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.