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