tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-57152368556091189142024-02-18T23:17:17.238-08:00Elder Casey Reed Sorensen England Birmingham Mission
2013-2015Carriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15614090121031319431noreply@blogger.comBlogger51125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5715236855609118914.post-25504202525075774342015-04-12T14:44:00.001-07:002015-04-12T14:44:45.793-07:00Almost Done!April 6, 2015<blockquote></blockquote>
To be honest I'm quite worried as well. I don't have any plans to go apostate when I get home haha but I know that the world can so easily distracted you. I just want to maintain my studies, I think if I can do that then I'll be alright.<blockquote></blockquote>
Sounds good for the homecoming thing! I want to go to an authentic Mexican restaurant!!<blockquote></blockquote>
I was able to sign up for all my classes. I think we can do the housing when I get back.
YOU NEED TO TELL ME NOW IF THERE IS ANYTHING YOU WANT ME TO GET! Next Monday is the last chance to tell me anything.<blockquote></blockquote>
Not a whole lot happened this week. Just a bunch of finding and a lot of appointments falling through. Ben is still solid, he actually called us this week to tell us that he is telling all of his family and friends that he's Mormon! He said he was afraid to at first, but decided that if they didn't accept him then they must not really love him. They were all fine with it though :) I love Ben! He is like the sickest investigator I've ever had. We've taught him everything, he just needs to get married before he can be baptized. I'm really looking forward to seeing you guys again! 2 more weeks! Sorry for the short letter, but there's not much to talk about. Just make sure you let me know if you want me to get you anything. I think that's it! I love you guys and I'll talk to you next week!<blockquote></blockquote>
Elder Sorensen
Carriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15614090121031319431noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5715236855609118914.post-64202289086379338242015-04-05T15:53:00.000-07:002015-04-05T15:53:17.341-07:00Life in CannockMarch 23, 2015<blockquote<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHvB-fgmp8ezDPpdXArXCHp6BQ5jZkO-35Gaq5VotlGDveaax1LZZ2s3QJCgqTeQCHLblhEr0RILwRNzzM_vsF8p499cN-2VWR5rGSYg3K351LYIKfKXoai8CT0zW38Yl4tJaDD49cliUe/s1600/SAM_6609.JPG" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHvB-fgmp8ezDPpdXArXCHp6BQ5jZkO-35Gaq5VotlGDveaax1LZZ2s3QJCgqTeQCHLblhEr0RILwRNzzM_vsF8p499cN-2VWR5rGSYg3K351LYIKfKXoai8CT0zW38Yl4tJaDD49cliUe/s320/SAM_6609.JPG" /></a>></blockquote>
Things in Cannock are awesome right now. We saw so many miracles last week!!! :) So the main two people that we found and have been working with are Monique and Ben.<blockquote></blockquote>
The other person that we've been working with is Monique. Monique is the mother of a part member family in the ward. Ingrid is a single mother of 6 kids and Monique is her mom, she has been visiting here for the past month or so to help Ivy out with the kids. The whole family is French. When we got into the ward everyone was telling us about this French family (because Elder Gros is French) and they were actually the first people we stopped while GQing in city center!! Crazy right? So long story short we went over to their home and were talking to Monique (Elder Gros translated for me because she doesn't speak any English) and asked her if she wanted to learn about the church that her daughter belongs to. She said yes and we started teaching her. We taught her every day last week and on last Thursday she committed to be baptized on March 28th!! SO WE'RE HAVING A BAPTISM ON SATURDAY!!!! It's just been insane to see her faith and watch her conversion happened. She’s made Elder Gros and I cry more than once.
haha on that Friday we decided that we needed to find out if she was serious about her date as we had only taught the first three lessons. Sso we taught tithing, Law of Chastity, Word of Wisdom, and fasting all in one lesson, and she bore testimony of each of them and committed to live them until she dies. She said that she knows that we were sent to her from God and that anything we tell her is of God, because she can feel the spirit when we are there and when we speak. Needless to say we were weeping like little babies hahah She is so amazing. I adopted her as my third grandma. Elder Gros will be baptizing her and I'll be giving her the Holy Ghost while Elder Gros translates. :) It has been so crazy to see so much happen so fast since we got here. This week is looking like we will have even more happening as well. I'm stoked!!<blockquote></blockquote>
That's about it for this week I think. I've been doing really well with video journals here so We'll be able to watch them together when I get back!<blockquote></blockquote>
Love you guys so much!!<blockquote></blockquote>
See you in 3 weeks and 6 days!!<blockquote></blockquote>
Elder Sorensen<blockquote></blockquote>
March 30, 2015<blockquote></blockquote>
GQing stands for Golden questioning. it's asking people the golden question that makes them want to know more. it's really more street contacting that we do, but GQing has just become the term for it in this mission. Ha that would be so cool to see dad on the stand. Things with elder Gros are really good! It's hard to have issues right now because I know that I've only got 3 weeks left! It's really starting to
freak me out haha. A couple days ago I started crying in the shower thinking about it. it's the strangest mix of feelings I've ever had.... Our area is doing well! I just want to get it going and really productive
before I leave.<blockquote></blockquote>
Yup! I confirmed Monique a member of the church yesterday and Elder Gros knelt next to her and translated while I gave the blessing. It was so cool. it's definitely been the most solid and most spiritual baptism of my mission.
Let's see what's worth mentioning this week. We taught Ben. He had some questions about tithing, so we taught him that and we taught about the 10 commandments and Sabbath day. I love teaching Ben. He's so awesome and humble. He's really just a genuinely great guy. We keep talking about when he is going to come visit Washington. He wants to come in August, but there is plenty of time to organize all of that later. You can always feel the spirit really strong in our lessons with Ben. I think it'll be cool when I'm home I can join in the lessons via skype. Paul is a Polish less active member who has a lot of issues with anti. We've met with him a couple of times now and finally gotten his real concern figured out. pray for us that we'll be able to explain the anti in a way that makes sense to him.<blockquote></blockquote>
We had an exchange from Thursday to Friday which was really fun. I went with Elder Huff (he's been out for 6 months) and Elder Gros stayed here with the grandson of Boyd K. Packer... Elder Packer. It was pretty cool. Nothing really exciting happened other than me getting sick. haha I've been sick for about 3 days now. I think I'm nearly over it now though. Then of course we had the baptism. it was like I say definitely the best baptism I've been to on my mission. I'll send you pictures via Dropbox. It pretty much went off without a hitch! Ben came to it as well and he really wants to be baptized, but of course there is the issue of him needing to get married to Elly (his fiancée) who he is living with right now. I can't
wait to see his baptism. I'm definitely going to fly over here for it next year :)<blockquote></blockquote>
After the baptism, we needed to go to the mission office to pick up some supplies for the Because He Lives initiative, and Ben actually drove us 40 minutes there and 40 minutes back! Can you believe that? if that's not a solid guy then I don't know what is.<blockquote></blockquote>
That's Pretty much everything for this week!<blockquote></blockquote>
Love you guys!!<blockquote></blockquote>
Elder Sorensen
Carriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15614090121031319431noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5715236855609118914.post-5620857353859336542015-03-23T21:35:00.000-07:002015-03-23T21:35:56.858-07:00New Companion, New Area, and Last Transfer!March 16, 2015<blockquote><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6HJe0En-RwPolg6rd2Gf-DEFZMySzX_4sIxHE-Aq-N33csbZvPilt-cRgZB4Enrgfn-KNrIA7jxx8cAS_2_RAPYR_fgAymg2H2iO7fq-Q37SUKubRs-_Jx_0PwNHkTQ3FYwucxEI6j8Gh/s1600/SAM_6487.JPG" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6HJe0En-RwPolg6rd2Gf-DEFZMySzX_4sIxHE-Aq-N33csbZvPilt-cRgZB4Enrgfn-KNrIA7jxx8cAS_2_RAPYR_fgAymg2H2iO7fq-Q37SUKubRs-_Jx_0PwNHkTQ3FYwucxEI6j8Gh/s320/SAM_6487.JPG" /></a></blockquote>
My new companion is Elder Gros. He's a tall stereotypical French guy and he is awesome. I love him so much, he is crazy! <blockquote></blockquote>
The chapel here in Cannock is really posh and modern because the area it's in is a bunch of millionaire’s houses and the only way the neighbors agreed for it to be built is if it was visually "appealing"<blockquote></blockquote>
So! Cannock. Long story short, Elder Gros and I both transferred here on Wednesday to whitewash. Elder Wiser and I spent the last Tuesday in Harbourne just saying our last goodbyes and went out to dinner with a bunch of people. Elder Gros and I been spending the past few days just Gqing anyone who looked our age in the town center and in one day we got 2 potentials, the next we got 3 and the next we got two more. By Saturday, we had a new investigator (who is amazing I'll tell you about him in a second) and the same day we set another lesson for today! I love this area already, we have a DA every day this week and some really promising potentials. It just shows that the Lord has been preparing this area. We've gone from nothing to loads of work in 3 days! it's insane. Our new investigators name is Seth and he is elect beyond belief. We stopped him in the shopping center and he mentioned that he is going to be baptized into another church down the road because he wants to be a full Christian before he gets married, so we shared with him a 1 min version of the restoration and asked for his details. the next day we came to his house and shared the restoration with him. He was buzzin for it! He just drank in the doctrine. He's been looking for the truth and I honestly just think he didn't know where or how to find it. He told us a few stories of his life about how he was homeless and his now fiancée saved his life and the house he lives in now is really nice. He has a job and his own car. There’s just so much information. I'm sorry if I use terrible punctuation and grammar and spelling. We are seeing him again today at 230. He is 23 and just a really normal awesome guy! At the end of the first lesson, he was asking us about our chapel and where it was, and then he just said " can we go see it now?" and we were just like "HECK YEAH WE CAN!" so he drove us to the chapel, we gave him a chapel tour, and he was just awesome. Asking questions, he loved the chapel, loved the baptismal font, (he even mentioned that it was more legit than what the other baptism was going to be) and he said he might want to get baptized here! We left him with a bible(he didn't have one), a book of Mormon with Moroni 10, the restoration dvd, restoration pamphlet, and a Plan of Salvation pamphlet haha I think we loaded him down a little too much because we were excited, but there are great things happening here!!!<blockquote></blockquote>
Love you guys soo much!!<blockquote></blockquote>
Elder Sorensen
Carriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15614090121031319431noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5715236855609118914.post-12162672812073603192015-03-23T21:14:00.000-07:002015-03-23T21:14:20.615-07:00Still Loving the Work!March 2, 2015<blockquote><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgz-ER8_XZ6ToaEL-k3y4g6dogAV3SRWpPmk5un8RFP-nYzSgou2ckcCP1vmO2DaJ6EJT76cKl0AX2NcipVBWJu0pFwvMaEhLaiTJe7BPjRjGkLxwdFRFDF013ifVUeFTRLfaiGN4vOvqj-/s1600/DSCN1795.JPG" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgz-ER8_XZ6ToaEL-k3y4g6dogAV3SRWpPmk5un8RFP-nYzSgou2ckcCP1vmO2DaJ6EJT76cKl0AX2NcipVBWJu0pFwvMaEhLaiTJe7BPjRjGkLxwdFRFDF013ifVUeFTRLfaiGN4vOvqj-/s320/DSCN1795.JPG" /></a></blockquote>
This past week was AMAZING!! The week before was really disappointing as we had 9 investigators drop us. but we pushed through and this week we got 13 new investigators. It was so awesome. Yesterday was probably the best day. We had a really good fast and testimony meeting with a lot of really inspiring testimonies, followed up by an awesome lesson with our investigator Seth. Seth is awesome, he is a really cool guy we found this week from Turkey and he has truly been prepared to receive us. He came to church yesterday after only meeting with us once! really an awesome guy, we'll be seeing him again on Thursday this week. And we also had a crazy lesson with a guy called Nate. He is amazing with the bible, the cool part is that everything that he has been sharing with us has been our doctrine. It's been really really cool. I really can't remember anything well enough to describe it in great detail, we have had so much going on. Honestly though, I think it's really interesting. When I feel really happy and successful like this week, I feel a lot less inspired in the sense of learning life lessons. It feels like I have nothing to share with you guys as far as life changing experiences go. And it seems as though when things suck is when I’m making the most progress and growing the most. Not that that's a shock to anyone, I think that's a fairly basic principle of the gospel. It's the answer to why there is evil in the world. anyways.. I have one cool experience to share with you. A few weeks ago the ZL's in our district baptized a guy called Jaime. He is really cool and a really nice kid. He is really close with the ZL's as well. About a week after he was baptized we were waiting for the ZL's to bring us something on the side of the road and we decided not to waste time(Elder Wiser decided not to waste time) and GQ while we wait. The guy who stopped and talked to us was Timothy. Timothy was pretty cool and said that we could meet up with him sometime. This week we finally met up with him and had a lesson. it went really well and he wants to meet up again, but(here's the cool part) we found out that he lives in the ZL's area so we are going to hand him off to them on exchange right? At church on Sunday we're talking to Jaime because we thought that he would be a really good fit to go teaching with Timothy... turns out, Timothy is Jaime’s brother!!! I know right?? <blockquote></blockquote>
That's about it.<blockquote></blockquote>
I love you guys. I'm probably going to buy some luggage today if I get the chance.<blockquote></blockquote>
Elder Sorensen<blockquote></blockquote>
March 9, 2015<blockquote></blockquote>
I think something I've learned recently is to not dwell on peoples bad qualities. Everyone has thousands of things that we could look at and hate them for, but every person has equally as many things that you could love about them. Sometimes the negative things might be more apparent to you, but you just need to let those things fall and forgive them and then start focusing on the good things. It's one of the hardest things to accomplish, forgiving someone while they are wronging you or doing something wrong, but when we can accomplish that we will no longer be burdened with the painful stabbing in our heart that grudges bring. If you can ask God to help you forgive them and ask Him to help you to focus on the positive things that they do, eventually you would see them as god sees them. I'm really trying to work on this right now. <blockquote></blockquote>
Our week has been pretty good. Just a whole bunch of finding and teaching. It's annoying now because if I told you everything in an email It would take me all day to write. Hmmmmm I'm trying to think of what to tell you about. The problem is that all of the really cool experiences are really long and not ones that I think should go up on the blog, but I guess I can just say how much I've been growing lately. I think that one of the coolest things and most annoying things about the Holy Ghost is how much he teaches
you about yourself. It seems that every day of my mission there has been at least one moment where I I realize something that I need to change. And every time it happens I always think "How did I never see that before??". I firmly believe that self-realization is the key to success in this life. You can have everyone else in the world tell you that you are this or you need to work on that, but until you have a true realization for yourself that that thing is wrong and that you're guilty of it, you're not going to
do anything about it.<blockquote></blockquote>
We taught quite a few lessons this week, We have a couple of people who I think will definitely be baptized in the next two weeks as long as they have enough faith. One of them has a huge problem to overcome, but if he does, he'll be faithful for his whole life. <blockquote></blockquote>
Love you guys!<blockquote></blockquote>
Elder Sorensen
Carriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15614090121031319431noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5715236855609118914.post-87804477601749424652015-03-23T20:32:00.000-07:002015-03-23T20:32:47.260-07:00Loving the Work!
February 16, 2015<blockquote><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGABCnZ3_42x8-jhlmBihJuLtm_o8qIeYT2NcemHf4dEI9gX7wByIw7ZTcIROZDm11xQY_fG3GG92V8bPkThWPkyiaOAo-cqYhBvRAudHuN6Fm6PK50fzTiG0fJz5Wz6l8gWs6izXQC_Qa/s1600/Conquering+the+doogh.JPG" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGABCnZ3_42x8-jhlmBihJuLtm_o8qIeYT2NcemHf4dEI9gX7wByIw7ZTcIROZDm11xQY_fG3GG92V8bPkThWPkyiaOAo-cqYhBvRAudHuN6Fm6PK50fzTiG0fJz5Wz6l8gWs6izXQC_Qa/s320/Conquering+the+doogh.JPG" /></a></blockquote>
When teaching someone this week I used this quote. It took until today to figure out where it came from. It's from a talk by Thomas S Monson. She had a concern about tea and why we aren't allowed to drink it when there is health benefits and yadda yadda yadda same stuff that everyone always asks. the fact is that it doesn't matter what god asks us to do. Most of the time we won't know why he wants us to do it, but if we follow his will it will
always be for our benefit. He is our loving heavenly father and will never lead us astray.<blockquote></blockquote>
“Ofttimes the wisdom of God appears as foolishness to men, but the greatest single lesson we can learn in mortality is that, when God speaks and a man obeys, man will always be right.” -Thomas Spencer Monson<blockquote></blockquote>
I'm spiritually pumped for this week. Elder Wiser and I have set some really high (but attainable) goals for this week and I really believe in them. The thing about this area is that it really has an unlimited potential. During my personal study the other day I came across the scripture acts 18:9-10 and I flipping love it. It felt like it was really talking to me. In this city, we walk by literally thousands of people every day from all walks of life and I know that many of them are prepared to receive the restored gospel. I just need to get better at using my time effectively and talking to more of them! On Monday we had a pretty hectic Pday. Loads of stuff to do running around. Tuesday was good – a lot of GQing, taught Z and had a DA at Alex’s with a bunch of our recent converts. That was super fun. You'll probably be getting a lot of pictures and videos from Alex haha you can use those on the blog. Then we had coordination. Coordination here is amazing, I finally feel like our ward mission leader understands his role and cares enough about it to hold his calling every day of the week. I love it. if every ward mission leader were
like this, the church membership would double. On Wednesday, we taught 4 back to back lessons and had a DA at our ward mission leaders house (Brother Cartwright(he's American)) and during it he actually asked what we like about coordination, what he could do better and what he could do better as a ward mission leader......AMAZING!! I love him and his family. They are awesome. Thursday was district meeting some gqing and some teaching!! Friday was pretty crazy, elder wiser went to district leader training and I was on exchange with Elder Hanare from New Zealand in our area. We just pretty much taught lessons all day in the ICC and then exchanged back. Saturday and Sunday were both letdowns because all of our lessons except one or two fell through, but it gave us enough time to contact all of the AUF's that we needed to and finish weekly planning, so it worked out.<blockquote></blockquote>
Even though we're teaching so much, I do find that I'm still stressed a lot of the time, just for different reasons than before. I think that's how it goes in the work of the lord though. It's almost as though there is more pressure now because We have so many people's salvation in our hands. I love it though it's so rewarding. I love you guys and can't wait to see you in 8 weeks!!<blockquote></blockquote>
Love you,<blockquote></blockquote>
Elder Sorensen<blockquote></blockquote>
February 23, 2015<blockquote></blockquote>
This past week was a bit disappointing. As far as all the areas in this mission goes, we had an insane week, 7 lessons, but as far as this area goes that was terrible. We could easily teach 15-20 lessons a week here, in fact one of the other teams in our ward taught 28 lessons this week. (Extremely abnormal for England , But I think possible in any area with the help of Heavenly Father. We had 8 investigators drop this week and our most solid investigator Z basically dropped us as well. She is still willing to
meet, but says that she doesn't think religion is for her anymore. It was quite devastating because she was on date for baptism this weekend.... Looking back through the key indicators for this area we noticed a trend of teaching a baptizing a lot and then the work would slow down, and the next week it would pick back up again it would be 14 lessons one week 10 the next week and then down to 7 or 8, then it would jump back up to 14 or 15 lessons again. The conclusion we came to is that when the missionaries here are teaching around 15 lessons, they/we get comfortable with it and start putting a little less effort into finding new investigators because we feel like we are doing fine and don't really need new ones right now. because of that, when some investigators drop, there aren't enough new investigators to make up for the ones who are dropping us. it's at that point when the work slows way down that we start to freak out and put all of our heart, might mind and strength into finding because we get desperate. We've made a commitment to break the desperation cycle and we are going to magnify the time between lessons with all of our heart, finding like we have no one to teach and teaching like there is no one else in the world that we are working with(completely personalized). I'll tell you how we did in my letter next week. I really think this lesson can extend beyond just missionary life though. I think that this principle can be applied in all parts of life. I think too often we get complacent with how things are. We say things like " I'm a good enough person" or " I'm not hurting anyone, so
I think I'm doing fine", but I think that that is dangerous thinking and prevents us from attaining a higher level of happiness. The Savior is our perfect example, and he never became complacent with how much good he did in the world, he never said " well I've healed 200 people now, I think that's good enough." he kept moving forward and eventually he reached the goal that we all seek after, exaltation. I know that If we can stay motivated to improve in in times of success and great comfort, we will one day attain celestial glory just like he did.<blockquote></blockquote>
I love you guys so much and I'll be forwarding you a couple pictures. There was a big festival against badger culling here a few days ago and we took a picture of us protesting :) haha and I think a couple of other pictures.<blockquote></blockquote>
Love you guys!!<blockquote></blockquote>
Elder Sorensen
Carriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15614090121031319431noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5715236855609118914.post-55648150982975558462015-03-08T17:32:00.000-07:002015-03-08T17:32:34.662-07:00February!Just and FYI, I (Casey's mom) got behind with all that has happened in our lives so please excuse the next two long posts.<br />
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February 2, 2015<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhB-_CTZGZvylLfzzuNn2588RT2tagx04LKkmIl_SXO8R_X8wHICKjy66b005EJraJppVKhHs8AeBmj8RwyV3IDxrWQTqLEtf1CxPkwQord8nOkqLJcgux4HuCYmkOOt338GFj291PTjGzB/s1600/Casey+-+Alex.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhB-_CTZGZvylLfzzuNn2588RT2tagx04LKkmIl_SXO8R_X8wHICKjy66b005EJraJppVKhHs8AeBmj8RwyV3IDxrWQTqLEtf1CxPkwQord8nOkqLJcgux4HuCYmkOOt338GFj291PTjGzB/s320/Casey+-+Alex.jpg" /></a>
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SO. The big news is that I got transferred. I'm now serving in the city center of Birmingham!!! I freaking LOVE IT!!! It’s so amazing. We average about 20 lessons a week and my companion is amazing. His name is elder wiser and he is from pleasant view Utah. I have a feeling that we'll be together for the rest of my mission. I love it so much here. Everyone that we are teaching is right around our age so I feel like I can really connect with all of our investigators. It feels like I'm just hanging out with friends all day! I'm still in a bit of shell shock because I'm just not used to being this busy, but it is truly amazing. Having city center to GQ in is awesome. We could be there all day every day for the next two weeks and not meet the same person twice. It's a bit of culture shock as well living in a big city. I've never in my life lived in a place like this. It's so cool, although I still think Washington tops it ;) Today we're going over to one of our Chinese recent convert's house and she is teaching us how to make sushi! I am just on cloud nine. I feel kind of bad as well because I know how hard of a time Andy is going through right now and I don't want him to resent me for talking about how great my life is right now, so if you could keep this all of the down low for now that would be good. We have 4 sets of missionaries in this ward and an average of about 200 that make it out every Sunday. My companion is the district leader which make me the DLC (district leader companion.) The most sought after position in the mission. All of the perks of being a district leader without all the annoying things! haha I am really on cloud nine right now. It's been a long hard road to get to this point, but it looks like the last 10 weeks of my mission are going to be pretty flipping awesome. Elder Wiser and I have set some goals for this transfer, which are really going to stretch us, but I know we can do it. <br />
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This last week started really slow and ended at a pace that I've never before experienced. Tuesday I spent a lot of the day packing and got a few cards from the ward and a lot of really nice heart felt goodbyes. Wednesday was transfers and as soon as elder wiser and I had dropped off the luggage we headed out and had three lessons..... I know, three lessons, on transfer day. Since then it's been all GQing and teaching and giving people baptismal interviews. Something really funny happened while gqing as well haha we were talking to people outside the library and we saw this guy getting kicked out of the library by security, he came over to us and gave us a hug. haha he smelt really bad of alcohol and wasn't really making any sense, but he told that his name was Al and that he was a drunkard! I basically said that's cool I guess we all have our own callings in life or something to that effect. He took me by the arm and started marching down the street with me. He sees this really old couple and shouts at them “JUST MARRIED??" hahaha the old man laughed and asked him if he knew what the building just to the left of them was called. He shouted"PISSWATER!!" and walked away leaving them speechless. haha we madeit over near a statue and I asked him who the statue was of and he shouted at me " IT'S OBVIOUS!" I said well I don't know who it is! and he says, I'll give you a hint. and just started peeing in a drain.. haha I said pisswater? and he goes OF COURSE!! <br />
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I don't have much time right now mom, so I'll let you do the editing of all that. I love you guys so much and I'm, praying for Yulia and Andy right now!! <br />
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Love you guys!<br />
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</blockquote>
Elder Sorensen
<br />
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February 9, 2015<br />
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YES I am still loving. My new problem seems to be time effectiveness, planning so that we have enough time to get to appointments and accomplish
everything that we needs to, but that's definitely not the worst problem to have. I'm planning on doing a video journal today with just a complete rundown of all the investigators we are working with.
I can't believe that week 1 in Harbourne is already over.. so crazy. Time is moving so fast right now! can you believe it's 9 weeks until i come home!!
that's insane.
On Monday we had a pretty chillaxed day. just roamed around the bullring with the zone leaders after planning. Our zone leaders are Elder Unice and Elder Kerr and they are flipping amazing. I love them so much. I'll try to send you a picture with them. On Tuesday we taught 4 lessons and a recent
convert lesson and then had missionary coordination. On Wednesday we taught 3 more lessons and went to institute with one of our investigators. that
was quite fun. On Thursday We had zone meeting which was really really good. The sister training leaders gave some awesome training about specific
accountability and specifically fallowing up with investigators who aren't receiving answers to their prayers. then the zone leaders gave an awesome
training about priorities. we don't usually ever focus on t hings that are unimportant and not urgent, and we don't usually waste our time on things
that are urgent and unimportant, we spend most of our time doing things that are urgent and important, but real effective use of your time comes
when you can figure out how to accomplish those things which are not urgent, but very important. after zone meeting I went on exchange with
Elder Higham. he is probably one of the best missionaries I've ever met. It's like his personality was tailored for missionary work. haha It might
sound fake with how positive I'm being but this is all 100% legit from Elder Sorensen himself. I love my life right now. On Friday we exchanged
back and taught 3 more lessons. and did a bit of weekly planning. Saturday we had sports morning and elder wiser had to do 3 baptismal interviews.
that night I had probably the dodgiest dinner I've ever had hahahaha It's a long story but I'll tell you about it when i get back. Got to save the best
ones for later;) On Sunday we had all three of our appointments fall through so we finished weekly planning. that's about it! I'll try to take
some pictures this week and send them to you!
Love you guys!!!!
Elder SorensenCarriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15614090121031319431noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5715236855609118914.post-77681807496029671232015-02-01T16:44:00.001-08:002015-02-01T16:44:06.307-08:00Life's ChallengesJanuary 27, 2015<blockquote><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8-LvMYQJ3ZkZbDTPRhYoEShf-_j0f1VwqAt0QNRcmWHoMxAQFVgniRvXEPdRsyNdZB48CR6r3A7JuaRVRQf7NPyfRuOEyj3MX72f6ooiH3WWmKSaMwLQ6M2JobdzNZId8-lj-lbJ2xYV0/s1600/P1030523.JPG" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8-LvMYQJ3ZkZbDTPRhYoEShf-_j0f1VwqAt0QNRcmWHoMxAQFVgniRvXEPdRsyNdZB48CR6r3A7JuaRVRQf7NPyfRuOEyj3MX72f6ooiH3WWmKSaMwLQ6M2JobdzNZId8-lj-lbJ2xYV0/s320/P1030523.JPG" /></a></blockquote>
Heavenly Father does things in our lives to help us learn and to become better people. Sometimes we have to be brought to a really low place to realize things about ourselves that we wouldn't have otherwise. You can't let other people control who you are. True happiness comes from becoming who we really are instead of what we think everyone else would like us to be. And who we really are is what Heavenly Father sees in us, our true selves and our true potential.<blockquote></blockquote>
"However late you think you are, however many chances you think you have missed, however many mistakes you feel you have made or talents you think you don’t have, or distance from home and family and God you feel you have traveled, I testify that you have *not* traveled beyond the reach of divine love. It is not possible for you to sink lower than the infinite light of Christ’s Atonement shines." Jeffrey R Holland<blockquote></blockquote>
I wish I could be there to help. By the time I get home the worst of it will be over. When I get back Andy and I can work on ways to make some money, I know that I need to make ALOT of money this summer if I want my plans to work out.<blockquote></blockquote>
Well on my end, my week was pretty boring and normal. On Monday we had district Pday, we went bowling in Lincoln which was actually really fun and then we came back and had a meal with a member. On Tuesday we did my last service day in Sally's garden (her family is taking us out for a meal today to say goodbye) then we had a dinner appointment, PEC as YM's president and Young men's. On Wednesday we went out teaching less actives with a member of the bishopric, worked on our English program and did finding. Thursday was district meeting and an exchange with the district leader. That was quite good. I always like exchanges because it makes the day go so much faster haha Friday we exchanged back, had weekly planning and cleaned for our cleaning inspection and went to the ward activity. It was really cool it was all about the universe and different planets and stuff, I loved it. Saturday we did service for a member who just moved into the ward and laid down/cut to size some carpet for her. Had the daily dose class (no one showed up) had our bible study class and YSA. It was a triumphant last Sunday though! We had one investigator and 2 les actives show up to church, it was awesome! Then we had to go to bishops house so Elder Limb could call home because his grandpa died. Today we will find out the transfer information and we'll see where I'm going for my last 2.5 months!!<blockquote></blockquote>
I'll let you guys know tomorrow what happens. Send my love to grandma and Grandpa. 10 weeks left!<blockquote></blockquote>
Love you all<blockquote></blockquote>
Elder Sorensen
Carriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15614090121031319431noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5715236855609118914.post-67352091004763441232015-01-11T15:46:00.001-08:002015-01-11T15:46:41.157-08:00Carrying OnJanuary 05, 2015<blockquote><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKtMxMsGdbFZ8mllo9AClj3d1g2tURlfY47KlX3jrYAW_NOew_VG3SPt3vcQuqvO2Vr2eJkKyshXq8if7QHqnRzEPS294pfytqjfslwvPWCcl_ToYphQGO-n6TOuTc_mQhIBRjBUCmUtMm/s1600/PB280732.JPG" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKtMxMsGdbFZ8mllo9AClj3d1g2tURlfY47KlX3jrYAW_NOew_VG3SPt3vcQuqvO2Vr2eJkKyshXq8if7QHqnRzEPS294pfytqjfslwvPWCcl_ToYphQGO-n6TOuTc_mQhIBRjBUCmUtMm/s320/PB280732.JPG" /></a></blockquote>
I'm doing fine, just trying to do everything I can for the next 3 weeks before I leave for my last area. Haha it sounds like a lot less when you say 15 weeks instead of 107 days. I can't believe it’s going that fast. It feels like I have a lot longer than that. I believe that as long as you do all you can to see the good in others and do everything you can to focus on that instead of the bad qualities, you'll see your image of them change a lot. I had a big lesson in that this past week. <blockquote></blockquote>
This week was pretty cool; it was one of my best weeks for numbers on my mission so far! On Monday we had a Less Active lesson. On Tuesday we went out to Skegness and spent the day going by everyone we could find that lived out there. It's a 40 minute train ride so when you go you kind of have to make the most of it. Kind of like Entiat for our missionaries I'm sure. We found a few people had moved, but we did get in and get to teach someone eventually. Every once in a while, Elder Limb and I go through all of the potentials and formers and call everyone to see if we can set up an appointment. Well this week we actually had someone call back! His name is John and he is originally from Nigeria, but he is working as a general practitioner while he's in England. We had an awesome first lesson with him, but unfortunately he'll be moving to Nottingham soon, so we'll hand him over to them. On Wednesday, Elder Limb and I had a bonfire out the back of our house to celebrate the New Year and then we spent the beginning of Thursday doing weekly planning. We had lunch with a member and dinner with another member. It was pretty fun. On Friday we had district meeting, a dinner appointment and Mary’s, an appointment with Autumn (we taught the plan of salvation and she's doing really well.) and then we were invited to the YSA activity. It was a pretty awesome day. Saturday we taught Sean the word of wisdom, which he is already keeping for the most part! Just tea is his problem. We finished the day contacting a couple of referrals. Sunday was very normal finding. That was about it! Hope you guys have an awesome week! <blockquote></blockquote>
I love you!! Tell grandma and grandpa I love them!<blockquote></blockquote>
Elder Sorensen
Carriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15614090121031319431noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5715236855609118914.post-17638146729499914452015-01-04T19:19:00.001-08:002015-01-04T19:19:25.813-08:00December NewsDecember 8, 2014<blockquote><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5BUFhkck0L3oOutiZa7_mRhpQzipewI5rwaSbp4cLLGkQRZZ8CZtbXG4ZfJkxegF9EDjzT-94SfumLbt0A_cOqZ9CUISDIEQ_E5yAYwog5nWwLxAd7aWALcUo-j1Wwo3stfLQy6HOvzKI/s1600/PC150746.JPG" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5BUFhkck0L3oOutiZa7_mRhpQzipewI5rwaSbp4cLLGkQRZZ8CZtbXG4ZfJkxegF9EDjzT-94SfumLbt0A_cOqZ9CUISDIEQ_E5yAYwog5nWwLxAd7aWALcUo-j1Wwo3stfLQy6HOvzKI/s320/PC150746.JPG" /></a></blockquote>
Things here are okay. As you can tell I'm getting kind of annoyed with the areas I've been serving in. I really just want to teach all day every day. But I know whatever I go through is what I need to go through and it's what God needs me to go through for his righteous purposes. This week was alright. Elder Limb and I get along pretty well. I can be moody sometimes, but I get over it.
On Tuesday we spent the day doing a service project for a nonmember family. We chopped down a tree with an axe! Hopefully this week we'll do the other one. Wednesday we went on exchange with our district leader. I stayed in Boston with DL Elder Holman. It was pretty good we got 7 potentials with the He is the Gift cards so that was pretty miraculous. Then we had a DA and taught the restoration to the family. On Thursday we had district meeting and then spent the day working in Lincoln. We ended the day with a DA. On Friday we spent most of the day cleaning and doing weekly planning and had a DA. On Saturday we had a cleaning inspection, taught two lessons, had our bible study and did some finding. On Sunday we spent most of the day doing finding!! That was pretty much everything. I can't wait to talk to you guys in two weeks! I'd also like to talk to the Toolsons if I can. We should have plenty of time to talk.<blockquote></blockquote>
Love you guys! Have a good week!<blockquote></blockquote>
Elder Sorensen<blockquote></blockquote>
December 15, 2014<blockquote></blockquote>
I took a picture just for you this morning!! Haha it's with me and the bike I'm building (if you remember mine got stolen.) I did the paint job myself, so that's why it's terrible haha. It was quite a crazy week. On Tuesday we had a full day of finding followed by ward council and youth. For young mens we had a joint Christmas party. It was really fun. I've been seeing more and more young men turn out since I've been doing this. I'm trying to make it fun for them and really show them that this stuff (church stuff as they call it) is important. I hope that I can be a positive influence on them. On Wednesday we tried to contact a few AUF's and give out our He is the Gift cards. Nothing too exciting. On Thursday we had our Christmas conference over in Leicester (pronounced lester). It was pretty fun, president gave us a lot of time to just hang out and talk to people so I really enjoyed that. we did a musical number for our zone and it ended up pretty good. On Friday we went on exchange with the zone leaders. I went with one of my favorite missionaries of all time Elder Debeikes. He's in the top 5 missionaries I've ever known. It was quite cool we had a miracle happen while I was in Nottingham with him. We were going by AUF's and not having much luck when we went by this one lady called Lauren. She answered the door and was a little confused at first, but then recognized us. She said she had been baptized about 12 years ago and invited us into her porch. We chatted for a bit and then she said that she was just in complete shock that we were standing here. When we asked why she said that her daughter who suffered from Bipolar disorder had committed suicide just three days earlier and that her and her sons had just been chatting about the missionaries and about the church and then we showed up! She was very grateful for us coming and we shared a bit about the plan of salvation. she graciously accepted our invitation to meet with us again and to talk about the plan of salvation. We were able to answer a lot of her questions and it was just an awesome miracle. I had a long conversation with Elder Debeikes on the car ride home about my mission and loads of stuff. It was good. Therapeutic. Saturday we had a lesson with Sean and the ward party which was fun. I played guitar for the musical item we did. That was really fun, and on Sunday we ate dinner at bishop’s house. that was about it!!<blockquote></blockquote>
Love you guys!!<blockquote></blockquote>
Elder Sorensen<blockquote></blockquote>
December 22, 2014<blockquote></blockquote>
This week, we had a pretty average Tuesday with Sally’s service project, dinner at the Andrew’s and youth. For youth we did a carol concert at the old folk’s home. It went pretty well, and then I took the young men out for ice cream at McDonalds. I'm pretty sure that's the only reason they came haha. On Saturday we went by a bunch of AUF’s (address unknown file) people who the church has lost and found. and finished the day with Chinese buffet with the YSA On Sunday we did weekly planning and had a couple of less active lessons. Talk to you on Thursday! <blockquote></blockquote>
Elder Sorensen<blockquote></blockquote>
Carriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15614090121031319431noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5715236855609118914.post-13811350912604498542014-12-07T19:52:00.000-08:002014-12-07T19:52:01.893-08:00Counting DownNovember 24, 2014<blockquote><blockquote><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7wiT9YA54yjiwZMY-o7FUCiGQZol4H30tanCQ-vXJkIrgGvIXxw-uvMH-GirYs7hAjU-Izn385bXcvf3rvjCD1KgMEPhQLPiBFPV5_NzrYi9s2DyfFTGX2FJFix6ArSH1VGsBvUe7sRDM/s1600/PC010736.JPG" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7wiT9YA54yjiwZMY-o7FUCiGQZol4H30tanCQ-vXJkIrgGvIXxw-uvMH-GirYs7hAjU-Izn385bXcvf3rvjCD1KgMEPhQLPiBFPV5_NzrYi9s2DyfFTGX2FJFix6ArSH1VGsBvUe7sRDM/s320/PC010736.JPG" /></a>
It's good you've found why you're there. It's going to be weird to go home to a different ward though. <blockquote></blockquote>It's going to be really weird.
Well you can start counting the weeks! I don't know if you realized, but it's only 20 weeks on Wednesday till I'll be home!! That is really starting to freak me out. It's only four weeks until we email! can you believe that? I don't have a lot to talk about this week. On Monday we had a member buy us a meal from a choppy. We had an order of chips and 2 wraps each. It was really nice. Then we had a service project on Tuesday where we finally got the stupid stump out of a family's back garden. We are about to take on a few more projects in their garden. I've gotten to be really good friends with them and we definitely need to visit them when we come back. That night we had joint YM/YW which was alright, the young men got bored and we just ended up playing capture the flag. Tomorrow we are going to play dodgeball! Wednesday was completely taken up by travelling to district meeting, district meeting, missing trains back from Lincoln and so on. haha not very eventful. Thursday I was feeling pretty sick, Which I haven't completely gotten over yet. We did make it out for a lot of the day, but I was feeling terrible. Friday we had a really dodgey meal for lunch which made my sickness worse followed by a DA that completely stuffed me to breaking point. That night I didn't sleep much. Saturday we found a new investigator and had weekly planning because we didn't have time on Friday. Sunday we had a DA at our ward mission leader's house. We had a flipping feast and I don't know what it was that I ate, but it made me really bloated and REALLY gassy. Honestly it was top ten most uncomfortable I've ever been in my life. I was proper farting like every five minutes until this morning punctuated by numerous trips to the toilet. oh and the burps..... *shudder* they tasted like death. I don't know what it was, but I never want it to happen again. Today I'm still feeling a bit ill from it all, but on the whole I'm doing alright. Time is moving so fast right now and to be honest I miss home a lot. I know why I'm here and I don't want to go early, but when April 15th arrives I'll be ready. <blockquote></blockquote>
I love you guys!!<blockquote></blockquote>
Talk to you next week.<blockquote></blockquote>
Elder Sorensen<blockquote></blockquote>
December 1, 2014<blockquote></blockquote>
Yeah, we had Thanksgiving at bishop’s house. It was fun. I'll try to find some stuff to send to you guys, but it's not likely to get there by Christmas. Sorry! I know, it’s getting harder and harder as it draws closer. 19 weeks! I can't believe it, but the knowledge of how little I have left gives me motivation to do as much good as I can with what little time I have left. Yeah, Andy actually emailed me back this week. So that's pretty cool. This past week was pretty eventful as far as weeks go. On Tuesday we spent part of the day calling fromers and potentials to try and set up appointments. Had a DA and played dodgeball with the young men. That was pretty fun, I lost my voice from trying to reign in the deacons though. Was I that annoying when I was 12 years old? On Wednesday we did a bunch of finding and had dinner with the Challis’. On Thursday we had the second zone meeting this month. They taught us about the new He is the Gift Initiative. I don't know if you guys have heard of it, but it's awesome. I'm actually really excited for it. It's a new website, video, and pass- along cards and a few other things that the church has put out about Christmas. It's so awesome to have something new to use in missionary work. It's given me a lot of new motivation and has broken up some of the monotony of missionary work. If you haven't seen it yet its christmas.mormon.org and it's a really cool way to share the gospel! Watch it and think of who you could send a link to or share it on Facebook. On Friday we spent most of the day working with the christmas.mormon.org pass-along cards and got 4 appointments from it! And then we had weekly planning. On Saturday we had 4 appointments and 3 of them held through!! Miracles!! We had a pretty good bible study. Because of the He is the Gift initiative we've decided to focus our bible study for the next few weeks on the life of the savior and the true meaning of Christmas. We’re waiting for president to get us the daily dose program so that we can start teaching English classes as well. Sunday we went out with a member, Brother Lavender, he's awesome. One of the best members I know. And that brings us to today! That’s about it! Can’t wait to talk to you guys in 3 weeks.<blockquote></blockquote>
Love you!<blockquote></blockquote>
Elder Sorensen
Carriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15614090121031319431noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5715236855609118914.post-42796945666723265022014-11-23T15:53:00.000-08:002014-11-23T15:53:44.792-08:00<blockquote><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnxWlfRdOZk0cjRkXe151dqygtd8gy9tjmS-1aJumvkq7MkaqaedhZQr2CwTNk8CPzSB4KbNLWB6Aq6QUVgKekyDvBZNwnEzTFkOB-Uxkx_mGTpvcE7lz3Y4St2xq5d34qgbgpTlEY-Jy-/s1600/P8090549.JPG" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnxWlfRdOZk0cjRkXe151dqygtd8gy9tjmS-1aJumvkq7MkaqaedhZQr2CwTNk8CPzSB4KbNLWB6Aq6QUVgKekyDvBZNwnEzTFkOB-Uxkx_mGTpvcE7lz3Y4St2xq5d34qgbgpTlEY-Jy-/s320/P8090549.JPG" /></a></blockquote>November 10, 2014<blockquote></blockquote>
Things with my companion are going good! Elder Limb is a really nice guy. The area is moving slowly, but moving nonetheless. I might have some pictures up later, just depends on how the day goes. I know it's pretty crazy 6 weeks until Christmas and then at Christmas I'll have just under 4 months left! So crazy to think, I need to get a list together of things to talk about when we skype. We have a lot of things to discuss. <blockquote></blockquote>
Our week was kind of exciting. Elder Burke and I spent Tuesday packing and saying goodbye to people. On Wednesday we woke up half an hour early to catch our train to Nottingham. I spent the day in a tripanionship which was really fun. I was with Elder Debeikes and Elder Holman and we had an awesome time. I would really like to be in a tripanionship. After that we spent the rest of the day travelling back to Boston with Elder Limb and unpacking. A bunch of finding between that and our Bible study. We had our biggest attendance yet at the bible study. We had a non-member there and we've got an appointment with her this week! Hopefully we'll be able to see that go somewhere :) then it was just church and loads of finding again yesterday! And that brings us to today. Today I'll be giving a guitar lesson to a non-member family’s kid. They are all Muslim and their probably one of my favorite families on my mission. They are seriously awesome. And later we have a dinner appointment. Sorry for the short boring email, but that’s really about it for this week!<blockquote></blockquote>
Love you guys!<blockquote></blockquote>
Elder Sorensen <blockquote></blockquote>
November 17, 2014<blockquote></blockquote>
This week has been pretty normal... honestly I have nothing to talk about. On Tuesday we went o exchange. We had youth and played capture the flag. That was awesome. Everyone really enjoyed it. Wednesday was really boring, just a whole bunch of finding. Elder Limb came back from exchange with a nasty old bike to replace mine that got stolen( don't remember If I told you my bike got stolen, life goes on) and we've spent every evening taking it apart and cleaning it. I'll do an update vide of that today. Thursday we spent all day going to and from zone meeting. The zone leaders had to drive out and pick us up because we had no money for the train. Haha they weren't very happy, but we have the coolest zone leaders ever, I love them. On Friday it was weekly planning and finding, and Saturday was the same with a surprise lesson. Sorry this email is so short; hopefully more interesting stuff will happen this week haha were hoping to start English classes soon if all goes well. We had to cancel our Bible study on Saturday because everyone was doing stuff, but that gave us time to have the surprise lesson.<blockquote></blockquote>
Love you guys tons!!!<blockquote></blockquote>
Elder Sorensen
Carriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15614090121031319431noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5715236855609118914.post-55767200962180272762014-11-09T21:07:00.000-08:002014-11-09T21:07:49.940-08:00Life in Boston UK<blockquote><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCUsrrYPrRWLF2NehNYOuGp4iAK7np5poWrMCznrr-LxlevnA37NlqplZCxRZK6L-3cpFt9by05sKaGG435wdz834DuIrfdRD8GjXLKDcm7riToyihfYkJVwp8fS8DZQ3ETUM5o1pdtlJE/s1600/SAM_8640+(1).JPG" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCUsrrYPrRWLF2NehNYOuGp4iAK7np5poWrMCznrr-LxlevnA37NlqplZCxRZK6L-3cpFt9by05sKaGG435wdz834DuIrfdRD8GjXLKDcm7riToyihfYkJVwp8fS8DZQ3ETUM5o1pdtlJE/s320/SAM_8640+(1).JPG" /></a></blockquote>November 3, 2014<blockquote></blockquote>
It's good to hear that your testimony is growing I pray for you and dad every night, along with Andy. That's awesome about dad's new calling, I was just at the bishops house and he said dad is going to be bishop next haha I actually just got a calling as well! I'm now the young men’s president in Boston! Haha I'm really excited for it! It should be really fun. There are some young men here who really need a positive role model and someone who really cares about them, so I'm really grateful for the calling I really want to help them out. I've just been reading through handbook 2 for administering in the church and I thought it was quite interesting that the entire first chapter is just basically the restoration and plan of salvation. Then it goes into how the organization of the church is there to help strengthen families and individuals and to administer the ordinances by proper authority and are not an end in themselves. Basically the church is there to help the people in it and it always goes back to that. It’s not there to be a successful organization.
I've been really good, feeling a spiritual high. I'll be seeing a doctor as soon as you can get me all of that paperwork. I'll check my email on Thursday then. We have dodge night tonight. Elder Burke is probably leaving so I'll probably have a new companion on Wednesday! I have really enjoyed my time with Elder Burke. He is a really good guy. Next week will be transfer 14/17 and companion number...... (Harris, Gardner, Hoffmann, nelson, Hyde, Johnson, Gull, Olivos, Moore, Allen, Burke.....) 12! Holy crap that's a lot of companions!! <blockquote></blockquote>
Not a whole lot other than that has happened this past week. I got called to be young men’s president, we had an exchange and district meeting, had another bible study, which is going well! We should be getting a new investigator out of it soon if all goes well! Other than that it's just been a bunch of finding. That’s really all I've got to tell you this week, I should have some good pictures to send you next week.<blockquote></blockquote>
I love you guys!!<blockquote></blockquote>
Elder Sorensen
Carriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15614090121031319431noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5715236855609118914.post-16929706900621488352014-10-26T17:38:00.001-07:002014-10-26T17:38:14.466-07:00Always Growing!<blockquote><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhE36G16L4lTUBCro5GMR_vmxDWSpBIdZ5Y8A0ktlRxn6lgrvHVYKYWFRgceNjMbuSKJUeMTouEovryXWGasgNCOvXL4jrns_m2fJNwH_DTvUJ_NKV6qXTmeX0JltlvOuRtd_xHj5zsbWu/s1600/PA040664.JPG" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhE36G16L4lTUBCro5GMR_vmxDWSpBIdZ5Y8A0ktlRxn6lgrvHVYKYWFRgceNjMbuSKJUeMTouEovryXWGasgNCOvXL4jrns_m2fJNwH_DTvUJ_NKV6qXTmeX0JltlvOuRtd_xHj5zsbWu/s320/PA040664.JPG" /></a></blockquote>October 20, 2014<blockquote></blockquote>
Mom. You did the best you could at being my mother as I grew up through childhood and adolescence and that's all that god expects of you. Yeah of course you made mistakes, Christ was the only perfect teacher to ever live, things that I do and mistakes that I make are mine alone to bear until I repent of them and take advantage of the atonement. In every situation no matter how big or small, no matter how much I'm influenced one way or another, it's still my decision as to what action I take. That's what makes me a free agent. The support that you and dad gave me is what got me through those hard times. I'm always going to be tempted. I have no confidence in myself, but I have full confidence in God and his ability to strengthen me against anything that I encounter.<blockquote></blockquote>
ITL's are invitations to learn. I really wish I had been more open with you guys growing up, but it's time to look forward. I can't wait to get back and actually get to know you guys on a personal basis and learn more about your lives. I don't really have any new pictures or videos this week, although I am looking forward to seeing all of my pictures and videos from my mission with you guys, you guys only get like a... very small fraction of what all happens out here.<blockquote></blockquote>
I know, It'll be our last skype call before I come home! This week was pretty uneventful. The whole week was pretty much service mixed with some finding and youth on Tuesday. On Saturday we had our first Bible study, we had a discussion about how the Bible came to be and what exactly it is. It was alright, only one person showed up, but they learned alot! haha Next week we're starting with Genesis chapters 1-5. Hopefully as we do it more regularly we'll be able to have more people show up. On Sunday we had a cottage evening with one of the members. None of the less-actives he invited showed up, but we had a good discussion. This week will be packed. On Wednesday we'll be going to Birmingham for a sleep specialist appointment for me. It'll take AGES to get there and back. Not looking forward to that. Oh and by the way I may have to buy the train ticket with the credit card which might be up to 50 dollars... I think that's about it.<blockquote></blockquote>
I love you guys!!!<blockquote></blockquote>
Elder Sorensen
Carriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15614090121031319431noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5715236855609118914.post-46391045627751741352014-10-19T19:22:00.001-07:002014-10-19T19:22:19.326-07:00Life in Boston<blockquote><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEht7SwhnKBvKkDXh9zH43ppUnbDHrTrSSxCSDlo-FzAdHqJhK_KpSfsfogq_B9bciTynNfnHlv0KykuGRkn46dXxAKny4Q1sY6mQhoLvrj3bo33fj_LF3T9QS5qDTS-60pNfyuqjhBLuHlU/s1600/P9250624.JPG" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEht7SwhnKBvKkDXh9zH43ppUnbDHrTrSSxCSDlo-FzAdHqJhK_KpSfsfogq_B9bciTynNfnHlv0KykuGRkn46dXxAKny4Q1sY6mQhoLvrj3bo33fj_LF3T9QS5qDTS-60pNfyuqjhBLuHlU/s320/P9250624.JPG" /></a></blockquote>October 7, 2014<blockquote></blockquote>
That sounds like an eventful week. Tell Dan and Kelly I said hello! My mission really has changed me. I can't begin to describe how grateful I am to my heavenly father for what he has given me and what he has done for me. I really understand Ether 12:27 ( And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them: Ether 12:27) and if I had to put one scripture to describe my mission, that would be it.<blockquote></blockquote>
I loved general conference. I can't wait to get the written version because I can pay attention to it easier and re read things that I miss the first time. All of the general authorities seemed to be pretty emotional this time. I love it. It reminds you that they're human. I really need to write people letters, but life is so busy at the moment. With missionary work and trying to fix/clean the flat in all of our down time, we haven't had any time for anything really. <blockquote></blockquote>
I've got a really nice pair of Ecco boots off of another missionary for free, they're proper posh. Things with my companion are awesome. Today is his birthday, so we are hopefully going out somewhere nice to eat with a member family. The area is a really slow area, but we've got a lot of cool things in the works to get it going though, we are going to start a scripture study class on Saturdays if we can get it approved by bishop, and we're trying to get the YSA going with activities and stuff. We are focusing on ITL's right now for our personal finding efforts. Since we're starting from scratch we thought it would be easier to set goals for something that we can actually control, something that we can actually make happen.<blockquote></blockquote>
On Tuesday we had a Dinner appointment and a flipping crazy night at youth. It started out as (kind of ) five aside football, but turned into an almost all -out brawl haha it was loads of fun. On Wednesday we traveled 2 hours up to Nottingham for interviews with president. That was awesome, president always knows exactly what you need to hear and how to make you feel awesome. Then we went 2 hours back and that was the whole day gone. Thursday was a complete day of finding. It’s kind of annoying because probably 4 out of 5 people will say they don't speak English even if you can tell that they do. Friday was the same plus a DA with a really nice old lady called Mary. She’s hilarious and awesome. Saturday we had a lesson with Kyle that went really well, loads of finding, and general conference the rest of the weekend. Bishop was sick on Sunday, so we had to stay at the chapel from 10am to 7pm for all the sessions :(. That was the week! Please don't send me any sweets or candy for Halloween. I'm trying to get into shape for my return home. <blockquote></blockquote>
I love you guys more than you know<blockquote></blockquote>
Elder Sorensen<blockquote></blockquote>
October 14, 2014<blockquote></blockquote>
It's a big thing over here as well (Meet the Mormons) but President Rasmussen hasn't said anything about it. <blockquote></blockquote>
I love to see how you guys have grown spiritually, but there is always room to grow more. We should never stop trying to improve. It's awesome to stop and see how well we are doing and appreciate it, but it' equally important to look at the next step as well, what can we do next? I was listening to "For All Eternity" by John Lund yesterday for Pday eve and it was really making me think of you and dad and grandma and grandpa and how little time I spent getting to know you guys, I feel like I was such a little jerk before my mission. I seriously think of who I was before I came out and I can't believe I had any friends or people who actually liked me. I'm eternally grateful for how far I've come, but I'm even more grateful for who I have the potential to become, and it's all thanks to the atonement.<blockquote></blockquote>
This week was pretty fun. On Tuesday it was Elder Burke's birthday so after long day of finding, I surprised him with a batman birthday cake (he's pretty into batman He liked that. I'll put the video of him finding it up. Umm the rest of the week was pretty dull, just lot of finding, we got a lot of potentials and appointments set up, but we haven't had any of them hold through yet, hopefully some of the ones we've made for this week will hold. Today I'm going to get myself a few pairs of trousers, I just ripped another pair and I'm down to 2 so it's time to get probably 3 or 4 more which should last me until the end of my mission. I don't think I have anything else. <blockquote></blockquote>I love you guys more than anything!!<blockquote></blockquote>
Elder Sorensen
Carriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15614090121031319431noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5715236855609118914.post-90445156552309605482014-10-05T15:42:00.000-07:002014-10-05T15:42:14.249-07:00Now in Boston! (Sorry for the rather long post, but I wanted to get caught up)<blockquote></blockquote>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLuTRLj6e9a43KmUHEaFsfqxf5N_fYJDgxEHBA9vqE0lRUesMZMhHnHSaxbhhWdSCgpxbKbzR0RSs9FJWkBTBjxS37B1vREshpMBhN0I8fPF2KTzip6pfvP0DzYSLdFVmCRcLsx0RUUpfx/s1600/P9280635.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLuTRLj6e9a43KmUHEaFsfqxf5N_fYJDgxEHBA9vqE0lRUesMZMhHnHSaxbhhWdSCgpxbKbzR0RSs9FJWkBTBjxS37B1vREshpMBhN0I8fPF2KTzip6pfvP0DzYSLdFVmCRcLsx0RUUpfx/s320/P9280635.JPG" /></a></div>September 22, 2014<blockquote></blockquote>
Some of your responsibilities as a ward missionary are to be the example of missionary work in the ward (IE sharing the gospel with your friends and introducing them to the missionaries, as well as giving the missionaries referrals, and going teaching with the missionaries) the ward mission leader can also ask you to come to be a part of the missionary coordination meeting. <blockquote></blockquote>
Can you believe we only have 3 months until our last Skype of my mission??? That is completely insane. It so completely ridiculous how fast time is going!!! This week was pretty awesome, on Monday we had a lesson with our new investigator that I think I already told you about last week. Yep, just checked, I definitely already told about it. Then, the very next day, we put one of our investigators on date for baptism!! It was a really good lesson, halfway through the lesson (gospel of Jesus Christ) she asks, “Why was Christ baptized? I've always wondered why Christ had to be baptized, because he was Holy, so why should he be?" Those were her exact words. I immediately replied, "Well actually this is one of the things that we learn from the book of Mormon which has been lost from the bible!" and then we read 2 Nephi 31 with her. I love that scripture. Other than that it was a lot of looking and not finding. <blockquote></blockquote> We had a lesson with Fred again and he kept coming to us with all of these reasons why the Book of Mormon couldn't be true and he even started pulling out some anti-literature. We pretty much rebuked all of that nonsense and then invited him to research reasons why the book of Mormon was true. We told him that he had spent all of this time and effort into finding out all of the reasons that it was wrong and talked to him about how a fair assessment weighs the Pros as well as the Cons of any given subject and that if he was going to have an unbiased stance on the book of Mormon that he needed to research all of the reasons that the Book of Mormon is true. So, we'll see how that goes if I'm still here in 4 days. IDK we'll probably drop him if he comes back with nothing. <blockquote></blockquote>Tonight we hear about transfer information... I'm kind of split, I've developed a really good relationship with the people in the ward here, but I'm ready for a change. I really just want to be thrown into the deep end of a new challenge. I also hate anticipating transfer information. It's killing me to have to wait another 10 hours to hear what's happening... anyway that was about everything!!<blockquote></blockquote>
Love you!<blockquote></blockquote>
Elder Sorensen<blockquote></blockquote>
September 28, 2014<blockquote></blockquote>
Boston is nice! I put up a few pictures and a video on Dropbox. My new companion is Elder Burke, He's from Australia. Yeah he's pretty cool, I don't really know him very well yet, but he seems like an alright enough guy. I totally forgot to get Sister Retallick flowers! oh well, they knew that I liked them. <blockquote></blockquote>
Well now I'm going to tell you straight up that I invite you to bare you testimony next sacrament meeting! No excuses next time. Testimonies aren't meant to be super incredible and interesting; it's just a statement of truth that you've come to know. That's awesome that you guys are being consistent with your prayers and reading, I'm sure you're seeing the blessings from it.
I got the Jesus the Christ book and the suspenders haha tell him thanks! And I love you.<blockquote></blockquote>
Tell dad not to stress out too much, the Lord is happy with him trying his best at doing genealogy. Plus angels are going to correct the mistakes that we make during the millennium:<blockquote></blockquote>
Gospel Principles Manual:<blockquote></blockquote>
"Many people have died without receiving these ordinances. People on the earth must perform these ordinances for them. This work is now being done in the temples of the Lord. There is too much work to finish before the Millennium begins, so it will be completed during that time. Resurrected beings will help us correct the mistakes we have made in doing research concerning our dead ancestors. They will also help us find the information we need to complete our records." (See Joseph Fielding Smith, Doctrines of Salvation, comp. Bruce R. McConkie, 3 vols. [1954–56], 2:167, 251–52.)<blockquote></blockquote>
This week has been pretty cool. Not very much has happened. It's just been a bit of finding and unpacking for the past few days. We live in a house that is apparently more than a hundred years old. It's pretty huge as far as missionary housing goes. It's a typical British house and we've got a fair size back garden as well. I'll send you the video tour I made of it. The town seems pretty cool, It's finally a change from the scenery of the midlands! It does seem like a coastal town even though it's about 45 minutes from the beach. Our ward boundary covers ALOT of the coast, so we've got some plans to go out to a lot of the coastal towns and beachy areas to keep things interesting. Hopefully next week I'll have some more exciting stuff to tell you guys! That's about all I have for now.<blockquote></blockquote>
Love you!<blockquote></blockquote>
Elder Sorensen
Carriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15614090121031319431noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5715236855609118914.post-8326367266799618042014-09-28T20:20:00.000-07:002014-09-28T20:20:53.017-07:00Working in the Lord's Vinyard<blockquote><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCpAcCAUleXH5QpOqxU1zGaDp11pYlTyq95WD3eh-P2bkP0FPtgKZIJiwXP3NyBxlfip6GHEtvOrIDQsEotnjQJzux7FYxscPp3lNhuJ2I20lBmb-OJeuZ7OIZU1pG8hwYTki5iwsGjYd5/s1600/Casey+in+Evesham.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCpAcCAUleXH5QpOqxU1zGaDp11pYlTyq95WD3eh-P2bkP0FPtgKZIJiwXP3NyBxlfip6GHEtvOrIDQsEotnjQJzux7FYxscPp3lNhuJ2I20lBmb-OJeuZ7OIZU1pG8hwYTki5iwsGjYd5/s320/Casey+in+Evesham.jpg" /></a></blockquote>September 15, 2014<blockquote></blockquote>
This week has started off with the best lesson I've ever had on my mission :) It really showed me that perseverance and hard work pays off. There was a woman called Sara who we've been stopping by and trying to set appointments with lately. The first time we stopped by her and her son came to the door and seemed interested, so we explained briefly about the restoration. The son piped up that he believed in Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father. So we gave the mother a restoration leaflet and the son a plan of salvation leaflet and set a time to come back. When we came back the Father (Scott) was the only one home. We chatted to him a bit and he mentioned that he loved Americans because of how happy we were. We eventually came to the subject of the Gospel and he told us about his late father and the confusion that stemmed from that. We taught him of the plan of salvation and set a time to come back. When we came back, no one was home, but we were about 5 minutes early so we decided to wait. When the time we had set up rolled around a car pulled up to the driveway and Sara stepped out. She rushed into her house and we had a brief conversation with her autistic son while we waited. When she came back out she said that she was in a rush and that she had no time to talk, but we set up a time for us to come back. The only time that we both had free was today (Monday) at 10:30 am. We decided that since we didn't have any investigators and since we really wanted to teach this family of four which all sounded like they had been prepared to receive the gospel, that we could sacrifice some Pday time to teach her. We went today to find them home and ready for our lesson! We went into their observatory and started talking a little bit about the family. We came to find out that the oldest son (nearly 17) had had some serious brain surgery when he was a newborn. Their other son (12 years old) was a pretty amazing kid. According to her, this son, Caleb, just simply radiated goodness. He was always looking out for others and could never stand to see others in pain or suffering. He would stand up for other kids at school, despite him not being the most impressive human being, and he would always help those in need. She said that he always seemed to have this feeling about him, whenever he was around she felt good and happy, a sort of warm feeling inside and that whenever he was in the room he seemed to emanate it. She also said he always came to his teachers with deep religious and philosophical questions about life and that he would think about these things a lot. She said that when we came to the door that day and left the materials that we did, they soaked up the information and that it answered a lot of questions and stirred a whole lot more questions within him. When he came to his teachers at school with these questions they had to eventually just say that they didn't have time to answer all of the questions he had and the teachers actually ended up talking to his mom (Sara) about it. We told her that we would love to come back when Caleb could be there and we could answer all of his questions. She committed to come to church with Caleb, to read and pray about the Book of Mormon and to a return appointment. The Spirit was present for the whole lesson and I can't wait to come back next Monday (again the only day she's free). I know that this family has been prepared to receive the gospel and I can't wait to teach Caleb as well.<blockquote></blockquote>
ummm that's about the most exciting thing that happened. It's been cool to see this area pick up as I've worked in it. sadly I think I'll be leaving next week, but It's been cool to see it transform into a productive area. I think that's everything!! I love you guys tons and I'll let you know where I go when I find out next week!<blockquote></blockquote>
Love<blockquote></blockquote>
Elder Sorensen
Carriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15614090121031319431noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5715236855609118914.post-31138012088677122642014-09-14T19:01:00.000-07:002014-09-14T19:01:04.431-07:00Obedience<blockquote><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-_Yl1lGGqjEEU1VEc3qmiCin3aK816aPba-tlTwU5fcCemBQTZc3j9_EusbcwXqXj0ovVcOV3lBltgsWT-njjEwsRcOsgeEFyHotEKXI1Btu2eg6H-SJOtjmzn1g5h08qDr8Pgw8fqOC9/s1600/Evesham+companion.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-_Yl1lGGqjEEU1VEc3qmiCin3aK816aPba-tlTwU5fcCemBQTZc3j9_EusbcwXqXj0ovVcOV3lBltgsWT-njjEwsRcOsgeEFyHotEKXI1Btu2eg6H-SJOtjmzn1g5h08qDr8Pgw8fqOC9/s320/Evesham+companion.jpg" /></a></blockquote>
September 8, 2014<blockquote></blockquote>
Yesss!! Well hopefully the next time you finish the BOM I can be there for it. It would be cool to have scripture study over Skype when I go back to university. <blockquote></blockquote>
YUP! haha I'm no longer afraid to bare my testimony, I do it every day to people who don't want to hear it, so doing it in sacrament meeting is a breeze.<blockquote></blockquote>
The shoes fit perfectly and they're awesome!! Thank you so much! I was actually thinking about getting some new shoes, but now there's no need! We are in a branch, but President Retallick is a counsellor in the stake presidency. <blockquote></blockquote>
This past week was pretty awesome. I had a bit of revelation about obedience. I've never been seriously disobedient and I've never done anything too crazy, but I've also never been one to be completely stressed over the rules either. If it came to it I would usually let a lot of things slide. I think a lot of that attitude has come from having so many companions who are so disobedient, but I can't use that as an excuse. I've always had my free agency and every mistake I've made has been of my own free will and choice. This past week though I was listening to a talk ( actually an audio book I think) by John Bytheway while riding the bus out to an area. The talk was called "how to be an extra-ordinary missionary". Something he said about obedience really struck me deep in my soul. He said ordinary missionaries obey because they ought to and extra ordinary missionaries obey because they want to. I realized that all of my obedience in the past had been out of duty and a lot of the time almost grudgingly. Needless to say I did a lot of thinking and reflecting on how I had been acting and treating my calling. I offered a prayer of repentance and I felt amazing. I felt so happy and light and just incredible! And the feeling has stayed since! It is so amazing how a simple change in perspective on things has changed my entire outlook on the mission rules and it has truly affected me in such a positive way. It shows as well in how Heavenly Father is blessing us with more lessons and appointments now than I've ever had before in Evesham it's pretty awesome. Our investigators right now are Mike and Jenna. Mike is very much an analytical investigator and isn't really in it with any real intent. We're thinking about dropping him soon. We'll have two more lessons with him, but if he is still showing zero signs of softening his heart we'll have to drop him. As of right now he's really just in it for the debate rather than for really wanting to find out if it's true. Which, I'll debate all day, but it'll get us nowhere. Jenna, on the other hand is a lot more promising, we are hopefully going by her on Thursday and we're going to clear some things up about the plan of salvation for her. Please pray that we will know what to do about Mike and that we'll be able to help Jenna progress.<blockquote></blockquote>
I'm in the process of sorting through about 35 gigs of talks right now that I got from Elder Allen and deciding which one to put on my ipod haha I'm also converting some bible videos to put on there. I'm really annoyed with boots pharmacy right now. I took my sleep med prescription in there and they still haven't let me know if it's in yet. I went in a couple of days ago and they said they were having issues getting it. it's starting to freak me out that I've probably only got 2 weeks left here in Evesham....Half of me really wants to stay and Half of me is ready to move on. Idk. Whatever happens happens.<blockquote></blockquote>
Love you guys!!!!!<blockquote></blockquote>
Elder SorensenCarriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15614090121031319431noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5715236855609118914.post-11407994410839615922014-09-07T18:34:00.000-07:002014-09-07T18:34:32.232-07:00Personal Growth - It Happens<blockquote><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg56mJHh56HsIO3iPbjNozZUUacyJPvQiCVp45Fh2GzKezP4cEsYzAidxxkVM0XCvmaPyZvBo-MVlDl5qLrh6yJvJ32-gM1JllrDXqoUO0pnid5UDeUR-fietlbtuEqjHtTmb7-PHpVN5uU/s1600/Flowers+for+mom.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg56mJHh56HsIO3iPbjNozZUUacyJPvQiCVp45Fh2GzKezP4cEsYzAidxxkVM0XCvmaPyZvBo-MVlDl5qLrh6yJvJ32-gM1JllrDXqoUO0pnid5UDeUR-fietlbtuEqjHtTmb7-PHpVN5uU/s320/Flowers+for+mom.jpg" /></a></blockquote>August 26 – September 23<blockquote></blockquote>
We’ve been sick for a few days now, all the prayers are welcomed. I've been really bored just sitting around the flat. I really really hate it. There's nothing worse than just sitting around all day. It also felt really wrong not being at church on Sunday. I'm going to be a lot happier when we can get back out of the flat again. Yeah, President Retallick gave me a blessing on Sunday, they also brought us some food and tissues, they are pretty awesome at taking care of us :)<blockquote></blockquote>
We taught Fred on Thursday and had quite an interesting lesson with him. It was really annoying because he just basically kept refusing to feel the spirit. We're trying to decide whether or not to keep teaching him. He basically just see's our visits as philosophical discussions. We'll probably teach him a few more times and see how it goes. It's always difficult to know when to drop someone, especially because we don't have a whole lot else going on. <blockquote></blockquote>
Things with my companion are good!<blockquote></blockquote>
Rumors about me... It's just that I'm nasty in general. That I'm prideful and judgmental and rude and all this. Like I said it's just because the only things people hear about me come from past companions and since I haven't gotten along with them and quite frankly sometimes ended in big fights, they typically don't have anything nice to say about me. I can say though that it has taught me a lot of lessons in the effects spreading rumors and gossiping can have. Not to mention a lot of self-realizations and a lot of things I need to work on. I just wish that my companions would have told me all of these things instead of telling everyone else apart from me.<blockquote></blockquote>
Yeah, I really loving singing and playing and all that jazz. It's really fun, but I get really critical of myself with it. I really want to take voice lessons when I get back. <blockquote></blockquote>
We're feeling back to 100% now! ready to go out and work. Things are good with my companion, he is quite patient so that helps haha. YES I got the shoes and the Cheetos...... please don't ever spend 20 dollars on a bag of Cheetos again... ever. Thank you so much for the packages! you really don't need to buy me things to tell me you love me though. I know you guys do :) <blockquote></blockquote>
I'm enjoying my time here, but I really am looking forward to a change in scenery. I don't have any more pictures right now, but I should have some soon enough. We're having a district Pday today and we're going BOWLING!!! YESSS! I love bowling. That's awesome that you are trying to be healthier. That's one of the big things that I've learned since being here. When you eat healthy and live healthy you have more energy and you're so much happier and confident. This week should be a good one. We've got a lot of stuff scheduled so we should be happy and back on our feet again starting tomorrow! There's not really much to say about last week, we were sick from Saturday 2 weeks ago until Friday last week. We made it out of the flat for a couple things that we needed from the store from time to time, but that was about it. We had a couple of members bring us food, which was really nice. This is definitely a ward that I'm going to want to come back and visit. Last week made me realize just how important studies really are. There were a couple of days when I just slept and sat around the whole day and completely forgot to study. I was feeling completely terrible and didn't have the heart to pick up anything to read, but when I finally did I noticed a HUGE difference in how I was feeling as well as my mindset. I really have grown to love my personal studies. I hope I can continue to study like this at home, but I'm afraid that life will get busy again and it'll move to the background of my priorities. I really don't want that to happen.<blockquote></blockquote>
Well anyways I'm off to go bowling with the district!<blockquote></blockquote>
Love you guys!!!!<blockquote></blockquote>
Elder Sorensen
Carriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15614090121031319431noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5715236855609118914.post-89768185827617950022014-08-17T17:31:00.001-07:002014-08-17T17:31:54.253-07:00Interesting AdventuresAugust 4 – 11<blockquote><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnqyTvTo1Gikz-MB7XYOjPnQvI7rGi-OuEh4gzHIj5NIE-AHSACrKS0IxpUbBTzpiEVcKGUyjwKpfqOrhYS2peW3pECFVtBcpgV_Pr_XUzZodXLoQFCIR73XPPgC_upi4y7RuavWgYaamM/s1600/P8090548.JPG" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnqyTvTo1Gikz-MB7XYOjPnQvI7rGi-OuEh4gzHIj5NIE-AHSACrKS0IxpUbBTzpiEVcKGUyjwKpfqOrhYS2peW3pECFVtBcpgV_Pr_XUzZodXLoQFCIR73XPPgC_upi4y7RuavWgYaamM/s320/P8090548.JPG" /></a></blockquote>
I don't have a whole lot of time today so I'm going to make it short and sweet!<blockquote></blockquote>
This past week was an alright one. A. is still at a Christian camp, so we didn't get to meet with her. We met with N. again and had a pretty good lesson, I think he's more of a long term conversion, but I do see him someday joining the church. You never know though, God is a miraculous person. On Monday last week we went to Cheltenham so that Elder Moore could buy a suit before he goes home and today we're going to go and pick it up from being tailored.(I may get a couple of things while I'm there :) on Tuesday we got new couches for our flat so now we have three couches!! It's pretty legit. We enjoy having space to stretch out now. On Wednesday we went on exchange and taught N, we were supposed to have a bunch of other lessons, but they didn't work out. The exchange ended up lasting until Friday, which I still don't really know why. We had district meeting on Thursday, ate Ben and Jerry's on a hillside overlooking Evesham and we had some MSF left over at the end of the month so we had a really posh meal at a Cantonese restaurant!! I had an amazing coconut curry. Friday and Saturday were pretty boring and yesterday we had a munch and mingle with the ward! It was pretty cool. I love anything with free food. Today as I said we're going to Cheltenham to do some shopping, so I may end up getting a little something ;) Elder Moore is getting presents for his family before he goes home. This week is going to be rough for him, so I've spent a lot of time planning out things that will keep us busy this week. Hopefully we can finish out this week (and his mission) with zero regrets! That's the goal anyway. I'm feeling good today! I got a letter from Shannon which had some of what Elder McClellan had said to her... haha The area he's in right now sounds like pretty much my whole mission. It's just a different way of doing missionary work. You have to figure out what works for each area and learn to adapt. I've learned that if nothing else, If you can leave your area better than you left it (a better organized area book, a big list of potentials to go by, members strengthened, ward relationship strengthened) you can really feel like you've made a difference. <blockquote></blockquote>
I'm not training, but president says he's giving me a companion that will work with me this transfer. I'll find out the info on transfers tonight. I'll send you an email tomorrow to tell you. This last week was pretty hard. Just watching Elder Moore pack and get stuff for his family before he goes home. Watching him prepare to go home is making me think of when I'll be doing it and what it will feel like. And then it makes me realize just how much time I have left. It's having a negative effect on my desire, but I'm sure I'll get pumped again when I get a new companion. I know now that I don't want to be a missionary who dies slowly, I want to work hard to the bitter end and give it all I've got. I got a letter from dad this week! that was nice :) <blockquote></blockquote>
This week, like I said, was a lot of watching Elder Moore pack and get stuff for his family. We did go out when we could to do some finding and try to get some people for me and the next missionary to teach. It's also been nice and sunny this whole week, which means sweaty and gross haha we had a pretty cool adventure going out to try and stop by a guy whose address was '' Old shed in the woods at the end of peewit road''. We didn't find it, but we had a pretty cool adventure which involved strange bones and a horse we named Joseph! I'll put the videos on Dropbox. We've spent pretty much the whole day today just chilling at a member’s house. Not a whole lot else to say! I'll talk to you tomorrow!<blockquote></blockquote>
LOVE YOU TONS!<blockquote></blockquote>
Elder SorensenCarriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15614090121031319431noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5715236855609118914.post-20699868585275325962014-07-31T19:45:00.002-07:002014-07-31T19:45:54.990-07:00Transfers and ChangesJuly 7-28, 2014<blockquote><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjw4kRkqBjR7IZvRNCNrgyl0sWQIo_iY_76Ewmnz-6fHVc4RuubpaHAux7wq2FxqAUFJHJVHrIRoQIl9FowU2M4zMLOUauBDKzlVQXbz63rD3JLOtIcE0Nt_Qkp0m83L70rn6Cx9p8wOOB4/s1600/Glasses.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjw4kRkqBjR7IZvRNCNrgyl0sWQIo_iY_76Ewmnz-6fHVc4RuubpaHAux7wq2FxqAUFJHJVHrIRoQIl9FowU2M4zMLOUauBDKzlVQXbz63rD3JLOtIcE0Nt_Qkp0m83L70rn6Cx9p8wOOB4/s320/Glasses.jpg" /></a></blockquote>
Hard missions like this tend to separate the men from the boys. You either stick it out and work hard, or you give up and die. My companions have been exactly what I needed to grow and to become what I am today, there is no doubt that God knows what he's doing with my companions. I have always learned and grew in exactly the way I needed. It has been hard, but it's equally down to me as it is to my companions. I've learned to understand that I'm half of the problem and every situation can be solved by me acting more Christ like.<blockquote></blockquote>
We had a new investigator this week!! She's a super cool 19 year old university student! We taught her the restoration and are hopefully coming back this week to talk to her about the plan of salvation! We actually found her on the bus on our way to a service project in non-proselyting clothes! haha we have been doing loads and loads of service lately.
I've been having a rough time because of how completely exhausted I've been lately. I'm hopefully going into the doctors soon to get a blood test to check my iron levels. I just feel completely shattered constantly, hopefully I can figure it out. Honestly though, I'm really enjoying my mission right now, one thing I've noticed about when I am helping Elder Moore is that I really do love him. I'm starting to see all of the good things about him instead of focusing on anything negative, and it's honestly the best feeling I've ever felt. It's a really cool step on my way to conversion to the gospel. If I can feel this way about everyone, I would be filled with love continually! I really love this feeling I have, it makes me happy. <blockquote></blockquote>
I'm actually really scared about coming back to the real world. I love the focus I have here and the time I get to spend on heavenly father. I'm scared about what's going to happen when I go back to all of the worldly temptations. I don't want to waste my time like I used to before the mission.<blockquote></blockquote>
I'm super jealous of panda!! all he is going to do is wake up, eat, teach, eat, teach, eat, plan, sleep, repeat.
That's the exact same way I feel about my mission (talking about the joy of service), it just feels so good to help other people! It's even better when you see someone’s life truly change for the better. It's incredible.
This week has been difficult for me. We just found out that Elder Moore's visa is ending early, so he'll have to go home in 2 weeks instead of 8 weeks. So now I'm with him while he does all of his shopping to go home with and getting stuff for his family and preparing to go home and it's making me super trunky!! haha It's really making me think about when I'm going to be in his position and at times making me a little depressed that I still have to wait 8 and a half more months. In a way it seems like such a short amount of time, but at the same time it feels like ages. I really don't want to have to think about it, but it's really hard not to. I'm really hoping and praying that I get the training call next Monday, I really need someone fresh to give me some motivation and push me. <blockquote></blockquote>
We went on two exchanges last week! That was pretty cool. It's funny, Elder Moore is probably my favourite companion and people keeping asking us to go on exchange! haha I'm still feeling really really tired, I think the heat here isn't helping. The weather here is horrible. either it's hot and gross or cold and miserable haha.<blockquote></blockquote>
We got a new investigator this week, his name is N. He's a cool enough guy hopefully it will go somewhere. Our other investigator is going to a Christian camp for two weeks, so Elder Moore probably won't see her again. <blockquote></blockquote>
I think that's about it! I got your guys' packages! Thank you so much! Haha I don't think I have any questions... Thats about it!<blockquote></blockquote>
Love you!!<blockquote></blockquote>
Elder SorensenCarriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15614090121031319431noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5715236855609118914.post-65350625000275575572014-07-13T19:08:00.000-07:002014-07-13T19:08:31.416-07:00<blockquote><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijVdlt6aFgiNmKetz6E-rOsC3NGiARLM8Hlk8MaqQz9ccjr8U0VLVbmXgt_LpovmAO-HGw6ea4HRlvypTD0e-KMu6iDMUmynrXNlYxEkchkKXPO8yCU0gkZQee-3StPHG9S1mpWadKmK3f/s1600/Casey+glasses.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijVdlt6aFgiNmKetz6E-rOsC3NGiARLM8Hlk8MaqQz9ccjr8U0VLVbmXgt_LpovmAO-HGw6ea4HRlvypTD0e-KMu6iDMUmynrXNlYxEkchkKXPO8yCU0gkZQee-3StPHG9S1mpWadKmK3f/s320/Casey+glasses.jpg" /></a></blockquote>June 16, 2014<blockquote></blockquote>
No, I'm actually really enjoying my mission right now. It seems like every day I realize how much I really have to work on and how much improving I really need to do, but I've got a lot of time left for that. I still can't believe that I've nearly been out for 14 months now.<blockquote></blockquote>
Thank you guys so much for everything I got for my birthday. You really made it a special day for me! This week was really uneventful; it was pretty stressful because of the lack of missionary work we were able to do. Our two main investigators have been dropped. One decided he wasn't interested and the other one moved away, so that really sucked. We did a lot of service this week and it's also been really hot this week, so I got REALLY sun burned haha I've got a really funny tan line now. It didn't peel, so it's starting to turn into a tan haha. We've started visiting the Chilean family in our ward and are hoping to make a connection with the Spanish speaking community as Elder Olivos is fluent in it. Hopefully that works out! Other than that it's all been moving in to the new flat! <blockquote></blockquote>
I think that's about it! I love you guys so much!! Have a great week!!<blockquote></blockquote>
Elder Sorensen<blockquote></blockquote>
June 23, 2014<blockquote></blockquote>
I still can't believe all of this is happening, the new baby, everyone from home getting married... life is just happening without me. Coming home is going to feel like I fell asleep and woke up 2 years later. <blockquote></blockquote>
This week has been alright, our finding has been nearly completely ineffective so this coming week we are going to shake things up and see what we can get out of it. We've got such an amazing branch and I really want to see it grow and let the members experience some of the fruits of their labors. As of today we are 100% moved in to the new flat, everything is set up, all of the furniture is assembled and we no longer have to spend any extra time in the flat!!! I'm honestly struggling to think of things to tell you haha this week was really boring, just a lot of finding really. We've been doing a lot of service for members. One of the families we've been helping out a lot is the D. family. Their father was just in a really bad bike accident while on holiday in Spain. He's been in hospital for about 6 weeks now, so it would really help if you could pray for him. I'm really sorry that this letter is so short this week, but there's really not a lot to talk about. Did dad get his father’s day letter? I wrote one for grandpa as well.
Today is district Pday! We’re playing games and stuff in the chapel and just hanging out. I'll try to take more pictures and videos. I honestly think that's about it!! 14 months out in a week! How crazy is that?<blockquote></blockquote>
Love you guys so much!!<blockquote></blockquote>
Elder Sorensen<blockquote></blockquote>
June 30, 2014<blockquote></blockquote>
Well, next harvest I'll be there to help! How is grandpa doing? I want to write him another letter. How is grandma doing? I'll keep Cindi in my prayers, how is she doing? how are the boys? Anything new in their lives? I suppose I should just email them myself.<blockquote></blockquote>
I will take plenty of pictures and videos for you today :) they'll probably go up later though! I'm getting my glasses ordered tomorrow!!! is it weird to be excited for that? It's just so new and different haha I'm excited to see in high definition!! do you think I'm going to look totally different with glasses on? People aren't going to recognize me when I come home haha last week was pretty eventful; the whole week was basically a trial of faith. Finding day after finding day with a few service opportunities mixed in, but then right at the end of the week, we went finding out in a place called Badsey before a dinner appointment and made 4 or 5 appointments for the next week! That's not all that happened.... but the story of this week is one for another time and place. It's really too much for me to write down on paper, so just remind me when I'm back home to tell you the story of week number whatever I'm on. :) Spiritual thought for this week!!!!!<blockquote></blockquote>
I am really loving my studies and lately I've been focusing on the gospel according to mark.
JST mark 4:25 "for he that receiveth, to him shall be given; but he that continueth not to receive, from him shall be taken even that which he hath" It's fairly simple, when we receive things that heavenly father gives us, whether it be callings, challenges, gifts, blessing or otherwise, with a willing heart and an open mind, he can give us more blessings. When we continually choose not to receive the things he gives us, our blessings are going to be taken away. I like to relate this to mission life. Heavenly Father has given us a little white book of revelation on how to be the most effective missionaries we can be. If we don't follow that revelation that he has already given us, how can we expect to receive more revelation? We have to first receive what he has already given by being obedient if we want to receive specific revelation on how to best work in the areas where we are.<blockquote></blockquote>
I love you guys so much!!!<blockquote></blockquote>
Love you!<blockquote></blockquote>
Elder Sorensen
Carriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15614090121031319431noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5715236855609118914.post-16513656328681191522014-06-22T17:13:00.001-07:002014-06-22T17:13:43.531-07:00Another Year Older!<blockquote><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj65StKGlwbDPu7utPLdfTd1i6ld4oWzzPsckJWNQoBcB-70MPsLNLlHI-LUlk0q4cFGoczHvDGL89gGeVu589ytkMwyPn3pBXj8sKEn8bNTKMHqUUOQWyVSRGCDJscqkalxYZSmzNqtGAY/s1600/Casey+Birthday.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj65StKGlwbDPu7utPLdfTd1i6ld4oWzzPsckJWNQoBcB-70MPsLNLlHI-LUlk0q4cFGoczHvDGL89gGeVu589ytkMwyPn3pBXj8sKEn8bNTKMHqUUOQWyVSRGCDJscqkalxYZSmzNqtGAY/s320/Casey+Birthday.jpg" /></a></blockquote>June 9, 2014<blockquote></blockquote>
It’s so weird that life is going on without me back home! Can you believe that I'll be home in 10 months!! This will be my last birthday on my mission. And Christmas will be my last Skype! That’s super crazy. It was a really crap week this week. We didn't have any time to do missionary work. The whole week was spent cleaning and packing for our move. <blockquote></blockquote>President said that our flat had to be in pristine condition when we moved out so that the church could keep the deposit from when they got the flat. So the whole week was spent manicuring and scrubbing the flat down, repairing damages and trying to salvage what was left of it. Then to top it all off I was sick on Saturday and Sunday (Don't worry, I still made it to church and taught priesthood). I got the trousers, but I'm going to have to have them tailored haha they don't fit properly at all. Rob (a member in the branch) says that he knows a lady that will do it for cheap, so hopefully that will work out, I'll let you know! If you could, make people write me some letters! Hopefully we are making the move into the new flat today, but we're not sure. I'll let you know. At latest we'll be there on Wednesday. <blockquote></blockquote>
That's about all I have to talk about! Love you guys!!<blockquote></blockquote>
Elder Sorensen<blockquote></blockquote>
June 16, 2014<blockquote></blockquote>
I'm actually really enjoying my mission right now. It seems like every day I realize how much I really have to work on and how much improving I really need to do, but I've got a lot of time left for that. I still can't believe that I've nearly been out for 14 months now. <blockquote></blockquote>
I've got a letter for dad for father’s day that I'm sending today. I'll write one to grandpa as well. That's so awesome about your studies!! Do you find yourself being more knowledgeable in church? I love my studies.<blockquote></blockquote>
Thank you guys so much for everything I got for my birthday. You really made it a special day for me!<blockquote></blockquote>
This week was really uneventful; it was pretty stressful because of the lack of missionary work we were able to do. Our two main investigators have been dropped. One decided he wasn't interested and the other one moved away, so that really sucked. We did a lot of service this week and it's also been really hot this week, so I got REALLY sun burned haha I've got a really funny tan line now. It didn't peel, so it's starting to turn into a tan haha we've started visiting the Chilean family in our ward and are hoping to make a connection with the Spanish speaking community as Elder Olivos is fluent in it. Hopefully that works out! Other than that it's all been moving in to the new flat!<blockquote></blockquote>
I think that's about it! I love you guys so much!! Have a great week!!<blockquote></blockquote>
Elder Sorensen
Carriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15614090121031319431noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5715236855609118914.post-56370690715376506792014-06-08T21:00:00.000-07:002014-06-08T21:00:09.785-07:00Great Companion!<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjo982TpY1su4j7S85ba4BWv2jpucIcW_UXewEfxVyXL_AXnsXXCI88KOX6BTLrcbSp5rEPCM4BtnPj_JHZkK6OLFewYysu169hBO7rZ1PxxfFypoqEYTwuOE4LSa6GCt-5W91lCCs_xbqb/s1600/P5300377.JPG" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjo982TpY1su4j7S85ba4BWv2jpucIcW_UXewEfxVyXL_AXnsXXCI88KOX6BTLrcbSp5rEPCM4BtnPj_JHZkK6OLFewYysu169hBO7rZ1PxxfFypoqEYTwuOE4LSa6GCt-5W91lCCs_xbqb/s320/P5300377.JPG" /></a>May 20, 2014<blockquote>
</blockquote>
Hey sorry, we didn't have time to email yesterday, I don't have a whole lot more time today either haha I can tell you that Elder Gull has been transferred to Nuneaton and I'm getting Elder Olivos. I'm so excited because I know Elder Olivos and he is such an awesome and humble guy. He’s from Peru, but he grew up in London. I'm stoked. He’s only been out for 5 transfers so I'll be senior companion finally haha <blockquote></blockquote>
I now weigh 195 pounds! It’s really weird this is the first time I've been under 200 in a looong time. I was thinking... I would like to have voice lessons when I get back. I don't know how much it costs though. I think BYU has them where you can take them as a course. It would be cool to do some in the summer that I'm back though.
I really am trying to find time to write everyone, but it is difficult. I’m sure you'll be there for Cindi, I really don't have time to write her right now, but I'll try to next week.<blockquote></blockquote>
This last week went really well. We had an experience while GQing in the park actually. We were talking to everyone and we stopped a guy in a blue jacket who seemed to be having some issues walking normally. After talking to him a bit we realized that he had some speech issues as well, but he seemed receptive enough and we made a return appointment with him. We really didn’t expect much to come of it, but when we met with him we found out that he has dementia and Parkinson’s and his wife is quite interested in the church! So that was pretty cool. We also had someone move into our area who was about to get baptized in Hereford so we should be able to baptize home within a couple of weeks!<blockquote></blockquote>
I don’t have any more time, but I love you guys!!<blockquote></blockquote>
Elder Sorensen<blockquote></blockquote>
May 26, 2014<blockquote></blockquote>
I'm with Elder Olivos now and he is completely awesome. We just clicked as soon as we met each other. I'm having an awesome time with him. I'll send you some videos and stuff tomorrow. The library is closed today because of bank holiday and we won't be able to do it today, but I'll get it done tomorrow.<blockquote></blockquote>
Psalm 46:10 "be still and know that I am god"<blockquote></blockquote>
If you are doing all you can to follow Heavenly Father’s guidance, repenting quickly and trying to follow the commandments to the best of your ability, then there should be no reason for you to stress about anything. God loves you more than you could ever imagine and if you are willing to follow his counsel you cannot fail. God is perfect and all-knowing, he can do anything. He is completely aware of your situation and the stress that you are going through. All you need to do is to remember him and remember that the only thing you can really control is your own actions. God is in control of everything else. When you have those moments of stress or anxiety I want you to say a silent prayer in your head and remember that you are doing your best to follow Him and that he will take care of everything else. Jesus Christ suffered for all of our pains and afflictions, even the one you are going through right now. Because of that, God can lift that burden from your shoulders as long as you put your trust in him and ask him to help you. I am really loving my mission right now! But I really can't wait to get the heck out of the flat that we're in right now. We just started teaching this totally awesome guy called T. He does some close up crazy magic, I'll try to video some next time we teach him.<blockquote></blockquote>
Love you guys so Much!!!<blockquote></blockquote>
Elder Sorensen<blockquote></blockquote>
June 2, 2014<blockquote></blockquote>
This week was pretty awesome! Elder Olivos and I get on really well! I'm really loving my mission right now. It makes it so much easier to go finding when you're doing with someone that you actually like. We've got a few really solid investigators right now and we'll hopefully have one of them on a date the next time we see him. So pray for T. that he will be ready to set a baptismal date next time we go see him. We've had some craziness as well because we are moving over to the new flat on the 6th of June. We’ve got to sort out the old flat, figure out which of the furniture in there is ours and tell the office what we need for the new flat, sort out the meter readings and loads of other annoying stuff. Not to mention the fact that we're going on exchanges tomorrow! haha I want everyone to know that right now, I am the happiest I've ever been in my entire life. I love my mission with all of my heart and the joy I receive for serving Heavenly Father is so much more than I could ever have asked for. I know that god lives and this is his church. We cannot fail unless we fail to act. I love you guys with all my heart!<blockquote></blockquote>
Elder Sorensen
Carriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15614090121031319431noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5715236855609118914.post-36552171370238622032014-05-25T20:16:00.000-07:002014-05-25T20:22:25.410-07:00Missionary Life<blockquote><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgg-YNkJt3ZLOemSOE2mVajYzmDYvYFRNU38bFF4e6bm2VTiqOQMWrQeTgnparf6gkhRb6upc8nmZqsxlqHd7oFxYLWraA5cX3LGdChqckaa4RCIM7MaN98nvzFkip9oflldLfLjDMsorQ-/s1600/DSCN5871%5B1%5D.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgg-YNkJt3ZLOemSOE2mVajYzmDYvYFRNU38bFF4e6bm2VTiqOQMWrQeTgnparf6gkhRb6upc8nmZqsxlqHd7oFxYLWraA5cX3LGdChqckaa4RCIM7MaN98nvzFkip9oflldLfLjDMsorQ-/s320/DSCN5871%5B1%5D.jpg" /></a></div></blockquote>April 28, 2014<blockquote></blockquote>
Yeah I'm in the same stake; I'm actually even in the same district, so I'll be able to go there on exchange. Again I'm sorry I had to use so much lately, we're just having to travel so much and reimbursements are taking ages! Just wait til you get to 3rd at 4th Nephi. Hands down best books in the book (The Book of Mormon). No temple trips and probably not. President tried to get permission for one during Christmas time but the first presidency said no. Harry potter stuff over here is way expensive just like everything else here. And I'm nowhere near the castle, but I'm right next to Gloucester chapel which is where they filmed all of the shots for the great hall! Okay, yeah I'm writing grandma and grandpa today so hopefully I can finish and send that soon.<blockquote></blockquote>
This week was pretty cool, Monday was a bank holiday so the library was closed and we had to go to a member’s house to email. That took up most of our Pday. Nothing super exciting happened until Thursday. We used to have a set of sisters in this ward, but when I moved in they were demolished leaving there area unworked, so we took that over. Their area is a little village called Tewkesbury and so Thursday we went out there and worked the check out of their area book. We got 2 new investigators out of it! That was pretty awesome. And the on the weekend we had stake conference and that's where I saw the Nolan’s. Anyways. Keep reading your scriptures and saying prayers together every night!! I love you guys!! Also, I kind of want to get a guitar for my birthday... think about it?<blockquote></blockquote>
Love you!<blockquote></blockquote>
Elder Sorensen<blockquote></blockquote>
May 5, 2014<blockquote></blockquote>
I know what you mean about reading the scriptures! It is so crazy the difference that it really makes in your life! Don’t worry about me finding a wife mom haha I've got at least another year to think about that. Sorry about the short letters! There’s just not a whole lot to talk about anymore! I'm still on a mission, still just being a missionary! I haven't bought the suit yet, I'll probably get it either next week or the week after... Don't worry about the guitar haha umm I kind of already found one... don't get mad. It was just a good deal so... happy birthday to
me? I know it's pretty crazy that I've been out for a year already. I go home in pretty much 11 months that is weirding me out right now. looks like I've got a few letters that I need to write... story of my life! haha I'm so bad about writing people I feel so bad that I still haven't written grandma and grandpa. Elder Gull is really cool. He's a good guy. Evesham is awesome I really like the branch and the area is nice. I'm feeling pretty good, I haven't got any new pictures this week because I forgot my camera cord, but I should have some next week. I haven't written most people lately, but it's because I haven't got loads of time and it takes ages to write people, I'll try to write them, Andy doesn't email me back so I've stopped emailing him. tell them all hello and I miss them loads!!<blockquote></blockquote>
This week has been pretty good; we've had a lot of appointments and a lot of people flogging as well, so not a lot of actual lessons. We did have a chance to go and teach a couple of people out in Tewksbury, P and J. P went well and he was supposed to be coming to church yesterday, but didn't end up making it. and we actually got to teach J a bit in an old Baptist chapel from the 1500's or1700's or some crap like that. it was way old. She's awesome and genuinely interested. other than that it's been a lot of finding and having fun with elder gull. I'll try to take more pictures and videos for you guys. I've been doing a diet and workout program for a while now and I'm actually starting to get into pretty good shape! 12 months to sexy starts now! haha I need to be ready to find a wife when I get back haha I am really enjoying my mission right now. I hope I get to stay in this area for a while. I love you guys! hope you have an awesome week! so we'll be on at around 6pm my time so 10am your time for skyping! I'll check tomorrow to see if that’s okay with you, if not let me know. If it is, still let me know!<blockquote>
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Love you!<blockquote><blockquote></blockquote></blockquote>
Elder Sorensen
Carriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15614090121031319431noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5715236855609118914.post-55209715266128697672014-04-27T19:04:00.000-07:002014-04-27T19:04:00.365-07:00Brighter Days!April 21, 2014<blockquote><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUEr-MesvOEUrbch-j7RJmxHeAPOlG4stWDsrM2NKWNboKIDZGR8X5eV7MCQbIb2mnFoELWOfOFhK7IeYGm6QW_xlPTdkzmpcgwhI3SBZhtuvVar7Zugm2ldDl6fRmfj0vuZbGiiX2AH4W/s1600/P4140306.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUEr-MesvOEUrbch-j7RJmxHeAPOlG4stWDsrM2NKWNboKIDZGR8X5eV7MCQbIb2mnFoELWOfOFhK7IeYGm6QW_xlPTdkzmpcgwhI3SBZhtuvVar7Zugm2ldDl6fRmfj0vuZbGiiX2AH4W/s320/P4140306.JPG" /></a></div></blockquote>
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. <blockquote></blockquote>
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. <blockquote></blockquote>
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! <blockquote></blockquote>
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.<blockquote></blockquote>
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?? <blockquote></blockquote>
Love you guys so much!!
Elder Sorensen
Carriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15614090121031319431noreply@blogger.com1