Week 84- We Finally Got Snow

Oh my gosh, this week feels like it's been forever!!!  In a really really good way though.  So, to start,  WE FINALLY GOT SNOW!!!!!!!!!!  I'm so happy!  So, I'll talk about all that in a bit, but Monday-Thursday first.  OH! I forgot to mention!  T-, the guy who I was working with a bit back in DC 3rd ward got baptized a couple of weeks ago!!  I'm so happy for him!  

Okay, Monday was fun!  We ran some errands in the morning.  I got a super nice coat at  a thrift store which I'm excited about!  Then we played games with Elder Thorpe and Elder Van Wagoner at the church.  We also had dinner at the Geer's house.  It was pretty fun!  I've seen some real progress with them lately and I really love going over there.  They're such amazing people!  Last we went over and had a lesson with A- about patriarchal blessings!  I love this area!  

Tuesday was the craziest thing of my whole life and I love everything about it, so here goes.  We woke up Tuesday morning and went to give a blessing to a lady who was in our area book that we gave a call.  She was feeling sick so we offered to give her a blessing; after we talked with her about the priesthood and a bit about the church.  She said she almost started crying during the blessing, and we told her about the Holy Ghost and how we know that the priesthood works and it's found in our  church.  Then we offered to teach her the missionary discussions and she accepted!  So, we set up a lesson for Friday and headed back home for studies.  We had to change it because of the snow, but we're still meeting with her this coming week.  After that we dropped off a Bible at another referral’s house and offered to teach her, she said maybe, so we'll try back sometime this week.  We went to our ward mission leader, Brother Heath’s, and then we headed to Sister W-'s with him.  Had a really good lesson with her.  Then we had a spare two hours and were down in the Chamberlains’ area so I asked if we could come by.  We got to surprise the boys coming home from school!  It was so nice to see them.  It feels like it's been forever since I've seen them...  I love them!  They're the best!  After the Chamberlains we booked it over to the church for our lesson with Brother S-, and had a good kinda short lesson with him about the Atonement.  Then we ran to dinner with the G-'s and had a really good fun time with them.  After that we hurried to Taco Tuesday with A-!  Needless to say we were stuffed, and also all our later appointments were really close together!!!  We ended up having 7 lessons that day!!  So much freaking fun!  I love this area so much!  I love being busy!!  

Wednesday was pretty grand as well!  We went to seminary so Elder Williams could teach.  He did well!  We helped teach the lesson so Sister Hale could do the personal interviews with all the students.  She didn't quite finish them, so I offered to teach the next day so she could finish.  She said that would work awesome and she really appreciated it.  Plus she just wanted me to help them with scripture mastery!!  All my years of scripture mastery bowl had prepared me for this moment!!!  Unfortunately class was cancelled so I didn't get to do it, but hopefully I can this week sometime!  Also they signed up for the last day of the transfer to feed us!!  I love the Hales!  Then we had a missionary worldwide training broadcast.  Our zone leaders were late so we got started late and had to leave a little early, but it's online for us so we can finish it tonight while we're stuck inside again. After the broadcast we had a lesson with S- and had a really good time with him.  It was super good to see him.   His testimony is so awesome!  Once he gets going he'll keep talking and the Spirit is super strong.  I love it!  That night we had dinner with the Barbones which was super good.  I really get along well with their son J- and he asked to come out on splits with us a lot in the coming weeks so I'm really excited to get to take him out with us!!  Then we went to J-s for our lesson with her!  Brother Heath came as well as her fiancé Brother H-.  We had an awesome lesson with her, and we got her 8 year old daughter to participate as well!  I love J-!  She's awesome!  And if everything keeps going this well she'll be getting baptized this Sunday!!!!!!!!! YES!!  After that we headed home because it started snowing and we got called off the roads.  

Thursday was interesting.  We didn't have anything planned for the day at all because we were worried it was going to be a snow day. Well, it didn't end up being a snow day, so I got us lots of stuff to do in an hour’s time and we turned out to have a really, really good day!!  We visited Ashley at the laundromat and checked up on how her visiting teachers visit went.  Then we drove way down to the lower part of our area and had a lesson with A-.  It was really good.  We read from Alma with him and he understood the lesson, so it was awesome.  Then we went to Cobb Island and checked on 
someone Elder Williams found while I was on exchange.  She didn't seem too interested, but we'll try it.  Then we ran into Elder Gipson and Elder Lee getting supplies for the snowy weekend.   We had set up to go to the Chamberlains for Max's birthday!!!  It was so fun to see them!  They're so awesome. I know I already said that in this email, but it's true so I don't know what you want me to say.  Then we got the call out that we won't be able to drive after 12 on Friday through the whole weekend at least!  Yikes.  

Friday morning some of my really good Elder friends out here came and kidnapped me for the weekend!  It was really fun because the youngest one mission age was 18 months, so we've all been serving around each other for a long time and we all got to spend a good weekend snowed in together before all go home!  Along the way, we stopped at Walmart Friday for some last minute supplies, then went to the Garcia's in their ward because they had some supplies for us as well.  Then we got to their apartment.  They have a super nice apartment, and it's an upstairs apartment on a member’s house so it's super nice!!  We helped cut and gather wood and as we were doing that THE SNOW STARTED!!!!!  WOOT!!  We played some Catan and Risk then we had dinner.  I almost won in Risk, but spread too thin and got wiped out.  Oh well.  Then all just hung out until bed time talking and stuff.  

Saturday we played in the snow!  Went sledding and had snowball fights and everything great about life!  Elder Crandall ended up hitting a stump really hard and breaking one of the sleds.  It was pretty funny...  He has a big bruise on his bum now.  At least that's what he keeps telling us.  None of us have really wanted to check that much.  Then we came in and played Risk again.  We got Elder Crandall to play this time.  It was his first time ever.  I got killed second, not first this time.  I need to get better at Risk.  Then we played some other games and had dinner.  The Patten's are awesome! Elder Van Wagoner and Elder Crandall went out in the snow for a while and then the rest of us went to follow them.  We didn't see them building a snow cave on the side of the house like they said they would, so we ended up following their tracks about 2 miles down the road.  It was pretty fun.  After finding them, we all came back to the house together and took pictures right outside the house in the snow, then had a huge wrestling match in the snow.  It was so much fun!!!  That night Elder Fisher, Elder Thorpe, Elder Van Wagoner and I played Settlers of Catan again.  Just with a bit of a twist.  Elder Fisher started using his Boston accent.  Then Elder VW hopped on too. After five minutes we were all playing with Boston accents and kept talking like that for the rest of the night!  It was so much fun and super funny too!

Sunday we had authorization to do the sacrament, so we went down and had the sacrament with the  Pattens.  The Calvert Ward Bishop came and picked us up to go help shovel snow (we stayed in Calvert county for the storm.... There are only two Elders there and they didn't want to be all alone for 4 days) as Bishop was driving us around from house to house shoveling snow we noticed an old lady starting to shovel snow at the bottom of an extremely steep and long driveway and her house was at the top of this hill. So we stopped to help. With Bishop using a snowblower and 5 Elders with snow shovels we got the driveway cleared in no time! She thanked us in tears as she told us that her husband had a heart condition and she had no idea how she was going to be able to clear all the snow all by herself. She said it was quite the site to see 5 Mormon Missionaries pile out of a truck and clear her snow. I love the feeling of being in the right place at the right time to help someone in need. Came home and had a few wrestling matches inside and just had lots of fun in general.  Talked with  Elder Williams and even with the snow days we exceeded all our goals except total lessons and  sacrament.  Sacrament was only because it was cancelled.  I love this work I'm doing so much!  Our area is on fire, and everyone here is so great and I'm just so so so happy!!  I love you guys!  Have a great week!!!!

Elder Sorensen

Shoveling snow

(Bennie is the one with red gloves)

Week 83- Exchanges, Parker, Peppers & Why I Believe

This week was so good!  We had tons of success this week too, so it was good to see a continuation of that and not just a drop off like I've seen in other areas!  I LOVE BEING BUSY!!!!! 

So, Tuesday morning we got up ssuuuppppeerrr early and went to seminary.  It was pretty fun!  We learned about Gideon!  I like Sister Hale, she's a really good teacher!  Then we came home, and had breakfast, etc.  We went to lunch at Chick-Fil-A and took it over to the laundromat to teach A-- and help her prepare her talk for Sunday!  It was really fun! I ended up writing most of the first draft so she had something to work off of because she wasn't very excited about giving it.  All week she was threatening me with payback.  Meaning, a face full of whipped cream, or raw eggs...  Yeah.  Anyway, we had a lesson with Brothe Spoltore at the church after that.  It went well.  One thing I like about this area is that the people we work with often ask questions, or points that require me to search it out in my studies!  It's so fun to have a purpose in that!  We went to dinner with a really cool member after that, the Verkerkes.  Brother Verkerke made really good hamburgers.  And one of the people were working was at dinner with us too so it was a really good opportunity for us to teach him too because we hadn't seen him in a few weeks!  The message we shared he said was perfect for him at that time.  It's good hearing that as a missionary.  

Wednesday I went on exchanges with Elder Gipson.  It was lots of fun!  We had a lesson with one of their investigators that was so awesome!  They had given him The Restoration pamphlet before hand and told him to read through it.  Well, we got there and he basically taught us the restoration, and then set up all the appointments necessary for him to get baptized including the interview and baptism itself.  WHAT!?!?!  I'm so lucky I get to be around here and see all these awesome people making so many changes in their lives and coming closer to Christ.  It's the best.  We had a ward coordination meeting that night then just hung out with Elder Gipson’s roommates Elder Jenks and Elder Strubell.  It was lots of fun.  

Thursday didn't even feel like a real day...  We had Zone District Meeting where I exchanged back with Elder Williams.  During Zone District Meeting Elder Parker called me and wanted to go on exchange!  Haha, oh my goodness!  So, we went to an appointment with A-- that night then I headed up to Elder Parker’s and Elder Williams took Elder Patchett down here!  Elder Parker and I got to catch up, and play hockey in the apartment again, and have lots of fun reliving the old days in the mosaic apartment! It was great!  

The next day we went to Sister Mays!!  It was good to be there, but kinda weird...  Most of the people there were super new, so I felt really old, and really out of place.  Elder Parker got me to poke holes in all the peppers so everyone got mad and made us eat them too.  Well, I used a tactic I learned from Elder Treasure.  Go into meditation mode!  It was hot, but I didn't even cry this time!  Elder Parker on the other hand said it was the worst one he's eaten...  Haha, sorry Parker.  After that Elder Parker and I headed up to the Visitors Center to see D-- and D-- from the ASL branch, but they thought the appointment was for Saturday and not Friday, so we didn't get to see them... Sad panda.  Elder Parker felt really sick from his pepper so we went home and let him lie down for a while after that. Then we drove back down to White Plains to exchange back!  It was really nice to be with Elder Parker for a day before he goes home on February 3rd.  I'm gonna miss him!!  Friday night was awesome because I got to sleep in my own bed! 

Saturday we went to The Chamberlains!!!!!!!  I love them so much.  We got to have breakfast, then went to Noah's basketball game again.  They crushed the other team 14-1!!  Then we all went and had lunch at their house!  I missed them!  It seemed like we hadn't seen them in forever because it had

been a week,  but it was really good to see them.  After that we had dinner with the Cheneys!  The Cheneys are awesome.  We had the really cool opportunity to help their son Michael with a talk on how he knows the Book of Mormon is true.  We asked him if he knew it was true, and he said, “I dunno.”  So we talked about if the principles in the Book of Mormon are good, and if they're good, then they're from God.  And then we talked about Moroni’s promise and challenged him to read it that night.  Then we ate, and then Michael wanted to play ping pong, so we did that too!  It was fun!  Afterwards we went to A--'s house for one last pump up for her talk!  She wasn't excited at all.  We finished the night with ward coordination with Brother Heath.  Then we headed home.

Sunday we got up bright and early for our meetings and then had church.  We got to go to Michael’s talk during primary and he did a really good job!  It snowed during church which made me super duper happy too!!  When we got home I walked in the house and the kitchen was a mess!  So Elder Williams wasn't feeling well and he took a nap while I cleaned the kitchen for an hour and forty-five minutes!  It was spotless after that.  We went to dinner with The Hayes Family who had also invited A-- so they could give her a ride up to the VC. We had a good meal amidst threats of raw eggs in my face and hair. Then we all headed up to the VC.  Well, I didn't think it was gonna be a huge crowd so I used that as a comforting point for A--.  Except that we filled the auditorium and two overflows..... She was livid. BUT!! She did an amazing job, and she felt really good afterwards and stopped threatening us!  I got to sit with Ceasar during the meeting! It was good to see him again! 

Today was pretty fun!  I cut Elder Summit’s hair this morning.  We hung out with Elder Van Wagoner and Elder Thorpe.  Then we had dinner with The Geers and stopped by A--'s to share a spiritual thought with her too!  It was a good week, and this one is looking promising as well! 

I love you guys! Have a good week!

Week 82- The Little Things the Spirit Can Do

This week was so freaking amazing I can't even believe it!!  I love it here!  Okay, so Monday night we had dinner with The Chamberlains and tons of fun at their house!  I love that family so much!  They've seriously become like my family out here!  It's awesome!

Then Tuesday we had a lesson with Brother Spoltore and he took us to Silver Diner! Woot!  I got some really good sliders.  It was awesome.  We went down to Brother Heath’s, our ward mission leaders to go on an exchange.  We had a lesson with Sister W- at the library, and then our next appointment cancelled.  I was kinda at a loss for what to do and the spirit wasn't giving me any distinct impressions, so I was just looking at our less actives list and suggesting people.  As we were discussing where to go we ran into one of our less actives we hadn't seen in a while!  It was super cool to get to talk with him for a minute before he had to get going again. 

As we tried to go around to a few more houses with no luck, we ended up close to a lady I had service for last transfer and hadn't seen her since.  I felt super duper strongly that we should stop by.  I called her up and sure enough we got to go over there.  It was divine inspiration we had Brother Heath with us because she opened up to him so much and we got hear her story and understand her better.  The situation was just so perfect because she had been avoiding visits from The Bishopric etc I think she opened up to us a bit more because we had done service for her. And having Brother Heath along made it possible for us to visit with her.  To visit with sisters alone- we have to have three.

It was awesome!  After that we went to Brother Heath’s house to get our car and went to dinner with The Grange’s.  They're a really fun family, and their kids kinda remind me of my siblings--so that's fun!  Love you guys!   Our night continued as we went to The Geer’s house. We had a really good lesson about Lot’s wife, and the New Year.  Don't look back.  That the message we’re sharing with most of our members right now.  Dad, your letter this week really relates to that well. I'm going to start incorporating bits of the stuff you talked about, like "What Lack I Yet".

That day we shared the video with three different people. Each lesson went a different way.  It is so awesome to see the spirit guide each lesson the way it needs to go!  I love being a missionary because I get to see all the little things the spirit can do to influence people.  We ended up with 6 lessons that day!  It was so awesome!  

Wednesday was good.  I was pretty tired and had a headache most of the day, but it was still amazing!  We did service for Brother Cusic.  His grandparents-in-law were there and their ward missionaries so it was fun to see them.  We helped put a whole bunch of boxes up in the attic and then helped plan his son’s baptism a little bit.  On the way home to change clothes I got a Wendy's 2016 keychain card for free frosties!!  Woot!  Then we had dinner with our Elder Quorum President and his family.  It was this creamy spinach chicken stuff over rice.  It was soooooo good. Anyway, after that we went to the church because we had splits with the priests for their mutual activity that night!  I took my two over to A-'s house and Elder Williams took his group to the H-’s.  It was really fun to teach the priests all how to teach and what to teach etc.  I think it was really good for them to get experience doing missionary work!  I love it!  It was tons of fun!  

Thursday was also super nice! We had zone district meeting which was awesome as always.  We got a new/old car!  An old car, but a different one than we had, and it's way better!  Red Corolla!  That evening we had dinner with The Sutherlands.  It was awesome!!  I love the Sutherlands.  After dinner we had “Ward Night of Ministry.” The ward council sets out to visit with families we haven't seen or are worried about.  I went with Brother Heath and Elder Williams went with Brother Hatch.  So, Brother Heath and I were going to visit a family the bishop recommended.  We got to the cul-de-
sac and didn't know which house it was, but we went to a ward member who lives right there to ask because they knew.  We were let into the ward member’s house and ran into their less active son and talked with him for an hour.  We left there both feeling satisfied that we did what we were supposed to do.  It was a good feeling.  Elder Williams and I are hoping to start meeting with him more regularly.  Elder Williams struck out trying to visit people.. Bummer.  

Friday was so awesome.  We met with S- at 11:30 and had a really good lesson with him.  He's going to be coming to the temple for baptisms soon!  Woot!  Then we went to The Cusics to help some more --more cleaning up decorations.  Then we ran home because we both had headaches and got ibuprofen!  Later we went to Brother H’s house. I think I talked about him last week, but just in case, he is engaged to a non-member who lives in our ward, and he just moved into our ward.  We talked with them last Sunday and set up an appointment. Okay, you're caught up.  We met with him before hand to just get to know him and a bit about his fiancè before the lesson.  Turns out they'd been reading the Book of Mormon together for 5 months and going to church in The Patuxent Ward for a few weeks!!  We had a super solid first lesson with her and she's going to be baptized on January 31st!!  I'm so lucky that Heavenly Father blessed me with this area, and all these amazing people!  It's great!  I love it so so much!

After this lesson we had dinner with A-!  It was so fun!  It's so great here!  Saturday we had our morning appointment cancel, so we had texted The Chamberlains the day before and set up a breakfast and then went to go watch Noah's basketball game with them!  It was so so so fun!  I love The Chamberlains!  And his team won!  Then we ran home and put on our suits and went up to the temple, because guess what? A- DID BAPTISMS FOR THE DEAD!!  It was so fun to get to go with her and see her experience that!  Plus I asked her to speak at Why I Believe the next Sunday and she said yes!  She said I took advantage of the happy feelings the temple gave her after, but I'm so excited for her!  We went to Panda Express for dinner, and then over to Brother Heath’s for ward correlation! 

Sunday was great!  We had ward council at 7:30 am so we were up at 6 am getting ready.  We got to help teach the 14-15 year old class!  It was fun to do that.  I felt kinda connected to Dad teaching Sunday school!  Love you Dad!  Then we went to Brother Cusic’s for the pre-baptism party, then to the baptism!  It was so cool!  I also got one of my friend’s emails from the singles ward while I was there from one of the ward members, so that's cool. I heard the Seahawks won so a good day got even better!  We finished put the night doing lots of planning back at our apartment. 

Today’s p-day has been so stellar!  We got up and drove up to east west chapel.  Then we metroed down to Ceasar’s house and had brunch!  I got to meet Cecilia the girl he's marrying!  She's so nice and I'm excited for him!  After brunch we went back to the church and played hockey until three.  It was so much fun to see all my Silver Spring friends and have hockey again!!!  I took my GoPro, so I'll send videos later.  Now we're getting dressed and ready for dinner with The Baileys.  The family in the Calvert Ward that's daughter and husband live in our ward, and we get to see Elder

Van Wagoner and Elder Thorpe there too!  I love this area soooooo much!!!!!  I miss you all and will see you soon enough!  19 months today baby!!  Woot!!!

Week 81-Family Away from Home

This week feels like it started forever ago!!  It was really, really good though.  So, Tuesday we had some really good lessons.  And in between finished up moving all the stuff out of the old apartment.  It was pretty solid.  I love the people we get to work with here. 

Wednesday we got to go to The Chamberlains all day long!!  I love The Chamberlains so so much!  They're awesome!  I'm gonna be so sad to leave this ward and not see them for a while.  We helped them clean out the garage and then take down Christmas decorations, then we got to play some basketball and board games!  It was so much fun. 

New Year's Eve was super fun!  We had a few elders stay over and stayed up till the New Year.  Then we went to bed but I couldn't sleep for whatever reason so Elder Van Wagoner and I stayed up and talked all night.  During the day on New Year's Eve though, we had zone district meeting which was fun.  We also had to pick up a bike from the Patuxent sisters which took forever, but at least we have it now. Then we checked on a list of people Bishop gave us to figure out about and made some good progress on it.  After that we had a lesson with A-!  It was really good.  Her progress is awesome.  We also got to play pie face, which if you saw the video was really fun. We were invited to a progressive dinner with 4 families in the ward.  The Cottles, (Bishop and his family) the Nichols, the Sutherlands, and the Cheneys (I served in the singles ward when their daughter Katelynn was here in the summer time). Katelynn was in town so it was fun to catch up with her, and I love all four of those families so it was awesome to just be with them on New Year's Eve and spend time with some of my favorite people. 

New Year's Day was a non-proselyting day so we got to hang out with the elders that stayed over for a while then we all had dinner appointments.  We were invited to Elder Summit and Elder Talbot’s dinner appointment, which was really nice.  

Saturday morning we played basketball and then we went to The Chamberlains again!  They love having us over and we love going over, so it's a win-win situation.  They have seriously become my family away from home.  I'm so happy I met them, and am so grateful for the love and care they've
shown me.  

Sunday we switched to 9 o’clock church!  Yikes!  It was really good though.  We had three people bring non-members, so we have a couple of new potentials!  It's really exciting!  After church we came home and chilled for a bit, then went to our ward correlation meeting with Brother Heath the ward mission leader.  He's so awesome.  He's a great ward mission leader.  I really enjoy working with him.  We headed to dinner after that with The Barrows.  They're a really nice family, and I really like listening to Brother Barrow.  He has some really cool spiritual insights about the things we share with them.  After that we finished the night at The Cusics by helping them with some homework and Christmas decorations!  I love this ward!   

Guess what, I started my last journal this week!!  So exciting!  I plan to finish this one right in sync with the ending of my mission, so wish me luck!  Still going strong writing everyday!!  I love you guys-- have an awesome week for me!!

Elder Sorensen