on it to clean it out. I sent pictures so you could see how bad it was.  I also sent a picture of Elder Carvajal from Antofogasta. Sounds like his family is pretty rich... I guess they live on the beach in Antofogasta. He said I had a room at his house when I came to visit Chile. I also sent a picture of Elder Coronado.

 

Well We are hoping to have about 5 baptisms this next cambio. We are teaching a family of 4 that the oldest son is a member but the mom and 2 sons aren´t members. Their names are Evelin, Rodrigo and Cristobal. They have come to church three weeks in a row.

 

Well not much else happening. Love you all and miss you tons.

 

Elder Torgersen

Hello Everyone:

 

Well how is everyone doing? We are now in the last week of the cambio. We will find out Sunday night/Monday morning if I will stay in Coihueco. My leaders told me the other day there is a really good chance I will stay and my comp will go. We never know. Anything could happen... But my ZL´s called last night to ask how many beds and tables we have in our house. There is a chance that we could have just opened this sector for 4 missionaries. There´s a chance they could split us up, put me with a new comp and put a sr comp with my comp right now. It would really help us out if there were four missionaries here. I´m really getting sick of everyone looking to me to do everything. Sundays are about to kill me. Everyone is always saying ¨Elder, Elder!¨ It´s never my comp it´s always me. And pens must not exist here... I have learned to buy crappy pens because people are constantly asking us for pens. I made the mistake to pass a pen to someone and next thing I knew they were gone. It drives me nuts. No one ever has pens.

 

Halloween here obviously isn´t what it is in the states. People put on costumes that were really cheesy and nobody did anything cool. Just basically walked around asking EVERYONE for candy. I say everyone because they were even asking us.... We had just left a house and were practically running to our next cita and a group of little punk kids says, ¨dulce o travesura¨ My comp gets the genius Idea to say ¨Travesura¨ In the mean time I´m talking on the phone with the recently returned missionary that is now our 2nd counsellor to see if he can come with us this week to a lesson. Next thing I know I feel something hard hit my shoulder blade. I turn around and a little kid chucked an egg at me. Luckily it didn´t break. But... the little kid picks it up and hucks it again. This time hitting my backpack... Egg shatters getting my backpack, back, legs, and the backs of my arms covered in egg. There was a young kid that is a member walking by at the same time and he chased the kid down... I don´t know what happened to the kid but a lot of people saw it happen and yelled at the little kid. We walked into a negotio or little store and asked if they had any paper towels. The guy working there said if it had been him he would have chased him down and beat the crap out of him... lets just say that was the edited version of what he said. ha ha

 

This last week I decided that since door to door contacts wasn´t working we would call some old numbers in our phone. I called a couple people and some of them had really dumb excuses or just hung up on us. Then I called a girl named Fabiola. I told her we had a lot of numbers in our phone from people that were sharing with the missionaries and we would like to pass by her house. She basically then say´s ¨elder wait wait. I´ve been a member for a long time... I´ve been baptized and even sealed in the temple. I then find out that it is the sister of our president... the sister that was in Los Volcanes. The family that I got to know really well. Her brother is the handicapped kid that would pass the sacrament in Los Volcanes.  She had a good laugh but was glad to hear we were doing good here in Coihueco.

 

Last Monday the leaders in the mission had a meeting with the MP. I guess during this meeting he talked about stepping up and working harder. I guess he used me as an example in the meeting with all the ZL´s and DL´s. My ZL and DL said that president is freaking out about how much success we are having here. MY ZL´s told me... I have no idea what you are doing but president pretty much loves you right now. This last week we focused on Less actives and Members and we got a family and 2 other people to church along with 4 INV´s. We got the church attendance from 35 to 55 this last Sunday. It was awesome. The MP and the Asistontos are really excited with the work we have done.

 

We found a LA (less active) member this week and she asked us If we could baptize her two sons... We told her... ¨umm let us think about it for a second... YES!¨ only problem is her youngest son is only 7 but turns 8 in March. We are going to talk to her about baptizing the 12 year old first and wait for the next son.

 

We had a costume party in church on Friday and we invited a lot of LA´s and INV´s we got bunch of crap because we were celebrating the birthday of Satan... blah blah blah. We ended up playing really funny games, the members danced (while we sat and watched) and then ate food and drank soda the members and our INV´s had a blast. It was really fun. Except for the dance... Since we couldn´t do anything.

 

This last Sunday was AWESOME!! With the success we had with numbers and the people that came. Daniella the RC of about 3 weeks got up and gave her testimony. It was AWESOME. She was a little nervous but she got up and bore her testimony like a pro. Me and my comp both looked at each other with surprised looks.

 

Well, we should have another baptism this next week and we are trying to figure out what is going on with Ricardo. He comes to every activity and church every Sunday but is really having a hard time with his family. He is 25 years old and I guess his family is really bugging him about going to church and everything. We are going to meet with him on Thursday with a member and try to get him baptized this month. Sister Humphrey said we need to be loving but really firm and open with him. Pray that our meeting with him goes well.

 

The drunk guy that kicked me is in jail right now. I thought I told you guys. He got picked up by the carabineros and is now in jail for 3 months.  Still haven´t gotten Halloween packages. I already ordered G´s, don't need more.

 

This week we are going to focus on finding more people to teach. We had to drop a couple families that weren´t progressing.

 

Well thank you all for everything. Love you all and miss you tons.

 

Elder Torgersen