12.16.09

Hey Family!

How is everyone doing? Elder Swan and I had a great week with some amazing things starting to happen. The bad part of the week was that Dora and Darius weren't able to get baptized due to some complications and now they are going out of town for two weeks and so we will have to baptize them in January. We were bummed out and the baptism didn't even need to be delayed but some things were said and it was too late when we found out it wasn't true. It's a sob story, really, but I'm over it because of the great week we had.

We finally got this family to come to church that we have been working on and they just happen to love it! They called us after church, crying, and basically bore testimony to us and said they are coming back every Sunday! It was the Christmas program and so it was a really amazing sacrament. The music was crazy amazing, it's like I was at the met, really.

We also had two part member families there who have solid baptismal dates. They just baptized a really amazing Haitian family a few months ago and now we are working with some of the uncles. Nesly, the most solid one, said to his brother, Uncle Toto, last night, "Hey! You need to get baptized. In fact, I'm getting baptized in a few weeks. Why wait? You should be baptized with me!" It was great. Lol

We taught this cool guy who does a lot of voice for companies like Nickelodeon and ABC. He had read the whole Book of Mormon and had some crazy questions for us like the New Jerusalem. He has a crazy work schedule and can't come to church right now but maybe next year.

Elder Swan and I have been doing really well together. We both like to take charge and since I'm trying to learn the ropes here, I've had to humble myself and learn from him. Which is good of course, it just feels weird to be out of the Bronx and not know everything about everything. He is a really good missionary and has only 6 weeks less than me. He has been ZL for quite some time and so he knows a lot. I'm sure I can teach him a thing or two still, but for now I'm just learning a lot! I'm really trying to learn how to lead and get people to follow me. There is a lot of room for me to grow so I will keep stretching!

So I will be here for at least the next 7 weeks which is just fine by me. We are having a giant Christmas party on the 25 in which the whole mission is getting together and have a devotional. It should be a fun Christmas and hopefully we can have some more miracles happening. Christmas is really the best time of the year, especially to be a missionary. I don't think we will do anything crazy. I am looking forward to talking with you all this Christmas, is there a time I can't call? It will probably be in the evening some time. I haven't received any packages as of yet but I know for sure the bigger one you sent first is in the mission office I just forgot to get it last week. We also had the ward Christmas party last week but not very many non- members came. Dora and Darius came and had a good time.

Well family I love you all and hope you have a great week! Enjoy this time of year and don't busy your self too much. I am praying for all of you and thank you for your prayers

Elder Sorensen

members are great...

Dear Elder Sorensen's family,

We are members of the Inwood 1st Ward and had your son and his companion over for dinner this evening. Both Elder Sorensen and Elder Swan are doing great and they shared an excellent gospel message with our family!

My oldest son is serving a mission in Nevada and I've enjoyed getting
photos from families from dinner appointments so I thought I'd send this for your family. For the attached photo both Elders claimed severe hat hair and kept their hats on (but not for dinner!). I asked Elder Sorensen if he had a message for his family and he said to just send his love. They didn't have any special requests for Christmas and they do have plans for Christmas day with the Cunningham famiy. They seem to be a good companionship, were in good spirits, and are excited to share the gospel and encouraged our family to do the same!

Best wishes for a wonderful Christmas,
Michelle, Kent, Elizabeth, and Ruby Larsen

12.09.09

Family,

Hey everyone how it going? We had a great week with a lot of success! Miracles just keep pouring in and we are doing just great. Transfers are early this time around due to missionaries going home early for Christmas, so next Wednesday we start a new cycle. Hopefully I can get to know more people in my zone this cycle; I'm not really close to anyone here.

We had some great things happen to us this past week. A few weeks ago we heard that his guy just walked in off the street and the next week he brought his kids and sat in at primary. We finally met him and got his address, he said he wanted to join; he has no idea what he's
getting into!

We had dinner with another investigator who was given to us by a member. She said that she knows that it's true and we feel like family to her. She also has two sons, one who has a full scholarship to Yale and the other has cancer. They have a date for January but haven't come to church yet. I feel that they are very solid.

D*ra and D*rius passed there baptismal interview last night which was great. D*rius has the worse case of ADD I've ever seen but they love church and are excited to get baptized this Saturday! Things are going really great for them, but hopefully everything stays great.

We had our first snow on Monday, but it didn't stick and today it has been raining all day. The weather has treated us very nicely this winter, I'm also glad I'm not upstate because they have a colder winter with more snow. Being in Manhattan has been really cool and here are all sorts of little perks of being down here. We ate a really nice breakfast at a hotel this morning, stake and eggs for free, I was down at 15th street yesterday to do some translating for the church and all of the members are super nice and going to hook us up!

Anyway sorry this letter is short as usual. I can't ever think of things to say, you should include all of you questions in your e-mail so I can know what to write. I will try to do better at answering questions. When I'm given more direction in writing, I have more to say. I love you all and hope you have a great week! I will send back those pictures as soon as possible.

Elder Sorensen

Please send Griff's address; he never wrote me back!

Sorry this is so late getting to you. It's been a crazy day here. One last request for your favorite scripture. I'm sending Christmas packages to Daniel and Griffin on Monday. K.


Hey family,

Well it was a good thanksgiving and a fun week. We got to go see the big Macy's day parade which was really cool. The weather has actually been really nice here, it's really weird but it hasn't got very cold yet. For Thanksgiving we ate with our ward mission leader and his family which was fun. We also ate with another family that night, I can't eat as much as I used to!

Nothing too exciting has been going on, just a lot of working. We met with the stake president last week to talk about all of the wards which was pretty cool. The stake president here is amazing; he came and spoke to the mission once a while ago. He is very missionary minded and does a lot to help us.

I went on a split with one of the elders in the zone yesterday in my area and we ended up finding 5 news and taught 7 lessons! It was a really good example day for that elder and a big booster for me. It was especially good because I still don't know the area very well but we got around ok. We cover a large area but luckily have full metro. Our zone goes down to 110th so we cover a good chunk of Manhattan. I've spent some time in Harlem and I'm pretty glad I'm not there, it's kind of crazy down there.

We had interviews with president on Monday which was also great. Elder Swan and I got to spend a good chunk of time with him talking about the zone. As always he did a great job of boosting my self esteem in telling me how "great" I am. I still don't believe him. I am really grateful for his leadership and help with everything.

We are still teaching D*ra and her son D*rius who should be baptized on the 12th. They are a sweet family and going to make great members. The Church is going to be able to help them out a lot and they have already started seeing the effects. We are also teaching this really cool family who was referred to us by a member. They haven't come to church yet, but they've been going through a move and a lot of other things but the lessons we have had with them have been really great.

We also found this really cool guy named R*ben through street contacting. It was a great testimony to me of street contacting because my last street contact of the night ended up being our first new the next day. He didn't look like the typical guy you would think would accept but now that we are teaching him he is really cool.

Our zone is doing a great job finding people but we are really lacking on people with a date. Our zone only has 5 people with a baptismal date and elder Swan and I have three of them. The fourth was also found by us, so at least we are setting the example but we are going to try and fix that.

Well I hope everyone has a great week and wish me luck as I continue to work hard. December is the one of the best times of the mission because of the holidays and so I am looking forward to having a good time. Thanks for everything and I wish you all the best!

Elder Sorensen

PS: happy birthday Nick!