Interesting People

February 17, 2014

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Elder Sorensen

A Week in the LIfe of a Missionary

February 10, 2014

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

Love you guys!

Elder Sorensen

New Area

February 3, 2014

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

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

Love you guys so much!

Elder Sorensen

Woodsetton

January 27, 2013

Casey and his last companion

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

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

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

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

Love you guys so much!

Elder Sorensen

Interesting Exchanges and Interviews

January 20, 2013

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

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

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

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