Hey hey hey!
Sorry, totally had to throw in a shout out to my favorite team for the epic win on Saturday! Also shout out to the Relief Society president and her husband for giving me the play by play at dinner on Sunday night. :)
This week was cooler yet slower. The temperatures have gone down to a nice, crisp 85-90 degrees (which no joke, feels like fall compared to the inferno we had during August), but people just decided to not be home this week. Even when we went tracting, one in every 30 doors would open, and no one wanted to hear much about the Gospel. We also tried to contact a bunch of referrals that we got last week from when the elders were tracting, and none of them were home either! We also found out that not one of our investigators kept their commitments this week, even the ones who have been progressing for a while. Nope. Not one. Nada. But weeks like this are necessary to make us more patient and to make us appreciate the really crazy weeks where our only problem is trying to fit in everyone who wants to see us! Sister Whitney also got really sick this week (sorry I'm just getting out all the slow stuff before I talk about all the really cool stuff this week), so we were home pretty much all of Saturday. She felt a ton better the next morning though and has been fine since. We don't know what it was exactly, but I thought she was going to pass out at any second. While she slept at home, I watched pretty much every Mormon Message that has ever been made, the Restoration movie (still makes me cry every time. If you haven't seen it, watch it. It will change your life. It's the hour long version), and went through all of our supplies to see what we need more of (teaching records, pamphlets, etc.). It was nice to get some of that stuff done though because we had needed to for a while. Maybe when we get sick on the mission it's actually a blessing because we get to rest for a little bit? I don't know, but I was definitely glad that we could go back to work the next day!
Sorry, totally had to throw in a shout out to my favorite team for the epic win on Saturday! Also shout out to the Relief Society president and her husband for giving me the play by play at dinner on Sunday night. :)
This week was cooler yet slower. The temperatures have gone down to a nice, crisp 85-90 degrees (which no joke, feels like fall compared to the inferno we had during August), but people just decided to not be home this week. Even when we went tracting, one in every 30 doors would open, and no one wanted to hear much about the Gospel. We also tried to contact a bunch of referrals that we got last week from when the elders were tracting, and none of them were home either! We also found out that not one of our investigators kept their commitments this week, even the ones who have been progressing for a while. Nope. Not one. Nada. But weeks like this are necessary to make us more patient and to make us appreciate the really crazy weeks where our only problem is trying to fit in everyone who wants to see us! Sister Whitney also got really sick this week (sorry I'm just getting out all the slow stuff before I talk about all the really cool stuff this week), so we were home pretty much all of Saturday. She felt a ton better the next morning though and has been fine since. We don't know what it was exactly, but I thought she was going to pass out at any second. While she slept at home, I watched pretty much every Mormon Message that has ever been made, the Restoration movie (still makes me cry every time. If you haven't seen it, watch it. It will change your life. It's the hour long version), and went through all of our supplies to see what we need more of (teaching records, pamphlets, etc.). It was nice to get some of that stuff done though because we had needed to for a while. Maybe when we get sick on the mission it's actually a blessing because we get to rest for a little bit? I don't know, but I was definitely glad that we could go back to work the next day!
Alright enough of the boring stuff! Sorry, I promise I'm not complaining, I'm still so happy and I love this work so much! I just want to show that missions aren't always super fast and people don't always listen. So anyways, all of that stuff does not even come close to outweighing the biggest miracle of my whole mission so far! So on Tuesday after we were done emailing (our p day was on a different day on account of transfers), just as we started to leave, this guy who had been sitting next to us starts talking to us, and asks about our badges, then hits us with a bunch of super deep doctrinal questions about the purpose of life and stuff like that. So we got his number and gave him ours, and a Restoration pamphlet, and said we'd call him. Then on Thursday, we had to run to Wal-mart to pick up a couple things, and we were already planning on calling Juan Pablo (that's the guy's name, oh and he's from Argentina, so he speaks Spanish with an Italian accent and it's super cool) that day because we had both been thinking about him, but who do we randomly run into in the store?? Juan Pablo! He said he read the pamphlet and liked it but wanted more clarification, so we set up a meeting with him for Saturday. It was also awesome because he said I don't want to make y'all uncomfortable or anything so I'm totally fine meeting in public places like restaurants or parks or things like that. We told him that's convenient because we would have had to ask you the same thing anyways! So Saturday comes and he shows up to the meeting, which is a miracle within itself! Tender mercies all around! Then, we started teaching him, and he was asking awesome questions and you could see it all just click in his head. He said, "this is the missing link I've been looking for for so long!" It's hard to challenge people to be baptized in the first lesson because you don't want to scare people off or anything, but I was just feeling really strongly like I should, so I did, and he's getting baptized on October 10!!! AHHH!!!! Now, we have a lot more teaching and preparing to do! And then, we invited him to church, and guess what? He totally came to church! He loved Sacrament Meeting and mentioned that the music really hit him because he said it helped him feel the Spirit so much and he was just super touched (definitely not because of me, the Holy Ghost gets all the credit for that one). Then in Sunday school he was participating and everything and then he went to elders' quorum with the elders and he loved that too. He said he's for sure coming back next week, and apparently he's going to play soccer with the elders' quorum this week at their monthly activity. Then, more proof that the church is true, we just happened to be having a baptism right after church (usually we do child of record baptisms on Saturdays, but this was the cousin of the little girl that drowned a month ago, and Sunday would have been her 5th birthday, so they got permission to switch days. Also I think it was divine revelation because of our investigator). Juan Pablo was super interested and came with us to the baptism and it was so obvious he felt the Spirit really strongly. He got a little emotional when they confirmed her. Then when I was playing piano at the end (I played piano for the whole baptism) he was talking to Sister Whitney and said "So for my baptism on the 10th, this is what it would be like?" She said yes and he was so happy! I can't say it enough, the church is true. And I absolutely love Juan Pablo. He is our miracle investigator!! Yes, I know, problems could still come up, but oh my goodness I'm so grateful and happy!! This is the best ever! Here's to lots of prayers and work to make sure everything goes well.
Sorry that was a super long story, but it's the best one I've had yet! Nothing else out of the ordinary happened this week. Definitely a lot of little tender mercies and blessings every day! This week I've been studying the examples of Alma and the sons of Mosiah. They were amazing missionaries! They did not have Preach My Gospel, but they were for sure Preach My Gospel Missionaries. They asked inspired questions (see Alma 5) they strengthened the members (see Alma 6) they worked together with their companions (see Alma and Amulek's teachings) they taught the basic doctrines (see Alma 18 and 22) they followed the Spirit and prayed and fasted a lot (see beginning of Alma 17) they served (See Alma 17), and so many more things. Whether a missionary or not, we can look to the examples of the prophets and other scripture heroes when we need guidance because they're all pretty wonderful people. Also, it shows the merit of keeping a journal. Whose hero are you going to be someday? Will the book of Megan chapter 17 help your future granddaughter? You never know! So write it down! It's also a great way to show Heavenly Father you're grateful for the little blessings every day. When we write things down, we remember them. Or at least they're there to remind us later.
I love you all so much! Que Dios les bendice con mucho caridad y humildad y felicidad esta semana!
Con mucho amor,
Hermana Sorensen
I love you all so much! Que Dios les bendice con mucho caridad y humildad y felicidad esta semana!
Con mucho amor,
Hermana Sorensen