Leaving for Chile

Hola familia!

 

How is everyone? Today is my last P-day here in the MTC. Yesterday we went through In-field Orientation. We spent all day in workshops and classes. We learned how to work with members and bishops and all kinds of different things in the field. Let's just say it was quite the experience... There are all sorts of people here in the MTC. Definitely some unique people... Somehow me and my companions always manage to sit next to the freaks of the MTC. Anytime we wait for Devotionals or anything we always sit by some crazy kid. I have no idea why.

 

This last week we got to go to a Workshop and use Ipod touches for an MTC tour. We learned about prophets and great missionaries in the church. It was really cool. We also got to use Ipad's during the in-field Orientation.

 

We have 2 days left here at the MTC. Also 2 days with my companions. I'm having mixed emotions about that. I'm excited for a change because they are both driving me nuts. One of my companions is a great singer but the other is completely tone deaf. He couldn't hit a not if his life depended on it. It's worse than Ethan's singing. I'm excited to get a change of things but nervous because I don't know near as much Spanish as I need to. I've never been so nervous in my life. After all the different baseball and football games I've had I've never been this nervous.

 

I was glad to see that Timpanogos won state again in soccer. That's pretty cool. It was weird seeing the pictures because I knew all of those girls. That's way cool though.

 

I got the package of shirts and stuff. Everyone here loves the Carmel corn, homemade strawberry jam and rolls. We all downed the rolls. Cristian also dropped off Los Hermanos salsa and chips! They were awesome! I've got a box of stuff I need to drop off to Rutland. I'm gonna miss getting packages every week.

 

We leave Monday at like 5 in the morning. Those two days are gonna be rough. I'm gonna be in a plane like all day. We are traveling with 11 people. My companion, Elder Anderson, is the travel leader.

 

I wrote a letter to Nicole last week and I had it in my front suit pocket. I had forgotten that during conference i had bought M&M's. I guess part of the wrapper got stuck in between the pages in her letter. She taped it to the outside of the letter and sent it back to me with a snickers wrapper inside. I thought it was pretty funny.

 

An Elder in my district told us a story about his older brother that served in Peru. He told us that when they picked him up from the airport they were driving in the car. His brother asked him if he wanted to see something cool. His brother stuck a saltine cracker on his tongue for a minute and all of a sudden a worm came up out of his throat. It freaked a bunch of people out in our district. He said that his brother had to take a pill called the "Bomb" to... lets just say clean him out. He told us some crazy stories about his brother and the nasty stuff he had to deal with.

 

Chad Lewis came and spoke to us a couple weeks ago and he told us that his family has a "Blessing book" that they write all of the blessings that they receive in it. I thought that was a pretty cool Idea. Also during last weeks Devotional we had a quorum of the seventy come. He told us that we were all serving missions for different reasons. He said that one of the reasons he served was because his family had a "Legacy". His Dad, Grandpa, Great Grandpa and so on had all been on missions. It made me think of all the people that have served on dad's side of the family. He then went on to say that maybe we were starting this legacy. It made me think of moms side of the family and hoping that I'm starting that legacy/example for Mom's side.

 

This week has been so stressful and I've been so nervous. I'm excited to finally have a change and get to Chile but I'm scared to death. I love you all and will talk to you hopefully Monday. I miss you ALL!

 

Con Amor,

               Elder Torgersen

 

-"En este familia, Servimos missiones"

Address in Chile

Elder Joshua Torgersen
Chile Concepcion Mission
O'Higgins 940, oficina 502
Concepcion
CHILE

Travel Plan

Hello Again!

I had to write again to tell you all that I got my travel plans today around lunch time. It looks like the flight is going to be a little rough. We leave on the 31st (ten days). We wake up and meet outside a building here at the MTC around 5 AM. Our first flight is from SLC to Dallas at 8:20 AM till 12:05 PM. From Dallas to Miami at 1:20 PM till 5:10 PM. We leave Miami at 9:20 till 6:45 AM in Chile, Santiago. And from Santiago to Concepcion at 8:25 AM till 9:30 AM. I arrive November 1st at 9:30!!!

 

We all ran to the mailbox once we saw that we had gotten our travel plans. It was like Christmas we were all so happy. I've spent the day writing letters and doing laundry.  I'm about to head to the Temple. I really enjoy that we get to go to the temple every P-day.

 

We got a new 2nd counselor in our branch presidency. His name is brother Warren. I guess he's a pretty good skier since he is in the World Hall of Fame for skiers. He has worked up at Sundance and I told him I've skied up there since I was little. He's been a ski instructor for awhile now. I told him after my mission I was going to go skiing with him. He's way nice and his wife is hilarious!

 

Well I'm now 30 minutes over my time limit so I've gotta go! I love you all!

 

Con Amor

Elder Torgersen

10 Days Left

Hola familia,

Como esta? Que tal? What has everyone been up to? I've got ten days left here at the MTC. I'm freaking out. I'm so nervous it's not even funny. I don't feel ready at all. I just recieved a letter from My mission president. This week has definitely been better than last week. I have really prayed to be able to understand and to speak the language better. We got into a TRC where we teach actual volunteers that come in. We had a lady from Argentina that was crazy fast at speaking. I understood quite a bit more than i thought I would. In one of our "investigator" lessons I started speaking without really having to think about it. I think I said maybe one word in English. It's definitely getting better but i still don't feel ready. The teachers are all BYU students that are RM's. If they don't have a district to teach they offer Tutoring. I have taken almost every opportunity to have them tutor me one on one. I think it is really helping. It is way fun. They are super nice and know exactly what we are going through.

 

I have enjoyed getting the letters and packages this week. Look like the little girls have been writing letters and drawing pictures. Sounds like Ainsley is excited for her baptism. That's so awesome! I'm excited for her!

 

 Thank you for all the packages! They are awesome! I love you all!

  

I was bummed to find out Traci wasn't pregnant. I had seriously prayed so hard that she would have another baby. That's such a bummer. I'll continue praying for them.

 

This last Tuesday we got to hear from Richard G. Scott. He was pretty funny. He was great. He told about how the apostles sit in a room with about 7 different computers. They bring up on the screen all the missionaries. They bring up a kid and pray for a prompting of where he should go. They go through and do this for every missionary. He told us a story about an elder that hadn't seen his dad since he was three. He got called on his mission. While knocking doors he knocked on one house to later find out that it was his dad. Elder Scott then went on to say that all of us were called to our mission for a reason. I hope that by the time I get home I will be able to know that reason. He also told us that when we get home... there's no more "hanging out". He told us to not waste time in finding someone to marry. That was probably the last thing to cross my mind here at the MTC. He had an amazing testimony. He basically told us that he was past the point of believing that he knew. It was sooo cool!! It was So strong!

 

Other than Richard G. Scott there hasn't been much new. I'm working on writing letters. I'm past my time limit so I love you all and miss you a lot!!

 

Con Amor,

                 Elder Torgersen

 

 We got an email from Elder Torgersen this morning.

 

Hello Family!

 

How is everyone doing? I've got quite the amount of stuff to tell you about this week. It's been pretty crazy! I'm glad you all liked my last letter. We all had a blast at Conference. I didn't quite get the pocket full of bin candy but we did stop at the vending machine to load up. Conference was great!

 

On Monday, another district in our zone left for their missions. The Branch President came in so we could sing to them and tell them good-bye. Each week we have class and dorm room checks. Our rooms have to be clean all the time so they come in once a week and check everything. The last week we had our room check on our P-day so I thought it was really stupid. Of course we had letters, clothes, backpacks, and shoes all over so we got marked down as not having a clean room. The papers then go to our Branch President. When he came in to say good-bye to everyone he had the stack of papers from people who's rooms weren't clean. He called me and my companions over and told us to follow him to an empty room. When we got in there we thought we were in trouble. He asked us about our room and why it was like that. We explained to him that it's normally clean and they had just checked it in the middle of our P-day. He understood and then went on to tell us that me and my companions were the new Zone Leaders. We will be the oldest district on Monday for 4 weeks. So we will get to be Zone Leaders for 4 weeks. We are pretty excited. We met with the old Zone leaders and they showed us how to do everything. We also got a bunch of stuff that had been handed down from Zone leader to Zone leader. We got a fan, a ladder for the bunk bed that each Zone Leader signs (normally the bunk beds don't have ladders), a bottle of Oil, pass along cards, and the Zone leader tie. It was quite funny.

 

Mom, thank you for the lint roller and other supplies... Although I wasn't too happy about the jump rope... I don't know how I'm sick the second week here and lose 7 pounds and gain 5 back and all of a sudden I'm fat...? Ainsley's letter was pretty funny though "you are fat, use the jump rope!" Also all of the conference talks are on LDS.org. So go watch Elder Hollands talk. I've watched it probably 8 times in the past couple days.

 

Let Traci know that I pray for her multiple times a day. In fact I pray for a lot of you multiple times a day. I miss that little stinker Morgan though!! That's hilarious that she says "on mission" when you ask her where I am. Glad to here she's still calling Ethan Chummy!

 

Like dad said in his last letter I'm pretty much to the "ground Hog Day" part of the MTC. Everyday is pretty much the same. I'm getting kind of bored of it and I want to just get out to Chile already. Nothing new has really happened. I'm going to head to the book store to see if I can print off pictures.

 

Well we are finishing up laundry so I'll finish up now. I love you all and miss you a lot.

 

Con Amor,

                Elder Torgersen

 

General Conference

Hola familia y Amigos:

Que Tal? Como estan? I couldn’t wait to write to you about the great and spiritual weekend I had this Conference weekend. The past two days have been amazing! The spirit has been so strong. We woke up Saturday morning and got breakfast. The lines were packed with hundreds of missionaries. After getting breakfast we went into the gym 2 hours before Conference started. We had to go in that early in order to get seats. It’s kind of crazy. We got to watch each session of Conference. The schedule for the past two days was pretty much breakfast, Conference, lunch, Conference , dinner, Priesthood, district meeting, bed. For today it was pretty much the same except instead of Priesthood we had a fireside. I don’t know how I did it but can honestly say I stayed awake during every meeting. (Maybe because the chairs were really uncomfortable)

I took a total of 16 pages of notes. I thought I would share some of my favorite talks and thoughts. My favorite talk out of all of Conference has got to be Elder Holland’s during Priesthood session. He is so serious and straight up with his talks. I absolutely loved it. Some things he said during his that I enjoyed were “We are at war against good and evil. Satan is real. He is eternally opposed to the work of God. This whole talk was so strong and I encourage all of you to watch/read it. He then went on to compare this war to sports. He said, “ You cannot play for the adversary and then suit up for the Lord. STAY ON THE LORD’S TEAM!”  This talk was amazing! I loved every second of it. Another part that got me thinking was at some point he said, “In this family…we serve mission!” That got me to thinking about all of the people in our family that have served missions. It is a wonderful experience to be out here serving the Lord. In the words of Elder Holland, “ What could be better than serving the Lord.”

Another thing I was excited to hear about was that Provo was getting another temple. I personally think the Lord started the fire in the Provo Tabernacle so that another Temple could be built. It was exciting to hear about all of the new Temples that will be built.

I felt as if almost every talk has something for me in it. I didn’t realize how many notes I had taken. I definitely felt the spirit strong these past two days.

After the morning session today, we had a chance to go on a Temple walk. While outside the Temple we met a Hispanic family that had come from Oregon to go to Conference and to see the Temple. Our whole zone was sitting under a  tree when this family started to walk by. The look in all their faces was wonderful.  The way they looked at us missionaries was awesome. They gathered their  whole family and wanted pictures with us. We got a second to talk to the family and little kids in the language we are all trying to learn. The moment was awesome. One of my favorite Temple walks for me.

We went on for rest of the day watching Conference. We were all a little bugged that they were making us sit in an uncomfortable chairs all day and then sit through a fireside. That was up until we found out who was speaking. Chad Lewis came to speak to us about his mission and football. It was a cool talk and he told us some great things. He told us that on our missions we are going to end up with weird companions but guess what you’re a little weird too. It was great learning about him on his mission. 

At the end of the meeting we sang a special “Called To Serve.” I almost cry anytime we sing this song because the spirit of 2700 missionaries singing it is amazing. This time we sang a special one that we start off singing really quiet and by the end we are standing and singing loud. The spirit was so strong I can’t even explain how great it was.

I can’t remember who said it (half my notes are in my class) but they said, “ There’s nothing in the world that is better or could make you happier than the spirit.”

I would like to share with you all of my experience but I don’t have time. I want you all to know that I know the church is true. Nothing in the world could make us happier than the spirit. I know because I have felt it a lot here in the MTC. We are so blessed to have the gospel and the spirit is our lives. I know that Thomas S. Monson is a true prophet of God and so are all of his Apostles. I love you all and miss you tons.

                                                            Con Amor, Elder Torgersen

“Let us be quick to prayer as we are to text”

“Devote our time to the things that matter most!”

THE LORD IS WHAT MATTERS MOST!