All is Well

All is Well

Peru Lima Central Mission

 

 

10/21/14

 

 Photos

To: torgyboys6@msn.com

                                                               

Dear Torgersen Family,

We are delighted to report to you that your son, Elder Kevin Thomas Torgersen, has arrived to begin his service in La Misión Perú Lima Central.  He looks great, is healthy, and is very excited to begin his service (see the pictures that will be sent). We are thrilled to receive him and we will take good care of him.  It was our privilege to share breakfast and lunch with him while he was being interviewed and trained in the mission office. 

Elder Torgersen has been assigned to the area of the mission called Heros 2.  He is in the Callao Zone.  His companion is Elder Ango.  Please be assured that these assignments are not made randomly, but are a matter of serious pondering and prayer.

Because of the geographical size of our mission, Elder Torgersen was introduced to all of our missionaries at a general meeting held in a local stake house that same afternoon.  There he met and was joined with his new companion and trainer, Elder Ango.

We thank you for the support that you give to your son during his mission.  Elder Torgersen will look forward to positive, uplifting letters from home.  We ask that he corresponds with you weekly, and we encourage you to do the same, using the e-mail address he will give you if you do not already have it (the same one he used at the CCM). 

We will watch over your son during this time in which he will be serving the Lord in this important work.  We also know that your family will be blessed by his service.  If there are any emergencies that need to be forwarded to Elder Torgersen, please use the telephone number or e-mail address listed above. 

Con Cariño,

Alan M Borg                              Hermana Patricia Borg               

Flight Plans

Well, because we are leaving on Monday, they are giving us some time to write today to let our families know about our flight plans. I pretty much already told you guys though. We are leaving at 11am from the CCM on Monday. We are taking the TransAmericcan Airlines. Our plane takes off around 3pm, and we get to Lima around 8:45pm. 

My birthday was awesome! So after we finished writing emails, we went and played cage soccer with Elder Allen´s district. Then we went to the post office and I got another package. It was from my district. It was filled with candy and treats that they bought for me at the Tienda. It was really nice of them. Then, when we went back to the classroom, they had me sit down in my chair and Elder Richards covered my eyes while they all sang Happy Birthday to me in Spanish. When I opened my eyes, there was a chocolate cake in front of me! It was awesome. We divided it all up and ate it before daily planning. Apparently the other Elders told Sister Jones, one of the older couple missionaries who works here, that it was my birthday, so she made me a cake. We are her favorite district here. She told them not to tell any of the other missionaries, or they would want one too. We have helped her and Elder Jones with welcoming the new missionaries for the last two weeks, and whenever we have free time on P-days we always go ask her if she has any service for us. She is the nicest Sister missionary here!

Thursday night, as we were walking back to our casa, a huge cucaracha ran out in front of us. I stomped it dead and then we got a good look at it. It was almost two inches long! It was so big that it probably could have talked to us!

Today we took pictures with our teachers. It is our last day of classes. Our teachers are Hno. Villanueva in the mornings, and Hnos. Fernandez and Terrazas in the night. Hno. Fernandez was my favorite teacher here. It´s cool that all of the teachers here and most of the workers have served missions themselves.  In a few hours, we are going to have the devotional with Neil L Anderson! But first we have to finish writing and then start packing! I can´t believe we are leaving already. Elder Sorensen and I have to hurry and finish up so we can relieve Elder Patterson so he can come write. Elder Richards came down with strep throat last night and is not feeling well, so he is resting at the casa now.

***I think we might be able to call from the airport, but I don´t know how we are going to be able to work it out, because I don´t have another opportunity to check email before then and the next mail wont come until Monday afternoon. If you want to do it you will have to respond before I get off!***

Our favorite CCM workers! Pablo is in the red, and Javier is in the green. Every time we see each other, we give high-fives, or knuckles and stop to talk or joke with them, Javier is really funny and is always cracking jokes. According to him, the secret to learning Spanish is in the beans and salsa here in the comedor.

Thanks for the Happy Birthday wishes and presents

I hope you guys have fun in Hurricane this weekend. You need to send a picture of the deck so I can see how it turned out. They finished it last week and you guys are just painting it now, right? Thank you all for the Happy Birthday wishes and the presents. We opened them earlier today, and it´s a good thing too because we were running out of candy. The little Lego missionary was fun too.

There are a few things I forgot to tell you last week, so here goes. There is this worker here at the CCM, named Javier, who does a lot of the maintenance and stuff like that. He is our district´s favorite worker here and we usually see him every night at dinner. We always go up to him and give him knuckles or something and talk to him and tell jokes and stuff. He tells us that the secret to learning Spanish is in the hot sauce and beans. Anyway, when we were driving in the bus last week on our way home from the temple we stopped at a red light about 45 min from the CCM. There on the sidewalk next to us in the middle of Mexico City was our Javier. We couldn't believe it so we had to open all the windows and wave at him. I think it embarrassed him a bit but it was fun to see him out of all of the millions of people in this huge city.

At the Temple, Elder Richards and I got these matching yellow ties with little embroidered caballitos de mar (seahorses) on them. We wear them on the same day every once in a while, and its fun to see our teachers faces when they notice that we are matching!

We found out this week that the apostle, Neil L. Anderson, is coming on Saturday to give a devotional to our CCM. He also wants to greet each missionary individually. We practiced the procedure several times during our last devotional. The Presidency was trying to figure out how we could get over 500 missionaries to shake the apostle´s hand in the shortest amount of time. We got here at the perfect time. We were here for Mexican Independence Day, General Conference, and now an Apostle!

We got our flight plans the other day. Those of us going to Lima are leaving on Monday at 11am, just before lunch. We all thought that we were going to leave on Wednesday. I don´t know if I can call in the airport. I have no idea. Elder Sorensen thinks we will be able to, but I haven't heard anything about it.

Our Latinos left. We are all pretty sad. Every night was fun because we would try to talk to them. Now they are gone and the casa is a lot quieter and we now have hot water for our showers.

Today we all got another haircut. Its the rule that you have to get a haircut at least 5 days before you leave the CCM. Its not nearly as bad as I thought my first one was.

We are all happy and safe here in Mexico. We are excited to leave though. I don´t get to see Elder Holden very often, but we did get to eat lunch with him the other day.

How is the bug collection? You guys should send me a picture. And if you could, could you find the Hummingbird story that I shared at my farewell, but in Spanish. I brought a copy in English. I will probably be giving a talk in Sacrament Meeting this Sunday on the Atonement and I was thinking that that story would be nice to have.

Thanks, I love you all!

Elder Torgersen

                                                                                       Elder Richards and I. 

Elder Reiberos and I

Elder Jordan, Diego, and I.

Mexico City Temple

This has been a good week. We got to watch General Conference on the big screen in the Gordon B Hinckley auditorium as the whole CCM, so that was fun. The only problem was that it got a little hot because their were so many suited bodies, but I really enjoyed Conference. Every talk was really good!

We just got back from the Mexico City Temple. It was so cool.

                                             

The actual temple has been closed for like a year and a half and is expected to be closed for another year more, so we didn´t get to do a session or anything. The foundation was in bad shape so while they repair it they take the missionaries on tours of the Visitor´s Center. Then they set us free to take pictures, and explore the gift shop and the old CCM, which is right next to the temple. I bought a Mexican bag and a new tie at the gift shop. We took a lot of pictures. The angel Moroni on top of the Mexico City Temple is one of only two temples in the world where he is holding the golden plates. That was really cool to see.  loved the designs on the temple. It´s cool how they can incorporate native cultures and tastes into temple designs. It takes about an hour to get from the CCM to the temple, but it was cool to get out of the CCM and see real Mexico! It made me more anxious and also nervous to get out into the field.

So of the Latino Elders in our casa, all of them are from Mexico, except one from Brasil, and one from Peru.  Elder Riveros is from Guancayo, Peru. He is the hardest to understand and he loves to just come up to us and say a whole paragraph super fast and then expect us to respond. he really gets a kick out of it. He told us he speaks Castillan Spanish, which I think is like fancy Spanish from Spain. They speak it different from South America. He is the only member of his family. His mom died a few years ago and his dad is not a member, and his sister is too young to be baptized. A few nights ago, he gave some of the American elders these tiny, red dried chilis and told us to eat them. Mine was about the size of my pinky fingernail, but it was probably the spiciest thing I have ever eaten. My mouth was on fire and my tongue felt numb and swollen. After I swallowed it, it felt like there was literally a burning in my bosom! Like the chili was going to burn a hole straight through me! The Latinos challenged us to a game of cage soccer today at four, so that is what we are doing when we are done writing our emails. Elder Ribiero, from Brazil, was a professional soccer player in the junior league. He was basically on track to become a professional soccer player, but they played their games on Sunday. He decided to give that dream up to serve a mission. He doesn´t know what is going to happen when he gets back. It´s so cool to get to know the Latinos. A lot of them have made huge sacrifices to join the church or serve missions, and they are all so fun and nice. 

It´s always fun to run into Hno. Carranza and talk to him in Spanish. It´s great to see familiar faces. We welcomed the new missionaries yesterday, and I got to help welcome Elder Holden and Elder Allen! It was great to see them. The first thing Elder Holden did when he got off the bus was to run over and give me a big hug. Then Elder Sorensen and I got to take them to their casa. Brandon´s not in my zone, but we will be able to see each other around. I´m so happy he is here now! We welcomed over eighty new missionaries yesterday! It was crazy!

Our morning teacher, Hno Villanueva asked Elder Sorensen and I to lead our Book of Mormon discussion on Monday. He told us to discern a need in our district and then pick a chapter in the Book of Mormon to discuss. I prayed about what chapter to share all weekend, and that we would be able to help somebody. We shared Alma 26. It is a great chapter about the importance and joy of missionary work. The spirit was so strong! Several Elders came up and told us that that was exactly what they needed to hear. It was definitely a highlight of the day.

Thank you so much for sending the Spanish to English Hymn conversion. It has been very useful. You don´t need to send me a new hymnbook because I already bought a pocket-sized one at the Tienda. Thanks for the letters. I just got your letter about Brandon´s farewell yesterday. Every time we go get mail it´s like that scene it The Best Two Years movie... Elder Torgersen,...... Elder Torgersen,..... Elder Torgersen....! What are those bookmarks you said you were going to send?

Palm tree seed that looks like "football cereal". 

Angel Moroni with gold plates. 

The best Elders in the CCM in front of the Mexico City Temple.

Real Mexico, and Elder Riveros. 

The old CCM (its tiny compared to how it is now)

That´s terrible about the Crafts house. We will pray for them. This could be a good opportunity for them to turn to God, just saying. I´ve been asking around about the mirrors. Nobody knows why, but there are valves and stuff behind it that the firefighters use. Outside on the city it is usually just glass or plastic so you can see inside, but in the CCM they just chose to use mirrors I guess.
I forgot to tell you about my stuff. I love my shoes, socks, pants, ties, belts, suits, and pants. But two of my shirts have irons marks, one is ok, the other is now designated as my sweater shirt when I get a sweater. We traded irons with one of the other rooms for a better one. It was just like the first week that I had problems with the iron now its better. And the one long sleeve shirt we got separate I dont like very much. So when I get to Peru, it might be nice to send me a new CTR shirt or two.

We like to workout here during gym time! So we took a funny mirror picture!

It rained so hard one day that we had a real river flowing through our gutter, so we all made paper boats and had a boat race!

Everything is Awesome!

¡Hola familia! Thank you for the letters, I love getting them, and yea mom, it would be cool if you could send them to me like you explained in the email. Elizabeth looks very good in her coronation dress!

This week went by so fast. it was like yesterday was my last P-day! It´s crazy! Yesterday was our halfway point here at the CCM. We are into week four now. We did a lot of fun stuff this week. We went on another adventure to the far side of the CCM and we caught a Mexican Garter snake. So that was exciting.Then on Friday, we were weeding a flowerbed for a service activity and I found an awesome caterpillar. It was black with long hairs and orange and yellow stripes. I´ll include a picture. We named it Mari, for mariposa, which means butterfly in Spanish. Moroni, the worker who was helping us weed said it was our mascota. We are discouraged from keeping pets, so we only kept it for one day. We made a little terrarium cage for it out of a cardboard box and a garbage sack. That´s the kind of fun stuff we do here in our spare moments.

Our district does this thing that that we call English fasts, where we can only speak Spanish for about two-three hours everyday. For every word that you speak in English, you have to do five lagartijas (push-ups). It´s pretty fun, but definitely a lot quieter than when we are allowed to speak English.

So you know how all of the Spanish Hymns are not the same page numbers as the English hymnbooks? Well its sometimes had to pick a song to sing when we don't know what page any of them are on. So I had this great idea that since you guys can use the internet you guys could look up a list of how the hymns compare and send it to us in a letter. That would be great.

We got eight new latinos in our casa the other day. We all went to the Tienda and bought drinks and cookies that we left in their room for them with a note that said, "Bienvenidos al CCM -Los Americanos." I think only one or two of them speak a little English. It will be a great way for us to learn Spanish. I am still like the translator. Last night, one of the latino elders started talking to Elder Richards and he called, "Elder Torgersen, I need a translator, i can´t understand him." It´s really fun to be able to understand and talk to the latinos. The ones in the room across from ours don´t have an alarm clock so they asked me to pound on the door and wake them up every morning. I also used my adapter thing for the first time on Tuesday. One of the latinos needed to use it to plug in his steamer thing that had a weird plug. I like helping them, they´re all really nice.

In my personal study I found Isaiah 29. It´s an amazing chapter. It is the prophecy of the coming forth of the Book of Mormon and the Restoration of the Gospel. It also says how the book will be given to the learned man who will say that he cannot read a sealed book (Professor Anthon), and it will be given to the unlearned man (Joseph Smith). Then go through and read the footnotes. In JSH 1:63-65, the prophecy of the learned man and the unlearned man is fulfilled almost word for word! I think that´s just crazy! Isaiah prophesied this thousands of years ago!

Tell Brandon to check his email. I am about to write him so I need to wrap this up. This is my last chance before he gets here. My district is scheduled to pick up the arriving missionaries for the next two Wednesdays from 3:45-6:00pm so tell Brandon that. 

I love you all!

Elder Torgersen

 At the CCM american football stadium!

These are the giant Lego Hand statues that we can see from our front door. Almost every morning, we walk out the front door like lego people and say "Everything is Awesome!"

Do we know a Dylan Torgersen, Elder Richards little brother wrestled him last year. 

                         The funny statue is on top of a gym right outside the CCM