I've got a lot of gloating to do in the mission since most of them were rooting against the Seahawks haha. The new area is nice. Last week was pretty good. Let’s see Tuesday, not much happened, we just had mutual with the young men (learning football skills). On Wednesday we taught our golden investigator P. He's awesome. He is engaged to a girl from Utah who he met over the internet and that's how he was introduced to the church. Later that day, we had a referral from the sisters flog us and hasn't returned any of our calls. Thursday we had district meeting and a DA with the Jones'. They are an awesome family. Friday was mostly spent tracting and weekly planning. Saturday was a really disappointing day; all we did was wait for busses and get flogged all day. LAME. Sunday was pretty average. Yup. Boring week haha. I did learn something cool though. I've been reading in the Old Testament and I've just finished the book of Deuteronomy. In the last chapter Joshua says that Moses was killed by the lord and buried in a place that they know not, but the book of Mormon tells us that Moses was actually translated. The Israelites just saw Moses go up into the mountain after he had told them that god wasn't going to let him go into the Promised Land, so they thought the lord killed him and buried him. The reason this was important is because Moses needed his body to give the priesthood to peter James and John and since he had to do it before Christ was going to overcome death and unlock the resurrection; Moses had to keep his body intact and thus was translated. Pretty cool hey? Love you guys so much! Elder Sorensen
England Birmingham Mission 2013-2015
Sunday, February 9, 2014
New Area
February 3, 2014
Sunday, February 2, 2014
Woodsetton
January 27, 2013
Casey and his last companionThis past week was mostly just saying goodbye to awesome members in Solihull and packing! I got pictures with a couple of families, the Burtons and the Skidmores. You might have to edit the pictures a bit in Photoshop, they came out really bright. And I got one with the young men and a small part of the Arnold family. I was really torn about leaving Solihull, I was glad to go because the work moved slower than molasses on a cold December night, but I was sad to leave because the people there were amazing. I completely loved them. We're going to have to go back and visit them, even though there isn't much to do in Solihull besides shop and look at really huge posh houses haha. So far Woodsetton seems like a good place to work. The people I've talked to so far seem to be willing enough, I think with a lot of hard work we could definitely see baptisms here. Elder Johnson and I have set a goal of three baptisms, so we're going to do everything we can to reach that goal. If you can put videos on the blog, you should put the one of me showing you around the flat on there. I've been quite sick for the past few days, but I think I'm getting over it. Hopefully soon I will be back at 100%.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/1ansepvd2xopspu/P1250220.MOVSpiritual thought today: I was reading in 2 Nephi Chapter 2 where Lehi is talking to his son Jacob about opposition in all things. The bit where he is talking about Adam and eve in the Garden of Eden particularly struck me this time. I realized that If Adam and Eve had never known evil and had not fallen, live would have been completely pointless for them. They never would have learned or grown at all. They would never have had hunger, thirst, cuts, bruises, pain, or sorrow. They would never have been too hot or too cold, they would have no reason to learn. They would have no purpose to accomplish anything because they were in a state of complete perfection, everything they ever needed or wanted was right in front of them. I suppose this is the state of innocence that Lehi talks about later. I just thought that was interesting. Love you guys so much! Elder Sorensen
Sunday, January 26, 2014
Interesting Exchanges and Interviews
January 20, 2013
He [Jesus Christ] is our Elder Brother and was honored by the Father with the fullness of authority and power as a member of the grand Presidency, of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost
.11
Our scriptures teach that Jesus Christ is both the Father and the Son. The simple truth is that he is the Son of God by birth, both in the spirit and in the flesh. He is the Father because of the work that he has performed.12
The Savior becomes our Father, in the sense in which this term is used in the scriptures, because he offers us life, eternal life, through the atonement which he made for us. In the wonderful instruction given by King Benjamin we find this: “And now, because of the covenant which ye have made ye shall be called the children of Christ, his sons, and his daughters; for behold, this day he hath spiritually begotten you; for ye say that your hearts are changed through faith on his name; therefore, ye are born of him and have become his sons and his daughters.” [Mosiah 5:7; see also verses 8–11 http://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/mosiah/5.8-11?lang=eng#7.]
So, we become the children, sons and daughters of Jesus Christ, through our covenants of obedience to him. Because of his divine authority and sacrifice on the cross, we become spiritually begotten sons and daughters, and he is our Father.13
“We become the children, sons and daughters of Jesus Christ, through our covenants of obedience to him.” Like the Nephites in King Benjamin’s day, we Latter-day Saints have likewise taken upon ourselves the name of Christ [see Mosiah 5:1–9
; 6:1–2 ]. Each week at the sacrament service, as we are commanded to do, we take upon us his name always to remember him and that is what the Nephites covenanted to do.
The way that I understand it is that he is our father in the sense that he plays a fatherhood role in caring for us and in what he did for us, but he is our elder brother.
Interviews, companion exchange, the only really interesting things that happened last week were interviews and our exchange with the district leader. We had interviews with president on Thursday. It went pretty well, we just chatted at first and talked about how things are going. He told me that Elder Hyde and I won't be serving together next transfer. So one of us is definitely leaving, we'll know tonight who it is, I'll let you know as soon as I can. We also talked a little bit about one my friends in the mission who is having troubles right now, I asked if I could serve with him and president hinted that I could. He also hinted that I will be training next transfer, so fingers crossed!
Our companion exchange was the next day (Friday) and lasted until Saturday. It was interesting because I went with Elder Ruka who barely knows English and has only been in the mission for about a week. He's from Kiribas (over by Fiji. I don't know the Sheldon area at all, so we spent most of it wandering around wondering where the heck we were haha. I did end up getting one of his friend's email though, she looks really pretty in the pictures he has so fingers crossed that she emails back! Haha
Love you guys so much!
Elder Sorensen
It is so surreal that it is coming that quickly. already nearly a year out, I talked to president in interviews last week and he said that Elder Hyde and I won't be together next transfer(this Wednesday) but we don't find out who goes where until tonight, so I'll let you know. This is Casey’s response to my question about Christ being considered our father: This is what the priesthood manual for this year has to say on the subject: Our Father in heaven is the Father of Jesus Christ, both in the spirit and in the flesh. Our Savior is the Firstborn in the spirit, the Only Begotten in the flesh. 10
Sunday, January 19, 2014
The Life of a Missionary
January 13, 2014
The more times he (Kelly, his dad) gives blessings the more faith he will have in them and the more comfortable he will be with them. Dad has always been an example to me and has always been someone that I wanted to emulate. Progression is the entire purpose of this life and this earth, and I don't see anyone in my life that has progressed as much as dad has and as you have as well mom. I love you guys. Cool, well this past week went really well actually, I'm a little pressed for time and I think it would be better to keep this a little more brief anyway. We’ve started working with quite a few less actives. The main ones are A and J who have no sort of relation to each other than they live fairly near each other. We’re back down to zero investigators, but I'm sure it will pick up soon. We just had a recent convert from Harbourne move in last week so we're working on giving him the after baptism lessons and keeping him active. We just helped him move to a new place in Solihull and we're trying to get him integrated into the ward. He has the most insane life story ever. He actually lived in Spokane for about 10 years which is really crazy. Other than that it's pretty much been life as usual. Tracting and street contacting. It’s nice to be teaching people again though I must admit. I don't think I have any question for you guys, but I'm looking forward to hearing how your scripture study went in your email next week! I love you guys so much! Elder Sorensen
Sunday, January 12, 2014
New Companions
December 2, 2013 Thanksgiving was awesome! I've got a bunch of videos and a few pictures from it that I'll put up. Be sure to thank the Heath's, Burton's, Cook's, and Ferguson's for it. They are completely awesome families. Elder Nelson is from St. George Utah. We've haven't made our singing video yet, it's on hold until we can sit down and actually do it. (Casey wouldn’t let me put the video up on his blog. I had it up on Facebook for a short time, but he asked me to take it down. I don’t know why because he did an awesome job!) Got my camera and the beautiful sweater! HAHAHA I couldn't stop laughing when I opened it up. Love you guys so much. I wore it to district meeting that day. I got the Berty Botts beans as well, although you shouldn't spend so much on such a tiny thing of jelly beans! [When working with others] It is the spirit that does the converting. It's always the spirit. That's why you shouldn't be afraid to talk to your friends about the church! You don't have to convince them that it's true. All you have to do is create an environment where the spirit can convince them that it's true, and the only thing you need to do for that is to love them enough to want them to be happy. You absolutely HAVE to do it out of love. If it's only out of obligation to do missionary work, then it's going to be ineffective. It's only through love that people are converted. Monday was your average P-day, just chillin, emailing, and messin about with the A-team at the chapel, and a dinner appointment/FHE with the Skidmores, a really awesome family. We had a great time putting up their Christmas tree with them and got to share something small for FHE. Tuesday we had two lessons, one with D. and one with F. They went pretty well. We've committed F. to read and pray every day for a week straight and next time we see him we're hoping to put him on a date. Wednesday we just had district meeting and a dinner appointment. I wore the sweater you sent me to district meeting. It really is amazing. It made everyone so happy! Loads of people were smiling at me! One lady was so happy, she started laughing! That sweater really brought a lot of joy to people's hearts. Thursday was Thanksgiving! I already told you about that in the other email. Completely awesome. Friday was just pretty much a lot of finding, nothing exciting. Oh, but we did end up re-splitting our area with the A-team so that the active parts of the ward boundary are split evenly. Saturday we had a lesson with L. and a lesson with D. They are both progressing nicely, but since we changed the boundaries, we won't have them anymore. Sunday was Sunday, not much to say. I bought a onesie today though! So that's awesome! I'll post pictures online later. Love you guys so much! Always remember read, pray, go to church, do your home teaching, be a good member! These things are what keep us strong, when our faith fails us as long as we keep doing the basics, we can continue to feel the spirit and gain a renewed testimony. Have a Good week! Elder Sorensen
December 9, 2013 Got your package and the one with the Cadbury stockings, I won’t open any more until Christmas from here on out. Transfers are on Wednesday and tonight is when we find out if anyone is moving, so I'll email you and let you know when I know. nah, I'm not too homesick, I mean I miss people from home, but it's not too bad there's plenty of things to keep my mind off of it all. Especially when I get packages, packages are homesickness' best medicine. I'll put up some pictures and stuff tonight. This week’s been pretty boring all together. Monday we had a dinner appointment with the Skidmores, and that was super fun! We really enjoyed ourselves. We have them again tonight with all four missionaries so it should be even better this time! on Tuesday Elder Nelson was having chest pains so we had to call sister Rasmussen and then the area medical advisor and get things figured out for that, that was pretty much the only exciting thing that day. Wednesday was really boring just a whole lot of tracing and street contacting. Thursday we went out to Knowle and did some work with less actives and our AUF lists. I like Knowle, it's quite a nice area and there are some cool families out there. I've said it before, but I really want to visit Solihull when we come back, it's a really awesome place with a lot of great people. On Friday we spiked our investigator's lawn. His name's F. And it's actually quite a big step for him because he never used to let us do anything for him, so it shows that he's trusting us more. Then we had to clean for our cleaning inspection which we aced! 100% clean! Which really isn't hard because our flat is brand new, but we're still proud! Saturday we went over to F's again and had another lesson with him, we're slowly resolving his concerns about tithing and we put him on a baptismal date for January 4th, so pray for him! He needs all the help he can get! After that we went to Harborne so that Elder Nelson could practice the piece he's singing for the Christmas conference. We forgot to tell the zone leaders that we were leaving our area though, so now they won't let us leave and they're making the other people come here to practice. Fine by me! That’s 3 hours I don't have to bus around! That night we ate with the Burtons, another AWESOME family. They have three adorable little girls who are absolutely hilarious. Marie Burton does Pilates classes, so after dinner they showed us some moves and it's actually really intense stuff! Sunday was just your average Sunday! I hope you guys have an awesome week! Love you! Elder Sorensen
December 10, 2013 I just got the news that I'll be staying in Solihull for Christmas! It’s a huge relief and I'm really glad because the people here are really amazing. I'll be getting a new companion on Wednesday by the name of Elder Hyde. From what I hear he's an awesome guy so it should be fun! I’m a little sad to see Elder Nelson go so soon, but oh well! You can go ahead and send whatever you want to the flat. Next transfers will be January 22nd so make sure everyone knows that if you’re going to send letters or anything and you’re going to send it to the flat, try to have them get here by the 21st. Love you guys Elder Sorensen December 16, 2013 This last week was pretty good. Monday was pretty average, nothing too exciting and Tuesday was pretty much just spent packing for elder nelson and practicing for Elder Nelson for the Christmas conference. And then Wednesday was spent at transfers getting Elder Hyde and then unpacking Elder Hyde. On Thursday we pretty much just did weekly planning and had a DA. On Friday we had the mission-wide Christmas conference that was really fun. We got to see all of our friends in the mission so that was cool. I've invited Elder Dryden, and English missionary and probably my best friend in the mission; to come to our place in the summer of 2015, so that should be fun! I got a couple pictures with him I'll label them. Saturday I was pretty sick and couldn't sleep because I ran out of sleep meds. I'm hoping to get that sorted out today. Sunday was church and the Skidmores had a small Christmas party with a bunch of nonmember friends. That went really well actually and was pretty fun! We will hopefully be teaching someone we met there soon, so I consider it a success. That’s pretty much it! Pretty boring week. I sent of my package to you guys and it's expected to arrive sometime in January, but it's kind of sporadic so keep an eye out for it. I think that's about it! Love you guys! Have a good week!!! Love Elder Sorensen December 30, 2013 This week has been a rough one, I've been sick for a lot of it and I am doing everything I can right now to stay sane ha-ha. I am enjoying my time here though. The people in this ward are amazing so it's not unbearable. I've been inside for most of the past week and not a lot has happened since I talked to you on Skype, I've got some pictures up now though, so you should be able to entertain yourself for a while with those. Wish I had more to talk about haha I'll keep checking for your email later. Love you guys! Elder Sorensen
Sunday, December 15, 2013
November in the Field
November 11, 2013 This week was kind of crazy. we had a whole bunch of lessons with people, which is awesome, but having an emergency transfer Thursday morning made things kind of hectic, Elder H had to pack up to leave and Elder Nelson had to unpack when he got here. Elder Nelson is completely awesome. We hit it off right from the start and I really hope that we get to stay companions next transfer. We've decided that we're gonna get hunched together in the next two transfers, so we're on a diet and we've made a workout program. WE also made some pretty dodgey home workout equipment I'll put pictures and videos of it up on dropbox when I get the chance. We've got workouts written for the next few weeks, so hopefully I can continue that for the rest of my mission and come back absolutely jacked. On the spiritual side of things, you can look at dad's email for a more detailed version, but I think that Heavenly Father has been trying to teach me charity and love with these hard companions. It's okay though, Elder Nelson is really cool and this transfer should be awesome! It's strange, I think in the past two months I've been at both my highest and lowest levels of happiness. Hopefully I can keep it in the positive and not dip back to the negative again haha. Words from the letter to his dad: It's been really amazing to see how the gospel can change people's lives. Just in the time I've been here I've seen it give people a brighter happiness than they've ever had, heal families, and even pull people from the depths of misery. I'm starting to think that the Lord is trying to teach me that (learning to love anyone regardless of who they are and how they are). I think it might be working because I absolutely love Elder Nelson. He's a really awesome guy and we get on great! I think I did the most growing out of any of my companions yet with Elder H. Something I learned about prayer recently has helped me immensely.
The bible dictionary says:As soon as we learn the true relationship in which we stand toward God (namely, God is our Father, and we are His children), then at once prayer becomes natural and instinctive on our part Many of the so-called difficulties about prayer arise from forgetting this relationship. Prayer is the act by which the will of the Father and the will of the child are brought into correspondence with each other. The object of prayer is not to change the will of God but to secure for ourselves and for others blessings that God is already willing to grant but that are made conditional on our sking for them. Every time I was either depressed, annoyed, or ready to tear his head off, I hit my knees and had a conversation with Heavenly Father. As I did this, and truly tried to set my will in line with his, I felt the most intense feeling of pure love that I have ever felt. I forgot my anger toward Elder H, I forgot how annoyed or depressed I was and I just felt the pure love of Christ within me. I know that that is the love I need to have toward others and I am always striving to achieve that. That's partly why this last transfer was so stressful haha I was jumping from complete misery to complete happiness all over the place, and I just couldn't handle it. I'm with Elder Nelson now though and really enjoying my time. I'm hoping in the future I will be better at loving unconditionally because of the time I spent with Elder H.
November 18, 2013 Last week was pretty exciting Monday was your average P-Day just emails shopping around and messing about. Tuesday, we worked on re-splitting the area because we seem to have all of the active parts of the area and Elder Stubbs and Lowry have the more dead part. We worked on a list of AUF's that the church posted to us, and then in the evening we went to mutual with the youth. For mutual we did something called the bleep test
On Wednesday at 1:00PM Elder Nelson and I were caught out in a hailstorm while we were doing a lady's garden. It was pretty terrible, but we made do. I guess that's your motherly instincts kicking in haha. (side note from Casey’s mom: I had emailed him because I had woke up with an awful feeling about Casey. So I asked him what had happened at that time.)I'm good, Emotionally happy. Spiritually hungry. Physically tired. Always tired. The boots are awesome. they keep my feet dry and they're super easy to get on and off. No snow yet, just humidly bitingly cold. But apparently we're supposed to get like 100 days of snow or something. That would be crazy. Alright, well Monday we spent most of the day waiting to email and then made a trip to the mission office to get a polish Book of Mormon for one of our members and delivered it to him. Apparently the guy he gave it to wasn't interested, but the guy's daughter is now reading it, so that's cool! Probably won't come to anything for us because the guy lives more in the Harbourne area, but still good! This ward is actually really good about doing member missionary work. Tuesday morning we had an unexpected lesson with our investigator David. He rang us up at 1015 and asked us if we were still planning on coming at 1030, so we hustled over. haha Then we had a lesson with Donald and went to a carvery meal with him after. I love carvery meals, I can't wait to you guys come back with me and we go to eat at one. Wednesday we started the day off doing service for an old lady near one of our investigator's house. We were doing her front garden and ended up getting the crap beat out of us by hail. Then our investigator cooked us a full English breakfast, another thing you guys need to have. I'll cook one for you when I get back. Grilled tomatoes, mushrooms, bacon, eggs, fried bread, beans, sausages, and toast. Delicious. Thursday was pretty much just double decker busses, trains, and zone meeting. It was a good zone meeting though, a bunch of people gave their departing testimonies and it was really uplifting. I wonder what my departing testimony is going to be like. I can't wait to give my homecoming talk. Chelan ward and our new ward aren't going to know what hit them! That night we ate at the Corbishleys and they thought that it was Thanksgiving, so they made us a roast dinner. They wouldn't listen to us when we told them it was next week. Actually next week the Heaths, Cook's, Burton's and one other family are putting on a full thanksgiving feast for us and they've asked us to sing the American national anthem for it haha we're going to have a turkey bowl and everything! That should be exciting. Friday we had a lesson with Ehsan and Behnoosh, that went really well. We did half sign language and half gospel. They've committed to read the Book of Mormon. Saturday we had 3 flogged appointments and one flogged DA. That was about how the whole day went. Sunday was good, we ate with the cooks and Burton's after church and they are AWESOME families. Then we went and visited with the Robinson's, and they've been doing really well with missionary work. Another really awesome family. I definitely want to come back and visit Solihull. Loads of really cool people here That was about it this week. I'll work on putting some more pictures up. It would be good if you could make a decision on that camera ASAP so that I can have a camera to take pictures with again. Love you guys! Don't ever stop reading, praying and attending church! It invites the spirit and reaffirms you testimony each time you do. Keep progressing! Never be comfortable with your level of righteousness and always strive to be better. Love you tons! Elder Sorensen
Casey being Casey
Sunday, November 3, 2013
Life in Solihull England
September 30, 2013
This week has been way cool! Most of it was spent cleaning the flat and buying things we still need, but we managed to get 4 new investigators! We were cycling home for dinner one day and I saw three young girls in a window waving to us. So, of course, we stopped and talked to them. One of them was about 16, another was 25, and the other was around 40. The 25 year old had two kids and we ended up teaching her the next day. We're hoping to teach the other two soon. We took our stake 2nd counselor to the lesson with the 25 year old and he dropped us off at the flat after. We weren't in the flat for more than about 5 minutes when our doorbell rang. President Wilkinson was standing there with a man that he had just seen on the street and shared a message with. We taught him and his wife and wife's cousin on Friday and we'll be seeing them again this coming Friday! I've just heard word from my last district leader that whoever took my place in Worcester has been wasting out and had no lessons last week. I need to give them a ring and let them know that I'm not pleased. Mandy was very close to baptism and I don't want them to ruin it for her.
October 7, 2013
Everything has been good here. Had a bit of a quarrel with my companion last week, but we got over it and all is well again in the world. We had our second lesson with our Iranian neighbors and it went swimmingly! The only problem is that the wife is nearly deaf and doesn't speak very good English, so I don't know how much of the lesson she is understanding. The husband is loving it though, we've been able to answer a lot of the questions of the soul that he has had for a long time. The coolest part is that, because I served in Worcester with deaf members, I know British Sign Language and can teach her! We'll be going over tonight to teach her the alphabet and a few other simple words. I'm a little nervous, but it's obvious that heavenly father has led them here and us to them. Apparently they've only been in the country for a little while and they've only been Christian for a year, so they are still searching for the right church. Just goes to show that the lord isn't always super subtle with how he works.
October 14, 2013
I'm feeling good! This past week was pretty terrible, we didn't really get a chance to do missionary work, every day was spent either sick or in meetings. I'm really hoping this week will go better as far as missionary work.
October 21, 2013
This week has been really good actually, one of the missionaries from the Solihull ward just got back, so that made me super trunky. He's just been called as ward mission leader so that should be good. We're trying to do a lot of work with members lately. It's just not effective to do street contacting and tracting. I'm sure the missionaries in Washington can relate to that. It's really important for members to refer people to the missionaries. Not just giving them an address and telling them to chap by. We might as well be tracting that person. Members need to invite their friends to learn more. Just share a simple truth (how the church was restored, a 1 minute version of the plan of salvation, anything) and invite them to learn more, either coming to church or to an activity, something! I'd like you to look up pg.158 and study "teach when you find, find when you teach" and "short powerful statements". If you don't have preach my gospel, get one. It gives you the tools you need to share the gospel! Other than that it's been a pretty average week. We had 4 lessons.
October 28, 2013
What I wouldn't give for someone who would just accept the gospel without having to be beat across the face with the spirit! I'm honestly just really interested about it. (Casey is talking about his dad’s conversion story.) I never really paid attention to what was going on when dad was investigating, I was just messing about while the missionaries were over haha Just write what happened. I don't think dad realizes how amazing his conversion was, nor how many people it affected. Solihull is awesome; I hope I get to spend Christmas here. That's crazy you got to see Elder Ballard! Listen to his advice!!! This week has pretty much just been sitting around the flat because Elder Hoffmann has been poorly. Not much to report on, but loads to ask! Sorry this email is so short, the library was apparently on fire earlier so we're only just now able to get in and email. We have a DA at six so we have to rush! Love you tons!
Elder Sorensen
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)