Week 72

Well this week went by super fast! It was a really good one too. We had the Christmas Choir devocional this week with our mission. (President Torres puts together a choir and they travel singing in all the districts and stakes.) Wednesday they came to Santa Rosa. It was cool because the only members from our branch that showed up were Jessica and her family. We ended up having 4 recent converts and 3 investigators there. It was super cool. They loved it and felt the spirit there. Other than that, we had a regular week. We had a branch activity cleaning the church on Saturday. That was pretty cool. We had a lot of members there and they helped alot. It was nice to have a clean church for Sunday. Everyone loved our christmas ties at church on Sunday. They liked them without knowing that they could play christmas songs haha. When they found out that they played songs they were stunned haha. I think I will be making a singing tie company here, they all wanted them haha.

 In Elders Quorm we learned about stakes, but our crazy teacher started to talk about Vampires and that you have to kill Vampires with stakes, haha. It was pretty ridiculous. Then after he said that we should be filled with the spirit, so that when vampires come to suck our blood that they can only suck the spirit out of us. I learned a bunch. Definitley the best Elders Quoroum class. haha. 

That was my week. I Hope everyone has a great week!

Love, Elder Sorensen

Week 70

Hey! 

Well it was a great week!!! I thought for about the entire week that it was going to be a tough one and I was worried that on Sunday we would not have anybody at church, but in the end we had a baptism! Everything went really well and it was a blessing to see that Alexandra got baptized. We had been teaching her for 3 months. She was not very happy during this week for her baptism and we could not find her at all. On thursday we only had 2 minutes to talk to her and then we taught her Saturday night. Those were the only times we talked to her this week, and she was baptized. We had a great lesson with her Saturday night and she told us that she wanted to be baptized Sunday after church. We found a new spot under the bridge to do the baptisms, and the river current was strong there, and I almost fell down while I was in the river baptizing, but in the end she was baptized and I did not fall. I also ate Crab for the first time in my life this week. It was not that great.... and it was a bunch of work to eat it haha, but I think  would try it again. Oh and today we went to a zoo, so that was cool. We saw some pretty cool animals there. The monkeys were the coolest. Well that is all for this week! I hope everyone has an amazing week!

Love, Elder Sorensen

Week 71

Well it has been another great week! It was very short and very, very hot, but it all went well. On Tuesday I got a call that we had to go to Guayaquil because we were going to the temple, so that was awesome. We actually went into the temple Wednesday to do a session. It was cool to be back in the temple and to feel the spirit. The only down side was sleeping in the hotel by the temple. The AC in our room was broken, and so it was like a sauna in there. haha. I woke up in the morning soaking wet from sweat haha. Not the best experience. Our branch went to the temple Saturday aswell. Jessica, Teresa, and Patricia went to the temple. They all liked it a lot and did some baptisms. It was cool because a family was sealed there too. The Burgos family. They are a really cool family and were really excited to be sealed. It was nice to see what the end result of our work is. It got me excited to keep working. Sunday was awesome because it was testimony meeting. Just about all my converts shared their tesimonies and it was great to hear how strong their testimonies are. I learned a lesson about fasting as well haha. I kept thinking how hungry I was the entire time and thinking about after the fast. Well after the fast we ate 3 dinners... I was stuffed after and did not want to know anything about food haha. Our investigators are doing really good. Looks like we can have a couple of baptisms this week. I hope everyone has a great week! 

Love, Elder Sorensen

Week 69

Well this week went by super fast. We had a pretty good time and found some new people. One person we found was really cool. His name is Erwich and he speaks english. The only problem is that he works in the middle of the Amazon Jungle and only comes to his house every once and a while. We taught him and it was a great lesson and he was really interested, but it is just a bummer that he is not in his house enough to teach him. We also found some other people, but they were not able to make it to church. We are having a great time here and our converts are starting to gain really strong testimonies. It was cool yesterday when we gave the Principles of the Gospel class, because we had our converts share their testimonies with our investigators. It was really really cool, and the spirit was super strong in the room. Everyone really enjoyed that class. Alexandra did not get baptized this week. She wants to be certain before she gets baptized. It was hard because we all thought she would get baptized, but it is alright. This week maybe! :) There is not much more to talk about. Everything is going good. I hope that everyone has a great week! 

Love, Elder Sorensen

Week 68

Well it has been a good week. I ate alot of things that I had not eaten until this point on the mission but there was a lot of good things that we ate. I ate some lobster, some octopus, and some squid. They were all good. I thought that I would not like the octopus, but it was pretty good. Oh and we ate clams aswell. We also have 3 people progressing in the church. Alexandra went for her third time and if she goes one more time this Sunday, she can be baptized. We are going to talk to her tonight to see if she wants to be baptized after the church this Sunday! So we could have a baptism here this week!!! We also had another lady that came to church. Her name is Fabiola. She has a restaurant and is passing through a lot of problems right now. She went to church and she liked it a bunch, and promised us that she would be back this next week. She is preparing to be baptized the 28th, so in about two weeks. Everything is going well for us right now. We had a bit of a slump, but we are getting back into the groove and starting to find people again. This week was crazy because there was a bunch of parties.  Monday thru Thursday we could not find anybody, but Friday and Saturday were great days. Ecuador is now in first place in South America in Soccer, so that is exciting news for them. They play Venezuela  tommorrow. I am excited for this week, because is should be a really good one. The pictures are of a dinner I ate. It is fries, pop corn, plantanes ( i think that is how you spell it.)  and rice. haha It was a weird combination. There was a rodeo here this week and a member bought a cowboy hat there, and so I tried it on haha. And Jessica gave us shirts from when she was running for counselor. They are super small. haha That is all for this week. It was a great week!!!! 

Love, Elder Sorensen

Week 67

Well it was a pretty good week! I will probably always remember it because I had a great birthday!  I ate 4 cakes and 5 dinners for it.... Not all for the same day but yesterday I did eat 2 cakes and 3 dinners. I think we were all about to explode after we were done. I also recieved some pretty cool stuff.  Our Branch President gave me a pretty cool Ecuador Jersey for the upcoming World Cup that will be in Russia in 2018. I also got a soccer scarf from Barcelona and a new tie from our Ward Mission Leader. We had a bunch of fun, and my convert Jessica bought me two cakes haha. We started the parties last monday when she bought me a cake, just to make sure that I would have a party because we didnt know if I would have transfers. Then on Saturday in our zone meeting, my zone leaders bought me a cake, and then on Sunday Jessica bought me another one and then the Robles family bought me one. It was pretty awesome, but I dont think I could eat any more cake!!! In all it was a great day!!!! We are teaching 4 people getting them ready for their baptisms. We had 3 people progressing this week and they are all getting excited for their baptisms. My companion and I are having a great time and working well. The time continues to fly by. I hope that everyone has a great week! I know that we will have a great week!
Thanks for all the Birthday Wishes!

Love, Elder Sorensen

                              Cake 1

        The traditional "cake smash"!

                     Cakes 3 & 4

                    Cake 5

Week 66 9 months left!

Well it has been a pretty busy week here in Arenillas, but it really did go by fast. Well I wrote early last week because we decided to go Iguana hunting.  It is pretty intense. Well we went off and actually caught one. It was pretty crazy. They are super strong and it was hard to keep it in your hands. We wanted to eat it but it was too small so we just let it go... :( That was the excting news of the week. 

We had district conference this week and that was pretty good. We were able to bring one investigator named Kevin. He was super excited to go he liked the church a lot. There was not much more going on this week. All of my converts are doing super good here and are all really converted to the gospel. I am excited to work here everyday, and see all of the blessings that they are all recieving. That is all for this week I hope everyone has a great week!

Love Elder Sorensen

 (one of the pictures is of a bread bag. It is from a bread they sell for only this week every year. It is called Guagua bread which means kid bread. It is in the shape of a kid. It is not that great... haha) 

 ***I found this on Google-this is what the "Bread Babies" look like.  It's part of the All Souls Day celebration- to remember loved ones who have passed on. ***

Week 65

 Well this was a pretty crazy week! I think it probably was the craziest week that has passed so far on the mission. It all started Friday.... Well Jessica our convert that got baptized like 2 months ago, her mom got baptized this week. It was super cool because when we met her she did not want anything to do with us. She would leave the room when we taught Jessica and when we would ask her if she wanted to listen to us,  she would say that she is Catholic and leave. Well little by little we gained her confidence until she was baptized this week! That was not the crazy part though... 

On Friday we were working and I recieved a call saying that her Dad had passed away... (he was sick with cancer) She was crying and we ran to the hospital to talk to them. Well I guess how they do things here is a little different than the US. They are buried within a few days.  The funerals are at their house, and they dont like hide the people when they die.... My companion and I had to help them get him into his coffin and a bunch of other things. Not the best thing to do... It was sad to hear that he had died because when I got here 2 months ago he was doing really good. He could walk and talk, but the last couple of days he had gotten really sick. We helped them set up the funeral in their house and everything then went home for the night. We were not thinking that Patricia (Jessicas mom) would get baptized this week at this point. Well on Saturday we had the funeral for our church and we helped with that. I even had to give a talk. Later that night we were eating dinner at their house and right as we finished Patiricia recieved a message that her sister had gotten in a car accident leaving the funeral and that she had passed away. At this point things got pretty crazy and they still did not know what happened when we left at 9 in the night.  At 10 Jessica called us saying that she did not die that she was just in a car wreck. We were relieved, but did not plan on Patricia's baptism due to everything that had went on. Sunday morning we went to their house to see if they would make it to church, and they asked us what we were doing there and that Patricia was waiting for us in the river to get baptized. So we rushed to the river and baptized her. It was really cool to see her faith at this point. Due to all of the events that went on she still got baptized. After church on Sunday they buried her Dad and I recieved another surprise- I had to direct the ward choir for the burial.(I dont even know how to lead music) In the end everything worked its way out and it was a great Sunday. If the story does not make sense I am sorry haha. It is a bunch of stuff and I think we are still confused on what happened haha, but it was a great week!

Love, Elder Sorensen

Week 64

I Well another week has come and gone. It has been a pretty good week here in Arenillas, and it went by super fast. We actually had a multi zone training with President Torres this week so that was cool. It was in the banana capital of the world Machala Ecuador. There were like 50 missionaries there. I got to see Elder Manning there, so that was cool. From my district in the MTC there was me, Elder Williams, Elder Lueckler and Elder Manning. We learned a bunch and then got back to work. On Sunday we went on an adventure aswell. We went to Huaquillas to deliver baptismal clothes for the baptisms, and after we ate lunch with them, and it was a lot of fun. It ended up taking just about the entire day to do it all, but it was a lot of fun. Huaquillas is the border with Peru, and there are a lot of people who smuggle things into Peru from there. It is really funny how the people try to hide the stuff. Some of them put like 30 shirts on to try and hide them, but you can obviously see the shirts haha. Not much more going on here in Arenillas. The 1st of November we have a district conference, because where I am is not a stake but a district. It should be fun because I will be able to see the branch members from Piñas again! I am prety excited. Well that is all for this week. I hope that everyone has a great week!

Love, Elder Sorensen

 

Week 63

Well another week has gone by, and it has been a really good one! We were able to baptize Sandra so that was really cool. She asked that I baptized her, so it was cool to enter the river again. It was kind of funny because with this baptism, there were about 30 people swimming in the river by us. Maybe they all felt the spirit of the baptism haha. It was cool because she had been listening to the missionaries for 6 months, and finally decided to get baptized. We were also able to find some other people to teach and stay busy. I dont really have much to say. The time is going by very fast it is pretty crazy.  Right now have 2 other people who are getting ready to be baptized. We have Alexandra and Sergio. They need to get to church before they can be baptized. I hope that everyone has a great week!

Love, Elder Sorensen

Week 62

Well It has been a great week!  General Conference was really good, there were so many great talks. We also baptized Nancy and Brigette, (Michael did not want to get baptized so he didnt.) But the 2 baptisms were really good. It was a great way to start Sunday before General Conference. We had the baptisms at 9 and right after we went to General Conference that started at 11. It was awesome to have the spirit from the baptisms lead into conference. The baptism was also cool, because it was in the river! Me and my companion each ended up baptizing one, and it was really cool. I really liked all the talks, but I think my 2 favorties were President Uchtdorf´s   in the Priesthood session, and Elder Christofferson´s talks. I really liked everything about them. I also liked Elder Holland's talk a bunch aswell because I really do have the best mom! It really was a great 2 days of conference. 

We also will be having Sandra´s baptism this week. It could be just her getting baptized, or it could be all of her kids getting baptized with her. We will have to see. I am excited to see what happens and to see if we can get the 4 of them baptized this week. 

I was able to go to Piñas (one of my old areas) this week aswell. I visited Antonio (one of my converts) and he was really exctied to see me. We talked for a little bit and he is doing really good. The weather there was amazing and I really miss the cold breeze right now. It is sooo hot here. haha.

 

Well that is it for this week. It went really fast. Hopefully we can have another great week this week, and have some more baptisms!

Love, Elder Sorensen

                                                        Sunset in Ecuador

                                                              Wild Parrots

               Catholic Church in Pinas

Week 61

Well I did not have transfers, and one of my companions did not get transfered so that is a success haha! I am with Elder Davila. Elder Davila has 2 months on the mission, and is from Lima, Peru. Since he is still in his first 12 weeks, I will be training him. Elder Brown got a new companion, Elder Blanco from Bolivia. We had a really good week! We had 6 people we are teaching at church and all of them are being prepared to get baptized. Nancy, Brigit, and Michael came. They will be getting baptized this Sunday, so I am really excited for that! Baptisms and conference this weekend! It should be a really good weekend!

We are also teaching Rosa. She is really cool. We met her this last Wednesday, and she accpeted a baptismal date, on the first contact. We taught her a couple times and she continues to get more and more excited. She went to church, and it turns out just about the entire branch knows her! They are probably kicking themselves, for not inviting her sooner. 

Sandra also was at the church. She brought 3 of her 4 kids aswell, so that was really cool. She has been taught by the missionaries a bunch of times, but this time, she is ready to get baptized. Her kids are all really cool too. She has 3 boys and a girl. Santiago is 3 years old. Diego is 8. Anderson is 12 and her daughter Carolyn is 17. I think we will be able to baptize the three kids that are old enough.  Sandra is getting ready to be baptized the 10th of October. (the next week.)

A member had a huge turtle, so we decided to take pictures. I think it is a aligator snapping turtle or something, but it can break wood boards with its mouth. (we tested it out. haha) 

Well that was my week. It was a great one! I hope that everyone has a great week this week, and can find time to watch conference. It is going to by great!

Love, Elder Sorensen

              Local Wildlife

Week 60

Well my companion had transfers this week..... Yep I have now had 6 companions in 6 weeks. It has been pretty crazy haha. Right now I am in a trio with Elder Brown and Elder Davila.  Elder Brown is from Layton, Utah he has 1 year on the mission.  Elder Davila is from Lima Peru and has 6 weeks on the mission. 

We have had a pretty good week, and it ended in a baptism!!! I was not planning on ending with a baptism, but it happened!  It was a really cool one and the spirit was super strong! She really had a change of heart and really wanted to be baptized. Her name is Jessica. She is a counciler for the town of Arenillas, so that is pretty cool!   We also have 7 other people that we are preparing to get baptized.  There are 5 who want to be baptized the 3rd of October, so that should be a good day! We will have Conference and 5 baptisms! The patience here in Arenillas is now paying off! We are finding a lot of cool people, that really want to find the truth. We did have a tough start here but little by little it is picking up. We are having an awesome time here and the work is moving!  We had 125 people at church so that was awesome! If we can keep it this high for 3 more months or so, they will be building a chaple here- so that should be pretty cool!  I hope that everyone has a great week, and I am looking forward to my week!

Love, Elder Sorensen

 

                             These bananas will end up in the United States.

                                    This is their current church

      View of the city from the church

                 $1.00 Pineapple

        Service with a smile!  

         Painting a house.