Life in Solihull England

September 30, 2013

This week has been way cool! Most of it was spent cleaning the flat and buying things we still need, but we managed to get 4 new investigators! We were cycling home for dinner one day and I saw three young girls in a window waving to us. So, of course, we stopped and talked to them. One of them was about 16, another was 25, and the other was around 40. The 25 year old had two kids and we ended up teaching her the next day. We're hoping to teach the other two soon. We took our stake 2nd counselor to the lesson with the 25 year old and he dropped us off at the flat after. We weren't in the flat for more than about 5 minutes when our doorbell rang. President Wilkinson was standing there with a man that he had just seen on the street and shared a message with. We taught him and his wife and wife's cousin on Friday and we'll be seeing them again this coming Friday! I've just heard word from my last district leader that whoever took my place in Worcester has been wasting out and had no lessons last week. I need to give them a ring and let them know that I'm not pleased. Mandy was very close to baptism and I don't want them to ruin it for her.

October 7, 2013

Everything has been good here. Had a bit of a quarrel with my companion last week, but we got over it and all is well again in the world. We had our second lesson with our Iranian neighbors and it went swimmingly! The only problem is that the wife is nearly deaf and doesn't speak very good English, so I don't know how much of the lesson she is understanding. The husband is loving it though, we've been able to answer a lot of the questions of the soul that he has had for a long time. The coolest part is that, because I served in Worcester with deaf members, I know British Sign Language and can teach her! We'll be going over tonight to teach her the alphabet and a few other simple words. I'm a little nervous, but it's obvious that heavenly father has led them here and us to them. Apparently they've only been in the country for a little while and they've only been Christian for a year, so they are still searching for the right church. Just goes to show that the lord isn't always super subtle with how he works.

October 14, 2013

I'm feeling good! This past week was pretty terrible, we didn't really get a chance to do missionary work, every day was spent either sick or in meetings. I'm really hoping this week will go better as far as missionary work.

October 21, 2013

This week has been really good actually, one of the missionaries from the Solihull ward just got back, so that made me super trunky. He's just been called as ward mission leader so that should be good. We're trying to do a lot of work with members lately. It's just not effective to do street contacting and tracting. I'm sure the missionaries in Washington can relate to that. It's really important for members to refer people to the missionaries. Not just giving them an address and telling them to chap by. We might as well be tracting that person. Members need to invite their friends to learn more. Just share a simple truth (how the church was restored, a 1 minute version of the plan of salvation, anything) and invite them to learn more, either coming to church or to an activity, something! I'd like you to look up pg.158 and study "teach when you find, find when you teach" and "short powerful statements". If you don't have preach my gospel, get one. It gives you the tools you need to share the gospel! Other than that it's been a pretty average week. We had 4 lessons.

October 28, 2013

What I wouldn't give for someone who would just accept the gospel without having to be beat across the face with the spirit! I'm honestly just really interested about it. (Casey is talking about his dad’s conversion story.) I never really paid attention to what was going on when dad was investigating, I was just messing about while the missionaries were over haha Just write what happened. I don't think dad realizes how amazing his conversion was, nor how many people it affected. Solihull is awesome; I hope I get to spend Christmas here. That's crazy you got to see Elder Ballard! Listen to his advice!!! This week has pretty much just been sitting around the flat because Elder Hoffmann has been poorly. Not much to report on, but loads to ask! Sorry this email is so short, the library was apparently on fire earlier so we're only just now able to get in and email. We have a DA at six so we have to rush! Love you tons!

Elder Sorensen