Growing up, I always knew that I would serve a mission. I knew that I would learn and grow and change people's lives. However, I never really understood the full impact of how my mission would change me and my perspective about everything. Serving in the NYNYN mission has done more for me than any experience I have ever had. Being on the Lord's errand has taught me more in two years than any school will ever be able to teach me.
Love has been a major key indicator throughout my whole mission. I understand it’s purpose. I know how much my Heavenly Father truly loves me. My love for the people here in New York has grown as I have served them with my whole soul. I have tried and tried my whole mission, and I will continue to try, to reflect that love unto His children. The power of the Savior's Atonement is the source of all change in my mission.
The Spirit has also been a major part of the refining process I have gone through in my mission. I have grown to a point that I never imagined, became someone who I never thought I could become. I have learned how to better recognize the promptings of the Spirit and make better choices. The Spirit has changed my prayers and bettered my relationship with the Father. It has accompanied me time and time again. It has taught me sacred things that I will never forget.
One very clear thing that I have learned and seen from these last few months is great blessings come from obedience, patience and hard work. My whole mission I have done my very best to follow the Lord's standard for His missionaries. I have worked as hard as I could and I believe I did all that I was able. I never saw a lot of success in terms of baptisms until the last few months of my mission. As I waited patiently, the Lord poured out His blessings in abundance. I understand that that was the Lord's way of teaching me. I could have given up, as it is very easy to do. I could have relaxed and taken the easy course. But I can see what blessings I would have missed!
The thing I am most grateful for is an increased understanding of our Heavenly Father's Plan. When I was younger I thought I had it all figured out. Now I realize how much I was missing. I know where I stand in the eyes of the Lord. I know my purpose, why I am here and where I am going. I know! I have realized that everything, literally everything, kindles down to that same purpose; To one day become like Him.
My Heavenly Father has truly blessed me with a rich and wonderful experience. I with a clear conscience can say I did my best and I have no regrets. I came here to serve my Heavenly Father and He has blessed me hundred fold. I can never repay Him all that He has given me and blessed me with. He has shown me greater love than I ever thought possible.
I found a few great quotes I wanted share. Bruce McConkie said, “One of the most solemn oaths ever given to man is found in these words of the Lord relative to Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. ‘He (meaning Joseph Smith) has translated the book, even that part which I have commanded him,’ saith the Lord, ‘and as your Lord your God liveth it is true.’ (D&C 17:6) This is God’s testimony of the Book of Mormon. In it Deity himself has laid his godhood on the line. Either the book is true or god ceases to be God. There neither is nor can be any more formal or powerful language known to men or gods.” (Bruce R. McConkie, CR, April 1982, p. 50) “Take away the Book of Mormon,” said Joseph Smith, “and the revelations, and where is our religion? We have none.” (Teachings, p. 71) The pen of man knows no more perfect witness of God and Christ, of the Atonement, of the manner by which sins are remitted or of these doctrines that lead us back to the divine presence than the Book of Mormon. (Joseph Fielding McConkie & Robert Millet)
Jesus Christ is my Savior. Joseph Smith is the prophet of the Restoration. The Book of Mormon is the keystone to our religion. It was brought forth through the prophet Joseph Smith. I have gained a strong testimony of its converting power. I know the importance of the message we share. It is the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ! I am so grateful for the wonderful people in this mission who have changed my life. I stand all amazed at the love He has for me. I know with all my heart that this is His true church, and I bear that testimony in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
Elder Sorensen
First day
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
8.4.10
Hey everyone, I'm back! It is great to be home and with the family again. Thank you for all of the support and strength you have given me. My parents and I had a great week in NYC and were able to see and do a lot of fun things. We mostly focused on seeing many of my recent converts and families I taught. The highlight of the week was on Thursday when Arelis was baptized. Her husband and son, who were baptized earlier this year, were also there. I spent a lot of time teaching them last year and it was great to see them all. On Friday night we attended a wedding for a member and one of my investigators. They asked my companion and I to be witnesses. Mom and Dad didn't understand much of the baptism ceremony or the wedding as they were all in Spanish but they got to meet many of the special people I worked with during the two years. We also won lottery tickets to see Wicked. It was a great show and we were really lucky to win the tickets. We didn't do much as far as touristy stuff but we did go to Chinatown. Mom didn't like that too much.
The mission has really blessed my life and I am so grateful for the opportunity that I had to serve. Heavenly Father has really blessed my life as I've served Him. I am so grateful for all of you and for the strength you have given me to keep going. I have prayed for all of you and I will continue to do so.
If you want to contact me my email address is djeraldsorensen@gmail.com I don't have a cell phone yet but will soon. I will be heading off to Provo at the end of the month and in January I will continue my studies at BYU Idaho to become an accountant. I have enclosed my final letter to my mission president if you want to read it.
I hope you all have a great week and I wish you the best. Thanks again.
Daniel
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
7.14.10
Family,
This is it! The time is far spent and the Hymn "God be with you till we meet again" hasn't left my brain in about a week! lol Man it's hard to stay focused when everyday you have to say goodbye to someone or you get some phone call about when your going home! Don't worry I'm still fighting the good fight, Yesterday we taught 7 lessons and got two new investigators, which is an amazing day.
The few people who I had in mind to be baptized next week won't be ready by next week, but that's ok because it should give Elder Ames a great last cycle. I have seen plenty of success here and it will help Elder Ames go out with a bang.
We are struggling with a few of our recent converts but the rest are really thriving. I guess that's how it always goes. I guess I just have to keep praying for them and hope they come back.
The weather has been a lot nicer, I've been praying for it to let up for a week. It has rained a ton which cools things down a little. I don't exactly know what we are going to do next week but I will figure it out. The mission office messed up and the new missionaries are coming in on tuesday so we might not be able to spend the night at the mission home. We are going to the temple and dinner on Friday and I think they may want the people who are getting picked up to meet with their parents on Tuesday. I think they are still trying to figure it all out but that's what I guess will happen.
Am I still giving a talk next Sunday? What's my topic? I also have to give a talk here this Sunday. When are we leaving for Utah to see Nick and Deb? I guess it doesn't really matter if I ask questions because you will be able to tell me in person before I can check my e-mail.
I love you all! I can't wait to see you. Elder Ames and I are still doing great and we are both excited to go home. Thank you for supporting me and pushing me to be my best.
Elder Sorensen
Thank you all for your prayers!
Dad, am I giving a talk that next Sunday? What's my topic? You guys will probably pick me up on tuesday. I hope the mission office calls to tell you details because I have no idea.
This is it! The time is far spent and the Hymn "God be with you till we meet again" hasn't left my brain in about a week! lol Man it's hard to stay focused when everyday you have to say goodbye to someone or you get some phone call about when your going home! Don't worry I'm still fighting the good fight, Yesterday we taught 7 lessons and got two new investigators, which is an amazing day.
The few people who I had in mind to be baptized next week won't be ready by next week, but that's ok because it should give Elder Ames a great last cycle. I have seen plenty of success here and it will help Elder Ames go out with a bang.
We are struggling with a few of our recent converts but the rest are really thriving. I guess that's how it always goes. I guess I just have to keep praying for them and hope they come back.
The weather has been a lot nicer, I've been praying for it to let up for a week. It has rained a ton which cools things down a little. I don't exactly know what we are going to do next week but I will figure it out. The mission office messed up and the new missionaries are coming in on tuesday so we might not be able to spend the night at the mission home. We are going to the temple and dinner on Friday and I think they may want the people who are getting picked up to meet with their parents on Tuesday. I think they are still trying to figure it all out but that's what I guess will happen.
Am I still giving a talk next Sunday? What's my topic? I also have to give a talk here this Sunday. When are we leaving for Utah to see Nick and Deb? I guess it doesn't really matter if I ask questions because you will be able to tell me in person before I can check my e-mail.
I love you all! I can't wait to see you. Elder Ames and I are still doing great and we are both excited to go home. Thank you for supporting me and pushing me to be my best.
Elder Sorensen
Thank you all for your prayers!
Dad, am I giving a talk that next Sunday? What's my topic? You guys will probably pick me up on tuesday. I hope the mission office calls to tell you details because I have no idea.
Thursday, July 8, 2010
comp letter 7.7.10
This last week has been a good one. We are dying here in the heat and the humidity! IT reminds me of home,I have yet experienced heat like we have in AZ. I am not looking forward to it. We are struggling to help our investigators to progress. It seems like the adversary knows that incredible things are about to happen and is working extra hard to keep it from happening. One thing that I have recognized as a missionary is that there really is an influence out there that wants us to fail and he will do all that is in his power to make it happen. We continue though to work with faith and hope that we will be able to come out conquerors and not conquered. I love missionary work so much. There is nothing greater! We started teaching this lady who lives with the relief society president! She is super scared because it is something completely different than that which she used to. She promised to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it. It was a little difficult to get to that point though. She has one of the most amazing examples to follow though, her roommate is amazing! We are also teaching a bunch of part member families. They are sometimes very difficult to work with. They are so hit and miss. It is hard when the family itself is not very solid, but we are seeing success working with them!
So we got permission from our president to go to a branch campout!! We were able to go up saturday morning! Missionaries never permission for things like that. It was super fun! All of the missionaries in our branch went. Five of us. We got back at 5:30. It was super fun. We played a pretty intense game of soccer with the members. We had to drive 60 miles to get there. We were shocked when he told us we could go. I think it was because we are dying. He loves us! :)
We also had a mission wide luau yesterday! That was super hot! We were dying, but at the same time it was so much fun. I was able to see all of my old missionary friends from the city! My old district, Elder Prue, Elder Canfield, Sister Chatfield, Sister Child, Sister Lythgoe. It was like a family reunion! It is sad because we never see the missionaries who serve in the city. We saw our mission president and his wife dance the hula. It was hilarious. I learned that Elder Lambert can shake his hips like a pro! We were there all day, because we helped with set up and clean up. We had fun! I think that you should write a letter to Elder Canfield! Just to cheer him up. Help him to feel like he is on the top of the world. He really needs it, but don't tell him I said that!
Elder Sorensen is doing great, he tries his hardest to stay focused. It is so funny at times. We have these moments where is like oh wow, we're really going home. It still doesn't sink in though. So I make comments such as, Okay Elder, imagine this... And I start creating a ridiculous story about dirving home from work after a long ten hour day and being great by a young kid yelling daddy!!! And running up and grabbing on to his leg and then being greeted by his wife with a kiss. :) It is so much fun! We don't get distracted though. Those kind of things scare us so much.
Well, I better get going. I hope that you all have a great week and that you enjoy your last 6 weeks of peace. I want you all to know that I love you! And that I pray for you all everyday, so that angels will watch over you. Have a great week!
Con mucho amor
Elder Ames
So we got permission from our president to go to a branch campout!! We were able to go up saturday morning! Missionaries never permission for things like that. It was super fun! All of the missionaries in our branch went. Five of us. We got back at 5:30. It was super fun. We played a pretty intense game of soccer with the members. We had to drive 60 miles to get there. We were shocked when he told us we could go. I think it was because we are dying. He loves us! :)
We also had a mission wide luau yesterday! That was super hot! We were dying, but at the same time it was so much fun. I was able to see all of my old missionary friends from the city! My old district, Elder Prue, Elder Canfield, Sister Chatfield, Sister Child, Sister Lythgoe. It was like a family reunion! It is sad because we never see the missionaries who serve in the city. We saw our mission president and his wife dance the hula. It was hilarious. I learned that Elder Lambert can shake his hips like a pro! We were there all day, because we helped with set up and clean up. We had fun! I think that you should write a letter to Elder Canfield! Just to cheer him up. Help him to feel like he is on the top of the world. He really needs it, but don't tell him I said that!
Elder Sorensen is doing great, he tries his hardest to stay focused. It is so funny at times. We have these moments where is like oh wow, we're really going home. It still doesn't sink in though. So I make comments such as, Okay Elder, imagine this... And I start creating a ridiculous story about dirving home from work after a long ten hour day and being great by a young kid yelling daddy!!! And running up and grabbing on to his leg and then being greeted by his wife with a kiss. :) It is so much fun! We don't get distracted though. Those kind of things scare us so much.
Well, I better get going. I hope that you all have a great week and that you enjoy your last 6 weeks of peace. I want you all to know that I love you! And that I pray for you all everyday, so that angels will watch over you. Have a great week!
Con mucho amor
Elder Ames
7.7.10
Family!
Man, I don't know what to write anymore! Anything that has happened will be so much cooler to say in person, because we will be able to do that in a few weeks! I got your letters, thanks for writing me so consistently! I'm glad Brent has got himself a little girlfriend. It will be cool to hang out with him again, man I wish Griff was there too. I guess he is in a better place. lol
So the mission through a huge party for me before I go home! Well I guess it wasn't exactly just for me but it was still a lot of fun and I got to see the whole mission one last time before I go home. It is very rare when the whole mission gets together. It was a big Hawaiian Lu Aow, however you spell that. It was really good and they had some of the missionaries from the Pacific Islands put on a show for us, it was really cool.
So it has been SUPER hot around here! On Tuesday down in central park they had a record breaker of 103. It's not very fun to walk around in this, I feel bad you guys are coming here in this heat. This morning isn't as bad because there is some good clouds and rain. Hopefully we will have a cool streak here next week.
On Saturday, I couldn't believe we actually got permission to do this, we went up state about and hour and a half to the branch camp out. We spent all morning fishing, eating really good food and playing soccer. Spanish people know how to camp! We got back around 4:00. It was super fun and really weird at the same time, I didn't really feel like a missionary, I was having too much fun! I got a lot of sun and have a pretty good farmer's tan again. lol
Delmira, our recent convert is doing super well. She is now the RS secretary, been to the temple and bore a powerful testimony last Sunday. It is so amazing to hear the testimony of a recent convert. She is going to help build this kingdom so much! Adela is also doing really well. She is studying the Bible and BOM (Book of Mormon) a lot recently and learning a ton. She discovered for herself why worshiping the saints is so bad and she really understood. It's amazing what people can learn by themselves after receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost.
Well I think that's about it for now. I have to work on my obituary for president! lol Present asks us to write a mission experience letter to him before our exit interview. I love you all so much and I 'm grateful for such an amazing family. I love you all and I will see you in less than two weeks!
Elder Sorensen
PS. Mom-Please thank the Farvers profusely for their generosity. I will have to do something for them when I get home. Love you.
Man, I don't know what to write anymore! Anything that has happened will be so much cooler to say in person, because we will be able to do that in a few weeks! I got your letters, thanks for writing me so consistently! I'm glad Brent has got himself a little girlfriend. It will be cool to hang out with him again, man I wish Griff was there too. I guess he is in a better place. lol
So the mission through a huge party for me before I go home! Well I guess it wasn't exactly just for me but it was still a lot of fun and I got to see the whole mission one last time before I go home. It is very rare when the whole mission gets together. It was a big Hawaiian Lu Aow, however you spell that. It was really good and they had some of the missionaries from the Pacific Islands put on a show for us, it was really cool.
So it has been SUPER hot around here! On Tuesday down in central park they had a record breaker of 103. It's not very fun to walk around in this, I feel bad you guys are coming here in this heat. This morning isn't as bad because there is some good clouds and rain. Hopefully we will have a cool streak here next week.
On Saturday, I couldn't believe we actually got permission to do this, we went up state about and hour and a half to the branch camp out. We spent all morning fishing, eating really good food and playing soccer. Spanish people know how to camp! We got back around 4:00. It was super fun and really weird at the same time, I didn't really feel like a missionary, I was having too much fun! I got a lot of sun and have a pretty good farmer's tan again. lol
Delmira, our recent convert is doing super well. She is now the RS secretary, been to the temple and bore a powerful testimony last Sunday. It is so amazing to hear the testimony of a recent convert. She is going to help build this kingdom so much! Adela is also doing really well. She is studying the Bible and BOM (Book of Mormon) a lot recently and learning a ton. She discovered for herself why worshiping the saints is so bad and she really understood. It's amazing what people can learn by themselves after receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost.
Well I think that's about it for now. I have to work on my obituary for president! lol Present asks us to write a mission experience letter to him before our exit interview. I love you all so much and I 'm grateful for such an amazing family. I love you all and I will see you in less than two weeks!
Elder Sorensen
PS. Mom-Please thank the Farvers profusely for their generosity. I will have to do something for them when I get home. Love you.
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
6.30.10 part b
Here is a little more news from Daniel's companion.
Querida Familia!
How is everybody doing?! I hope that you have all enjoyed your trip! It has made me super jealous, but that is okay... I have dad's permission for my heart and mind to be in two different places!! HAHA I am just joking. It sounds like you have had a great time though.
To answer a few of your questions as to my favorite team for the World Cup... We have had a few missionaries from Brazil in our zone and so naturally I have supported the Brazilian team, but it really depends on who I am around. When I was around mexicans, I supported mexico. When I was around chilenos, I supported chile. When around argentinians, argentina. Its cool to see the people support their teams, they love their soccor! It has been fun.
I wish that I had your letter to answer more of your questions. Thank your for letting me know more about what is going to happen. It really does help me to stay more focused. The unknown is the most distracting sometimes.
This last week was amazing! Adela was baptized on saturday! She is doing great and I was able to get my camera charger and so I took some pictures. I have been taking a lot of random pictures lately. I don't know if I will send my card home anymore. It may not even be worth it.. let me know if you want me to. On Sunday I had to give a talk in church. I spoke about loving our neighbor as we love our self. It went okay. I still get super nervous when I speak in public. I am working on it! We have been able to find a few new people to teach! They are great! But it is hard to help them to progress. They are not quite ready. We do though have three investigadors at a youth conference right now. They had a combined stake youth conference with stakes from all five boroughs. They are at some university in Queens right now. We are praying that they come back with a strong desire to be baptized. They are mostly part member families. Yesterday we went to President Jefferies house and did some yardwork! It was awesome to be able to go do some physical labor for a change. We had to pull out a bunch of oak sapplings that he has in his garden. He had a super nice house! He is loaded.. So much money. We were working with the boyfriend of his daughter, and it was super funny because he was saying that he is studying engineering and want's to design and build robots to make life easier so that he can focus on more important things, like playing the latest video games.. That was the first thing on his list!! :) The world is going crazy!
Well, I have to get going. I love you all so much. Sorry for the randomness again.
Con mucho amor
Elder Ames
Querida Familia!
How is everybody doing?! I hope that you have all enjoyed your trip! It has made me super jealous, but that is okay... I have dad's permission for my heart and mind to be in two different places!! HAHA I am just joking. It sounds like you have had a great time though.
To answer a few of your questions as to my favorite team for the World Cup... We have had a few missionaries from Brazil in our zone and so naturally I have supported the Brazilian team, but it really depends on who I am around. When I was around mexicans, I supported mexico. When I was around chilenos, I supported chile. When around argentinians, argentina. Its cool to see the people support their teams, they love their soccor! It has been fun.
I wish that I had your letter to answer more of your questions. Thank your for letting me know more about what is going to happen. It really does help me to stay more focused. The unknown is the most distracting sometimes.
This last week was amazing! Adela was baptized on saturday! She is doing great and I was able to get my camera charger and so I took some pictures. I have been taking a lot of random pictures lately. I don't know if I will send my card home anymore. It may not even be worth it.. let me know if you want me to. On Sunday I had to give a talk in church. I spoke about loving our neighbor as we love our self. It went okay. I still get super nervous when I speak in public. I am working on it! We have been able to find a few new people to teach! They are great! But it is hard to help them to progress. They are not quite ready. We do though have three investigadors at a youth conference right now. They had a combined stake youth conference with stakes from all five boroughs. They are at some university in Queens right now. We are praying that they come back with a strong desire to be baptized. They are mostly part member families. Yesterday we went to President Jefferies house and did some yardwork! It was awesome to be able to go do some physical labor for a change. We had to pull out a bunch of oak sapplings that he has in his garden. He had a super nice house! He is loaded.. So much money. We were working with the boyfriend of his daughter, and it was super funny because he was saying that he is studying engineering and want's to design and build robots to make life easier so that he can focus on more important things, like playing the latest video games.. That was the first thing on his list!! :) The world is going crazy!
Well, I have to get going. I love you all so much. Sorry for the randomness again.
Con mucho amor
Elder Ames
6.30.10
Family!
Hey we had a great week and Adela's baptismal service went great! I hope to get in two more baptisms before I go home. I am doing all that I can to keep working hard so hopefully it goes through.
Nothing else has really happened this week. I hurt my big toe playing soccer last p-day and it was black and blue for a week! For some reason I always hurt that toe! But it's almost back to normal now, I will show you pictures in a few weeks.
I ate tongue for the 2nd time on my mission yesterday. This time I could actually see the taste buds. Yum! It's not actually that bad.
Last week we had our mission conference, my last one. It is tradition that on your last conference you bear your testimony and it was kind of weird to see that be me.
Well I love you all and hope you have a great week! Mandee, please kick Savanna little "boy friend" in the shins. will ya? I'll take care of the rest in three weeks!
Love you all, see ya soon!
Elder Sorensen
Hey we had a great week and Adela's baptismal service went great! I hope to get in two more baptisms before I go home. I am doing all that I can to keep working hard so hopefully it goes through.
Nothing else has really happened this week. I hurt my big toe playing soccer last p-day and it was black and blue for a week! For some reason I always hurt that toe! But it's almost back to normal now, I will show you pictures in a few weeks.
I ate tongue for the 2nd time on my mission yesterday. This time I could actually see the taste buds. Yum! It's not actually that bad.
Last week we had our mission conference, my last one. It is tradition that on your last conference you bear your testimony and it was kind of weird to see that be me.
Well I love you all and hope you have a great week! Mandee, please kick Savanna little "boy friend" in the shins. will ya? I'll take care of the rest in three weeks!
Love you all, see ya soon!
Elder Sorensen
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
6.23.10
Hola mi familia!
Como estan? It's good to hear that i will be going back to the same family! From what it sounds like not much has changed, at least with my sisters. Savanna, you don't have a chance at the grand, sorry. Mandee, I wish you could come on a mission for one day. Waking up at 6:30, exercising, cooking your own breakfast, studying for three hours then working another nine hours. It's the life!
Gerry, our nine year old, was baptized last Saturday and his mom actually came to the service! We have been working really hard with her but she is kind of difficult. We did our part in getting him baptized, but we will still have to keep helping her.
With Gerry's baptism I reached my goal of 15 baptisms from Jan till I go home! Don't think I'm going to slow down and settle for those 15 though, Adela, the sister and aunt of two recent converts we had this year will be getting baptized this Saturday! She suffered from some major depression problems the first few months that I was here and it is amazing how the gospel has turned her life completely around. She is now very happy and knows it is because of the gospel. What a testimony of what really the gospel can do in our personal lives!
We are working with some other part member families that hopefully can be baptized before I go home. We are teaching one of them tonight and so hopefully we will be able to extend the date. Heavenly Father has blessed me so much I can't even believe it. I came out here to serve Him and He has blessed me way more than I deserve. We haven't been able to find too many other new investigators. I want to get some more now so that Elder Ames will have some baptisms his last cycle.
Thank you for sending me all of Griff's letters. I promised myself I will write him a ton when I get back home. He sounds like he is doing super good and it's cool that we seem to be having success together. With his people skills I always knew he would make a super great missionary. He has so much potential.
I am thinking a little about what we will do the few days we are here. I don't really want to plan it out to the minute. If you can look through the boxes I sent home and find all of the planers I had that will help a lot! You don't need to send them, just bring them when you come. Also give me the price ranges for the hotels, so I can have a better idea of where we should stay.
Well I love you tons family and I hope you have a great week. Four more weeks and we will be partying here in NY together. Please pray that I will be able to stay focused but not beat myself up for having a little fun. I do need to relax a little bit. Thank you for all of the support and love from back home.
Elder Sorensen
Como estan? It's good to hear that i will be going back to the same family! From what it sounds like not much has changed, at least with my sisters. Savanna, you don't have a chance at the grand, sorry. Mandee, I wish you could come on a mission for one day. Waking up at 6:30, exercising, cooking your own breakfast, studying for three hours then working another nine hours. It's the life!
Gerry, our nine year old, was baptized last Saturday and his mom actually came to the service! We have been working really hard with her but she is kind of difficult. We did our part in getting him baptized, but we will still have to keep helping her.
With Gerry's baptism I reached my goal of 15 baptisms from Jan till I go home! Don't think I'm going to slow down and settle for those 15 though, Adela, the sister and aunt of two recent converts we had this year will be getting baptized this Saturday! She suffered from some major depression problems the first few months that I was here and it is amazing how the gospel has turned her life completely around. She is now very happy and knows it is because of the gospel. What a testimony of what really the gospel can do in our personal lives!
We are working with some other part member families that hopefully can be baptized before I go home. We are teaching one of them tonight and so hopefully we will be able to extend the date. Heavenly Father has blessed me so much I can't even believe it. I came out here to serve Him and He has blessed me way more than I deserve. We haven't been able to find too many other new investigators. I want to get some more now so that Elder Ames will have some baptisms his last cycle.
Thank you for sending me all of Griff's letters. I promised myself I will write him a ton when I get back home. He sounds like he is doing super good and it's cool that we seem to be having success together. With his people skills I always knew he would make a super great missionary. He has so much potential.
I am thinking a little about what we will do the few days we are here. I don't really want to plan it out to the minute. If you can look through the boxes I sent home and find all of the planers I had that will help a lot! You don't need to send them, just bring them when you come. Also give me the price ranges for the hotels, so I can have a better idea of where we should stay.
Well I love you tons family and I hope you have a great week. Four more weeks and we will be partying here in NY together. Please pray that I will be able to stay focused but not beat myself up for having a little fun. I do need to relax a little bit. Thank you for all of the support and love from back home.
Elder Sorensen
Friday, June 18, 2010
Hey Family!
I am glad to hear that everyone is good back home and having fun. Why isn't Mandee going to girls camp with Savanna? Can Claire say my name yet? I will have to work on that when i get home. Watch out greg, I'm going to be the favorite uncle real soon! I enjoyed all of the letters from you today. Thanks dad for the comment of not feeling bad about my mind wandering home. I'm not sure if I'm trunky, excited, nervous, scared or flat out just don't want to go home yet. Every moment is something different. I hope you guys are excited though, we should have a lot of fun this summer, I've got two years worth of "days" to make up with everyone. Mothers days, birthday ect.
Rafael was baptized this past Saturday! I can't believe the full turn around that he has made in his life. He is completely a new person. The gospel has really blessed his life and he already recognizes it. I hope he is able to go back to Mexico and share it with his family.
With Rafael, that makes four baptisms for the time Elder Ames and I have together. Not bad, right? We should have a few more before we both go home. This last area has been such a blessing to the both of us and has really strengthened my testimony of obedience and patience.
Heavenly Father has done so much for me while being on my mission. I'm not sure if I came out here to really serve Him or for Him to serve me. It's just like that chapter in King Benjamin's address. Where it says that we can serve Him all of our lives and we are still indebted to Him. But if we do serve Him, He blesses us and we become more indebted.
Delmira was the really tall one that got baptized a few weeks ago. The man standing with her baptized her. His name is Hno Olivo, whose daughter is the one who first brought her to church. The young woman and the boy is Blanca and Luis, who were baptized a week or so before Delmira. I'm sorry I have been so bad at sending pictures, you know how I am, you have to demand that I send them or I won't think to do it. I hereby promise to show you (mom) every single picture from the mission and explain them when I come home. Deal?
Any of the city's around the mission home or closer to Bronx would be fine for a hotel, hey maybe we can just ask the president to let us stay in the mission home. I'll ask! Just look at prices because some places are a lot more expensive than others. It would be best to drive the car around anywhere but Manhattan. Even the Bronx won't be bad at all with where I want to go.
Well sorry to cut the letter short, but I've got to go. I hope you are all doing super well and are excited to see me again. I love you all and I will continue to pray for you all!
Elder Sorensen
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
6.9.10
Hey Family,
Elder Ames and I had a great week and had some success as well. Delmira is doing great and is trying to share the gospel with her family already. We had 8 investigators to church last week which was a huge miracle. We also had one member bring one of his co-workers to work which is awesome. If every member of the church would do that just once this church would bloom!
We should have another baptism this weekend! Rafael is finally ready and we will have his interview is tomorrow. He has made so many changes in his life and has really grown a strong testimony of the gospel. He hasn't had beer or tobacco for about a month. I hope we can get him ready by this Saturday!
Transfers are happening today and it looks like Elder Ames is going to be the one to kill me off. This is my last cycle and I can't believe it's here. I never thought this time would come, but it came way too fast. I plan on giving it my all and making this the best cycle of my mission. I also am trying to have fun and get myself excited to come home. It's going to be hard to leave this life behind me. Elder Wilkins (my son) was transfered and just called to be zone leader. He is an amazing missionary and will do really well as a ZL. He also was one of my best friends in the mission. I'm going to miss that guy.
I really enjoyed the advice you all gave me last time about my investigator so I'm going to ask another question. What can I do to motivate a 13 year-old to come to church and get baptized? Natali has met with the missionaries for a long time and her dad has been less active for a long time. Last cycle he finally asked his boss if he could have Sundays off and easily enough his schedual was changed. He now comes to church almost every week and has a calling and everything. Her mom isn't active anymore and lives in Spain. She says that her mom doesn't have any problem with her getting baptized though. She is really shy but comes to the Wendsday activities every week. But for whatever reason, she won't come to church. What should we do?
So I got your question letter and I'm sorry to say but you won't like my answers. They mostly consist of I don't knows and it doesn't really matters. Sorry, I haven't really thought too much about all of that. I know you need to know. I will send it in the mail today.
I'm glad to hear that Clair is doing better and the girls enjoyed EFY. I really liked all of the pictures you all sent me. The whole family looks sooo different. I didn't think you guys would change that much. Dad looks super thin and mom your hair looks good! I don't know who the girls are in that picture but if i didn't think they were long lost cousins or somthing I might ask you for their info! lol
I hope you all have a great week! I love you all and can't wait to party with you all back home. I will keep praying for each of you, please keep my investigators in your prayers!
Elder Sorensen
Elder Ames and I had a great week and had some success as well. Delmira is doing great and is trying to share the gospel with her family already. We had 8 investigators to church last week which was a huge miracle. We also had one member bring one of his co-workers to work which is awesome. If every member of the church would do that just once this church would bloom!
We should have another baptism this weekend! Rafael is finally ready and we will have his interview is tomorrow. He has made so many changes in his life and has really grown a strong testimony of the gospel. He hasn't had beer or tobacco for about a month. I hope we can get him ready by this Saturday!
Transfers are happening today and it looks like Elder Ames is going to be the one to kill me off. This is my last cycle and I can't believe it's here. I never thought this time would come, but it came way too fast. I plan on giving it my all and making this the best cycle of my mission. I also am trying to have fun and get myself excited to come home. It's going to be hard to leave this life behind me. Elder Wilkins (my son) was transfered and just called to be zone leader. He is an amazing missionary and will do really well as a ZL. He also was one of my best friends in the mission. I'm going to miss that guy.
I really enjoyed the advice you all gave me last time about my investigator so I'm going to ask another question. What can I do to motivate a 13 year-old to come to church and get baptized? Natali has met with the missionaries for a long time and her dad has been less active for a long time. Last cycle he finally asked his boss if he could have Sundays off and easily enough his schedual was changed. He now comes to church almost every week and has a calling and everything. Her mom isn't active anymore and lives in Spain. She says that her mom doesn't have any problem with her getting baptized though. She is really shy but comes to the Wendsday activities every week. But for whatever reason, she won't come to church. What should we do?
So I got your question letter and I'm sorry to say but you won't like my answers. They mostly consist of I don't knows and it doesn't really matters. Sorry, I haven't really thought too much about all of that. I know you need to know. I will send it in the mail today.
I'm glad to hear that Clair is doing better and the girls enjoyed EFY. I really liked all of the pictures you all sent me. The whole family looks sooo different. I didn't think you guys would change that much. Dad looks super thin and mom your hair looks good! I don't know who the girls are in that picture but if i didn't think they were long lost cousins or somthing I might ask you for their info! lol
I hope you all have a great week! I love you all and can't wait to party with you all back home. I will keep praying for each of you, please keep my investigators in your prayers!
Elder Sorensen
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
6.2.10
Family,
Thanks for the great advice, I'm going to teach her about it tonight and so I printed your letters, thanks! (He asked how to help an investigator who is struggling with forgiveness for someone who hurt her)
We had a great week with another baptism! Delmira was baptized on Saturday and then confirmed on Sunday. She may be one of the strongest converts I have every had. It was a great service and she bore testimony at the end that she knew that this is the only true church. She is only 22 so we are trying to plant the idea of a mission in her. She already has her masters and is going through some other programs before she can start to practice so maybe the timing isn't right.
It is crazy all of the success that is just falling into our laps right now. Soon after Delmira was baptized we had several more people commit to being baptized. Natali finally set a firm date for the third of next month. The boyfriend of one of the members that introduced the church to Delmira asked us what he had to do to be baptized. And a less active family's boy is turning 9 next week and he isn't baptized. Talk about blessings!
Many missionaries stop being obedient because they never see direct results for doing the little things, but while I didn't have a ton of success as far as baptisms for the first part of the mission, it paid off to be patient and stay on the path.
I am doing really well physically. Elder Ames and I ran about three miles this morning. We are staying happy and trying to help out this zone. Being in leadership has taught me more about people skills than anything I've ever done in my life. All I want to do is help these missionaries; not to just have more success in the mission field, but to help them. If i do it in the wrong way it's counterproductive. I think some of the biggest challenges in the mission come from other missionaries, not just our investigators.
We don't have anything different coming up soon, just transfers. President basically told both Ames and I that we are staying so there is no worry. I hope a change up in the line up can fix some of the kinks in the zone.
I am glad to hear that Clair is doing better. I remembered to keep her in my prayers and it is great to see how fast He answers. I hope the girls enjoy EFY and didn't get too caught up with the boys. Please thank Aunt Kimberly and Doug for the post cards. I love you all and hope you have a great week.
Elder Sorensen
Thanks for the great advice, I'm going to teach her about it tonight and so I printed your letters, thanks! (He asked how to help an investigator who is struggling with forgiveness for someone who hurt her)
We had a great week with another baptism! Delmira was baptized on Saturday and then confirmed on Sunday. She may be one of the strongest converts I have every had. It was a great service and she bore testimony at the end that she knew that this is the only true church. She is only 22 so we are trying to plant the idea of a mission in her. She already has her masters and is going through some other programs before she can start to practice so maybe the timing isn't right.
It is crazy all of the success that is just falling into our laps right now. Soon after Delmira was baptized we had several more people commit to being baptized. Natali finally set a firm date for the third of next month. The boyfriend of one of the members that introduced the church to Delmira asked us what he had to do to be baptized. And a less active family's boy is turning 9 next week and he isn't baptized. Talk about blessings!
Many missionaries stop being obedient because they never see direct results for doing the little things, but while I didn't have a ton of success as far as baptisms for the first part of the mission, it paid off to be patient and stay on the path.
I am doing really well physically. Elder Ames and I ran about three miles this morning. We are staying happy and trying to help out this zone. Being in leadership has taught me more about people skills than anything I've ever done in my life. All I want to do is help these missionaries; not to just have more success in the mission field, but to help them. If i do it in the wrong way it's counterproductive. I think some of the biggest challenges in the mission come from other missionaries, not just our investigators.
We don't have anything different coming up soon, just transfers. President basically told both Ames and I that we are staying so there is no worry. I hope a change up in the line up can fix some of the kinks in the zone.
I am glad to hear that Clair is doing better. I remembered to keep her in my prayers and it is great to see how fast He answers. I hope the girls enjoy EFY and didn't get too caught up with the boys. Please thank Aunt Kimberly and Doug for the post cards. I love you all and hope you have a great week.
Elder Sorensen
Monday, May 31, 2010
companion letter 5.28.10
Here is yesterday's letter from Daniel's mission companion, Elder Ames, to his family:
Querida familia!
How is everybody?! I don't think that there will be anybody there to receive my message, but that is okay. You will just have to write an extra long one this next week! (some of us were at girls camp) This week has been great! We are continuing to be extremely blessed and we are so grateful for all that we have received. The Lord truly does love His missionaries! We are going to have the baptismal service of Delmira this coming saturday. She is so ready for baptism. I have never met anybody as solid as she is. She finished up her finals and dedicated a lot more time to reading the Book of Mormon. She is going to be a kingdom builder. I think that she should serve a mission. She would be great! We are going to try to teach her sister. She is not as interested as Delmira though.
We are also working with a man named Rafael who is getting over an addiction to acohol, we have helped him to develop a personal relationship with the Lord and he is really seeing and feeling the difference. If all goes well, he should be baptized on the 12th, but he may need a little bit more time. We have a pretty cool teaching pool right now. We have representatives from quite a few countries.
We have:
Dominican Republic
Mexico
Peru
Colombia
Ecuador (Maybe)
I think there are more, but those are the ones I can think of. That is one of the coolest parts about being in this mission. It makes it super hard to develop a good accent. So I stick with gringo. :)
So I have a question for all of you. This is a concern of one of our investigators... If someone has done something to you that has made it really hard for you to forgive them, how can you develop the courage and the love to forgive that person? How can you let go of those negative feelings that are built up inside of you? The concern is, she doesn't know that we know that this is her concern. It is a delicate situation.
When we do not forgive those that have offended us, we are letting those people have control and influence over our life. It is when we sincerely learn to forgive that we find freedom.
Well, I have to get going... I hope that you all have a great week! Have fun at your activities! Take pictures! And I will send mine home after the baptism! I love you all so much!
Con Mucho amor
Elder Ames
Querida familia!
How is everybody?! I don't think that there will be anybody there to receive my message, but that is okay. You will just have to write an extra long one this next week! (some of us were at girls camp) This week has been great! We are continuing to be extremely blessed and we are so grateful for all that we have received. The Lord truly does love His missionaries! We are going to have the baptismal service of Delmira this coming saturday. She is so ready for baptism. I have never met anybody as solid as she is. She finished up her finals and dedicated a lot more time to reading the Book of Mormon. She is going to be a kingdom builder. I think that she should serve a mission. She would be great! We are going to try to teach her sister. She is not as interested as Delmira though.
We are also working with a man named Rafael who is getting over an addiction to acohol, we have helped him to develop a personal relationship with the Lord and he is really seeing and feeling the difference. If all goes well, he should be baptized on the 12th, but he may need a little bit more time. We have a pretty cool teaching pool right now. We have representatives from quite a few countries.
We have:
Dominican Republic
Mexico
Peru
Colombia
Ecuador (Maybe)
I think there are more, but those are the ones I can think of. That is one of the coolest parts about being in this mission. It makes it super hard to develop a good accent. So I stick with gringo. :)
So I have a question for all of you. This is a concern of one of our investigators... If someone has done something to you that has made it really hard for you to forgive them, how can you develop the courage and the love to forgive that person? How can you let go of those negative feelings that are built up inside of you? The concern is, she doesn't know that we know that this is her concern. It is a delicate situation.
When we do not forgive those that have offended us, we are letting those people have control and influence over our life. It is when we sincerely learn to forgive that we find freedom.
Well, I have to get going... I hope that you all have a great week! Have fun at your activities! Take pictures! And I will send mine home after the baptism! I love you all so much!
Con Mucho amor
Elder Ames
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
5.26.10
Hey family!
It's great to hear that you all had a great time in Oregon. I miss it a lot! It sounds like it was a really good trip. (For those of you we didn't see, I'm sorry! We were only in Junction City for part of the day on Sunday -k) I had a good week as well. We pushed Delmira's baptism to next Sat. due to stake conference and she had finals in school. It just works out better this Sat.
We have been doing a lot better on finding new investigators lately. We had one member invite us to meet her boy friend and his kids. He has been to church once before and really wants to learn more. We starting teaching the husband of another investigator, Adela, who might get baptized with his wife.
We have really been struggling with Natali, Lourdies and a few of our other investigators. There are a lot of little things that are holding them back. We have many people who are so close to baptism, they just need to do it!
We had a competition within the zone to see which district could get the most amount of member referrals. Because member referrals are so much better, hopefully some of them will turn into progressing investigators.
Elder Ames and I are still having a good time and we are motivating each other to work hard. (Well sometimes we motivate each other and sometimes we distract each other. but that's ok! lol)
I love you all and I wish everyone in the past month and in the coming month a happy birthday! I'm sorry I can't make it special with a mariachi band, but i will make up for it someday!
Elder Sorensen
Hey mom,
did you know Amanda Ashton is getting married in Aug? do you know exactly when and where? (If anyone has more info I can pass along to Daniel, please let me know ASAP -k)
It's great to hear that you all had a great time in Oregon. I miss it a lot! It sounds like it was a really good trip. (For those of you we didn't see, I'm sorry! We were only in Junction City for part of the day on Sunday -k) I had a good week as well. We pushed Delmira's baptism to next Sat. due to stake conference and she had finals in school. It just works out better this Sat.
We have been doing a lot better on finding new investigators lately. We had one member invite us to meet her boy friend and his kids. He has been to church once before and really wants to learn more. We starting teaching the husband of another investigator, Adela, who might get baptized with his wife.
We have really been struggling with Natali, Lourdies and a few of our other investigators. There are a lot of little things that are holding them back. We have many people who are so close to baptism, they just need to do it!
We had a competition within the zone to see which district could get the most amount of member referrals. Because member referrals are so much better, hopefully some of them will turn into progressing investigators.
Elder Ames and I are still having a good time and we are motivating each other to work hard. (Well sometimes we motivate each other and sometimes we distract each other. but that's ok! lol)
I love you all and I wish everyone in the past month and in the coming month a happy birthday! I'm sorry I can't make it special with a mariachi band, but i will make up for it someday!
Elder Sorensen
Hey mom,
did you know Amanda Ashton is getting married in Aug? do you know exactly when and where? (If anyone has more info I can pass along to Daniel, please let me know ASAP -k)
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
5.19.2010
Hey family,
It sounds like life is a little stressful back home. I hope everyone is doing ok, i will definitely keep you all in my prayers. Elder Ames and I had a great week full of meetings. Elder Robbins from the 70 came to the mission and met with all of the ZL (Zone Leaders) on wed morning, fireside on wed night, and then a conference on Thursday. It was an amazing experience to be taught by him and I really took a lot out of it.
In the meeting with the ZL he taught us a lot about taking responsibility for our actions. He shared a lot of stories from both his church callings and his business career. He talked a lot more about life skills than missionary skills, which can easily apply to the mission. I also had a short interview with Elder Robbins along with a few other ZLs. He just wanted my opinion on the mission and he taught me some good pointers on leadership.
Yesterday we had interviews with President Smith which was really good. He has a great gift of helping people feel like a million bucks. He really expects a lot from us and holds us to those expectations. In my interview I received a clear answer to one of my prayers and helped me know that what I was doing was right. I feel much better because of what he told me.
Delmira called us the other night to share a great experience she had with HF answering her prayers. She is taking this baptism very seriously and is striving to properly prepare herself. She knew she had to repent of everything before she got baptized and make reconciliation with everyone she had offended. There was one person who stuck out in her mind and she couldn't ignore. She knew that she had to ask for forgiveness from this person. The problem was that she didn't have any way of getting a hold of them. She offered a prayer for an answer and the next morning that person sent her an e-mail, inviting her to an event! She said that she doesn't know why she keeps getting surprised that He answers our prayers, but I feel the same. It amazes me every time how we get our answers.
Rafael is doing well and he accepted a date for mid June. He seems to get stronger and stronger with each visit and his testimony is growing brighter and brighter. He wasn't able to come to church last week due to work but we did meet with him that night.
Elder Ames and I are both doing well. We have starting running in the morning and our goal is to be able to run 5 miles by the end of our mission. We also started the perfect push-up program again so we are both super sore. I don't know what president was thinking putting two dying missionaries together! lol No, we are doing really well and keeping each other excited in the work.
Well, I hope you are all doing well and good luck with upcoming finals! I love you all and hope the best for you. Thank you for being such a strong support for me and a great example. See ya soon! lol
Elder Sorensen
It sounds like life is a little stressful back home. I hope everyone is doing ok, i will definitely keep you all in my prayers. Elder Ames and I had a great week full of meetings. Elder Robbins from the 70 came to the mission and met with all of the ZL (Zone Leaders) on wed morning, fireside on wed night, and then a conference on Thursday. It was an amazing experience to be taught by him and I really took a lot out of it.
In the meeting with the ZL he taught us a lot about taking responsibility for our actions. He shared a lot of stories from both his church callings and his business career. He talked a lot more about life skills than missionary skills, which can easily apply to the mission. I also had a short interview with Elder Robbins along with a few other ZLs. He just wanted my opinion on the mission and he taught me some good pointers on leadership.
Yesterday we had interviews with President Smith which was really good. He has a great gift of helping people feel like a million bucks. He really expects a lot from us and holds us to those expectations. In my interview I received a clear answer to one of my prayers and helped me know that what I was doing was right. I feel much better because of what he told me.
Delmira called us the other night to share a great experience she had with HF answering her prayers. She is taking this baptism very seriously and is striving to properly prepare herself. She knew she had to repent of everything before she got baptized and make reconciliation with everyone she had offended. There was one person who stuck out in her mind and she couldn't ignore. She knew that she had to ask for forgiveness from this person. The problem was that she didn't have any way of getting a hold of them. She offered a prayer for an answer and the next morning that person sent her an e-mail, inviting her to an event! She said that she doesn't know why she keeps getting surprised that He answers our prayers, but I feel the same. It amazes me every time how we get our answers.
Rafael is doing well and he accepted a date for mid June. He seems to get stronger and stronger with each visit and his testimony is growing brighter and brighter. He wasn't able to come to church last week due to work but we did meet with him that night.
Elder Ames and I are both doing well. We have starting running in the morning and our goal is to be able to run 5 miles by the end of our mission. We also started the perfect push-up program again so we are both super sore. I don't know what president was thinking putting two dying missionaries together! lol No, we are doing really well and keeping each other excited in the work.
Well, I hope you are all doing well and good luck with upcoming finals! I love you all and hope the best for you. Thank you for being such a strong support for me and a great example. See ya soon! lol
Elder Sorensen
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
5.11.10
Family,
Hey it was great hearing from you all last sunday! I am glad to hear that everything is still the same back home and not too much has changed. I can't wait to see everyone and meet little Claire.
Elder Ames and I had a great weekend with two baptisms. The Rodriguez kids got baptized and it was an amazing service. This branch does really well supporting each other. Hopefully we should have many more soon to follow.
This week we have Elder Robbins from the Seventy coming to our mission. The Zone leaders have a meeting with him this Wednesday and our half of the mission will meet with him on Thursday. It should be really good and hopefully it will lift the mission to a higher level.
Delmira is our next baptism, at the end of the month and she is doing amazing. We are still working on her testimony of Joseph Smith and the BoM but I know it will come and she continues to ask. Last Sunday as we taught her I had the impression that I was in this area because of her.
Natali is doing a lot better now too. She came to Blanca Rodriguez's baptism, who is her good friend. Her dad bore a powerful testimony and she also came to church last sunday. Elder Ames and I feel like she will be baptized very soon.
Rafael is doing a little better on the wow (Word of Wisdom). We are going to try and give him a set date this week. Other than him we have a lot more potential but still need to find more.
I love hearing Griff's letters and know how he is doing. I wish i could write him more now but it's hard. I'm sure the mission is changing him just as it is changing me.
Well I love you all and hope you have a great week. Good luck with all of your adventures for the week and say hi to Grandpa and Grandma for me. Thanks for all that you have done and I will talk to ya next week!
Elder Sorensen
Hey it was great hearing from you all last sunday! I am glad to hear that everything is still the same back home and not too much has changed. I can't wait to see everyone and meet little Claire.
Elder Ames and I had a great weekend with two baptisms. The Rodriguez kids got baptized and it was an amazing service. This branch does really well supporting each other. Hopefully we should have many more soon to follow.
This week we have Elder Robbins from the Seventy coming to our mission. The Zone leaders have a meeting with him this Wednesday and our half of the mission will meet with him on Thursday. It should be really good and hopefully it will lift the mission to a higher level.
Delmira is our next baptism, at the end of the month and she is doing amazing. We are still working on her testimony of Joseph Smith and the BoM but I know it will come and she continues to ask. Last Sunday as we taught her I had the impression that I was in this area because of her.
Natali is doing a lot better now too. She came to Blanca Rodriguez's baptism, who is her good friend. Her dad bore a powerful testimony and she also came to church last sunday. Elder Ames and I feel like she will be baptized very soon.
Rafael is doing a little better on the wow (Word of Wisdom). We are going to try and give him a set date this week. Other than him we have a lot more potential but still need to find more.
I love hearing Griff's letters and know how he is doing. I wish i could write him more now but it's hard. I'm sure the mission is changing him just as it is changing me.
Well I love you all and hope you have a great week. Good luck with all of your adventures for the week and say hi to Grandpa and Grandma for me. Thanks for all that you have done and I will talk to ya next week!
Elder Sorensen
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
5.5.10
Hey Family,
How's everyone? I am doing really well and our area is really taking off. We have two baptisms this sat from the Rodriguez part member family. Also we set a baptismal date with Delmira, our tall domican. We were talking about Alma 32 with the whole seed thing and as we were talking about her testimony she compared herself to a flower who was about to bloom.(get baptized) She said that she just faulted a little more "water."
The branch is really excited to have two more missionaries because we split the area. They have given us a ton of referrals and told us about a ton of part member families. I guess out of the 7ish young women who come to all of the activities, one of them is baptized. This area should do very well in the next few months.
My companion's name is Elder Ames who is from Arizona and goes home one cycle after I do. I have served around him before, he was one of my district leaders in North Manhattan. He really likes to work hard and he is very humble and a spiritual giant. I am sure it will be an amazing cycle and he will probably be the elder to "kill" me off.
So we had a super weird week with not one normal day. Between moving, cleaning and cars breaking down; I am a little tired. We had two different cars break down on us Sunday and Monday and we are currently without a car. I don't really know what we are going to do. lol Don't worry, it's not my fault!
On Thursday we had the most trunky experiance of my mission life. We got up super early to help drive all of the missionaries leaving, back to the airport. The whole drive my stomach was going crazy. And then we had to drive all around, Queens, Brooklyne, South Mahattan, I saw everything, to drop of one missionary to meet his parents. When he got of of the car his mom did a little jump up and down and then gave him a big hug. It was super wierd. It was cool I got to see a ton of stuff though.
Well I am out of time, I hope you are all doing well. I will keep little Clair in my prayers and I hope she does better. I remember I went through a lot of the same problems when I was younger. I should be calling at 8 sunday night. love you got to go!
Elder Sorensen
How's everyone? I am doing really well and our area is really taking off. We have two baptisms this sat from the Rodriguez part member family. Also we set a baptismal date with Delmira, our tall domican. We were talking about Alma 32 with the whole seed thing and as we were talking about her testimony she compared herself to a flower who was about to bloom.(get baptized) She said that she just faulted a little more "water."
The branch is really excited to have two more missionaries because we split the area. They have given us a ton of referrals and told us about a ton of part member families. I guess out of the 7ish young women who come to all of the activities, one of them is baptized. This area should do very well in the next few months.
My companion's name is Elder Ames who is from Arizona and goes home one cycle after I do. I have served around him before, he was one of my district leaders in North Manhattan. He really likes to work hard and he is very humble and a spiritual giant. I am sure it will be an amazing cycle and he will probably be the elder to "kill" me off.
So we had a super weird week with not one normal day. Between moving, cleaning and cars breaking down; I am a little tired. We had two different cars break down on us Sunday and Monday and we are currently without a car. I don't really know what we are going to do. lol Don't worry, it's not my fault!
On Thursday we had the most trunky experiance of my mission life. We got up super early to help drive all of the missionaries leaving, back to the airport. The whole drive my stomach was going crazy. And then we had to drive all around, Queens, Brooklyne, South Mahattan, I saw everything, to drop of one missionary to meet his parents. When he got of of the car his mom did a little jump up and down and then gave him a big hug. It was super wierd. It was cool I got to see a ton of stuff though.
Well I am out of time, I hope you are all doing well. I will keep little Clair in my prayers and I hope she does better. I remember I went through a lot of the same problems when I was younger. I should be calling at 8 sunday night. love you got to go!
Elder Sorensen
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Hey Family!
So transfers were today and my new companion is named Elder Ames! He is exactly the type of missionary I have been praying for and I know we are going to see a lot of success together. I hope to be able to help out the zone as well.
Elder Oppe and I had a good last week and a lot of cool things are happening with our investigators. The first cool story was with one of our investigators named Demira. She is from DR and has been looking for the truth for a long time now. She has been coming to our church a lot in the past year but because she was going to school in long island, she couldn't come consistently. She is now going to school in Manhattan and so we are able to teach her every Sunday. She loves the Bible so at first she was skeptic about the BOM. I had her read 3 Nephi when the Savior comes and she loved it. I then had her read Mosiah 2-4 and as she read ch 2 last Sunday, she cried. Last sunday she told us that that she will be baptized, before I could ask, she just wants to pick the date. It was a super awesome lesson and the spirit was so strong.
The 2nd story was with one of our investigators named Rafael. We have been working with him a lot of the WOW (Word of Wisdom which is the guideline we use about drinking coffee, tea, etc) which is a big battle for him. It's all mostly social but with work and friends, it can be really hard. In the last lesson we had with him he said that as people would offer him coffee, beer or tobacco he would tell them that he doesn't do those things anymore. When they would insist he would explain that he is now a "changed man" and he doesn't do those things anymore. He also explained to us that as he reads the BOM he feels something really different inside. He doesn't really understand what that is, but he really likes it. He has been coming to church a lot and should be baptized soon.
We finally set a solid date with the Rodriguez kids for the 8th of next month. They came to church last week so if all goes well they should go down. The parents are really showing a lot of change and are pushing there kids to be baptized now. Angel, Natali's dad, also told us that his daughter finally said she wants to get baptized so we might baptize her on the 8th as well.
We were also told about another part-member family this week and so we are going to try to start working with them. The family is active, they just haven't baptized their daughter yet. They also have a 16 niece that lives with them and comes to church all of the time. Hopefully that will lead to a quick baptism as well.
Because of all the work we have going on in this area, this transfer we decided to split our area. We mostly work in White Plains and the rest of our huge area hasn't ever been touched. I talked to a member who served in this area like 10 years ago and she said that she never went to that part either so it should be good for the other missionaries. I know there are a lot of Spanish people up there so now missionaries will be able to go teach them. But we also closed down our apartment and will be moving in with Elder Wilkins and Lambert this friday. Poor Elder Ames, he doesn't get to unpack yet.
Well that's basically all that is happening here. There is a lot of work to be done in this area and I hope I can be able to get it done in 12 very short weeks. I've never grown to love a people as fast as I have grown to love the people in this area. The Lord has so many blessing just waiting to happen here. I will keep praying for you all and I hope the best for each one of you. Thank you so much for all that you do and the example you have shown me.
Elder Sorensen
PS. I will just go in Aug. to try and find an apartment.
Mandee,
Focus on school! There is only one thing more important than school and that's the gospel. Please don't make the same mistake that i did.
Savanna,
keep being a good girl. And no boys. You are far too pretty to talk to boys.
Mandee,
Don't worry, your pretty too.
So transfers were today and my new companion is named Elder Ames! He is exactly the type of missionary I have been praying for and I know we are going to see a lot of success together. I hope to be able to help out the zone as well.
Elder Oppe and I had a good last week and a lot of cool things are happening with our investigators. The first cool story was with one of our investigators named Demira. She is from DR and has been looking for the truth for a long time now. She has been coming to our church a lot in the past year but because she was going to school in long island, she couldn't come consistently. She is now going to school in Manhattan and so we are able to teach her every Sunday. She loves the Bible so at first she was skeptic about the BOM. I had her read 3 Nephi when the Savior comes and she loved it. I then had her read Mosiah 2-4 and as she read ch 2 last Sunday, she cried. Last sunday she told us that that she will be baptized, before I could ask, she just wants to pick the date. It was a super awesome lesson and the spirit was so strong.
The 2nd story was with one of our investigators named Rafael. We have been working with him a lot of the WOW (Word of Wisdom which is the guideline we use about drinking coffee, tea, etc) which is a big battle for him. It's all mostly social but with work and friends, it can be really hard. In the last lesson we had with him he said that as people would offer him coffee, beer or tobacco he would tell them that he doesn't do those things anymore. When they would insist he would explain that he is now a "changed man" and he doesn't do those things anymore. He also explained to us that as he reads the BOM he feels something really different inside. He doesn't really understand what that is, but he really likes it. He has been coming to church a lot and should be baptized soon.
We finally set a solid date with the Rodriguez kids for the 8th of next month. They came to church last week so if all goes well they should go down. The parents are really showing a lot of change and are pushing there kids to be baptized now. Angel, Natali's dad, also told us that his daughter finally said she wants to get baptized so we might baptize her on the 8th as well.
We were also told about another part-member family this week and so we are going to try to start working with them. The family is active, they just haven't baptized their daughter yet. They also have a 16 niece that lives with them and comes to church all of the time. Hopefully that will lead to a quick baptism as well.
Because of all the work we have going on in this area, this transfer we decided to split our area. We mostly work in White Plains and the rest of our huge area hasn't ever been touched. I talked to a member who served in this area like 10 years ago and she said that she never went to that part either so it should be good for the other missionaries. I know there are a lot of Spanish people up there so now missionaries will be able to go teach them. But we also closed down our apartment and will be moving in with Elder Wilkins and Lambert this friday. Poor Elder Ames, he doesn't get to unpack yet.
Well that's basically all that is happening here. There is a lot of work to be done in this area and I hope I can be able to get it done in 12 very short weeks. I've never grown to love a people as fast as I have grown to love the people in this area. The Lord has so many blessing just waiting to happen here. I will keep praying for you all and I hope the best for each one of you. Thank you so much for all that you do and the example you have shown me.
Elder Sorensen
PS. I will just go in Aug. to try and find an apartment.
Mandee,
Focus on school! There is only one thing more important than school and that's the gospel. Please don't make the same mistake that i did.
Savanna,
keep being a good girl. And no boys. You are far too pretty to talk to boys.
Mandee,
Don't worry, your pretty too.
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
4.21.10
Hey Family!
How is everything going? I had a great week with a baptismal service! The service went great and Rocio and Noemi had a great experience. I got to confirm Noemi and I thought it went well. Rocio's two kids also received a blessing and Charlie, the four year old, actually did really well. Their bother, who I've been told is an atheist, now shows a lot more interest in learning about the church.
On Sunday the branch had another baptismal service for an eight year old. With special musical numbers, church and the baptismal services, I had to play the piano a lot this weekend. For sure I'm going to get the grand!
With two of our investigators baptized we have to look for a lot more while our slower progressing investigators continue to progress. We didn't do very well on finding this past week but hopefully we will do better this week.
I can't believe this cycle has flown by so fast, it's almost over. Next week is transfers and President promised me a companion who I can really work hard with. The zone really needs some good zone leaders to help them out. I don't have much time left and I there is some much more work for me to do.
Thank you everyone for the increase of letters, it seems like whenever a missionary is about done everyone seems to remember them. lol. A special thank you to the Farvers for the Easter package. And to Nick, Deb and Clair for the package.
Well Family I hope everyone is doing great. I'm glad to hear little Clair is doing better. I have really enjoyed seeing her grow up, through pictures. It will be fun to see her and the new baby. Thanks for all of the support and I will continue to pray for you all!
Elder Sorensen
Here is his address:New York, New York North Mission700 White Plains Road Suite 315Scarsdale, NY 10583
How is everything going? I had a great week with a baptismal service! The service went great and Rocio and Noemi had a great experience. I got to confirm Noemi and I thought it went well. Rocio's two kids also received a blessing and Charlie, the four year old, actually did really well. Their bother, who I've been told is an atheist, now shows a lot more interest in learning about the church.
On Sunday the branch had another baptismal service for an eight year old. With special musical numbers, church and the baptismal services, I had to play the piano a lot this weekend. For sure I'm going to get the grand!
With two of our investigators baptized we have to look for a lot more while our slower progressing investigators continue to progress. We didn't do very well on finding this past week but hopefully we will do better this week.
I can't believe this cycle has flown by so fast, it's almost over. Next week is transfers and President promised me a companion who I can really work hard with. The zone really needs some good zone leaders to help them out. I don't have much time left and I there is some much more work for me to do.
Thank you everyone for the increase of letters, it seems like whenever a missionary is about done everyone seems to remember them. lol. A special thank you to the Farvers for the Easter package. And to Nick, Deb and Clair for the package.
Well Family I hope everyone is doing great. I'm glad to hear little Clair is doing better. I have really enjoyed seeing her grow up, through pictures. It will be fun to see her and the new baby. Thanks for all of the support and I will continue to pray for you all!
Elder Sorensen
Here is his address:New York, New York North Mission700 White Plains Road Suite 315Scarsdale, NY 10583
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
4.14.10
Family,
Elder Oppe and I had a great week full of lessons. We had mission conference yesterday and it was pretty much the same as the mission council. I hope everyone raises the bar in the mission. We have two baptisms this Saturday, Rocio and Nomis. Hopefully everything goes well for their interview today.
We are still working on the part member families here in the ward. The Rodriguez finally came to church which was great. Natali slept in but her dad came which is a step in progress. Neither one of them will make this Saturday, but we should be able to get them in soon.
We are working with a bunch of other people and a ton of them came to church last week. We had 8 people at church, 7 of which were our investigators and the other person we set an appointment with for this week. I should be able to hit my goal for total baptized if I stay in this area.
I had a cool experience giving one of the people we are teaching, Danilo, a baptismal date. I took what I learned for mission council and our role plays and I really felt the spirit guide me to know what to say. I simply said a silent prayer and then opened my mouth. The spirit really took over the rest. He accepted the commitment to baptized and acknowledged that he need to do more to learn.
I have really been trying to look for moment like this when i know the spirit is guiding me. I realize that everything comes down to recognizing the spirit and I have really been trying to do that. Hopefully the things I learn will stick with me for the rest of my life. I sure have learned a lot and I have to keep at it if I want to keep it.
Not that I've been trunky or anything but I've really thought a lot about how I want to finish my mission. There are a lot of lame missionaries who just give up the last few months of their mission and I want to do everything I can to not be one of those missionaries. Sprint to the end. I really want to have a companion who will allow me to work as hard as I can to finish my mission.
Well family thank you for all of your support and love for me. I continue to pray for you and hope all is well. I love you all and wish you a great week!
Elder Sorensen
Elder Oppe and I had a great week full of lessons. We had mission conference yesterday and it was pretty much the same as the mission council. I hope everyone raises the bar in the mission. We have two baptisms this Saturday, Rocio and Nomis. Hopefully everything goes well for their interview today.
We are still working on the part member families here in the ward. The Rodriguez finally came to church which was great. Natali slept in but her dad came which is a step in progress. Neither one of them will make this Saturday, but we should be able to get them in soon.
We are working with a bunch of other people and a ton of them came to church last week. We had 8 people at church, 7 of which were our investigators and the other person we set an appointment with for this week. I should be able to hit my goal for total baptized if I stay in this area.
I had a cool experience giving one of the people we are teaching, Danilo, a baptismal date. I took what I learned for mission council and our role plays and I really felt the spirit guide me to know what to say. I simply said a silent prayer and then opened my mouth. The spirit really took over the rest. He accepted the commitment to baptized and acknowledged that he need to do more to learn.
I have really been trying to look for moment like this when i know the spirit is guiding me. I realize that everything comes down to recognizing the spirit and I have really been trying to do that. Hopefully the things I learn will stick with me for the rest of my life. I sure have learned a lot and I have to keep at it if I want to keep it.
Not that I've been trunky or anything but I've really thought a lot about how I want to finish my mission. There are a lot of lame missionaries who just give up the last few months of their mission and I want to do everything I can to not be one of those missionaries. Sprint to the end. I really want to have a companion who will allow me to work as hard as I can to finish my mission.
Well family thank you for all of your support and love for me. I continue to pray for you and hope all is well. I love you all and wish you a great week!
Elder Sorensen
Thursday, April 8, 2010
4.8.10
Family
Hey i had a great week full of conference! I really love conference, it seems so much better as a missionary. We just watched it at the chapel and the spanish members made sure to bring enough food between sessions. It was very interesting to see the different themes they all spoke about. A lot seemed to focus on the home and the importance of mothers.
LOL so it doesn't seem like anything has changed back at home. Mom is still going 100 m/hr! It's good to hear that you all are getting so much done. I'm sure I don't even hear half of it.
So we baptized Marisol last saturday. It was a really great service and the branch showed a lot of support. She gave the great example of coming to all sessions of conference even with a 7 year old daughter. Her and her mother are both great recent converts. She will be confirmed this Sunday.
The Rojas family is also doing well. Lourdes still hasn't set a firm date but her daughters, Rosil and Noemis are still good for the 17th. We have to work on Rosil's husband next and some other extended family. They have really strong testimonies and i guess saw a lot of miracles happen through priesthood blessings before i got here.
Our part member families are doing well. Hno Lopez's daughter should also be baptized on the 17th and the Rodriguez just need to come to church. I guess we will still be working with them. Hno Lopez was finally able to get work off, so he doesn't work sundays any more. That will help a ton.
We had a mission council yesterday that was really good. A few people from the mission department came from Salt Lake and gave us a training. They taught us a lot about the Doctrine of Christ, roll playing, and mission culture. I really hope we as a mission can grasp on to what they trained us on. I learn about a lot of things i can do to improve.
Well I hope everyone had a great Easter and enjoyed conference. I am so grateful to have such an amazing family and support unit. Thank you for putting up with me and helping me whenever i need it. I love you all and hope you have a great week!
Elder Sorensen
Hey i had a great week full of conference! I really love conference, it seems so much better as a missionary. We just watched it at the chapel and the spanish members made sure to bring enough food between sessions. It was very interesting to see the different themes they all spoke about. A lot seemed to focus on the home and the importance of mothers.
LOL so it doesn't seem like anything has changed back at home. Mom is still going 100 m/hr! It's good to hear that you all are getting so much done. I'm sure I don't even hear half of it.
So we baptized Marisol last saturday. It was a really great service and the branch showed a lot of support. She gave the great example of coming to all sessions of conference even with a 7 year old daughter. Her and her mother are both great recent converts. She will be confirmed this Sunday.
The Rojas family is also doing well. Lourdes still hasn't set a firm date but her daughters, Rosil and Noemis are still good for the 17th. We have to work on Rosil's husband next and some other extended family. They have really strong testimonies and i guess saw a lot of miracles happen through priesthood blessings before i got here.
Our part member families are doing well. Hno Lopez's daughter should also be baptized on the 17th and the Rodriguez just need to come to church. I guess we will still be working with them. Hno Lopez was finally able to get work off, so he doesn't work sundays any more. That will help a ton.
We had a mission council yesterday that was really good. A few people from the mission department came from Salt Lake and gave us a training. They taught us a lot about the Doctrine of Christ, roll playing, and mission culture. I really hope we as a mission can grasp on to what they trained us on. I learn about a lot of things i can do to improve.
Well I hope everyone had a great Easter and enjoyed conference. I am so grateful to have such an amazing family and support unit. Thank you for putting up with me and helping me whenever i need it. I love you all and hope you have a great week!
Elder Sorensen
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
4.1.10
Sorry I didn't get this out earlier. I was out of town. K.
Family,
Hey we had a great week with a ton of lessons and 7 people at church. This area is really primed to baptize. We have a baptism this sat after the 2nd session. Marisol’s mom was baptized in Feb and she is finally ready herself. Hopefully we will have a few more in April.
I got to go on a split with Elder Wilkins, the elder I trained, yesterday. He is doing really well and having a ton of success. He is one of the few missionaries that I can really relate to. The rest of the zone has a lot of good missionaries, a lot of people I haven’t served around too much. I hope I can make a difference in their mission.
I think I’m finally starting to gain weight here on the mission! It’s not confirmed but I will update you later. The members have been feeding us well and they all love us. For a branch and Spanish program it seems to function pretty well. I have been impressed on how well things run here.
Elder Oppe is doing well, his birthday is this Tuesday. He got to come on his mission when he was 18 because he dad was a mission president in Brazil, so he will be turning 20. Greg, what mission did you serve in?
I got the pictures from you guys! I haven’t listened to the cd yet but I’ll check it out as soon as I can. From what I see on the pictures it looks like I’m going to be on the next flight home, with a fresh razor in hand. (He is talking about how his sisters look. He always said he was going to shave their heads if things got out of control.)
We are still teaching this Mexican family who should be baptized on the 17th. Two of them bore their testimonies this past Sunday which was really cool. We are also teaching this philosopher guy who came to church last Sunday and loved it. He is very interesting. There are a ton of part member families in the branch and I hope to be able to baptize some of them. A lot of 9 year olds.
I am really looking forward to General Conference and I can’t wait to see it. It has always been a highlight of the mission. Well anyways I love you all and hope you have a great week! Thanks for praying for me!
Elder Sorensen
Family,
Hey we had a great week with a ton of lessons and 7 people at church. This area is really primed to baptize. We have a baptism this sat after the 2nd session. Marisol’s mom was baptized in Feb and she is finally ready herself. Hopefully we will have a few more in April.
I got to go on a split with Elder Wilkins, the elder I trained, yesterday. He is doing really well and having a ton of success. He is one of the few missionaries that I can really relate to. The rest of the zone has a lot of good missionaries, a lot of people I haven’t served around too much. I hope I can make a difference in their mission.
I think I’m finally starting to gain weight here on the mission! It’s not confirmed but I will update you later. The members have been feeding us well and they all love us. For a branch and Spanish program it seems to function pretty well. I have been impressed on how well things run here.
Elder Oppe is doing well, his birthday is this Tuesday. He got to come on his mission when he was 18 because he dad was a mission president in Brazil, so he will be turning 20. Greg, what mission did you serve in?
I got the pictures from you guys! I haven’t listened to the cd yet but I’ll check it out as soon as I can. From what I see on the pictures it looks like I’m going to be on the next flight home, with a fresh razor in hand. (He is talking about how his sisters look. He always said he was going to shave their heads if things got out of control.)
We are still teaching this Mexican family who should be baptized on the 17th. Two of them bore their testimonies this past Sunday which was really cool. We are also teaching this philosopher guy who came to church last Sunday and loved it. He is very interesting. There are a ton of part member families in the branch and I hope to be able to baptize some of them. A lot of 9 year olds.
I am really looking forward to General Conference and I can’t wait to see it. It has always been a highlight of the mission. Well anyways I love you all and hope you have a great week! Thanks for praying for me!
Elder Sorensen
Friday, March 26, 2010
3.26.10
My E-mail got cut off last week! sorry this is all i have saved, i will write more next week!
Family,
Hey everyone! I have been doing so well this past week and I must have gained 50lbs this week. I'm back into the spanish food and I'm love every bite of it! We get fed at least once a day and I always feel like I'm going to puke after each one of the meals. Mexican, Domincan, Ecuador...Hey maybe I will be able to finally break 150lbs, my life goal! I'm so pathetic...lol
So i am serving in my first branch here in the mission and from what I've seen the members are great. We live in the garage of the Ward mission leader who seems great. The Branch president is a white guy who seems a little overwhelmed but from what I've heard and seen, he is doing a great job. I couldn't imagine being a branch president in a Spanish program.
There are a ton of part member families in the branch and I'm really going to take advantage of it. A lot of unbaptized children. We have been able to set up baptismal dates with most of them and a teaching schedule so things should be great. The Daughter of a recent convert who is 21 will be baptized on the 3rd. Her name is Marisol. Her mom is one of the strongest recent converts I've seen and Marisol has a very strong testimony herself.
We are also teaching a Mexican family who should be baptized the 17th. They seem really cool and they love the missionaries and everything about the church. One of them just had a baby and hasn't been to church yet so we have to work on her. The mom also works every other Sunday but other than that they seem great!
Elder Oppe is from Brazil but he study Spanish in school so he was already fluent
Family,
Hey everyone! I have been doing so well this past week and I must have gained 50lbs this week. I'm back into the spanish food and I'm love every bite of it! We get fed at least once a day and I always feel like I'm going to puke after each one of the meals. Mexican, Domincan, Ecuador...Hey maybe I will be able to finally break 150lbs, my life goal! I'm so pathetic...lol
So i am serving in my first branch here in the mission and from what I've seen the members are great. We live in the garage of the Ward mission leader who seems great. The Branch president is a white guy who seems a little overwhelmed but from what I've heard and seen, he is doing a great job. I couldn't imagine being a branch president in a Spanish program.
There are a ton of part member families in the branch and I'm really going to take advantage of it. A lot of unbaptized children. We have been able to set up baptismal dates with most of them and a teaching schedule so things should be great. The Daughter of a recent convert who is 21 will be baptized on the 3rd. Her name is Marisol. Her mom is one of the strongest recent converts I've seen and Marisol has a very strong testimony herself.
We are also teaching a Mexican family who should be baptized the 17th. They seem really cool and they love the missionaries and everything about the church. One of them just had a baby and hasn't been to church yet so we have to work on her. The mom also works every other Sunday but other than that they seem great!
Elder Oppe is from Brazil but he study Spanish in school so he was already fluent
Thursday, March 25, 2010
We sent Daniel several messages this week. In one we asked his address. He responded to that question but not to the other letters we wrote. For some reason this is the only message we got from Daniel today. His server must have crashed or something. Here is his note:
Just send everything to the office, where you send packages. I live right by the office and go there every week.
New York, New York North Mission
700 White Plains Road Suite 315
Scarsdale, NY 10583
Just send everything to the office, where you send packages. I live right by the office and go there every week.
New York, New York North Mission
700 White Plains Road Suite 315
Scarsdale, NY 10583
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
3.17.10
Hey family!
So I got transferred! I am now serving in the White Plains/ Scarsdale area. Now that i am upstate I am driving and around rich people. I'm going to get really lost. I got put back into the spanish program and i will be serving with Elder Oppe from Brazil. He is 3 cycles behind me and I was in his district when he first came into the mission. It sounds like the area is great and they feed us every day. Elder Oppe also says that we have 6 possible people for April. It all sounds good to me! I don't really know anything else yet but i will let you know next week.
So my birthday was one of the best days of my mission, it was really great. Patricia's baptism was really great and every thing went really smooth. She made me a cake and the ward made me a big card it was really cool. Thank you for the birthday package, i should have nice teeth by the time i come home.
The other day we had a lesson with an investigator and Patricia was there and she bore a strong testimony to the investigators daughter. You could really tell that it was from her and something she really believed.
We started praying really hard to find families of three last week and we found two! Last week we had 10 new investigators which was sweet. The Lord really does answer our prayers. I have been praying to baptize a family for some time now and i hope that time comes soon.
Well I've got to run, everything is great! I will let you all know more next week!
Elder Sorensen
So I got transferred! I am now serving in the White Plains/ Scarsdale area. Now that i am upstate I am driving and around rich people. I'm going to get really lost. I got put back into the spanish program and i will be serving with Elder Oppe from Brazil. He is 3 cycles behind me and I was in his district when he first came into the mission. It sounds like the area is great and they feed us every day. Elder Oppe also says that we have 6 possible people for April. It all sounds good to me! I don't really know anything else yet but i will let you know next week.
So my birthday was one of the best days of my mission, it was really great. Patricia's baptism was really great and every thing went really smooth. She made me a cake and the ward made me a big card it was really cool. Thank you for the birthday package, i should have nice teeth by the time i come home.
The other day we had a lesson with an investigator and Patricia was there and she bore a strong testimony to the investigators daughter. You could really tell that it was from her and something she really believed.
We started praying really hard to find families of three last week and we found two! Last week we had 10 new investigators which was sweet. The Lord really does answer our prayers. I have been praying to baptize a family for some time now and i hope that time comes soon.
Well I've got to run, everything is great! I will let you all know more next week!
Elder Sorensen
Thursday, March 11, 2010
3.10.10
Family,
Hey we had a good week, things weren't easy but they never are. I got your b-day
package, thank you so much. I will wait tell tomorrow to open it. I haven't sent the
picture card, Patricia still looks good for tomorrow, and I think for my birthday I will
go out and do some missionary work. I know that's weird but I think it's a great
idea. Lol. We went to the temple today which was great; it's always fun to go to the
temple.
Patricia is doing great and we are planning to have a good baptismal service. She made
all of the plans for whom to give the talks and even made invitations. She has to make a
lot of big changes in her life but at the same time she knows it's worth it. She is
going to fit really well into the ward and be able to make a difference.
The ward had a ward mission training last Sunday which was really great. The core of the
ward missionaries are really excited and trying to do missionary work. Bishop Boyle is
doing a great job leading them and I know that a great work will be accomplished in this
area. We don't have very many solid investigators after Patricia. They all seem to drop
off in one way or another. But I have faith that Heavenly Father has something planned
for us that we can't see.
I don't really know what's going to happen to me next cycle as far as transfers. I
think Swan is going to leave and I will stay but I could go back to the Spanish program.
Elder Swan is a great zone leader and everyone really looks up to him. I don't know if
I will be able to have the same kind of influence on our zone as he has.
We had a really cool experience last Monday. We were looking up some people bishop asked
us to look up before we went home. It was 8:30 and the look up wasn't home but even
though it was late and I don't like knocking doors late I decided to knock the floor.
One younger lady answered the door but didn't know the look up we were looking for. She
did tell us that 5 min before we knocked she got done watching the pbs program about the
Mormons. We asked if she wanted to talked about it and as we tried to set up a time for
latter that week she suggested right then and there. The spirit kind of slapped me in the
face for not teaching when I find. We taught a really good restoration and she had really
good questions. Elder Swan and I both felt like we took the words right out of each
others mouths. Some times it's really easy to see the spirit speak through you and your
companion. We set up another time for Friday morning to meet with her and hopefully all
will go well.
So sorry I keep writing short letters. I'm trying but I had to write a lot to president
this week about transfers. I hope your all doing well and loving life. I am doing all
that I can to lose myself in this work and I'm always trying to improve. I hope you
are doing amazing and have a great week!
Elder Sorensen
Hey we had a good week, things weren't easy but they never are. I got your b-day
package, thank you so much. I will wait tell tomorrow to open it. I haven't sent the
picture card, Patricia still looks good for tomorrow, and I think for my birthday I will
go out and do some missionary work. I know that's weird but I think it's a great
idea. Lol. We went to the temple today which was great; it's always fun to go to the
temple.
Patricia is doing great and we are planning to have a good baptismal service. She made
all of the plans for whom to give the talks and even made invitations. She has to make a
lot of big changes in her life but at the same time she knows it's worth it. She is
going to fit really well into the ward and be able to make a difference.
The ward had a ward mission training last Sunday which was really great. The core of the
ward missionaries are really excited and trying to do missionary work. Bishop Boyle is
doing a great job leading them and I know that a great work will be accomplished in this
area. We don't have very many solid investigators after Patricia. They all seem to drop
off in one way or another. But I have faith that Heavenly Father has something planned
for us that we can't see.
I don't really know what's going to happen to me next cycle as far as transfers. I
think Swan is going to leave and I will stay but I could go back to the Spanish program.
Elder Swan is a great zone leader and everyone really looks up to him. I don't know if
I will be able to have the same kind of influence on our zone as he has.
We had a really cool experience last Monday. We were looking up some people bishop asked
us to look up before we went home. It was 8:30 and the look up wasn't home but even
though it was late and I don't like knocking doors late I decided to knock the floor.
One younger lady answered the door but didn't know the look up we were looking for. She
did tell us that 5 min before we knocked she got done watching the pbs program about the
Mormons. We asked if she wanted to talked about it and as we tried to set up a time for
latter that week she suggested right then and there. The spirit kind of slapped me in the
face for not teaching when I find. We taught a really good restoration and she had really
good questions. Elder Swan and I both felt like we took the words right out of each
others mouths. Some times it's really easy to see the spirit speak through you and your
companion. We set up another time for Friday morning to meet with her and hopefully all
will go well.
So sorry I keep writing short letters. I'm trying but I had to write a lot to president
this week about transfers. I hope your all doing well and loving life. I am doing all
that I can to lose myself in this work and I'm always trying to improve. I hope you
are doing amazing and have a great week!
Elder Sorensen
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
3.2.10
Family,
Hey everyone! We had a good week and finally got some new investigators. Everything is going well.
We finally set a date for Patricia, which will be next Thursday, March 11, my birthday! Pretty good b-day present if I do say so myself. It doesn't look like Nick will get baptized anytime soon because of his father. He just want to stand up to him. Brianna's mom still doesn't think they are ready, so we are working on that. It's kind of out of our hands now.
Transfers are the 17th and I have a feeling there might be some changes coming up for me. President might change me back to spanish or Elder Swan could leave.
The snow storm was pretty bad last week. Not a ton of snow just really wet snow that turned into slush. We got really wet for a few days. It's warming up a bit and things are melting away again. I can't wait for the snow to be gone!
Nothing really exciting has happened in the past week. I met with President Buckner, the stake president, again. That was fun. Mom, do you listen to Glen Beck? I guess President Buckner is on his show a lot and is going to be on tour with him for the next few months.
Mandee and Savanna- what play are you guys in? Aren't you tired of doing plays yet? I feel like that's all you have been doing for the past two years of my mission!
I have had a lot of really cool personal studies on my mission which has been great. I have been really bad at my personal journal but I write in my study journal almost every day which I feel is more important. My testimony and most spiritual moments have really come from studying the scriptures. Last week during personal study I felt a huge desire to baptize a family before I go home. I have baptized a lot of single people and part members but never a full family. I felt the spirit very strong telling me if I do my all, it will happen. So that's going to be my focus. I love the conformation of the spirit telling me what I am doing is right. A father, mother and kids, that's my goal.
So how is everyone else doing? Mom- how are you doing? You always tell me how everything else is, but how are you?
I hope everything is going well and I love you all. I will send my picture card as soon as I can. As you go through my e-mail please purge them, not delete. I guess they don't go away with out purging them. I love you all!
Elder Sorensen
Hey everyone! We had a good week and finally got some new investigators. Everything is going well.
We finally set a date for Patricia, which will be next Thursday, March 11, my birthday! Pretty good b-day present if I do say so myself. It doesn't look like Nick will get baptized anytime soon because of his father. He just want to stand up to him. Brianna's mom still doesn't think they are ready, so we are working on that. It's kind of out of our hands now.
Transfers are the 17th and I have a feeling there might be some changes coming up for me. President might change me back to spanish or Elder Swan could leave.
The snow storm was pretty bad last week. Not a ton of snow just really wet snow that turned into slush. We got really wet for a few days. It's warming up a bit and things are melting away again. I can't wait for the snow to be gone!
Nothing really exciting has happened in the past week. I met with President Buckner, the stake president, again. That was fun. Mom, do you listen to Glen Beck? I guess President Buckner is on his show a lot and is going to be on tour with him for the next few months.
Mandee and Savanna- what play are you guys in? Aren't you tired of doing plays yet? I feel like that's all you have been doing for the past two years of my mission!
I have had a lot of really cool personal studies on my mission which has been great. I have been really bad at my personal journal but I write in my study journal almost every day which I feel is more important. My testimony and most spiritual moments have really come from studying the scriptures. Last week during personal study I felt a huge desire to baptize a family before I go home. I have baptized a lot of single people and part members but never a full family. I felt the spirit very strong telling me if I do my all, it will happen. So that's going to be my focus. I love the conformation of the spirit telling me what I am doing is right. A father, mother and kids, that's my goal.
So how is everyone else doing? Mom- how are you doing? You always tell me how everything else is, but how are you?
I hope everything is going well and I love you all. I will send my picture card as soon as I can. As you go through my e-mail please purge them, not delete. I guess they don't go away with out purging them. I love you all!
Elder Sorensen
Thursday, February 25, 2010
2.25.10
Daniel just wrote. We were afraid we wouldn't hear from him this week. In our letter to him we asked several questions instead of writing the usual letter. Here are the questions and his responses.
What would you like for your birthday?
A belt and a cosco pack of gillette fusion power razor blades.
Do you need any clothes, socks,shoes, garments? nope
What brand of camera do you have? I forgot, I use regular SD cards
Do you want to go and see another Broadway play when we pick you up? Yes, I want to see one, but there are no reasonable prices. What most people do is win a "lottery" for tickets around $30. there is good chances to win and we could try to do it each day we are there till we win. you put in your name in around 12 for the 3 show. each winner gets two tickets. plus during the week it's not as bad
Did you get any new investigators?
Yes, we started teaching some old investigators again and I tracted into another lady this week. The family who fed us steak last night invited their neighbors over for a 2nd family home evening with us. This time we taught the lesson and after totaling feeling the spirit of the plan of salvation and learning new truths she had to justify herself by saying, "well my boy friend is Catholic and I'm 48 and Catholic too. I can't change" We all just kind of laughed a rolled our eyes, thinking we'll see. lol
How is Patricia?
Patricia is doing good, we are going to try to give her a solid date tonight. She is progressing more each day.
Was Nick able to get baptized?
NO! His dad took him away last weekend and I called him and it wasn't pretty. He said he would tell the cops we are harassing his family if we kept teaching him. Nick is still all for getting baptized.
Do you have a little message for Griffin?
I love you Bro! Keep working hard a don't give up!
What did you do for your companion this week?
I agreed with almost everything he said. Lol. No I actual focused on complimenting him as much as I could this week.
Did you get more snow? If so, how much?
Yeah its snowing more right now. It's mostly slush so it's fun to walk in, not. It snows a lot then melts and snows some more. Which is fun. It's not more then a foot though. Which really isn't too bad.
I'm doing well but ready for another change up in the mission. President might put me back into the Spanish program next cycle, but only if it all works out. That would be fun but I really do like this area. I wouldn't want to be English anywhere else.
Gotta run, time is short! Love you guys!
What would you like for your birthday?
A belt and a cosco pack of gillette fusion power razor blades.
Do you need any clothes, socks,shoes, garments? nope
What brand of camera do you have? I forgot, I use regular SD cards
Do you want to go and see another Broadway play when we pick you up? Yes, I want to see one, but there are no reasonable prices. What most people do is win a "lottery" for tickets around $30. there is good chances to win and we could try to do it each day we are there till we win. you put in your name in around 12 for the 3 show. each winner gets two tickets. plus during the week it's not as bad
Did you get any new investigators?
Yes, we started teaching some old investigators again and I tracted into another lady this week. The family who fed us steak last night invited their neighbors over for a 2nd family home evening with us. This time we taught the lesson and after totaling feeling the spirit of the plan of salvation and learning new truths she had to justify herself by saying, "well my boy friend is Catholic and I'm 48 and Catholic too. I can't change" We all just kind of laughed a rolled our eyes, thinking we'll see. lol
How is Patricia?
Patricia is doing good, we are going to try to give her a solid date tonight. She is progressing more each day.
Was Nick able to get baptized?
NO! His dad took him away last weekend and I called him and it wasn't pretty. He said he would tell the cops we are harassing his family if we kept teaching him. Nick is still all for getting baptized.
Do you have a little message for Griffin?
I love you Bro! Keep working hard a don't give up!
What did you do for your companion this week?
I agreed with almost everything he said. Lol. No I actual focused on complimenting him as much as I could this week.
Did you get more snow? If so, how much?
Yeah its snowing more right now. It's mostly slush so it's fun to walk in, not. It snows a lot then melts and snows some more. Which is fun. It's not more then a foot though. Which really isn't too bad.
I'm doing well but ready for another change up in the mission. President might put me back into the Spanish program next cycle, but only if it all works out. That would be fun but I really do like this area. I wouldn't want to be English anywhere else.
Gotta run, time is short! Love you guys!
Thursday, February 18, 2010
2.17.10
Hey family,
Well I survived the snow storms but it looks like there will be more this weekend! Really, it wasn't that bad, we didn't get too much snow. The wind is always the worst part of the weather, it cuts to the bone. The week was a little harder than some but these weeks are what make the good weeks good. We tried really hard but we weren't able to find any new investigators. With everyone being baptized last month our teaching pool is looking a little slim.
We have been really busy this week trying to get new investigators. We set up street meetings all around our area. Street meetings is where we set up a table full of DVDs pamphlets, ect; and a sign up sheet to have us come.
Nick should be baptized this weekend! If all goes down right and his parents are still cool with it. We asked the mom to pray about it and later she told us that he could do it when ever he wanted. Pray that all will work out!
Patricia is also doing really well. She has really cut down on smoking and should be almost done with it all together. It still might take time for her to get baptized but she is definitely moving in the right direction. She is getting a lot of fellowship from the ward which is great.
Brianna the 9 year old is still looking good for early march. It's not a huge priority for the mom, which is hard because they are so busy and it's hard to meet with them. We are seeing them tomorrow, so we are going to see what we can do.
We had another multi-zone conference yesterday which went really well. Elder Swan and I both felt that our training went really well and we hope that it will make a difference in their mission. Most of our trainings have been mostly about application and different ways they can have success, but this training was more about having a spiritual change and getting the most out of their mission.
Dad asked about the ward. The family ward is really big and has really good attendance. It makes up mostly of artists, people who work in finance and accounting, musicians and students. Almost everyone is a young family who probably won't settle here. The singles ward is about the same but really small. The ward boundaries cover from 110th to the top, while the family ward is 155th to the top. I guess I cover almost half of the island but I never really go down that far.
I don't know what more you want me to tell you about my companion, what do you want to know?
The same kind of card works for my camera, it just didn't copy on to SD card. One of the rules is we can't use headphones.
Doesn't Mandee get strep a ton? I swear she gets it every year.
Hey Greg, how's dancing going?
Deb, glad to hear your fetus is doing well hopefully he will be named after me.
Mom, has uncle John gone to church yet? He was always one of my favorite uncles on your side. Driving around in his convertible, and sega boxing, so sweet! I think that was uncle John. You should send the missionaries to his house. (He got John and David mixed up.)
Well I love you family, I hope all is going well. Keep staying busy and working hard. It is so good for me to hear from you all. I know that I am a really bad writer, but I really enjoy receiving letters from everyone. I can't promise I will do better at writing but I will try my best.
Elder Sorensen
Well I survived the snow storms but it looks like there will be more this weekend! Really, it wasn't that bad, we didn't get too much snow. The wind is always the worst part of the weather, it cuts to the bone. The week was a little harder than some but these weeks are what make the good weeks good. We tried really hard but we weren't able to find any new investigators. With everyone being baptized last month our teaching pool is looking a little slim.
We have been really busy this week trying to get new investigators. We set up street meetings all around our area. Street meetings is where we set up a table full of DVDs pamphlets, ect; and a sign up sheet to have us come.
Nick should be baptized this weekend! If all goes down right and his parents are still cool with it. We asked the mom to pray about it and later she told us that he could do it when ever he wanted. Pray that all will work out!
Patricia is also doing really well. She has really cut down on smoking and should be almost done with it all together. It still might take time for her to get baptized but she is definitely moving in the right direction. She is getting a lot of fellowship from the ward which is great.
Brianna the 9 year old is still looking good for early march. It's not a huge priority for the mom, which is hard because they are so busy and it's hard to meet with them. We are seeing them tomorrow, so we are going to see what we can do.
We had another multi-zone conference yesterday which went really well. Elder Swan and I both felt that our training went really well and we hope that it will make a difference in their mission. Most of our trainings have been mostly about application and different ways they can have success, but this training was more about having a spiritual change and getting the most out of their mission.
Dad asked about the ward. The family ward is really big and has really good attendance. It makes up mostly of artists, people who work in finance and accounting, musicians and students. Almost everyone is a young family who probably won't settle here. The singles ward is about the same but really small. The ward boundaries cover from 110th to the top, while the family ward is 155th to the top. I guess I cover almost half of the island but I never really go down that far.
I don't know what more you want me to tell you about my companion, what do you want to know?
The same kind of card works for my camera, it just didn't copy on to SD card. One of the rules is we can't use headphones.
Doesn't Mandee get strep a ton? I swear she gets it every year.
Hey Greg, how's dancing going?
Deb, glad to hear your fetus is doing well hopefully he will be named after me.
Mom, has uncle John gone to church yet? He was always one of my favorite uncles on your side. Driving around in his convertible, and sega boxing, so sweet! I think that was uncle John. You should send the missionaries to his house. (He got John and David mixed up.)
Well I love you family, I hope all is going well. Keep staying busy and working hard. It is so good for me to hear from you all. I know that I am a really bad writer, but I really enjoy receiving letters from everyone. I can't promise I will do better at writing but I will try my best.
Elder Sorensen
Friday, February 12, 2010
2.10.10
Family!
Hey everyone you were right about the blizzard, it was fun getting here. Don't worry about the hand warmers, Debi sent me a ton at Christmas and I found more in my last apartment. I have enough to share. We had a great week and hasn't been too cold as of yet. School and the library is out so I have to use an internet cafe. I won't have as much time.
We had a great week and some great miracles happened for each one of our investigators. Sunday I fasted for Patricia and that night she called us telling us that she wants to get baptized! We went and taught her last night and she set a goal to quit smoking by this Sunday, which is a big step. When we asked her about baptism she said some time in April which is really far but it is a big step for her. With a little more time she will develop a desire to do it sooner but at least now she really wants to do it.
Nick had some problem with court and his family that he was really worried about last week, but again as we prayed about it, everything worked out fine. He is doing really well and hopefully his dad's heart will be softened by the 20th. He has shown a lot more commitment and effort to be baptized.
Brianna, a part member we have, and her sister who just turned 8 finally showed interest in getting baptized. We spoke with the mom and set a goal for some time around the end of Feb or early march. We have been trying to do that since I got here!
Another part member we have, Rosie- the investigator, had some problems with her husband, mike-the member, this past week. As they went to church last week mike asked someone he knew to help him and at the same time we asked someone else to help and these three women became fast friends. Fellowshipping is so important when it come to conversion! I am grateful that this ward is so good at it. That's why we have Nick; still have Patricia and why we did so well last month.
Yesterday we had another mission council with all of the leaders from the mission. My "son", Elder Wilkins, is now white washing and a district leader so he was there. (I trained him well! Lol jk) I guess he is having a lot of success. The council was really good and we set a few goals for what we want the mission's vision to be this year. The rest of the ward is doing well. We had a lot of members invite friends to dinner appointments we had with them which is super awesome! We had one family home evening with a family and their neighbors. The five year old taught a lesson about prayer and gave an example of when a 14 year old boy prayed and saw God. It was super sweet.
Well I've got to run, I love you all! Congrats Mandee on a sweet concert!
Elder Sorensen
Hey everyone you were right about the blizzard, it was fun getting here. Don't worry about the hand warmers, Debi sent me a ton at Christmas and I found more in my last apartment. I have enough to share. We had a great week and hasn't been too cold as of yet. School and the library is out so I have to use an internet cafe. I won't have as much time.
We had a great week and some great miracles happened for each one of our investigators. Sunday I fasted for Patricia and that night she called us telling us that she wants to get baptized! We went and taught her last night and she set a goal to quit smoking by this Sunday, which is a big step. When we asked her about baptism she said some time in April which is really far but it is a big step for her. With a little more time she will develop a desire to do it sooner but at least now she really wants to do it.
Nick had some problem with court and his family that he was really worried about last week, but again as we prayed about it, everything worked out fine. He is doing really well and hopefully his dad's heart will be softened by the 20th. He has shown a lot more commitment and effort to be baptized.
Brianna, a part member we have, and her sister who just turned 8 finally showed interest in getting baptized. We spoke with the mom and set a goal for some time around the end of Feb or early march. We have been trying to do that since I got here!
Another part member we have, Rosie- the investigator, had some problems with her husband, mike-the member, this past week. As they went to church last week mike asked someone he knew to help him and at the same time we asked someone else to help and these three women became fast friends. Fellowshipping is so important when it come to conversion! I am grateful that this ward is so good at it. That's why we have Nick; still have Patricia and why we did so well last month.
Yesterday we had another mission council with all of the leaders from the mission. My "son", Elder Wilkins, is now white washing and a district leader so he was there. (I trained him well! Lol jk) I guess he is having a lot of success. The council was really good and we set a few goals for what we want the mission's vision to be this year. The rest of the ward is doing well. We had a lot of members invite friends to dinner appointments we had with them which is super awesome! We had one family home evening with a family and their neighbors. The five year old taught a lesson about prayer and gave an example of when a 14 year old boy prayed and saw God. It was super sweet.
Well I've got to run, I love you all! Congrats Mandee on a sweet concert!
Elder Sorensen
Friday, February 5, 2010
2.3.10
Hey everyone! How's it going? So Elder Swan and I are staying together in Manhattan for at least six more weeks. They are also doing something weird with the area and we will be covering the singles ward as well. That puts our area down to 125th. There will be another companionship in the same area so it will kind of be "first come, first serve." It should put some friendly competition into the work.
We had a good week; Dora and Darius were baptized. I changed my goal to 15 so I have 11 to go. Nick's dad wouldn't let him get baptized yet which was really hard. He has a more solid date for Feb 20, which will work. Nick's 18 but he wanted to respect his dad and wait until he learns a little more. He is totally ready but I probably would have done the same thing if it was my dad.
The baptismal service went really well except Darius was really scared. We had to close the doors and watch from the back so we could get it done. He was also difficult for the conformation but we got it done and all is well. I think I'm more excited to see the fruits of the gospel in their lives than they are.
Patricia still doesn't have a date. She is progressing; it's just little by little. We set some goals to help her stop smoking and hopefully it will help. We also found a really cool couple on Sunday who are doing really well. They are going to be going out of town for a week which will be hard but they are really excited to learn more. Teddy is also doing really well. He is a ward missionary and has been out with us 3 or 4 times which is sweet! He has really impressed me since baptism.
So with the way we have been teaching I've been staying in good shape. We are so busy we often have to run to appointments to get there on time. Yesterday we found four new investigators and taught 3 lessons with members. We basically ran all day. I need to go upstate to put some more weight on me!
Nothing else is really coming to my mind; it hasn't been much of an interesting week. How is everyone else doing? Greg, when are you going to be done with school? I feel like you've been there forever! Nick, how's your job treating you? What exactly do you do? Deb, how's that baby coming? When do you find out if it's a boy or a girl? I think you should name it Daniel if it's a boy. That's a good name I heard once. Mandee, what's up? How's music? Are you done with the piano? Because that means I get the grand! Ha! How's them boys? Savanna, what's good? Have you beat up your sister yet? I would if I were you. Don't talk to boys!
Well I love you all and let me know what we are doing for a trip. Vacations can be done at any time, babys just come when they want!
Elder Sorensen
hey in your next letter to griff will you put a few pictures from my cards in with the letter? Thanks
We had a good week; Dora and Darius were baptized. I changed my goal to 15 so I have 11 to go. Nick's dad wouldn't let him get baptized yet which was really hard. He has a more solid date for Feb 20, which will work. Nick's 18 but he wanted to respect his dad and wait until he learns a little more. He is totally ready but I probably would have done the same thing if it was my dad.
The baptismal service went really well except Darius was really scared. We had to close the doors and watch from the back so we could get it done. He was also difficult for the conformation but we got it done and all is well. I think I'm more excited to see the fruits of the gospel in their lives than they are.
Patricia still doesn't have a date. She is progressing; it's just little by little. We set some goals to help her stop smoking and hopefully it will help. We also found a really cool couple on Sunday who are doing really well. They are going to be going out of town for a week which will be hard but they are really excited to learn more. Teddy is also doing really well. He is a ward missionary and has been out with us 3 or 4 times which is sweet! He has really impressed me since baptism.
So with the way we have been teaching I've been staying in good shape. We are so busy we often have to run to appointments to get there on time. Yesterday we found four new investigators and taught 3 lessons with members. We basically ran all day. I need to go upstate to put some more weight on me!
Nothing else is really coming to my mind; it hasn't been much of an interesting week. How is everyone else doing? Greg, when are you going to be done with school? I feel like you've been there forever! Nick, how's your job treating you? What exactly do you do? Deb, how's that baby coming? When do you find out if it's a boy or a girl? I think you should name it Daniel if it's a boy. That's a good name I heard once. Mandee, what's up? How's music? Are you done with the piano? Because that means I get the grand! Ha! How's them boys? Savanna, what's good? Have you beat up your sister yet? I would if I were you. Don't talk to boys!
Well I love you all and let me know what we are doing for a trip. Vacations can be done at any time, babys just come when they want!
Elder Sorensen
hey in your next letter to griff will you put a few pictures from my cards in with the letter? Thanks
Sunday, January 31, 2010
01.28.10
Hey family,
Sorry I didn't get this letter to you yesterday; it was a very busy day. Yesterday was probably the most fun I've had on a p-day. I tell you more later, but before I forget; I tried to send out a letter about the trip but failed to do so. I wanted to include a picture from Teddy's baptism but there wasn't a convenient time to print one. I will send it out tomorrow. But in a nutshell; I think we should just put the trip off and go spend time with Nick and Deb. It's not a big deal for you guys to come out here and I'll hopefully be too tired to do anything. We can all visit NY when we are all rich and not expecting babies. It would be more fun if we were all together anyways, it doesn't matter if we are in Utah or NY.
So yesterdays p-day: yesterday was one of the APs last p-day and since Elder Swan served with him and wanted to hang out with him we decided to get together with them. We went down and ate a free breakfast at a hotel, went to the top of Empire State Building and saw The Lion King. What a day! Right? It did cost me a lot of money but I figured I had been saving every penny of what people have given me and this was a good present to me. For Christmas and my birthday for the next few years.
Lion King was super amazing! I had never seen anything like it! The costumes and props and stage were crazy! It was a really good time and even though it cost a lot of money it was so worth it. The ES building was really cool too. The view was awesome and it was fun to point out things that I knew. We also went to the largest store in the world. Macys
Well I don't have a lot more time but this Saturday Dora, Darius and Nick are getting baptized. Nick is 18. Teddy's wife isn't a member, yet. We had a really sad thing happen where Luisaâ's boyfriend called and told us that she wasn't coming back to church. That hurt.
President asked us to give this sick baby a blessing. He told us that we needed to heal this baby so that the mother and father's hearts will be softened and they will join the church. I felt impressed to say an expression of Heavenly Father's love for the baby and that she will grow strong and be a great example to others.
I hope I got all of your questions, oh, Patricia brought the cookies but she hasn't accepted a date yet. We will get her tonight! I love you all and hope you have a great week!
Elder Sorensen
Sorry I didn't get this letter to you yesterday; it was a very busy day. Yesterday was probably the most fun I've had on a p-day. I tell you more later, but before I forget; I tried to send out a letter about the trip but failed to do so. I wanted to include a picture from Teddy's baptism but there wasn't a convenient time to print one. I will send it out tomorrow. But in a nutshell; I think we should just put the trip off and go spend time with Nick and Deb. It's not a big deal for you guys to come out here and I'll hopefully be too tired to do anything. We can all visit NY when we are all rich and not expecting babies. It would be more fun if we were all together anyways, it doesn't matter if we are in Utah or NY.
So yesterdays p-day: yesterday was one of the APs last p-day and since Elder Swan served with him and wanted to hang out with him we decided to get together with them. We went down and ate a free breakfast at a hotel, went to the top of Empire State Building and saw The Lion King. What a day! Right? It did cost me a lot of money but I figured I had been saving every penny of what people have given me and this was a good present to me. For Christmas and my birthday for the next few years.
Lion King was super amazing! I had never seen anything like it! The costumes and props and stage were crazy! It was a really good time and even though it cost a lot of money it was so worth it. The ES building was really cool too. The view was awesome and it was fun to point out things that I knew. We also went to the largest store in the world. Macys
Well I don't have a lot more time but this Saturday Dora, Darius and Nick are getting baptized. Nick is 18. Teddy's wife isn't a member, yet. We had a really sad thing happen where Luisaâ's boyfriend called and told us that she wasn't coming back to church. That hurt.
President asked us to give this sick baby a blessing. He told us that we needed to heal this baby so that the mother and father's hearts will be softened and they will join the church. I felt impressed to say an expression of Heavenly Father's love for the baby and that she will grow strong and be a great example to others.
I hope I got all of your questions, oh, Patricia brought the cookies but she hasn't accepted a date yet. We will get her tonight! I love you all and hope you have a great week!
Elder Sorensen
Saturday, January 23, 2010
1.20.2010
Family,
Your guy's letters pumped me up! Especially good job Mandee! Make sure
this guy isn't just interested because you're pretty. We call that flirt to convert; things do not end well...lol. We had another great week with six people at church, and we had a surprise baptism! We moved Teddy's date up a week so that his wife could attend. It was a great service and a ton of members came even though it was last minute. One of our investigators brought most of the refreshments without being asked it was pretty sweet. That's two in a row!
As far as our other investigators:
Nick is doing really well; he will go down on the 30th for sure! He is
going to serve a mission when he turns 19, which will be so sweet.
Dora and Darius are also doing great. There aunt from North Carolina
came to visit them and prier to that visit we gave her a BOM. She is
going to be reading the BOM with Darius over the phone because he has
trouble reading. The aunt is really cool and we got her address to send
to the missionaries in Charlotte, which is sweet because a few people
from my MTC group went there. They also are looking solid for the 30th.
Luisa and her family aren't doing as well due to a sick little girl.
They could go to church and had to skip out on some of our appointments
because of it. They are still progressing really well; I'm just not sure if they will be ready by the 30th. We shall see!
Patricia is doing better. She came to her second baptism, which always
makes a huge difference. Elder Holland said that 80% of the people who
go to a baptism service usually have their own, so we will get her in!
She still hasn't accepted a date, but she is asking really good
questions.
We are struggling finding new people while we are teaching all of our
investigators; I guess that's a good problem. We need to find more
people so our teaching pool doesn't disappear on the 30th. Elder Swan
and I have been giving a lot of trainings on finding so maybe we can
actually apply what we teach. Lol.
I'm glad to hear that everything is going so well with all of you. Keep
me up to date with how everything progresses. I love you all and hope
you all have a great week!
Elder Sorensen
Your guy's letters pumped me up! Especially good job Mandee! Make sure
this guy isn't just interested because you're pretty. We call that flirt to convert; things do not end well...lol. We had another great week with six people at church, and we had a surprise baptism! We moved Teddy's date up a week so that his wife could attend. It was a great service and a ton of members came even though it was last minute. One of our investigators brought most of the refreshments without being asked it was pretty sweet. That's two in a row!
As far as our other investigators:
Nick is doing really well; he will go down on the 30th for sure! He is
going to serve a mission when he turns 19, which will be so sweet.
Dora and Darius are also doing great. There aunt from North Carolina
came to visit them and prier to that visit we gave her a BOM. She is
going to be reading the BOM with Darius over the phone because he has
trouble reading. The aunt is really cool and we got her address to send
to the missionaries in Charlotte, which is sweet because a few people
from my MTC group went there. They also are looking solid for the 30th.
Luisa and her family aren't doing as well due to a sick little girl.
They could go to church and had to skip out on some of our appointments
because of it. They are still progressing really well; I'm just not sure if they will be ready by the 30th. We shall see!
Patricia is doing better. She came to her second baptism, which always
makes a huge difference. Elder Holland said that 80% of the people who
go to a baptism service usually have their own, so we will get her in!
She still hasn't accepted a date, but she is asking really good
questions.
We are struggling finding new people while we are teaching all of our
investigators; I guess that's a good problem. We need to find more
people so our teaching pool doesn't disappear on the 30th. Elder Swan
and I have been giving a lot of trainings on finding so maybe we can
actually apply what we teach. Lol.
I'm glad to hear that everything is going so well with all of you. Keep
me up to date with how everything progresses. I love you all and hope
you all have a great week!
Elder Sorensen
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
1.6.10
Family,
Hey I had an amazing week and the baptism on Sat was definitely the highlight. We had about 25 non-members at church on Sunday, 10 of which were our investigators! That is definitely the best I've ever done with people at church. Our ward is super missionary focused and as a fruit of that our bishop has a goal of 50 baptisms this year. Last year they had 12. He plans on calling 20 ward missionaries to get it done. That is super crazy! The ward mission leader tried to talk him down a little by which he replied, "Brother, where is your faith?" I love it!
We are finally starting to have to success I've dreamed about my whole life. For the end of this month we have 6 solid more people to be baptized! I have made a goal to be able to baptize 10 more before I go home, but if all goes as plan I might have to adjust that goal. In order to actually get those people baptized I know that I will have to do everything I can and exercise more than a mustard seed of faith. I know it can be done I just have to pray and have the faith that Heavenly Father will protect them.
We had multi-zone conference yesterday at which Elder Swan and I gave a training to our zone. The first presidency's focus is to get all of the missionaries able to have 10 contacts and teach 20 lessons a week. So our training was on how to build an area to be able to achieve the 20 lessons a week. I feel it went fairly well and hopefully we were able to help them. We will be following up with the training at our DLDM this Friday to further help the missionaries.
So we found this super cool family last week who came to church last week. Luisa and her two kids Bryant-10 and Brianna-6. There is also a husband but he works like crazy and is never home. They loved church and felt the spirit strongly both there and while reading the BoM. The kids are both in a Catholic school but yesterday Bryant said, "I have decided that I want to be baptized" lol it was great. After church he also said, "Hey mom, did you know I can be a missionary when I'm 19?" They are a super cool family and I hope everything goes well for them.
Dora and Darius who was suppose to be baptized last month finally came back from their vacation and with a new, stronger determination to get baptized. Dora told us a really cool story on how she was able to quit coffee. It is really hard with Darius because of his ADD but we are doing all that we can to help him and his mom.
Teddy is also doing really well and has improved so much. He has quit drinking tea, just like that and he also has made a lot of progress with his gambling problem. The church has changed him so much and I can visually see the difference the gospel is making in his life.
So the work is going well as usual and all is well here on the battle field of the Lord's work. None of this is easy and I sometimes feel like there are more challenges than success stories, but all is well. I am going to be making some goals for the last six months of my mission to insure that I sprint to the end. I don't want to be comfortable with where I am at and who I am. I must focus on what I can become.
I love you all and hope everyone is ok. Don't worry about not being able to send me an e-mail. Life is really great for me here on the mission field but I feel it is moving to fast for me. I still have a lot I need to do. Thank you for all of your support and all that you have done for me.
Elder Sorensen
PS Thank you all who sent me Christmas packages! I am sorry I can't write to you all personally but know that I deeply appreciate the love you have shown toward me. I have enough candy to kill a person but I really enjoyed hearing from each one of you.
PPS attached is a few pictures from the baptism. This is Nestle and his amazing family who was baptized a few months ago. The kids sung a song, gave one of the talks and one of the prayers, it was pretty sweet. We also had a ton of investigators there who loved the baptism.
Hey I had an amazing week and the baptism on Sat was definitely the highlight. We had about 25 non-members at church on Sunday, 10 of which were our investigators! That is definitely the best I've ever done with people at church. Our ward is super missionary focused and as a fruit of that our bishop has a goal of 50 baptisms this year. Last year they had 12. He plans on calling 20 ward missionaries to get it done. That is super crazy! The ward mission leader tried to talk him down a little by which he replied, "Brother, where is your faith?" I love it!
We are finally starting to have to success I've dreamed about my whole life. For the end of this month we have 6 solid more people to be baptized! I have made a goal to be able to baptize 10 more before I go home, but if all goes as plan I might have to adjust that goal. In order to actually get those people baptized I know that I will have to do everything I can and exercise more than a mustard seed of faith. I know it can be done I just have to pray and have the faith that Heavenly Father will protect them.
We had multi-zone conference yesterday at which Elder Swan and I gave a training to our zone. The first presidency's focus is to get all of the missionaries able to have 10 contacts and teach 20 lessons a week. So our training was on how to build an area to be able to achieve the 20 lessons a week. I feel it went fairly well and hopefully we were able to help them. We will be following up with the training at our DLDM this Friday to further help the missionaries.
So we found this super cool family last week who came to church last week. Luisa and her two kids Bryant-10 and Brianna-6. There is also a husband but he works like crazy and is never home. They loved church and felt the spirit strongly both there and while reading the BoM. The kids are both in a Catholic school but yesterday Bryant said, "I have decided that I want to be baptized" lol it was great. After church he also said, "Hey mom, did you know I can be a missionary when I'm 19?" They are a super cool family and I hope everything goes well for them.
Dora and Darius who was suppose to be baptized last month finally came back from their vacation and with a new, stronger determination to get baptized. Dora told us a really cool story on how she was able to quit coffee. It is really hard with Darius because of his ADD but we are doing all that we can to help him and his mom.
Teddy is also doing really well and has improved so much. He has quit drinking tea, just like that and he also has made a lot of progress with his gambling problem. The church has changed him so much and I can visually see the difference the gospel is making in his life.
So the work is going well as usual and all is well here on the battle field of the Lord's work. None of this is easy and I sometimes feel like there are more challenges than success stories, but all is well. I am going to be making some goals for the last six months of my mission to insure that I sprint to the end. I don't want to be comfortable with where I am at and who I am. I must focus on what I can become.
I love you all and hope everyone is ok. Don't worry about not being able to send me an e-mail. Life is really great for me here on the mission field but I feel it is moving to fast for me. I still have a lot I need to do. Thank you for all of your support and all that you have done for me.
Elder Sorensen
PS Thank you all who sent me Christmas packages! I am sorry I can't write to you all personally but know that I deeply appreciate the love you have shown toward me. I have enough candy to kill a person but I really enjoyed hearing from each one of you.
PPS attached is a few pictures from the baptism. This is Nestle and his amazing family who was baptized a few months ago. The kids sung a song, gave one of the talks and one of the prayers, it was pretty sweet. We also had a ton of investigators there who loved the baptism.
1.7.10
Family,
So the internet wasn't working yesterday so of course I have to do it today during my lunch hour. Sorry, but this is going to be short. Real quick to answer moms questions, yes we did get hit with a snow storm but it's all gone by now. I did get the picture card but both my camera and someone else's showed that the card was blank. That was a bummer; I was looking forward to see it.
This week was good we had a lot of success with different things. We did struggle finding new investigators this past week but we are working hard to find them. Nestly, one of our investigators, is going to be baptized this Saturday; we moved up his date because he was ready. He already passed his baptismal interview so he is excited to make it happen.
We also had two investigators who were suppose to be baptized in December finally come back from vacation, so it shouldn't be a problem baptizing them this month. That was Dora and Darius and the only reason they didn't get baptized was because of some things that the members were concerned about and their vacation.
Teddy, our other solid investigator is doing really well and accepting the lessons really well. We just need to help him get an answer for his prayers and he will be good. He has a date for the 23rd of January.
So as you can see this is an exciting time for me with a lot of success. Things are going really well and I'm doing just great. The mission life sure isn't easy but I see the blessings of it everyday. I hope you are all doing great and working hard to achieve your goals.
Elder Sorensen
Ps: I ate dinner with a sister Sorensen the other day, weird right?
So the internet wasn't working yesterday so of course I have to do it today during my lunch hour. Sorry, but this is going to be short. Real quick to answer moms questions, yes we did get hit with a snow storm but it's all gone by now. I did get the picture card but both my camera and someone else's showed that the card was blank. That was a bummer; I was looking forward to see it.
This week was good we had a lot of success with different things. We did struggle finding new investigators this past week but we are working hard to find them. Nestly, one of our investigators, is going to be baptized this Saturday; we moved up his date because he was ready. He already passed his baptismal interview so he is excited to make it happen.
We also had two investigators who were suppose to be baptized in December finally come back from vacation, so it shouldn't be a problem baptizing them this month. That was Dora and Darius and the only reason they didn't get baptized was because of some things that the members were concerned about and their vacation.
Teddy, our other solid investigator is doing really well and accepting the lessons really well. We just need to help him get an answer for his prayers and he will be good. He has a date for the 23rd of January.
So as you can see this is an exciting time for me with a lot of success. Things are going really well and I'm doing just great. The mission life sure isn't easy but I see the blessings of it everyday. I hope you are all doing great and working hard to achieve your goals.
Elder Sorensen
Ps: I ate dinner with a sister Sorensen the other day, weird right?
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