Elder Sorensen's new address

Here is Elder Sorensen's current address:
Elder Sorensen
6210 Belcrest Rd.
apt# 1310
Hyattsville, MD
20782

Email from June 30th

So, some people might wonder "What happens when I get off the plane
for the Washington, D.C. North Mission?"  I'll tell you,  you get
handed a Book of Mormon and thrown on the metro with a task to give it
to someone you don't even know!  Yikers!!! I didn't give mine away,
but I did talk to some people!  Then we went to the mission presidents
house, and ate dinner, and slept and ate breakfast and then went to
the temple visitors center!  That's where we got our trainers!  My
companions name is Elder Rummler, he is from Washington state, and we
get along super well!!  We like tons of the same stuff so we have
plenty to talk about!  He hasn't seen Frozen, so I always sing the
music from it to confuse him!  It's awesome!  I don't think I could
ask for a better trainer!!  So far I've been to a lesson with a girl
who has a baptismal date, and a lesson with a recent convert!  Plus
some trying to find people whose addresses don't exist, aren't home,
or are just straight up ghosts.  Haha, were over a singles ward so
it's a little because it's summertime and for some reason people do
stuff then.. Weird huh?  So there has been a little time for tracting
and I've gotta say, even when people slam the door in my face I really
can't help but love everyone out here!!  It's awesome how I've been
blessed to love the people in this area! Except this one guy... He
bugs me.  His name is Keante, and he is an antichrist.  He really just
wants to destroy the church..  He was Edler Rummlers last area, he
pretty much just goes around harassing church members with stupid
questions.  For example, yesterday after church he came into the
chapel and a lady from our ward said he was asking questions so she
came and got us because she thought he was interested in the church.
As soon as he saw Elder Rummler he was like "oh, go get someone else,
I've already talked to you" which pretty much means Elder Rummler
dominated his questions.  Anyway, the ward mission leader ended up
talking to him with a couple of us right there, and even though Jason
(the ward mission leader) was answering all his dumb questions well
all Keante wanted to was bash, so Jason just said listen I appreciate
our time, but you don't want to understand you just want to argue so
we left and he swore at us in the chapel as we left, and one of the
ward members heard him and went over and got really mad at him, and I
don't know the full story but she ended up getting really upset, and
the police were called and they finally got Keante out of the
building.  He used to be a member.. I wonder what happened.. It kind
reminds me of the story of Korihor.. Anyway, besides that little
encounter I LOVE IT OUT HERE!!!!  I'll email again on Friday because
we get an all day Pday because why not on the 4th of July in the
Capitol!!!

I love you all!!!
Elder Sorensen

Email from June 23rd

Dear Friends and Family!

HOLY CRUD!!!! My week here has flown by!!  I am amazed and how fast hours and hours a day of class time can seem!!  It feels like I was emailing you all yesterday!  This week has been so good!  I feel way more prepared to go into the field!  Which happens tomorrow.  At what time?  Oh yeah, I have to be at the MTC travel office at 4:30 in the morning... GROSS!  9/10 do not want!  I think I mentioned Christian in my last email..  Anyway, We had our last lesson with him on Friday!  We had way better lessons after the one on Monday..  We were really connecting with him on a personal level, and he told us that he really liked us!  Elder Summit and I took the approach that all we really needed to do for him was get him to pray that Heavenly Father loved him, because if that were true then all the teachings of the church were true!  And he already knew everything about our church, so it was simple!  In theory... He had studied the Gospel all academically.  Not Individually.  He didn't want to learn it to receive it, just learn it to learn it.  We were so excited at the end of our second lesson with him!  He said to us, "I know that if I pray I will get an answer, I just don't think I'm at that point yet."  So we totally focused our last lesson on helping him understand the importance of the Gospel for him in his life.  We didn't get him to pray, but he did end our last visit with a quote from Pilate, "You almost convinced me to be a Christian"  So we were close!!  Haha, it was awesome!

This weekend is the new mission presidents seminar so the administrative building is basically on lockdown because of the number of apostles that have been here... In fact, yesterday, all 15 of them were here!!! In the flesh!  I didn't see them...  But President Nally told us so.  Elder M. Russel Ballard spoke to us on Tuesday!  It was awesome!  He told the story about Joseph F. Smith when he said True blue through and through dyed in the wool!  It was the coolest thing!  Having an apostle come speak to us!  Janice Kapp Perry spoke to us yesterday!  Also, her husband walked up and kissed her in the middle of her talk!!  WHAT?!?!  It was so funny! 

What's going on in Orem?!  I haven't heard from all my friends! :(  Send me things!  Even short emails will suffice, because I'll get my Ipad this week, and then I'll be able to read them when I get them!  I won't be allowed to respond for a week, but I'll get them. I miss you all! 

I can't wait to get out there!  I'll let you all know how it is next week!  Wish me luck! 

Love,
Elder Sorensen

First email!

This has been a CRAZY week!!!  Holy cow!  Lets do a quick recap!

I got here and Elder Hamula took me through about 50 lines where people handed me stuff that I had no idea what it was for.  We went by my room and we dropped off my stuff, then we went to my classroom where I met my district.  My companion is Elder Summit.  He is 6'6" so the name is fitting, and I feel like a dwarf.  I'm the shortest one in my district.  Elder Summit is from Wellsville which is by Logan Utah.  The other Elders in my district are Elder Billeter and Elder Hill, Elder Harrison and Elder Crandall, and Elder Herring and Elder Hamblin.  I had a class with Elder Harrison my junior year!  He's kinda weird... but he's a cool guy.  Elder Herring is 6'8", and has a football scholarship for BYU when he gets back from his mission.  He's HUGE!!!!! He is what real life Bane would look like.  I saw Elder Cottle and Elder Shurtleff and Sister Olsen (all high school friends) at dinner!  Then we had a meeting called People and purpose, where we were in a room with a group of Elders and Sisters and an investigator, and we tried to teach them... all at the same time... ask me how that went.  Not great, but hey, it was our first day.  We were going on a tour of the MTC with our zone leaders, and then I saw Elder Longhurst!!!!  I gave him a huge hug, and talked with him for a second.  It was great getting to see him this week, and eat meals with him, but he shipped out at 3:30 Monday morning!!  We finished our tour, then went to the residency hall, then went to sleep!  it was a pretty crazy first day! 

WHOOPS!  Here's the rest of my week,

The second day here was possibly the longest day of my life.  There was sooooooo much classroom time that I may have drifted off a few times... haha, anyway, We woke up at 5:45 to make sure we got shower time, then figured that noone was awake, so we woke up at 6:15 for rest of the week.  We met our other teacher Brother Vogt (vote), and our other teachers Brother Gruninger, and Sister Gibson we met on Monday.  They're so nice, and really good at teaching us how to be missionaries!!!  Never underestimate the power of role-play.  I've hear that so many times!!  We started role play teaching Brother Gruninger who is pretending to be a Nonmember named Bobby.  We started off doing really well!  It was exciting getting to start teaching for real (kind of).  Elder Summit and I were called as zone leaders for the MTC!! Yeah!! 

Friday the 13th in the MTC!!! Yikes!  Just kidding, nothing scary happened.  I got two packages that day!  So much food!!  Ah!  They feed us all we can eat here, plus the food from home!  My gosh, it's crazy!  I have probably gained sooo much weight!  Just kidding, I'm still tiny.  The days here are getting shorter, There's a saying, the days feel like weeks, and the weeks feel like days.  It's so true!  time flies here!  I love it here, and our district is like best friends now!!  We all love each other, and our whole zone!  I'm really sad that the other half of our zone had to ship out on Monday too!!  They were super funny! 

Okay, I think Saturday was the most meaningful and spiritual day of the week.  I had had some feelings of homesickness, and worried that I wasn't cut out to be a missionary and wasn't good enough, and when I felt that Thursday, I got called as Zone leader, and I felt okay, then on Friday, I saw Kolton as soon as I got worried, then Saturday...  I was really frustrated with the way my lesson with Bobby went the night before, and really felt like I wasn't doing a good job, and that I wasn't going to be able to convert a real investigator if I couldn't even convince my teacher who was pretending, and as soon as I was ready to just explode Brother Vogt asked if he could talk to Elder Summit and I, then when we got to a different room he asked if he could just talk to me, and I was able to express all my concerns, and feelings with him, and he made me feel so much better about myself as a missionary and his spirit just helped me know that Heavenly Father is looking out for me, and knows that I'll be a good missionary!  I can't believe how in tune with the spirit he was to come and talk to me then!  I LOVE IT HERE!!! The spirit here is unreal.  We taught an awesome lesson to Bobby that day, and got him to Pray, and go to church!  I felt so reassured as a missionary and that I'm doing the right thing!

We met our Branch President on Sunday!  He is awesome, and so caring!  It was our last day with the other half of our zone, so it was kinda bittersweet.  Especially the temple walk with them!  Elder Summit and I got a list of the two new districts our zone is getting on wednesday, and there are people going to California, New Hampshire, and England!!  holy crud!  So many cool places!  MTC choir makes me sad....  The arrangement for this week is really unintuitive, and not written too well... but oh well...  I SAW DURTSCHI!!  He was playing the organ at devotional so I got to sit next to him during the talk, so that was super great!!! 

Monday was kinda crazy....  Yikes.  The morning teaching was awesome!  I love lessons with Brother Vogt!  He is so nice to everyone!  Our lesson with Bobby went great that day!  We talked a lot about his questions with church and left him with a Plan of Salvation pamphlet!  It was really good!  Lots of packages again!  The main part of Monday though was we started TRC teaching..  TRC is where we teach real investigators who work here at the MTC!  We taught Christian.  He has a really bad stutter, is a professional photographer, and has studied lots of religions.  He likes the theology of our church except that we think of Heavenly Father as loving... It was hard to hear that he doesn't understand Gods love for us...  There were a few other comments throughout the lesson that just really frustrated me, and made it hard for me to know where to go with our lesson...  Elder Summit or I would say something, and he would come back with something that just... I don't know... Didn't help.  I left the lesson really frustrated, and not knowing where to go for our next lesson...  Then Elder Summit and I were talking, and he was so positive about our experience!!!  Urgh!  We had a long talk with Brother Barton (our evening teacher) who watched our lesson on the camera, and he said we did a really really good job, and explained that Christian doesn't give out compliments often, and he means them when he does, so the fact that he ended the lesson telling us he appreciates our personality and honesty was a really big deal.  I got a lot better outlook on our lesson after about an hour discussion with them....  We talked about how to make our next lesson more gospel focused, and helpful for Christian.  I found out that I get really frustrated when people won't take my point of view when I know that I'm right... bleh.  I'm glad to have Elder Summit here, he is basically opposite me, so we work really well together.  We see things really differently and that makes us a great dynamic duo.  I love it! 

I won't get another P-day for two weeks.... I got basically the worst P-day/flight schedule ever.. We leave here at 4:35 AM Tuesday next week, then our flight leaves at about 9:40 I think, so leave the phone lines open Dad!  There's no SD card slot here, so I'll have to send pictures later!  I love getting notes and letters, so feel free to keep those coming!  :D

I LOVE YOU!!!!!!

-Elder Sorensen

He's Off!

Bennie is officially a missionary!! 

He entered the MTC this afternoon and we can't believe it!

We are looking forward to hearing about all of his great adventures. 

We know he will be an amazing missionary!