Week 31 Already 7 Months!!

Hey!

It has been another great week here in Tomebamba. It feels like this week has just flown on by. It did not seem like a week had passed by at all. We worked with Osvaldo and Xavier a lot this week. They are doing really good. Xavier is very excited for his baptism and wants to just get baptized this week. He is also teaching what he has learned with his family and all of his work buddies. He said that a couple of them are very interested and want to hear from us, so we will be teaching them this week. Xavier was not able to attend the church this week but he told us he definitely will be there this next one. He needs to go to church two more times to be baptized. 

Osvaldo is doing really good as well. He attended church and now only needs his interview to be ready for his baptism this Saturday! It should be a good Saturday- because when we have a baptism the week goes by extra good. We are excited for him and he is excited as well. He has a lot of faith and on Saturday we took him to another baptism and it got him even more excited. 

This next week we will be working with a lot of less active members too. We met a lot of families yesterday that are not going to church and so this week we will be visiting them. We have family home evenings scheduled for the next couple of nights with families so it should be nice. 

One thing that is really nice about this ward is there are a lot of people from Venezuela. It is awesome because they actually know about baseball- haha.  It is pretty cool to talk with them about it because there, baseball is what soccer is in Ecuador. They have a lot of cool stories about some player they met. One member even has a signature of Pablo Sandoval

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Well everything else is really good here. We are having a great time and we are working very, very hard. The weeks are going by very fast. I have already been in this area for 3 weeks and it seems like it has been like 3 days I have been here. I hope everyone has a great week!

Love, Elder Sorensen

Week 30

Well it has been a another good week here in Cuenca! We have worked very hard this week and we had our 2 investigators at church so that was good!

Well this week on Monday and Tuesday we had Carnival so we could not leave the house for nothing pretty much. We had 2 hours each day to leave and talk with our investigators then after that we had 9 hours in the house. Those 2 days were very very long days. After that,  the week went by very fast. We have been teaching - Osvaldo and Javier.

Osvaldo is doing good he has been to church 2 times and only needs to go 1 more time. He will be baptized the 7th of March. It will be nice to see him baptized. He is 48 years old and a pretty smart guy.

Javier also went to church for his first time. His Aunt that he lives with is a member and he told us he wanted to be baptized before we invited him. That was a good sign. His only real problem is going to church. He usually works on Sundays, but we are working with him to change his schedule. 

Yesterday was also a Stake Activity- Missionary for a day. All of the young men in the stake left with us for the entire day to see what it is like to be a missionary. We walked a lot and the 2 young men thought that we were crazy for walking that much. They were about to collapse on the ground. 

Our mamita here in Cuenca is very cool. We get a 4 course meals every day. We get a bowl of fruit. Then a bowl of soup, after a main course then  a dessert (mostly a cake). The food is really really good here. On Monday members said that they would bring us guinea pig but they forgot. We were really excited for it too. 

Well that is about it for this week. We worked hard and are pretty tired, but ready for another week!

Love, Elder Sorensen

Cuenca at Night

Week 29

Well I am now in a new area called Tomebamba in Cuenca. I got transferred on Tuesday. My companion is Elder Grafton from California. I am now a District Leader as well. I am doing really good. Cuenca is very pretty. There are a lot of parks and grass. They also have Peanut butter so that is nice. I am doing good though  I do not have a lot of time to write because it is Carnival and we have to be inside all day today and tomorrow. So, I will write more next week. I hope that everyone has an awesome week!

Love, Elder Sorensen

WEEK 28

Hey! I hope everyone is doing great! I have had a really good week!

Well Arturo did get baptized, and it was a very good baptism! A lot of people ended up going, and it was cool to see the branch supporting him. His son Alex came a little late, but he did come to the baptism. He thought it was cool, and we have been teaching him a lot the last couple of days. We bought some chocolate cake for the baptism, and it ended up being a great night.

Other news, Mario and Maria were out of town again, and not able to go. They were supposed to be baptized this week, but we will now have to push it back. Hopefully they will go this week and can be baptized the following week. We were not able to teach them much this week because they have been super busy. Hopefully this week will be better.

Vinicio ended up going to church and he likes it a lot. He told us after, that he will be coming every Sunday, so that was some good news. He will be baptized next week as well if he gets to church this Sunday. He said he would be coming, and hopefully we can get his family to the church with him this Sunday. 

 

Alba had been busy this week too, so we did not visit her that much. Hopefully this week will be a lot better and we will be able to get her and her daughter to church again.

 

We also have been visiting the less active family. They were already to go to church yesterday, but the member did not show up, to pick them up. We are teaching their son, Jose and he has a baptismal date as well, but he did not go to church, so we will see what happens with them. 

 

We also have a lot of other people we are teaching, but did not go to church this Sunday.

 

On Saturday we had a little training, with President Torres. It was a nice training, and we learned a lot. On Saturday was the district Priesthood conference, so he was already in town, and we had our meeting. 

 

Well not a lot more to really talk about. I hope you guys all have a great week!

Love,

Elder Sorensen

***The address for letters and packages has changed- I updated it over to the right- the  change is in red**







I am so grateful to the sweet sister that cooks for my missionary!



Week 27

Hey guys!

It has been another great week here in Piñas! Probably the best one since I have been here! Maybe the best in my mission. We had quite a bit of investigators in church yesterday. We worked hard and found some new people that really like our lessons and maybe will be baptized. Arturo was able to go to church and will now be baptized this Friday! We are pretty excited for him. The weather cleared up and it was a pretty good week. We are looking forward to this next week to keep working!

Arturo continues to love our visits. We visit him every day because he loves it! He starts sitting outside his house at about 4:00 waiting for us to come so he doesn't miss us. He is a very great guy and he thanks us just about every second we are with him for teaching him the gospel. It is definitely such a blessing to be able to teach, him and now for him to be baptized is awesome! This Friday will be a good one!

Mario and Maria did not make it to church this Sunday... We were a little bummed, but we will get them there this next Sunday, and they will be set for their baptism next Saturday the 14th for Valentines! We were only able to visit them once this week because work has been busy for them.

We also found a new family.  We taught their daughter English last Sunday, then returned and taught their mom Alba, on Wednesday. We invited them to the church. (they are super busy and it is hard to find time that they can be taught). The mom and daughter ended up making it to church, and they brought their Cousin. They really liked the church, and hopefully they will be back this next week!

We also found the daughter of a lady that is a member that has not been baptized, but wants to. She came to church this Sunday, and will be coming back next week for sure. She still does not have a baptismal date, but we will have one with her shortly.

Last of our investigators is Vinicio. He has came to church twice now. He is a friend of a member. He is a pretty cool guy and has a baptismal date for the 21 of February.  It should be a good week! 

We also brought 4 less active members to church, so that was a success as well! When I first got here we had like 70 people going to church. At church yesterday we had 87 people there so the branch is getting bigger! 

Well I hope everyone has a great week! We will be working hard, and it should be a good one!

Love, Elder Sorensen

Week 26 SIX MONTHS!

Hey!  

 

Well it was another week of hard work here in Piñas. We talked to a lot of people and met some pretty cool people as well. Elder Pollock and I went to Portovelo almost everyday because we seem to have a lot more success there. When we are in Portovelo everyone will talk to us, but in Piñas we just hear "I am busy come again another time". So we like it a lot more in Portovelo.

 

Mario and Maria were in Guayaquil this week so they were not able to go to church, but they should be there this next week. That will be their 3rd time going so in about two weeks they could be baptized. Hopefully it all goes according to plan. Mario is very sure that he wants to be baptized. Maria not so much. We are working as a team with Mario as we teach to try to convince her. On Wednesday we are having another family night with them. While they are in Guayaquil they are buying some root beer and we will be having a root beer float party, we are pretty excited. Our last family night with them was very cool. We made some cookies and cooked them at their house. It was nice to have some cookies from the U.S.

Arturo did go to church yesterday. He has gone to church 2 times now too, so this next week will be his 3rd time. Everything should be good to get him baptized on the 7th with Mario and Maria-hopefully! We are pretty excited to teach him because he keeps on telling us of more and more people that he is sharing the gospel with too. He said next week he is bringing one of his friends to church, and last week he brought his brother.

Well this week we had some pretty good food too. Our Mamita made us some really good French bread, and we had some pretty good chicken. She does not like to cook us a lot of rice because she knows we do not like it a whole lot, so that is nice too!

 

Well that is all for this week, I hope everyone has a good week!

Elder Sorensen

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Week 25 Best Week Yet!

Hey how is everyone doing? 

It was another very good week here in Piñas! Probably the best week yet!! We had some good lessons with Mario and Maria, and also found another new investigator in Portovelo.  His name is Arturo .He has a baptismal date for the 14th! We also found a bug that I've never been seen before. It looks like a giant ant, with wings and is as big as my hand... It was very scary. We had some spaghetti this week to, so that was a little different!

Mario and Maria are progressing very well! They went to church this last week so Mario has been twice and this was Maria's first time. They really only need one more time going to church and they can be baptized! The only problem is they will be in Guayaquil next Sunday so we will have to wait one more week after that... So they should be baptized on the 14th of Feb. We are going to their house tonight for a family night and Maria will be making us some tacos. We are pretty excited about that!

We also found Arturo this week. He is a 60 year old miner. He is a very cool guy. It is a miracle that we found him!  He was at church too and has a baptismal date for the 14th as well. He has a son named John that has some brain damage. We had a pretty cool lesson with him yesterday. We went to his house just planning on teaching him a little about the Book of Mormon, but has soon as we started with a prayer we thought we needed to teach lesson 2 (the plan of salvation.) It ended up being an awesome lesson that was completely guided by the spirit. 

These are the 3 investigators that will be getting baptized pretty definitely. They are all very cool people. We also have another family that did not make it but they are very cool too. They own a chicken and fries shop. We went there to buy fries and taught them. After that, they invite us every night to go and eat there as we teach. They won't ever let us pay and we feel pretty bad about it. They always insist that we don't pay. They are some of the most charitable people I have ever met. Some nights when we don't go in they get mad at us because they had already prepared our plates.

Well that is all for this week I hope you guys all have a good one!

Love, Elder Sorensen