General Conference!!

Hello Friends and Family!

Well how is everyone? How was Conference weekend? Conference weekend is always like a spiritual recharge. This week was a lot of fun.

Well this morning we woke up at about 7:00 to go to the church to make about 65 pieces of french toast. I was Chef Torgersen today. We decided we were going to do a Zone activity. We played soccer and made french toast. It was really good. We each had about 6 slices. We ate them with syrup and manjar (basically caramel) They were amazing and all the Latins loved them. 

This last week we had a missionary leave from our ward to go to Mexico City for his mission. He ended up getting his visa earlier than expected. He needed Dollars quickly and I had a $180 I ended up trading dollars for pesos. Hope that´s alright. His mom was freaking out. He still had at least a week or so until he had to go. He was really worried... He was asking us all kinds of questions. His farewell thing was really spiritual.

This last week we passed by the family Cantero. They had been really struggling. We could tell they had been through a lot this past couple weeks. While we were there the mom got a call from the husband and she asked who was going to buy bread... Luckily for us there was a negotio right below their house. We ended the lesson, ran down stairs, bought a kilo of bread. And booked it up the stairs. As we are running up the stairs we walk into the son that is walking in to his house. We talked to him and hid the bread. He walked in and we waited a couple minutes. I run up the stairs, basically hit the door with the bread and tied it to the door knob. We then booked it back down the stairs. We are really excited to see what they say. 

We were really excited about conference this weekend. It was a great chance for us to get people to church and listen to the prophets voice. We ended up having a lot of success getting people to church as a zone. We had a lot of people that got to hear the prophet and hear his testimony. We had a INV get to church and find a friend she had from when she was like 15 that she hadn't seen in about 30 years. It was really cool because as we were walking in she asked about this guy and we told her we didn´t know him. She said he was a Mormon and served a mission and she lost contact with him. After the conference guess who she runs into. We are hoping to get him into helping us by getting her baptized. It was a small miracle that we saw this week. 

Well Conference was awesome. We ended up watching all the sessions in the high counsel room with the big wooden desk and cushy chairs. We all took lots of notes and President came to Priesthood session and He and his wife came to the session on Sunday with us. Hrna Humphrey ended up making us all chocolate chip cookies. I feel like the Zones around Conce are Babied. It´s kind of sad. It is amazing and really funny that 8 gringos in a room alone can stay absolutely silent for two hours while taking notes. It was a really spiritual experience. 

We just had a kid finish his mission today. His name is Richard Stowe. He is from Cedar hills, highland area. He was really worried. He looked like he was in shock the whole time. He couldn´t believe he was going home. It was really weird to see all of that go down. My comp will finish this Cambio and then two Later I will. It is really crazy to think how fast it is going by. 

I just want to thank you guys for all the time and money spent daily to help me. I really can feel your prayers. Thank you for supporting me while I´m out here. I know that we are all receiving the blessings, even if we might not be able to see them right now. 

Well I had numbers today so I don´t have much time. Love you all and miss you tons. Thanks for everything. 

Elder Torgersen 

P.S. I did get the packages. In fact we had to go into the office on Saturday and I got the package with all the candy in it. I was able to eat a little Easter candy during conference. :)

Consejo!

Hello friends and Family!

Well sorry I´m getting your letter to you so late. I forgot to tell you that Every Monday opening a month we have a consejo. The MP, AP´s and all the ZL´s get together and report the numbers they have gotten for the month. We stand up and say how many baptisms we got for the month and what our goal was. We then put a new goal and talk about how we are going to reach it. We had to go to the consejo today and of course we drove up with Pres and his wife. They are really funny. 

We got to the consejo and found out about a lot of stuff. We got 138 BAPTISMS THIS LAST MONTH. That is the best Pres. Humphrey has seen since he has been here. We found out that now we are able to write New converts, friends/family, and Ward members and Priesthood leaders. We also found out that we are getting 13 more sister missionaries...

After our consejo we had a catered lunch from a Peruvian place. They gave us what seemed to me like Tai food. It was really good. It was almost like a curry. To celebrate our number of Baptisms we ended up going to a turf soccer field. There were three fields and we split up into teams and played 5 against 5. I have learned I wasted my time trying to play Football. I should have played soccer. We were playing against Latins that have played their whole life and I was schooling a lot of them. I ended up having like 6 goals. It was a blast! We now have P-day all day because of the Consejo. That's why I´m writing so late.

This week we had the mini mission. I had a mini missionary from Parral. He ended up being older than me. We ended up getting twice the work done and we got 6 to church. It was so sick being able to work with a mini missionary. I got to run the show and we had a lot of success. We are trying to find another joven to come out and work with us so we can keep doing divisions. It was really nice getting twice the work done. 

So earlier this week we left the house from getting over with P-day and we went to go visit someone. They ended up not being there so we did contacts to try and find. We knock on the first door and they guy lets us in right away. It was a dorm room of 4 guys and the one dude was cooking. They let us in and tell us to sit down. We sat down and one dude comes in and starts talking to us. He goes to close the door and hesitates, then closes it. The back of the door was covered in cut out porn from different magazines. It was really awkward and it was right in front of us. One of the guys says he has to leave and leaves us with the guy cooking in the kitchen. We ask him if we can share something with him and he says to hold on. He takes like 10 minutes and my comp finally asks him if we can come back. He then says ¨¿no quieren panqueques?¨ We were super confused. He ended up making us basically crapes with manjar or a caramel syrup kind of thing. They were actually really good. We shared with him and walked out. We were so confused and had no idea what to do. 

We had asked an INV for a reference and she told us her neighbor that lived in the apt. right in front. She said the daughter had been super sick and had just been taken to the hospital. We had been praying all week for this family and for the little 6 year old girl. We passed by multiple times and could never find them. during the mini mish we passed by the INV and she said to come back in an hour. I decided to knock on the neighbors door. She opened up and said she was really busy. I managed to get my foot in the door before she could close it. I told her we had heard about her daughter and only wanted to say a prayer. She told us hang on... closed the door.. and came back to let us in. We walked in to see the cutest little 6 year old girl with a mask over her face. I have never felt so bad for someone. We prayed and shared with... THE WHOLE FAMILY! We found out the mom is a less active and the kids and the husband aren´t baptized. We were stunned with the blessing we had just received. It was really cool to be able to show the mini mish that miracles like that really happen. We have a lesson with them tomorrow. The family is the family Cantero. If you can pray for them it would be great. 

We had a mini cambio with the AP´s and we ended up not having much success. I did learn a lot though. It was a really slow day but I learned a lot.

Answers to questions....

Week... has been awesome. Some of the best lessons and numbers I have had in a long time. 

Inv´s... We are finding a lot that have been progressing. Still have the ones that won´t take the next step... Not wasting too much time with them. 

No, I have not been beat up by little unruly Chilean kids. Good thing huh.

Did not have time to pass by the office to see if my mail got here.

Got his first letter. not sure if that was your question.

Easter... I PREACHED THE GOSPEL!! Make sure to tell the kids, especially Ainsley there is no Spring break in the mission field.

Well I love you all and miss you tons!

Elder Torgersen

I'm going crazy!!

Hello friends and Family!

Well another crazy week as ZL! We have not had any time this week at all. This might be a short letter. We have lunch in 15 minutes with the Assistants. We have had a ton of meetings and trainings.

This week we started off the week going to the office after writing you guys. As we get into the office we found president and his wife. They were happy to see us. MP asked how I was doing as the new ZL. I told him I was still trying to get my head around everything. I talked to him for a good 10 minutes before they had a meeting. We got to talk about a couple things and I learned quite a bit. 

On Tuesday we got mobbed and attacked by a group of little kids. I swear there isn´t discipline here. I hate undisciplined Chilean kids. They run around doing whatever they want. We were walking through an apt. building that the government is paying for and its a lot of really rough families. We ended up getting attacked by a bunch of little kids with plastic clubs. It was a difficult experience because we couldn´t really do anything. Then a little old lady walked by and dropped the hammer on them and was threatening to smack them. It was hilarious. Things that cause so much frustration in the moment but are going to be awesome memories after. haha

We had interviews on Wed and it was really good. President talked to us about the Zone. He told us that this is the hardest Zone in the mission. It requires a lot to run it. He said he knew we could help build and straighten the Zone. We are in the City of Conce like right in the Center. It is the 2nd largest city in Chile. He told us that it has always been a difficult zone to work in. 

This week we had a mini cambio with the Assistants. They planned on getting here at about 5 and didn´t show up until about 8. They got here and we each split up with an AP. We then ended up getting a call from another sector needing an interview. We ended up having to have a mini cambio in a mini cambio. We had to drive over to their sector and there we split up with the elders there. The Ap ended up doing the interview and I left with an elder that´s name is elder Newby. Yes He is a newby. He will forever be the newby. He was way cool though. He just got here in the mission. So yes he´s a newby in two ways haha. We ended up finding a new family and taught about two lessons in a couple lessons. We didn´t end up getting home to my sector until almost 11. It is so crazy being a ZL. So after we got home we got a call from MP. He then tells us we have an emergency cambio and that we have to call an elder at 11:30 to tell him he´s leaving at 9 the next morning. Anything that could have happened... did!

The next day we ended up having to go to a DL meeting at 9:00 on Saturday morning. I have no idea why we had to be there but they trained a lot of the DL´s. 

We have been a little frustrated. We have a bunch of INV´s that are going to church but just don´t want to take the next step and get baptized. If you guys could pray for Luis Cumplido and Cecilia and Valentina. We are really struggling with them. 

So I think my comp has completely cursed me. He is known for forgetting stuff and being kind of clumsy. We all swear its contagious. The other day it was a little colder and we had just gotten home from a meeting, i think it was interviews. I changed from a suit to normal pants and threw on a sweater. We get to our first house and I go to pull out my planner out of my front pocket. I look down and I don´t have a tie... hahah I look at my comp and ask, Am I missing something? He says, Your name tag? I pull the sweater down a little and he busts up laughing. I had totally forgotten my tie. I cannot remember when I took it off. It was one of the funniest moments in my mission. 

We just got back from a really nice restaurant here in Conce. All of the ZL´s and the AP´s met here and we all pitched in $4.00 and we could buy whatever we wanted. Of course I bought Ribs and Fries! It was so good. I haven´t eaten at a restaurant in so long! It was really cool that we all met together to eat lunch. It was a blast. We were all laughing about stuff my comp had done. Two other ZL´s had been comps with my comp. 

Tell dad sorry for not replying to anything. I seriously don´t have time to do anything during Internet. The numbers is a pain in the butt. Good thing is... We swap off every week. So next week I should have more time. It´s cool to hear about the miracles he´s having in the Elders quorum. 

We are really excited for this week. We have a mini mission with a bunch of kids from the area. They are all traveling to different cities to take part of a mini mission. Each of us is getting a mini missionary. We will have a total of 8 Missionaries in our sector this week. We are excited to increase our numbers and find a bunch of new people. They get here on Thursday and we will work with them till Sunday. They will be with us all day and at night they will be staying with members, since they can´t stay with us. 

Well I´m excited to hear about Ethan and his mission call... Tell him to freaking hurry up!! Well I love you all and miss you tons.

Elder Torgersen

P.S. I´m closer to the office and can get mail quicker so write me :) Packages will also get here quicker hahha

Conce

Hello friends and Family!

Well this week has been full of miracles. It has been a pretty good week! 

Where to start... the guy that I interviewed this last week went in to the hospital for an exam. He went in and did the exam and the doctors were amazed. They found that not a single bit of cancer was in his body! I had told him in the interview that if he got baptized the exam would go better. Elder Anderson (my comp from the MTC) called Monday night to tell us that Juan Pablo was extremely happy and was basically in tears when he talked to the elders. When Elder Anderson called I put the phone on speaker phone... he then told us the news. We all froze, completely silent. We all shouted and screamed! It was so Cool!!

Monday at night we contacted to guys in the street. While we were contacting them we found out they were 1. Gay 2. drug addicts 3. atheists. They claimed they knew about our church but anything they were saying was the opposite of how it was. It ticked me off and I wanted to punch the kid. He ended up crumpling up the paper we gave him and threw it on the ground. We ended up just walking away.

We had been rejected a lot this week and was feeling a little down about it. I have been reading Jesus the Christ and it really hit me... Christ was rejected more than anyone else. I have really enjoyed reading Jesus the Christ. I have learned a lot about the life of Christ. I really realized as long as I am doing my job 100% that´s all I can do... no matter how many people reject me I can´t get down.

We have a family here in our ward that just got back from SLC and California. The daughter is 17 and the son is 13. They both speak English fluently and fly to Utah all the time. It was really weird to hear that they traveled basically to our house. They brought us back a bunch of stuff like beef jerky and a couple other gringo treats including a box of Peanut butter toast Crunch. It was amazing.

To go along with the gay, drug addicts and atheists we met a drunk/drug addict. He asked us for money and my comp asked him what he wanted. He told us bread so we told him we could go buy it for him. He walked with us until we got to the store and we asked the guy in the store if he had bread. Then the guy tells us no no no... I don´t want bread. He yelled at us and said a couple swear words and walked off... It was really funny.

I have been really getting frustrated with lazy people. I swear we just happen to find all the lazy people that say they want to change or do something... and then don´t. I´m so sick of hearing people say they will do something and then have them not come through with it. 

Well this week we had the pin in our shower that changes the water flow from the shower head to the spout. It was coming out the spout and we needed the shower head. It wasn´t a little thing you could take out and buy a new one. We ended up having to buy a whole new shower spout. Guess who was the only one who knew how to change it... yep. I fixed the shower this last week. The house we are living in is one of the best in the mission but was completely destroyed. We ended up cleaning it today and now it looks really good. Hermana Humphrey made everyone in the mission take pictures of the houses as were, Clean it, and then take pictures again. 

Well we have really been struggling with our INV´s. We have been teaching a pregnant lady and she has been a roller coaster of emotion. She either loves us or hates us. We are also teaching a 72 year old guy that has cancer and is wanting to wait until after his exams before he gets baptized. We are so frustrated because they want to get baptized but just won´t do it!

I got an email from a guy named Scott Troxel. You guys really need to send me a ward list with pictures so I know who it is that is sending me letters. Sounds like we have gotten a lot of new people in the ward. I can´t even remember many names. Speaking of members How is Sister Olsen Doing?

Well not much else is happening. I was wondering if there was a vitamin of something that will give me more energy! I´m falling asleep basically walking!

Love you all and miss you tons!

Elder Torgersen

UHHHHH

HELLOOOOOOO FRIENDS AND FAMILY!!!

How is everyone doing? Well this week has been amazing! My time for Internet is slowing getting lesser and lesser. I am now in charge of sending in all of our zones numbers and it takes about an hour to do it all. So if my letters are getting shorter and shorter... that's why.

This week has been really funny. Lots of funny stuff happening.   I found a table that was in a storage room in the house and We were sharing a small round plastic table... I wondered why it wasn´t in our room. I took it out and tried to get it through the two doors to go into our study room... DIDN´T FIT. We tried everything... Stumped... we thought of other solutions... an elder from the other study room yells hey... pass it through the windows. We opened the front door of our 5th floor apartment and passed it from the door to a window to another window, through the window and set it in place. It worked!! I now have my own study table!!

This week started off really well. We started of Monday with 3 lessons and 3 news. We started the week off really well. By Thursday we had 7 news and a ton of lessons. Concepcion has been a whole lot harder finding news and teaching lessons. A lot of the people are stuck up and often rich. I was really ticked off at one of the elders in Chillan. He told me good luck baptizing people... Elder Wade already baptized everyone there. It really ticked me off. Elder Wade is the Assistant for the mission and is one of the only ones that isn´t a suck up. We have had a lot of success these last couple of weeks.

I have never laughed so hard as I did in church on Sunday. Our ward is full of little kids. There are a ton of kids from 0-3. I watched three little 2 year olds run laps around the chapel. I thought our INV´s were going to be mad. They ended up loving it. I watched a 2 year old kid body check another kid into one of the side doors in the chapel. I have never laughed so hard. It is really irreverent and we need to do something about it but it is so funny.

We have been really frustrated with the members here in our WARD. Yes mom it is a ward. The members keep telling our INV´s to wait and make sure they know 100%. They keep saying stupid stuff like I waited 4 years to get baptized. It´s driving us nuts!!! It´s not that we can just say, Hermana SHUT UP!!! We have to find a nice way to say to not say that kind of stuff. We currently have two investigators that are ¨waiting¨ to get baptized now. It is ticking us off.

We as ZL´s now have lots of benefits. I now have my personal cell phone. Each 1st Monday of every month we have a counsel of all the ZL`s in the mission and we think of stuff that could better the mission and then we all vote on it. Someone suggested that we each have our own cell phone... Hence I have my own cell phone. Now getting numbers and info from elders in our zone is a whole lot easier.

So I found out there were hermanas here in our sector until they got assaulted. We have a sector that is really sketchy and has lots of prostitution and drugs. It is really weird because we have members that live in this sector and are the complete opposite of everyone that lives there.

I had a really spiritual experience this last Wed. One of our DL`s had an interview. Guess who had the chance to do it... yes me! I had the opportunity to go and interview a really special case. The guy I had interviewed... has cancer. He has gone through chemotherapy and they have gotten the cancer narrowed down to his chest. He has a tumor right next to his heart and is having a surgery this next week and was really nervous about it. He really wanted to wait and see what was going to happen with the operation so he could have a clear mind. We knew he was going to be better off being baptized first and then the operation. My job was to go and help him decide to get baptized ASAP! I went and we watched the Video of John Tanner. The video is about the guy that has an infected leg and has to have it amputated. He meets the missionaries and they baptize him and bless him and his leg gets better. He loved the movie but was still a little hesitant. I interviewed him and have never felt the spirit so strong. He was amazing. He had lost all of his hair and was really skinny and white. During the interview he passed everything. I told him he passed but that I wanted to invite him to pray to know if he should get baptized this weekend. He told me he already knew he had to do it. I asked him what would impede him from doing it and he said he hadn´t bought any of the white clothes. I told him he didn´t need to worry about anything besides inviting the people he wanted there. He wanted certain people to be there and the only day he could do it was the next day. Yes it was a Thursday... but everything went well. The prayer at the end was what just about killed me. It was amazing. He had prayed and given thanks for meeting the missionaries in the precise time that he did and for being humbled to listen to our message. I couldn`t fight back the tears during his prayer. It was one of the most amazing prayers I have ever heard. We ended up going to his baptism and it was like he had completely changed. He seemed so happy. He had a huge smile on his face.

Answers to questions

16 elders in my Zone including office elders and A`s to MP

No we don´t speak at Conferences

Feeling 100% better!

Working at the MTC? no idea why? I have thought about it a little...

Well not much else happening... GOTTA GO!!! love you all.

Elder Torgersen