Well... quickly tickin down....

Hello Friends and family!

This week has also been a week of mixed emotions. Not sure what to think about it. 

Well lets start off at last Monday after I had written you... I got the cambios in the morning telling me that we were both being taken out of Conce. We had no idea why either. I was also going back to Chillan but not as a ZL. I was ticked all day thinking, what the crap did I do? Then I got a call from Pres saying he wanted to meet with me at 7. The whole time I was thinking what the crap did I do..? I got into the interview and he asks me how I felt. I told him the truth... I told him I felt a little jipped and screwed over. I told him All the missionaries in conce had been looking at me like I did something disobedient all day in centro. and that It was really ticking me off. He then explained to me the reason why... 

He told me my next comp was very humble. He is Mexican from Tijuana. He was abandoned by his parents when he was really young and only has a 3rd grade education, and has troubles reading. He was picked up by a bishop of the church and brought into his family. Pres told me he is really special and his comps have gone crazy with him. Pres had felt that he needed to put me with him. He explained to me that when He stuck me with Elder Coronado he progressed a ton. He told me that Elder Coronado was in a city where the missionaries are allowed to go to the temple. He ended up doing the temple work for his dad that had passed away and was working really hard. He thanked me for what I did to help him out. He told me... I don´t care what the other missionaries say you are going there because I felt a strong impression to put you with him. 

I have learned some great lessons this week. We aren´t only called to be missionaries to help out Inv´s and wards... We are also called to help strengthen our companions. I have been completely humbled this week. But I have still had some mixed emotions about the whole situation. President told me... It doesn´t matter what others think... You have been senior comp, trainer, DL, and ZL. You can still go home and tell every one that you were all of those. Don´t listen to what others say you have been called there for a reason.

Well this week has definitely been different. It has been a little difficult. New area, new comp, new house, new members. It really sucks to be changed the last cambio of my mission and have to get to know everyone again. 

Well this week we put 10 with baptismal dates, and are getting a family married so they can get baptized. We are super stoked. I also found out a family in Linares is getting baptized on Saturday and they want me to go and baptize them. The assistants are going to talk to pres to see if I can do it. I´m way excited because I knew they were going to get baptized.

Well not much else going on... Love you all and miss you tons. Tell dad thanks for the separate emails. It´s nice to learn about what he is doing!

Elder Torgersen

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1 Cambio left (1 transfer left)

Hello Friends and Family!

This week has been pretty crazy! Lot´s of stuff happening.

Tuesday we had a mini cambio with a DL and I had to go and do two interviews. We got to the sector and went to the first interview... We knocked on the first persons door and she didn't answer. We then tried calling her... didn´t answer. We were extremely frustrated because she had set the time and she wasn´t there. We then went through the day with lessons falling every ten minutes. We were so ticked. We ended up doing a ton of contacts and not having very much success. We then went to the second interview... We get there and one of the sons says she can´t talk to us because she is sleeping. We walk out and think what we can do... We decide to knock again and a different son answers the door and tells us to walk in. The lady comes walking down the stairs and starts saying she isn´t ready to get baptized and is freaking out at us. (I thought she was crazy) We finally get her to chill out and I finally get her to sit down to interview her. She ended up talking a ton and the interview went really long and she didn´t pass... She had been smoking and drinking coffee. I swear I always get the crazy people to interview. Let´s just say it was quite the day.

Well this week we got to ride in an ambulancia... My comp got really sick... No just kidding. Haha Valentina's sister drives an ambulance and we got to ride in the back of it. It was really funny. We took a bunch of funny pictures with it. It was a lot of fun though. 

So... this last week we had a lesson with Edith and her family. We had a really good lesson with her husband and her daughters. He still wouldn´t accept a baptismal fecha. He is too stuck on his catholic roots. We asked him when they got married what were the words they said... He said until death due us part... I think that hit him really hard. We asked him if he would rather stick to his roots or be with his family forever and he said his family. I think we were really bold and direct but I think It hit him really hard. I wouldn´t be surprised if he gets baptized here soon. We invited the daughters also but we think they are scared of what the dad will say. 

I have one cambio left and they decided to send me back to Chillan. We have no idea why they did all the weird cambios that they did. With the change of presidents and mission limits things have been crazy. Everyone is getting changed all around. I´m kind of frustrated about the change. A lot of missionaries are mad about the changes. 

Luis has a baptismal date for the 29th. He and a bunch of his family went up to the temple and he walked around the temple and really enjoyed it. He ended up buying EVERYTHING! BOM, Bible, Hymn book, etc... He even brought back a stack of the temple hour pamphlets with a calendar on it for everyone at church. It was soo funny.

I was surprised to see the pic of the cousins. Adam and Sam Are getting big. Adam looks like he´s starting to put on some meat. He looks pretty big. I still cannot believe how grown up India and Michael look! Michael Looks really happy though. 

Glad to hear it went well with the fam. Will send pics next week. Love you all.

Elder Torgersen

P.S. Will send pictures next week. 

Hello Friends and Family!!

Well... Where to start...

 

Tthis week started off really well. I´m really learning a lot from my comp. It has been a little difficult but I have been learning a lot. I really think there are benefits when you are Chilean. We have been getting into so many houses it is ridiculous. We contact a person and then start off saying ¨NO NO NO¨ and we ended up getting into the house and finish with them saying ¨SI, SI, SI¨ to a baptismal invite. I have never ever had so many things to do as a  missionary and have so much success in a sector. The lord really blesses us even if we are having to go to meetings and help other missionaries. 

We did have a really funny contact the other day though. We were contacting some apt´s and a lady with a huge cross around her neck is inside with the window open. We yell hola and she shakes her finger at us. We finally get her to come to the door and we offer her acard with Christ on it. She says no and starts ragging on us. My comp, being as direct as he is says, as believing in Christ, needs to be a little more humble and less of a jerk. She screams at us and she tries to close the door and my comp throws the card in the door as she slams it. We start to walk away and she swings the door open and crinkles the card and throws it at us and it lands like 2 feet from her. We had never laughed so hard. It is really sad how stubborn and mean some of the grandma Catholics are. 

We had a mini consejo with the DL´s included. President talked along with the AP´s. It was a really great experience for the DL´s. They really learned a lot. The numbers really took a spike up this week. We just gotta keep it going. 

 

On Friday, Valentina passed her Interview and She chose me to baptize her. Saturday we had the baptism and we had her whole family and her aunts and uncles there. We had the padrinos there also... I have no idea how to say that in English. The people when you get baptized catholic and they are there in place of your parents if something happens to them. I swear I am going to have to learn English again. The baptism went really well. She was really nervous though. The dad looks like he will be the next to enter into the water. Pray for him. His name is Adan.

We have taught some really good families this week. We found the brother of a convert of my comp from Chillan in Conce. His brother is going to help us baptize him and his family! We are really excited. There names are Roberto and Simonet. They have two of the cutest little girls. They look like a little Mormon family already. We also taught a lady named Dekty. She at first said she just wanted to hear the good word of god and we ended up getting her to commit to go to church. She came to church and stayed for the three hours... she absolutely loved it. 

It is really sad but in every ward I have been in they have had to beg people to do their Visiting teaching visits/ Home teaching. It is really sad how lazy people can be. It really ticks me off that a family can be really struggling and the H Teachers aren´t ever there for them. The bishop is really getting mad also. 

I sent home a package today... It had two PMG´s that I didn´t want to carry around a couple bags, and a couple Chilean Flags. There is a book on Spanish that Ethan can start to use to learn simple Spanish. 

I´m having mixed feelings about the wedding pics. I got pictures from a couple other people and he looked really happy. He just looks too young though. Still wish he would have served the mission first. How are the Browns doing? I´ve been talking to Cayden!

Well not much else happening. Well I gotta wrap it up here.. Time is about up. Love you all and miss you tons! 

Elder Torgersen

June 3, 2013

Hola Familia y Amigos

¿COOOOOMOOOO ESTAMOS!!? Well this week has been a blast! I have no idea why but it was. It has been raining all week and finally we have a little sunshine. We started the beautiful day off by playing a little friendly game of soccer. We had 18 elders Playing soccer. It was a blast. Not sure If I told you guys but we have a discount on the fields right behind our house and we can play really cheap. The soccer field is right behind our house and is a really nice Turf field. 

 

I didn´t have to do numbers today so I have a little bit more time. 

So the reason why the letter got there on Friday... On Monday night the cyber had problems and I was doing numbers and writing at the same time so it was freaking out. I clicked the send button and it said it was sent. Signed out, and left. We get a call from the AP´s saying we had to email them something on Friday... I sent the email and saw that there was an email in the drafts... Clicked on it and it was your letter. So I resent it... Sorry... Stupid computers down here are worse than the one we had in the family room. 

Congratulations to my lil bro! Good job kid you graduated... ¨Your a big kid now!¨ Now time to get the stupid Eagle project done and quit screwing around!! GET IT DONE!! Time is ticking away. By the way... Why wasn´t I offered money for my eagle?  I´m glad to see Chris gave him a $100 dollars in change. Better than $100 dollars in ones. Looked like I was going to go to a ¨club¨... That would be a little difficult with Quarters! haha

Good news with Luis! His wife who is a member is returning to church and is planning to go to the temple! Now they are all really pushing him to get baptized. He now has a date for the 29 of June! We had a really spiritual lesson with a couple of the family members. The grandma that is 95 years old is going to get sealed to her husband that passed away. The whole family is now planning on going. Really giving a little bit of urgency to Luis. He is really excited to get baptized. 

So scary story for the week... Friday we are walking into our Apartment and we say Hi to a guy walking in also. He doesn´t pay any attention to us and keeps walking my comp walks faster and walks in front of him off to his side and says hello again. The guy finally responds and my comp looks down at him and starts to walk really fast. I jog a little to catch up to him and He says ¨Walk... Faster¨ He doesn´t speak any English but managed to say that. I ask why and he says ¨Do it¨ We walk faster and we get to our stairs and I look back at the dude and he´s got something in his hand. My comp tells me it was a pistol. We had no idea who the guy was and why he was there and why he had a gun. He snuck in through the gate where the cars come in past the gate guys. We were a little nervous.

So we have an hermana in our ward that every Sunday we have to give one of her family members a blessing. There was a week that the two sets of elders had passed by her house and she asked them and us for blessings for the whole family! We are trying to figure out how to tell her that´s not quite how blessings work. She is a single mom and has a 15 year old daughter that has a 1 year old baby. I thought that was crazy! but every time we go there we have to give blessings to everyone! Any advice on how to handle that one?

This week we destroyed! We had over 64 lessons, 7 with fecha, 5 in church, 23 new people and a baptism this Saturday! if you can pray for Valentina. She is part of the Catholic family and is going to be the example for the rest of them.

Dad is right I have learned a lot in my mission that I will be doing later in Life and with my future family! I have learned a ton! I have been a little frustrated lately because I feel like a get these promptings and then they end up backfiring. I feel like I should talk to someone and they end up being a jerk to us!

Well the husband of Edith went to a high priest activity and loved it. His wife told us he was dancing with his wife and laughing the whole time. I guess he really liked it. His name is Omar.  Daniela and Javiera (the daughters) have started working and Edith says they don´t have time but we helped her realize that what we are doing is more important and she is going to start being more direct with them. Pray for them!

We have a mission conference with everyone and President is having his last talk with us before he goes home. I´m a little ticked that I have gone 2 years with one MP and the last cambio I´m here he´s leaving! Kinda bummed. I might see Jason mitton... Depends on if he gets here right when I leave or if he gets here earlier. If he gets sent to the outside I won´t see him at all!

Well not much else happening. Still trying to get used to my comp! Thank you for the puppy postcard and the letters. Tell Ainsley to make sure she is happy also! Goodness I can´t wait to see that little stinker! She is so dang cute and funny. Her letters are really funny!

Well I love you all and miss you tons!

Elder Torgersen

P.S. Hope you like our picture!

New Comp, Lots of Sucess

We did not think we were getting a letter this week but this showed up on Friday:

 

Hello Everyone!

Well as of this week I have gotten a new comp. He is from Santiago Chile and is about as tall as me but a little bit more heavy. He played soccer professionally before the mission. Everyone knows him as the really stubborn one that is always dropping the hammer on people. He was the one that was really kind of a jerk to me in Coihueco because he was my ZL. It´s a whole different story being on the other side. Now we are equals. haha I have busted up laughing every time he has called our districts. The missionaries are almost scared to talk to him. It is really kind of sad but it´s kind of funny.

I found out this last week that they closed Coihueco to Elders. There are now only sisters there. They said once I left nothing happened. They didn´t have any baptisms and nothing was happening. It is really kind of sad. I really hope that they can get someone in there that can help them out. 

Í´m glad to hear Ethan got ordained an Elder. Welcome to the Quorum! Sounds like it was quite the week of callings. Just hope I don´t get home and they throw a calling on me. Tell Ethan we both are going to go and take the ACT together to get it up. I just don´t have the attention span to sit there for four hours and take a stupid test. 

Tell Bailiegh to keep it up with the Tennis. Tell her to keep practicing. I´m excited to see her play.

Well.... We had a lesson this week with the Family Edith. Family Navarrete Rozas. We had a lesson with some members and it was really cool. The wife is basically begging the rest of the family to get baptized. I think it´s just about a matter of time before they fall in also. The dad, Omar, says he´s catholic but never goes and Is there every time we share. I think we will start to see a change in him. They just lent us two bikes so that we can get twice the amount of work done. We were 4 here but they had more missionaries leave this cambio than what got here. They had to close a couple sectors and take the elders out where there was 4. We are now in a house alone. We have got a huge area to cover now and we just took all of the old inv´s of the other sector. It has been crazy. We taught over 35 lessons this last week. It was so cool but we were running all over. 

We had a consejo today and were in Chillan until about 5. We just barely got home. We had a really good consejo with Pres, AP, and all the ZL´s. It is really cool to be on the inside of everything. You get to know all the secrets. haha

We are still waiting for Luis to get baptized. He changed his date again but said he was going to get baptized on the 29th of June. He promised that he was going to do it then. 

Well this week has been going really well. We are excited to get some people baptized. We are teaching a girl named Valentina that is really wanting to get baptized. Her whole family is catholic and we think she is a little nervous to do it. My comp told her that he was the first to get baptized and his whole family made fun of him and then they all started to fall in also.  We have been having lessons at Ediths house. They are really good friends now. I think The fact that Edith came to church 2 weeks and got baptized before Valentina is going to help her get to the water. Edith has got to be the best member ever. She has been telling all our investigator to get baptized and asking when they are going to do it... It has been so awesome!

 

 

I cannot believe how fast time is flying by. It is so crazy. I feel really wierd knowing that I am one of the older ones in the mission. I don´t like it. It really sucks that We go two years and get to the last 6 months and feel like I´ve learned a lot and get good at what we are doing and then we have to go home.

I´m excited about this next cambio with my new comp. We are going to destroy Conce. We got a lot planned to have a lot of success. 

Well got to go love you all

Elder Torgersen