Week 91

Well another week has gone by. This week was a pretty crazy one because the aftershocks were still happening here in Ecuador. On Wednesday and Thursday we felt like 4 of them that were actaully pretty strong. All of the investigators are doing alright. Everyone is safe and most of the people are back in Guayaquil again, so that is great! The members are all doing really well also. We had a family home evening that was great last night with the Bishop. It was a lot of fun and we ate some great food. This week we ate a encebollado that was really good. It is one of the best things I have eaten here in Ecuador.

 I guess that where the Earthquake happened is still a pretty ugly scene. The keep on finding more people that have died, but they continue to save people aswell. 

I bought a pretty big Ecuadorian flag this week, so I thought I would take some pictures of it, and I also won in Monopoly today, so I took a picture haha. Well I hope that everyone has a great week! 

Love, Elder Sorensen

Week 90

Well what a week!! I think this may have been one of the craziest weeks of the mission! Well there was a pretty big earthquake here in Ecuador on Saturday at like 7:20 at night. We were on the street at like 7:00 and we felt like we had to get to a house to teach a family and we had to get there fast. So we got to the nearest families house and started to teach them. They had just given us a cup of water when the earthquake started. It started pretty soft, but started to shake hard at the end. The family was really scared. They all started screaming and everything. Well after a while it stopped and everything got calm. We thought that it shook pretty good, but I never thought that it was strong enough to make buildings fall. Closer to where the center of the earthquake was, many buildings fell, and many people died. Here in Guayaquil only a couple of bridges fell down. The good thing is that all of the missionaries are doing good. We were in the house the entire day Sunday, and they canceled church. (the first time in the 2 years I haven't gone to church now) Well that was the big news. I am doing well. Luckily Guayaquil was not affected too much. Our investigators are doing good. Hopefully we will have some baptisms coming up. Have a great week!

Love, Elder Sorensen

Week 89

Hey! Well I got transfered... Haha I am  now in Guayaquil again and it is very hot! It is like 100 degrees during the day and at night it cools off to be 90 degrees. I cant escape the heat!! I dont understand why they dont have air condicioners here in Guayaquil haha. The members are pretty awesome here. I am in the same Stake where I started my mission in the Stake Pradera. On Sunday I actually got to see some people from my first ward and they still remembered me. That was pretty cool. We are teaching a lot of people. We are mostly just teaching less active members and helping them get back to church.

 I also got to do a temple session on Tuesday so that was great. I could feel the spirit pretty strong. My new companion is Elder Cutipa. He is from Bolivia and has 7 months on the mission. He has a bunch of time in the sector, so I am pretty sure that he will have transfers soon, so I gotta learn the sector super fast. On Saturday, President Torres came to our meeting, and he seems really excited for his new calling as a member of the 70.  He will finish the mission and then go to his new calling. That is about it for this week. I am ready to work here in Guayaquil again. Afterall this is the city were they baptize a lot! :)

Love, Elder Sorensen

Week 88

Hey!! Well it has been a great week of conferencia!!! The were some awesome talks and I was able to learn a bunch, but by far the best part was the baptisms of the Soto family. They were all super excited for their baptisms and they after they shared their testimonies and it was really cool. There were like 100 members there for their baptism and they all helped them alot. The branch was super happy to see a family getting baptized, so they brought food and everything for the baptism. I baptized two and some my companion the other 2.

 I think that President Uchtdorf's talk from preisthood was my favorite. He always seems to give really good talks. Well I don't have much more to say. I forgot my camera so I dont have the pictures of the baptisms but I will send them next week. But the 4 of them did get baptized!!! 

Love, Elder Sorensen

Week 87

Well this week has been a really great one!!! It was a lot of fun because we had a bunch of success!! haha Well I will start with the story because it was really a miracle what happened this week.

 Well a lady was praying to find the missionaries so that she could find somebody to help her. She felt lost and did not know what to do. She had just finished her prayer and saw my compainion and I and one of her old friends passing by ( the member was visiting people with us). She called her friend over and we went aswell and we started to talk just a bit. We got a appointment for the next day, and then left. We were excited but she did not tell us that she was looking for help. Well we went back the next day and WOW! It was an amazing lesson. And one point her and her 3 kids all started to cry and they told us that, this is what they were looking for. We taught them a little about baptism, and immediatly they asked us ¨And When will you guys be baptizing us?¨ We got super excited at that point. Well we ended up inviting them for the womans session for conference and they went and liked it a bunch. They also were at church on Sunday and loved church! They will be getting baptized this Sunday if everything goes well. They are super excited! There is the mom and her 3 kids. Xiamara she is 16. Marco he just turned 13 and Jennifer she is 9. Well that is all for today and this week. I hope that everyone has a great week!

Love, Elder Sorensen

Week 86

Well this week was a pretty good one! We were able to work alot more with the members and received a lot more references. Everything is going great in Loja and it is nice because it is getting colder and colder every day. It now rains every single day, so that gets a little old, but it is not raining too hard. We found a couple of families that could be pretty promising, so i am excited about that! We also made a bunch of empanadas yesterday. After church we went to our mamitas house and made like 150 empanadas. They were really good. Hopefully I can get the recipe down really well for after the mission. I also was able to see a bunch of rainbows this week so that was pretty cool. Loja is a really cool city. That is about for this week. I hope that everyone has a great week!

Love, Elder Sorensen

Week 85

Well another great week in the city of Loja. We were able to baptize Robert, so that was pretty cool. He was excited for his baptism and there was a lot of support from the branch members. The primary sang a song for the baptism, and they did really great. We also had the branch conference this week, so the District President was there to give a talk. He talked a lot about how the members need to support their leaders and not talk bad about them. We had 105 members at church, so that is pretty good. It is the biggest I have seen in my time here in Loja. Well Elder Larrea had tansfers aswell, so that was kind of a bummer he was a really cool guy. My new companion is Elder Perez. He was my companion like 8 months ago in Guayaquil, and now he is my companion again. We also had a leadership meeting in Guayaquil, so I had 20 hours of bus rides again, so that was great haha!  Well that is about all for this week! The time keeps on flying by! Have a great week everyone!

Love, Elder Sorensen