Cambios and Packages!

We got called monday night and told that we were both staying this transfer. Elder Dickson and Elder Pacas stayed too, so that´s great. Tuesday we had the Cambio meeting with the whole mission. How it works is that at the beginning, President Borg gives some companionships the opportunity to share a story about a "Cornelio" they found this past transfer. A Cornelio is a person who comes to the missionaries or who the missionaries find who is prepared to be baptized. The name comes from the Bible story where a man named Cornelius came to Peter wanting to be baptized. After the Cornelio experiences, President Borg goes through the cambios one by one. All of the cambios are projected on a big screen as President Borg announces them. When he gets to Callao we all stand up and he announces the cambios for our zone. When he got to Heros 2 he announced que Elder Ango y Elder Torgersen van a quedar en su sector. Then he said, (In Spanish) "Now wait a minute... Elder Torgersen.., you´re the one with all of the packages in the office. Yea, there are like 7 or 8!" It was pretty funny, everyone was laughing and asking me to share. So yea I got the packages, and like a bazillion letters from you guys. It was great! I haven´t got Elder Ango´s yet though. I opened the envelopes, but not the big box or the stuff wrapped in wrapping paper. I´m saving that for Christmas!

I am pretty excited for Christmas. We get to use skype from what I´ve heard. Good thing Elizabeth is ready! I think we will coordinate it in the next few weeks, but right now I don´t really know anything.

I´m glad that wrestling is going great. It´s a good thing that you didn´t quit Tristan. This is your last year of high school and if you quit you´d look back and regret it for the rest of your life. You guys could tell Coach Hershey and them that the same word for wrestling is also fighting. So when I tell people that I wrestling before the mission they sometimes think that i was a boxer or something and they get really impressed. I have to explain that its like Greek or Olympic wrestling.

I had migraciones again this week, hopefully for the last time. It was 9 hours of waiting in a big building with the other new missionaries, but I think that I´m finally legal! They gave me a Peru foreigner ID card thing that the Assisatants took to keep in the office with my passport. 

As to where I live.... in Google Maps type in "Plaza Guardia Chalaca" then follow Jr. Vigil away from the ocean. We live on the block between "Carrillo de Albornoz" and "Ancash" on the right side of the street (if you are leaving the plaza and facing away from the ocean) in the bright red and yellow house on the second floor with a big "E" on it. It might not be red in google maps because the people here like to paint their houses every year around Christmastime, butit should have the "E" on it on the 2nd floor.

Most of our time we spend in or walking to citas, or appointments, but a lot of time we just knock on the doors of contacts we have like members and less actives and sometimes investigators. We were also give a huge stack of "Verrification of Address" papers for inactives. Each paper has a name and address of an inactive member. We go to the house and see if they still live there or not and try to share a message or set up an appointment with them. We spend a lot of time with less and inactives. Sometimes we knock doors and do street contacting, but that is my least favorite thing to do.

I have met two people in the ward who are like the Peruvian equivalents of Grandma Hansen and Brother Dawson. There is an older lady in the ward who has the same hairstyle as Grandma Hansen and acts and talks the same. I don´t remember her name though. The second Counselor to the bishop, Hermano Cuno, is almost exactly the same as Brother Dawson. They make the same jokes and have the same laugh and everything. It´s kind of funny.

This week we have given a lot of blessing. I didn´t think I would be doing so many here, but we do a lot. It is really cool.

I liked the Christmas devotional last night too. We brought Hermano Miguel and Hermana Rosa, the two most recent converts in our ward. Miguel was pretty dissappointed that the prophet didn´t speak, but he still liked that the true meaning of Christmas is the birth of Jesus Christ. I really liked the music, I liked the talks too but didn´t understand them all completely.

Our chapel got robbed Saturday night. We got to the church and the alarm was blaring. It was going off for most of Sacrament Meeting because they couldnt get it to turn off. All the thiefs took was a portable stove and a propane tank. I still had a good exerience in Sacrament Meeting. I was thinking of the Savior´s Atonement in the Garden of Gethsemane. Then I imagined that my name was called and I imagined the expression on His face as he suffered for my sins. Then this thought came to my head, "I did this because for your happiness, because I love you!"

I love you all! Have a great week!

Love, 

Elder Torgersen

Yea, I got them all the same day. After migraciones, Elder Pettit and Elder Sorensen and I went to the offices and Elder Hicken, one of the assistents, gave me a huge bag filled with packages and said that Santa Claus came for Elder Torgersen! Elder Pettit had a big package too, so the three of us took all of our packages onto a crowded bus to find our companions in my sector. It was a great adventure!