June 4, 2012
ELDER PARKINSON IS BACK IN THE FIELD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am so excited and just super pumped to hear that my old friend from the M.T.C made it back to Mexico. Elder Parkinson went home not being worthy 7 months ago, it devastated me and my friends many others I am sure. But now he is back. I cant believe that he made it back out. Everyone, including the President, didn't think that he would be able to make it back out. After SEVEN MONTHS he made it back!!! What a man!! He has the strongest testimony of anyone I've meet. He called me today on his way to the office from the airport about an hour ago. What a stud. I want to know where he's going to be.

This is with out doubt been a really great week. We haven't had any baptisms but this Sunday is going to be great. We have a bunch of work to do. We have a ton of people to visit so we are going to be running around like we are crazy this week.

I got my package!!!! Thank you so much! I am trying to decide how i want to make the cake (i don't have an oven) I was thinking about making them like pancakes, what do you think? Or should i just ask a convert to make it? I will let you know.

Sounds like everything is going good at home. Thanks for all your letters
Love you Forever
Elder Sorensen

 May 28, 2012

It is good to hear that everyone is good at home. Thanks for wishing me a happy birthday. We have had a crazy week this week.

We have been blessed in abundance to have Marta, Felix, Giovanni, Christian and Josefina get baptized this week. They are all so cool. Marta and her family have already singed up on the Food Roll so we get to go eat with them every Friday. We found them the Saturday before we called you on Skype. We have had a great time teaching them. They are so cool. They loved everything we have showed them. The mom is a power house, and is devouring the Book of Mormon. She has read all the introductions and testimonies and is well into 1 Nephi. We had a really cool lesson on the Plan of Salvation. They loved it. The dad works all day but has a lunch break from 3 to 5 so we visit them at 3:30 so everyone is there. It just goes to show how committed they are and how much they want this.

Josefina was a Jehovah Witness that was ex-communicated from that church for getting married to someone who wasn't a member of that church. Shes been looking for a new church and couldn't find it until we knocked on her door. She felt the spirit, loved it and just took off at 100 mph. It was awesome. She has studied a ton and knows the bible and now is just devouring the Book of Mormon. She told us that she had made the decision to get Baptized before we could ask here. ha ha it was awesome. She showed up at the church at 7 am to be baptized. It was sweet how much will she had.

I cant really seem to think that a pizza delivery guy got going fast enough to actually take out the Jeep. Its been a good reliable friend. Oh well i was looking forward to finally buying a Wrangler :) OIIIIIIIO be sure to send me some pictures of how bad it looks.

Well i love you guys a ton. Thanks for all that you have done for me.
Love you Forever
Elder Sorensen

May 21, 2012

Hola Familia

It was great to get to read all your letters. Thanks for all the birthday wishes. I can't believe in 2 days I will be 20. I can't believe in a month I will be half was through my mission, its gone so fast.

Today we got to go to the Tutankhamen or king tut museum with my companion. It was cool. If you know your history (religious) you can see all the connections with the gospel. They believed in a white feathered snake that descended from the heavens and it just turns out that one of the symbols for Jesus Christ is a snake, funny how that the devil used that image. There is tones of connections like that here.
               
We have found some really cool people this week. We found an ex Jehovah witness who got excommunicated for getting married again. Something normally fine, but has absolutely loved all the stuff we have shared with her. We also have found a family of 4 that is just way sweet. The mom has read the first part to the Book of Mormon, the cover page, the testimonies, and the introduction. We shared Alma 32 with them and showed them how they had already gained a testimony. We also last night found a young women that wanted to get baptized about 2 years ago and couldn't get permission from her dad, but now almost is 19. She has friends that are either on a mission or going on a mission. We have been supper blessed this week. Thank you for your prayers.

Sounds like everything is going well at home.
Thanks for all your letters family and friends! Things are going great.

Love you all forever
Elder Sorensen

Hola Familia
It was great to get to see you guys, I loved all the little stories you all told me. And it was great to see how everything is going. Tell Jake that if he wants to fix up a sports car he should start with the Jeep. I want to go mudding when I get home. ha ha

My new area is great! We are finally starting to get it moving. My companion is starting to hit the "this is hard phase of Mexico" I think. It is hard and I have to admit I've seen some really hard weeks. But its only to make us better more convicted missionaries. Its not the best 2 years of my life. Its the best 2 years for my life.

I love you all a ton and I miss you a ton. You kind of made me home sick, at least for a moment or two.
Elder Sorensen

Heating water for a shower.

May 7, 2012

Hola Familia

O.k. first off, I get to call you guys this Sunday at about 3:00 to 5:00 pm 5/13/2012).
If their will be any problem please send me an Email ASAP, and I'll see you 

soon :D
It has been a crazy this week. I have been just about lost this whole week. I have had no idea where I've been. I don't even have a map that I can carry around. But its been good and we brought one person to church last week and he is really exited to get baptized this next Sunday.

My new comp is Elder Burt. He is a cool kid from Bakers Field California. He is older than I am too. His Spanish isn't that bad either. He was in Texas for 5 weeks before he came here. He told me that they didn't really teach him that much there, but hes still a cool kid.

Being a trainer is so cool. It makes me feel that I don't know anything sometimes. We have a 2 hour companion study everyday where I get to teach all that he'll need to know. Its kind of intimidating, but so far they have turned out o.k. Teaching investigators is interesting too, Elder Burt is still learning Spanish so i get to teach a lot. I let Elder Burt teach as much as I can, and he does a good job. I still just can't believe that my first English speaking companion I get is brand new, and I get to teach him Spanish. I thought i was going to train a Latino. At least is sounded the most probable.

I can't believe that I'm about to hit the year mark. I think I might try to get an extension. We will have to see what the President says.

Sounds like everything is going great at home. Keep up the good work.
I'll see you Sunday.
Elder Sorensen

¡Hola Famili

I am glad to here that everything is good back home.

I am going to be a Dad! Or in other words I am going to be a trainer. When you train someone your are that Missionary's mission Dad and his your kid. I don't know who my new comp is going to be but will get to find out tomorrow. I am also opening an area called Molinito 1B. From what I have heard I am going to baptize a lot here. It is a poor area and there is always a lot of baptisms here. I will let you know how the area is. I have no idea how it is - except that I am going to have to take a shower out of a bucket.

Hey just a FYI I pulled out some money this week. I needed a little extra, and i bought some gifts for some converts I am leaving behind. I bought a Spanish triple, a little future missionary name tag, Jesus the Christ in Spanish and a few DVDs. Thank you for keeping a little bit of money there for me. I shouldn't need to pull any more out for a wile. Thanks a million X 10 again for that - it really helps.




We had 2 Baptisms this week. Amalia Sanchez and Dolores Bautista. Amalia was a old investigator we found a while ago and she told us she wanted to be baptized, so we worked with her and everything came through. The other is Dolores. She is way cool! About 4 - 3 weeks ago I got a call in my District meeting from the USA and a Member gave me a reference. Delores was that reference. Shes way cool! She is the one where i have a picture of us in the water. It turns out that her brother passed away and she had been asking all the questions like where is my brother... so we taught lesson 2, she was so ready to hear it. She accepted every word that we said. We had many spiritual lessons with her but we could never ask her to accept a baptismal date. For some reason we could never get to the question. But this last Tuesday we went over and she told us that she told her family that she was going to get baptized. It was awesome. She also made friends with Luz Maria at conference. She is a convert who is awesome. They were super happy to be there. It was a great day.

Real quick our mission had 425 baptisms and 433 confirmations this month :) We have about 90 companionships in the mission. What a miracle! The president is pushing us to 500 - that's the goal.



It was some what hard to leave the area, I have lots of friends here. David and Elizabeth made me a birthday cake. it was awesome and gave me a Angry Birds pillow (i gave them the triple). They are great people.

Thanks for all the support.

Love you forever.
Elder Sorensen

hola familia mia

I have had a good week. I can't believe that i have bee 10 months in the mission. It is crazy!

We had a couple of baptisms this week. We had baptisms on Friday and on Sunday.  Brandon Brad and Alondra got baptized this last Friday and Laura and Felicitas got baptized Sunday.  It was a good week. Brad and his family have been coming to church for about a week and finally committed to getting baptized a week ago. It was cool! Once Brandon was set on getting baptized he wanted his family to follow him, so he went and started to talk to everyone in his family to get them to get baptized. He is a quarter back for a some what famous Mexican football team. So hes given up a lot to make this decision to get baptized.

Laura and Felicitas are real cool, they were Catholic but they went inactive. So they came to our church and I have to say that I have learned a lot teaching them. They understood and accepted everything. They accepted a fecha but as the day got closer they were less and less firm in their decisions. Sunday came and they changed their minds. It was sad but we keep after them. My comp and the District Leader went on interchanges and  re-committed them to get baptized and they did. It was really cool.

We had interviews with the President Sunday too. It was a really good interview. I have been blessed with a descent amount of success in this area. The President told me that it isn't usually seen in the area that I am in, so he checked me on my humility. He told me what i need to do to take it up and notch and put power and humility in my teaching and being. I am  kind of anxious to know what I'm going to do in the next change.

I loved the Ester package! It was a great surprise when i got it! I had forgotten about how awesome jelly beans are. :) Thanks a ton!

Make sure that you wish dad and Abby happy birthday for me!! The pictures look great.

Love you forever
Elder Sorensen

April 16, 2012
Hola Familia!!

It is great to get to here from you guys again. It has been a good week here in Mexico. The work is moving on here in Roma. We have had 35 lessons this week and 140 contacts. We have just been working hard, and we have found a lot of cool people.

David got ordained to the priesthood last Sunday. They are going to present him in front of the stake this next Sunday to give him the Melchizedek priesthood. I am really excited for that. I am sending a picture of them and me. They are the ones that i took to get married. It is great to see them keep going. They are still planning on visiting me/us when i come home. They are one of the coolest families that I've had the opportunity to get to teach.



Luz Maria got confirmed Sunday too. It was cool she showed up all by her self and is doing everything. She told us that when we first found her she didn't think that we were that great, because we talked about things different than the Jehovah Witness, but she then said how great full that she was that we keep after her (we dropped her for 2 weeks) but then went to invite her to conference. From there she just lit on fire. Ha ha, it was sweet.

My friend Elder Lee found out today that his brother (working in the MTC) got to teach David Archaleta. ha ha that would be a really cool opportunity.

We got to play soccer today and i got fried. Ha ha ha. I forgot sunscreen. I still don't get how I can work all day in the sun and I don't get burned, but i play soccer for an hour and i get fried to a crisp.    

This week we have just had a full week of lessons. We did at long last commit a family to get baptized. It was sweet we had the weirdest interchanges too. The district leader came and changed with my comp to do an interview Sunday during church. Then Elder Lee and I went and taught 2 teenagers. They were awesome lessons the spirit was so strong in each one of them. We talked to Brad about a few commandments and answered all of his questions. At the end his only question was "how can we get my brother to get baptized with me?" I told him to just tell his brother and to ask him to do it to. So we pulled his brother out of class and they went and talked. 5 minuets later they came and told me that they were going to do it but they wanted to talk to their mom. She was somewhat star struck and really happy. The ward is now really exited for it too. The family has so many problems with everything. But you can tell that things are getting better. They are another amazing family too.

I have no idea how the people manage to have good strong families here. The families in the church are close to the only families that are secure. I've gotten to see how the gospel has helped many families. Its great! Its a huge testimony builder.


Love you forever
Elder Sorensen

April 10 2012

Hola familia

It is good to here that everything is going well and that you guys had a good break. Everyone sure is starting to grow up. It is crazy. It is also good to see that grandpa still has a little bit of hair left. ha-ha.

The work is moving forward here in Mexico. Everyone has been out on vacations this week. It is Semana Santa, so everyone who's a catholic had left on vacations. They don't have any money, but they some how still left on vacations! Who knows how they do it, but they did. So the streets have been extremely empty here in Mexico. It's so weird, its the largest city in the world, but its been empty for the last few days. The only people that didn't leave are either Jehovah witnesses or Catholics, most of which just want to bible bash. It is really kind of annoying, but we have been able to find some really cool people.

We had one baptism this week her name is Luz Maria. We have been teaching her on and off for about 2 months now. She know that this church is true, but for some reason still wanted to make sure that the Jehovah witnesses weren't true. With Elder Lopez we dropped her, but when we were looking new investigators to bring to the general conference we went to check on her. She came and had an awesome experience. It gave her the courage to say no to the Jehovah witnesses and yes to us :) it was sweet. She is the most humble person you will meet and has a desire to learn about the Gospel. I just can't explain how humble she is. She also has 3 iguanas! They are sweet! They are about 4 feet long and then there is a small one. She keeps them in these tiny cages but routinely lets them walk around her house at different times. She let me take a picture with them so I'm sending you a picture. The iguanas are really tame too. They don't bite, and love being petted. She also had about 16 little birds and about 8 turtles. Her house is tiny! It has 2 floors about the size of our living room. The down stairs is where they the animals live. Ha-ha it is crazy. I have decided when I get home I'm going to buy an iguana.

I read a talk about giving thanks by President Monson. It is a great talk. It talks about how powerful it is to give thanks. For example when Christ shared  the bread, he first gave thanks for what they had and then they were blessed with more. So that's been one of my goals - to give more thanks. So remember in your prayers to give thanks for what you've received and then the Lord can bless you with more. A great place to exercise that would be with grandpa. I am positive you pray for him every time you pray, i know i do, so be sure to give thanks to our Heavenly Father for the strengths that Grandpa has received, he looks great in all the pictures.

Love you forever

Elder Sorensen

April 2, 2912
Hola familia

Its good to get to hear from you again, and to hear that everyone is fine. Sounds like you had a great vacation. Everyone here is on vacation for 2 weeks. Its Semana Santa here in Mexico or "Holy Week". From what I have heard they have demonstrations of every stage of Christs ministry. So I will have to let you know how it goes.

Its still shaking here in Mexico, about 10 min ago we felt another one. Nothing has fallen.

Conference was awesome! I only got to watch the sunday session, and i missed President Uchdorfs talk. :/ But I loved it none the less. We wached it in english, with about 6 american Elders. We laughed a bit at a few talks. For example when Elder D Todd Christoferson said real plainly that if you don't get baptized you will be damned. We were in unbelief but laughing at the same time. When he said that long word followed by translate that! We just lost it, we laughed our heads off. It was awesome.

We ended up having a descent number of investigators come to conference. It was great. The Prophet and Apostles really talked alot about lesson 2 this time. They talked really strong about baptizm it was awesome. We also had a Sister who has been studying with the Jehovas Wittnesses, she let us in to explain to her about how she could find out who had the true church..... and i think she got her anwser. :) but i do have to ask what the new temples they anounced?

Love you guys a Ton

Elder Sorensen

March 19, 2012
Hola!
It sounds like you all are doing great this week. I am glad to hear it.
It has been a super busy week and it ended super! I couldn't stop smiling all Sunday. This week David and his wife Elizabeth got baptized, its been a fight 

but they finally got there. Everything went off with out a problem, the service was Saturday in the morning. It was so cool. 

Also Marisol got baptized Saturday before David and his family. She is defiantly a very interesting investigator. She came to church on her own and loved it! She just thinks that you should wait 3 months to get baptized. We finaly talked her into getting baptized to show a good example to her kids. She has 4 kids and her husband has 3 kids and all of them came to church this last Sunday. It was really cool to see her finally get baptized. Now we can work on her kids.

Sunday we had another service for Christopher. He is the son of Erika who got baptized last week. It was a really great experience for him. He basically said "I am ready to change my life, stop doing stupid stuff and start doing good stuff." His mom and him don't have a very great relationship at all. She was not a great mom and was involved in some bad things and neglected her kids. Now she is doing everything she can to try to fix it. It is going to take some time, but you can already see and feel the change that has happened in their family. His mom didn't come to the baptism because they had 

a fight, but it helped her to see where one of her errors are and shes going to fix it. Christopher's uncle came up to support him get baptized and the baptism was really special.

Its been a really hard week to stay humble, we had 9 confirmations this week. It just so happened that the BYU study abroad program came up to our church today with like 25 returned missionaries. Nine confirmations is alot in one service, The bishop had all the investigators come and sit up front and we confirmed them one by one. It took about 30+ min. After all was said and done most of the students from BYU came and congratulated me for all the hard work. They were also saying things about miracles.... it was probably something they have never seen before. Then all the members came and congratulated me for all the hard work. To be honest it kind of bugged me. I ended up sending everyone (who was from the ward) who talked to me to the new converts to support them. We also had the opportunity to talk the Christopher uncle. He talked us up a ton for baptizing his nephew. It really brought to mind what Elder Uchtdorf said in his talk "Pride in the Priesthood", where he talks about the counsel that he got when he was a new Apostle. The members will say really nice things about you, and to you. They will do nice things for you, and to just not breath it in. So that is what I've been trying to do, not let all of it go to my head. 

We had interchanges this week too. My new comp is Elder Jimens. He is a cool kid. He lives about 3 hours from where we are at in a town called Nealtican Puebla. He has been in the mission for about 3 months. It will be a cool opportunity to get to be his companion.
Well my time is up. Keep up the good work.

Love ya forever

Elder Sorensen

March 5, 2012

OK, well from today and for the for see able future I can only write one person one letter, that's not my presidents rule, it is a new rule that has been put into effect to help us stay obedient. So its been a good week and I have had some really cool experiences.

First off we got flu shot's, but don't worry i didn't have to go to the doctor or anything. Half of the mission got together and one of the assistants and a daughter of the mission pres gave us the shot. The Mission Presidents daughter is studding to be a nurse and she explained to the assistant how to give a shot. So that was cool.

We are also teaching a family who is really cool. The mom and the daughter have a really weird work schedule that changes every hour and sometimes they don't get home until 5 in the morning. But anyways they came to church with us. They stood us up last week - and this week they tried hiding from us. They opened the door to the apartment complex and hid, but I saw them as we walked in. They were all four ready and waiting for us at 7:30am thats was really cool.

I also gave my first lesson in English. We found a man named John. He has lived here for 15 years. He sells gold, or somethng like that. He also said that the gold market is inflated. Anyways hes 100% against the catholic church, and has noticed good things about Later Day Saints. It was cool to get to teach in English. It is crazy how many words I have forgotten. It just means that I am learning Spanish. The coolest thing that happened this week is that I got to see Elder Butler and Elder Cummings. They were in my district in the MTC. Elder Butler had lost 60pounds, and had to cut his belt in half, yep half, and Elder Cummings has lost 55pounds. Sounds like everything is going great at home.

I love you guys a ton!
Wish Jess a Feliz Cumpleaños!
Love you forever
Elder Sorensen

Hola Familia
February 20, 2012
It has been a crazy week. We are in the process of finding new people to teach this week. We found a sweet family of 4, the only problem is that the mom is seperated from the dad, but they came to church last Sunday and from what i can tell they liked it. We have a lesson with them this Tuesday. It sounds like everything is good at home. I never thought that Jacob would go to a dance in a pink tux, but they looked good. Wish grandpa luck for me, hes in my prayers. We had a conference with the Mission President this week it was really good. He talked to us about how we need to stay obedient so we don't fall in the pride cycle. Most of the powerful missionaries and leaders ended there mission last transfer, about 24 give or take. We had expected to recieve about that same number in newbies but only 4 came. The rest are waiting for their Visa. It was a grat conference. I learned a lot. I've learned how to work with the ward leaders this week to. The church leaders here are all really young RMs, and the Bishop is brand new. I asked the prez for advice and he gave me some real good advice. We will see how it goes talking to the Bishopric this Wednesday. One thing that I have noticed here is that the wards aren't near as strong as the ones in Idaho, and the Ward Leaders really don't know what there doing sometimes and that makes problems for us. Usually we just call the Zone Leaders and they take care of the problem with the stake president. This ward seems like it has potential to grow. One of the things that the president told us in the zone conference is that starting next month I can only send one letter home via email, so if the little girls wright me I can't respond. So we were on the subway the other day and this dude got on and started playing his guitar and playing this flute like thing. It is like a bunch of different sized tubes that he blows on to make different pitched whistling sounds. It was really cool. I took a video to show dad but google wont let me send it, its to big. But he did a good job. I will have to find a way to send it to you.

Well I have got to go.
Love you Forever

Elder Steven Tray Sorensen

February 13, 2012
hola

It's good to hear that everyone is fine back at home.
It's been the first week with my new comp Elder Lopez. Everything so far has gone OK. Hes not quite as excited all the time like my last companion, but hes cool. He's from the same ward as Elder Beltrán, and is a convert to the church. He knows a lot and has a really distinct way of teaching. He is a really good follower and only has 4 months left. So I've had the opportunity to really lead the area for the first time. It's been a good experience, I showed myself that I have learned a lot and know how to do stuff. I know how to work, and what I need to learn. I get to carry around the cell phone and talk to all of our investigators and friends and they understand me. So my spanish has to be getting better. It's not perfect, but better.

Its weired to think that I only have 500 days left today. I'll have 8 months out on the 22nd and thats a weird thought. Im almost half way through, its gone by so fast. I'm told that it only goes faster after I hit the one year mark.

It is really great news to here that Grandpa Sorensen is doing good. I have to admit your last letter was a little... startling. Let them know they are in my prayers. Let me know how things go.

NO YOU DID NOT TELL ME JACOB WENT TO THE BONNEVILLE SWEET HEART!!!!!!! You will defiantly have to send me pictures and have JACOB tell me how it went.

Some times I feel like I'm in the middle of Sodom and Gomorrah. There is so much crap that happens here. You can't go 10 feet from our apartment before you see pornography in the streets and kids drugging themselves in the streets. I have no idea how the members do it here. We went to eat at a members house and they were all playing video games on cellphones and nintendo DS's. I didn't really get after them for it because its really almost all I would let them do if i was their parent. The only safe places here are in the churches, in a well founded home, or in the LDS founded High School. It's really a war, and were fighting for one person at a time. On the 10 of March we are going to marry a couple so they can get baptized. They have a 7 year old and they are 27 years old. They are way cool, but everyone has challenges when they start getting closser to the church. I had a feeling that I needed to go check on them the other day so we went to confirm the apointment for the night and it turnes out that they had been fighting again (one of the first times in 2ish years) and they weren't planning on being there in the night so it was a great thing that we went to see them. We were able to calm them down and explain alot of things to them. I even talked to them about Grandpa having cancer. It was a powerful lesson. I'm glad and extremely grateful for the Holy Ghost and for the revelation that Heavenly Father can give us.

love you forever
Elder Steven Tray Sorensen

Hola Familia!!!
Feb 6, 2012
It is good to hear that grandma and grandpa are doing OK, let me know how their doing. I'm sure youll have him on a Green smoothie diet here soon. One thing that ive learned is that everthing hapenes for a reason. I wish grandpa the best and hope that everything goes well for him, i'll be sure to keep him in my prayers.

My new comp is named Elder Lopez, hes from the same ward as my las comp Elder Beltran. He has 20 months in his mission and he thinks that this will be his last area. He is a mellower guy and it should be a good change working with him.

We got permission from our mission president to go to Chapultapec on a tour with some of our investigators. It was way cool. I got to learn a bit about the history of mexico, and their revolution. It was a really cool experience, and fun - to be honest. I'm really thankful that pres gave us permision to go.

Last monday we went to the Zocalo with a recent convert, Ceser. He explained to us all about the christian beliefs, to be honest, we could feel that the spirit wasn't really with us that strong. But when we left and started taking pictures, everything changed and the spirit was with us 110%. Cesar felt it he made a few comments about how good he felt afterwards. It was cool and we learned a lot.

Our investigator Marcos got baptized last monday too. He is a christian and I'm pretty sure that the only reason that he listened to us is because he wanted a eternal family and Heavenly Father touched his heart. He is really cool, He shared his testimony with us Sunday, he'd officialy been a member 1 hour. He will be a strong member to the ward and now all of his family are members. He had talked to missionaries before but he would always bible bash with them and fought, but not with us. With him, we have had a baptism every week this last change. What a blessing.

Well my times up.
I'll love you forever
Elder Sorensen

January 23, 2012
hola familia

It’s good to get to hear from you guys. It is good to hear that everything’s been going so well back home. It’s been a busy week here in Mexico. We had 3 baptisms this week, two 9 year olds (Omar and Samantha) whose dad (Isaac) is a convert but had something’s happen between his wife and him and they separated. The wrong was with her so he got to keep the kids. I have to give it to him, for what he is doing for his two kids.

Isaac is kind of broke for money. He’s self employed, selling tacos out of a smaller store that he’s renting, and that is where he lives, just the 3 of them. They sleep on the floor of his taco shop when he closes. I think he uses a mat or a blanket to put on the ground, they don’t have beds. He really is trying hard to give his kids a good life. Saturdays are the best nights to work selling tacos, because that when everyone is out and about. He’s open from 2ish till 11:30-12:00 at night on Saturdays and it’s only him. Every Sunday he’s at church 5 - 15 min before 8:00am. I don’t know how he does it. He’s happy too, so he is doing something right. I have to admit that his tacos are really tasty.
Our other baptism was Mario, he actually doesn’t live in our area but he works all day everyday in our area and can come to church in our area (the chapel is literally one block away) so our bishop let us baptize him.

 

Mouro had a cool baptism to, his boss called and told him that he needed to work more on Sunday, which has never ever happened. He told us but he worked like crazy and got to church in time for the last talk, and come back at 5:00pm ready to be, baptized. We had about 4 elders from the Elders Quorum there, not much but it was enough for it to be special, my comp baptized him and told me that after he came out of the water he told him that he just felt clean, just really clean.

It’s been interesting to see what happens right before a baptism, because there’s almost always a trial right before, and they all are different. Some come in a form of a sickness, or extra work, everything. Most of them punch through but some don’t.

We had interviews this last week with the president. I have to admit i was a little nervous, but everything went fine. My prez told me that my job was to learn the atonement, live the atonement and teach the atonement, that’s all. And he gave me some great advice. It was a great interview.

I also got to work with my old comp Elder Figueroa Thursday. It was cool. He did some interviews in my area for us. It was fun to get to work with him again and nice to get to actually talk to him without much of a language barrier.

My Spanish is really coming along; I can just talk now, which is nice. I conducted my first baptismal service and confirmed someone a member of the church this Sunday. So thank you for all your prayers.

Love you forever.
Elder Sorensen

January 16, 2012

Elder Sorensen and Elder Beltran at the baptism of Cesar, Alredio, Patricia, and Jasmine. 

It sounds like everyone is doing great. It really is good to hear that everything is going well.

We had 4 baptisms this week, Cesar, Alfredio, Patricia, and Jasmine. They went well, and we have been blessed to have 4 more baptisms this coming Sunday. Cesar is the one that I told you about last week. He’s 27 years old, and I found out that he knows Latin. He can read it, write it and speak it.

I’m so glad that they ended up going through. Cesar and I have become more friends than anything. Last Saturday we were talking with him in a lesson and I related the ¨I found my friend story with him¨; it really does apply with us. I can tell we meet before we came here and he can to. Cesar has had many trials. While we were teaching him lesson 1, his boss sent him a text telling him essentially that he didn’t have a job any more. So he’s managed to make it through that. At the baptism he got sick in the stomach from a bad taco or something, and had to leave to by Pepto-Bismol, then he got a text from one of his friends saying that she (a famous Mexican singer) wanted him to come do a show with her (a gig) and that the flight left at 1:30 if he wanted to go. But he stayed and made it through and had a great experience in his baptism.

I just received the banner from the ward last Tuesday, it’s really cool. Make sure you thank the bishop for me.

We had another busy week and have taught a ton of people. We had 32 lessons this week and have 12 new contacts. It’s good to be busy. I’m defiantly learning a ton of stuff from my comp Elder Beltran. We are definitely different; he has a really different teaching style and has a lot of experience, although sometimes I have to admit that he doesn’t share his wisdom very well at times. But I’m learning a ton from him and we are getting along.

I should finish the Book of Mormon this week. I’m in Moroni 7 as of today. It’s taken me about 3 and half months, but I’ve about read it all in Spanish. I can about understand it all. I’ve found its easier to pray in Spanish than in English also. It was weird I tried to pray in English and I found myself using Spanish words without knowing it.

Thanks for all your support and prayers they’ve helped a ton, their being answered.
Love you forever
Elder Sorensen

Jan 9, 2012 
Hola Familia!!
It’s been a crazy week this week I will have to admit. We have taught over 36 lessons this week, and we had 5 investigators come to church with us this last Sunday. It was a Sunday that I’ll never forget. We had one baptism with a Sister named Rosario she’s real cool. She had a awesome experience, she started crying about 40 sec after she came out of the water, saying that she just felt so clean. But that’s not what had the biggest impact on me this week.

We recently found a Young Man (27) named Cesar. He lives alone with 2 dogs, his family lives about 4+ hours away, and he’s just been working. We knocked on his door and he told us through the door he was showering, so we moved on to the next door. No one after him opened up, but after about 5ish minutes he shouts at us and told us to come and talk to him. We told him we were reps. of Jesus Christ and he said “Pásense” or “get in here” in English. To make long storry short hes talked to Jehovah Witnesses, a bunch of different Christian churches, and even lived in a Catholic Seminary for a year, he’s a catholic by birth. when we taught him lesson 3 (baptism) we found out that he didn’t think that any one church is true, and that salvation was a individual thing, he even said, “if you tell me that your church is the best, what a deception” so we explained to him that we can find out for ourselves through prayer and our purpose is to teach a man to fish not give him a fish.... so that was a powerful lesson. He was one of the investigators that came with us to church. To be honest nothing seemed like it went right for Cesar to have a good impression about the church, because it was fast and testimony meeting. And as you know everyone talks about how this church is the only true church, the Prophet and the Book of Mormon. After that meeting I asked him what he thought, he looked at me with an I don’t know what to say smile and just said that he needed us to explain some more things to him and that everyone said that this church is the best. So I told him were going to explain everything that happens in church to him at our appointment at 4:00. So my comp and I somewhat got the feeling that he wasn’t feeling to great about how we do things.

So at the last class, Elders Quorum, we were talking about Saints, and what makes a saint a saint. It went ok but Cesar made a comment that really made me worry about the members starting a war of words with him. He essentially said that a saint should be humble, and that he felt that every path leads to H.F. (we hadn’t taught him about the Restoration yet). That’s a really easy thing to nail someone for saying. But there happened to be 2 RMs in the class that did a great job, normally members are new and don’t know how to respond nicely to questions like this. They essentially explained that every person can pray and receive a testimony from Heavenly Father, and another said that it’s like if you see a crash it makes you a witness of that crash, and once you receive a testimony like this you’ll want to share it with people. And the response of Cesar was really cool he said he really did like what he saw in us as a church and really complemented us Elders, he said that the only reason that he come to church with us was because of what he saw in our eyes, he called it the truth and word of God. And that he felt the peace that he had been looking for with us. And that every member should try to be like us. It was a way huge complement.

So we taught him lesson one later on Sunday and he accepted everything really well. He told us I believe you and told us how we really did have something special. That he’s always been able to see if someone is teachings are of god from their eyes. I think that may be one of his gifts to say. He hadn’t seen the truth in anyone till we came along, and that he had a thought of savior knocking on his door when we knocked on his door and that he needed to check and see who was out his door, and that he felt that somehow he already knew us from somewhere, like we were friends before we came here. The spirit was so strong.
Well it sounds like everything is going good at home, thanks for all your love and support.
Love forever
Elder Sorensen

JANUARY 2, 2012

Happy New Year!!! Its good to here that everything is going well. Things are going good here.

My new area is Roma 2, and my companion is Elder Beltran. He's cool. He has 30 more days left in the mission. Then hes off to his house. But were still working hard, its going to be tough to stay focased when I'm that close to coming home.

Elder Sorensen and Elder Beltran at  Abigail and Juan Jose's Baptism

My new area seems cool we baptized Abigail and Juan Jose Saturday. They have quite a story. First off Abigail (26) and her husband have been fighting and crap had been going on, so we've been helping them, a little. They told us that they wanted baptized. Their interviews were last Friday, and after we schedulaed them i just had the strongest feeling that something was going to happen in the interviews, I've had that feeling a few times before, but their was not anything I could have done. So we did the interviews, Abigail wantes the Holy Ghost to help her with 2 things, her relationship with her husband and to receive guidance of what to do. So her interview was good, but the husband not so much. He ended up lying about a few things and yayaya so he flat out did not want to repent, and did not want his wife to either. It was weird because he was always really nice to us to. So he worked saturday and we talked to Abigail (his wife). She told us that she was going to look for a new house and that she was leaving her husband. Which to be honest is actually good news. Its has a lot to do what it talks about in Jacob 5. If you have a tree and half is good and half is bad first thing you do is try to save the bad half, but if nothing works cut the bad half off and let the good half live. I mean don't feel bad, she married this guy to make another jealous.

For new years we went and had dinner with her. She absolutely loves us. we are stilll teaching her and she still has a lot to learn about whats really important in life, but she's starting to see. Thats why she fought so hard to get baptized. She has a pretty motivating testimony.


So I've seen some new things here in Mexico City. The city changes a ton from day to night.


Anyway don't worry about me, if the lord is with me, who can be against me?


love you forever
Elder Sorensen

December 26, 2011

Hola Familia!!! It was so good to talk to all of you. It was awesome to say the least. I will see you on Mother's day!

Elder Sorensen and Elder Barajas

Elder Sorensen and Elder Barajas in Jardines(his first area)

Like I told you we baptized a man named Miguel Sanchez Dominges. He is really cool. He accepted everything really well and wanted to get baptized, but would never let us set a date for him. We used the "hey I am leaving on Monday and would like to see you get baptized." He was like "ok! Let's do it". He was really excited for his baptism he just needed to set his mind on a day. When we went to pick him up he wasn't at his house so we waited a bit, then we heard him yell at us. We had gone to the store real quick, he was power walking to get to his house. Once we were in his house he let us in and just started running from room to room getting ready. When he was ready he said "lets go". Once we were at the church and changed into our baptism clothes he was ready to just run right into the font. we stopped him and told him about the program we had planned. It was real cool. He was way excited to get baptized. I am so glad he got baptized.

Elder Sorensen Elder Baraja and Miguel Sanchez Dominges

So I’m in my new area, its right in the middle of the Federal District or Mexico City. It’s really cool, from what I can tell it’s really kind of small, my new comp (Elder Beltrán) said that we can walk from one side to the other in 45min. but there is still a ton of people here to work with, we even have some to baptize this Sunday. It’ll be real good change.
My comp is Elder Beltrán. His house is right under California, I think. He goes home in 6 weeks or at the end of this change. He’s cool. He was a Zone leader and got taken out to be a trainer but the elder he was training went home for some reason, so I’m with him. He told me that he wants me to essentially do everything, and he’s going to act more of a guide. He said that he thinks I’ll be a trainer next transfer, which would be really cool. So I’m really excited, he talks a lot to so I should learn a lot of Spanish to.

My trip out here was really kind of interesting. We had a member take us out to a point where we all split up and went to our different areas. But the member had a moving truck that had seats for 3 but there were like 6 missionaries and 1 member that needed to go, so 4 of us got to sit in the back with all the luggage. It was kind of cool.

So a while ago I was on interchanges with the ZLs and I stayed the night with Elder Ostler and we studied to and we were talking about what we read in the Book of Mormon for personal study and it happened that I had read Alma 46. And we applied verse 12 to missionary work it was really cool. It’s the verse about the title of liberty where it says in memory of our God, Religion.... Elder Ostler made a real cool comment, he made the point that it’s really a war out here and we are at the front lines, us missionaries, and how important it is that we have our motivation in the right source. Lots of times with the wars in the Book of Mormon the Nephites are outnumbered, by a lot; it always says that the Nephites remembered why they are fighting for and in the end come out on top. So thank you guys for all your support, and love it’s good to know and a comfort that I have some much people at home rooting for me. Thanks a million.

I love you all so much, and forever
Elder Sorensen