Dear Family and Friends,
There are definitely some strange things about Lincoln. For one, we went to church yesterday and everything people told us was true. We fill up all the way back to the stage, two babies were blessed, two baby births were announced, and three new families were read into the ward. Kind of weird, plus it was loud with lots of kids running here there and everywhere since many of them were sitting in the gym and thought it was play time. But the ward is really enthusiastic and full of young people and old people who each have their pluses (young people mingle and refer people, old people are home during the day and can go with you to appointments sans kiddies). Other weird things? There are multitudes of wild peacocks residing outside our apartments. Apparently nobody really knows where they come from but they are wandering around all the time. The Spanish Elders have discovered that if you catch one and call animal services they pay you somewhere between $20-50 dollars which brings up frightening possibilities since we already have discovered that the previous tenants of our apartment did indeed catch one and keep it in the apartment for some period of time (we have feathers to prove it). Oh the possibilties when you house 8 Elders together. Another thing, EVERYONE around here is doing some serious decorating for Halloween. And I mean serious, there are giant spiders and that spider web stuff, mummies, inflatable haunted castles and caves, monsters, graveyards, the works. Is it because there are so many young families? Because I simply do not remember seeing this degree of Halloween decoration growing up. Also one of the main roads here is named Ferrari Ranch Road. Has anyone ever seen a Ferrari Ranch? I am curious what that might entail.
Well this week I got lost fewer times, but I still got lost plenty. We had a good week though. We got to meet a few more of our investigators (and drop a few). We had some excellent lessons, and we really do have some excellent fellowshippers in this ward. That is really exciting as a missionary. We also were able to meet and begin teaching an entire family! Okay so not entire because three of their five sons are younger than 8, but they were present for the lesson. They took the lessons a few years back in Roseville, but then with the move to Lincoln and other things in their life they stopped. But they say everything keeps pointing them back to this church and they seem very serious so I am excited. Also this was a referral from the Bishop, yay Bishop! And last, but not least, we got rear ended on Saturday. We were just sitting completely stopped in traffic waiting for the light to change when the SUV behind us hit us. We're both fine and actually the only damage is possibly a scratch--we're not that familiar with the car so we don't know if it was there already or not--so we were pretty lucky. But the odds of not getting into another accident are in my favor now, right? I'll hope so.
Also note to Elder Sorensen: it is officially the Church's new housing policy for North America to have all missionaries living in members' houses, so prepare yourself for the future. We still have not heard anything about us getting into a house, which was supposed to be resolved by this point, but we'll just hang out in a half unpacked apartment until we do hear.
Love,
Sister L. Sorensen
PS I've been trying to teach Sister Kawasaki American jokes but she just insists they are all stupid. And, when I asked her what she would say if I called her a cheesu-no-atama so simply could not comprehend it. Anne did you teach us made up words? Sister K does not get why calling someone a "cheesehead" would be either funny or offensive, or why you would call anyone that in the first place. We continue to work on teaching her how to see "would" or "wood" instead of "ood" and teaching her the mission song. In fact I had to tell her we could not listen to any music in the car until she had it learned, which she was displeased with but it has provided the proper incentive.
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
You've Got to be Kidding Me!
Dear Family and Friends,
Watashi no namae wa Sorensen simai desu. Does that give anyone a hint as to who my new companion is? I am currently serving in the Lincoln 2nd Ward in the Rocklin Stake with Sister Takako Kawasaki. I have to admit while I had some sentimental thoughts that it would be kind of cool to train the Japanese sister given our family's record with Japan and missionary work, I was quite surprised that President Perry and the Lord are having me Shotgun Train with a foreign Language missionary. Partly because this simply cuts out an hour and a half everyday of extra study time that Sister Kawasaki gets, but I'm sure it will all work out. After all I trust the Lord and President Perry a great deal, so they must know what they are doing right?
Now for proper introductions. Sister Kawasaki comes from Kumamoto, Japan (even though all the mission stuff says she comes from Tokyo, I guess that is where she was living just before she came out). She joined the church when she was 18 after taking some of the free English lessons the missionaries were offering and feeling obligated to repay their services by listening to them teach the gospel, but merely as a courtesy. Of course, that changed and she has now been a member for four years. She is the only member in her family, and her family is apparently a little less than supportive in her decision to come on a mission, particularly all the way over here in California. That said, would Emily, Anne, or Travis like to brush up on their Japanese? Sister Kawasaki gets very little mail, and while she is very nice and polite about it, I can tell it bothers her a bit. She's graduated from college and all that, and apparently worked as a nurse for a year before she came on her mission. That job, however, was not to her liking so she is also trying to figure out what else she can/will do when she goes home.
Okay so how about the ward. There is only one word I can use to describe this ward/area and week: crazy. While I love General Conference (I particularly liked Elder Boyd K. Packer and Elder Robert D. Hales talk this time round), it did fall at a very inconvenient time for trying to get to know a new ward. This ward is absolutely huge! (By all accounts, since I have not yet actually witnessed this). It has 750 members, very many of whom are active. There are three nurseries (which equals to 60 kids between the age of 18 months and 3 years), 120 other children in primary, and apparently there is almost literally a baby born each week. For the last two years they have read at least one new family into the ward each week and sometimes it is closer to three or four, and during the block every single room--including the kitchen--is being used. There is also a chunk of a fairly large retirement community in the ward so there are plenty of old people too. The only thing in scarcity, it sounds like, are teenagers and people in their 40s. Meanwhile we have only met six or seven families. We spent all of last week and this weekend trying really, really hard to meet the last set of Elders' investigating pool with very little luck. This people are nearly impossible to get a hold of! We've called them all, gone round to their houses at different times during the day, and left notes on their doors with very little return. We are probably going to have a baptism this month though, which is fun (we do have an appointment with this person tonight). And we started teaching a friend of one of the family's last week and not only did the lesson go very well, but we all met at their home to watch Conference on Saturday; he ended up watching all three sessions that day, and was supposed to have gone back over for Sunday's sessions as well. Another plus about this ward though is that there are lots of ward missionaries and the Ward Mission Leader and Bishop are really on top of missioary work, not that the ward really needs any new members, but hey. Apparently the big hold up is that there is simply no other building to put another ward and so they cannot split Lincoln 2nd (there are at least three wards meeting in all the buildings in this stake).
So this next week is going to be a great big adventure. Sister Kawasaki and I are going to press forward and work really hard; if we can't find all their old investigators we're just going to have to go out and get some of our own.
I hope you all had a great week, sorry about the delay. The computers went all weird last Monday.
Love,
Sister L. Sorensen
Watashi no namae wa Sorensen simai desu. Does that give anyone a hint as to who my new companion is? I am currently serving in the Lincoln 2nd Ward in the Rocklin Stake with Sister Takako Kawasaki. I have to admit while I had some sentimental thoughts that it would be kind of cool to train the Japanese sister given our family's record with Japan and missionary work, I was quite surprised that President Perry and the Lord are having me Shotgun Train with a foreign Language missionary. Partly because this simply cuts out an hour and a half everyday of extra study time that Sister Kawasaki gets, but I'm sure it will all work out. After all I trust the Lord and President Perry a great deal, so they must know what they are doing right?
Now for proper introductions. Sister Kawasaki comes from Kumamoto, Japan (even though all the mission stuff says she comes from Tokyo, I guess that is where she was living just before she came out). She joined the church when she was 18 after taking some of the free English lessons the missionaries were offering and feeling obligated to repay their services by listening to them teach the gospel, but merely as a courtesy. Of course, that changed and she has now been a member for four years. She is the only member in her family, and her family is apparently a little less than supportive in her decision to come on a mission, particularly all the way over here in California. That said, would Emily, Anne, or Travis like to brush up on their Japanese? Sister Kawasaki gets very little mail, and while she is very nice and polite about it, I can tell it bothers her a bit. She's graduated from college and all that, and apparently worked as a nurse for a year before she came on her mission. That job, however, was not to her liking so she is also trying to figure out what else she can/will do when she goes home.
Okay so how about the ward. There is only one word I can use to describe this ward/area and week: crazy. While I love General Conference (I particularly liked Elder Boyd K. Packer and Elder Robert D. Hales talk this time round), it did fall at a very inconvenient time for trying to get to know a new ward. This ward is absolutely huge! (By all accounts, since I have not yet actually witnessed this). It has 750 members, very many of whom are active. There are three nurseries (which equals to 60 kids between the age of 18 months and 3 years), 120 other children in primary, and apparently there is almost literally a baby born each week. For the last two years they have read at least one new family into the ward each week and sometimes it is closer to three or four, and during the block every single room--including the kitchen--is being used. There is also a chunk of a fairly large retirement community in the ward so there are plenty of old people too. The only thing in scarcity, it sounds like, are teenagers and people in their 40s. Meanwhile we have only met six or seven families. We spent all of last week and this weekend trying really, really hard to meet the last set of Elders' investigating pool with very little luck. This people are nearly impossible to get a hold of! We've called them all, gone round to their houses at different times during the day, and left notes on their doors with very little return. We are probably going to have a baptism this month though, which is fun (we do have an appointment with this person tonight). And we started teaching a friend of one of the family's last week and not only did the lesson go very well, but we all met at their home to watch Conference on Saturday; he ended up watching all three sessions that day, and was supposed to have gone back over for Sunday's sessions as well. Another plus about this ward though is that there are lots of ward missionaries and the Ward Mission Leader and Bishop are really on top of missioary work, not that the ward really needs any new members, but hey. Apparently the big hold up is that there is simply no other building to put another ward and so they cannot split Lincoln 2nd (there are at least three wards meeting in all the buildings in this stake).
So this next week is going to be a great big adventure. Sister Kawasaki and I are going to press forward and work really hard; if we can't find all their old investigators we're just going to have to go out and get some of our own.
I hope you all had a great week, sorry about the delay. The computers went all weird last Monday.
Love,
Sister L. Sorensen
Thursday, October 4, 2007
The Land of Lincoln
Dear Family and Friends,
Well, another week of working hard, and happily, another baptism. It was actually a very eventful baptism, which included our recent convert swimming across the font (after he accidentally went up the Women’s side trying to get out of the font). All I could do was shake my head and laugh. The entire thing was very characteristic of him. I don’t really know what else to say about this week—we worked hard and found some more people. We also, unfortunately, had a lot of teaching appointments fall through this last week. I guess it’s just that time of year. But overall things went well and I feel good about leaving the area. Unlike my first area, I feel that I really made a difference here and helped to change some people’s lives; and that is a great feeling.
That said, I won’t make you all wait. Transfers have come with extra surprises. They are splitting the trio up just about as much as possible. Sister Nielson is staying here to keep working with our investigators, while Sister Mauga heads back up to Anderson Zone to shotgun Red Bluff with a Sister I really wish I could serve with, but I just don’t think the timing will ever work out! I, meanwhile, am finally passing that invisible line into the “south” of the mission. I am going to go Shotgun the Lincoln 2nd Ward in the Rocklin Zone/Stake and I’m going to train while I’m at it. So, that means I don’t know who my companion is and I won’t find out until tomorrow afternoon so none of you will know until next week. Unless you have some secret sources I don’t know about, which I suppose is possible, but I doubt it. The candidates for my new companion are: Sister Kawasaki from Tokyo, Japan, Sister Methot from New Hampshire, or Sister Rollins from Arizona. So place your bets and I’ll let you know who the lucky winner is next Monday. Anyway, once again I’ll be in a car, another red Corolla. And apparently it is a very large word with around 730 people and three nurseries. It seems to be partly old people (for some reason or another I attract the old people wards) and partly young people in an area of town that is really growing. Anyway I’m excited for the adventure of being in the “south” plus shotgun training.
Another point of interest—somehow or other I’ve reached my 9-month mark. Isn’t that crazy? I can honestly say that I love this work and I am not at all counting down the days until I go home. In fact, that is something that President Perry and I agreed not to even think about (we’re going home about the same time).
I love you all and I hope everything is going well wherever you are and whatever you are doing.
Love,
Sister L. Sorensen
Afterthoughts: Besides not knowing the exact address, our housing situation in Lincoln is going to be temporary, so just keep sending everything to/through the mission office.
California Roseville Mission
8331 Sierra College Blvd., Ste. 208
Roseville, CA 95661
Well, another week of working hard, and happily, another baptism. It was actually a very eventful baptism, which included our recent convert swimming across the font (after he accidentally went up the Women’s side trying to get out of the font). All I could do was shake my head and laugh. The entire thing was very characteristic of him. I don’t really know what else to say about this week—we worked hard and found some more people. We also, unfortunately, had a lot of teaching appointments fall through this last week. I guess it’s just that time of year. But overall things went well and I feel good about leaving the area. Unlike my first area, I feel that I really made a difference here and helped to change some people’s lives; and that is a great feeling.
That said, I won’t make you all wait. Transfers have come with extra surprises. They are splitting the trio up just about as much as possible. Sister Nielson is staying here to keep working with our investigators, while Sister Mauga heads back up to Anderson Zone to shotgun Red Bluff with a Sister I really wish I could serve with, but I just don’t think the timing will ever work out! I, meanwhile, am finally passing that invisible line into the “south” of the mission. I am going to go Shotgun the Lincoln 2nd Ward in the Rocklin Zone/Stake and I’m going to train while I’m at it. So, that means I don’t know who my companion is and I won’t find out until tomorrow afternoon so none of you will know until next week. Unless you have some secret sources I don’t know about, which I suppose is possible, but I doubt it. The candidates for my new companion are: Sister Kawasaki from Tokyo, Japan, Sister Methot from New Hampshire, or Sister Rollins from Arizona. So place your bets and I’ll let you know who the lucky winner is next Monday. Anyway, once again I’ll be in a car, another red Corolla. And apparently it is a very large word with around 730 people and three nurseries. It seems to be partly old people (for some reason or another I attract the old people wards) and partly young people in an area of town that is really growing. Anyway I’m excited for the adventure of being in the “south” plus shotgun training.
Another point of interest—somehow or other I’ve reached my 9-month mark. Isn’t that crazy? I can honestly say that I love this work and I am not at all counting down the days until I go home. In fact, that is something that President Perry and I agreed not to even think about (we’re going home about the same time).
I love you all and I hope everything is going well wherever you are and whatever you are doing.
Love,
Sister L. Sorensen
Afterthoughts: Besides not knowing the exact address, our housing situation in Lincoln is going to be temporary, so just keep sending everything to/through the mission office.
California Roseville Mission
8331 Sierra College Blvd., Ste. 208
Roseville, CA 95661
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
By George, I think she's got it!
Dear Family and Friends,
Despite my worries last week, something finally clicked for Sister Mauga this last week and she's really coming along on her bike riding. We've been able to enjoy a little outdoor exercise the last several mornings, and I have to say it makes me so much more awake for personal study! Too bad we're heading into the rainy season and that might not be possible for too much longer!
We had an eventful week if not entirely as productive as we might have liked. We did have some really excellent lessons (particularly firsts), but our finding and OYMing was WAY down this week. It doesn't help when cool/rainy season corresponds with flu season + Sister Missionaries shaking a lot of people's hands and what not. So needless to say Sister Nielson had a rough time of it this week, never full on flu but treacherously close. We also learned this week that Sister Mauga has been having sinus headaches for 4.5 months without telling anyone or taking anything for them--so while we picked up so flu medicine for Sister Nielson we got her some sinus clearing stuff. Great descriptors, I know.
When we arrived home Friday night from a day's worth of proselyting (with Blizzards in hand, might I add, because we went to do some daily contact with one of our less actives, the husband of one of our strongest investigators) we realized that both Sister Mauga and Sister Nielson had locked their keys in the house. I stood there for a moment contemplating what a Sister Missionary with dripping ice cream is to do in this "emergency": call the Bishop--sometimes they have a spare key, and if that, then which one, does the District Leader have a copy? and my I was glad we had a cell phone. Sister Nielson turned to me and asked if we'd put the bar back into our sliding glass door after bike riding that morning. Hmmm, no because our patio door locks and was indeed locked at that time. So she decided to attempt climbing over the extremely ivy-covered (except that it is not ivy) fence and squeezing between it and the overhang to get in, while she was dizzy with flu symptoms and flu medicine. This upset Sister Mauga who was certain she would fall. Then Sister M realized that the screen on our Study Room's window was still bent from when she tried to wash the outside from the inside for our apartment checks. So she and the sock-footed Sister Nielson squeezed past the treacherously prickly bushes in the dark to investigate. It was about this time that Sister Nielson lost her sock to the bush. Sister N couldn't get the screen off so she decided to try and climb the fence on the other side, but thought it would be easier if she could turn her skirt into pants "King and I" style. Meanwhile Sister M worked away on the window, while I was still around front with everyone's ice cream wondering what was taking so long. Finally As Sister N was trying to scale the fence, Sister M got the screen off and tried to convince Sister N to climb onto her shoulders. Sister N, always seeing the opportunity to teach, instead instructed her on how to do a cheer leader toss and successfully made it through the window at last. So we finally made it in--though Sister N was still worried our neighbors would call the police on us as they have a bit of a "Rear Window" habit. The police never came, however, and on Saturday morning we found Sister Nielson's keys in the car where they had been sitting the whole time. Isn't life fun as a Sister missionary?
We decided to end the week with a baptism. After all something has to come at the end of this story.
Until our adventures next week,
Sister L. Sorensen
Despite my worries last week, something finally clicked for Sister Mauga this last week and she's really coming along on her bike riding. We've been able to enjoy a little outdoor exercise the last several mornings, and I have to say it makes me so much more awake for personal study! Too bad we're heading into the rainy season and that might not be possible for too much longer!
We had an eventful week if not entirely as productive as we might have liked. We did have some really excellent lessons (particularly firsts), but our finding and OYMing was WAY down this week. It doesn't help when cool/rainy season corresponds with flu season + Sister Missionaries shaking a lot of people's hands and what not. So needless to say Sister Nielson had a rough time of it this week, never full on flu but treacherously close. We also learned this week that Sister Mauga has been having sinus headaches for 4.5 months without telling anyone or taking anything for them--so while we picked up so flu medicine for Sister Nielson we got her some sinus clearing stuff. Great descriptors, I know.
When we arrived home Friday night from a day's worth of proselyting (with Blizzards in hand, might I add, because we went to do some daily contact with one of our less actives, the husband of one of our strongest investigators) we realized that both Sister Mauga and Sister Nielson had locked their keys in the house. I stood there for a moment contemplating what a Sister Missionary with dripping ice cream is to do in this "emergency": call the Bishop--sometimes they have a spare key, and if that, then which one, does the District Leader have a copy? and my I was glad we had a cell phone. Sister Nielson turned to me and asked if we'd put the bar back into our sliding glass door after bike riding that morning. Hmmm, no because our patio door locks and was indeed locked at that time. So she decided to attempt climbing over the extremely ivy-covered (except that it is not ivy) fence and squeezing between it and the overhang to get in, while she was dizzy with flu symptoms and flu medicine. This upset Sister Mauga who was certain she would fall. Then Sister M realized that the screen on our Study Room's window was still bent from when she tried to wash the outside from the inside for our apartment checks. So she and the sock-footed Sister Nielson squeezed past the treacherously prickly bushes in the dark to investigate. It was about this time that Sister Nielson lost her sock to the bush. Sister N couldn't get the screen off so she decided to try and climb the fence on the other side, but thought it would be easier if she could turn her skirt into pants "King and I" style. Meanwhile Sister M worked away on the window, while I was still around front with everyone's ice cream wondering what was taking so long. Finally As Sister N was trying to scale the fence, Sister M got the screen off and tried to convince Sister N to climb onto her shoulders. Sister N, always seeing the opportunity to teach, instead instructed her on how to do a cheer leader toss and successfully made it through the window at last. So we finally made it in--though Sister N was still worried our neighbors would call the police on us as they have a bit of a "Rear Window" habit. The police never came, however, and on Saturday morning we found Sister Nielson's keys in the car where they had been sitting the whole time. Isn't life fun as a Sister missionary?
We decided to end the week with a baptism. After all something has to come at the end of this story.
Until our adventures next week,
Sister L. Sorensen
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
So Easy to Do, So Hard to Teach!
Dear Family and Friends,
There isn't too much to report this week. We worked hard, we got a lot done, but there is a lot still left to do. One thing we failed to do, is to teach Sister Mauga how to ride her bike. I've discovered that this is actually quite a hard thing to do. We tried, believe me. But I think it is kind of just something you need to figure out yourself. So I try to just be supportive and go sit outside with her in the mornings as she keeps trying--I don't feel that riding circles around her would do much for her morale. So yes, we just keep working hard.
It was rather a weird week schedule wise because we had interviews with our Mission President on Friday, so we had to do Friday Morning Planning on Thursday and some how that just throws me all off. But interviews were good, thus far my longest and most revealing interview (it was probably about 6 minutes instead of 2). Zone Meeting was really good too, very inspiring. I love this Zone, the work is just going along so well here. That said, this is your two week warning. The next transfer begins October 2, so please keep that in mind for any letters which will hopefully be coming my way (as in next week when you write me letters, because I know you all will, send them to the Mission Office and not to my Yuba address). I have very strong premonitions, shall we say, that I will not be here next transfer. That makes me sad, but it had to happen some time.
Love,
Sister L. Sorensen
There isn't too much to report this week. We worked hard, we got a lot done, but there is a lot still left to do. One thing we failed to do, is to teach Sister Mauga how to ride her bike. I've discovered that this is actually quite a hard thing to do. We tried, believe me. But I think it is kind of just something you need to figure out yourself. So I try to just be supportive and go sit outside with her in the mornings as she keeps trying--I don't feel that riding circles around her would do much for her morale. So yes, we just keep working hard.
It was rather a weird week schedule wise because we had interviews with our Mission President on Friday, so we had to do Friday Morning Planning on Thursday and some how that just throws me all off. But interviews were good, thus far my longest and most revealing interview (it was probably about 6 minutes instead of 2). Zone Meeting was really good too, very inspiring. I love this Zone, the work is just going along so well here. That said, this is your two week warning. The next transfer begins October 2, so please keep that in mind for any letters which will hopefully be coming my way (as in next week when you write me letters, because I know you all will, send them to the Mission Office and not to my Yuba address). I have very strong premonitions, shall we say, that I will not be here next transfer. That makes me sad, but it had to happen some time.
Love,
Sister L. Sorensen
Monday, September 10, 2007
Hello, Don Carlos!
Dear Friends and Family,
How has your week been going thus far? Hopefully not too bad as it is only Monday. Last week went really well for us. It started out a little stressful as we spent most of Monday pretty much deep cleaning the apartment (including experimenting with using a ward member's carpet cleaning machine), and trying to get the car spic and span. But it perked up after that.
We had a great district meeting: Sister Mauga fed us all Samoan food for reaching our District's finding goal. Then went out to do some more work! I'm so pleased that our companionship has been able to work so hard the last two weeks. Despite the fact that Sister Nielson and Sister Mauga were still fairly sick last week they were real troopers as we tried to OYM everyone possible. I've noticed that the Lord rewards our efforts; the more we try to OYM, the more people He puts in our way to OYM. Last week we had a goal of 50 and were just 2 shy, but still that is pretty good because we forgot to factor in that we would be at Zone Conference a big chunk of Thursday. We also found nearly twice as many new investigators than we had aimed for--thanks to the fact we were able to go on some good exchanges and have been opening our mouths more. We're still trying to even out our investigating pool between the two wards, but we just seem to find more solid people in Sutter Buttes (though we are finding a lot of people in Buttes Vista as well). We also got some great lessons in and it looks like the first baptism of my mission will be on September 23, which is very exciting. I am fast approaching my 9 month mark--doesn't that sound crazy?--and I was really hoping to see some baptisms before that point! Now I should have two, and we are all very excited about that. Other news? We won apartment inspections finally, so the carpet cleaning must have been worth it.
What else is there to report? We're healthy (mostly by this point), happy, and working hard. Today we're even going to have the chance to head over to the church parking lot and teach Sister Mauga how to ride her bike--in pants though, skirts come next, and then roadside (it is lucky that Yuba City is nice and flat). Oh, we did learn at Zone Conference last week that there are three more sister coming out next transfer, so there is a possibility that I will be training. Or I may be shotgunning again, but nobody really knows. In all events, it should be an exciting transfer call next time round.
Love,
Sister L. Sorensen
PS Elder Sorensen, I'm glad to hear you are doing better and that you got more miles. I hope you have a great week
How has your week been going thus far? Hopefully not too bad as it is only Monday. Last week went really well for us. It started out a little stressful as we spent most of Monday pretty much deep cleaning the apartment (including experimenting with using a ward member's carpet cleaning machine), and trying to get the car spic and span. But it perked up after that.
We had a great district meeting: Sister Mauga fed us all Samoan food for reaching our District's finding goal. Then went out to do some more work! I'm so pleased that our companionship has been able to work so hard the last two weeks. Despite the fact that Sister Nielson and Sister Mauga were still fairly sick last week they were real troopers as we tried to OYM everyone possible. I've noticed that the Lord rewards our efforts; the more we try to OYM, the more people He puts in our way to OYM. Last week we had a goal of 50 and were just 2 shy, but still that is pretty good because we forgot to factor in that we would be at Zone Conference a big chunk of Thursday. We also found nearly twice as many new investigators than we had aimed for--thanks to the fact we were able to go on some good exchanges and have been opening our mouths more. We're still trying to even out our investigating pool between the two wards, but we just seem to find more solid people in Sutter Buttes (though we are finding a lot of people in Buttes Vista as well). We also got some great lessons in and it looks like the first baptism of my mission will be on September 23, which is very exciting. I am fast approaching my 9 month mark--doesn't that sound crazy?--and I was really hoping to see some baptisms before that point! Now I should have two, and we are all very excited about that. Other news? We won apartment inspections finally, so the carpet cleaning must have been worth it.
What else is there to report? We're healthy (mostly by this point), happy, and working hard. Today we're even going to have the chance to head over to the church parking lot and teach Sister Mauga how to ride her bike--in pants though, skirts come next, and then roadside (it is lucky that Yuba City is nice and flat). Oh, we did learn at Zone Conference last week that there are three more sister coming out next transfer, so there is a possibility that I will be training. Or I may be shotgunning again, but nobody really knows. In all events, it should be an exciting transfer call next time round.
Love,
Sister L. Sorensen
PS Elder Sorensen, I'm glad to hear you are doing better and that you got more miles. I hope you have a great week
Tuesday, September 4, 2007
Goodbye, GusGus!
Dear Family and Friends,
I got an unsettling call late one night last week. And by late I mean 9:45. No, it was not about Elder Sorensen's mishap--for which I am sincerely sorry and I hope you are recuperating very well. Elder Blackard the older Elder who is in charge of the cars called to inform us that we needed to make sure our car was extra spiffy on Thursday for Zone Conference because, gulp, they're taking GusGus away and selling it. Now the bright side of this is that we get a brand new car; the down side? Byebye Mazda 3, hello Toyota Corolla. Not that Corolla are bad cars. I actually have no idea because I've never driven one, but there is something about having one of the Mazdas. Oh well, we will get over it. In fact we're already considering names for the new car. The forerunner right now is Don Carlos after Don Carlos Smith, but we'll see it probably depends on the color.
Not that we are totally obsessed with the car. We actually had a great week. I was feeling personally responsible for not quite meeting our goals the week before so I repented and rededicated myself. I am happy to report that we bettered ourselves in all the areas we hoped to. Particularly in reaching our Finding, OYM, and lessons with a member present goal. Hurrah! And all of this with all three of us having bad colds--not so hurrah. But the Lord is merciful and helped us because we really tried to push through and accomplish everything we could despite the heat and the illness. For instance last Friday while we were home doing Friday Morning Planning an old investigator who we had never met called us up and said he finally realized that Tithing--which had been his hold up--was not about the money but about having the faith to be obedient and wanted the lessons again so he could be baptized. It is not every day that happens so that was pretty cool. Then we had 4 families come on Chapel Tours (one even brought his less active sister and her non-member husband). Then Brother McPeters, the second counsellor in the Bishopric and one of people to bring his families on a chapel tour, bore his testimony on Sunday about how much he felt the spirit during the tour. That was also pretty cool, though we still don't have anyone coming for sure this weekend. Alas. But all in all a great week with another great week ahead!
What's coming up this week? Zone Conference, new car, cell phones (we're getting cell phones as a mission, so either DI is getting a lot of phones donated this month or the church is going to sell them or something), and a lot of lessons, finding and OYMing. It should be good folks. Plus I really think our baptism on the 30 will go through, we should be able to set another baptismal date this week, and things are generally looking up. Oh and we DEEP CLEANED the apartment yesterday (we even borrowed a shampooer from a member and did all our carpets) so hopefully we get higher than 3rd place this week on Apartment checks.
Elder Sorensen I hope you get feeling better!
Love,
Sister L. Sorensen
I got an unsettling call late one night last week. And by late I mean 9:45. No, it was not about Elder Sorensen's mishap--for which I am sincerely sorry and I hope you are recuperating very well. Elder Blackard the older Elder who is in charge of the cars called to inform us that we needed to make sure our car was extra spiffy on Thursday for Zone Conference because, gulp, they're taking GusGus away and selling it. Now the bright side of this is that we get a brand new car; the down side? Byebye Mazda 3, hello Toyota Corolla. Not that Corolla are bad cars. I actually have no idea because I've never driven one, but there is something about having one of the Mazdas. Oh well, we will get over it. In fact we're already considering names for the new car. The forerunner right now is Don Carlos after Don Carlos Smith, but we'll see it probably depends on the color.
Not that we are totally obsessed with the car. We actually had a great week. I was feeling personally responsible for not quite meeting our goals the week before so I repented and rededicated myself. I am happy to report that we bettered ourselves in all the areas we hoped to. Particularly in reaching our Finding, OYM, and lessons with a member present goal. Hurrah! And all of this with all three of us having bad colds--not so hurrah. But the Lord is merciful and helped us because we really tried to push through and accomplish everything we could despite the heat and the illness. For instance last Friday while we were home doing Friday Morning Planning an old investigator who we had never met called us up and said he finally realized that Tithing--which had been his hold up--was not about the money but about having the faith to be obedient and wanted the lessons again so he could be baptized. It is not every day that happens so that was pretty cool. Then we had 4 families come on Chapel Tours (one even brought his less active sister and her non-member husband). Then Brother McPeters, the second counsellor in the Bishopric and one of people to bring his families on a chapel tour, bore his testimony on Sunday about how much he felt the spirit during the tour. That was also pretty cool, though we still don't have anyone coming for sure this weekend. Alas. But all in all a great week with another great week ahead!
What's coming up this week? Zone Conference, new car, cell phones (we're getting cell phones as a mission, so either DI is getting a lot of phones donated this month or the church is going to sell them or something), and a lot of lessons, finding and OYMing. It should be good folks. Plus I really think our baptism on the 30 will go through, we should be able to set another baptismal date this week, and things are generally looking up. Oh and we DEEP CLEANED the apartment yesterday (we even borrowed a shampooer from a member and did all our carpets) so hopefully we get higher than 3rd place this week on Apartment checks.
Elder Sorensen I hope you get feeling better!
Love,
Sister L. Sorensen
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
