Brighter Days!

April 21, 2014

That’s okay! I got loads of Easter stuff from my new ward! Haha and Elder Gull and I are starting a diet today anyway so pray for us with that! Yeah I got the new card and sent the old one with the suits back to you. Thank you for that stuff! Don’t bother sending me the conference ensign, I can get it for free from the mission office and it's not worth paying more for the shipping eight. If you send them by surface mail it should be much cheaper, don't worry about how long it takes to get to me.

I love hearing about your spiritual experiences haha I love especially hearing about how you were humbled in the temple that's been like everyday since I've been here haha Heavenly Father definitely knows how to humble people.

Elder Jackson is very serious about doing the pizza oven. I really want to do it, it's something that we could do small time and if it takes off we could take it bigger. And the starting cost is relatively low as far as businesses go. Plus we could make you guy’s delicious brick oven pizza whenever you want!

My new companion is awesome! Elder Gull and I get along really well. Today we'll take some pictures and hopefully post them on Dropbox tomorrow since today is a bank holiday and we can't. Easter was awesome! We had a dinner appointment at a member’s house and played some games with them. It was really fun. Hopefully I can get them to send me some of the videos they took and I'll forward them to you. Haha This week wasn't too eventful. We just spent all day Tuesday packing and all day Thursday unpacking and cleaning out the flat. We emptied six bin liners of rubbish out of that place. Our downstairs neighbor is a complete nightmare. He’s this old drunk guy who has nothing better to do than complain. He's told off missionaries for peeing directly into the toilet instead of on the side because it keeps him up at night. He’s yelled at us twice so far for speaking in regular voices instead of whispering and walking around the flat past 9 o clock. We've told president and he's looking for a new flat for us, I don't know how long it will take him to get us one though. We also taught and had to drop our crazy investigator called C. He really really likes us and wants us to keep seeing him, but we just can't get a point across to him when we go, he keeps interrupting us with the Lord’s Prayer and will literally stop us in the middle of a sentence to show us something on his Sky TV that he's recorded. He is a very interesting person, but he's just not willing to change.

Not really a whole lot else to talk about, I had my suit trousers for one of my suits completely split, so I'm going to need a new suit soon. I can probably get one for about £70 from Slaters. Possibly for a birthday present? I'm turning 20 in a month! Haha do you feel old??

Love you guys so much!! Elder Sorensen

Move to Evesham!

April 15, 2014

I've been transferred to Evesham! that is in the same district as Worcester! I'll be serving with Elder Gull who is an awesome guy from my group it's going to be awesome! I'm sending back those suits today and I'm not sure how much it's going to cost. I'll also be buying some vacuum bags for packing just to let you know!

Love you!

Elder Sorensen

April 14, 2014

We are finding out what happens tonight. I know that at least one of us is leaving, president told me in the emergency interview we had with him. He talked to me about my parents and how awesome they are and about what I'm going through. He shared a story about how he bought his son a new lawn mower and had him mow the lawn as a lesson in life and he told me that next transfer he's getting me a "brand new john deer" for a companion. So It should be good! You should know that I'm in good hands with president Rasmussen, anytime I'm feeling stressed or overwhelmed, he never minds talking to me on the phone and he doesn't hesitate to tell me to come in to the mission office for an interview. He told me as well that he can't wait to meet you guys because you are obviously amazing parents to have raised me like this (his words).

This week has been very stressful, but luckily I had a couple of exchanges with the zone leaders and our district leader to break it up. These past twelve weeks have been a huge struggle for me and I'm assuming that I've grown a lot because of it. I'll share with you something that Marcus just sent to me. he said, "not gonna lie,that sounds rough. I think people here are a lot nicer. I love my mission, and I have loved every one of my companions, of course they have all been very different, but it definitely isn't stress free. It is interesting to see what the mission does to us. We are given so many opportunities to change and become better; truly trials and blessings become one in the same as we fix our eyes upon Christ and exercise faith in his atonement. Stress is a big part of missionary life. I told that to Aubryann a few weeks ago and I often explain it to fellow missionaries in trainings. Jacob the prophet said that because of faith and a great anxiety he was able to receive the spirit of prophecy and work mighty miracles among his people. I love the term "great anxiety". In French the term is "vif desir" which best translates to "quickened desire." So, we can know that when we feel stress as missionaries (if it is a stress for the work and not a panicked, worldly stress) then this stress simply comes from our quickened desire to spread the word of God. Ammon and his brothers could not bear the thought that one soul should perish in hell. It filled them with horror. It's like Papa Toolson always used to tell me, you should be a little nervous before a race, because its important. If you don't feel any nerves, that means you don’t care; if you feel too nervous, you are probably letting fear get a hold on you and you need to recheck your faith and confidence level. it is the same principle with stress. Above all, we can know that all or our afflictions can be followed up in Christ. Through the purifying and enabling powers of his atonement, we can be made clean and made strong, and become someone different."

It's true. It's sometimes not a horrible thing to be stressed as long as it is managed and not tooo stressed. I think stress is a sign of hard work. I need to figure something out for my trousers. I've gone through about 8 pairs of trousers now because the crotch keeps getting blown out for some reason. I think it's because of my big legs and they rub together when I walk. It's annoying. I need to find something like some Carhart trousers that will last me a while. The only problem is that I can't have them shipped here, so could I have them shipped to you and have you send them by surface mail(the cheapest slowest way, it never takes as long as they say it will) to me?

I think that's it for now! I'll work on sending the suits back with the card and hopefully you'll get it soon!

Love you guys!

Elder Sorensen

April 7, 2014

Yeah conference was pretty awesome. I thought it was cool what David A Bednar said about how Christ’s actual birthday was on April 6th. Hopefully I'll be able to get my hands on the conference ensign.

As far as going with this lady to ask for permission to be baptized. Make sure you have the spirit with you when you go. The holy ghost is the one who knows exactly what this guy needs to hear. Just do everything you can to love this woman and love the guy who she is asking. Just tell them how much you have loved being a member of this church and how much it has been a blessing to your family. as long as you fallow the spirit everything will be fine.

I am very tired. and I am very stressed out. I won't sugar coat it. Life kinda sucks right now haha, but sometimes life sucks! That doesn't mean that God loves us any less and that doesn't mean he's any less conscious of our sufferings. He wants us to go through hard times to prepare us for worse times, to make us stronger, and to make the good times taste much sweeter. Hopefully the interview with president will help me out, I'm going to ask him to give me a blessing as well. I prayed for about an hour and a half last night and that made me feel better. Just got a call from president and he says we'll be going to talk to him at 4. that should be good. I'm looking forward to it. unfortunately I don't have any pictures for you this week, but hopefully next week I'll have some for you! Today I'll take some pictures of district Pday. Heavenly Father loves us. Jesus Christ has never and will never give up on us so we can't give up on him.

I love you guys! haha George is huge! darn cat.

Elder Sorensen

Short Note

March 24, 2014

Transfers are on the 16th of April. Don't you worry I'll be home to dirty up the house again soon. We watcha few of the general conference sessions live, but the rest we just watch at awkward times over the weekend. There's only a few hours difference between the sessions and we don't get to watch the Sunday afternoon session, so it would be nice if you told me anything important that happens during it haha it's so crazy that my year mark is so soon and it’s only a few weeks until the Mother’s Day Skype. It’s completely insane how fast time is going right now. Next Monday is the day we usually get called if we are training and then the next Monday is the day we find out where everyone is going. I'm starting to care less and less about what happens at transfers. It really doesn't matter who I'm with, missionary work is missionary work no matter who you're with. There's not really anything exciting that happened last week. I've got a picture for you! We were on our way to a DA and saw this awesome view so I stopped and took pictures! I'm just trying to stay motivated and keep pushing forward despite the seeming lack of progress. We only had one RCLA last week and that was it. The hardest part is that we ARE working, we're not just wasting out, but I guess the Lord is just trying our faith while he prepares people. We've got zone P-day today so I'll have to end this here.

Love you guys so much!

Elder Sorensen