Zone Leader

HELLO FRIENDS AND FAMILY!

¨Brethren, shall we not go on in so Great a cause? Go forward and not backward. Courage, brethren; and on, on to the victory! Let your hearts rejoice, and be exceedingly glad.¨

"There is no more compelling work than this, nor any which brings greater satisfaction. We challenge you to rise to a new sense of commitment to assist our Father in Heaven in His glorious work." -PMG

He aquí, yo me encargaré de vuestros rebaños, y levantaré élderes y los enviaré a ellos. He aquí, apresuraré mi obra en su tiempo.

Behold, and lo, I will take care of your flocks, and will raise up elders and send unto them. Behold, I will hasten my work in its time. DyC 88:72-73

The Lord is really hastening his work isn´t he? Wow!! We have received some crazy news!

 

Well big news today! I have officially lost 3 weeks of my mission. I´m not quite sure what to think about it... but I thought I would be stuck here in Coihueco for another Cambio... But...

Last night while I was calling my District for numbers one of the elders said that the mission has just been changed. Like you said there are now a lot more missions and a lot more missionaries. We have all been shifted down a couple cities in our mission. Santiago now has a Santiago Sur mission and Rancagua has been shifted down a bit. Rancagua has now taken every city North of Linares. We gained to Stakes in the South of Conce called Talcahuano. While calling for numbers I figured this out... I hang up and am talking to my comp when All of a sudden I get a call... GUESS WHO IT IS...! PRESIDENT HUMPHREY! I can tell you what that is one number you do not want to see show up on the day of cambios. He starts out asking me about the dog and my comp. Then leads on to say... Well Tuesday morning you will be on your way to Concepcion to be the next ZONE LEADER! I will be working right in CONCE!! 2nd biggest city in all of Chile!!! I´m a little nervous and thinking president has gone nuts... But I will be working with Elder Baucom (gringo) in Conce right next to president in the office. I´m really excited! Conce is supposed to be really difficult but I´ve always wanted to be there!

Well this week has been a whole lot better. Our numbers were a lot better and we felt a whole lot better. 

This week while I was washing dishes, I took a couple old sponges, threw them away, look up go to grab something that I thought was one of the wire sponge things we use, look up and there was a spider that was about half the size of my hand! I can tell you right now... I really am getting sick of finding little furry, scaly, or crawling things in the houses. You can´t escape them. Every time we get in the shower there are slugs everywhere!! Seriously the mission houses are the worst here. Just to let you ALL know not everything is like the PMG videos where they live in nice apartments with stoves, weights, AC and heating, and couches. If you couldn´t tell we don´t have any of those. 

I´m glad to hear Ethan doesn´t have anything wrong. That really kind of scared me this week. I had been praying especially for him this week. Glad to hear he is alright and has been cleared to serve. :) 

I would kill to eat lamb right now. The lamb ribs I ate with that family the other day were amazing. I really wish we were able to do that in the states. Buy a lamb kill it ourselves, cook it, and eat it! It was so good! I´m really missing sushi! Maybe when I get to Conce they will have some good lunch places we can hit up on Mondays!

We had been teaching a family of three this last week. Sandra, the mom, and here two daughters Camila and Katherine. We ended up having a really good lesson on the Plan of Salvation. We had taught it before and they didn´t understand at all. We had a FHE with them and made brownies. I have never seen so many fights over a couple pieces of brownie! They all Loved it!

Any news about ELDER BRACKEN? He passed by yet?

Hey if you guys could please send me some of the family pics and senior pics!!

It´s amazing how happy or how frustrated you can be on Sunday! Lets just say Sunday was not a happy day. We had a total of 6 people that were going to go to church and we only had 2! It´s so frustrating when they don´t do what they say they are going to do!

We found out today a kid was killed 2 blocks from our house! We are not sure what happened but I guess the kid was hitting on some kids girl friend so the guy stabbed him and threw him off the bridge onto the rocks and water... Good thing I´m leaving haha

I have just received revelation and I think Ethan will be Going to Argentina haha .I have no idea why but I had a dream he went to Argentina! 

No letters about end of mission or anything. STOP REMINDING ME!!!!

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

Elder Torgersen

Hello Friends and Family!

This week was also another slow week. We are still trying to get used to everything. I still feel really weird training. I have no idea what our MP was thinking. It has been a couple frustrating two weeks.

Sorry it´s gonna be short again this week. We really haven´t had much happening.

Well to invite my new comp into the house... our water heater broke. We have now been showering with cold water, and a sponge. Our front gate also broke and we now have to open it from the inside. Luckily today the owners have been getting it fixed.

I had to go into a little town called San Carlos. My comp and a newby from San Carlos had to go to Conce for a newby conference. I ended up going to work with a couple elders in my District. I got to meet a bunch of their investigators. They are actually doing really well.

Yes I did let my BP cut my hair. I figured it was worthless to pay someone to do a crappy job and not pay someone and do a better job than paying for one. He ended up taking a number 2 to my whole head. I really kind of liked it. Something new.

I have really been struggling this week because of the whole training thing. It is really difficult because at times he thinks he knows everything. I have been open to his ideas so I have been trying to let him work how he wants and find out what works and what doesn´t. It has still been really difficult.

The two days I was in San Carlos was a little crazy. It has been blazing hot and with 4 crazy elders in one house... not good. 4 Elders in one house... each companionship had lunch in another part of town. We ended up getting back to the house late. We walk in the front gate, and all of a sudden... water hits me in the face and all up my tie. I look up to see an elder from Uruguay standing on the balcony with a squirt gun. It turned into a little water fight during lunch. Probably not something a bunch of elders should be doing but it was blazing hot and it kind of took off a little stress. We also short sheeted a couple of their beds and took apart a clogged and broken toilet (I didn´t help I laughed and watched.)

I found out while I was there I had to watch my back pack. I guess the last week they put a couple plates, liter of milk, and a bag of sugar in one of the other elders back packs. He had No idea until he got into a house and opened his bag. It was hilarious. They are a little crazy...

My companion Is Elder Rivas, six in his family, sister is serving in Osorno. Left at the exact time as him, All are members, still don´t have a picture. We haven´t really thought about that haha

It´s really cool to see all the mission calls. A lot of them are going stateside. Tell Ethan to stay excited.

Our investigators finally got back from Santiago. We are thinking we are going to have 3 more baptisms. I had a dream Last night they got baptized. We are really hoping they come to church this sunday. We have a FHE with them tonight and we are hoping to get them to come to church this sunday.

Love you all and miss you tons. I need some ideas for an activity that is simple and fun and something that is going to get members and inv´s there. We are getting sick of having Act´s and then no one shows up.

Well not much else this week love you all miss you tons!

Elder Torgersen

Training 1st Week

Hello friends and Family!

Well this week has been really slow and not too productive. Tuesday I took a bus into Conce to pick up my new companion. We all figured we would be training gringos. There were only 3 gringos training and we were pretty sure we would be training gringos. I was surprised to find out I would be training....

A Latino from Nicaragua. He is 18 years old and has a sister that is serving in Osorno. They left the MTC at the same time, started the same day. He does know a lot of English though so it has been pretty funny talking to him in English in the house. I have made sure we are being completely obedient. I´m not sure I like training though. haha its a whole different story. It is really a lot harder. It has been really funny though. He has been asking me if he can do stuff like eat, shower, and other stuff. I told him he doesn´t need to ask me, walk in the kitchen and get something. I has been really funny.

Well, I cannot believe how fast the time is flying by. I cannot believe I will be going home in August. It is really sad to think. I will probably only have one more sector. It has flown by. I have felt really weird this week... after seeing Elder Bracken leave and seeing how crazy that was... and then to see my kid just recently get here it reminds me of starting my mission and thinking it was never going to end and thinking how hard the language was. I´m just now feeling comfortable and good in the language and other stuff and before I know it I will be home. I had a really good talk with our BP. He just got home and is now the BP. He said it is a weird deal. You leave the MTC with obedience and diligence pounded into your head and you get here in the mission worried about yourself and making sure YOU are being obedient and studying for yourself and then you later move on to worrying about the families you are teaching and really studying to help them. I feel like I have really started to do that and I´ll be coming home soon.

I needed a hair cut this week and didn´t want to spend any money. Our BP Antonio has hair clippers and offered to cut my hair. I figured I would try it and try a new hair style. We were going to start out with a number 3 and ended up cutting with a number two. My hair is as short as I have ever had it. I really like it though...

I´m really excited to get home and see how everyone has changed. Sounds like Morgan is now a handful.

I was really devastated to hear that Sydney Bruning commit suicide. She always seemed so happy and cheerful. Her and her family and friends will be in my thoughts and prayers this week.

I have recently increased the Size of my district. We are now 6. AND we are ALL from different countries. It is really Cool.

We are USA= me,

Nicaragua= my comp Elder Rivas,

El Salvador=Elder Lopez,

Peru=Elder Vilchez,

Uruguay=Elder Bueno, and

Ecuador=Elder Lagla.

MINORITY!!!! First time I have ever been the only Gringo. It has been really funny because all of the missionaries are really cool. We are excited about this cambio. Only problem... cambio of 3 weeks. I have just lost the three weeks of my mission. Really sad.

Well I had my interviews this week and the people passed. It was kind of really awkward. We didn´t have chairs and had to sit on two beds that were next to each other. The room was blazing hot and we were dying by the time we got out. But I have gotten used to doing interviews and am starting to get a hold of the whole DL thing.

Well Not much else happening this week. Love you all and miss you tons!

Your Completely obedient missionary,

Elder Torgersen

Hello friends and family!

Well I´m extremely excited this week. We got the call this morning saying i´m staying in Coihueco and will be receiving a brand new greeny! Yes I will be training a newby! Which means hopefully I will have someone that will really actually try and help out.

I seriously hate the end of the cambio. It seems so slow because you are just wanting a new comp and wanting to get rid of the old one. I´m so sick of having to put up with his laziness. Luckily we will be going into Chillan tonight and will be staying with the ZL´s. Tomorrow morning we will be traveling to Conce to get my new comp.

Not really anything happened this week and it was really slow. I´m hoping next week goes a lot better.

A sister here in our branch told us something this week that made us really happy. She said that she has never seen two elders work so hard and have so much success in almost 5 years. It was really kind of funny but the sad thing is it´s true.

This week our president told the ZL that if every sector didn´t have 10 new people to teach and 3 in church they are basically failures. This week we were set with our goal of having three in church. We got a call Saturday night from the family of three saying that they had to leave to Santiago and weren´t going to be able to go to church. We had only found 4 news and needed six more. We were fasting to find the 6 more that we needed and weren´t having any success. We contacted for almost 3 hours and couldn´t get into a single house. We finally contacted a house of a family of 6... only problem... 3 were there. We ended up not getting our goals and called the zone leaders... they also hadn´t had any success.

Sunday we ended up going to a fireside that the dad of elder Bracken. I got one of his books free and took pictures with Elder Bracken and his dad. I got a picture with the Orange duffel bag also. It was really a cool deal. It was really funny but also really spiritual. They have family in Georgia and visit Destin Florida all the time. They also know the Hutchins. They connections they kept having with me were really weird. Elder Bracken is supposed to be passing by the house to meet you guys and to give you a bag of stuff. Gifts and everything.

I did get the package from grandma T. She came in clutch with the almond rocas. They were amazing. Tell her thanks. She should be getting a letter here soon and I´m working on some others.

Is there a Syndi Knowlton in our ward? I got a letter from her that was really cool. I guess she has 3 kids and each one of them has a certain disorder or handicap. The letter was really good. I´m also writing her a letter also.

This Sunday was awesome for us. Even though we didn´t have any INV´s in church, we had a bunch of RC get up and bare their testimonies. It was really cool.

Well not much really happened this week. Kind of a lame letter. I am excited to head to Conce to get my first kid. I´m gonna be a daddy! haha I´ll see how it goes this week. I´m really excited we have some pretty important lessons this week and I have two more interviews. Lets just hope they aren´t members already... Or gay.

Love you all and miss you tons.

Elder Torgersen