April 22, 2013

Hello Friends and Family!

This week has gone a lot better. I have been doing numbers so I don´t have much time. I´m glad to hear Ethan´s papers were sent in!! I´m so excited!  We have been getting some of the other elders to finally step up. It has been quite a fight. I´ve come to find out that you cannot force anyone to do anything. We have been having trouble with elders just kind of going through the motion but not really doing what they need to. It has been extremely frustrating because they are getting baptisms but they really aren´t working that hard. They spent 4 hours at a wedding and they didn´t do anything there. There were 100´s of people and they didn´t contact anyone... A Mormon church filled with 100´s of non members and what did they do... Nothing!! So frustrating. 

We were walking in the street the other day walking home to find a group of three kids. All of a sudden they started talking in English. It was really funny because the first thing they say is ¨Sorry, I´m a little drunker¨ Not only do they kind of speak English... They were a little ¨drunker¨ Me and my comp started busted up laughing! We started talking to them in English and invited them to our English class.

We contact a lot of apartment buildings and we have come to the conclusion that all the chosen people are always on the last floor... and no there aren´t elevators. We have to climb 5 floors to find someone to teach. It is really quite funny. We are determined to contact every top floor because that is were every one is that wants to listen to us. 

We did a mini cambio during a meeting we had with the Ward mission leader so that we didn´t lose all the time of us 4 being there. During the cambio I was with elder Diaz from Columbia. We were walking and all of a sudden we found a guy laying on the ground. He had blood all down his front covering his shirt and tie. He was around 60 years old. He wasn´t moving and then all of a sudden he sits up and asks where he was. He was completely wasted! He couldn´t even stand up with out our help. We ended up having to take his phone and call almost every number in his phone (didn´t have any contacts) We finally got a hold of a grandson and had to wait 15 minutes for him to come. The guy gets there and is this huge dude with a wicked beard. They guy speaks in English and says he was a member. It was a really funny deal. 

We ended up getting a whole family to church this week. Please pray for the family Ferriera. They are awesome. We are really excited because at first they were ¨Really catholic¨ We have gotten them to church twice and this time the dad came! We ended up doing service for them and I got to run a chainsaw... haha we were cutting firewood and he was surprised at how well I ran the chain saw and an axe. We cut all of the firewood in about an hour. Thanks for the training Dad!

I finally had to go and buy a smaller back pack. I suggest to Ethan to not get a big back pack. Tell him to find a smaller back pack that is just big enough to fit scriptures. I have felt a lot better having a smaller back pack. It is so much lighter and is a lot easier. 

I found out this last week that 3 people I had been teaching in Linares got baptized a while ago. It is really cool to see the fruits after I had left the sector. It was really cool to hear about that.

I´m sorry for having complained about the sister missionaries. It just seems I always am having to deal with the bad ones. We had to go to a meeting today because now every mission in the world is going to have sister missionary leaders. There are sisters training with 6 weeks in the mission. It´s amazing because Pres has no idea what to do. There are more sisters coming in then we already have. It is going to be a huge change. 

Well we have a lesson this wed at 6:30 in the morning. Never thought that would happen. Pray that Luis will want to get baptized. We have a lesson with the bishop and that´s the only time he could meet with us!

Well gotta head out. Well I love you all and miss you tons. Looking forward to seeing where Ethan goes!

Love,

Elder Torgersen

April 15, 2013

Hello Everyone!

Sounds like this week has been tough for all of us! 

Monday we were in a threesome with the other elder in our house and we only had half the time to work in our sector. We ended up having a lot of success though. We ended up teaching a lot of people.

Tuesday... Guess who got to be station managers for cambios... OF COURSE.... WE DID!!! That means we had to run all of the cambios and make sure everyone got on the right bus at the right time for the transfers. We had to make sure all of the people had all their bags on the bus and leaving. We were at the Bus terminal from 8:00am till almost 5:00PM. It was so crazy! We were so sick of sitting around and waiting and just sitting in the terminal. We also had a sister missionary that had two huge bags, a medium sized bag that the wheels were broken, three back packs and two purse kind of things. We ended up having to carry it about 5 blocks so she could get on a bus. A bunch of the missionaries were yelling at here to lighten the load. It was ridiculous. We finally were able to leave but not before getting back before 6:00. 

The other day we were walking outside of an apt building and my comp was looking at something and wasn´t watching where he was walking. I looked up just to see him walk straight into a pole from a clothes line. The bar was running horizontal and was just high enough to cross square with his forehead. The sound was awesome. Luckily the bar had some give and just moved back and forth. I had seriously never laughed so hard in my life. I was laughing all day long. I couldn´t stop!! It has been so funny working with him because he is always falling over or hitting something. It has definitely been pretty crazy with him. 

So I was thinking about conference and I was thinking about how you guys could help. I want you guys to invite Landon and his family to come to a ward activity or to read the BOM. I figured you could all help with the work and be member missionaries. I want you all to invite someone to read the BOM. I think it would be a really cool experience for all of you.

So this week we had literally talked to everyone that we could have. We talked to everyone in the street and we are really struggling to find new people. We have been pretty frustrated because we haven´t found any news and we´ve talked to everyone! We have been kind of in a slump. We are working really hard but we aren´t seeing any success. 

I just got a letter from Grandpa Kratchen. I was glad to hear from him! It was really cool that he emailed me. Tell everyone that president has now authorized email for all communications. We can even write RC. Tell Grandpa thanks!

The new missionary that just came to our house is an elder from Honduras. His name is Elder Sosa. He is a really clean person. He cleaned the whole house the first week he was here. It has been really cool. We all feel bad because he keeps cleaning everything. It has been really nice though. We have even got my comp to clean his stuff up. Me and Elder Sosa are the cleaning nazi´s. I had my hair cut again... An elder in the house did it. I know you all are shocked right now but it looks really good just short. My comp ended up doing it too and president said we look really good. 

 

Dad! How do you get the elders in your quorum excited about doing visits and stuff. We have a bunch of elders in our zone that are completely just dead... they don´t want to do anything. They are working but don´t have any excitement. We are getting really frustrated because they come to the District class and don´t take notes and just kind of sit there. What would be your advice?

We are still trying to get a couple people baptized. They come to church every week but want to ¨wait to get baptized¨ We are going to try a couple things this week to try and get them baptized. 

packages got here and the pants fit. 

We are visiting them this week. The family Cantero is doing great!

No Patience for the sister missionaries is getting slim...

Release date is August 12 I think... Quit reminding me. 

Well I´m gonna try and write Ethan back. I´ve also got to do a lot of other stuff... Well I love you all and miss you tons.

Elder Torgersen.

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