My big news is I’M IN THE ASL PROGRAM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I wanted to surprise you guys super hard, but I've actually been talking to president Cooke about this since transfer one, and I guess it finally felt right! I love it so so so much!!!!!!!! I can't even describe it accurately. It's the best thing ever. It's also back in the Silver Spring Zone!! We even go to my old church building so it honestly feels like home!! And I got to see lots of my friends from the Glenndale Ward on Sunday because they meet right after us! And we got to play hockey for p-day today!!!!! It's the best!!!!
So, the pictures you got are of Elder Tracy, my new companion and me! He's super awesome!! We have so much in common, especially our looks. Everyone keeps telling us we could be twins. Especially on Sunday when we wore matching ties. That tie was a gift from Elder Tracy, because he bought that tie, then got the same one as a gift from his brother. It's our ASL posterity gift because when you get moved into a different program they call it “adopting you.” Which is nice, because my father abandoned me for Brazil!! Haha, sorry, funny mission jokes. Speaking of Rummler, he's a district leader in Brazil now!! Woot!
Anyway, this whole adjustment has just been flawless. I was kinda bummed I was leaving White Plains at first, because I was just getting accustomed to it, but as soon as I heard rumors that I was going into the ASL program and then actually did go, it's been so awesome!! I don't even know where to start!!! So, Wednesday after we got me all unpacked and stuff, we went to Gallaudet campus to visit one of our less actives in the cafeteria there, and half the time I just had to sit back and pinch myself to make sure it was really happening!! It was so much fun! And the great thing about hanging out in the cafeteria is that as soon as one member knows we're there they start telling other members and before you know it it's like half the deaf branch is there! We got three lessons just in that two hour visit! Then, Thursday and Friday we were snowed in, so not much happened Thursday, but Friday we were allowed to use mass transit, so we metro-ed to Gallaudet thinking we'd still be having Institute, but they cancelled it cause of the weather. We were metro-ing home, and our metro stop is just one after the stop that's right behind my old apartment. We decided to go stop by and see how Elders Herring Levi and Parker were doing, and ended up going to the mall across the street with Elder Parker and his new companion until about 5 o’clock.
One of the great things about the ASL program is the video phone. We have it in our apartment, it's just a camera hooked up to a TV with the VP (video phone) server hooked up to it, and we can call most of our members on there cause most of them have one so we still got lessons, even on the snow days!!! We did get our twenty lessons this week!! On Saturday we had our branch correlation meeting, and we have sister missionaries in the branch too, so that was a new experience. I haven't seen sister missionaries in forever because I've been in Suitland for a transfer! Then we went and taught another cool member, and after that we had the opportunity to give a blessing to a sick member.
Giving the blessing was kinda nerve racking because I did the anointing and what you do, is put your hands on the persons head, then walk in front of them, and sign the prayer, and then to finish you go behind them and put your heads on their head again. I didn't have it memorized in ASL yet, so Elder Tracy stood behind her, and I just copied what he did, but it was still super cool!!! I also got to bless the sacrament in sign language. Same deal, but it's super fun!
I'm so excited and scatterbrained right now! Sorry! Let's see... What else happened. Oh, yeah, we had dinner with an awesome family Sunday night!! They're so nice, and funny. They are mostly hearing, except one of their daughters is deaf. They're all super awesome. And we got to play ping pong there! I went undefeated which was cool because I haven't played in over 6 weeks!
Our area is actually the whole mission. And the whole Baltimore mission. And the whole DC South mission. And the whole Richmond mission... So, we go super far. If Logan is ever by the border of Maryland, we cover right up to Pennsylvania. It's essentially all of DC, Maryland, and Virginia is our area. It's massive, but it's awesome!
So, crazy story, Elder Tracy and I met before our missions. A couple times actually. He played lacrosse for Brighton. So we met at a few games, but there's a crazier story of how I actually like, met him and high fived and talked to him. It was when the lacrosse team went down to St. George my sophomore year. On the way home we stopped at Snow Canyon for some fun hiking and stuff. Well, we found this cave that went like, fifty feet down, then once you got down, it went probably 250 300 yards straight. So, we were at the back of this cave, and it's pitch black and we come up to the back wall and there are some people there. We start a casual conversation and everything, and it ends up their from the Brighton lacrosse team. I met Elder Tracy in a cave, 250 yards away from the crevice we went down into. Crazy stuff!
Anyway, I have my new address:
1812 Greenwitch Woods Dr. #24
Silver Spring, MD 20903
But, I wouldn't send packages here, because they just put them on our doorstep, and it's an unlocked apartment complex and we're on pretty much the main floor, so they could be stolen really easily. And I'm in Prince George's county again, so I would expect they'd usually be stolen. Also, if you get the chance can you include my go pro and the charger cord and micro sd adapter in an upcoming package? It'll be cool for hockey and stuff. I love you guys!!!! I hope all is well back home!!!
Elder Sorensen
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