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

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

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

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

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

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)

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