Week 80: The Best Christmas Ever

Haha, so, this week was awesome and not so awesome at the same time, but mostly awesome.  So, the not awesome part is basically every appointment we had cancelled on us because of the holidays, but the awesome part is that we got to spend lots of time with cool members and friends and it was great! 

Tuesday we had like, 5 appointments set up, and all but one cancelled on us.  Luckily we had good back up plans.  We ended up checking on a few people we had been asked to go see around the ward.  Found out that most of them didn't even live in the houses on our records anymore.  Then after quite an amount of time of that we went to dinner.  It was with a really nice family from the ward, and they made this chicken with a really yummy sauce.  I don't even know what it was, but it was kinda raspberryish.  It was awesome.  After that we went to the church to help Elder Summit prepare for our talent show act.  Then we all went home together.  

Wednesday we had the same kind of deal with appointments canceling, but a lot better luck meeting with people in the afternoon that we just dropped in on. After the last one of our drop-ins we went out to the pier and took pictures on the dock.  It was a really fun time especially with all the fog over the river.  After that we went to A-'s and ended up helping wrap C-‘s Christmas presents.  We had dinner with the Geers.  They're awesome.  Everything came back okay with Brother Geer’s medical concerns and they were really grateful for the blessing we were able to give the week before.  The priesthood is so cool.  It's such a blessing to be a part of these people's lives and help them in whatever way I can.  It's so great to have all these opportunities for service and growth out here.  After The Geers we went back to A-'s and taught the lesson we had intended to when we got caught up in gift wrapping.  

Thursday we had our zone meetings in the morning again because of Christmas Eve, so the Roses made waffles for everyone!  It was so much fun!  During our district meeting we practiced our whole talent show act.  It was really fun.  That's when it all finally came together and looked good, so I felt really okay with that one, whereas the ASL one finally came all together and looked good when we performed it on stage... I felt really nervous about that one. Anyway, A- had us over for Christmas Eve afternoon snacks, and for dessert after our dinner appointment with The Schwartz family.  It was

a super super good day!  Then we came home and Elder Summit and Elder Talbot were acting a bit funny.  I didn't want to pry in case they had had a fight or something.  Then I asked where my iPod was.  See, earlier in the day Elder Talbot and Elder Williams had taken our car back home and grabbed something and Elder Talbot meant to take my iPod in and plug it in.  Well, apparently he had forgotten to take it out at home, and it had fallen out of his pocket sometime during the day...  I kind of lost it.  I just started laughing uncontrollably and pacing around the house and muttering to myself..  For those of you who might be reading some of my blog for the first time, music is my coping mechanism for life, and that iPod had all my favorite and best tracks to help with emotional issues etc, so it was a really big deal that it was gone. 

Christmas morning we got up at 5 am and the other guys opened presents.  I didn't quite have my box yet.  Then we drove up to The Visitors Center for our two practices of talent show acts. Afterwards we went to our mission conference.  It went pretty similar to last year’s.  The Cookes all shared their testimonies, then the APs shared the gift that we all paid for.  Then we watched a movie.  It was Inside Out, but they teased us with Star Wars and I was super duper mad.  Ugh...  Six months till Star Wars.  Then we went over to the stake center for our lunch and talent show.  Our acts went really well! Most of the rest of them were kinda awkward or painful...  But that's okay.  It went an hour over!  Haha, same as last year.  I got to see Ceasar though which was nice.  He got married that night!! What?!?  I've been out of DC 3rd too long.  After that we ran over to Laurel to see William.  I opened all my gifts in the car on the way over.  Weird Christmas.  But I'll talk about why I'm super grateful for that in a bit.  It was really good to see William, however short it was it made me really happy.  Then we braved the rain and surprising amounts of traffic down to The Bonneys.  I love the Bonneys.  They're so much fun!  It was a really chill, pick your own schedule kind of night, so skyping my family fit in perfectly with that!!  Also calling Karoline and Steven on the way there was nice.  I love all of you so so much!  I'll see you soon enough!  After that we played Catchphrase and had our epic nerf gun war!  It was so much fun!!  The best part was talking to all of you. I'm really grateful for the time dad and I got to talk alone too.  It was helpful and much needed.  I can't wait to see you Dad! 

Saturday we went over to The Chamberlains all day!!  It was so much fun!  We did some Christmas clean up, and played frisbee and basketball, and card games and board games and tons of fun stuff.  It was awesome.  I love The Chamberlains so much!  We also did karaoke night in the basement after that!  It was pretty fun.  

Sunday was pretty chill.  We had our meetings in the morning.  Last time before we switch to the early early schedule.  We had a really good lesson in priesthood about magnifying our calling.  One quote in particular stood out to me. "What's the most important calling in the church?  The one I have." We all have been entrusted with personal responsibilities in the church based on what Heavenly Father wants us to learn and grow from and that's the most important thing we can focus on, not aspire to other callings.  Then we went home and ate lunch.  Elder Summit and Elder Talbot pulled in the same time as us.  They found my iPod. *biggest sigh of relief humanly possible*. Then the ASL Elders came by and picked me up for the night because we just spent all pday hanging out together!!  We tried to convince the sisters I got emergency transferred back into the ASL program.  It was funny, and I think they bought it for a little while. 

So this week during our appointments and stuff I would share the Why We Need a Savior video, and talk about the analogy dad had mentioned in his email to me a few weeks ago about the three levels of Christmas.  The first level being presents and Santa etc, The second level is knowing the story of the Savior’s birth and the third level is an understanding of the Atonement and really knowing the magnitude of the gift we've been given.  This Christmas should not have felt like Christmas at all.  I didn't get my package till Christmas morning, it was warm and rainy and humid, and I wasn't with my family, and in any other situation this would have felt like any other day. But this is the first year that I'm really getting into the third level of Christmas and understanding how blessed I am and how much is available to me, and feeling so small in the plan of everything but know that this supreme creator cares for me and knows me and my individual needs and everything about me, and I've just been really humbled the past few months and it's brought a lot of learning and understanding and that truly made this Christmas the best one I've had yet.  I'm so grateful for how different this Christmas was because of how much more I actually appreciate what Christmas really means now. Well, I think I'm starting to ramble like I tend to do, so have a great night!!  I love you guys!!

Elder Sorensen

Week79: Love For The People

Oh my lanta this week was so long...  In a bad way at the beginning, but in a good way at the end.  So, I already told you about Monday and things kinda fell apart between Redmond and I.  It made for a kinda awkward last day.  We spent most of it with him packing up all his stuff.  We got to go to The Hales’ for lunch which was awesome!  I love The Hales!  Oh yeah, Elder Summit and I got up and I went and taught seminary that morning.  The kids said I did a pretty good job!  So that's exciting.  Anyway, after the Hales we went to the Beals for Elder Redmond’s last dinner.  It was really fun! 

Then Wednesday we got up and packed up the car and drove up to the DC Stake Center for transfers.  It was a really tough one for me because Elder Tracy left...  I hope you guys see him soon!!  I got Elder Williams as my new companion!!  He's awesome!  He's been out for about 4 and half months and served in Laurel before here.  He's from Mesa, Arizona and is 11 years younger than the next oldest sibling in his family.  And he loves singing just like me.  We had a pretty good first day lined up for him!  We had an appointment with A- which was super stellar!  As we left Elder Williams said, "I've never had so much fun in an appointment with an investigator!"  Haha, it was a really fun lesson!  Then we went to The Gs and visited with them.  Brother G asked us for a blessing which was good.  We were happy to oblige.  Then we got Chick-fil-a for dinner and a run to Walmart to get Williams some groceries for moving.  

Thursday morning we went to seminary again for fun!  It was great!  We came home and took a quick nap, then had zone district meeting at 9.  It was really good.  We got some new people in our district.  Elder Gipson who is one of my good friends is in our district and it's super fun to be with him!!  Then afterwards we went all the way down to the bottom of our area for a lesson with a less active member.  Then we went out to the far side of our area for dinner.  It was really nice, and we

had a well prepared spiritual thought.  We also we ran over to the church for basketball that evening.  We were so far away that we were a half hour late, and had to change at the church.  But it was really fun regardless.

On Friday we had a few lessons cancel which wasn't nice, but we managed to stay busy throughout the day regardless.  We had a really good lesson with one of our returning members.  We shared Ether 12 and just bore our testimonies and told him how we feel, and how to grow closer to Christ, and then he would bear his testimony on how he knew that was true and applications he's seen in his life and we just kept building on each other's testimonies and the spirit was so strong in that lesson.  Definitely top 10 spiritual experiences on my mission worthy.  It was all I could do to keep from crying like I do.  Next we went to Brother C’s for dinner and a lesson.   I really like Brother C.  After that we came home and weekly planned and I taught Williams most of what I know about the area.  

Saturday was so awesome.  Oh. My. Gosh. So, generally I write a page in journal, but I wrote three pages for Saturday!!  So, that's how good it was.  We went to basketball in the morning and the only other people that showed up were Brother Cheney and two of his sons.  One is 22 and on break from BYU, Chris.  The other is 9, Michael.  We played Cheneys vs. missionaries. They creamed us.  They have like... Family telepathy or something I swear!  It was so much fun!  Then as we were leaving they asked if we had any days we weren't getting fed.  I don't like imposing on people, or being pushy, but I said, "I know it's kinda last minute, but we don't have one tonight."  Well, it worked out and they invited us over right in the perfect spot between a few of our appointments.  After basketball we came home and put together Elder William’s bike, and tossed the bike rack on our car.  We went down to J- house and went on a bike ride with him.  It was going well and we were almost to the end and then Williams took a spill... I felt so bad!!!  He was okay, only bleeding a tiny bit where the pedal clipped his ankle, but he didn't want to ride back.  So, we dropped the bikes off outside the laundry mat so A- could keep an eye on them.  Don't worry they were locked up too.  Then Elder Summit came and took us to our car, and we drove it back and picked up the three bikes.  We grabbed some Chick-fil-a, and then went to our house to get all changed and stuff.  We went to brother C’s again for his daughter’s birthday party.  It was fun, and he really appreciated us being there.  We also invited all his family members there to Festival of Lights.  After that we headed off to the Cheneys!!  I met the Cheneys dog a few weeks ago because a member was babysitting it, and I love their dog, so it was good to see Jimmer again.  It was also fun to see Kate Lynn who was in the singles ward over the summer while I was there.  Cool catch up times.  Brother Cheney made us all Thai food because he served in Thailand!  It was so delicious!  We shared a spiritual thought on the "Why we need a savior" video on Christmas.mormon.org.  It's an amazing video.  If we haven't seen it yet, watch it because it's so great.  I used your three levels of Christmas principle Dad!  I totally agree with that by the way.  I am really starting to understand the gift that we have been given and how we can become better people because of it, and how it applies to everything and just yeah.  I agree.  I love you Dad!  After that I got to play ping pong!  I played against Chris.  It was really really fun! He's pretty good.  He won both games 19-21 and 21-23, so we were pretty evenly matched!  After that Chris came with us to teach A-! We talked about 2nd Nephi 31 and the Holy Ghost and enduring the the end.  It was a really good lesson.  She invited Chris to join in the confirmation the next day too!  She's so awesome!  And she got us Christmas presents!!!!  A- is so great!!  I don't know if I mentioned this yet, but her dad’s name was Bennie too.  So that's pretty neat.  Then we headed home for the night!  But we had a plan. We wanted to have a good night with Elder Summit and Talbot, so we got them to think we were gonna come help them with moving stuff out of the old apartment and they went over there.  While they were over there we moved all the furniture and flipped the breakers and had a zombie apocalypse training!!!  Haha, Elder Talbot had no idea what was going on, but Summit was pretty clued in, and figured it out right away.  We got shot really fast, but it was super fun.  Elder Summit was smiling for like, a half hour!  He normally expressionless, so I know he had a good time.  He said the bike lights we used as strobe lights were the best part. 

Then Sunday was good.  We had church.  I participated really well in ward council, and I feel like I'm getting to know the ward, and am being a good help and input for them.  I love this ward, so it's a really good feeling to know I'm contributing to its growth and strength.  Sacrament meeting was good A- got confirmed!  She asked me to do the actual confirmation part, so I did that.  We had good classes on the second coming, and living Christ centered lives.  We had dinner at the Michela’s house.  Sister Michela is the Relief Society president so afterward we had a good talk about the ward and people that she thinks it would be good for us to check on, and now I've got a great list of stuff to do in the next few weeks!  We're not gonna have a spare minute, and that's just how I like it! 

I just love everything right now.  I'm so happy.  I've really been starting to understand how much of a blessing a mission is.  Before I always just thought okay this is my mission I need to set these goals, and do these things and everything will be great. But it's not really like that.  A mission is such a blessing because you get to see people change, and grow and help them in your own little ways.  But the blessing part comes in when you understand that this work will get done regardless.  Heavenly Father will provide the opportunities for people to learn and grow even if you're not there, so the fact that you get to be a part of it, and see the Holy Ghost work in people's lives is so special.  It has really changed my perspective on what I'm doing out here, and how I go about it.  I just have such great love for the people I'm working with, and I am really happy I get to be a part of their lives.  I can't even express how much gratitude I have for these people and how much they do for me even without knowing it!  Okay, my email is starting to glitch a bit so I'm guessing that means this is way too long.  I'll wrap up with I love you and I'm excited to talk to you on Friday!!!!

Elder Sorensen

Week 78: Baptism

My week was awesome!  I described my pday last week, so I'll just start with Tuesday! Elder Redmond and I woke up early, and went and subbed the seminary class.  It was really fun to teach some of the youth.  We were up at 5:25 and kept going till the day was done! Elder Summit and I worked in our area that day because Elder Talbot need some help learning to teach, so Redmond went with him.  So, Elder Summit and I had another lesson at 10 with Lawrence.  We taught him about faith and it was pretty good.  He had some really weird off base questions, but we did our best to keep everything on track.  It was really fun.  Then we came home and grabbed some lunch, and checked on a referral. The referral wasn't home, but we left the bibles they asked for and a Book of Mormon. We went to a recent convert, Sue Washington's, after that.  It was really good to get to know her a bit better.  She's really nice, and her testimony is really strong.  Then we had an appointment way down south!  A half hour drive through the back woods of Maryland!  It was fun.  We passed an Amish person in a horse drawn carriage on the way down.  No joke.  Way different than all the city areas I've been serving in!  Unfortunately the person we had an appointment with down there had forgotten  and went up to the city with a friend!  But, I had a back up plan!  We drove back up toward the church where our next appointment was, but had about a half hour before it started.  We were both hungry so we stopped in at Chick-fil-a, and then stopped by the laundromat where A-- works! It was fun to see her and talk for a minute.  Then we went to the church and had our lesson there.  It went really well!  Then we worked on some numbers for our two areas for the zone leaders.  Then we went to Cafe Rio with Ad--!  It was so much fun to see him, and have dinner together.  He is a really funny guy!  He is so humble, and knows his weaknesses well.  I can really see him trying to do better, and it makes me so happy!!  

Wednesday we did some service in the morning. Then we ran around the city a bit and dropped off copies of the Book of Mormon and DVDs and such at different places.  The library and the detention center being the main ones.  Then we came home and changed, then went to A--'s!  We finished the last lesson with her, and set up her baptismal interview for Friday!  Then we went to dinner with the Barbones.   Jacob and I get along really well, he's their 16 year old son, so it's fun to go over there and get to bear testimony of the gospel to them.  We made dinner super quick though, because A--wanted to go to the Visitors Center with us and see a concert!  It was so fun to go up with A-- and C--, and she even invited a friend!!  It was super awesome!  I love the spirit you can feel on the temple grounds.  It's so different than just an apartment, or the church or something.  I can't wait to take you guys out here and show you how special a place it is.

Thursday we went to our ward mission leaders house for lunch, and let Elder Redmond say goodbye and such because he was going to be out of town until after Christmas. Then we went to Scott Jenkins!  He's awesome!  He's a recent convert, and I haven't met him yet because he's been having some health issues, but he was finally well enough to have us over!  He was super friendly, and his testimony is so so strong!  I know I say that about everyone, but it's because I work with such awesome people!  After that we went up to the mission home for Elder Redmond's departing missionaries dinner!  I went in exchange with Elder Hill, one of the zone leaders in Silver Spring right now.  We were staying around that area to meet back up at the mission home and separate for our apartments there, so we went to the Lakeforest mall.  We had dinner at Red Robin because people named Christopher got a free chicken sandwich that day, and Elder Hill's name is Christopher!  And I have that red robin gift card from my birthday!  It was meant to be!!!  After that, we went around the mall and contacted people for a while, then headed back up to the mission home.  When we got there the other missionaries called and said hey, we left.   What?  Apparently there was some miscommunication on where to meet, so we went back down to the Silver Spring zone leaders apartment.  It's in the same complex as the ASL apartment so I felt right at home!  I hung out in the car with Elder Demill, one of the French elders I worked with in DC 3rd, so we didn't get towed! Well, there was more miscommunication between different people and Elder Redmond and Collins didn't get back until 10:30ish, and we had to drive all the way down to Suitland still!  We got home at like, 11:45. 

Friday we had zone conference!  It was really good.  Mostly on the church policy changes recently and that whole situation.  A-- came up and had her interview and she passed!!  Thank you all for your prayers for her, her leg didn't completely heal up, but the doctor told her it shouldn't have healed as much as it did!!  I know that it's because of all the prayers sent her way this week, so thank you!! After zone conference we went to the Chamberlains and helped out with some stuff around the house, and played some with the boys, and ate dinner. It was super fun!!  I love the Chamberlains!  

Saturday we had basketball in the morning, then we helped set up for the ward Christmas party.  Then I made the baptismal program while Elder Redmond backed up his iPad. We came home and had some lunch after that, then went to Brother Palmer's house before the ward mission party.  He had tons and tons of Legos!  Like, the huge huge collectors ones!  They were fun to look at.  We visited with him, and shared the Savior is Born video.  It was really good.  Then we went to the ward Christmas party!  I wore my Christmas sweater from last year and got lots and lots of compliments!  Thanks so much again mom!  You're the best!  We had transfer call out that night too.  I'm staying here!!!

Woohoo!  I love this area so much!!  

Sunday was madness, but in a good way as always!  During church we had another mid class planning session, then we realized we wouldn't be eating till much later so we ran home and grabbed a quick bite during Elders Quorum.  Then we came back and got everything set up for the baptism!  A-- got baptized! It is so exciting!  Brother Cusic who baptized her, kinda slam dunked her in the water.  The kids in the front row got wet! Haha, it was really good.  I accidentally picked the people who spoke in church that day for the prayers!  It was really funny!  After all of that we had dinner at the Bishop's house!  It was super fun!  I love the bishop and his family!  

Monday was crazy crazy!  We ran around basically all day doing errands prepping for Elder Redmond to go home, and then went to a buffet with one of the families in Elder Redmond's old areas for dinner.  Then we went to the Chamberlains so he could say goodbye to them too!  It was great!  I love you guys!  Wish me luck this week!

Elder Sorensen

Week 77: A Busy Week

Holy cow, this week was loaded!!  Tuesday we had service with brother Cusic.  It was lots of fun.  He was setting up Christmas stuff around his house, and we got to help out! His is the house I tried oysters at.  We had to make a trip out to get some extra lights, and we ended up going by where our investigator A-- works.  Well, she saw us and sent us a text to see if it really was us.  She noticed us by my glasses!  Haha, we stopped in and said hi to her and her 4 year old son C-- for a bit.  C-- cried when I had to leave, it was super cute!!  Then we had a dinner with a super awesome family, and shared the Christmas " A Savior is Born" video.  If you all haven't seen it, look it up.  Christmas.mormon.org.   

Wednesday was temple trip!  It was kinda bittersweet.  It was Elder Tracy's last temple trip, and my companions as well.  I got some good pictures of us though.  Then we came back down south and had a lesson with Ashley.  We taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and we invited her to be baptized. Now, remember, this is A--, who when we first met her was 100% against baptism.  We got the prompting to invite her to be baptized on December 13th. That's super fast and I didn't know about it at first, but we trusted the Spirit, and invited her to be baptized on that day. She accepted.  I almost cried.  The Spirit was so strong there, and it was awesome!  A-- is seriously the best!  And C-- is lots of fun too!  I'm his favorite, he says it all the time!  Haha, we painted Christmas ornaments with them after that.  Then we had dinner with a family who lives way out in the boonies and has a farm with a goat, and chickens and turkeys.  It was really fun.  The wife teaches seminary, and she asked us to substitute the next two Tuesday's, so guess who gets to teach seminary!!  This guy!  

Thursday we had zone district meeting.  Then after that, I went on exchange with Elder Lee up to the Capitol area!  He's from Australia, so it was fun to hang out with him and his accent for a day! 

Friday was a very very special day. We had a super awesome lesson with one of their investigators. It was the first lesson, and she was super humble and wanting to change and we just promised her that this message, and the atonement of Jesus Christ are here for you to help you and we'll help you learn more about it.  We had her say the closing prayer, and by the end she was sobbing because the spirit was so strong in that room.  I love being so exposed to the spirit. It's so cool to see these peoples humility, and desire to come closer to their father in heaven.  I love being a missionary!!! Then we came down south and exchanged back, and Elder Redmond and I went off to the Chamberlain's for dinner!  I love that family!  They're so nice. 

Saturday was good. We had interviews with president Cooke, which tend to take up most of the day. So was the case here as well.  I had a good interview. President says I'm doing a great job, and that he's proud of the dedication I have and the good I'm doing.  It's always nice to get a little pat on the back.  Then we had a lesson with a really nice family in the ward, again, sharing the Christmas video. Then we had another lesson with A--.  This was a nerve racking one because it was the commandments.  But, she agreed to live them all no problem! She's so awesome.  I'm so excited for her!!  I have seen the influence of the Holy Ghost so much in her life and have seen so much change in her, and it just makes me so darn happy!!  Then with the last of our night we ran to the Chamberlain's to grab some stuff we had left the night before and ended up staying an hour!  They're so awesome!  I can't stress enough how much I love this ward!!!!!!   

Sunday was a circus!!!  My gosh!  A-- came to church despite feeling a little sick, so we got to sit with her and C--.  C-- was drawing most of Sacrament meeting and would show me all his drawings.  He's so awesome.  Reminds me of Nick kinda, so it's fun to play with him. A-- had a great time at church too.  But the circus part was everyone kept pulling Elder Redmond and I aside, and setting up appointments with us!  Which is so awesome, but someone would be talking to me, and someone would be talking to him, and then all of a sudden we had tons of overlapping appointments!!!  We skipped most of Elders Quorum just to have a planning meeting and sort everything to make it all work then catch everyone after church to make it all fit!  It was really fun though.  Much better than not having appointments, so no complaints here whatsoever.  We already above 16 appointments set up for this week!!!!!  Then we had dinner with Barrows again, they're awesome!  Then we booked it over to the church for the baptism in the other ward that we invited A-- to!  She made it there, and so did we.  It was a really good opportunity and experience for her and us! Now all we need to worry about is the cut on her leg!  Everyone pray that it'll heal up and be closed by Friday so she doesn't need a cast and can get baptized on Sunday!!!  

Today was really fun.  We had zone activity all day!  It consisted of human battleship, Hawaiian haystacks, and battleship gingerbread house building.  Yup, the theme was Pearl Harbor day.  It was tons of fun.  And we got to play dungeons and dragons afterwards as well!  Then we had dinner with the Nichols tonight.  Super awesome couple in our ward.  So so nice!  It's been a great week, and it's looking like another great one to come!

Love you guys!!

Elder Sorensen

Last week's temple trip was bittersweet because two of Bennie's favorite companions to home at the end of this transfer

Elder Tracy- Elder Sorensen's ASL companion

Elder Redmond- Elder Sorensen's companion

The Chamberlain Family treated Elders Sorensen & Redmond to a fun night last Friday

Elder Sorensen was excited to find a fun shirt for P-days!

Zone activity on Pearl Harbor Day.  They played human battleship, ate Hawaiian Haystacks and made ship gingerbread creations.  Elder Sorensen's group ended up making a spaceship! Sister Williams was part of their creative team.

Week 76: Thanksgiving & Football X 4

This week was pretty awesome!

Monday, like I said, we had football at the mall.  Tons of Elders came and it was so much fun!  My first team lost both our games...  But one of the players on Parker and Tracy's team got hurt, so they pulled me in on their team!  We ended up winning that game!  Then for lunch we went to Cava.  I love Cava.  That's one of the first places I'm taking you guys when we come back here, okay?  There were about 12 of us there, and it was super fun.  We were all gonna go hang out at the zone leaders apartment, but Elder Summit wanted to head home, and he was our ride. Monday night one of our members invited us to have Family Home Evening with his family.  He has three really young kids, and it was lots of fun.

Tuesday we had five lessons planned, but the three of the morning ones cancelled within an hour of waking up..  Bleh.  But I think it was for the best, because we got our car emission’s check done, then we went in to get our battery replaced because it was leaking acid.  Well, it's a good thing we got it checked because it was just about done.  It was so bad it had fused itself to the casing in the car and they had to pry it out with a hammer and screwdriver. Yikes.. glad it's all good now!  After that whole ordeal we went home to grab lunch, and then went off to a lesson with one of our investigators.  It went pretty well and he knows the lessons great! That night we went to dinner with one of the families in our ward.  They were super nice.  One of their daughters reminded me a lot of Brooke, so that was great.  We came home and all four of us were sitting on the couch and we just started beat boxing and singing.  It was super funny.

We had our Zone District meeting on Wednesday this week instead of Thursday because of the holiday. Sister Rose made cinnamon rolls for everyone and it was delicious!!  Also, my new iPad screen finally got here.  I pulled it out of my bag one night back in the ASL program days and it was cracked a little bit, so last transfer I ordered a new screen, and it finally showed up!  I got a white screen, which is different than everyone's black ones.  One of the elders in our zone, Elder Thorpe, really likes Dungeons and Dragons and he'll make people characters if they ask. He brought mine to that zone district meeting which means now I'm ready to play with them!  We all went to Café Rio for lunch and Elder Rose paid for everyone.  The people here are awesome!  I went on exchange with Elder Van Wagoner, the old office Elder who knows how to replace iPad screens, so he could change put my screen.  So, we did that, then in a really crazy turn of events our dinner appointment was their dinner appointment’s daughter. It all came together for us to combine the dinners when our dinner was with Sister Hale, who used to be Sister Bailey, and Brother Hale wasn't home yet. We worked it out to meet at The Bailey’s house and ate dinner together!  It was so much fun, and super cool! Miracles on miracles!  At dinner I was catching up with Elder Redmond about the lessons he had in our area that day, and our investigator, A-, feels good about being baptized!!  Yes!!  I had to take a minute to just let out all my excitement.

Thanksgiving was tons of fun.  We had Turkey Bowl with the ward in the morning!  It was a lot of fun.  I had a few good catches, and my team won.  Bishop Cottle ended up tackling me at one point—such a fun event for the ward! We came home and took a nap because thanksgiving was a non pros day. After that we headed out to the Bonney’s for Thanksgiving dinner!  They're the family with 14 kids!  We had nerf wars, and played ping pong!  We also went to The Sutherlands, a family in the ward who only have two kids at home We ate lots and lots, then played night games!  Poison Tag, and Ghost in the Graveyard!  And I got to climb a tree!  It was so much fun!  This was a really, really good Thanksgiving away from home.

Friday was our service day.  We started out by helping an older single lady in our ward move some stuff around in her house. She had tons and tons of vinyl from when vinyl was the real thing.  Beatles, Frank Sinatra, Kiss, ZZ Top, Elton John!  I almost died.  She has Bennie and the Jets on vinyl.  It was so cool to look at all of those.  Then she ordered us some pizzas for helping out, and we picked the pizzas up on the way home. I ate 11 slices.  They weren't normal pizzas, they were square and smaller, but still---11 slices!   We weren’t done yet and went to help another family in our ward with some around the house jobs.  We started with painting some doors in their house.  Then while we waited for that to dry we played football with their four sons, and ate dinner.  Thanksgiving Part 2!  And I ate even more this time than the day before!  Then we put another coat of paint on the doors, but they weren't looking to great, so we decided to come back and finish up the next day.

Saturday we played basketball, and headed over to The Chamberlains again.  Played some basketball with their sons, had some lunch, and finished up painting.  After that we helped seal up some of the windows in their house so the rain doesn't leak through.  That was a process...  Then football again!  I love that family, they're awesome! We needed to book it home and changed clothes for our dinner appointment.  Thanksgiving Part 3!!  It was with a family that had a daughter in the singles ward, and the daughter was there!  It was super fun to catch up with her.  She was Relief Society president most of the time I was in the YSA ward, so we worked together a lot.

Sunday was a good day.  Elder Redmond had a baptism in a different area, so he took Elder Talbot up to that, and Elder Summit and I stayed for both our wards.  Between the two of us we had lots of church which reminded me of the ASL and YSA days.  The teacher for my gospel principles class didn't come, so we taught the class last second.  That was super exciting and I filled the 45 minutes with ease.  The day was also great because A- came to church!!! She was mad at me for not coming on Wednesday when I was on exchange with Elder Van Wagoner.  Not real mad, just teasing, but I told her I won't do it again.  Then after church we ran home for a little snack because we were dying.

Later we ran some stuff to a few of Elder Summit’s members, and we went to our dinner appointment!  It was with a super nice family, and we had turkey noodle soup!  Thanksgiving Part 4! After dinner we shared the new Christmas video the church put out. It's really good, you need to watch it.  Then they were really nice and let us help set up their Christmas tree!!  It reminded me of home.  I miss you guys!

Now today for P-day we’re on Andrews Air Force base playing football with a few of the people from last week.  This is just football week I guess!

I love you guys!  Have a good week!

(Later today, he updated to say that the field at AAFB didn’t work out and they ended up playing at a
park.  It was rainy and muddy but that only made the game more fun.  That is Bennie for you!)

Week 74: White Plains Second Ward

Holy cow….This week has been forever long.  It's hard to believe I was hanging out with Elder Paul at the National Mall just a week ago! Tuesday was fun because we had our day of meetings again.  I wore the fox tie that you made for me last Christmas mom!  Everyone loved it. Then we went to Ceasars for the rest of the night because he was super sad I was leaving.  He kept saying he knew where I was going though, and I couldn't get it out of him!  On the way home Hamblin and I were getting on the metro, and I ran up the stairs to catch the train, but some lady got in Hamblin’s way, so the doors closed right before he got on. I got off at the next stop and waited 20 minutes for him to get to the next stop.  It was weird to be alone. While I was waiting some member came and asked me where the closest chapel was and the address.  It was weird.

Anyway, Wednesday morning we metroed up all my stuff and waited for the zone leaders to come pick us up from the metro.  We went to the temple and took the mission picture of the whole mission for Christmas and then headed over to transfer meeting.  Then we found out my new area........ WHITE PLAINS 2ND WARD!!!!!!   I was in White Plains first back in February with Elder Wang, and it was okay, but Elder Thornton said its his favorite ward and so far I love it!  I'll be honest, at first I was kinda anxious about it.  I have been having problems lately trying to make my own happiness, and I didn't have the best experience in White Plains the first time, so I was super worried it would be a repeat of that.  But as the meeting went on I thought about the last week or so in DC 3rd when I really gave it everything I had, and how happy I felt when I did that, and thought you know what,  to heck with feeling sad or worried. Elder Thornton loved this ward, and Elder Tracy loved Elder Redmond. This transfer is gonna be amazing and I'm gonna love it!  And I have!! 

That night we had 3 lessons!  One with an investigator that we planned, and two with members we just dropped in on.  One is less active, one is not.  It was super fun!  As we were waiting outside one of their doors I looked up and I could see so many stars and I just felt so happy!  I didn't realize how much I missed the stars.  In the city you can see maybe 3 because of all the light pollution.  I could even see the arms of the Galaxy.  It made my night.  Oh, and Elder Summit is my roommate!  It's super fun to be around him again.

Thursday we had breakfast with a member at IHOP!  It was super good and super fun!  Then we went to zone district meeting.  Because I changed zones and Suitland has it on a different day I had it two times in one week.  It felt pretty long. But it was fun.  Sister Brimhall is in my zone so we signed a little bit and that was fun. Then we gave Elder Zollinger and Elder Palmer a ride home and grabbed some food I left at the old apartment and ran back down to a dinner appointment here.  It was really fun.  Later we ran home, changed clothes and went to basketball!  I've gotten better since the last time I was here.  I'm pleased with that.

Friday we spent most of the day moving apartments.  We're moving to a different one in the same complex that the church has a longer lease on.  And it's on the third floor, not the first.  So we have a sweet balcony.  We moved basically all day. Went to lunch at Chick-fil-a.  Helped a member move some stuff from his old house to his new one.  Then we went to Panda Express with Sister Hale.  She is so awesome!  She teaches seminary in the morning and said we can come whenever.  And she and her husband have a farm and offered eggs and stuff whenever we want it and said if we ever need a dinner appointment call them!  I love this ward.  They love the missionaries.

Saturday morning we went to basketball, and I got to see one of the kids who went to the singles ward for a while. He and his friend were super funny to play with.  Making jokes the whole time. Then we moved pretty much all day again...  Missionaries have lived in that apartment for a couple years now, so the junk builds up...  Haha, it's still a work in progress.  Then we went to dinner with the Bonney family.  They have 14 kids.  Eleven of them were at home.  We had nerf wars and played and it was crazy crazy but super fun!  During dinner I had to keep looking around and around to focus on who was talking to me.  It was so much fun.  We played some ping pong too, so obviously I had a great time.  They're awesome.

Sunday was great!  Church starts at 1 o’clock but we have ward council and missionary correlation before.   It was cool to see a few of the people I knew before in White Plains First again, like Bishop Cottle. During gospel principles we talked with a member who was in First Ward when I was here and moved to Second Ward out in the hall.  It was so fun to catch up with them!  While we were talking Bishop called me over and introduced me to a girl.  She's the granddaughter of a member and was interested in taking the lessons!!  So we got her info and set up an appointment with her for Wednesday!  We have so much work to do! It's awesome!!  In priesthood they had me bear my testimony to introduce myself. After all of that we went home and grabbed some dinner, then went up to the VC for Why I Believe.  I sat with Elder Smuin and Elder French!  I love those two!  We talked like the whole time.  It was so great.  Then I got to say goodbye to Mark Cross, a recent convert in ASL who leaves in his mission this week!  That was nice.   On the ride home Elder Redmond and I had real talk time.  It was so awesome.  He has such a strong testimony, and I am just super happy to be here.  This transfer is gonna be great.

I love you guys!  Haves great week!

Elder Sorensen

Elder Sorensen with some ASL Elder friends

Elder Sorensen had the bottom bunk for 10 days!

Elder Sorensen said goodbye to many friends at transfers

Elder Sorensen saying goodbye to Mark Cross who was an ASL investigator and is now going a a mission.

Week 73: Investigators in Progress

This week was actually pretty busy!!  It was so great!  Monday we had to get out the door at 5:30 after our p-day because we actually had a lesson right at 6!  Woo!!  We taught C-- and he was pretty happy to see us.  We shared a quick chapter from the Book of Mormon with him.  Then we went around our less actives route but none of them were home, so we tried to contact some of our referrals.  We were able to set up some lessons for later in the week.  

Tuesday was meetings as usual.  We had some exciting news in area reports though!!  The investigator T-- who we met with last transfer moved up the road a little ways, just enough to where he was out of our area, so we passed him to the East area.  So, during his last lesson that I had with him we didn't have much time to plan for it, but I felt really strongly to invite him to be baptized.  I did and he seemed okay with it, but then both us and the East Elders couldn't contact him for a really long time. I was worried I had freaked him out.  Well, in their area report the East Elders said T-- called them and was asking if he could invite friends and family to his baptism!!! That was really fun to hear about! That night we actually got super bored and Hamblin and I switched beds!!  I'm bottom bunk for the first time in 17 months!!!!! Haha, it was exciting.  

Wednesday I got to use my new backpack!  Thank you Mommy!! We also got to go to the temple that day.  It was a cool experience for me.  I was really excited because I hadn't been in the longest time since I was endowed, and I missed the peaceful feeling you get there. Just a good feeling, being in such a nice place with all my friends.  It was cool.  Elder Hamblin got a call from the APs that night and he's training, so we guessed I would be leaving DC 3rd.  Dinner was fun that night.  

Thursday was so awesome!  Brother Nelson, the member who knows the Rees family came out with us all day!!  We were together from 12 til 4:30.  We had a good number of appointments set up, but most of them ended up cancelling.  Typical.  Anyway, he was totally down to just contact and tract with us.  While doing this, we talked about our missions and the Rees's and everything it was so much fun.  He's an awesome guy!!  

Elder Hamblin had a meeting for trainers that I went to with him.  I got to see Elder Paul!!!  I'm super bummed he's leaving on Wednesday. Caesar had us over dinner that night.  He was pretty sad because the other Elders had come over that morning to clean his fish tank but they forgot to check
the water temperature they were putting in and ended up killing the fish...  He had had it for 5 years.  He had us break the tank with him to make sure he didn't get more pets.  It was actually kinda fun to smash the huge fish tank with hammers.  

Saturday was cold and rainy.  Sister Cooke asked us to help with a service project cleaning up a bazaar that the United Methodist Church had.  It was pretty fun.  Moved lots of boxes.  Then we went to C-- house for a lesson.  We taught him about the Melchizedek priesthood because he'll be ready to be ordained soon.  We also taught R-- that night. Gave her a blessing for her legs.  It was really cool.  That night was transfer call out!!  I'm leaving DC 3rd!!!!!!  Kinda bitter sweet.  I did lots of good work here and it's just starting to come to fruition, but now I'm leaving, so I don't get to see all the results. Oh well. I'm really curious what my next area is going to be.  

Sunday was pretty standard. R-- didn't make it to church this week. We went to Caesar’s for lunch, then had a stake missionary meeting with all the ward missionaries.  It was pretty fun.  And I got to see Elder Paul again!! 

Today’s p-day has been awesome!  I went down to the Library of Congress with Elder Paul.  Then we went to a really good restaurant called Cava!!  It was awesome!   Then we went to the National Mall and saw the Capitol and stuff for his last pday.  Last, we came here and listened to some of my vinyls.  Now we're just hanging out!!  Good day!  Happy to spend it with one of my good friends! 

Love you guys, have a great week!!

Elder Sorensen