Interesting People

February 17, 2014

YES!! LIKE A BOSS! I'm so proud of you guys. ( this is in response to Kelly and I reading the scriptures daily) Are you loving it yet? When you get into the habit of it it really starts to become something you want to do because of how much you're reading. I would suggest getting this book for yourself to use with your study:

http://store.lds.org/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Product3_715839595_10557_3074457345616706194_-1__195629

It has little readings and interesting things about each important verse. It brings a whole new level to your studies and makes you want to study more. I'm getting a lot better at just loving my companions and holding back from judging them as much as I have in the past. I'M not sure I'll ever have a companion that I just really wish I could have been with for another transfer, maybe I don't know. I think I'm just not very good at living this close to someone. I bet that's why Heavenly Father has only given me companions for one transfer at a time haha.

This week kind of sucked because all we had to do was loads of finding. It's always discouraging when you look at a day and the only things you have planned are morning studies and nightly planning, but if you work hard on weeks like that, the next week won't be like that! So that's what we did and we've got quite a few appointments this week.

On Tuesday we went by a less active who we had been trying to contact for a long time and he ended up letting us in. we talked to him for a bit about the bible and he invited us back for dinner tomorrow evening! So that was cool, he said he was getting us some steaks. On Wednesday we taught P, he is the one who is on date for March 1st. Thursday was an exciting day of finding haha we weren't having much success, doing some finding in Wombourne, when we knocked on this one guys door. Just to give you an idea of this man, his name is wishbone. He yelled at us from the window to come in and when we came in he was sitting on his bed in the living room drunk and completely nude. So naturally we started talking to him about the gospel hahaha his house was disgusting as well. He wasn't really having any of it, saying that religions were just pyramid schemes to get money. After a while of talking to him he softened up, we gave him our phone number if he ever needs anything and he said he would call us haha we might go back by.

Our weather has absolutely sucked. Crazy wind and insane rain. It makes you really hate life as a missionary because that pretty much makes finding impossible. We did find quite a few people despite conditions. No one as exciting as wishbone though haha that was pretty much the most exciting bits of last week.

I love you guys and I'm sure I've forgotten some stuff so I'll probably email you again later.

Elder Sorensen

A Week in the LIfe of a Missionary

February 10, 2014

I'm not going to lie; these past 9 months have easily been the hardest months of my life. I guess I just expected people to be a little more willing to listen to us. I know how great our Savior and his teachings are, and I know what they can do for people, but it just doesn't seem like anyone cares. I do know, however, that God would not waste his time in sending me to a place where nothing will be accomplished. I know that there is at least one person out there who needs me and needs me to share the gospel with them, because I'm the only one who can. This week I have been so grateful to my Heavenly Father for everything that's kept me on the eternal path. I've just started to realize how good I have really had it. I was born into the one and only true church of Jesus Christ, to parents who did everything they could to keep me on the straight and narrow (and did a pretty damn good job). And then he gave me strength enough to be worthy for a mission, which has made me realize all of this and made me see just how important all of it is. I understand now how small of a thing this life is and because it's so short every single little choice really does matter. We had an eternity before this life and we are going to have an eternity after this life. This life is the only finite time in our existence. The only period of time that can be counted and scrutinized for the next infinite. We are going to remember every tiny little moment that ever happened and we are going to know how well we acted. We need to make the most of this life while we still have it. That's awesome that you are reading daily!! I'm proud of you! Haha are you praying every day as well? Morning and night? My companion is a nice kid. This week seems to be picking up; I'm always positive mom :). That's good you've committed to improving! That's what this life is all about; if we're not progressing we're regressing. I know that it might be hard, but if you keep focusing on all the reasons that it's hard, it's only going to get worse. Try to focus on all the reasons that church in the new ward is nice.* remember Lots wife ;)* you can pray for us to find new investigators. This past week was alright, but I seem to have gotten a bit discouraged, which in itself has discouraged me a bit more. It's like I said to start with though, this life is too short to get discouraged. Two facts: God lives. God is God. There you go! That should be everything you need to not be discouraged. If God lives and if he IS God, then he's not just going to let his servant work hard and get nothing out of it! That doesn't make sense. That’s just about everything that happened last week; I haven’t had any pictures or videos because there’s not a lot to take videos or pictures of haha sorry! I'll try to take some more.

Love you guys!

Elder Sorensen

New Area

February 3, 2014

I've got a lot of gloating to do in the mission since most of them were rooting against the Seahawks haha. The new area is nice.

Last week was pretty good. Let’s see Tuesday, not much happened, we just had mutual with the young men (learning football skills). On Wednesday we taught our golden investigator P. He's awesome. He is engaged to a girl from Utah who he met over the internet and that's how he was introduced to the church. Later that day, we had a referral from the sisters flog us and hasn't returned any of our calls. Thursday we had district meeting and a DA with the Jones'. They are an awesome family. Friday was mostly spent tracting and weekly planning. Saturday was a really disappointing day; all we did was wait for busses and get flogged all day. LAME. Sunday was pretty average. Yup. Boring week haha. I did learn something cool though. I've been reading in the Old Testament and I've just finished the book of Deuteronomy. In the last chapter Joshua says that Moses was killed by the lord and buried in a place that they know not, but the book of Mormon tells us that Moses was actually translated. The Israelites just saw Moses go up into the mountain after he had told them that god wasn't going to let him go into the Promised Land, so they thought the lord killed him and buried him. The reason this was important is because Moses needed his body to give the priesthood to peter James and John and since he had to do it before Christ was going to overcome death and unlock the resurrection; Moses had to keep his body intact and thus was translated. Pretty cool hey?

Love you guys so much!

Elder Sorensen

Woodsetton

January 27, 2013

Casey and his last companion

This past week was mostly just saying goodbye to awesome members in Solihull and packing! I got pictures with a couple of families, the Burtons and the Skidmores. You might have to edit the pictures a bit in Photoshop, they came out really bright. And I got one with the young men and a small part of the Arnold family. I was really torn about leaving Solihull, I was glad to go because the work moved slower than molasses on a cold December night, but I was sad to leave because the people there were amazing. I completely loved them. We're going to have to go back and visit them, even though there isn't much to do in Solihull besides shop and look at really huge posh houses haha.

So far Woodsetton seems like a good place to work. The people I've talked to so far seem to be willing enough, I think with a lot of hard work we could definitely see baptisms here. Elder Johnson and I have set a goal of three baptisms, so we're going to do everything we can to reach that goal. If you can put videos on the blog, you should put the one of me showing you around the flat on there. I've been quite sick for the past few days, but I think I'm getting over it. Hopefully soon I will be back at 100%.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/1ansepvd2xopspu/P1250220.MOV

Spiritual thought today: I was reading in 2 Nephi Chapter 2 where Lehi is talking to his son Jacob about opposition in all things. The bit where he is talking about Adam and eve in the Garden of Eden particularly struck me this time. I realized that If Adam and Eve had never known evil and had not fallen, live would have been completely pointless for them. They never would have learned or grown at all. They would never have had hunger, thirst, cuts, bruises, pain, or sorrow. They would never have been too hot or too cold, they would have no reason to learn. They would have no purpose to accomplish anything because they were in a state of complete perfection, everything they ever needed or wanted was right in front of them. I suppose this is the state of innocence that Lehi talks about later. I just thought that was interesting.

Love you guys so much!

Elder Sorensen