Life's Challenges

January 27, 2015

Heavenly Father does things in our lives to help us learn and to become better people. Sometimes we have to be brought to a really low place to realize things about ourselves that we wouldn't have otherwise. You can't let other people control who you are. True happiness comes from becoming who we really are instead of what we think everyone else would like us to be. And who we really are is what Heavenly Father sees in us, our true selves and our true potential.

"However late you think you are, however many chances you think you have missed, however many mistakes you feel you have made or talents you think you don’t have, or distance from home and family and God you feel you have traveled, I testify that you have *not* traveled beyond the reach of divine love. It is not possible for you to sink lower than the infinite light of Christ’s Atonement shines." Jeffrey R Holland

I wish I could be there to help. By the time I get home the worst of it will be over. When I get back Andy and I can work on ways to make some money, I know that I need to make ALOT of money this summer if I want my plans to work out.

Well on my end, my week was pretty boring and normal. On Monday we had district Pday, we went bowling in Lincoln which was actually really fun and then we came back and had a meal with a member. On Tuesday we did my last service day in Sally's garden (her family is taking us out for a meal today to say goodbye) then we had a dinner appointment, PEC as YM's president and Young men's. On Wednesday we went out teaching less actives with a member of the bishopric, worked on our English program and did finding. Thursday was district meeting and an exchange with the district leader. That was quite good. I always like exchanges because it makes the day go so much faster haha Friday we exchanged back, had weekly planning and cleaned for our cleaning inspection and went to the ward activity. It was really cool it was all about the universe and different planets and stuff, I loved it. Saturday we did service for a member who just moved into the ward and laid down/cut to size some carpet for her. Had the daily dose class (no one showed up) had our bible study class and YSA. It was a triumphant last Sunday though! We had one investigator and 2 les actives show up to church, it was awesome! Then we had to go to bishops house so Elder Limb could call home because his grandpa died. Today we will find out the transfer information and we'll see where I'm going for my last 2.5 months!!

I'll let you guys know tomorrow what happens. Send my love to grandma and Grandpa. 10 weeks left!

Love you all

Elder Sorensen

Carrying On

January 05, 2015

I'm doing fine, just trying to do everything I can for the next 3 weeks before I leave for my last area. Haha it sounds like a lot less when you say 15 weeks instead of 107 days. I can't believe it’s going that fast. It feels like I have a lot longer than that. I believe that as long as you do all you can to see the good in others and do everything you can to focus on that instead of the bad qualities, you'll see your image of them change a lot. I had a big lesson in that this past week.

This week was pretty cool; it was one of my best weeks for numbers on my mission so far! On Monday we had a Less Active lesson. On Tuesday we went out to Skegness and spent the day going by everyone we could find that lived out there. It's a 40 minute train ride so when you go you kind of have to make the most of it. Kind of like Entiat for our missionaries I'm sure. We found a few people had moved, but we did get in and get to teach someone eventually. Every once in a while, Elder Limb and I go through all of the potentials and formers and call everyone to see if we can set up an appointment. Well this week we actually had someone call back! His name is John and he is originally from Nigeria, but he is working as a general practitioner while he's in England. We had an awesome first lesson with him, but unfortunately he'll be moving to Nottingham soon, so we'll hand him over to them. On Wednesday, Elder Limb and I had a bonfire out the back of our house to celebrate the New Year and then we spent the beginning of Thursday doing weekly planning. We had lunch with a member and dinner with another member. It was pretty fun. On Friday we had district meeting, a dinner appointment and Mary’s, an appointment with Autumn (we taught the plan of salvation and she's doing really well.) and then we were invited to the YSA activity. It was a pretty awesome day. Saturday we taught Sean the word of wisdom, which he is already keeping for the most part! Just tea is his problem. We finished the day contacting a couple of referrals. Sunday was very normal finding. That was about it! Hope you guys have an awesome week!

I love you!! Tell grandma and grandpa I love them!

Elder Sorensen

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