Email from July 28th

Week 7: Praying for New Investigators

Okay, so, Tuesday we asked one of our investigators to get baptized and he accepted!!

Yeah! His baptismal date is set for August 31st! Hopefully he can
things work out and he will get baptized!! We had a good lesson this week with C--. She has been
hesitant to commit to baptism due to differences in religion with her family. Hopefully she can
have the courage this week to tell them and they will be accepting of her decision. We would love
to see her get baptized soon.

We finally caught up with V-- again. He is super hard to get in contact with, so we finally just
stopped by his house Friday and he was there! Yes!!! We have another lesson with him on
Wednesday, but he didn't make it to church on Sunday. So hopefully we
can get him to come next week!

Then, that same day we met K---. Somehow in this crazy world we live in we ran into
him. Ready? Cause this is an awesome story. So, we were taking the metro up to check on
a couple people, but we missed our connection to the red line, and so
we had to go a couple more stops till the green line connected with
the red line again. We were frustrated at how much time it was
taking, even though it was good that we talked to people (that's why
we missed our stop) so, finally we got up to Glenmont. We walked not
even a block away from the metro station and stopped and talked to
this guy. We asked if he knew anyone who would be interested in
learning about Jesus Christ. He said "I would. You don't even know
how much of an answer to my prayer you are. Right before I left my
apartment I was praying for God to send me someone to teach me about
Jesus Christ! I just moved from Africa and I don't have a church, but
I prayed to God to send me someone my age, and relatable to teach me
about Jesus Christ." If we had gotten off at the right stop, we would
have missed him. If we had left 5 minutes sooner, we would have
missed him. Heavenly Father knows where he wants you, and when. So
be there. And don't be afraid to open your mouth. We will be meeting
with K-- on Tuesday, so I'll let you all now how goes!

Then Sunday rolled around and something else awesome happened! Before I
got here Elder Rummler and his old companion had taught a lesson to an
investigator named J--. He really loved the lesson, but he was
super hard to get in contact with, and lived far away. Eventually he
said he was going to start going to a different ward closer to where
he lived, so we were sad about that. Then this Sunday, Bishop
came to us right before sacrament meeting and said, “Hey there's
someone here to see you.” In walks J--! He told us he's been reading
the Book of Mormon a lot and wants to take the steps to get baptized!!
He's going to stay in our ward, and we get to teach him and hopefully
baptize him! All week we've been praying for new investigators and a
baptism. We have done our best to follow all of the rules and be
obedient, and we have seen so many blessings for it. Heavenly Father
does answer your prayers.

I love you all!  Have a great week!
Love,
Elder Sorensen

Boy Will Be Boys

Enjoy this 6 minute video of Bennie suffering through eating an extremely hot pepper!

Email from July 21st

Week 6: I Feel Like I’m in a Jungle

Guess what! I can still go to the Nats (Nationals) game!!

Tell my friends to look for me on August 2nd on the Nats game! Plus,
Sister Alisa Bench and Sister Hailey Harris should both be there
because their missions are going too!! Crazy huh?!?

So, I'm glad we have bunnies because out here there are wild
bunnies that just run around everywhere!! So I'll get home, let them
out on the back lawn and feel like I'm out here again! Haha, just
kidding they might not make it until the time I get home. Did Karoline
ever name hers? I'm glad jobs are getting done around the house!

 It'd better not be too different when I get back... Send me pictures of
all the completed projects. (editors note: we are redoing bathrooms
and laundry room)

So, I don't know if I've mentioned this, but sometimes I feel like I'm
actually in the jungle. Not Maryland. Tropical storms that last five
minutes. Trees. Everywhere. I'm not kidding. I thought there were
lots of trees where we lived. I was very wrong. It's crazy different
out here. I'm not used to it yet and I've been here for a month now.
I figured out that I'll have 17 transfers out here. And the first one
ends August 6th. So then I'll be 1/17th done! Yay! Did you get my
order of food I want at the airport? Haha, just kidding. We can go
somewhere nice when that time comes.

So, recap of my week: Did I mention Fr---- last week? If not here is
a recap really quick: he was out on his porch while we were tracting
one night, and he said he'd be interested. So we told him there were
elders who teach with families that we could send over, but he said
he wanted us to come. So, we ended up going on an exchange
where I went with the elder who was actually in his area, and Elder
Rummler went tracting more in the area with his companion. We
taught Fr---- the plan of salvation and I got to use that kit Sister
Richards and Trevor gave me! Woot! Anyway, the lesson went really
well, and he said he wanted to believe even though it was hard right
then. And now, he's in the very competent hands of Elder Collins and
Elder Humphrey.

I'll find out how he's doing soon. But, cute thing, during the lesson he
had ordered pizza for his kids so it came in the middle and he had his
kids come out of the rooms they were playing in and come eat, and
his little boy who was probably 5 ran out the door and immediately
gave me a big hug! I couldn't help but think about my baby brother
and how much I miss him. I LOVE YOU NICK!!

A lot of what we've been doing in our ward is visiting less active
members and trying to help them understand the importance
of coming back to church and we have to teach some of them
the missionary lessons all over again, so they might as well be
investigators... Haha, oh well. It's super fun to get to know all the
people in our ward, active or not, they're all so
so nice to us and I love hanging out with them! Which is a good think
because this week at some conference President Cooke said he
wants us to start teaching the active members the missionary lessons
too and get them started on their own missionary efforts, which is
great because my first week here we implemented our ward mission
plan! Woot! Plus our bishop rocks and gave us groceries plentiful
enough to help us through the zombie apocalypse so, I don't need to
worry about grocery shopping today. I like being in the singles ward
because we get to do lots of activities with them. One really fun one
is basketball. In general I hate basketball, but it turns out that
sometimes I can drain from half court with ease so people want me to
play, so it's fun to be part of the team sometimes. We have a funny
apartment. Elder Gold tried to gargle peanut butter and we got Elder
Rummler to eat half a raw onion. They're some crazy guys!

We had an awesome lesson with C---- this week! To be honest,
she's super ready. She just needs to get baptized. Which she
will. Eventually. That night we taught C--- we were at the institute
building and President Cooke and the AP's stopped by and looked
around the building and then left. It was weird. We think he's
scheming a mission activity at the institute building.

So, I finally met our investigator K----. She is a mystique and believes
in several different religions. It's weird. But she totally loves all the
stuff we've taught her, so if she didn't believe all her other religions,
she'd be way too down to get baptized. So... That's a thing. Oh
well. We’ll get there eventually.

Time for a Tender Mercy experience:
We were tracting Saturday night after a day of having appointments
cancelled right and left, and were super drained. We knocked on a
door and a white girl I. Here twenties came and immediately said they
weren't interested so we wished them a good night and walked on to
the next house. Then, on our way back to our apartment she stuck
her head out the door and asked if we wanted some water or snacks
or anything. I almost cried. A lot of the time people out here forget
were real people too. When you don't know someone it's easy to
think of them that way, and treat them poorly. This was the first time
tracting that I'd actually felt like a real person that someone cared to
make sure we were okay. So, this week were gonna leave a thank
you note with our number in case she changes her mind.

Hope everything is good for all you back at home! Stay classy Utah.

Love,

Elder Sorensen

Elder Sorensen LOVES getting letters! Bonus, he will actually write you back! 

Email July 14th

Week 5 - One Month Down

I sent a letter home this week reflecting on my month mark, you should
get it soon. So, we bike aaa llllooottt now, and we work out arms and
chest every morning, so pretty much I'm gonna be freaking swoll when I
get home. It'll be great. One time while we were biking a red Toyota
Tundra pulled up to the corner, and I thought: DADDY!! But no...It
was kinda sad, but I'll get to see you guys soon enough! :)

We got two new investigators this week. S-- is one of them. He was being
taught before but wasn't keeping commitments so the old elders stopped
teaching him, but he texted the phone and said he missed us. So we are
teaching him again; let's hope he realized the spirit was missing and wants
it back!!

Before I talk about our other new investigator I want to
talk about a really cool experience I had this week. We were heading
home on Tuesday night when we got a call to go give a blessing to one of Elder
Rummler’s old investigators who got baptized. It was
actually for their mom who wasn't a member. Their father had just
passed away (her husband), and it was really sudden and she asked for
a blessing. Elder Rummler did it in Portuguese because they're
Hispanic. Then as we were leaving we asked if there was anything else
we could do, and K---, one of the daughters asked for a blessing, and
she asked me to give it. I was totally not prepared for that!!! But,
I just let the spirit guide me, and afterward I felt so good! I
felt... Almost bigger than I was before... It was so cool. I have no
idea what I said, but I think it helped.

A few more things before we talk about V-----. We tracked into a family that
speaks only Portuguese! So elder Rummler finally got to use his Portuguese!
Yay for visa waiters!

I gave a talk on Sunday, and everybody complimented
me on it! The bishop even said: "I can see why the prophet changed
the age of missionaries to 18 just because of that talk." So I guess
I did a good job!! It was on the first vision, so it's pretty much my
favorite topic!!

Okay, now, V----. We got V---- as a referral
from the sisters in our district, and we called him a few times and
never heard from him, then finally we went and visited him, he
couldn't meet then but we set up a return appointment. We ended up
having to cancel because of dinner I think, I don't remember.

Anyway, we'd been trying to call him again and again to reschedule,
and still, no answer, so we went over Friday to his apartment, and set
up an appointment for Saturday. We taught him the restoration and
this week’s training thing was that the trainee was supposed to lead in
baptismal invites... So, yikes. We got to the end of the lesson, and
I invited him to be baptized, and HE SAID YES!!!! His baptism is
scheduled for August 17th, and I feel so awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Can
you believe it?!?

Anyway, super stoked about that, and it was a super
fun Pday on the national mall, and at the air and space museum!

I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!!

I LOVE YOU ALL SO SO MUCH!!!

Some fun photos

Email from July 7th

Week 4

Well... I FREAKING LOVE IT HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!
This week was way too rad! First off, Elder Rummler just threw three
mints at me and I caught all three. In one hand. You gave birth to a
ninja mom. Congrats on that!

Haha, anyway, our miles for the month
in our car just pretty much cut in half which is ridiculous because
our mission is basically half the zone! At first we really didn't
understand how we were gonna be able to make that work, but president
told us to try it for a month and then well see, so we've really been
trying hard, and as we try we find out all these different things that
are helping us! The Lord will bless your efforts!! It's awesome!!!
I like being over a singles ward because I get to do all the singles
ward stuff I didn't get to do at home! Plus we go to institute on
Wednesdays! It's awesome! I love institute! Plus they have a ping
pong table! Woot!

Anyway, I taught my first real lesson this week!
We met with this less active member named K--. She seemed a bit
off... But oh well. It was good practice for my lesson on Wednesday
with C--! I totally was guided in what I said! I could feel it!
The two members who were there with us said I totally owned it!! It
felt so good!

Guess what! We had a nerf gun war Thursday night and
it was super fun!! Then we slept over at Elder Rushforth and Elder
Harrison's apartment. I don't think I've mentioned this yet, but
Elder Rushforth is pretty much the same person as me a few years in
the future! We like all the same stuff and everything! Did you get
my letter with my iPod list? Also, I need t shirts. Did you get that
email? I left 3 in the MTC... I sent that email on Friday.

Anyway, we have pretty much the perfect new investigator! His name is J--! Our
member friend G-- gave him a Book of Mormon and he read it in
2 days!!!! He has no word of wisdom problems, and loves church and
everything we teach makes sense!! :D So awesome!!!!! We are challenging
him to pray on Sunday and he said he'd totally do it!!!

So, we went to the fireworks show on the 4th and IT WAS SO COOL!!!!
We got in a half hour late though... So now we don't get to go to the Nats game...
Whatever. The fireworks were #worthit. I really love it here!
Except all the sirens all the time. But fireflies are super sweet!!!
I'm writing a song about it! I haven't gotten any written mail from
you guys... Well see if I get it at zone training this week. Anyway,
I'm busy taking over the world in Risk, I LOVE ALL OF YOU!!

Elder Sorensen