Hello Everyone!
We are currently freezing to death, as a cold front has brought us to the low 50's, upper 40's. We walked out this morning and ACTUALLY SAW OUR BREATH. And we freaked out. And then promptly ran back inside and hid under a lot of blankets. It's official. I'm a wimp.
This week was awesome! We got to go to an LSU basketball game, and even though they, and the team they were playing, were kind of an embarrassment, it was still fun. And also weird, because we almost felt like real live people again. I'm going to be quite the awkward duck when I come home, just a fair warning.
We are currently freezing to death, as a cold front has brought us to the low 50's, upper 40's. We walked out this morning and ACTUALLY SAW OUR BREATH. And we freaked out. And then promptly ran back inside and hid under a lot of blankets. It's official. I'm a wimp.
This week was awesome! We got to go to an LSU basketball game, and even though they, and the team they were playing, were kind of an embarrassment, it was still fun. And also weird, because we almost felt like real live people again. I'm going to be quite the awkward duck when I come home, just a fair warning.
As the holidays draw nearer, the work changes a little. It gets better in that we have the Christmas initiative on our side, which makes tracting so much more fun, and we get into a lot of houses. Also, there's a lot more service to do, and people are just generally more open. However, everyone goes out of town, and if they don't, they're just really busy, so while we can get in to share quick videos and little messages about Christ, solid, productive, progressing lessons are harder to come by. Still very possible, and we still have a lot, but people just get super busy, aka flaky, and it's hard to see them. Nevertheless, I'm SO excited for the new Christmas initiative!! I love the slogan "Light the World!!" It's going to be awesome!
My whole mission I've been amazed at how much the Lord's hand is in our lives, even in just the small day to day things. I've seen so many tender mercies, which I think are the Lord's way of saying "Keep your head up kid! You're doing great!" For example, on Saturday night we had been doing some tracting/less active hunting (trying to see if they still exist), and it was FREEZING (probably like 55 degrees..) and no one was answering. Then we knock on one less active lady's door, and she opens it up, and her apartment smells AMAZING, and she says, "Hermanas! Acabo de preparar una sopa! Pasen y comen!" (Sisters! I just prepared soup! Come and eat!) Holy smokes. Tenderest mercy there ever was. The soup was amazing, and it was so perfect because we were frozen. Plus, we really wanted to see her, and so it was just the perfect way to end our night. We were thanking her profusely and she said, "No thank YOU, because having you in my home is more of a blessing than I could ever repay you for." Not sure if that made sense.. it makes sense in Spanish. In any case, it was super sweet. I love it when people say things like that! Yesterday, we were at another less active's house, and the dad said, "Every time the missionaries visit us, I always say that Jesus visited us today, because you guys are like His angels sent to us." It makes every hard day worth it to know that the Lord could use us as instruments.
One super cool lesson we had this week was with a new investigator family that we found. They had been seriously investigating a little over a year ago, but when I looked at their teaching record in the area book, there was no reason why they were dropped. They looked golden on paper, but then it just ends. So we went to try to find them again, and they are amazing! I now see why they were dropped, because they just weren't ready to progress. But now, holy smokes. They are so prepared and so ready. In the beginning of the lesson they were kind of skeptical, and the dad told us that he's an alcoholic and doesn't think that he can ever change. Long story short, by the end of the lesson, the Spirit in the room was so tangible, and the dad said that he felt something he had never felt before, and that after all this time, he feels like this is the right path for him, and that he's going to start to make the changes he needs to to get back on the right path. We testified of the Atonement and how repentance is a beautiful gift to us, and his heart softened right in front of our eyes. I'm so excited to see what happens with them!!
Alrighty well I hope all y'all have an amazing Thanksgiving!! Not sure what we're doing yet, but as long as it's not 4 dinners in a row like last year, I think we'll be good. :) Don't forget to take time to realize how blessed we really are. This year, I'm just extremely grateful for every day I've been blessed with to be here in Louisiana. My mission has been indescribably wonderful, and I can't put into words how grateful I am for every person I've met, every miracle I've seen, every sunset, every companion, every lesson, just everything. Estoy agradecida, nada más :)
Have the best week ever!!
Con amor,
Hermana Sorensen
My whole mission I've been amazed at how much the Lord's hand is in our lives, even in just the small day to day things. I've seen so many tender mercies, which I think are the Lord's way of saying "Keep your head up kid! You're doing great!" For example, on Saturday night we had been doing some tracting/less active hunting (trying to see if they still exist), and it was FREEZING (probably like 55 degrees..) and no one was answering. Then we knock on one less active lady's door, and she opens it up, and her apartment smells AMAZING, and she says, "Hermanas! Acabo de preparar una sopa! Pasen y comen!" (Sisters! I just prepared soup! Come and eat!) Holy smokes. Tenderest mercy there ever was. The soup was amazing, and it was so perfect because we were frozen. Plus, we really wanted to see her, and so it was just the perfect way to end our night. We were thanking her profusely and she said, "No thank YOU, because having you in my home is more of a blessing than I could ever repay you for." Not sure if that made sense.. it makes sense in Spanish. In any case, it was super sweet. I love it when people say things like that! Yesterday, we were at another less active's house, and the dad said, "Every time the missionaries visit us, I always say that Jesus visited us today, because you guys are like His angels sent to us." It makes every hard day worth it to know that the Lord could use us as instruments.
One super cool lesson we had this week was with a new investigator family that we found. They had been seriously investigating a little over a year ago, but when I looked at their teaching record in the area book, there was no reason why they were dropped. They looked golden on paper, but then it just ends. So we went to try to find them again, and they are amazing! I now see why they were dropped, because they just weren't ready to progress. But now, holy smokes. They are so prepared and so ready. In the beginning of the lesson they were kind of skeptical, and the dad told us that he's an alcoholic and doesn't think that he can ever change. Long story short, by the end of the lesson, the Spirit in the room was so tangible, and the dad said that he felt something he had never felt before, and that after all this time, he feels like this is the right path for him, and that he's going to start to make the changes he needs to to get back on the right path. We testified of the Atonement and how repentance is a beautiful gift to us, and his heart softened right in front of our eyes. I'm so excited to see what happens with them!!
Alrighty well I hope all y'all have an amazing Thanksgiving!! Not sure what we're doing yet, but as long as it's not 4 dinners in a row like last year, I think we'll be good. :) Don't forget to take time to realize how blessed we really are. This year, I'm just extremely grateful for every day I've been blessed with to be here in Louisiana. My mission has been indescribably wonderful, and I can't put into words how grateful I am for every person I've met, every miracle I've seen, every sunset, every companion, every lesson, just everything. Estoy agradecida, nada más :)
Have the best week ever!!
Con amor,
Hermana Sorensen