Dear Family and Friends,
Well Sister Rollins thinks it is absolutley freezing here (it has typically been in the 40s or 50s) but last week we only had to tract in the rain once! That made her at least a little happier, I try to be understanding but I honestly so much prefer it to the summer--nice farmer's tan aside--that I am not entirely sympathetic. But things last week were interesting. I was super sad because we had another 0 finding week and our OYMs were very, very low but we honestly almost always walk the long way just so that we can get OYMs that I can't hold myself too accountable for people not being out last week. But we did have some good lessons complete with some really great member participation. And, most excitingly, we actually took 4 families on chapel tours--and one family was a non-member family we just started teaching. She's a single mom who we met tracting and she and her boys came to church on Sunday and managed sitting through sacrament meeting very well despite her worries about bringing her "wild" boys (she was very comforted to note that the primary of 160 plus nearly 80 nursery kids made their presence heard). So it pays to have a loud ward! And our standing room only--we had 590 people at Sacrament last week--dipped down to 400 people or so which meant everyone had seats even if some of them were sitting on the stand. Oh well, I think it kind of makes Sacrament Meeting more interactive to have people sit up on the stand.
Last week we also had Zone Conference. It has been a very, very long time since our last one and it was so helpful. Sister Rollins and I came away with so many great ideas on how to help our investigators progress. Now, I am sad to say that we are really, really struggling to get someone ready to be baptized this month; but we will persevere and I am sure that the Lord will provide a way (1 Nephi 3:7). It just doesn't seem like it is going to be our fun Australian investigator as he is heavily involved in his training for being a global fighter or something or other--the airforce terminology loses me. But, I very much feel that he will be baptized, maybe next month . . . . Another very important event incident to Zone Conference is that Sister Rollins and I won 1st place in car inspections. The sad thing is I feel that our car was probably least deserving of it this week than at any other car inspection as we simply did not have enough time to give it the detailing I usually invest. But we won a nice bag of trail mix which Sister Rollins has very nearly finished (and we won it on Friday).
Anyway we continue to work hard and we hope to have great things happen this week!
Love,
Sister L. Sorensen
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
One Year Older and Wiser Too!
Dear Family and Friends,
This has been an interesting week. It was sadly less productive, but we had inclement weather conditions, power outages, and sicknesses which led to several cancelled appointments on top of just not being a great week to find because of the holidays. But it was fairly entertaining.
First, I don't recall if I mentioned, but Sister Rollins has several health conditions which rather limit what and when she can eat: she is lactose intolerant, she is allergic to white flour, she is hypoglycemic, and she cannot eat marinara sauce (the last one is a puzzle to all). It tends to make the members fairly anxious about what they can/should feed us, especially as she is still new to the area so it is a surprise each time we confirm with our dinner appointments. On top of all that, Sister Rollins own food preferences basically categorize her as an herbivore as she does not really care for meat. So on Tuesday we were eating with an older lady in our ward who is a fairly particular person in any case and she had been planning to feed us spaghetti and so when she got our message confirming dinner she got a little fidgetty, but told us on the phone that it was okay and she would just make Sister Rollins a nice little steak . . . . To make a long story, short (too late) Sister Rollins ended up cutting her meat into little pieces and slipping them into her salad bowl and I had to try and eat them out of her salad bowl without any of the old ladies at the table catching on, and the rest of her steak she slipped inconspicuously into her napkin and took it out in her bag to be placed in our next appointment's neighbor's trash can. This is going to be a complicated transfer in terms of dinner arrangements.
I also hit my year mark this past week. That is a very strange thought. But I've rededicated myself to working as hard as possible in the next six months and make my time count. It was fun though because our dinner appointment was tipped off by Sister Rollins and made me a cake for the occassion.
Lastly we had nasty rain and wind storms with the wind getting up to 60 miles an hour. Luckily we were in our weekly planning for most of the wind on Friday, but we got caught out in the rain several times tracting. I actually enjoyed it, but Sister Rollins is freezing her toes off--as she tells me frequently each time we are out tracting. But, we found an investigator out of if because they felt sorry for us being out in the rain. There is no bad weather for missionary work!
Love,
Sister L. Sorensen
This has been an interesting week. It was sadly less productive, but we had inclement weather conditions, power outages, and sicknesses which led to several cancelled appointments on top of just not being a great week to find because of the holidays. But it was fairly entertaining.
First, I don't recall if I mentioned, but Sister Rollins has several health conditions which rather limit what and when she can eat: she is lactose intolerant, she is allergic to white flour, she is hypoglycemic, and she cannot eat marinara sauce (the last one is a puzzle to all). It tends to make the members fairly anxious about what they can/should feed us, especially as she is still new to the area so it is a surprise each time we confirm with our dinner appointments. On top of all that, Sister Rollins own food preferences basically categorize her as an herbivore as she does not really care for meat. So on Tuesday we were eating with an older lady in our ward who is a fairly particular person in any case and she had been planning to feed us spaghetti and so when she got our message confirming dinner she got a little fidgetty, but told us on the phone that it was okay and she would just make Sister Rollins a nice little steak . . . . To make a long story, short (too late) Sister Rollins ended up cutting her meat into little pieces and slipping them into her salad bowl and I had to try and eat them out of her salad bowl without any of the old ladies at the table catching on, and the rest of her steak she slipped inconspicuously into her napkin and took it out in her bag to be placed in our next appointment's neighbor's trash can. This is going to be a complicated transfer in terms of dinner arrangements.
I also hit my year mark this past week. That is a very strange thought. But I've rededicated myself to working as hard as possible in the next six months and make my time count. It was fun though because our dinner appointment was tipped off by Sister Rollins and made me a cake for the occassion.
Lastly we had nasty rain and wind storms with the wind getting up to 60 miles an hour. Luckily we were in our weekly planning for most of the wind on Friday, but we got caught out in the rain several times tracting. I actually enjoyed it, but Sister Rollins is freezing her toes off--as she tells me frequently each time we are out tracting. But, we found an investigator out of if because they felt sorry for us being out in the rain. There is no bad weather for missionary work!
Love,
Sister L. Sorensen
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
. . .and a Happy New Year!
Dear Family and Friends,
I hope you all had lovely holidays and a great time was had by all. I have to say that we enjoyed ourselves pretty well. Our week was a little different but pretty good.
On Monday it was kind of a weird day for missionary work. We were asked to proselyte all afternoon and evening by appointment only--and I have to tell you it was hard to set up enough appointments. I understand that it is a busy day, but I would have thought more ward members would be willing to have us over for 45 minutes or so. But we did have some good visits in the end. We were able to spend time with two of our favorite families on Tuesday--as well as make our phone calls home which found all well. I also introduced Sister Kawasaki to "The Worth of Souls" video out of the church library and she got to see all of those movies, including Johnny Lingo, for the first time. I don't know what she thought of Johnny Lingo, but she quite liked "The Gift." Wednesday we got our transfer calls and I very much surprised Sister Kawasaki when I told her she was getting transfered. I tried to warn her that it was the most logical outcome, but she handled it pretty well. Thursday I got my new companion and we had a really great lesson with one of our newer investigators. He is the husband in a part member family and he really does think he wants to be baptized, but he wants to make sure that he is doing it for himself and not just for his family. Friday our lesson appointment cancelled at the door because he was not feeling well, but because he cancelled we happened to walk back up the street to our car and were able to stop and OYM a guy and ended up picking his son up as an investigator the next day. Apparently the son has taken some of the lessons in the past, so that seems pretty promising as well. It was a nice reminder that there is always a bright side to every cancelled appointment. We also met a man this weekend while we were tracting who told us as soon as he opened the door that Mormons are going to save the world, and then welcomed us to come back next weekend and talk with him a little more. So while we did have a slow lesson week--as many people were out of town--there are still good things going on in Lincoln.
Next week's adventures: How will we manage our appointments on Saturday without a car--especially when we need to get to the church for Chapel Tours and the church is several miles out of our area? I guess you'll find out in the next installment. I hope you all enjoy the first part of 2008 and is it really possible that I've hit my year mark? That is a truly scary thought.
Love,
Sister L. Sorensen
I hope you all had lovely holidays and a great time was had by all. I have to say that we enjoyed ourselves pretty well. Our week was a little different but pretty good.
On Monday it was kind of a weird day for missionary work. We were asked to proselyte all afternoon and evening by appointment only--and I have to tell you it was hard to set up enough appointments. I understand that it is a busy day, but I would have thought more ward members would be willing to have us over for 45 minutes or so. But we did have some good visits in the end. We were able to spend time with two of our favorite families on Tuesday--as well as make our phone calls home which found all well. I also introduced Sister Kawasaki to "The Worth of Souls" video out of the church library and she got to see all of those movies, including Johnny Lingo, for the first time. I don't know what she thought of Johnny Lingo, but she quite liked "The Gift." Wednesday we got our transfer calls and I very much surprised Sister Kawasaki when I told her she was getting transfered. I tried to warn her that it was the most logical outcome, but she handled it pretty well. Thursday I got my new companion and we had a really great lesson with one of our newer investigators. He is the husband in a part member family and he really does think he wants to be baptized, but he wants to make sure that he is doing it for himself and not just for his family. Friday our lesson appointment cancelled at the door because he was not feeling well, but because he cancelled we happened to walk back up the street to our car and were able to stop and OYM a guy and ended up picking his son up as an investigator the next day. Apparently the son has taken some of the lessons in the past, so that seems pretty promising as well. It was a nice reminder that there is always a bright side to every cancelled appointment. We also met a man this weekend while we were tracting who told us as soon as he opened the door that Mormons are going to save the world, and then welcomed us to come back next weekend and talk with him a little more. So while we did have a slow lesson week--as many people were out of town--there are still good things going on in Lincoln.
Next week's adventures: How will we manage our appointments on Saturday without a car--especially when we need to get to the church for Chapel Tours and the church is several miles out of our area? I guess you'll find out in the next installment. I hope you all enjoy the first part of 2008 and is it really possible that I've hit my year mark? That is a truly scary thought.
Love,
Sister L. Sorensen
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
Have a Holly, Jolly Christmas!
Dear Family and Friends,
Surprise! I thought I'd send you all your letter today early, just to surprise you! Actually, the mission changed their minds about our phone calls and so I had to write today to inform the family. Now you all will have a suspenseful holiday weekend wondering did Sister Sorensen get transfered or not? And if so, where is she now? And, since that is the case would anyone who chooses to write me this week write me through the Mission Office since it is uncertain where/if I might go. To be completely honest, I don't know who is going, but personally I think I'm staying and that Sister Kawasaki will move on despite her urgent wishes to stay; but I can see some reason for President Perry to leave her here, so I just don't know.
This was a crazy week. We had to make a lot of preparations for a double baptism this weekend. But the baptism did go forward despite many, many things which just happened to happen and cause hitches. Including, the fact that the Lincoln 1st and 3rd Elders did not inform us that their 2:00 baptism had been moved elsewhere, which is how we planned to get into the building and have the font already filled. But we managed to get into the building and break into the font after several frantic calls to the missionaries in Rocklin to get the correct keys and Sister Kawasaki's resourcefulness (she opened the door into the font through the women's bathroom with a nickel) and had our baptism only an hour late with the water only half as warm as we would have liked. I'll save any more interesting details for tomorrow.
Other exciting events of last week: we actually were able to have two lessons with investigators we picked up the week before; return appointments that actually went through! Also we found one investigator and one good potential investigator last week and had 3 investigators at church!
I hope you all have a great Christmas Eve!
Love,
Sister L. Sorensen
PS Grimshaws thanks for the package, I haven't opened it yet though, so I'll have to write more specific thanks next week
Surprise! I thought I'd send you all your letter today early, just to surprise you! Actually, the mission changed their minds about our phone calls and so I had to write today to inform the family. Now you all will have a suspenseful holiday weekend wondering did Sister Sorensen get transfered or not? And if so, where is she now? And, since that is the case would anyone who chooses to write me this week write me through the Mission Office since it is uncertain where/if I might go. To be completely honest, I don't know who is going, but personally I think I'm staying and that Sister Kawasaki will move on despite her urgent wishes to stay; but I can see some reason for President Perry to leave her here, so I just don't know.
This was a crazy week. We had to make a lot of preparations for a double baptism this weekend. But the baptism did go forward despite many, many things which just happened to happen and cause hitches. Including, the fact that the Lincoln 1st and 3rd Elders did not inform us that their 2:00 baptism had been moved elsewhere, which is how we planned to get into the building and have the font already filled. But we managed to get into the building and break into the font after several frantic calls to the missionaries in Rocklin to get the correct keys and Sister Kawasaki's resourcefulness (she opened the door into the font through the women's bathroom with a nickel) and had our baptism only an hour late with the water only half as warm as we would have liked. I'll save any more interesting details for tomorrow.
Other exciting events of last week: we actually were able to have two lessons with investigators we picked up the week before; return appointments that actually went through! Also we found one investigator and one good potential investigator last week and had 3 investigators at church!
I hope you all have a great Christmas Eve!
Love,
Sister L. Sorensen
PS Grimshaws thanks for the package, I haven't opened it yet though, so I'll have to write more specific thanks next week
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Santa Ran
Dear Family and Friends,
We had a pretty good week last week. We were able to find 3 new people to teach/try to teach and at least two of them seem pretty promising. One is from a part member family, and one we just started talking to while he was out on the street. We taught an entire Lesson One and he pretty much set up the return appointment. So we'll see how that all turns out.
Saturday we had the Santa Run. The Santa Run is when President and Sister Perry (well, and the Craners--an office couple, the Biglers--another ofice couple, and President Barnes) come around to the various zones and bring us our Christmas Packages complete with stickers from the Mission Office which say "Don't you dare open this until Christmas." Where is the trust? The Santa Run also included the opportunity to watch (gasp!) a movie. Oooh, ahhh. So we watched "The Chronicles of Narnia" and maybe it's just because the only other things I watch are church films, but it was pretty gripping. It was interesting to muse on a few other scriptural parallels I had not noticed before as well.
That is about it. We are trying to stay busy this week, and it looks like we should succeed. We have a baptism for a husband and wife this weekend and that is exciting. I don't know when I'll be emailing next week. It probably won't be until Thursday or Friday as transfers are on Thursday. I still don't quite have it figured out. Sister Kawasaki keeps telling people that I am leaving, which sort of ruffles my feathers, but we'll see.
Love,
Sister L. Sorensen
We had a pretty good week last week. We were able to find 3 new people to teach/try to teach and at least two of them seem pretty promising. One is from a part member family, and one we just started talking to while he was out on the street. We taught an entire Lesson One and he pretty much set up the return appointment. So we'll see how that all turns out.
Saturday we had the Santa Run. The Santa Run is when President and Sister Perry (well, and the Craners--an office couple, the Biglers--another ofice couple, and President Barnes) come around to the various zones and bring us our Christmas Packages complete with stickers from the Mission Office which say "Don't you dare open this until Christmas." Where is the trust? The Santa Run also included the opportunity to watch (gasp!) a movie. Oooh, ahhh. So we watched "The Chronicles of Narnia" and maybe it's just because the only other things I watch are church films, but it was pretty gripping. It was interesting to muse on a few other scriptural parallels I had not noticed before as well.
That is about it. We are trying to stay busy this week, and it looks like we should succeed. We have a baptism for a husband and wife this weekend and that is exciting. I don't know when I'll be emailing next week. It probably won't be until Thursday or Friday as transfers are on Thursday. I still don't quite have it figured out. Sister Kawasaki keeps telling people that I am leaving, which sort of ruffles my feathers, but we'll see.
Love,
Sister L. Sorensen
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Minor Miracles and the Work Goes On!
Dear Family and Friends,
Thank goodness for minor miracles! We finally pulled out of our very, very low finding slump last week. Not by a lot, we only found two and one wasn't there when we went back for our return appointment, but we broke the 1, 0, 1, 0 trend! Also we had some really good lessons with investigators and set two baptisms for this month. I know that will please President Perry. Finally Sister Kawasaki finally snapped out of her something, I don't know exactly what it was but it was wearing, and was much happier this week. Plus we were able to get 9 people to go out with us on lessons and other missionary activities this week. And on top of all that we had exchanges with the Sisters in Auburn and Sister Kawasaki got to go on her very first mission "sleepover" as she went to Auburn to work with Sister Furhriman while Sister Fultz came up to Lincoln to teach with me. We didn't really have too much else exciting go on. No snakes in our car--of which I'm glad because one that would be slightly creepy and two Sister Kawasaki has an intense fear of snakes. I did prepare a little Christmas surprise for many of you, so look forward to having that come your way. I think that is about it! I'm sorry things are short, but we're in a hurry. We are only having a half p-day because we have our "Santa Run" this saturday.
Love,
Sister L. Sorensen
Thank goodness for minor miracles! We finally pulled out of our very, very low finding slump last week. Not by a lot, we only found two and one wasn't there when we went back for our return appointment, but we broke the 1, 0, 1, 0 trend! Also we had some really good lessons with investigators and set two baptisms for this month. I know that will please President Perry. Finally Sister Kawasaki finally snapped out of her something, I don't know exactly what it was but it was wearing, and was much happier this week. Plus we were able to get 9 people to go out with us on lessons and other missionary activities this week. And on top of all that we had exchanges with the Sisters in Auburn and Sister Kawasaki got to go on her very first mission "sleepover" as she went to Auburn to work with Sister Furhriman while Sister Fultz came up to Lincoln to teach with me. We didn't really have too much else exciting go on. No snakes in our car--of which I'm glad because one that would be slightly creepy and two Sister Kawasaki has an intense fear of snakes. I did prepare a little Christmas surprise for many of you, so look forward to having that come your way. I think that is about it! I'm sorry things are short, but we're in a hurry. We are only having a half p-day because we have our "Santa Run" this saturday.
Love,
Sister L. Sorensen
Tuesday, December 4, 2007
The Dread Pirate Roberts
Dear Family and Friends,
Okay so truthfully, my week did not include any encounters with men of the nautical or mariner persuasion of any degree of infamy. Tuesday, however, I did come down with that dreaded disease of every winter more commonly known as the flu. Luckily it turned out to be a pretty quick case as I was back in Pros (for non missionaries this is a mission term short for Proselyting and is in reference to the clothes worn by missionaries for Proselyting purposes) by Wednesday--even if knocking a fairly easy street for an hour did require me to sit down in the car afterwards and do a practice teach with Sister Kawasaki to gear up for heading out again. The highlight of that experience was that I completely passed out for the very first time in my life; an interesting experience probably more indicative of my own lack of thought than the severity of the sickness. It was fortunate that I managed to pass out at a time and in a location where the event was unwitnessed by either Mary (the member we live with) or Sister Kawasaki. I did learn on this time around with the flu that Gatorade is an effective combatant because you can drink it just a few sips at a time, which will keep your stomach from becoming fully aware of the nutrients you are sneaking in and getting too angry with you, and it helps replenish the sugars and salts in your body. You can also heat it up in the microwave and have it hot for when you're cold. Things to keep in mind Elder Sorensen in case you are ever in need of such remedies. I have to admit, however, that it is strange drinking hot Gatorade. Anyway I'm glad to have gotten somewhat innoculated against the flu, and to be better.
The work the last few weeks has been going quite slow for Sister Kawasaki and I. Our finding has been so low and our investigators so flaky that it has been quite difficult getting lessons with a member present. I have been rather fretting over this for a few weeks now, but the Lord has been patient and last week I finally was able to connect a few dots, have a very effective weekly planning session, and I think put in place a plan for this week which should yield some more results. I do, however, plead with you all to do what you can to help your local missionaries including asking them if they can/will take you on a tour of your local meeting houses. I realize this is not fully implemented in all missions, but it is something that we have been trying to focus on since this summer and the members have been so slow to get behind this great finding method. I crunched the numbers myself this week (based on the average from the British Columbia mission who have been doing chapel tours for a while and have 1 in 7 of the people who go on these tours with members take the lessons and be baptized) and in our mission it means that if we could take 10 nonmembers on a tour per stake per week we would double our baptisms, which is something President Hinckley asked us to do as a church in 1997 and which we have still not been able to accomplish. That's it 10 people per stake! That is typically less than one person per ward. And then when missionaries do what missionaries do on top of that (tract, do service, street contact, work with part member families etc) imagine the results! So please, just take 30 minutes and go on a tour I promise you will see the possibilities and will be able to think of someone you know who you can invite on a tour. And your missionaries will be very happy!
Love,
Sister L. Sorensen
P.S. Here is a picture of Speedy, the hero of last week's entry. As you can see, he is not on my head, you will just have to imagine that particular scene on your own!
Okay so truthfully, my week did not include any encounters with men of the nautical or mariner persuasion of any degree of infamy. Tuesday, however, I did come down with that dreaded disease of every winter more commonly known as the flu. Luckily it turned out to be a pretty quick case as I was back in Pros (for non missionaries this is a mission term short for Proselyting and is in reference to the clothes worn by missionaries for Proselyting purposes) by Wednesday--even if knocking a fairly easy street for an hour did require me to sit down in the car afterwards and do a practice teach with Sister Kawasaki to gear up for heading out again. The highlight of that experience was that I completely passed out for the very first time in my life; an interesting experience probably more indicative of my own lack of thought than the severity of the sickness. It was fortunate that I managed to pass out at a time and in a location where the event was unwitnessed by either Mary (the member we live with) or Sister Kawasaki. I did learn on this time around with the flu that Gatorade is an effective combatant because you can drink it just a few sips at a time, which will keep your stomach from becoming fully aware of the nutrients you are sneaking in and getting too angry with you, and it helps replenish the sugars and salts in your body. You can also heat it up in the microwave and have it hot for when you're cold. Things to keep in mind Elder Sorensen in case you are ever in need of such remedies. I have to admit, however, that it is strange drinking hot Gatorade. Anyway I'm glad to have gotten somewhat innoculated against the flu, and to be better.
The work the last few weeks has been going quite slow for Sister Kawasaki and I. Our finding has been so low and our investigators so flaky that it has been quite difficult getting lessons with a member present. I have been rather fretting over this for a few weeks now, but the Lord has been patient and last week I finally was able to connect a few dots, have a very effective weekly planning session, and I think put in place a plan for this week which should yield some more results. I do, however, plead with you all to do what you can to help your local missionaries including asking them if they can/will take you on a tour of your local meeting houses. I realize this is not fully implemented in all missions, but it is something that we have been trying to focus on since this summer and the members have been so slow to get behind this great finding method. I crunched the numbers myself this week (based on the average from the British Columbia mission who have been doing chapel tours for a while and have 1 in 7 of the people who go on these tours with members take the lessons and be baptized) and in our mission it means that if we could take 10 nonmembers on a tour per stake per week we would double our baptisms, which is something President Hinckley asked us to do as a church in 1997 and which we have still not been able to accomplish. That's it 10 people per stake! That is typically less than one person per ward. And then when missionaries do what missionaries do on top of that (tract, do service, street contact, work with part member families etc) imagine the results! So please, just take 30 minutes and go on a tour I promise you will see the possibilities and will be able to think of someone you know who you can invite on a tour. And your missionaries will be very happy!
Love,
Sister L. Sorensen
P.S. Here is a picture of Speedy, the hero of last week's entry. As you can see, he is not on my head, you will just have to imagine that particular scene on your own!
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