Hi Family!
Okay before you get too excited, no it didn't snow. However, in downtown Kenner there's this cute little district that's super old, and they make it into a Christmas town every Christmas. We went on Saturday night and there were just a ton of lights and music (and good family contacting!) and they had machines that would blow "snow" (suds) every 10 minutes or so. It made us really happy. :)
Things are still awesome in Kenner! I know I've said this a million times, but I would 100% stay here my whole mission if I could. This week we set up more Christmas trees for people which was great. One of them was a sweet old lady named Rosa. When we got to her house, she was super sad and told us she had been depressed and lonely the past couple days. Her cousin, who had been visiting, had to go home, and her children and grandchildren don't visit her as often as they used to (they live really close so I'm not sure why). She told us she hadn't really been in the mood to do anything, especially decorate for Christmas, so we offered to do it for her. We decorated her whole house, put up her tree and decorated it, and decorated the outside of her house too. By the end she was smiling so much. She gave us huge hugs and said, "You have no idea what you've done for me today! You've completely turned everything around and I'm so happy now!" It was just one of those "right place right time" moments. Also she took us to Raising Cane's so 10 points to her. :)
Okay before you get too excited, no it didn't snow. However, in downtown Kenner there's this cute little district that's super old, and they make it into a Christmas town every Christmas. We went on Saturday night and there were just a ton of lights and music (and good family contacting!) and they had machines that would blow "snow" (suds) every 10 minutes or so. It made us really happy. :)
Things are still awesome in Kenner! I know I've said this a million times, but I would 100% stay here my whole mission if I could. This week we set up more Christmas trees for people which was great. One of them was a sweet old lady named Rosa. When we got to her house, she was super sad and told us she had been depressed and lonely the past couple days. Her cousin, who had been visiting, had to go home, and her children and grandchildren don't visit her as often as they used to (they live really close so I'm not sure why). She told us she hadn't really been in the mood to do anything, especially decorate for Christmas, so we offered to do it for her. We decorated her whole house, put up her tree and decorated it, and decorated the outside of her house too. By the end she was smiling so much. She gave us huge hugs and said, "You have no idea what you've done for me today! You've completely turned everything around and I'm so happy now!" It was just one of those "right place right time" moments. Also she took us to Raising Cane's so 10 points to her. :)
Other great news of the week is that we finally got a lesson with our amazingly golden family, Patricia and Raul and their kids. And they accepted baptismal dates!!! WOOO!!!! It's been way too long since we've had someone on date. Now we just have to work our tails off to help them get ready! And also getting them to come to church, because they can't get baptized if they're not coming to church...but that's what prayers are for. :)
Lowlight of the week was that we were both still sick most of the week, which definitely slowed us a down a little. We want to keep working, but people don't like having two coughing strangers in their houses, so we had to take breaks. We were able to get a lot done though, despite being sick, which was a huge tender mercy from the Lord. It's no fun being sick any time, but especially not on a mission because time is going SO FAST and we don't want to waste any second. We're both feeling so much better now though so here's to a crazy busy week trying to get to all the things we didn't get to last week.
Not much else terribly exciting happened this week. Just the usual tracting/contacting/visiting. We've all been trying out a new method of tracting with kind of a questionnaire and it's actually going super well! The questions are just things like - what kind of things are important to you? what do you think about religion? and things like that. It leads perfectly into a lesson. We got 5 new investigators this week just from this new tracting method. I've never had success tracting before, so I'm really excited about this new method.
Lowlight of the week was that we were both still sick most of the week, which definitely slowed us a down a little. We want to keep working, but people don't like having two coughing strangers in their houses, so we had to take breaks. We were able to get a lot done though, despite being sick, which was a huge tender mercy from the Lord. It's no fun being sick any time, but especially not on a mission because time is going SO FAST and we don't want to waste any second. We're both feeling so much better now though so here's to a crazy busy week trying to get to all the things we didn't get to last week.
Not much else terribly exciting happened this week. Just the usual tracting/contacting/visiting. We've all been trying out a new method of tracting with kind of a questionnaire and it's actually going super well! The questions are just things like - what kind of things are important to you? what do you think about religion? and things like that. It leads perfectly into a lesson. We got 5 new investigators this week just from this new tracting method. I've never had success tracting before, so I'm really excited about this new method.
To make this email not super short and lame, I'll answer a question my mom had a few weeks ago, which is - what have you learned so far on your mission? I'm still new in the mission, or kind of new I guess (I've been out 6 months now... which is super scary and crazy. Missions go by so fast!), so I don't have a ton of experience. However, in just these short 6 months, I've already grown so much and I can see how much I've grown up. I think one of the biggest lessons I've learned is what it means to have faith. I used to think that if you have enough faith, you can do anything. I used to think that baptisms/anything else in missionary work depended on the faith (including the obedience, which is an act of faith) of the missionary. So I thought that if I just believed and hoped with my whole soul, and if I was exactly obedient, it would just be dunk fest 2015 and the baptisms would roll in. Okay, I didn't actually think that, but I definitely thought for a while that it was my fault that I wasn't seeing the progress I knew these great people could have. What I've learned is that indeed, with faith, we can move mountains, but only according to the Lord's will. That's the part I think I always forgot. We can do literally everything we can and have a mountain range of faith, but that investigator just won't accept a baptismal date yet, or this less active won't come back to church, or anything else. And that's okay. I have learned so much more deeply that our Heavenly Father has a plan so perfectly laid out for each of us. I used to not understand why Heavenly Father would delay people being converted, but it's because he prepares each heart for the exact prime moment that they would be the most receptive. Yes, most anybody could join the church. But to be truly converted means they probably need more experiences to be in a place where not only will they get baptized, but they will also go to the temple someday, and they will be faithful members throughout their lives. I kind of mentioned this a couple weeks ago, but the Bucios' sealing really hit this point home for me. They've had soooo many sets of missionaries over 9 years to get them to this point. I've realized that missionaries are like links in a chain. We start a lot of people's chains, but we rarely get to be the last links in the chain. But we are always “A” link in the chain, which is crucial. Without every single missionary, and every single member that fellowshipped and welcomed them, an investigator will never get to baptism/the temple. I don't know if I'm explaining this the right way, but basically, I just know that God has a plan for each person, including for each one of His missionaries. Each one of us has a role to play and that doesn’t always mean results. As long as we're doing everything we can to make baby steps with the people we visit, that's more than enough. Even though I would love to see this whole area turn around and see everyone be more receptive and the ward more active, it's just not time yet. Someday, but not yet. I've just been blessed with this miniscule amount of time to make a teeny tiny, but important, difference. So if I had to sum up what I've learned, it's trust in the Lord's timing.
I love you all so much! Have an amazing week!
Hermana Sorensen
I love you all so much! Have an amazing week!
Hermana Sorensen