Week 17

Hey everyone!

How is everyone doing? It has been a pretty good week for me. I hope it has been equally good for all of you guys!  We have got a lot done and continue to keep working. It has been a pretty quick week. When we are really busy, time seems to go by faster and faster.

Our investigator Antonio continues to progress. He has now gone church  2 times so if he go this next Sunday everything should be good for his baptism that will be on the 6th of December.  He is a very cool guy. He is 70 years old, but he is a hard worker and you could never tell that he is that old. He looks forward to every lesson that we have with him, and it is nice to see how happy he always is. He is really the perfect investigator to have. He will read the scriptures we leave him 2 or 3 times and really study them and has a great testimony as well.

 

We also have another investigator that could also be baptized on the 6th.  He has gone to church a lot of times, and Elder Margos and I thought he was already a member. We asked him and he said no he had never been baptized, but he has been attending church for the last couple of months.  Tonight we are going to talk to him to see if everything is good for his baptism on the 6th!  Those are the two we have been teaching that came to church this week.  We have a couple other investigators than we are teaching but they did not go to church this week. Hopefully next week we can get them to go. We are going to try to get a member to take us to all his friends this week. His name is Pancho and he is super famous around here in Piñas. Everyone seems to know who he is. When we are with him,  he stops to talk to everyone. So hopefully he can be our  key to success here in Piñas.  

Everything else is going good! Elder Riffel is the new companion of Elder Smith and he is a pretty cool guy. Everyone thinks him and I are related somehow because he is a little taller than me, with blonder hair and blue eyes as well. It is rare for them to see one gringo like us, with two they are probably pretty shocked! 

That is about it for this week.I hope everyone has a pretty good Thanksgiving!  Eat a lot of turkey and mashed potatoes and have an excellent week! I Can't wait to here about it next week! 

Love, Elder Sorensen

 

 

 

 

 

 

WEEK 16

Hey Everyone!

Its has been another great week! We have been working hard to find some new people to teach. We have one investigator now that has a baptismal date for the 20th of December! His name is Anotonio and he is a little bit older, but he is a very cool guy. He really wants to do what is right all the time. He could not go to church this week because he had to go to Quito, but this next week he should be there. Hopefully this next week we can find even more people to commit to being baptized. 

First off, I think I will talk about church on Sunday. It was a pretty interesting day.  First of all,  all of the Elders had to give talks. It was my first time giving a talk in Spanish and it was pretty stressful, but I think it went pretty well. After 2 of us talked we had a special musical number by the 4 of us! Then in our class for investigators, we had a couple show up that we weren't expecting, and they had some pretty strong opinions.   I think they ended up sharing their opinion more than the teacher got to teach. I felt so bad for the guy. I was glad that he was very patient. It was the last day on the mission for Elder Atwell,  so we went to a members house and had a little devotional  that was very cool. For lunch that day we also had some fried shrimp that was very good. The best shrimp I have had since I have been in Ecuador! 

It has been very nice to live with 2 Elders who are finishing up their missions.  First Elder Thomson and now Elder Atwell.  Just to hear all their stories about the mission, and what we need to prepare for is very cool. I only lived with Elder Atwell for a little bit but I can tell he was a very good missionary. 

It has just been a lot of work here in Piñas. There are lot of hills and stair cases, so by the end of the day we are tired, but it is awesome to be here.  The branch here is not that big. It is pretty much one family that makes up the whole branch. If that family does not come to church, I think there would be 15 people in the branch.  When they all come to church we have 70.  It just means there is a lot of people here to teach! I hope every has a great week!

Love, Elder Sorensen

Week 15 New Area...

Hey everyone!

How is everyone doing? I am doing great! It has been a quick week. I am now in a new area called Piñas. It is a city 6 hours outside of Guayaquil, it's up in the mountains. It is awesome! Everyday there is something new that we see that is very cool. Most of our area is inside the town but then we can also go 1 hour each way by bus outside of the city. So really, our area is huge! For our zone and district meetings we have to go an hour and a half in a bus to Santa Rosa, so we are really out in the middle of nowhere. I really like the new area and it is easy to wake up and go to work everyday! Oh and the weather is a lot better! It is never super hot like it is in Guayaquil!

My new companion is Elder Margos from Guatemala. He has 20 months on the mission so only 4 more for him then he is done. Our whole zone is full of Elders that have very little time left in their mission.  Then there is me and Elder Smith- who is newer than me. Elder Smith and Elder Atwell live with us. Elder Atwell is in his final week and then he will be going home. 

The food here is a lot like the food in Guayaquil. Rice, beans and meat! But I am not sick of it yet so hopefully I never get sick of it! They also have a lot of pretty cool restaurants here so it should be fun to try them out on P- days. Oh and bananas here are super cheap! Today we bought 38 for one dollar. A lot different than back at home. 

Today for P-day we went for a hike.  There is a giant cross on top of a giant mountain that has a trail you can hike up, so that is what we did today. It was a pretty tough hike but it was worth it to see the end result. It was very awesome up there.  

My Birthday was just pretty much a regular day. We had some cake that night but nothing out of the usual for the work day.  Thanks for all the Birthday Wishes!

Well there is not a lot more to write about. My new area is very cool. It is a branch up here- It's not a ward, but the members are pretty cool. During church yesterday a lady brought her dog- so there was a dog in the church - that was pretty cool. Well I hope everyone has a great week!

Love, Elder Sorensen

Week 14 Transfer...

Well another week has come and gone! It has been a pretty good one!

The weather is still hot, but I am starting to get used to it. It is very hard to teach people during the middle of the day because they just finished eating and then they all want to nap because it is so hot. From six to nine is the best time to teach everyone.

Elder Herrera and I have had a pretty good week we thought. We taught a lot of people and thought we were going to have a great showing in Church, but then everyone had some things come up on Sunday so they could not go. 

The food is as good as ever. On Friday we had a shrimp ceviche that was soooo good! I never thought I would like anything with shrimp in it, but surprisingly I liked it a lot. We also had a mountain of rice and beans with it and another kind of soup. They like to eat so much food for lunch! All the other days it was the usual rice and beans and some kind of meat. But it is not too bad so I can`t complain. 

Well it is hard for me to write about my investigators for this week because this morning I found out that I have a transfer.  I leave to find out where I will be at 5 today. I don`t really have a lot more about this last week it was a good one and look forward to see where my new area is! I will let you guys know next week!

Have a great week and hope everyone is doing good!

Elder Sorensen

I guess we all will find out next week which area he got transfered to!

Three families that took such good care of Khristian. 

Remember Diego?  He is the little boy that loved Khristian's blue eyes.  
I love this picture! 

Week 13 Squid and Aliens!!

Hey everyone! I hope you guys all had a great week!

I have had a pretty good week this week! We got a lot of lessons taught and have some investigators, now we just have to get them to attend church! 

 

The first part of the week we got 2 new Elders who moved into our house. Elder Huayamacari from Peru has 20 months on the mission and is very cool. The other is Elder Grafton from California. He is in the group just after me, so now I am not the newest missionary in the mission! There are now some missionaries newer than us! It has been nice to have some more people in the house to talk to since Elder Thomlinson and Elder Thomson left. 

 

The food has been pretty regular this week. A lot of beans, rice and meat! On Saturday we had some kind of soup that had Squid in it, so that is probably the oddest thing I have had here. It really was pretty good though so I can`t complain about it. Yesterday I also had a new kind of drink that is verdes crushed with milk, but it was not too bad either.

 

 

We met this guy on the street the other day that called us over to talk to him. He had been drinking a lot and said some pretty funny stuff to us.  He asked me what I though about aliens. I replied with I don`t know and then he said, "I have seen 2 aliens here in Ecuador and they looked exactly like you! You are an alien!"  He then started to laugh and walked away. It was a pretty funny experience.

 We have six investigators that we are all teaching right now, but every single one of them has one problem or another that makes it so we can`t baptize them. The most common is that they are not married, but live with their girlfriend or boyfriend. It is really common here, and it stinks because it makes it hard to get baptized!  Others need permission from their parents, but their parents won`t give them permission and stuff like that. They are all super good people, and they want to be baptized!  We also have one other guy we are teaching that is named Vincinte. He is a very cool guy, his son just got baptized and he wants to know about the church.  7 years ago he got in a car crash and he his paralyzed from the chest down, but he is so happy all the time and he is definitely motivating.  Even though we have some hard times, there are definitely people that have it a lot harder!

 

That is really all for this week! I hope everyone has an awesome week!

Elder Sorensen

Week 12

Hey!

I hope everyone is doing good! I am doing great!

This week has been a pretty good one! It went by very fast and we had a lot of work to get done. 

First thing is the other Elders in our house were transferred, so now it's only Elder Herrera and me in the house. It is definitely a lot quieter because I can only speak Spanish with him, but it has been good for me to learn Spanish. It is transfers today too, but I am pretty sure that I will be staying here with my companion. 

On Friday we had a missionary training with our zone and one other zone. For the training, they had 3 missionaries who will be leaving this week teach us some of the stuff they have learned throughout their time here in Ecuador. I learned a lot from it and it definitely helped me become a better missionary. I also got to see a couple of my old pals from the CCM, so that was nice. 

Saturday we  had a kind of food that was not that good. Up until Saturday I had loved all the food we have eaten, even though I can barely eat all of it everyday, because they feed us mountains of rice. On Saturday we had some kind of fish soup that I did not really like. I think on weekends the fish is cheaper or something, because we always have fish on Saturday and Sunday. We also had some kind of beet salad with mayo. I did not really love that too much either. The texture was different.  I had some more McDonalds on Tuesday, so they cancel themselves out! 

Today, my companion needed to print some pictures out from his past 4 months, so we went to the mall to print them out. The mall is very big and it was cool to see that they have things here that are similar to the US. In my area it is all small houses and small little stores. There is nothing else, so it is nice to see some other parts of Ecuador every once and a while!

We keep finding people to teach, but it is very hard to get them to church. There is always a ton of parties every Saturday night and they spend the whole night at parties and don't want to go to church in the morning. That is probably the hardest right now. If we can get more people to church we can baptize more!!! Last night we had a pretty good lesson with a member though. She has been deciding if she should go on a mission or not, and so she wanted to talk to us. When we talked to her at first she said , there was no way she was going, but by the end of our lesson she said she wants to go! She was not an investigator, but it was definitely a good lesson!

That is really all for this week! It has been a quick one, but a good one! I hope everyone has a good week!! 

Elder Sorensen

**Hey guys,  Khristian's birthday is Nov 8th.  I am sure he would love an e-mail from you all!  

Last day together before transfers

Week 11

Hey guys! I hope everyone is doing good!

I have had a great week! We are starting to find some people who want to be baptized and listen to our message. We have one guy that said he wanted to be baptized and the date was on Nov. 8th, so he could be baptized on my birthday!!! I can`t think of a better Birthday present! We have worked very hard this week and it has been nice to see the hard work paying off. 

We cooked a lot of food this week, and it has been nice to eat the things that I want to. I think I have made every kind of dish you could possibly make with eggs, but I am still loving them so hopefully I never get sick of them! We made some pretty good  breakfast burritos the other day with hotdogs and scrambled eggs. It is nice to eat an  American dish every now and then. 

 

There was not a transfer this last week, so it is still us 4 in the house. We are thinking that maybe this next week will be the transfer, but then again we may still be together for this next week. To say goodbye to us, a family got us a cake and said goodbye to the best 4 missionaries they have ever had. One of the members of the family is inactive, and has not been to church in 10 + years, but because of us she has gone the last two weeks and plans on going to church every week for now on. It is very cool to see the work we are doing paying off, and to see how much happier they are because of this gospel!
 
 

There has been a constant pattern with the weather here that is kind of unusual. During the week it is super hot during mid-day, and pretty hot in the night, but on weekends it always seems to be overcast.  The people here think it is super chilly, but it is really the perfect temperature. They think that 70 degrees is cold haha!

That is really all for this week! I hope everyone has a fantastic week and can`t wait to here from you guys next week!

Elder Sorensen

 

I love the ketchup smiley face :)