Hi Everyone!
This week we got a turtle named Toni (Antonio Francis Jr to be exact), we got conned into translating for one of the elders' investigators at the gynecologist, and neither of us are getting transferred! Hooray! Also, we did fantasy general conference here, where we all picked who we thought would speak and when, the colors of ties, and the motab dresses and such, and I totally won!
This week we got a turtle named Toni (Antonio Francis Jr to be exact), we got conned into translating for one of the elders' investigators at the gynecologist, and neither of us are getting transferred! Hooray! Also, we did fantasy general conference here, where we all picked who we thought would speak and when, the colors of ties, and the motab dresses and such, and I totally won!
Conference was amazing as always. I loved all the talks, but I especially loved President Uchtdorf's about remembering God's love for us. I also loved Elder Holland's talk about not getting down after really cool spiritual experiences happen. We deal will both of those daily here, so I loved getting advice on those two topics. I also loved Elder Christofferson's talk about fathers. Major shout out to my dad, because he is the most amazing man I know. When he talked about the good, better, best scale and how your ratings improve with time, I thought about how my dad already started out at the best end of the scale and has been off the charts ever since. I love you so much dad!
This week I just want to talk about two cool lessons we had. First, we visit a lady named Vivian a lot, and she is like my best friend. She is the sweetest thing ever, but it's so sad because she literally has no one but us. Her family is terrible to her and they take advantage of her because she has some mental disabilities and she doesn't really have any friends. I absolutely love Vivian with all my heart! So this week we were teaching her, and all of a sudden I just had the impression to stop and tell her how much God loved her, and that He was her Father, and she was His daughter, and she just broke down crying, which she's never done before. Sister Alder and I testified about God's love and how we're part of His family. She told us that we were her family, and to tell our mothers sorry because we're her adopted daughters now. :) The Spirit was so strong and I could tangibly feel the love Heavenly Father has for her as we were talking. I've felt that a lot before on my mission, but not that strongly.
Second, I have never been backed up to the wall of my faith so much as I was in this lesson. We were with one of our Hispanic investigators, who really loves the bible and likes to throw weird questions at us, but still listens to us and likes to learn. He had a friend over, who we hadn't met before, and he just went off on us. Somehow, all the questions got aimed at me, but in rapid succession, and clearly with the intent to just harp on us. They asked, "How do you know that the Book of Mormon is true? How can you say Joseph Smith is a prophet? How do you know that what you're doing as a missionary isn't a lie? How do you know if you're going to heaven? How can you testify of Christ when you are going against the bible when it says you can't add on to the bible?" And a bunch of questions like that. They let us answer in between each one and the craziest thing happened. I honestly do not remember what I said, but the Spirit was so real. We testified that we do know these things are true, and that we really are missionaries sent by a living prophet to represent Jesus Christ and His restored church, and that Joseph Smith really was a prophet, and that the Book of Mormon is the word of God. After all the questions, we were pretty done. I was pretty annoyed and sad, not because we were torn down, because we weren't, but because I wish they would open their hearts and realize what we're offering to them. At the end of the lesson, there were so many scriptures I wanted to pull out, but I couldn't. I just felt like I should testify again, so that's what we did. We both bore the strongest testimonies we could muster, and the Spirit was there. For the first time in the whole lesson, the two men didn't interrupt us or say anything, and I knew they were touched.
Second, I have never been backed up to the wall of my faith so much as I was in this lesson. We were with one of our Hispanic investigators, who really loves the bible and likes to throw weird questions at us, but still listens to us and likes to learn. He had a friend over, who we hadn't met before, and he just went off on us. Somehow, all the questions got aimed at me, but in rapid succession, and clearly with the intent to just harp on us. They asked, "How do you know that the Book of Mormon is true? How can you say Joseph Smith is a prophet? How do you know that what you're doing as a missionary isn't a lie? How do you know if you're going to heaven? How can you testify of Christ when you are going against the bible when it says you can't add on to the bible?" And a bunch of questions like that. They let us answer in between each one and the craziest thing happened. I honestly do not remember what I said, but the Spirit was so real. We testified that we do know these things are true, and that we really are missionaries sent by a living prophet to represent Jesus Christ and His restored church, and that Joseph Smith really was a prophet, and that the Book of Mormon is the word of God. After all the questions, we were pretty done. I was pretty annoyed and sad, not because we were torn down, because we weren't, but because I wish they would open their hearts and realize what we're offering to them. At the end of the lesson, there were so many scriptures I wanted to pull out, but I couldn't. I just felt like I should testify again, so that's what we did. We both bore the strongest testimonies we could muster, and the Spirit was there. For the first time in the whole lesson, the two men didn't interrupt us or say anything, and I knew they were touched.
Since that lesson, I've been pondering a lot on the calling we have as missionaries, and how it really is absolutely crazy what we do. The two men kept quoting a bible reference that talked about if you preach with God's permission it will be well, but if we don't, we'll be cast out to a bad place. Really, everything hinges on if Joseph Smith was really a prophet and restored the true church of Christ with His authority. And if there's only one thing all y'all read in this email, I hope you read this-- I know without any hint of doubt that Joseph Smith was a prophet. Which means that the Book of Mormon is the word of God, and that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the true church, and that Thomas S. Monson is the prophet today, and that my calling as a missionary is ordained of God because the signature on my call is that of a prophet of God. It's really scary to testify like that sometimes, but I know what I know and I would not be afraid to testify in front of all the people on earth and all the angels in heaven because that's how sure I am. I'm amazed and humbled by this opportunity to serve as a missionary and be the Lord's mouthpiece here in Louisiana. I love this work more than I can describe.
I hope you all have the best week ever! If you didn't get to watch all of conference, or even if you did, go read/watch it. There is so much to learn and so little time to do it. I love you all!!
Con amor,
Hermana Sorensen
I hope you all have the best week ever! If you didn't get to watch all of conference, or even if you did, go read/watch it. There is so much to learn and so little time to do it. I love you all!!
Con amor,
Hermana Sorensen