Week 101

Well it has been a great week! The family of 3 were able to go to church, and we were able to have Alfredo in church as well. Alfredo was not baptized, because he still wants to recieve his answer, but he is doing good. He prayed the other, day and with how good his prayer was, I could tell that he is ready. The family of 3, the Salazar family is doing good. They should be baptized this Saturday if everything goes well. It is too bad that, it could not be last week that they were baptized. I am in the office for my last week. Tommorrow, we have interviews, and then on Wednesday lunch with president, and we get to visit converts, on Thursday we get to go to the temple, then have some trainings, and on Friday I leave. It will be a week that is a little different, but it should befun. It is crazy how fast these 2 years have gone by. I have really enjoyed them, and it is crazy to see how many lives have been changed thanks to the gospel. I hope that everyone has a great week!!!!!!

Love, Elder Sorensen

***Thanks to Rocio for sending us pictures and taking such good care of Elder Sorensen***

Week 100

Well what a week! It has been a really crazy week. We worked super hard and we had the family of 3 at church again, so that was great!! I was just super excited to see them at church. We also had the baptism of Cesar,so that was great. 

Cesar´s baptism was really special because his family has tried for 15 years now to get him baptized with no luck... He used to hate the misisonaries. He hated that is family had gone from Catholic to Mormon, and so he thought it was the missionaries fault, so he was always bitter towards us. He would always go to church with his family, because he could not be home alone, and little by little he began to change. Then this week was his baptism, but it was not an easy baptism to have. On Thursday we had everything ready, the font filled and everything looked great. A whole bunch of members showed up, and we were just waiting for Cesar and his family. Well it turns out that his wife was a little sick, and so he didnt get baptized Thursday.... It was terrible to have to tell all the members that had gone that, he was not going to be baptized. They luckily understood, but we were pretty bummed. We did not know what to do. On friday we did not have time to visit Cesar, but at like 850 we got a call saying from his daughter telling us that he would be baptized the next morning at 11. So, Saturday morning we got everything ready, and he was baptized! It was a cool baptism, because the whole ward had been working for 15 years to get him baptized. The next goal for the family is to be sealed in the temple in 1 year!! I cant wait to hear the news when they get sealed!

The Salazar family is doing really good. They now have 2 attendences at the church. They just have to go 1 more time and can be baptized. Hopefully they get baptized Sunday after church, so that I can see it!!! 

The Doctor told Alfredo that he cant go out in public because he can still give chicken pox to everyone, so hopefully this week can be his baptism! He is really excited to get baptized still. 

Well that is about all for this week. This week is my last week working, because next week we have a bunch of trainings and we get to go to the temple. 

Well I hope that everyone has a great week!!!

Love, Elder Sorensen

Week 99

Well this was a great week I gotta say! Everything went really well. It was expecially good because we were able to have 7 people going to church and 6 of them have baptisimal dates now. I will talk a Little about everyone of them.

The first 3 are the Salazar family that we found a couple of weeks ago. They liked the church a lot and are really excited to go to church this week . They are the aunt and cousins of our converts here. They are doing really well and will be baptized the 9th of July.

There is another family that is  doing really well. I am excited for them because it is a family that we found on Friday. We talked to the Dad and he is having a tough time right now. He does not have a very good job right now, and has 3 little kids. We invited him to church and he told us that he would be there with his wife and 3 kids. They all got there! It was pretty crazy!!! They live far away from the church They had to leave at 7 just to get there at 9. They did a lot because the 3 little kids are 3, 6 and a year and a half. It was so amazing to see them there!!!

The last is Cesar that will be baptized this week. He is 87, but is doing good. His family is really excited for him to get baptized.

Alfredo should be baptized this week aswell if he can get feeling better with his Chicken Pox. It was too bad, because he still has red spots all over his body, but he is doing better. His birthday is this Sunday so he will be baptized on his Birthday!! That is pretty cool. 

Well that is about it for this week! Everyone is doing great, and it was awesome to see how everyone got to church. Hopefully they can go this next week aswell. Have a great week everyone!!!!

Love, Elder Sorensen

Week 98

Well another great week here in Ecuador. It was even better because Elder Rasband gave a really great talk to the missionaries. He talked about the spirit and talked on how we need to follow our first impressions not only in the mission, but in life as well. He also talked about our smiles. He said that we always have to smile. He said that people that aren't members notice that we smile, and that we are happy. This is something that I liked a lot. The world is full of problems and afflictions, but we need to smile to help the people that don't have the happiness that we have. They will see the happiness and ask why we are so happy. Elder Montoya, also talked about smiling, so it must be something, that we need to do better as members of the church. :) 

Well Alfredo could not get baptized this week because he got sick... He is sick with Chicken Pox right now, so we can't even go and teach him right now. It has been pretty tough. We teach him through phone calls right now. Hopefully he will get better this week and be able to get baptized next week. We will be having the baptism of Cesar next week too, so that is exciting!

Everything else is going great. The family that we are teaching couldn't  go to church this week, but they say that they will be there this next week. Hopefully they will be able to go.

Pilar went to church this last week, so if she goes this Sunday she can be baptized this 25th aswell!

Well I hope everyone has a great week. Dont forget to smile!!!!

Love, Elder Sorensen

Week 97

Well this week was awesome!!!! Alfredo is doing really good. He should be baptized this Sunday. He was at church again, and the members are doing a really good job at being his friend. Last Monday night he went to a family home evening at the stake patriarch's house, and tonight he will be going to another family home evening at our bishop's house. He played Ping Pong all day with us again. He is progressing a lot and it is crazy how fast he is learning. His prayers are getting really good. I am pretty excited for this family home evening, because we will be eating some cinnemon rolls! :) they should be really good. 

We also found a new family to teach yesterday. It was the mom (she is a member) of our one ofour converts. It was her birthday yesterday, and so we went to their house to celebrate. She had been telling her sister how amazing the church was and her sister told her that she wanted to go to church this next week. We got there just in time and she introduced her sister to us. We taught a great lesson 3 (The gospel of Jesus  Christ) to her and her 2 sons. They felt the spirit and, they are being prepared to be baptized July 2nd! (my last saturday on the mission). They are a really cool family, and the mom Mariana has a real desire to learn and to go to church. It was a big blessing to find them!! 

We have 1 more person we are teaching it is Cesar. He is 82. He will be baptized the 25th of June. He is doing really good. He didnt go to church this week, because he was a little sick. Hopefully he gets feeling better this week!

 I hope that everyone has an amazing week as well. Elder Rasband will be visiting us this Friday or Saturday, so that should be really awesome!!! I am pretty excited!!!

Love, Elder Sorensen

Week 96

Well this was a really good week that just passed by! Well... Sunday was really nice, but every other day was actually really tough. We walked a lot!! On thursday and friday they had some sort of holiday and so everyone left on vacation. It was pretty crazy because on Friday we literally walked the entire day, without teaching very many people. Everyone turned us down, but we kept on working. Sunday was awesome. Alfredo and Cesar are doing really well. They are 2 of our investigators that are progressing really fast. Alfredo is 21 and we have pretty much played Ping Pong with him the entire day today. He is pretty good.  Cesar is 84. In his family all of them are members. His wife was Relief society president, and his daughters are return missionaries. He just never wanted to get baptized until now. He will be baptized the 25th of June. 

      We also had a really cool experience yesterday after church. We went to a house of a reference that we recieved. We had went like 5  times and everytime they had told us that we couldn't enter because they were busy and then shut the door on us. Well this time before we knocked on the door we decided to say a prayer and in the prayer we asked God to let us into their house to teach them. We then knocked on the door and they immediatly opened the door and let us in. We taught the 2 parents. (the mom and the dad). The mom said that she did not believe much in God because there are many bad things that happen in the world and if he wouldnt let these things happen if he lives. We immediately invited her to pray and ask God if he is there. She prayed and during her prayer she started to cry. We asked her how she felt after, and she said that she couldn't explain how it felt, but that she had recieved her answer. It was really cool to see how fast her prayer was answered. Hopefully they will continue to let us visit them, and we will see what happens with them. 

This week coming up we could be having a baptism. There is somebody in our ward that has gone to church his whole life, but never wanted to get baptized. He told us yesterday that he would like to be baptized, so we have an appointment with him today to see what happens. 

Well I hope that everyone has a great week!!!

Love, Elder Sorensen

Week 95

Another great week in Guayaquil! We are currently teaching 2 people that are progressing really well. Alfredo and Pilar. They are reading the Book of Mormon and praying alot, so that is really great! They have not recieved their answer yet, but I am sure that they will recieve their answer soon. We had a multi stake conference this week as well. It was for Ecuador,Colombia, and Venezuela. It got cancelled because of the Earthquake so the rescheduled it for yesterday. It was great. Elder Oaks, and Elder Hales gave really great talks. They talked about tithing alot, because that is what these 3 countries need right now. We also ate a good lunch Sunday. The sister gave us a big bowl of Albacore (tuna) with Shrimp. I dont think I have ever been so full in my life. I finished the first bowl really fast, so she gave me another haha.  That is about it for this week! It was a great one! I hope everyone has a great week!

Love, Elder Sorensen

Pictures from the baptisms last week!