Christmastime!‏

Wow, I`m glad the car didnt break down when you guys were on your way down there. I love hearing your stories. I especially loved hearing about Elizabeth´s Nativity. That´s so cute! I´m glad that you guys had fun finding my house.

This last Thursday was our Pday and we had our Missionary Christmas Party! We are getting so big that this year it was only half of the mision. It was at the ILN (Instituto Lima Norte) in Palao. Since Palao was one of Elder Ango`s old sectors, we left early so that we could visit some of the members and converts from his ward in Palao. I really liked Palao, it has a different atmosphere, it just felt like a nicer place. There are a lot of steep hills though. Callao is completely flat but Palao and RImac are pretty much just hills. 

The Christmas Party was pretty fun. We played sports and some games and each zone performed a skit. I think ours was the best! Then we had a 5 Sol White Elephant type gift exchange. I got a package of colored pens and Elder Ango got a Christmas mug with some candy. Elder Dickson got a Jehova´s witness hat, and Elder Pacas got a little pink purse with a super ugly Barbie on it! It was hilarious. A lot of the gifts are jokes like that.

Then, on Friday, we took Miguel to the Temple to do confirmations for the dead. As missionaries, we cant do baptisms for the dead, but we were going to accompany him and help him´,but there was a huge stake of youth from Trujillo so they didnt want us to go if we were just going to watch. So we sent him in alone and waited outside. The temple workers promised to help him. When he came out he told us that he was almost endowed! Haha! The old man helping him thought he came to get his Endownment. He started interogating him and everything, but it eventually got sorted out. He had a good experience. On Sunday I confered him to the Aaronic Priesthood and ordained him to the office of a Priest. It was a really cool experience. I have never done that before. The spirit was really strong.

Miguel at temple

Elder Ango´s Birthday was also on Friday. On Saturday we bought a big Tres Leches Cake from PlazaVea and shared it with Hermana Brake´s family. It was soooo good!

Yesterday, Herman Brake made something called Sangrecita for us to try. I think it is fried blood or something like that. It looks like cooked ground hamburger but a little more gritty and not as good. It was all right, but like the chicken feet it´s mostly just the thought of it that´s gross.

Right now we are preparing Victor Casiano to be baptized, but we are having trouble building his testimony. His wife is one of the stronger members of the ward and has been a member for  8 years. She really wants to go to the temple and be sealed to him so we are trying really hard to help him accept the gospel. He has a little desire, but its his testimony thats lacking. He also has a type of fibrosis that takes a toll on his physical  health and it affects him emotionally too. He is depressed a lot because of it. Every person is different and we have to help them differently. We have the freedom to teach the lessons in whatever order we need to and in any way that will be effective. In the past the missionaries only memorized lessons and gave them in order. We are now focusing more on the needs of our investigators. It is like being a doctor! Going around and helping to heal people emotionally and spiritually and to serve them temporally.

I sent some stuff to you guys on Thursday, but I dont know how long it will take to get there so heads up. Oh yea, my nice tulip wood pen that I made in woodshop ran out of ink, so thats too bad. We`ll have to get another ink cartridge. 

I hope you all have a Merry Christmas. I look forward to talking to you all on Wednesday. If you guys haven´t already I recommend that you watch the new Christmas video that the church just made. In Spanish it´s called Él es la Dadiva, in English I think it´s something like He is the Gift, or something like that. We have been sharing this video with as many people as we can. We have special pass along cards to give out about this video. The church is doing an experiment with it. THey want to know how many referrals and new investigators we get from this new video. The church paid a lot of money to YouTube so that this video is the only advertisement that pops up when someone wants to watch a video. I really love the video. I always feel the spirit so strong and it helps me remember the true reason that we celebrate Christmas. Christ is the reason.

I love you all a bunch!

Elder Kevin Torgersen

Me with the Borgs

Apostasy Book Burning‏

We burned an Anti Mormom book that Miguel gave us that he had from his days at college. He said he never finished reading it because he didnt like it.

Late Letter

Hola familia! Sorry this letter is late, we were practicing our zone's skit for the big missionary Christmas party that we are having on Thursday. Only half the mission is going to be there though. The other half is going to meet on the 23rd, because we are so big now. There are about 250 of us and Hermana Borg decided that she cant cook for that many all at once. We decided that President and Hermana Borg were Santa Claus and Mrs. Claus before their mission, but when they got their call President Borg had to shave his beard! They are both really nice and fun people.

Our church got robbed again. This time they only made off with some curtains, but we have been robbed like three times in the last two weeks. We think its cause the alarm is right inside the front doors where the whole world can see it!

Yea I bought a backpack! Its great, a lot more comfortable, and has more room. I havent got a speaker yet, but I havent really looked yet either. I usually get two or three DearElder letters every Wednesday at the Zone/District Meeting, but last week I dont think I got any.

For Skype we havent really found a place that we could do it yet. We are going to ask the bishop cause he has a nice computer, but dont worry we will be able to do it. If the 25th wont work we might be able to do it the 24th. We were blessed to be given both the 24th and 25th as Pdays! I think it would be around 1ish when I call, but I'm not sure yet.

I love hearing about how well the  boys are doing in wrestling! Good job Trevor! Keep up the good work! It's ok to cry, dont worry, just have fun!

This week for Pday we went to the Museo Metropolitano de Lima as a Zone. There was a lot of wierd modern art. Stuff like boxes piled up in shapes and stacks of newspapers and wierd stuff like that that some people think is art. 

Bug Collection at the museum

some of the types of corn found in Peru,

and how we wash our clothes in Peru! 

Tuesday was Hermano Miguel's birthday so we went to that and that was fun! We invited a lot of the members and it was a good time.

Yesterday we were talking to an inactive girl who was standing in her doorway when a completely drunk man walked up and started listening to us. He asked us what we were talking about and told us that he used to be a boxer. Then he started to pretend to punch us to show us what he would do to us if we bothered her. He was really wierd he kept punching us kind of softly and telling us he could beat us up. Finally we asked the sister when we could come back and he started to leave. We followed him for a bit and he couldnt walk in a straight line to save his life!

On Friday we painted the bishops house. We were there literally the entire day. From 10am to 7:30pm. it reminded me how Brother and Sister Dawson said I was going to go on my mission and do a lot of painting and stuff that I learned how to do with Brother Dawson.

Earlier this week we were asked my a stranger at church to come give his wife a blessing. It turns out they have been members for 14+ years and they just barely moved to Lima from Tumbes, so that his wife could get some medical help. She has a huge tumor thing growing in her side and the hospitals in Lima are the only ones that can help her. Right now they are renting one room that is just barely big enough for their two beds. They literally only have the clothes on their back. After we blessed his wife, this Hermano bore one of the strongest testimonies that I have ever heard. The spirit was so strong that it was almost palpable in the air. You could just feel it. He has so much faith It was really cool. We gave them our bread and eggs because they had no food. All they have right now is each other, their faith, and their testimonies.

 I love you all, next week we will need to coordinate the Skype for sure. 

Love, Elder Kevin Torgersen

all of this stuff is made out of the foam pad stuff that we sometimes sleep on when we are camping. I think its egg crate, or something like that, but this stuff was cool.

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! 

Transfers Tomorrow!

Hello everyone! Transfers are tomorrow and we dont know who is going to be transfered yet. They are going to call or text us around dinnertime tonight. I am almost for sure going to stay but there is a chance that Elder Ango might get transfered. I really hope that he stays. Anyway thats kind of exciting right now. We are the only mission that has every missionary gather together at every transfer meeting so it will be good to see my friends from the CCM.

We baptized Hermano Miguel on Saturday. It was really cool cause we both got to do it. Elder Ango did the ordinance and I helped to lower him into the water because he doesnt have strength in his legs or feet. It took three tries but we got it done. Afterwards he bore a strong testimony of his conversion and that his goal is to get his endownment in the temple. He finished the Book of Mormon and almost finished the Doctrine and Covenants in only three weeks before his baptism. Usually when we tell people this they say that we need to study the scriptures and not just read really fast to read them, but he has marked questions and things he likes on almost every page. Elder Ango said he has never had an investigator like him before. Then in Sacrament meeting yesterday the bishopric forgot that we needed to confirm him, so we had to text one of the counselors and we confirmed him between the talks. Sometimes it´s really frustrating because a lot of the members are always asking when we are going to have more baptisms, and then when we do they show up late to the baptism or forget to confirm him in Sacrament Meeting. We are really lacking a lot of support in this ward.

For pday last week we were planning on going to the Museum of the Nation, but when we got there we found out that it is closed on Mondays. So instead we went with Elder Pacas and Elder Dickson to the big yellow cathedral that we visited when we came here years ago. The one with like a gazillion pigeons outside and the catacombs with all of the bones laid out in a pattern. It was cool that we went to another place that I´d been to before. It´s like Dejavo. It was wierd to see tourists and other Americans there. During our tour of the cathedral, I heard on American say, "Look, the Mormons are here." We thought that that was pretty funny.

We order Roky´s Delivery Chicken for lunch again one time this week. It´s really good routisseri chicken. We also got anticuchas, which I think are like some type of organ on a kebob. I think it´s like liver or something, but honestly I really don´t know. They were good though. 

I got the package with the beef jerky and the one with the Santa hat and present. Thank you for sending them. Elder Ango likes the jerky too.

I have another crazy question from Hermana Gladys Montenegro. So she accompanied us when we were teaching Hermano Miguel and Hermana Rosa Luz about Temples and Family History. We showed pictures of our families and passed them around. When Hermana Gladys saw the picture of our family in front of the Manti temple she called me over and asked if it was our house. I was half tempted to say that yes, we live in a castle, but instead I explained that it is a temple in Utah. Haha! Her questions are so wierd!

I sounds like Brandon is having a rough time so I am going to write something to him now. I love you all. Send me some pictures.

Love, 

Elder Kevin Torgersen

Ive heard about that lady before from some other missionaries. I think we could try it.

Yea I like the idea of international stamps. But remember, from us to the temple is like 1 1/2 to 2 hours depending on traffic in a bus. But yea, Elder Dickson told me there is one close, we just havent really looked for it yet. And yea I´ll need envelopes. 

Sounds like fun in Rexburg. I just read an email from McKayla telling me about the new exchange student and how Elizabeth is terrified of the new dog. I can picture it perfectly. 

If you are in google maps, you might be able to see our apartment. It is in Jiron Vigil, close to the end by the big police station thing. It is on the second floor and is bright red and yellow and has a big "E" on it. I measured our area the other day. It is only about 5 blocks by 6 or 7 blocks. We have the streets Arica to Victor Fajardo. And are borderes By Jose Galvez and Elias Aguirre.

We dont really have a Pday this week. We just get to write home and to the president. The ties are only at the temple and we only go like once a transfer so it will be a late Christmas present, but I´ll try to send something. Yea, I want to go buy a speaker with a USB port and a backback, cause I hate the shoulder bag and President Borg said no comment *wink wink* when we asked him and most of the missionaries have them.

Mission!

Hello everybody! Another week has already past. I think this one was one of the fastest so far. It's crazy. This is our last P-day until cambios next Tuesday. Thanks for the pictures. It[s great to see pictures of Dylan's baptism. So is Isaiah working on his papers then? Is that why he bought a new suit? 

It´s so wierd that Mathew is back already. It seems like he should still have one year left at least. 

For my family history pamphlet I also need little pictures, like 1"x1.5", of my parents, grandparents, and great grandparents.

I realized that there is one thing you guys were missing in your chicken noodle soup: chicken feet! We had it again yesterday with Hermana Brake. It´s not that bad anymore.

Last P-day we went and played soccer against Rimac, another zone in the mission. They all had their nice matching jerseys, but ours hadn´t come yet so we were all different colors. Our jerseys came a few days later. They are yellow and blue. Apparently every zone picks out matching jerseys to play soccer against the other zones in. It was pretty fun, but I´m not very good at soccer compared to the latinos. They are crazy!

I got your package with the pictures and my license at our Multizonas meeting this week. Elder Ango loves the mints. I really like all the pictures about the deck. It looks like a fun project. The meeting was great. I was asked to play the piano. President andHermana Borg and the assistants taught us and we did some training about the process of conversion and stuff like that. 

I found out about pouch mail. We can recieve it but we can´t send it in this mission. Only real letters through the regular mail, and we aren´t too sure were the post ofice even is.

So the other day we were talking to a lady in front of her house who was a reference from a member in the other ward that meets in our building. She has a lot of problems and we were taking for a while with her. Then before we left, Elder Ango asked to buy some of the stuff she was selling. It´s called manzamora morada, or something like that. Imagine hot tar in a strange reddish/purplish color. Then she asked me if I wanted some. Not knowing any better and never having tried it before I said yes. So she filled two cups full of the stuff. I started to eat it and it wasn´t good, but it wasn´t bad either. When Elder Ango say me eating it he started to also. We finished it before we left. As we were walking away, Elder Ango told me that he didnt mean to eat it, he was just trying to be nice. Now he tells me, after I´d already eaten it! I had forgotten that we aren´t supposed to eat food from the streets because we don´t know how it was prepared. We both had stomach aches for a couple of days. Now the thought of that stuff makes me sick. Elder Ango decided that we needed to purge our stomachs so he bought us these laxative drinks and we spent the afternoon in our room. I already had diarrhea but then it got worse. (You better not send this to Sister Taylor!) Haha! But now I feel fine!

Our investigator, Miguel Angel is going to be baptized this Saturday. He is the one in the wheelchair. Elder Ango and I are going to baptize him together because he can´t bend his knees very much. He is the perfect investigator. He loves the Book of Mormon. I think he might finish it before his baptism. A few weeks ago he had a dream where he saw a pillar of light and was told that this is the path he should take. Then this week he was at work praying and asked for another sign. After his prayer he said he saw a cloud overhead part and a light started to shine on him. A feeling of peace and comfort washed over him. He decided not to ask for more signs.

Yesterday after Sacrament Meeting we took Miguel into a classroom to practice his baptismal interview and to teach him the Word of Wisdom and the Law of Chastity. Just as we were finishing up the Law of Chastity Hermana Brake came in with Hermana Ojeda, our old land lady. Hna Ojeda was not feeling well and needed a priesthood blessing. WHen Elders Pacas and Dickson got there we annointed and blessed her. Then her pain started to get worse. She thought she was having a heart attack or something and that she was going to die. The bishop came and we helped he take some of her medicine. We brought her son (Hermano Valle, the blind man at the piano classes) in to be with her. Herman Brake was holding her hand and comforting her as she was crying and saying that she wanted to die in her house in Vigil ( the street we live in). The bishop left to get her more medicine and to get a doctor and she asked for another blessing. I blessed her this time. The whole time she was pretty much crying and yelling stuff like "Please Lord, help me" and " Bless me Elder." Eventually she started to settle down. The doctor came and took her blood pressure and said she was just having some kind of panic attack. All of this happened in front of Miguel! 

When we were taking Miguel home after church he told us the story of his accident, why he has to use a wheelchair and crutches and sometimes is so shaky. One day, back in 2006, he was walking in the street and a thief hit him and took his bag. Then while he was on the ground the thief began to repeated kick him in the back. Afterwards, he was able to get up and walk home but ever since then he has been losing strength in his legs. He also has a hernia from this assault. I can´t believe that anyone would do that to him! He has been prepared to hear our message and he knows that it is true. it´s so cool to see his love for the Gospel. He isn´t afraid to tell people about the Gospel anymore and he hasn´t even been baptized yet!

 I drew an analogy from another experience I had this week. We were walking home pretty fast one night, and I think our pace excited a pack of dogs that was on the other side of the street. They started to bark at us and then chase us into the street. But we just kept looking forward and walking at the same pace. It was so hard to not look down or back at the dogs that were right behind us. They were so loud and sometimes I could feel them brush against the back of my legs. We were ok because we did not submit to them and only pressed forward on our way. If we would have looked at them or stopped we probably would have been bitten and attacked. This is like an example of the world today. The temptations of the world are trying to get us to look at them or follow them, but we need to keep our sights focused on our goal and endure to the end. The moment we give attention to the dogs or temptations of the world we get bitten. 

I love you all. Keep choosing the right and having fun. Read the Book of Mormon and have Family Home Evening. Have fun in wrestling and everything else. Send me some letters about it boys. I want to hear all about it.

Love, 

Elder Kevin Torgersen

Noche de Hogar

Every week we have a noche do hogar, or family home evening with the Jamjachi family. They are recent converts who have a goal for the temple. Hermano Jamjachi is really cool, I like him. He is the one buried at the bottom of the pile.

Hello everybody! Thank you for the emails. I hope that you are feeling better dad, and that you can get back to work. 

That`s so great that Adam wants to go on a mission now and that Tristan started his papers! It`s been hard, but it`s fun!

You`ll need to send me the picture of Dylan`s baptism. I was so happy when he told me. I had been praying for it for a long time, and that was the reason for my fast last fast Sunday, which was the day before he told me he was going to be baptized. There really is power in prayer and fasting!

I can`t believe that Matthew is already coming home and that Macrae is leaving. It`s crazy. 

I`m glad that the boys are enjoying wrestling. I want to see some pictues of that too. So Coach Preece has been talking about me? What has he been saying?

Gladys Montenegro, (not the investigator, but the Salt Lake question lady), asked me another wierd question. She was accoumpanying us to teach an investigator when we saw a cat in an alley. She said something about it and then asked me, "cats are of the devil because they have 9 lives, right." I was so confused again. I explained to her that during the creation God ans Jesus Christ created all the animals. Therefore cats are creatures of God and not the devil. THen she asked me, "and what about monsters." I just said that I didn't know and left it at that. She is so wierd sometimes, but we have a good laugh about it afterwards when we are back in the apartment. To her credit though, she is always willing to accoumpany us to lessons with investigators. It is really hard to get others to help us.

The temple trip was great! It is about an hour and a half to two hour trip by cramped bus, depending on traffic, to get to the temple. It was so great to escape the dirty, scary outside world and enter the peace of the temple. The temple in Lima is smaller than I was expecting. Everything is on one level. The ordinance room that we were in was the smallest that I have ever been in. The temple is so beautiful and the grounds are so well kept. I think it is the best kept building in all of Lima. It definitely stands apart from the rest of the city.

The other day we were in the bishop's house and there was a pretty strong earthquake. It was the first earthquake that I have ever felt. It was pretty cool. All the furniture was shaking and you could feel the ground moving under your feet. It only lasted a few seconds and nothing was damaged.

We have an investigator named Miguel Angel who is preparing to be baptized on the 29th of this month. He is 45 years old and in a wheelchair. He loves reading the Book of Mormon. One night when he first started reading it, he had a dream where he saw a pillar of light. He took that to be his sign that the book is true. Right now he is finishing up Mosiah. He marks every page and always has a bazillion questions everytime that we meet together. We take him to church every week. Yesterday, instead of his wheelchair he wanted to use his crutches so it took us almost twice as long to get to church, but it was worth it because he was there. Every investigator has to attend at least three times before their baptism. He has two attendances and there is only one more Sunday before his baptism. We are going to make sure he is there next Sunday because HE HAS TO COME or we will have to postpone his date! I really want him to be baptized. He has been prepared. He is ready!

I think we are going to play soccer against another zone today. That should be fun. I was wondering if you could send a spanish phrase dictionary. I have a word dictionary, but a big book of common phrases would be nice. And also, I need the wifi activated on my camera but I don't know how to do it. We can't do it from the camera, we tried and tried and couldn't figure it out. Also I don't know about pouch mail here. How do I send it, is it through the normal post office, or the mission office?

Love you all! I'll let you know when I get the packages.

Elder Kevin Torgersen

When I saw these flowers at the temple I thought of you, mom, and Grandma. Do you know what kind they are?

At the temple, I got a simplified hymnbook in spanish, but if you can find a book about learning piano to send that would be great. Nobody came for piano lessons this week, I think that it was because I was sick and we werent there last week. It was ok though. I helped Elder Dickin teach his handful of English students. There was the blind man, who is a member, and three little kids who showed up. That was it.

Thanks for working on my camera. If the wifi is activated then Elder Ango's camera can send pictures directly to my camera and it would be a lot easier.

Thanks for sending those talks to me.

I'm Still Alive!‏

I havent got any packages yet. I just got all of the letters this week. Every Wednesday at the District meeting they bring a big bag with all the letters and stuff that came that week. I know I will need another journal. You could send one of those.

I can't believe that another week has come and gone. It's so crazy. I love hearing about what you guys are up to. I just wish that I could have some pictures that I could keep. The members and investigators love seeing pictures of our families. Oh, and mom, remember when we were picking out ties and you picked out the grey, fancy one cause you said some little old peruvian lady would like it, well the bishop's wife really likes it, so you were right! 

The Larcomar trip was great. The Larcomar is actually the mall that we went to when we were in Lima were Tristan had the little octopus legs and part of it is underground. It was cool that I had been there before. That is the part of Lima that we visited.  We ate KFC and then rented bikes with Elder Pacas and Dickson. The ride to the Cristus statue is about 30 to 45 minutes but the last part going up the hill is the real challenge! It is so steep! At the top of the hill is the giant statue of Christ and this little old lady who sells drinks to those who make it to the top. It's a pretty genius idea! 

This week we had some intercambios where we change companions for a day and spend the night with the new companion. Elder Pacas and Ango were together and Elder Dickson and I were companions. Two gringos in the middle of Callao! He has only been out one transfer more than me, so two gringos in the middle of Callao who dont speak Spanish very well! It was fun though we did a lot a street contacting and knocking doors and taught a few lessons together. What is really cool though is that after we had returned to his apartment for the night, we started doing our daily planning for tomorrow. We always start with a prayer so that the Holy Ghost can guide us as we plan what to teach. It was a little hard because I don't really know any of their investigators. We came to one man and Elder Dickson asked me what I thought we should plan for he and Elder Pacas to teach him the next day. The idea came to me that they should teach Lesson 3, The Gospel of Jesus Christ, with a emphasis on faith. We wrote that down and then moved on. A few days later, Elder Dickson told me that that was exactly what that man needed to hear. The Holy Ghost really does guide us!

This week I had migraciones, were we had to go do VISA stuff. It was like 5 hours for two consecutive days. But it was great to see the other missionaries from my CCM district. They had to be there too. 

Friday I started feeling wierd. Saturday, I was sick. I had a fever, headache, body aches, chills, and I felt like I was freezing. We had to go back and rest at the apartment. We missed our piano class this week because I was sick. That was Saturday. Sunday I was feeling better and we brought some investigators to church, but after lunch I had to go rest again. This morning I woke up feeling a lot better. It's about time that I got sick, though. I was expecting it to happen earlier. Elder Ango and Hermana Brake say it was Gripe or something like that. But they call every sickness that here. 

So yesterday at church I was talking to this  lady who has been a member for two years. I told her that I was from Provo, which is about an hour from Salt Lake. Then she asked me the wierdest question. Apparently the missionaries who baptized her told her that her name would be sent to Salt Lake. So she asked me if her name was floating on the lake or somewhere on the bottom or something like that. I was so confused. I had to explain to here that Salt Lake City is were the church offices are and that is were her information is. I thought that was really funny!

Tomorrow we are going to the temple! I am really excited! There is also a bookstore there that I am excited for too. I need scripture cases for my spanish scriptures and stuff like that. Everything will be in Spanish. 

I love you all! Send me some pictures. Oh and we have these family history pamphlets that we fill out about our selves and I need all of my aunts and uncles names and birthdays and birthplaces, as well as for the siblings of my grandparents. It would be best if you sent that in a letter though. Thank you!

Elder Kevin Torgersen

So funny story about last week's piano class. The man with the white hair on the left is pretty much deaf ( we don't know why he always looks so sad). Then the man making a wierd face in the black jacket was drunk, and the man in the tan jacket is blind. So teaching piano here is pretty rough, right! Haha! Hno Chavarri is on the far right. He is the 2nd counselor and the secretary of the bishop. He helps me a lot to teach music. The lady in the yellow is Gladys. She is an investigator who comes almost every week and most of her family are members but she doesnt want to be baptized yet. She had a baptismal date at one time but too many people in the ward were congratulating and bothering her about it so it fell through. Her daughter in the green pants is Ashley, she is a member.

We laugh so hard every time we look at this picture!

Life in Callao

Sorry for forwarding your letter, I shouldný have done it. That would be cool if you made a blog. We have an hour and a half here to write, but 15 min is for writing President Borg. This computer is frustrating. Most of the letters on the keyboard have worn off.

Did you know, Dylan id getting baptized!!! On November 15th, he wants jake Francis to baptize him. It´s that great!

I forgot to tell you a story from ladt week when we were trying to get a taxi to take us to our apartment on my first day. It took us at least 45 minutes and dozens of taxis to finally find one that would bring us to our part of Callao. That was my first day and my first experience with our sector. It scared me then, but not that much now.

I´m still alive! No, it´s not that bad. We haven´t even been robbed yet. We did have a "spiritual" experience the other day. We were sleeping, and at about one thirty in the morning, Edler Ango woke up and heard the sound of someone turning a key in one of our doors to unlock it ( we have three doors to unlock before you can get into our house). So he slipped out of bed and woke me up. He also thought that he heard shuffling feet and moving chairs outside our bedroom door, like someone had broken in to rob us. We were sure of it. When we were both up, we decided what to do. We both hit the door loudly and flipped on the bedroom light at the same time hoping to scare the intruder away. Then we listened, and heard nothing. We called Elder Pacasm our district leader and he said to stay put and call the police if we needed to. We barricaded the door with our dressers and stuff so that there was no way that anyone couls open the door. We texted the less actives across the street to see if they could see anything in our front room, but they never answered. Eventually, we decided to lay back down and try to listen for more noises and fall back asleep. Needless to say, it was a long night. After Elder Ango fell asleep, I thought I heard the same sounds that he described. Eventually, I did fall asleep and when we woke up we unblocked ans unlocked the door and checked our apartment. All of the doors were still locked and everything was as we had let it. Elder Ango blamed the experience on spirits or fantasms. When we told the story to other members, they sais the sane thing. Hermana Brake said it is a common thing here in Callao for the missionaries to be harassed by evil spirits, because the adversary´s power is so strong here. She told us a dtory of a missionary who awoke to a feelong of a very heavy weight on his chext so that it was hard to breathe, but nobody was there. The devil´s power is real, and there really are spirits on the Earth. However, Hermana Brake reminded us that we hold the priesthood and that we have power over the devil and his minions. Like Jesus in the New Testament, we too can rebuke and cast them out from our presence in the name of Jesus Christ.

I have had other opportunities to use the priesthood. Yesterday, I was asked to give a blessing of comfort and strength to a man who called us into his house as we were walkong down the street. It was hard, but I did it in Spanish. 

The first Piano class was successful, but hard. I have never taught piano before and then to do it in Spanish after only 11 days here was hard. I dodný know the terminology or anything like that. Luckily, Elder Ango knows a bit about music and he helped me, and Hermano Chavarri, the 2nd counselor to the bishop, knows a lot about music too. he was a life saver. While I taught Piano, Elder Dickson and Pacas taught English. We had a good turnout. 

This week, we have been helping Hermana Julia take her mom to the doctor and to the hospital. Her mom is an ancient, tiny Peruvian from the highlands who only speaks Chechua, and a little Spanish. So not even Elder Ango can understand her. Her name is Hermana Ccapatina (yes, with two "c´s") she fell and broke her leg last week. As the biggest one out of all of us, I have to job of lifting her off of her bed, and into the wheelchair, then from the wheelchair into the taxi. After the taxi ride, it´s back into the wheelchair, into the hospital. The wheelchair won´t fit in the elevator with her in it, so I have  to lift her out of the chair again and onto the floor of the elevator, and then I usually have to lift her onto the doctor´s table for xrays. Then. it´s the whole process all over again to take her home. We did that twice this week. I´m luck that she´s so small. I fell so bad for her. She is in a lot fo pain, but she is a good short when I have to lift her.

Some of the people kind of worship us. They recognize us as holy men. Last night, we were walking down the street with the Primary President, When a wierd man stopped and tried to explain to me that he was clean, and that he didn´t do anything bad. He was kind of begging for mercy as if i had the power to condemn him or something. I thought it was kind of funny!

During our last District/Zone meeting, we separated the Latino and American Elders for Englixh and Spanish study. What the Latino Elders did was pretty funny. They made up a song in English. It goes like this, " I hate the chicken and the rice!", and is sung to the tune of "Abide With Me Tis Eventide." The one line is repeated and repeated for the whole song. It was pretty funny hearing all of our companions sing it in their heavy spanish accents!

Last Pday, we went over to Pacas and Dickson´s apartment to help them paint their bathroom, because the landlady really wanted it done. Today, we are going to the Larcomar, which is kind of like the beach and we are going to rent bicycles to ride to a big Christ statue that is up a big hill. It should be pretty fun! Love you all, have a great week!

Love, Elder Torgersen

Well, I made it safely to Peru!

Well, I made it safely to Peru! The flight wasn't too bad and it was cool that we got to be with most of our district. I had to say goodbye to Elder Richards, that was hard. We have plans for after our missions. When we got here to Lima, we were taken by some missionaries to a huge fancy hotel and we met President Borg. It was probably the fanciest hotel that I have ever set foot in and it was on my mission in Peru!  That's kind of funny! It was the Atton hotel in San Isidro. President Borg told us that we were going to stay the night there, but to not get used to it. he said that's the last time we'll get anything like that for two years. The mission office is on the sixth floor of the building just across the street from the hotel that we stayed in. The next morning we had a morning of meetings and then we all went to the Cambios meeting. Our mission is the smallest proselytizing mission in the world and the only one where the entire mission meets together every six weeks. President Borg introduced all of the new missionaries and then went through and named off the new companionships and such. My companion is named Elder Ango. He is from Peru, about 8 hours away. He doesn't speak much English, but he is a really good missionary and we have fun together. He is really short and I am tall. His last companion was also a tall American, named Elder Bassett. Apparently we look a lot alike because about half of the people we talk to don't even recognize that I am new. Then they have to do a double-take.

We were are assigned to the Herros 2 sector of Callao. Calloa is like a suburb of Lima. All everyone ever says is that Callao is the sketchiest part of the mission, and we are in one of the most sketchy parts of Callao. It's all ok though. Elder Ango knows how to keep us safe. We have little tips for hiding money and stuff. I think I have seen more drugs and alchohol in this first week here in Callao than in my whole life. The drunks here are kind of funny. They all congregate in small groups on street corners and when we pass they call us out and then give us thumbs-up. Every time they see us. It really scared me the first few times, cause I thought they wanted something from us. For some reason, when they are drunk it brings out all of their English. Sometimes they say "Hello, my friends, " as we pass. There are also a lot a dogs. Ever street has at least five stray dogs at a time. And that is not an exaggeration. They aren't that bad either. if we leave them alone then they leave us alone. Our neighbors are Jehovah's Witnesses, our arch nemesis', haha, but they are nice too, just really stubborn. 

I have had a lot of experiences this week. Every night, we eat dinner at Hna Brake's home, she is the President of the Relief Society. Every meal there is rice and chicken and some variation of chicken noodle soup. I was eating my soup one day and could not tell what was floating in it. When I was about halfway done I realized that it was a chicken foot. Hna Brake told me that it is good for my stomach so I had to eat it in front of her. It tasted just like normal chicken, it was just the thought and big tendons that were a little gross!

We were out in the street talking to a man who years ago was baptized but not confirmed, when a black car pulled up and an older lady got out. She came up and asked us what we believe in. We talked (mostly Elder Ango does the talking right now) and she invited us back to her house. Apparently she runs here own primary to keep kids off the street. Most of their parents are addicts and dont teach them religion or stuff like that so she has 80 kids that she teaches in her house. There were 20 or 30 wheb we got there. She had them do a wierd Christian dance for us.The whole thing was just plain wierd, but she is trying to do a good thing here. We taught the Plan of Salvation to her and a group of her helpers. They were all gathered around us in a semicircle as we taught and all of the kids were behind them. They seemed interested. We are going to return soon I think. We were joking that if we can convert the head lady, then the rest of the 80 something children and helpers will be baptized too and then we will more than double the size of our ward!

I feel like the ward here is sick. I counted 70 people in Sacrament meeting and Elder Dickson and Pacas, the other Elders in the ward, said it was the most they had seen in a long time. From what i have seen this week, there are probably three times as many less actives as actives. When they heard that i can play piano they got so excited. They pulled out the dusty keyboard (with no pedal) from out of the storage and we set it up before Sacrament Meeting. nobody remembers when the last time was that there was a piano. Sometimes they would play the guitar, but usually it would be accapella. The first song we sang was really awkward. I had no idea what song most of the people were singing because it all sounded like a mess. They were all singing at different speeds and pitches or what ever it is. I don't think they understand rhythm. By the third hymn, they were a lot better at following the notes and rhythm. The Bishop announced that I am going to be giving piano lessons on Saturday nights. I thought of Sister Paz. But i have no idea how i am going to teach them. A lot of people have said they want to learn but we only have on small keyboard. He also announced that Elder Dickson and I are going to teach English classes every week! 

We were out looking up menos activos and old investigators across the street from our apartment when we met an old catholic lady whose husband was bedridden and cannot talk. We talked for a while and offered to give him a blessing of health. I did the annointing. It was the first time I have done that and it was in Spanish!

Photos: 3 generations of missionaries, my trainer (Elder Ango), and his trainer (Elder Murri), and me

The Jones, our favorite couple missionaries from the CCM. Sister Jones made me the birthday cake and Elder Jones served his mission in Lima. He said he knows Uncle Robert and that they have worked together.

My first night in the mission field in the nicest hotel I stayed in!

Pictures with our night teacher, the speed demon, Hermano Terrazas!‏

Amazing Missionaries!

My husband and I are Senior Missionaries at the Mexico MTC.  We have enjoyed getting to know and love your wonderful missionaries!  We miss them already!

I thought you would like to see their district picture and departure Power Point tribute.  The music in the background of the Power Point is the EFY Medley.  Sometimes the music does not come through.