La Conversión‏

Thank you for all of the pictures and emails. I loved the pictures and stories of the new Provo Temple open house. A lot of members here are amazed that we have a temple so close to our house. We really are blessed.

Well, the work is progressing, sometimes fast and sometimes slow. I really wish we could have more support from the members. They are always busy or something always happens. Sometimes I feel like they are scared to let their light shine before the world, they hide their testimonies and their beliefs from their friends and neighbors. This week we got more references from the Jehovah´s Witnesses that we talked to than the members from our ward! I realized that conversion is a never-ending process. Many members feel a conversion and get baptized and then slowly stop feeding their testimonies, and little by little it disappears and they dont have the courage to stand up for what´s right and share their testimonies. 

I really liked the Worldwide Missionary Broadcast that the Quorum of the Twelve and the Missionary Department showed on Wednesday. The topic was teaching repentance and baptizing converts. I really enjoyed it and the spirit indicated several things that I can change and do to improve myself as a missionary and be the means by which the people around me can be converted by the power of the spirit.

Yesterday Maicol came to church for the second time! Last Monday we went to visit him and he asked us what he has to do to get baptized. Thats always the best question that someone can ask you on the mission. Jahairo is having a lot of challenges right now and he isnt progressing like he was last month. His cell phone is broken and we are having a hard time finding him too. Last night we found a cool 21-year old and taught him the Restauración in his department. He was really interested and when we talked about José Smith and el Libro de Mormón he was a little surprised. You could see the surprise and interest on his face. We left him 3Nefi27 to read and invited him to pray to know if it is true. He is golden and it was probably one of the best lessons that Elder Garcia and I have taught together. The whole time we were teaching him I could imagine him as a missionary in a year. His name is Freddy and I am really excited to go back and teach him next Sunday.

I´ll keep looking out for those packages you sent. The candy really seems to disappear fast everytime I get a package, hahaha! This evening the zone leaders are going to call me to tell us the cambios! It´s exciting! I´m pretty sure that I´m staying but it´s likely that Elder Santana, Elder Garcia, and Elder Villarroel from my district will have transfers.

Sorry there are no pictures this week!

I love you all! You are the best family! 

¡Hasta Lluego!

--

-Elder Kevin Torgersen-

Misión Perú Lima Central

Hahaha Elder Garcia snapped our church key off too! Wow, that is really cold. Here its really hot and humid. A lot of people here have told me the same thing about mom too!

Elder TOR-GER-SEN‏

-"Hola, we are missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. My name is Elder Torgersen"

-"Ohhh............" (Awkward pause while they stare at my name tag and try to say "Tor-ger-sen")

-"And my name Elder Garcia"

-" Garcia? You are Peruvian, arent you? You both have the same name."

This is the english version of the conversation that I have had several times every day for the last 16 months, but its still funny every time. It made me laugh that Tristan has the same problem in Russia! Thats funny. We have a very unique and cool last name. I too am thankful for family history and for our ancestors. 

Well this week went by fast. Transfers are next Tuesday. We found a lot of new people again, which was great. Jahairo supposedly is going to get baptized on Saturday but he never showed up to our appointment last Saturday and didnt go to church yesterday, and he isnt answering his phone. I hope everything is alright. We are going to look for him tonight.

On wednesday we had a mission-wide ward council training meeting for all of the missionaries and leaders from every ward in the mission. I got to see a lot of people from Callao and Magdalena. Hermano Miguel was there too and he looks great. He was super happy to see me and we got to talk. He is the ward secretary and all of his meetings on Sunday have been getting in the way of his temple prep class, but he´s going to get it done soon. Elder Uceda, the Area President came and taught us a lot about how a ward and ward council should work. He said the bishop needs to focus on the youth and all worthiness and welfare emergencies, everything else that has to do with adults should be taken care of by the Relief Society, and the Elders and High Priests. He said that in the church and especially here in Peru we give too much to do to the bishop thinking that the bishop is superman and can do it all, but really it shouldnt be that way. I learned a lot and then Thursday Elder Uceda and his wife came and spoke to only the missionaries from 8am to 2pm. He is a very spiritual and inteligent man and I could feel the spirit bear witness that he is an authorized servant of the Lord.

Elder Garcia got robbed the other day but they gave him everything back because they were looking for the cell phone, but I had it :) It was an exciting experience though.

I finally got one of the packages! Thanks for the new tie and all the candy!

Well, I think thats all for this week, I love you all and wish you all the best!!! 

-- 

-Elder Kevin Torgersen-

Misión Perú Lima Central

-Santa Beatriz Selfie

 -Most of the zone at Parque de las Aguas

 -My district (including the zone leaders)

Pistolas

Hola! Wow, another week flew by! Its crazy! ... The zone leaders gave us really high goals for finding new investigators this week and Elder Garcia and I were able to accomplish them and we found a lot of new people, which gave me some new stories to share with you guys. We knocked a door the other day looking for someone we had contacted the other day and instead of the person we were looking for out came a big lady. She came out and greeted us like we had known each other for years. She said that she was talking to the missionaries and going to church in Iquitos (part of the jungle of Peru) She immediately pulled out some chairs and we sat and talked in the tiny patch of shade (I got burned pretty bad on my arms because the shade kept getting smaller and smaller by the minute until we were all pressed up against the wall to avoid the sun. It was soo hot this week! We had a good talk with her and she wants to keep learning more but just asked us to not use the B-word (baptism) So of course we talked about it. We were able to bear testimony about baptism and the blessings it gives us. We invited her to say the closing prayer and it was awesome! In her prayer she asked God to help her know if our arrival at her house here in Lima was the sign that she had been praying for! It was soo cool to hear that and see how God put us in the right place at the right time to be able to find her!

Last week we contacted a man named Andres who was surprisingly happy and nice, he was suspiciously too nice. It was a little wierd but we made an appointment to visit him because he said that he wanted to talk about Jesus. We went and he welcomed us into his house and invited us to share our message with him. He also told us that he already knew all about Mormon, Nephi, Moroni and José Smith. It was wierd becasue he said that he had never talked to someone from our church before but he knew all about those people. We asked him about it and he said that he investigated. He supposedly knew how Mormon formed our church and had a whole bunch of wives and then gave the church to "Smith" Haha it surprised me and made me laugh a bit. We explained to him that not everything in Internet is true. It was funny to see his face because at first he thought that he had the advantage over us and then he knew that he really didnt know anything. After we explained to him our purpose as missionaries to help him come unto Christ he was a lot more interested. 

We looked for a lady that we found a few weeks ago and we found her in her apartment and were able to meet her husband. We invited him to pray and in his prayer he also said that our arrival was perfect, just when they needed us. When we got there I felt like there was a little tension in the house but we were able to share our testimonies and invite the spirit. This week I was definitely able to see the Lord´s hand in His work, helping us everyday!

Jahairo came to church on Sunday. He already passed his interview and has three attendances so now we are just waiting for the 23 of January to come around so that he can get baptized. He is more excited and loved church yesterday. He said it was his favorite sunday so far!

Last Monday we bought little dart guns and had a shootout/capture the flag competition in the church with Elder Santana and Elder Weir. It was a blast!

Love you all! Thanks for all of the letters and pictures. I really enjoy it! Bye!!!

-- 

-Elder Kevin Torgersen-

Misión Perú Lima Central

First email of 2016‏

Hola!! Feliz Año! I hope you all had fun!!! We did too!

El Año Nuevo was lots of fun! We had permission to stay out past midnight again. We went to the Robles Family to celebrate the new year. They are recent converts who live in a huge super nice building with like 20 floors! Giovana Robles just got baptized last week, but her husband isnt a member yet. His name is Diego and he had fun with all of the fireworks because we arent allowed to use them on the mission. I understand even better why aerial fireworks are illegal in Utah now, hahaha! They bought something called a "cake" which was 49 aerial fireworks that go off one after another. I had no idea what it was until they had already lighted it. Diego put the "cake" down in the middle of the street and lit it off. There was a slight breeze so almost every firework exploded super close to the side of their apartment building! Hahaha it was pretty funny but dangerous too. Besides the fireworks, the new year was fun too! Here they have a fun little tradition where you have to eat 12 grapes at 12am to have good luck for the next year.

This week, we had intercambios with the assistents. Elder Gutierrez and I got to work together again and it was just like old times in barrio Venezuela. I think it really helped me a lot!! I really admire him, he is really cool. He told me that they already knew that Elder Garcia was tough, and that President had a hard time picking a strong missionary who could be with him. Elder Gutierrez says that he chose me because he knew that I have a lot of patience and that I would be able to help him. That really humbled me a lot and made me feel bad for complaining. Elder Gutierrez said that he has had problems with every single one of his companions. Thank you dad for what you shared with me about your own mission. I can really relate to it. I feel a lot better now and I know that I can help him these next three weeks.

On Saturday I had my third baptismal interview. I decided that it is one of my favorite parts about being a district leader. When the investigators are truly prepared and already have a testimony it is a super spiritual experience. It helps me to strengthen my own testimony. I really enjoy it!

Right now one of our biggest challenges is getting people to go to church. Yesterday none of our investigators or less actives were able to go and stay all three hours. Its really starting to hinder our success. I dont know what else we can do to get them to go.

This week has been good. I prayed really hard that I would be able to feel the spirit more strongly in my life and this week it happened. During lessons, teaching, contacting, and at church. I am really grateful for the presence of the spirit in my life. We should always strive to have its presence in every one of our daily activities. 

Have a great week! Love you all! 

-- 

-Elder Kevin Torgersen-

Misión Perú Lima Central

Feliz Navidad y prospero Año Nuevo!!!!‏

It was lots of fun talking to y´all! Thanks for being such a perfect family. Skyping was my favorite part of Christmas too! We spent Christmas Eve with a returned missionary named  Miguel (where we did Skype) and with the Serrano family. We played games, ate a big turkey dinner and a lot of panetón and hot chocolate. Then at 12am all of the fireworks went off like crazy again. We had permission to stay out with members until 12:20am.

Im really proud of Russell, he looks so grown up too. It sounds like you guys had a really fun Christmas!! On Christmas Day we pretty much just played futból all afternoon. It was fun. I really focused this Christmas on helping me remember and learn something new about the birth and sacrifice of our Savior. I feel like me testimony and my gratitude for what He did has grown a lot this pst week. I know that Christ is our only Savior and that he loves each of us individually.

Last week we had a hilarious experience!!! The four of us had dinner with the Serrano family and they gave us santa hats to wear to our Christmas party and our clean laundry to take home. We put on the hats and slung the bags over our backs on our way home. When we left the building there was a drunk across the street who saw us and started jumping up and down and pointing to us and yelling that he saw Santa. 

Thank you for your support and your prayers. I know that they help a lot.

Jahairo passed his baptismal interview and only needs to go to church one more time to get baptized but he doesnt feel ready yet. Pray for him please that he can feel ready and recieve a strong testimony that the church is true. We lost contact with Julio. He doesnt answer his phone anymore. Maybe he is out of town or it got robbed. We are going to keep looking for him. We found another investigator the other week who is really good and she came to church for the first time yesterday too. 

I love you all!!! Have a great new year and dont forget to set high goals to help yourselves improve!!!!
--

-Elder Kevin Torgersen-

Misión Perú Lima Central

Christmas Eve Skype

Merry Christmas!!!‏

Thanks for all of your emails! I love reading them. Well, we only have 30min to email today because we will be Skyping this week so its gonna be short.

Well, we had a Noche Blanca in the stake center on saturday. I interviewed one of the investigators from the other missionaries in our ward and she was super prepared. Its a really cool spiritual experience to interview people for baptism, especially when they are already so strong in the gospel. That was a highlight of my week. I love you all and Ill see you in a couple of days!!! Bye!!!

-- 

-Elder Kevin Torgersen-

Misión Perú Lima Central

Christmas Service

Hola familia! This was a good week, we are getting ready for Christmas and it is getting hotter. The other day it was super sunny at 6:30am, hahah when I woke up I thought that I got up late because it was soo bright outside.

Oh yea, I spoiled myself for Christmas and bought a new dark blue suit. Its pretty nice. Ill send a picture soon.

Cambios are tomorrow. The rumor is that there arent going to be many changes in la zona Limatambo, but we´ll see what happens. They are going to tell us tonight. Im pretty sure that the district is going to stay the same. Maybe only Elder Garcia or Elder Santana will have changes.

Last pday we went to el Museo de la Historia Natural in Lince, Lima. There were a lot of dried and preserved animals, but it was fun and we took a lot of fun pictures!

President Larson wanted us to focus on service this Christmas season. Every zone had to do a 3hr service project. We went to a big public stadium and pool in Barranco and cleaned the place up. I helped clean out the public pool which probably hadnt been cleaned in years. It was super dirty and the dirt was pretty much baked into the paint on the pool floor. It was really fun though. I also helped cut a field of grass with a giant pair of scissors, which wasnt quite as fun as scrubbing the pool hahaha! I liked how President said that we didnt come on a mission to be served, but to serve, and that is the attitude we should have. I hope we will be able to do more zone service projects in the future. I love the spirit that service brings. It always feels so good. We are going to have a Christmas dinner with half of the mission next week and we are going to see a slideshow of every zone service project.

Yesterday, we went to pick up Julio to bring him to church. He had just got back that night from a long trip to Trujillo but was willing to come with us. He stayed all three hours and really enjoyed it. He is really interested in the church. Ill keep you posted on his progress.

Im excited to talk to you guys on the 24th at 5pm!! Love you all. Ciao!

-Elder Kevin Torgersen-

Misión Perú Lima Central

Museo de Historia Natural‏

                                        

Cleaning the Pool

                               

The view from apartment window

Another week closer to Navidad!!!‏

We are another week closer to la Navidad!! Right now we are planning on doing Skype the 24th. 

This week we got to go to the temple with the ward and some recent converts and do baptisms. I got to be the registrator (the guy who marks off all the baptisms) and it was pretty fun. It made me think of being a temple worker if I have time after the mission. Bishop Serrano was a good sport and took some pictures with us and his chulu peruvian hat, haha! We had a training meeting for all of the district leaders in the stake last sunday and I liked how the stake mission leader explained that there are twelve "padlocks" that we need to put on every new convert as soon as possible to keep them active in the church. They need a responsability, a friend, and among other thing they need to go to the temple and perform baptisms for their own ancestors. I liked that the temple is so important in strengthening new converts and keeping them active. Those who go to the temple soon after their own baptisms are way more likely to stay active in the church.

Jahairo is progressing really fast and was really excited to be baptized on the 19th in the "Navidad Blanca" (massive baptism) in the stake center, but this weekend he got sick and wasnt able to come to church. It seems like everybody down here is sick with a cold right now! The other day I was in barrio Balconcillo in intercambios with an argentinian named Elder Villarroel and when I woke up I had a runny nose, sore throat, and sinus pressure. Ive been taking medicine and I feel a lot better today but still a little stuffy. We are going to have to ask for special permission for Jahairo to get baptized on the 19th because he has only come once to church and there is only one more sunday before his goal and every convert needs to attend church at least three times before their baptism. Im sure we´ll be able to do it. He is super prepared. 

Speaking of super prepared people... yesterday we visited a man named Julio who we had contacted a few weeks ago but were never able to visit him. He is from Cajamarca, which is a providence of Peru where there are a lot of people who look like gringos because after WW1 and WW2 a lot of Germans moved here to Peru.  We finally found him and taught him the Restoration. He accepted everything and wants to come to church and get baptized!! He is pretty cool. He already had a Libro de Mormón and everything because he talked to some missionaries in the street and they gave it to him. He loves to read, and he doesnt work Sundays (which is a miracle here)! He has a goal to be baptized the 2nd of January!!

Well, Im still holding in there with my companion. Its hard but Im doing it. The whole zone and ward is annoyed of him, but I just have to have more patience. Cambios are the 15th of this month. I hope I dont have cambio so that I can spend Christmas with the Serrano family!!

I love you all!! Have a great week!!!!!
-- 

-Elder Kevin Torgersen-

Misión Perú Lima Central

¡Buenos días!

¡Buenos días! I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving!!! I almost forgot about it to tell the truth but when I was making district leader calls some of the elders in my district reminded me! We did get to go to the temple again, so that was fun! This means that Christmas is even closer, less than a month away. (The new Star Wars movie is going to come out soon too! Hahaha, but I wont be able to see it!) Im excited to talk to you all.

Remember how last week we found that 24 year old who was super interested in the church when we were talking to his grandpa? Well, his name is Jahairo, and we´ve taught him several times since then and he has a baptismal date for the 19th of December. He went to church yesterday too. I am super excited, he is progressing a lot! Our half of the ward has only had two baptisms this entire year, one of them was a 10 year old girl, and the other was a guy who doesnt want anything to do with the church anymore. I know the sector is difficult but that just means that we need to work harder to have more success. This week I prayed alot that we would find prepared people who live in our sector for us to teach, (Whenever we find super prepared people it seems like they always live outside of the mission!) and we found several! We hit the streets and contacted everyone and even found a lady who was one week away from being baptized years ago but it never happened. I know that obedience brings blessings and exact obedience brings miracles. I have helped my companion a lot and he is being more obedient with the morning schedule. I know that we are now receiving more blessings for our obedience. 

Im getting used to being district leader. Its fun now, I just dont like teaching the district classes every wednesday.

I love you all!! Keep praying for us. I can see the effect that it has in our lives!! Have a great week! 

-- 

-Elder Kevin Torgersen-

Misión Perú Lima Central

We took some funny pictures at the temple. (Elder Garcia didnt want to participate)

Life in La Victoria‏

Wow, another week has gone by! Its so wierd! Hey, Tristan is on his way to Russia, thats exciting. Christian Wendelboe said in his letter that he is going to be training a new missionary this transfer! It could be Tristan!! Thats fun that he got to call you guys, but hey we´ll both get to call in a month!

Well not much happened this week, we contacted, had intercambios, invited people to be baptized, got chased by a homeless man, and visited families. Im enjoying the new experience of being a district leader here in La Victoria now. Its pretty fun and easy. But yea, not much happened this week.

The other day we went to follow up on some people that we had contacted in the street and we had written down their addresses to visit them. We knocked the door of an 88 year old ex-policeman that had talked to us a few days again but he wasnt too interested in our message. As we talked to him, his 24 year old grandson came out of the house and said " Are you guys the Mormons?, Ive always wanted to talk to you guys!" He came out and was super interested. We started telling him about the church and he asked a lot of questions. He liked everything we told him and he said that this was the church that he was looking for! It was a cool experience.

We are still contacting to find new people. We have found quite a few this last week but none of them went to church yesterday. Ive been thinking a lot about what one of the members told me the other day. He reminded me that we were chosen to serve here. Only the tough missionaries can serve here in Lima. Outside of Lima in the rest of Peru it is super easy to get baptisms, but here we have hundreds of different churches, anti-mormons, Jehovahs Witnesses, impossible work schedules, gang fights and everything that makes the work a lot harder. I really have learned a lot from all of the adversity. It reminds me of 2 Nephi 2 when it talks about "opposition". Its super important that there is opposition in all things or we wouldnt be able to learn and grow. When we have a lot of trials we have to choice to rise up and grow stronger or to flop and give up. I have seen how much stronger I have become thanks to the experiences that I have gained here on my mission!!

Well I love you all. Have a great Thanksgiving!! I´ll just imagine that my chicken is turkey and that my boiled potatos are mashed and that all of the rice is stuffing, hahahahah! I love you all!

-- 

-Elder Kevin Torgersen-

Misión Perú Lima Central

(The view from our 3rd story room. You can see the national stadium across the freeway!)

Metropolitano

¡Buenos días! Thank you for your emails. They made me smile! This was a good week, we had a lot of good experiences and some funny ones too. Well probably the funniest (and scariest) thing that happened this week was last pday. We went with the zone to the Centro de Lima and when we were coming home we decided to take the new modern bus system called the "Metropolitano" Its a special fast bus that has its own lane here in a lot of the main streets. Anyways, it was my first time using it. The doors open and close pretty fast and you only have about 10seconds  before the doors shut and the bus zooms off. Well Elder Garcia got on the bus and as I was stepping on the doors shut and the bus zoom off!!! I was there in shock for a few seconds and then some ladies told me to get on the next bus that stops at the same station. I got on the bus and felt so wierd, all alone. I felt like everyone was looking at me!! I got off at the next station and looked for Elder Garcia for like 5 minutes but couldnt find him. I had the cell phone so there was no way that I could have called him. I thought that maybe he got on another bus to return to the original station where we got separated so I got on another bus and returned as well. I couldnt find him there either so I started to get worried. I walked across the street to the other station and after a few minutes I saw him come running! Now that I think about it it was pretty funny, but it was so wierd to be alone in the center or downtown Lima! We learned that nextime we use Metropolitano we are going to get on the bus at the same time!

This week we spent a lot of time contacting and finding people to teach because when I got here there was almost nobody. We had a lot of fun experiences, I like contacting now. I learned to love it with Elder Gutierrez. The other day we contacted a lady and right off the bat she told us that our church isnt true because the Bible doesnt say anything about José Smith. She said that in her church they offer a class about why all the other churches are wrong. (I love challenges like that!) So I pulled out the Bible and we started clarifying things for her, then we read a little of the Book of Mormon. At first she didnt want anything to do with the church but afterwards she accepted an appointment for this week. I have learned to love the scriptures here on my mission. Right now I am reading the words of Isaiah. There are so many hidden gems in his scriptures. I love it, its like I have a hunger for more knowledge. The scriptures are like the guidebook of life. We have to read the instructions and follow them!

Oh yea, so we live really close to the national stadium and the other day Peru played against paraguay and they were so many people in our sector. The police had to close down a whole bunch of streets. I also found out the the US embassy in in my sector as well as several other embassies. Half of my sector is a really rich part and crossing the freeway were we live is one of the more dangerous parts of Lima called La Victoria. Its pretty close to Gamarra. My sector is on the edge of the mission. We are bordering the Lima East mission.

I hope you all get a lot of snow for Christmas, we sure wont be getting any down here. The summer heat is just starting to turn up. I love you all!
--

-Elder Kevin Torgersen-

Misión Perú Lima Central