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