Christmas!

More pictures with Hna Erica and her family

Pictures- Mario

Bishop and wife

  Visits with Carlos

Hello everyone! I`m glad that you all had a wonderful Christmas! I loved hearing about your presents and everything. And Grandpa too, that is exciting, wow! What do you think about that?

Christmas was pretty fun. We had both the 24th and 25th as Pdays! You know how I said that we were at an inactive members internet place to do Skype?  Well turns out that he isnt a member!  After I finished talking to you guys I was just sitting there thinking about taking a nap, when Mario( thats his name) came and sat down next to me and we starting talking about my family and the United States and the church. At one point I asked him if he was a member, just to make sure, and he said no, and that he is catholic. Wow, all this time we`ve been thinking that he was a member! We visited with him for a long time. His aunt and cousins are members and when he was younger he went to early morning seminary with his cousins a few times. He is really open and interested in the church. He showed us his dad`s nativity upstairs. It is huge! It takes up almost an entire room. I`ll send a picture of it. That was Christams Eve.

Then Christmas Night, Mario called us back to his house. He said he had something to give us. They gave Elder Ango and I each our own panetòn. They wanted to thank us for the night before. They said that we brought a special spirit and feeling to their home on Christmas Eve that they really enjoyed. We visited more with Mario, his sister, and his mom and they served us some dinner too! His dad isnt too interested though.

Christmas Eve we were allowed to stay out until 12.30am as long as we had a member with us. Carlos Alban came with us and we visited some of the members. At 12am all of the fireworks went off and it was like WW3. It was crazy! We missed it, but they was also a bright light that lasted for a few seconds and lit up the night, you can probably see it on youTube. We had a nice turkey dinner with the bishop and his wife.

Yesterday at church the piano died. It wouldnt turn on so we sang acapella. Hermano Cuno called me out of the congregation to lead the first hymn because the chorister was late. It was so awkward to get them to sing without a piano or some kind of accoumpanyment. I was singing like the first two or three lines solo before everyone else started to sing. On the bright side though, Miguel blessed the Scrament for the first time yesterday. Its been really cool to watch his progress in the church and the gospel. Now we are teaching his son, who we committed to be baptized on the 24th on January!

Lately there have been more police and sometimes groups of soldiers out on the street corners. Two days ago there were groups of three Peruvian soldiers, while black berets, camoflage clothes, assault rifles, and everything on almost every street corner on Jr. Vigil. I think its because there has been more crime and delinquincy lately. On Christmas day, a 12 year old boy was shot three times outside Mario`s and Erica`s houses. It was really sad. Everybody was talking about it and it kind of put a sour mood on Christmas day.

So I was wondering if you guys could find the hymn If You Could Hie To Kolob in Spanish and sent it printed out to me, but small enough that I can glue it into my pocket sized hymnbook. If you cant find it in spanish English will be ok too. Also the hymn Come Though Fount. Thanks

Also I still need to finish my Family History pamphlet. I need little 1x1.5 inch pictures of each of my parents, grandparents, and great grandparents and their info and some stories about them. And I need to know who their siblings are and when and where they were born and died.

Thanks! I love you all!

Elder Kevin Torgersen