Missionary Life

April 28, 2014

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.

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?

Love you!

Elder Sorensen

May 5, 2014

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!!

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!

Love you!

Elder Sorensen

Brighter Days!

April 21, 2014

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

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

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

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

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

Love you guys so much!! Elder Sorensen

Move to Evesham!

April 15, 2014

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

Love you!

Elder Sorensen

April 14, 2014

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

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

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

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

Love you guys!

Elder Sorensen

April 7, 2014

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

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

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

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

Elder Sorensen

Short Note

March 24, 2014

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

Love you guys so much!

Elder Sorensen

Finding, Confirmation, and Milkshakes

March 17, 2014

I've been a little stressed lately because I'm horrible at keeping a journal. Like, I really suck at it. Hopefully Heavenly Father will help me to remember to write down the really important things haha.

We are starting to have a bit more luck with our finding efforts. We’ve got a few people lately who saw the Book of Mormon musical and were interested in learning more because of that. Yes! I confirmed P. on Sunday, apparently I sounded Irish to a couple of people during the confirmation, but that's just because the English get the American and Irish accent mixed up for some reason. haha nothing too exciting yet, but I'm sure it'll happen at some point haha.

let’s see... this last week. we started Tuesday with a cleaning inspection and then had lunch and a lesson with P. then we went up and had a very posh DA with Edwards and they gave us loads of expensive food to take home with us, so that was cool! And then that night we had a workover with some stake leaders and did a LA reach out night. That was pretty fun. Wednesday we had Zone meeting and went on exchange with Elder Jackson. I went with Peek to his area and taught this super solid investigator they have called K. who is absolutely awesome and should be baptized in the next couple of weeks. The rest of the week was just a lot of finding. we are getting a bit more successful with it though. hopefully things will pick up soon. Sunday, of course, we confirmed P. and did some more finding.

Today the other elders are up here with us and we're going to make some milkshakes and do stuff with them, hopefully I can remember to take videos and pictures of that haha. I think that's about it, sorry for the short email, but there's not a whole lot more to say! We still don't have IPads. I'm starting to give up hope on getting them. They said we should have them by January and it's nearly April.... oh well!! Whatever happens happens. Well! I'm freaking hungry.

LOVE YOU GUYS!! :)

Elder Sorensen

Press Forward in Faith

Thanks for your words of encouragement!

With sending me stuff, if you really are adamant on buying me stuff from amazon, I'd like to get some clothes, because that's what I tend to be in need of chino's, nice looking skinny ties, comfy lounging clothes, whatever. Just don't go crazy haha and don't buy super cheap stuff. Super cheap stuff on amazon IS too good to be true, it's always complete crap. Also don't spend loads, it makes me feel bad. also watches, colognes, nice socks, other such things.

I can get peanut butter here for cheap. no no no. I don't want any candy! haha I'm starting my 12 months to sexy soon. I need to get on a diet. Haha I get money from the church for groceries, I get everything I need from them :) I'm seeing alot of the country where I'm serving, the thing about England is that it all looks pretty much the same. Maybe a few more hills in some places than others. You have to understand that the whole United Kingdom is about the size of half of the state of Washington, if that. I suppose that this area is a lot less affluent, Solihull was very posh, and Worcester was kind of in between.

Don't worry about my mental health haha if I were just and average person without the calling that I have right now, I would have probably snapped and done something crazy by now, but I have my calling as a missionary. God is the one who has commanded me to go through the trials that I am right now and he'll keep me sane throughout them. I just have to keep praying and keep doing all I can. I think what I'm the most worried about is what all of this is supposed to be preparing me for haha.

This past week was pretty stressful, but I got through it! haha We had President Teixeira of the Europe area come to the mission and spoke to us at our zone conference. It was really cool. He talked a lot about how, although the church is focusing on member missionary work right now, we still need to be doing our own personal finding efforts as well. He also talked about how patience isn't just waiting for hard trials to pass. It's not just pressing the pause button on life and waiting for difficult things to go away, it's moving forward even though times are hard. It's continuing to grow and do what you need to even though things suck. It really helped me to realize that I've been kind of just pressing the pause button lately and not really pressing forward. That's pretty much the only exciting thing that happened! I've sent you some pictures of the baptism finally. I'll try to remember to take more pictures.

Love you guys!!!

Elder Sorensen

Bringing Others Unto Christ

March 10, 2014

P. is hopefully going to be confirmed this coming Sunday so keep praying. This area is not too different from my other areas other than it has loads of hills. It's pretty hopeless on my single speed racer, but I'll definitely be in better shape when I leave haha.

Haha no I didn't get transferred. I'm staying here with Elder Johnson for another transfer. I went on exchange with Elder Jackson and WE MADE MIRACLES HAPPEN!! We both wanted to work and we both wanted to help people!! That exchange was the happiest part of my mission so far. I JUST WANT TO HELP PEOPLE!!!! I just want to help people come unto Christ. This week was interesting. On Monday we had a district Pday at a big shopping mall in Stourbridge, it was a big high ropes course. I've put the pictures of it up on Dropbox. That night I found out that I'm staying another six weeks with Elder Johnson. I asked my district leader for an exchange the next day. I'm praying for Christ like patience and charity, but more prayers wouldn't hurt. That exchange with Jackson was miraculous; I've never had so much comp unity with any other missionary. We just worked and taught so smoothly together it was incredible, we found 2 people that day that had investigated in the past and now felt that they were ready to hear the message and 3 or 4 other new potential investigators. I saw what could be accomplished if you just have the desire and you care about the people you're talking to. The rest of the week was pretty rough, my level of motivation was next to zero and accordingly we didn’t do much. I really do need your prayers, I'm going through a rough part of my mission right now and I need some help if I'm going to get through it. I'm not overly depressed or anything like that. It's more stress than anything.

Today the Woodsetton A Elders are coming over and we're going to make southern fried chicken in loads of different types of batter and breaded garlic mushrooms and onion rings (Jackson also happens to be a professional chef haha a man of many talents) btw if you happen to find a beautiful girl that would make a good wife for him, he says he is open to referrals. I'll get pictures and videos for you of that.

Love you guys!!

Elder Sorensen