Hi Family!
I feel like I talk about how fast everything is going every week, but seriously, was this last week lightning fast or what?! I think it was so fast for us because we had so much to do. After a transfer and a half of mayhem in this area, we were finally able to hit the ground running (or more like sprinting) and teach a ton this week. I love doing service of course, but man. Teaching. Nothing beats it! I missed having days full of teaching people the Gospel. The Lord definitely blessed us this week because somehow we had an appointment almost every hour of the day for the whole week. Planning was cake because appointments just kind of landed in our laps. It was awesome! And exhausting. Holy smokes. Every night we would just collapse on our beds because we were running from one thing to the next. I got to go on splits with a couple members in the area who speak Spanish, and it was so awesome to hear their testimonies and see how they teach. Member missionary work. Do it. Live it. Love it. The only thing that is going to keep me sane when I get home is going to be going out with the sister missionaries (hopefully Spanish ones!) because I can't imagine not being a missionary. So that is my shameless plug to all of you to help the missionaries out in any way you can. Lessons are 435082973049857x more powerful when they are held in the home of a member. We get railed on every single zone meeting to use the members more often. So do a missionary a favor, and teach with them!
I feel like I talk about how fast everything is going every week, but seriously, was this last week lightning fast or what?! I think it was so fast for us because we had so much to do. After a transfer and a half of mayhem in this area, we were finally able to hit the ground running (or more like sprinting) and teach a ton this week. I love doing service of course, but man. Teaching. Nothing beats it! I missed having days full of teaching people the Gospel. The Lord definitely blessed us this week because somehow we had an appointment almost every hour of the day for the whole week. Planning was cake because appointments just kind of landed in our laps. It was awesome! And exhausting. Holy smokes. Every night we would just collapse on our beds because we were running from one thing to the next. I got to go on splits with a couple members in the area who speak Spanish, and it was so awesome to hear their testimonies and see how they teach. Member missionary work. Do it. Live it. Love it. The only thing that is going to keep me sane when I get home is going to be going out with the sister missionaries (hopefully Spanish ones!) because I can't imagine not being a missionary. So that is my shameless plug to all of you to help the missionaries out in any way you can. Lessons are 435082973049857x more powerful when they are held in the home of a member. We get railed on every single zone meeting to use the members more often. So do a missionary a favor, and teach with them!
Speaking of zone meetings, we had zone conference on Saturday, and it was so awesome! We did "Missionary University" and President asked half the companionships in the zone to do a 10 minute "class" on a topic that he assigned them. He assigned us to teach how to teach with power. The biggest key is the Spirit. Without the Spirit, lessons are just bible studies. Without the Spirit, commitments are just homework assignments. Without the Spirit, member present lessons are just a dinner party. But with the Spirit, we can have the voices of thunder. Pretty cool. We mostly used the talk, "Feed My Sheep" by Elder Holland. Not the one he gave in conference, but the one he gave in the MTC. If you google it, I'm sure you can find it. And if you find it, I highly recommend you read it because WOW that thing is a powerhouse. Sidenote, I'm so stoked that conference is in only 3 weeks!!! I'm more excited for conference than Christmas I'm pretty sure.
Yesterday, (Sunday), we went to 8 hours of church. Yup. 3 hours of the Spanish branch from 8:30-11:30 (which, my dad mentioned how having 12 members of the ward at the temple was super small... try only have 10 members at church because of all the floods haha), then the English ward from 1-4, then ward council from 4-5, then an investigator's church for an hour from 5-6. That's a lot of church. It was definitely eye-opening to go to another church (it was a non-denominational rock and roll type of church). It was a lot of fun, but you don't leave feeling edified or better. I still think it's awesome that people do the best with what they know and take time out of their week to worship God in the best way they know how. It really made me grateful for our church though and just how organized and peaceful everything is.
Yesterday, (Sunday), we went to 8 hours of church. Yup. 3 hours of the Spanish branch from 8:30-11:30 (which, my dad mentioned how having 12 members of the ward at the temple was super small... try only have 10 members at church because of all the floods haha), then the English ward from 1-4, then ward council from 4-5, then an investigator's church for an hour from 5-6. That's a lot of church. It was definitely eye-opening to go to another church (it was a non-denominational rock and roll type of church). It was a lot of fun, but you don't leave feeling edified or better. I still think it's awesome that people do the best with what they know and take time out of their week to worship God in the best way they know how. It really made me grateful for our church though and just how organized and peaceful everything is.
My last cool experience of the week was getting to play piano at a flood victim's house. We were helping her move stuff out of her house. She's an amazing musician and has a beautiful Yamaha baby grand. And it still played well after the flood! She found out I played, so I played some good ol' Jon Schmidt and William Joseph, and she loved it. We became best friends after that. :) She said that when I go home, I have to come back and see her because we are lifelong friends now. There's a power in music, I'm telling you. It felt so good to play again after a few transfers of barely touching a piano, and it seemed to just bring life to a house that had been destroyed by the floods. I'm so grateful for music and piano because it really brings people together and makes everyone happy, especially me. We still have a lot more to do at her house, which I'm not sad about because I get to keep playing that piano! :)
I love you all so much! I hope you enjoy the fall weather, because fall doesn't exist in Louisiana. You just have an 11-month summer, and a 1-month frigid winter here in around January/February. Also, I still love my Cougars no matter what! :)
Con amor,
Hermana Sorensen
Con amor,
Hermana Sorensen