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
First day
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
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
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