December News

December 8, 2014

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.

Love you guys! Have a good week!

Elder Sorensen

December 15, 2014

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!!

Love you guys!!

Elder Sorensen

December 22, 2014

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!

Elder Sorensen

Counting Down

November 24, 2014

It's good you've found why you're there. It's going to be weird to go home to a different ward though.

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.

I love you guys!!

Talk to you next week.

Elder Sorensen

December 1, 2014

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.

Love you!

Elder Sorensen

November 10, 2014

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.

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!

Love you guys!

Elder Sorensen

November 17, 2014

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.

Love you guys tons!!!

Elder Sorensen

Life in Boston UK

November 3, 2014

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!!

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.

I love you guys!!

Elder Sorensen

Always Growing!

October 20, 2014

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.

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.

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.

I love you guys!!!

Elder Sorensen

Life in Boston

October 7, 2014

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.

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.

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.

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.

I love you guys more than you know

Elder Sorensen

October 14, 2014

It's a big thing over here as well (Meet the Mormons) but President Rasmussen hasn't said anything about it.

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.

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.

I love you guys more than anything!!

Elder Sorensen

Now in Boston!

(Sorry for the rather long post, but I wanted to get caught up)

September 22, 2014

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.

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.

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.

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!!

Love you!

Elder Sorensen

September 28, 2014

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.

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.

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:

Gospel Principles Manual:

"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.)

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.

Love you!

Elder Sorensen