Last week, last letter

Hello friends and family

Well... not sure what to say... Last week here in the mission and I´m just about going crazy. I´ve got a mix of emotions. I want to come home but I´m going to miss the happiness and even the upsets of the mission. It has been something I have never felt before. The bishop made me give my testimony in sacrament meeting even though I  have this next Sunday to do it. And of course I cried... Every member after kept asking me if I seriously was going home in a week. I don´t feel like its coming to an end.

Well this week was a disappointment. The lady that we had with a baptism date for the day I left got sick and now can´t be baptized. We were really bummed that she couldn't go. Well... it has definitely taken some patience to work with my comp.

This week we had an elder get emergency transferred... lets just say flirting with girls in your ward in front of the stake pres... is A STUPID IDEA... He got transferred and only has a week left also. I had told the AP´s about it and they had given him one chance left... He went on ahead and did it still. He got transferred out and another gringo got transferred in.

I am finding it extremely hard to stay awake and not fall asleep. I feel like every day I have less energy. I don´t plan on waking up early, shaving or walking the week I get home. 

This week we are going to work the hardest we have ever worked. I realized that I will probably not baptize again. but I figured I´m going to do all I can to leave the sector the best I can before I leave. I have completely re done our map and put on it where all the members live and all the INV´s live. My Comp has no idea what he is doing and is still completely lost here in the sector. It is really kind of sad.

Well I have no idea what to say... I love you guys and will see you... Next week...

Elder Torgersen

Hello friends and family!

This week has been extremely hard. I have never been so mad, frustrated and just ready to come home. Problems with INV´s, comp, ward, and just about everything else. I wish we could serve a mission with how it was back in the day. Without so many goals and leaders watching over you and telling you what to do. I´m about ready to drop one of the AP´s with have and the two ZL´s here. 

Well...My comp is driving me nuts... still. He thinks that he is the perfect missionary but has yet to open his eyes and see that he is one of the problem missionaries. He is constantly saying stupid stuff and the members don´t like him at all. I have had a couple mini cambios and the members have asked a ton of questions. I have had to apologize to the members for the way he acts! I have to ask the members and INV´s to turn off the TV or he gets sucked in immediately. 

I have found a new hobby!! Something that not only is really fun but that is going to help me keep the spirit when I get home, maybe keep me out of trouble also haha. I have started Indexing and I freaking love it. I have been going every Thursday morning to help out a little ol lady in the church with indexing. I have been reading Chilean papers from 1890 and writing in all the info. It has been so much fun. I will for sure be doing it when I get home. I promised the little ol lady I would continue helping out with my Chilean brothers from the states. 

We contacted all week and didn´t have any success up until Saturday night at 9:00. Last house that we contact the lady lets us in and accepts a baptismal date and says she will go to church on Sunday. We ended up getting her to church and she loved it. If everything goes well she will be baptized the night before I come home. We were really excited. We hadn´t had any success and finally last minute we find someone. I had been really discouraged because my comp just doesn´t learn. He struggles talking to people and says the same thing in every contact. 

This week had been really tough though. The members know I only have 2 weeks left and keep bugging me about it. If we go to their house to eat lunch or visit they talk about home and stuff and we lose a ton of time. I have decided we are going to  take as little time as possible there in their houses. We did have a member take us to lunch today and we ate sushi. We all four ate over 40 rolls of sushi. It was really good. 

I am having mixed emotions about coming home. I´m ready to take the next step and get studying and working but don´t want to leave teaching the people I have come to really love. There are so many members and INV´s that I´m gonna miss a ton. I´m just happy that the technology will allow me to keep in contact with them.

Well I am excited to work my butt off these next two weeks. Love you all and see you really soon 

Elder Torgersen

One more baptism!

Hello friends and family!

This week has been really crazy. We have had so much to do. Well were to start at...

Tuesday we had interviews with the New president president Arrington. Interviews went really well. It went basically how I planned it would. I explained to him the reason why I was here and that I was the ZL in Conce but came to help out my comp. He basically told me that I needed to keep working hard and being an example for my comp. He said to keep working hard and finish strong... See you in 3 weeks... It went just as I thought it would. 

We had the interview for Tatiana and she passed on Tuesday. She had been smoking about 15 cigarettes a day and has completely stopped now. We are really excited for her. She was wanting to get baptized as soon as possible. She was literally crying during her baptism she was so happy. It was a really great baptism.

Thursday morning we went and got the couple married. Only bad news... the dad left and went drinking for three full days and was plastered for a couple days. We don´t understand. He had been doing so well... and then he goes and blows it like that. We were ticked. His wife told us if he showed up to the house she had a two by four in the back room that she was gonna swing across his head if he walked in the front door. She wasn´t happy at all.  

We were having problems figuring out when we could do the baptism. The bishop was giving us a little trouble with when we could do it. He´s not even in charge of the baptisms pres Arrington is. But Tatiana wanted to do it Saturday so we did it Saturday. He wanted to do it Sunday so there was more people... but then she was gonna have to wait a week to receive the spirit. She was gonna need the spirit to help fight back smoking temptations. She was confirmed on Sunday and her daughter ended up coming to see it. It was really cool.

Last night we had a mini FHE with her, her daughter and a neighbor. We are going to start teaching the neighbor and hopefully the daughter. The daughter comes down every weekend from Conce so she could come to church. 

It´s a bummer we can´t do the homecoming and farewell the same day. Dang I´m bummed now. See what you can all do.

Ask Baileigh if she read the book. The answers to the test are just common sense. tell her to read the book completely!

I´m feeling 80% better and the package did arrive. Pop tarts made it safely and the peanut butter is amazing. I have been taking the pills daily and they have been really helping. 

Glad the cousins made it to their new missions. That´s really exciting. Hope they are doing well. 

This week we are going to focus on finding new people and getting the family baptized. Miguel Maria and Yolanda. pray that they get their answer to their prayers. They are really struggling. 

Well not much else happening. hope everyone is doing well. I love you all and miss you tons. 

Elder Torgersen

Well...4 weeks left

Hello Friends and Family!

Well this letter is going to be extremely short. I only have a couple weeks left here in Chile and I have a ton to do. I spent a lot of time making a going away picture card that I am going to give out to members and converts. 

Well this week I ended up getting sick. I have no idea why but I ended up getting sick on Thursday night and woke up Friday throwing up. Lets just say it wasn´t very fun. 

Well the family we are teaching is losing interest and we aren´t sure what to do. We are a little bummed.

Well we are still teaching Tatiana and she should get baptized on Saturday. We are really excited for her. She has stopped smoking and wants to get baptized ASAP. We are really excited for her. 

Well the things continue with my comp. I managed to hide his watch a couple days to see how it went and then he just constantly asks me what time it is.

Well I can´t believe how fast time has flown by. I don´t really have desires to write anything... 1 because nothing happened and 2 I will be seeing you all really soon. (not trunky) 

We have interviews with the new president tomorrow and I´m not sure what he is going to say... I think he will just tell me... ¨Well see you in three weeks... don´t be trunky!¨ Its a bummer I don´t really have time to get to know him.

Well We found out today that I will not be able to go back to old sectors to say goodbye to Converts we are all kind of frustrated because two of my sectors are in Chillan. 

Well thank you all for the support and prayers. I will write more next week.

Love you all and will see you soon.

Elder Torgersen

Flight plans already...Come on

Hello friends and family!

This week was a little better than the last week. Until I got here into the cyber and saw the flight plans...

I´m starting to be able to control my comp and the weird stuff he does. I swear he has OCD. He is always so tense and is constantly looking at his watch. He is so worried about being obedient that he isn´t. He is constantly calling others out on what they do wrong but thinks he´s perfect. It has been a struggle. He keeps asking why i´m here and cant find the way to tell him that he is one of the problem missionaries in the mission. 

He has a year and about 3 months and hasn´t changed at all. I´m not quite sure what to do with him. It´s driving me nuts because he is always saying i´m disobedient for the smallest thins. Like trying to calm down a screaming baby that our INV has in church. We visited a member the other day and you could tell she had just had it with her kids. She has three sons all below the age of 5. They were driving the mom nuts and while we were there I picked up a crying kid off the floor and sat him on the couch to calm him down and he told me I was ¨Chueco¨ in front of the family. It´s starting to drive me nuts. He is obedient in somethings and in others not. He is also scared of everything. He swears someone is always following us and that everyone in the street past 7 wants to kill us. I swear he walks worse than a drunk guy. He couldn´t walk in a straight line if his life depended on it. He is constantly walking into me. I keep thinking of D. &. C 121:7-8 where the lord says to Joseph smith.  

 My son, ^apeace be unto thy soul; thine ^badversity and thine afflictions shall be but a ^csmall moment; 8 And then, if thou ^aendure it well, God shall exalt thee on high; thou shalt triumph over all thy ^bfoes.

Sorry just had to vent a little.

Well this last week the new MP got here and went through the whole mission to meet everyone. He is really short but a really powerful guy. I swear he scanned everyone with the glare he gave us all as he met us. He is really excited to be here. I had to give my final testimony in the conference and of course I cried in front of everyone. Thanks dad for the lip tremble... Missionaries did the same stupid shout out to all of their friends and comps in their testimonies. Makes me want to punch people in the face. Ticks me off. Make sure and tell Ethan If he gives a shout out during his talk I will stand up during his talk and slap him across the back of his head. No Lie! :) I feel like that is just stupid that people have to do that. 

We went to lunch the other day and there was a parrot in the house. It would fly down and land on your head or on your shoulder. Let´s just say I felt straight up like a Pirate. It was so cool.

Well the house where we live has a wood stove and we have firewood... SO the house isn´t freezing, and i´m not dying during the night. It has been pretty cool. we get home and start it up and put bread on it to heat up to eat after planning. 

I have been so tired lately I have no idea what to do. I have been taking Multivitamins and getting enough sleep but i´m just so tired. I have no idea what to do... Suggestions?

Well we are teaching a family of three that is getting married on the 18th and baptized on the 20. We are super stoked for them. there names are Miguel, Maria and Yolanda. Yolanda is 15 and has a 5 month old baby already. She is really struggling. But we are helping them out. We got a reference from the other ward of a lady named Tatiana. We had been teaching her and the 3rd lesson we had with her she asked if she could get baptized on Sunday. All she wants to do is get baptized. She is smoking and that is the only thing that would keep her from doing it. Pray for her. She is awesome. The only thing is she lives alone and is often kind of lonely and when she feels alone she smokes. 

We had 5 people in church with 4 progressing to baptism. We are really excited. 

Still have not gotten the package. But did get Ethan's grad announcement. Tell people to stop sending mail. I´m not sure what they do with the mail If i´m not there to get it. 

Everyone keeps making zombie and death jokes. There are three off us in our Zone that are ¨dying¨ and everyone is giving us crap about it. It is quite funny though. 

Well I love you all and miss you tons.

Elder Torgersen

Baptims in Linares

6 weeks left....

Hello friends and family!

This week had some ups and downs. This week we went and confirmed the hour to marry the couple we are teaching. We had to go down to the city building with witnesses and we confirmed the hour. They are getting married on the 18th and baptized on the 20th. We are really excited for them. The whole family will be baptized on the 20th.They all went to church this week and loved it. 

We received a reference from the other ward that meets in our building and we passed by her the other day. Lets just say she was golden. She went to church yesterday and she loved it. She stayed for all three hours.

Being the 5th Sunday of the month we had to teach the 5th class... only problem is they told us in the second hour. about 15 minutes before the third hour. We ran into the secretary and downloaded the videos from the mission conference last Sunday and we watched a couple of the clips from it. Like the family sharing the gospel with everyone. The members were crying, including our reference that had gone to church. She told us after she was going to share the gospel with everyone. It was so cool. And of course during the class i bore my testimony of sharing the gospel from before the mission and started to cry and everyone was teary eyed. After the class everyone was offering to hold family nights in their houses and we got a couple references. 

On Saturday I got to travel back to Linares. I had thought the family I had been teaching had forgotten about me. But they wanted me to go and baptize them. I got there and they were really happy to see me. The youngest daughter didn´t want to have the interview but once they took out the baptismal clothes she wanted to do it. It was way cool to be able to stay in the water and baptize one right after another. It was so cool. The only problem is that the dad wasn´t ready but is slowly progressing. We ended up eating lunch at their house and leaving. The mom the last time was mad because I wouldn´t give her a hug. I figured since I was leaving soon and probably would never see them again I decided I would hug her goodbye. They were really sad to see me go. It was really kind of sad. They said if I ever come back they got 4 motorcycles and horses waiting in the campo for us. 

My comp is about to drive me nuts. i´m ready to take a hammer to his stupid watch. I really want to hide it for the cambio. Only problem is he always wears it. He is so worried about the time that he constantly looks at it. It drives me nuts because we are in a lesson for 10 minutes and he´s already looking at it. Members have called him out on it saying it´s rude and to stop. I have also told him to stop and he still does it. He keeps asking me why I was sent here to be his comp if I was a ZL. I have no idea what to tell him. I don´t want to say... Oh I was sent here to basically help you out because you are a trouble missionary. It´s a little difficult. He does a bunch of little stuff that drives his comps nuts. He´s like selectively obedient. He´s really strict on some rules and just doesn´t obey others. Its definitely the hardest comp I have had. 

This week has rained everyday. I got home on Thursday night and was soaking wet. My agenda was soaking wet and I couldn´t read any of the writing in it. 

So there was this kid that just finished his mission that is here in Chillan to learn Spanish. He served in Washington English speaking. We had been talking to him and helping him out with his Spanish. We found out he was from Park City. I just barely found out... his dad is the owner of Skull candy. He is going to go to BYU Jerusalem. I told him he needs to help me with getting into BYU. He said now... anyone can get in. He said campus is empty. He knows a bunch of ways to get scholarships and money and stuff and is going to help me and the other missionary here get into BYU. He´s really smart! I think you guys have changed my mind about BYU. I´m gonna try for it. 

Well this week we have a mini cambio with our DL and he is going to come and meet the family we are teaching. We are struggling to find new people. We found a family that is Adventist that we are hoping we can get to church. 

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

Elder Torgersen