So Many Miracles!!!!‏

This week was probably one of my favorites that I´ve had here in barrio Santa Beatriz. Jahairo finally got baptized and it all went really well! The baptismal service went well and there were a lot of members there to support him. Even his mom showed up. She has had a really change of heart. A few months ago when we would go look for Jahairo and knock his door several times a week his mom would always get mad and sometimes be a little rude to us, but now everything is different. She is so thankful for the change in her son. He is a completely different person and she is amazed. I really wanted to make sure that the baptismal service went well because she told Jahairo that she was going to go and if she liked it maybe she would think about getting baptized as well. We visited them yesterday and she is super nice now. Jahairo was very prepared to be baptized. After I baptized him and we changed he shared his favorite scripture so far from the Book of Mormon. It was 1 Nefi 10:19-20. It was so cool how he was able to relate it to his own life and bear testimony of the truthfulnes of the Libro de Mormón. It really made my day hearing his testimony after his baptism. 

This week I was contemplating about miracles. What is a miacle? When do they happen? What causes them? A miracle is an unexplainable occurrence caused by the power of God, they depend on the faith of the people. I realized that miracles happen every day. Every time that a person learns that the Book of Mormon is true or gains a testimony it is a miracle. Every time that someone repents and recieves the forgiveness of their sins it is a miracle. Everytime that someone gets baptized or goes to church it is a miracle. Miracles are all around us, they happen eveyday. We just need eyes to see them and ears to hear them. This week I feel like I was better prepared to recognize the daily miracles and tender mecies of the Lord that he blessed us with everyday.

We had a little scare this week. President called me and said that there was a new missionary that was having a lot of troubles and that wanted to go home. He has a huge hill in his sector and was physically exhausted. President told me that after our baptism he wanted to make a switch so that I would be with the struggler and Elder Patterson would go to the hill becasue Elder Patterson is super happy and excited. We were really sad, but Saturday night President called and said he was going to call off the emergency change because the other elder was doing better. Wheeww! We are happy about that! Oh yea and Elder Patterson´s birthday is on Wednesday!

Last night we visited two new investigators who were being taught by Elder Weir and Elder Membrillo. They are cool and the sister, named Bianca, told us that she wants to get baptized. She aleady had a Book of Mormon and told us that one day she was fighting with her ex-husband and was crying and extremely upset. She sat down and saw her Book of Mormon and remembered that the missionaries had told her a little about it. She opened it up and started reading. She said that what she read was exactly what she needed to hear. It helped her alot. Bianca went to church yesterday and is excited to go to the conference next weekend!

We visited Maicol as well this week and he still wants to get baptized but didnt go to church yesterday. We are going to see if he wants to come with us to General Conference .

Im really happy that you all had a great Easter. Here the whole world celebrates the "Semana Santa" which is a catholic holiday to remembe the last week of Christ´s life. I was asked to teach the Principles of the Gospel class in Sunday School yesterday and the topic was The Atonement. It was the perfect topic for this week and really helped me remember the real reason that we celebrate this holiday, not his death, but that He has risen! I know that he lives and I am extremely greatful for the atonement of our Savior!

Love you all! Keep going to the temple! Have a great week!

--

-Elder Kevin Torgersen-

Misión Perú Lima Central

A testimony by the Spirit‏

Well, this week was fun, Elder Patterson and I are both learning a lot together. He is learning how to be a good missionary and how to speak spanish, and I am learning how to be a better leader and example. 

So these last few weeks we have been visiting Jahairo and he has been preparing himself to be baptized on the 26th of March! He was pretty excited and more sure about that date than the other ones in the past. We have been visiting him everyday this past week to help him get his answer and commit to the 26th because we have been teaching him for several months now and he always worms himself out of his baptismal goal even though he says that he would like to eventually get baptized. So Elder Patterson and I went one day to go teach him and we were planning to teach him about temples and family history, but he started to tell us some of his doubts and I felt the impression that he didnt really understand well enough the concept of the "forgiveness of sins," so we started to explain it to him again. We had him read several scriptures and then he read Isaiah 1:18. He read it out loud, then paused and read it several times to himself and then he looked up at us and asked, "what is happening? I feel sometime different, like a warm nice feeling that is entering my heart. What is this feeling?" We explained to him that what he was feeling was the spirit. It was the first time that he had felt it like that in his whole life. It was soo cool and he was soo excited! After that the was even more sure about his baptism on the 26th! The days went on and he told us that he was going to give us his 100% sure answer about his baptism on saturday, one week from the 26th. I prayed so hard that he would commit 100% to the 26th. We went to go visit him and he started to talk and told us that he didnt sleep all night because he was thinking about everything. He decided that he did want to get baptized but that it wouldnt be the 26th. He decided that it would be best on the 18th of June for some reason. After he said that I decided that we werent going to leave his house until he committed to the 26th because I knew that he was ready and that he had recieved his answer, he was just scared. He told us everything, all of his fears and doubts and we helped him a lot and after about 2 1/2 hours he finally commited to the 26th. He went to church yesterday and the bishop announced his baptism on the 26th at 6pm. The whole ward got super excited because almost all of the members know him becasue he has been investigating for so long. It helped him to feel more sure about the 26th too. We are super excited for this Saturday, he is going to be a great member.

 We went to the temple with the ward again to help with the baptisms for the dead for all the youth and recent converts. I got to be the guy who sits at the desk and puts all the names under the camera and marks them off, again. So that was fun. I love going to the temple.

 Oh yea, Elder Patterson´s twin got his mission call to the Colombia Bogota South mission so thats exciting too!!!

Do you guys remember how we were teaching Maicol? He wanted to get baptized and went to church two weeks and then moved. Well last night we went to his house and he told us that he moved back and that he wants us to visit him again. I am excited to teach him, he is really cool.

 I love you all and pray for you everyday!!!!

--

-Elder Kevin Torgersen-

Misión Perú Lima Central

This is Donny Del Castillo, and his wife, who knew Tristan in Russia! He was his ward mission leader!

 This is us with Kevin an member who always accompanies us who got baptized a year ago, and Giovana and her husband Diego. I interviewed Giovana a few months ago for her baptism and now her husband is investigating the church. He is really catholic but really cool and he went to the temple with his wife and waited for her out in the gardens while she was inside. I know that he will be a member soon!

 This is us with two of the bishops kids at the temple

All The Way From New Zealand!!‏

Wow, its been an awesome week! We had cambios on Tuesday and I´m training a new missionary! It´s super exciting. When they told me that I would be training I was wondering what country he would be from. Maybe Perú, Colombia, Bolivia, maybe Utah... But nope, my new companion is Elder Patterson and he is from New Zealand!!! We are thinking that he is probably the first missionary from New Zealand here in our mission. Its pretty exciting. He is super excited and willing to learn and that helps me a lot. He has an accent that makes him sound like an Australian. He also used different words like the Brittish use to call things.  It´s been fun this week too but different. It´s wierd being with a new missionary. I´m used to teaching a bit and then looking at my companion to let him teach and take turns like that, but now I just look at my companion and  nothing happens because he doesnt know and I keep teaching, hahaha! I pretty much have to teach the whole lesson but I am surprised how fast he is learning. Everyday he learns so much and his Spanish is improving. His mom is a Peruvian from Lima but he doesnt know how to speak Spanish very well yet. It is fun to be able to help him. I am really greatful for this great opportunity to be able to train a new missionary. Its giving me the opportunity to go back to the basics and to re-learn everything. It reminds me a bit of when I started the mission a year and a half ago. Oh yea, this week I completed 18 months in the mission! Its going by so fast, too fast.

On Thursday we had the big meeting in La Molina with Elder Robbins of the Presidency of the Seventy. It was great. He talked a lot about how to get along with another person, especially a companion or future spouse. I know that I need to prepare now to be the best husband and father that I can possibly be. We also got to see Elder Holden and Elder Allen so that was awesome too!

Friday morning the zone had a contacting activity in our ward, which means that the whole zone came to talk to strangers in the street. We had a really cool experience. Elder Pearce and Elder Cancino were in our sector and they contacted an older man. We just happened to be closeby and they presented him to us because he lives in our sector. After about only two minutes of getting to know him he recognized us as the Lord´s servants and immediately brought us to about ten of his friends who live or work in our sector. He would just bring us to someone, tell them that we are missionaries and ask them when we could visit them. He even started contacting random strangers in the street to get them to listen to us. It was great! I havent ever had an experience like that. We made an appointment to go visit him on Wednesday to get to know even more people! He says that know that he is retired he dedicates himself to God´s service. 

Well, I hope you all enjoy the Cultural Celebration. Be sure to record it or something because we arent going to be able to watch it.

I love you all!!!!

-- 

-Elder Kevin Torgersen-

Misión Perú Lima Central

 We found this and other giant spiders at the bishops house doing a service project.

The bishops wife and his little kids helped us catch it. It was a nice break from taking apart furniture to move upstairs.

Servicio‏

Two of the packages you sent finally got here!!! I got those green insoles and a Christmas stocking with some candy! It made my day, thanks a lot for sending it to me!

Well this week there was more opposition but also a lot of success! The zone leaders called me to do an intercambio with them this week and I got to go with Elder Paredes from Bolivia. He has been here in Limatambo for a very long time, over a year in two different wards in the same stake, and he is going home next change. I learned a lot from him. One thing that I noticed is that he always looks for ways to serve people. We were walking down the street and a man and an old woman were taking big baskets for fruit out of a taxi and carrying them into the house. I would have probably walked by but we stopped to help them and we were able to contact them and gain their confidence. Elder Garcia and I were able to go back the next day and teach them. I realized that service plays a huge part in missionary work. Most old people here are super catholic and dont want anything to do with us but by first serving them they saw that we really want to help them. Many times during my mission I have just gone straight to the point and tried to teach the gospel but now I know that they need to understand that we really care for them before they will really listen to us. Service is everything here. I wish that I had learned that earlier.

This week the four of us elders went to help the Del Castillo Family get ready for their son to come live with them. We helped move furniture and paint the walls. I am excited to meet him because he knew Tristan in Russia!!!

This is the last Pday of the transfer. Cambios are tomorrow. Its very likely that Elder Garcia is going and I will stay, but we dont know anything for sure until tonight.

Keep praying for us and look for ways to serve and share the gospel with others!

I love you all!!!
-- 

-Elder Kevin Torgersen-

Misión Perú Lima Central

The national stadium, which is in our sector

My district 

The zone Limatambo 

 Elder Garcia´s birthday the bishops family egged him 

like every Peruvian family does on someones birthday!

 and the giant beer building outside our house. The Peruvians love their beer.

Oposición‏

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 I love you all!!

--

-Elder Kevin Torgersen-

Sunburn‏

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

 -watch tan

The Book of Mormon Power‏

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A Wild Week!‏

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

-Elder Kevin Torgersen-

Misión Perú Lima Central

Christ-like Love‏

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

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

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

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

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

Love you all, bye!!!

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

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

Changes, but no Change‏

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

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

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

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

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

--

-Elder Kevin Torgersen-

Misión Perú Lima Central

The Jehovah´s Witnesses always hunt in packs!

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