Working in the Lord's Vinyard

September 15, 2014

This week has started off with the best lesson I've ever had on my mission :) It really showed me that perseverance and hard work pays off. There was a woman called Sara who we've been stopping by and trying to set appointments with lately. The first time we stopped by her and her son came to the door and seemed interested, so we explained briefly about the restoration. The son piped up that he believed in Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father. So we gave the mother a restoration leaflet and the son a plan of salvation leaflet and set a time to come back. When we came back the Father (Scott) was the only one home. We chatted to him a bit and he mentioned that he loved Americans because of how happy we were. We eventually came to the subject of the Gospel and he told us about his late father and the confusion that stemmed from that. We taught him of the plan of salvation and set a time to come back. When we came back, no one was home, but we were about 5 minutes early so we decided to wait. When the time we had set up rolled around a car pulled up to the driveway and Sara stepped out. She rushed into her house and we had a brief conversation with her autistic son while we waited. When she came back out she said that she was in a rush and that she had no time to talk, but we set up a time for us to come back. The only time that we both had free was today (Monday) at 10:30 am. We decided that since we didn't have any investigators and since we really wanted to teach this family of four which all sounded like they had been prepared to receive the gospel, that we could sacrifice some Pday time to teach her. We went today to find them home and ready for our lesson! We went into their observatory and started talking a little bit about the family. We came to find out that the oldest son (nearly 17) had had some serious brain surgery when he was a newborn. Their other son (12 years old) was a pretty amazing kid. According to her, this son, Caleb, just simply radiated goodness. He was always looking out for others and could never stand to see others in pain or suffering. He would stand up for other kids at school, despite him not being the most impressive human being, and he would always help those in need. She said that he always seemed to have this feeling about him, whenever he was around she felt good and happy, a sort of warm feeling inside and that whenever he was in the room he seemed to emanate it. She also said he always came to his teachers with deep religious and philosophical questions about life and that he would think about these things a lot. She said that when we came to the door that day and left the materials that we did, they soaked up the information and that it answered a lot of questions and stirred a whole lot more questions within him. When he came to his teachers at school with these questions they had to eventually just say that they didn't have time to answer all of the questions he had and the teachers actually ended up talking to his mom (Sara) about it. We told her that we would love to come back when Caleb could be there and we could answer all of his questions. She committed to come to church with Caleb, to read and pray about the Book of Mormon and to a return appointment. The Spirit was present for the whole lesson and I can't wait to come back next Monday (again the only day she's free). I know that this family has been prepared to receive the gospel and I can't wait to teach Caleb as well.

ummm that's about the most exciting thing that happened. It's been cool to see this area pick up as I've worked in it. sadly I think I'll be leaving next week, but It's been cool to see it transform into a productive area. I think that's everything!! I love you guys tons and I'll let you know where I go when I find out next week!

Love

Elder Sorensen

Obedience

September 8, 2014

Yesss!! Well hopefully the next time you finish the BOM I can be there for it. It would be cool to have scripture study over Skype when I go back to university.

YUP! haha I'm no longer afraid to bare my testimony, I do it every day to people who don't want to hear it, so doing it in sacrament meeting is a breeze.

The shoes fit perfectly and they're awesome!! Thank you so much! I was actually thinking about getting some new shoes, but now there's no need! We are in a branch, but President Retallick is a counsellor in the stake presidency.

This past week was pretty awesome. I had a bit of revelation about obedience. I've never been seriously disobedient and I've never done anything too crazy, but I've also never been one to be completely stressed over the rules either. If it came to it I would usually let a lot of things slide. I think a lot of that attitude has come from having so many companions who are so disobedient, but I can't use that as an excuse. I've always had my free agency and every mistake I've made has been of my own free will and choice. This past week though I was listening to a talk ( actually an audio book I think) by John Bytheway while riding the bus out to an area. The talk was called "how to be an extra-ordinary missionary". Something he said about obedience really struck me deep in my soul. He said ordinary missionaries obey because they ought to and extra ordinary missionaries obey because they want to. I realized that all of my obedience in the past had been out of duty and a lot of the time almost grudgingly. Needless to say I did a lot of thinking and reflecting on how I had been acting and treating my calling. I offered a prayer of repentance and I felt amazing. I felt so happy and light and just incredible! And the feeling has stayed since! It is so amazing how a simple change in perspective on things has changed my entire outlook on the mission rules and it has truly affected me in such a positive way. It shows as well in how Heavenly Father is blessing us with more lessons and appointments now than I've ever had before in Evesham it's pretty awesome. Our investigators right now are Mike and Jenna. Mike is very much an analytical investigator and isn't really in it with any real intent. We're thinking about dropping him soon. We'll have two more lessons with him, but if he is still showing zero signs of softening his heart we'll have to drop him. As of right now he's really just in it for the debate rather than for really wanting to find out if it's true. Which, I'll debate all day, but it'll get us nowhere. Jenna, on the other hand is a lot more promising, we are hopefully going by her on Thursday and we're going to clear some things up about the plan of salvation for her. Please pray that we will know what to do about Mike and that we'll be able to help Jenna progress.

I'm in the process of sorting through about 35 gigs of talks right now that I got from Elder Allen and deciding which one to put on my ipod haha I'm also converting some bible videos to put on there. I'm really annoyed with boots pharmacy right now. I took my sleep med prescription in there and they still haven't let me know if it's in yet. I went in a couple of days ago and they said they were having issues getting it. it's starting to freak me out that I've probably only got 2 weeks left here in Evesham....Half of me really wants to stay and Half of me is ready to move on. Idk. Whatever happens happens.

Love you guys!!!!!

Elder Sorensen

Personal Growth - It Happens

August 26 – September 23

We’ve been sick for a few days now, all the prayers are welcomed. I've been really bored just sitting around the flat. I really really hate it. There's nothing worse than just sitting around all day. It also felt really wrong not being at church on Sunday. I'm going to be a lot happier when we can get back out of the flat again. Yeah, President Retallick gave me a blessing on Sunday, they also brought us some food and tissues, they are pretty awesome at taking care of us :)

We taught Fred on Thursday and had quite an interesting lesson with him. It was really annoying because he just basically kept refusing to feel the spirit. We're trying to decide whether or not to keep teaching him. He basically just see's our visits as philosophical discussions. We'll probably teach him a few more times and see how it goes. It's always difficult to know when to drop someone, especially because we don't have a whole lot else going on.

Things with my companion are good!

Rumors about me... It's just that I'm nasty in general. That I'm prideful and judgmental and rude and all this. Like I said it's just because the only things people hear about me come from past companions and since I haven't gotten along with them and quite frankly sometimes ended in big fights, they typically don't have anything nice to say about me. I can say though that it has taught me a lot of lessons in the effects spreading rumors and gossiping can have. Not to mention a lot of self-realizations and a lot of things I need to work on. I just wish that my companions would have told me all of these things instead of telling everyone else apart from me.

Yeah, I really loving singing and playing and all that jazz. It's really fun, but I get really critical of myself with it. I really want to take voice lessons when I get back.

We're feeling back to 100% now! ready to go out and work. Things are good with my companion, he is quite patient so that helps haha. YES I got the shoes and the Cheetos...... please don't ever spend 20 dollars on a bag of Cheetos again... ever. Thank you so much for the packages! you really don't need to buy me things to tell me you love me though. I know you guys do :)

I'm enjoying my time here, but I really am looking forward to a change in scenery. I don't have any more pictures right now, but I should have some soon enough. We're having a district Pday today and we're going BOWLING!!! YESSS! I love bowling. That's awesome that you are trying to be healthier. That's one of the big things that I've learned since being here. When you eat healthy and live healthy you have more energy and you're so much happier and confident. This week should be a good one. We've got a lot of stuff scheduled so we should be happy and back on our feet again starting tomorrow! There's not really much to say about last week, we were sick from Saturday 2 weeks ago until Friday last week. We made it out of the flat for a couple things that we needed from the store from time to time, but that was about it. We had a couple of members bring us food, which was really nice. This is definitely a ward that I'm going to want to come back and visit. Last week made me realize just how important studies really are. There were a couple of days when I just slept and sat around the whole day and completely forgot to study. I was feeling completely terrible and didn't have the heart to pick up anything to read, but when I finally did I noticed a HUGE difference in how I was feeling as well as my mindset. I really have grown to love my personal studies. I hope I can continue to study like this at home, but I'm afraid that life will get busy again and it'll move to the background of my priorities. I really don't want that to happen.

Well anyways I'm off to go bowling with the district!

Love you guys!!!!

Elder Sorensen

Interesting Adventures

August 4 – 11

I don't have a whole lot of time today so I'm going to make it short and sweet!

This past week was an alright one. A. is still at a Christian camp, so we didn't get to meet with her. We met with N. again and had a pretty good lesson, I think he's more of a long term conversion, but I do see him someday joining the church. You never know though, God is a miraculous person. On Monday last week we went to Cheltenham so that Elder Moore could buy a suit before he goes home and today we're going to go and pick it up from being tailored.(I may get a couple of things while I'm there :) on Tuesday we got new couches for our flat so now we have three couches!! It's pretty legit. We enjoy having space to stretch out now. On Wednesday we went on exchange and taught N, we were supposed to have a bunch of other lessons, but they didn't work out. The exchange ended up lasting until Friday, which I still don't really know why. We had district meeting on Thursday, ate Ben and Jerry's on a hillside overlooking Evesham and we had some MSF left over at the end of the month so we had a really posh meal at a Cantonese restaurant!! I had an amazing coconut curry. Friday and Saturday were pretty boring and yesterday we had a munch and mingle with the ward! It was pretty cool. I love anything with free food. Today as I said we're going to Cheltenham to do some shopping, so I may end up getting a little something ;) Elder Moore is getting presents for his family before he goes home. This week is going to be rough for him, so I've spent a lot of time planning out things that will keep us busy this week. Hopefully we can finish out this week (and his mission) with zero regrets! That's the goal anyway. I'm feeling good today! I got a letter from Shannon which had some of what Elder McClellan had said to her... haha The area he's in right now sounds like pretty much my whole mission. It's just a different way of doing missionary work. You have to figure out what works for each area and learn to adapt. I've learned that if nothing else, If you can leave your area better than you left it (a better organized area book, a big list of potentials to go by, members strengthened, ward relationship strengthened) you can really feel like you've made a difference.

I'm not training, but president says he's giving me a companion that will work with me this transfer. I'll find out the info on transfers tonight. I'll send you an email tomorrow to tell you. This last week was pretty hard. Just watching Elder Moore pack and get stuff for his family before he goes home. Watching him prepare to go home is making me think of when I'll be doing it and what it will feel like. And then it makes me realize just how much time I have left. It's having a negative effect on my desire, but I'm sure I'll get pumped again when I get a new companion. I know now that I don't want to be a missionary who dies slowly, I want to work hard to the bitter end and give it all I've got. I got a letter from dad this week! that was nice :)

This week, like I said, was a lot of watching Elder Moore pack and get stuff for his family. We did go out when we could to do some finding and try to get some people for me and the next missionary to teach. It's also been nice and sunny this whole week, which means sweaty and gross haha we had a pretty cool adventure going out to try and stop by a guy whose address was '' Old shed in the woods at the end of peewit road''. We didn't find it, but we had a pretty cool adventure which involved strange bones and a horse we named Joseph! I'll put the videos on Dropbox. We've spent pretty much the whole day today just chilling at a member’s house. Not a whole lot else to say! I'll talk to you tomorrow!

LOVE YOU TONS!

Elder Sorensen

Transfers and Changes

July 7-28, 2014

Hard missions like this tend to separate the men from the boys. You either stick it out and work hard, or you give up and die. My companions have been exactly what I needed to grow and to become what I am today, there is no doubt that God knows what he's doing with my companions. I have always learned and grew in exactly the way I needed. It has been hard, but it's equally down to me as it is to my companions. I've learned to understand that I'm half of the problem and every situation can be solved by me acting more Christ like.

We had a new investigator this week!! She's a super cool 19 year old university student! We taught her the restoration and are hopefully coming back this week to talk to her about the plan of salvation! We actually found her on the bus on our way to a service project in non-proselyting clothes! haha we have been doing loads and loads of service lately. I've been having a rough time because of how completely exhausted I've been lately. I'm hopefully going into the doctors soon to get a blood test to check my iron levels. I just feel completely shattered constantly, hopefully I can figure it out. Honestly though, I'm really enjoying my mission right now, one thing I've noticed about when I am helping Elder Moore is that I really do love him. I'm starting to see all of the good things about him instead of focusing on anything negative, and it's honestly the best feeling I've ever felt. It's a really cool step on my way to conversion to the gospel. If I can feel this way about everyone, I would be filled with love continually! I really love this feeling I have, it makes me happy.

I'm actually really scared about coming back to the real world. I love the focus I have here and the time I get to spend on heavenly father. I'm scared about what's going to happen when I go back to all of the worldly temptations. I don't want to waste my time like I used to before the mission.

I'm super jealous of panda!! all he is going to do is wake up, eat, teach, eat, teach, eat, plan, sleep, repeat. That's the exact same way I feel about my mission (talking about the joy of service), it just feels so good to help other people! It's even better when you see someone’s life truly change for the better. It's incredible. This week has been difficult for me. We just found out that Elder Moore's visa is ending early, so he'll have to go home in 2 weeks instead of 8 weeks. So now I'm with him while he does all of his shopping to go home with and getting stuff for his family and preparing to go home and it's making me super trunky!! haha It's really making me think about when I'm going to be in his position and at times making me a little depressed that I still have to wait 8 and a half more months. In a way it seems like such a short amount of time, but at the same time it feels like ages. I really don't want to have to think about it, but it's really hard not to. I'm really hoping and praying that I get the training call next Monday, I really need someone fresh to give me some motivation and push me.

We went on two exchanges last week! That was pretty cool. It's funny, Elder Moore is probably my favourite companion and people keeping asking us to go on exchange! haha I'm still feeling really really tired, I think the heat here isn't helping. The weather here is horrible. either it's hot and gross or cold and miserable haha.

We got a new investigator this week, his name is N. He's a cool enough guy hopefully it will go somewhere. Our other investigator is going to a Christian camp for two weeks, so Elder Moore probably won't see her again.

I think that's about it! I got your guys' packages! Thank you so much! Haha I don't think I have any questions... Thats about it!

Love you!!

Elder Sorensen

June 16, 2014

No, I'm actually really enjoying my mission right now. It seems like every day I realize how much I really have to work on and how much improving I really need to do, but I've got a lot of time left for that. I still can't believe that I've nearly been out for 14 months now.

Thank you guys so much for everything I got for my birthday. You really made it a special day for me! This week was really uneventful; it was pretty stressful because of the lack of missionary work we were able to do. Our two main investigators have been dropped. One decided he wasn't interested and the other one moved away, so that really sucked. We did a lot of service this week and it's also been really hot this week, so I got REALLY sun burned haha I've got a really funny tan line now. It didn't peel, so it's starting to turn into a tan haha. We've started visiting the Chilean family in our ward and are hoping to make a connection with the Spanish speaking community as Elder Olivos is fluent in it. Hopefully that works out! Other than that it's all been moving in to the new flat!

I think that's about it! I love you guys so much!! Have a great week!!

Elder Sorensen

June 23, 2014

I still can't believe all of this is happening, the new baby, everyone from home getting married... life is just happening without me. Coming home is going to feel like I fell asleep and woke up 2 years later.

This week has been alright, our finding has been nearly completely ineffective so this coming week we are going to shake things up and see what we can get out of it. We've got such an amazing branch and I really want to see it grow and let the members experience some of the fruits of their labors. As of today we are 100% moved in to the new flat, everything is set up, all of the furniture is assembled and we no longer have to spend any extra time in the flat!!! I'm honestly struggling to think of things to tell you haha this week was really boring, just a lot of finding really. We've been doing a lot of service for members. One of the families we've been helping out a lot is the D. family. Their father was just in a really bad bike accident while on holiday in Spain. He's been in hospital for about 6 weeks now, so it would really help if you could pray for him. I'm really sorry that this letter is so short this week, but there's really not a lot to talk about. Did dad get his father’s day letter? I wrote one for grandpa as well. Today is district Pday! We’re playing games and stuff in the chapel and just hanging out. I'll try to take more pictures and videos. I honestly think that's about it!! 14 months out in a week! How crazy is that?

Love you guys so much!!

Elder Sorensen

June 30, 2014

Well, next harvest I'll be there to help! How is grandpa doing? I want to write him another letter. How is grandma doing? I'll keep Cindi in my prayers, how is she doing? how are the boys? Anything new in their lives? I suppose I should just email them myself.

I will take plenty of pictures and videos for you today :) they'll probably go up later though! I'm getting my glasses ordered tomorrow!!! is it weird to be excited for that? It's just so new and different haha I'm excited to see in high definition!! do you think I'm going to look totally different with glasses on? People aren't going to recognize me when I come home haha last week was pretty eventful; the whole week was basically a trial of faith. Finding day after finding day with a few service opportunities mixed in, but then right at the end of the week, we went finding out in a place called Badsey before a dinner appointment and made 4 or 5 appointments for the next week! That's not all that happened.... but the story of this week is one for another time and place. It's really too much for me to write down on paper, so just remind me when I'm back home to tell you the story of week number whatever I'm on. :) Spiritual thought for this week!!!!!

I am really loving my studies and lately I've been focusing on the gospel according to mark. JST mark 4:25 "for he that receiveth, to him shall be given; but he that continueth not to receive, from him shall be taken even that which he hath" It's fairly simple, when we receive things that heavenly father gives us, whether it be callings, challenges, gifts, blessing or otherwise, with a willing heart and an open mind, he can give us more blessings. When we continually choose not to receive the things he gives us, our blessings are going to be taken away. I like to relate this to mission life. Heavenly Father has given us a little white book of revelation on how to be the most effective missionaries we can be. If we don't follow that revelation that he has already given us, how can we expect to receive more revelation? We have to first receive what he has already given by being obedient if we want to receive specific revelation on how to best work in the areas where we are.

I love you guys so much!!!

Love you!

Elder Sorensen

Another Year Older!

June 9, 2014

It’s so weird that life is going on without me back home! Can you believe that I'll be home in 10 months!! This will be my last birthday on my mission. And Christmas will be my last Skype! That’s super crazy. It was a really crap week this week. We didn't have any time to do missionary work. The whole week was spent cleaning and packing for our move.

President said that our flat had to be in pristine condition when we moved out so that the church could keep the deposit from when they got the flat. So the whole week was spent manicuring and scrubbing the flat down, repairing damages and trying to salvage what was left of it. Then to top it all off I was sick on Saturday and Sunday (Don't worry, I still made it to church and taught priesthood). I got the trousers, but I'm going to have to have them tailored haha they don't fit properly at all. Rob (a member in the branch) says that he knows a lady that will do it for cheap, so hopefully that will work out, I'll let you know! If you could, make people write me some letters! Hopefully we are making the move into the new flat today, but we're not sure. I'll let you know. At latest we'll be there on Wednesday.

That's about all I have to talk about! Love you guys!!

Elder Sorensen

June 16, 2014

I'm actually really enjoying my mission right now. It seems like every day I realize how much I really have to work on and how much improving I really need to do, but I've got a lot of time left for that. I still can't believe that I've nearly been out for 14 months now.

I've got a letter for dad for father’s day that I'm sending today. I'll write one to grandpa as well. That's so awesome about your studies!! Do you find yourself being more knowledgeable in church? I love my studies.

Thank you guys so much for everything I got for my birthday. You really made it a special day for me!

This week was really uneventful; it was pretty stressful because of the lack of missionary work we were able to do. Our two main investigators have been dropped. One decided he wasn't interested and the other one moved away, so that really sucked. We did a lot of service this week and it's also been really hot this week, so I got REALLY sun burned haha I've got a really funny tan line now. It didn't peel, so it's starting to turn into a tan haha we've started visiting the Chilean family in our ward and are hoping to make a connection with the Spanish speaking community as Elder Olivos is fluent in it. Hopefully that works out! Other than that it's all been moving in to the new flat!

I think that's about it! I love you guys so much!! Have a great week!!

Elder Sorensen