Oposición‏

Wow, so here we are, the four of us elders from Santa Beatriz in a hot, sweaty, crowded internet cave surrounded by hardcore gamers, a screaming baby, and loud worldly music. Hahaha, but its worth it because we get to talk to y´all!

Omar got baptized this week, he was an investigator that I interviewed on Friday. He was prepared, but i think that he was a little scared because he wanted to push his baptism back a week. He was set on it. It was a miracle because just a few hours before his baptism was supposed to start he made the decision to do it!

Time is going by too fast! The office told me that I will be going home in August, i think it will be the 24th or something like that. I counted down the months and we are close to 6! Wow it scares me a lot to think that my mission is coming to an end so fast, but i dont like to think about that, I just want to keep working!

Well Jahairo stood us up this week and never showed up to church yesterday so we dont know whats going to happen with him. We are thinking about leaving him for a little bit. If we give him a little break he will be able to feel the difference in his life from when he was reading the scriptures, going to church, praying, and listening to us. Santitos went out of town and we werent able to visit her either. Honestly, there is sooo much opposition in this sector. Yesterday not a single investigator came to church and I was pretty sad about that. We tried everything to get them to go and several promised that they would be there and they never showed up. We found a new awesome investigator named Maria Esther. We invited her to come to church and I called her Sunday morning and she said that she was already dressed up and ready to walk out the door. We sat there outside the church waiting and waiting and waiting and she never showed up. We called her back and she said that as she was about to leave her house an old friend came by and needed help urgently so she had to stay and help her. Ahhh!!!, the devil works so hard against us sometimes. It was disappointing. 

Yesterday after lunch we went out proselyting and we contacted an old man who was sitting outside his house. He was old, had a long scraggly beard and only had one eye, the other socket was empty. We started to talk to him and he wanted to read the Bible with us. He started to read several scriptures like Ezekiel 14:21 and was telling us about the immenent destruction of the earth. It was wierd but we taught him that it was false. We invited him to be baptized and he accepted. We are going to go back on Tuesday to see if he is going to progress or not. 

The 10th of March we are going to be visited by Elder Lynn Robbins of the Presidency of the Seventy with three other missions we are excited for that!

Transfers are a week from tomorrow. We are going to see what happens. Everybody keeps telling me that they think that I´m going to train. That would be fun!

The picture is from two or three Pdays ago when we played Carnavales as a zone!

 I love you all!!

--

-Elder Kevin Torgersen-

Sunburn‏

It doesnt look as bad in the pictures but we all got burned last week when we went to play volleyball at the beach

 -watch tan

The Book of Mormon Power‏

Well, it was another good, fast week! We had fun and a lot of stuff happened. We taught Jahairo several times and he started reading the Libro de Mormon again, and he showed up to church all by himself yesterday. So far he´s read up to chapter 6 of first Nephi and when we asked him about it he explained perfectly everything that happened with Lehi and his family leaving Jerusalem and then Nephi and his brothers going back and their journey in the wilderness. As he was explaining what he read it was like a little movie was playing through my mind. He really likes reading now, he just never askes God if it is true after he reads it. He says that he´s scared, scared to get an answer from God that it´s true. He´s scared to change. He says hes always felt like he doesnt want to belong to any specific church but if the Book of Mormon is true then he would know that ours is the true church of Christ. Now we are focusing on encouraging him to pray to ask God if it is true so that he can commit to a baptismal date. 

Yesterday we went to go visit Santitos for the second time. We havent been able to visit her since last week because after her last session of Chemotherapy she got really sick and weak and couldnt recieve us. We went to give her a priesthood blessing and when we were on our way I called her to remind her. She said at first that she wasnt going to be able to recieve us but then she said to hold on for a minute. I heard her put down the phone and then nothing. After about a minute she picked up again and asked how soon we could come and that she needed us. We showed up and she was super excited to see us. She said that she knew that she couldnt say no to us because she feels something special about us and the church. I know that I was the spirit that bore witness to and softened her heart so that she would recieve us yesterday when I called and not some later day. She told us all of the invitations that have brought her to want to learn more about the church. Besides her friend in Argentina she said that she keeps making contact and bumping into people who alway invite her to learn more about our church. She doesnt believe in coincedences and knows that God has put all of those people, including us, in her way. We had a super awesome lesson with her and gave her a blessing for her cancer and treatments. She was so sure when she accepted to prepare herself to be baptized on the 19th of March which is only three weeks away! At the end we gave her a Libro de Mormon and she was soo surprised and so happy and thankful that she started to cry. All she could say was, "thank you, thank you, thank you." The spirit was soo strong, and she could feel it. She could feel that it is true!

I sent a lot of pictures from the museum that we visited last Pday. Its the Arqueology and History Museum in Pueblo Libre and it was really cool. We didnt have time to see it all.

This morning we went down to the beach at Larcomar and played volleyball and soccer on the beach with the zone. I´m pretty sure that we all got sunburned but it was lots of fun! We forgot to take a picture though.

At church yesterday, Señorita Castañeda´s mom came up to me and gave me a big bag of american candy and some letters! I was soo happy!! She was really nice and we were able to talk for a bit. She is here in Peru for a few weeks. Say thanks to them for me!

Happy Birthday Mom!!! I love you lots!!! Have a great week!!!

Thanks for all of the letters and emails! It looks like a lot of fun at home and in Hurricane!

Well, it was another good, fast week! We had fun and a lot of stuff happened. We taught Jahairo several times and he started reading the Libro de Mormon again, and he showed up to church all by himself yesterday. So far he´s read up to chapter 6 of first Nephi and when we asked him about it he explained perfectly everything that happened with Lehi and his family leaving Jerusalem and then Nephi and his brothers going back and their journey in the wilderness. As he was explaining what he read it was like a little movie was playing through my mind. He really likes reading now, he just never askes God if it is true after he reads it. He says that he´s scared, scared to get an answer from God that it´s true. He´s scared to change. He says hes always felt like he doesnt want to belong to any specific church but if the Book of Mormon is true then he would know that ours is the true church of Christ. Now we are focusing on encouraging him to pray to ask God if it is true so that he can commit to a baptismal date. 

Yesterday we went to go visit Santitos for the second time. We havent been able to visit her since last week because after her last session of Chemotherapy she got really sick and weak and couldnt recieve us. We went to give her a priesthood blessing and when we were on our way I called her to remind her. She said at first that she wasnt going to be able to recieve us but then she said to hold on for a minute. I heard her put down the phone and then nothing. After about a minute she picked up again and asked how soon we could come and that she needed us. We showed up and she was super excited to see us. She said that she knew that she couldnt say no to us because she feels something special about us and the church. I know that I was the spirit that bore witness to and softened her heart so that she would recieve us yesterday when I called and not some later day. She told us all of the invitations that have brought her to want to learn more about the church. Besides her friend in Argentina she said that she keeps making contact and bumping into people who alway invite her to learn more about our church. She doesnt believe in coincedences and knows that God has put all of those people, including us, in her way. We had a super awesome lesson with her and gave her a blessing for her cancer and treatments. She was so sure when she accepted to prepare herself to be baptized on the 19th of March which is only three weeks away! At the end we gave her a Libro de Mormon and she was soo surprised and so happy and thankful that she started to cry. All she could say was, "thank you, thank you, thank you." The spirit was soo strong, and she could feel it. She could feel that it is true!

I sent a lot of pictures from the museum that we visited last Pday. Its the Arqueology and History Museum in Pueblo Libre and it was really cool. We didnt have time to see it all.

This morning we went down to the beach at Larcomar and played volleyball and soccer on tha beach woth the zone. I´m pretty sure that we all got sunburned but it was lots of fun! We forgot to take a picture though.

At church yesterday, Señorita Castañeda´s mom came up to me and gave me a big bag of american candy and some letters! I was soo happy!! She was really nice and we were able to talk for a bit. She is here in Peru for a few weeks. Say thanks to them for me!

Happy Birthday Mom!!! I love you lots!!! Have a gre

A Wild Week!‏

Happy Valentines Day!!! Thanks for all of the letters! I love hearing about everything thats going on: the dances, dates, temple trips, yoga, and all the rest!

Wow, so this week was a little crazy. A lot of stuff happened. Sorry we couldnt write yesterday. We had a Multizonas meeting almost all day. It was great but long. I really like being around President and Sister Larson and the assistants (E´Guttierez and E´Killpack) I feel spiritually edified when we have the opportunity to be trained and taught by them.

So to start off the craziness this week we went to the clinic in Javier Prado. As Hermana Borg used to say "Losing yourself in the work sometimes wears your body down" Hahaha! There were these wierd ulcer/blister things that appeared on the bottom of my feet. I was a little worried because they just looked like huge blisters but there was no puss or anything. It was just like a patch of dead skin so we went to go get it checked out. The doctor said that it is just a strange type of blister that was deep. He gave me a prescription for a cream and told me that I should go get special orthotics for my shoes. We´ll see what happens though.

Then we went to visit one of our investigators who was progressing fastest. She has all of the lessons and we were working on building her testimony and helping her get a new job so that she could come to church more that just once a month. Last time we taught her the law of Chastity with Hermana Cris, our pensionista. We asked her if she had some challenge with the law of chastity and she said no. Ths time we went and I could tell that something wasnt right. We asked her how she felt about her baptism on the 20th of february and she said that she couldnt get baptized because she isnt keeping the law of chastity. It was like a bullet to the heart to the both of us! Apparently, the father of her son comes everyweekend and they arent married. We had no idea! It is going to be a lot harder now for her to get baptized. They will have to get married or separated and marriages here can be so complicated!

That was tough, but God gave us someone else to teach who is prepard to recieve the restored gospel as well. Her name is Santitos. She was a reference from a member in another ward in the stake. She is about 65 years old and has cancer. She has been battling it since about 1998. Her friend in Argentina always wrote to her on facebook about the church and now she wants to learn more and get baptized. She is super prepared. We invited her to come to church and when we told her that its from 9am to 12pm almost always the people say "Three Hours!?! That long?" but she accepted it without question and said that she would be there. She wasnt able to go because they found new cancer nodes in her lungs and she had to go to the hospital for more chemotherapy and she didnt feel very good, but we are going to be able to visit her this week again!

Also we made a lot of progress with Jahairo this week. He still isnt too sure about committing to a church but he is now searching more seriously for his answer about the Book of Mormon and is Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. I feel like his baptism is close!

My district now includes barrio Barranco which is on the other side of the stake! I had an interview this week for one of the investigators who was going to get baptized. It was a really great experience but it was really far! It took almost three hours out of our day for all of the traveling and it was probably the fastest interview that I have ever had.

Thats just a little bit of my crazy week! The mission is great! My companion and I are getting along better. The district is improving every week. The church is true! I love you all! Thanks for all of the pictures! Sorry I dont have any this week!
-- 

-Elder Kevin Torgersen-

Misión Perú Lima Central

Christ-like Love‏

Elder Ibañez, Elder Alfaro, and I. They are both going to finish their missions at the end of this change. They are some of my bestfriends here.

I am grateful for the opportunity that I have to be here on a mission. This week we had a zone meeting instead of a district meeting and I really liked something that the zone leaders said. They said that callings are temporary. This is the one time in my life that I will serve here in barrio Santa Beatriz. It really helped me to wake up a little bit and see that I need to give everything while I am here cause I wont be able to go back! We have been working hard this week. We teach a lot of lessons and we find a lot of new investigators. The tricky part is finding the people who will progress because right now we have a lot of investigators but a lot of them have a lot of challenges that are impiding their spiritual growth. 

This week we had the first ever District Leader meeting in the mission office for only the district leaders of the mission. It was awesome and I learned a lot. I have realized that callings help us learn and serve. i feel like I wouldnt be the same missionary if i didnt have this opportunity to serve my district, and we have had some big challenges. There is one problem elder who sometimes wants to go home and sometimes wants to stay. I went on a work visit with him to try to help him out and I think it worked a little bit. His companion is always calling me to go talk to him or make him work. Sometimes it makes me feel like the babysitter. 

This week I realized that the key to missionary work is love. I need to love the people more. I feel like in my last two areas I really tried hard to love the people but maybe with the problems that we had with my companion when I first got here my love for others started to dry up. I need to serve others more and love them. That is why after loving God above all things the second greatest commandment is to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. It has taken on a new meaning for me. To love is not only to say nice things, but to serve. As a missionary, if I really love the people I will contact and talk to everyone possible about the gospel because I want them to be blessed as I have been blessed. I will study my scriptures and prepare myself diligently to be prepared to teach with authority and the spirit. Everything that missionaries do should be done out of love. I am grateful for this opportunity for me to forget myself and serve and love others, which is something that I have seen that a lot of missionaries havent learned yet. Now I want my love to grow to be like the love that Ammon and the sons of Mosiah had for the Lamanites. The more we love and devote ourselves to the people the more success we will have. I am convinced of that.

I was really happy to hear about all of the wrestling stories and fun at home. Thanks for being such an awesome family! I havent found an equal in all of my mission. Thanks for the letter and the pictures too. I really like the pictures of the new temple. Keep me posted about its dedication and the culture celebration dances!

Love you all, bye!!!

Pictures: -me with the family Del Castillo. They are Tristan´s ward mission leader´s parents!

- the elders of Santa Beatriz, the 4 of us minus Elder Garcia. 

Changes, but no Change‏

Hola familia! Well there were cambios this week but Elder Garcia and I are staying together for six more weeks. I dont know exactly what happened this week but something changed. We now get along really well and we are good friends. Honestly, I did not want to spend another change with him and he didnt want to stay here either, but now I know that the changes that president Larson makes or doesnt make are inspired and I am greatful for another chance to serve with Elder Garcia and to help him and learn from him. Everything in our companionship has improved. The zone leaders said that our sector is the model example for the rest of the zone! We are working really hard to keep finding new investigators and to prepare people for baptism. This sector is really hard, but I know that all of the opposition will make us better! 

 All of the districts in the zone got changed up too. Now my district is even bigger and there is a companionship of Hermanas, which will be really wierd. Its wierd cause the other ward in my district, Barranco, is far away on the other end of the stake instead of the ward right next door like it used to be. Oh well, when we go do baptismal interviews in Barranco we  will get to stop by this super good burirto place! Theres a bright side to everything!

Yesterday we went to find a lady that we had met outside her house earlier this week. She invited us in and invited her kids to come in and listen to us too. Her name is Lilia. They are a cool family! Lilia told us that she was looking for a church becasue her sister in the USA told her to start going to a church so that her kids would learn about God and learn good principles. They have a computer so we watched the bible video of Christ´s baptism with them. Her 14-year old son was like, "wow, I would have liked to have been baptized like that!" It was funny we explained to them how they can be. They have the perfect schedules to be able to go to church on Sunday (which is pretty uncommon down here) and I feel like they are really prepared! 

This morning I was reading D&C 76 which is a vision of the kingdoms of glory. I really enjoyed it and I learned a lot and I recommend that you guys read it too this week!

I love you all! Thanks for sharing all of the wonderful family stories and experiences about the temple! I love it all!!!

--

-Elder Kevin Torgersen-

Misión Perú Lima Central

The Jehovah´s Witnesses always hunt in packs!