Week 73

Well  this week has been a really good one!  We have 4 people progressing and 5 at church. It was really good because I got transferred back to Cuenca in the cold again!!! haha. It is nice because in Arenillas it was super hot and even fans blew out hot air, so it is nice to be in the cold. My Companion is  Elder Paim. He is from Brazil. we Have some pretty cool investigators right now. We have 2 baptisms for this 26th (this Saturday) It should make for a really good day. The baptisms are Luis and Agñesca. They are pretty excited for Saturday and are really cool people. I am in the ward Alamos and the members seem to be really cool and really like the missionaries.  We have 2 other people that will be getting baptized the 2nd of January. Mariah and her husband Angel. They are pretty excited aswell for the baptisms. It is nice to be back! There is not much more to say but I hope that everyone has a great Christmas!!! 

Love, Elder Sorensen

Week 75

Well I am getting transferred again haha. I recently got the call that I have to be in Guayaquil in 5 hours, so I only have a little bit of time to write. This week was a great one. We were able to baptize Maria. It was a very cool. She was super excited, and after she shared her testimony with us after the baptism and it was cool to hear how firm her testimony was. This next week there will be 2 more baptisms here in  Alamos, but I have changes so I won't get  to see them... :(  I was only here for 3 weeks. I dont know what else to say I will write everyone next week, because there is not any time. I hope everyone has a great week!  

Love, Elder Sorensen

Week 74

Well another week has gone by, but it was a great week! It was fun to talk with the family, even though the hour zoomed by. My companion and I have beeen having a great time in Cuenca. We were able to have a baptism the 26th of December, so that was a great way to celebrate Christmas. It was a great one because we worked hard just to have the baptism happen. It seemed like everything went wrong as we were setting up for the baptism. First, the font was super dirty so we had to clean it, then we had no gas, so the water was super cold. We had to run with the heavy gas tank 5 blocks and buy a new one and then return with the full one (which was heavier). haha Then, the water heater wouldn't work. Once it started to work the water did not want to come out and with 1 hour until the baptism, the font was only a tenth of the way full. We decided to say a prayer that everything would go well and that it would fill up by the time of the baptism. We then left the church to go and get the clothes for the baptism, and when we got back the font was filled. After that I thought WOW that was a lot of work and nothing more could go wrong... I was wrong haha. The clothes did not end up fitting her so we ran back to the house for more clothes, and then the bishop still had not gotten there. We started the baptism without him and he got there just in time to confirm her. It was a TON of work  but a great baptism that we could see a lot of miracles happen. On Sunday we were able to have Mariah and Angel go to church, and they will be getting baptized on Saturday if everything goes well.  I am  excited to be here  in Cuenca and the work is going great. I hope that everyone has a great new years day!

Love, Elder Sorensen                                                                                  

Week 72

Well this week went by super fast! It was a really good one too. We had the Christmas Choir devocional this week with our mission. (President Torres puts together a choir and they travel singing in all the districts and stakes.) Wednesday they came to Santa Rosa. It was cool because the only members from our branch that showed up were Jessica and her family. We ended up having 4 recent converts and 3 investigators there. It was super cool. They loved it and felt the spirit there. Other than that, we had a regular week. We had a branch activity cleaning the church on Saturday. That was pretty cool. We had a lot of members there and they helped alot. It was nice to have a clean church for Sunday. Everyone loved our christmas ties at church on Sunday. They liked them without knowing that they could play christmas songs haha. When they found out that they played songs they were stunned haha. I think I will be making a singing tie company here, they all wanted them haha.

 In Elders Quorm we learned about stakes, but our crazy teacher started to talk about Vampires and that you have to kill Vampires with stakes, haha. It was pretty ridiculous. Then after he said that we should be filled with the spirit, so that when vampires come to suck our blood that they can only suck the spirit out of us. I learned a bunch. Definitley the best Elders Quoroum class. haha. 

That was my week. I Hope everyone has a great week!

Love, Elder Sorensen

Week 70

Hey! 

Well it was a great week!!! I thought for about the entire week that it was going to be a tough one and I was worried that on Sunday we would not have anybody at church, but in the end we had a baptism! Everything went really well and it was a blessing to see that Alexandra got baptized. We had been teaching her for 3 months. She was not very happy during this week for her baptism and we could not find her at all. On thursday we only had 2 minutes to talk to her and then we taught her Saturday night. Those were the only times we talked to her this week, and she was baptized. We had a great lesson with her Saturday night and she told us that she wanted to be baptized Sunday after church. We found a new spot under the bridge to do the baptisms, and the river current was strong there, and I almost fell down while I was in the river baptizing, but in the end she was baptized and I did not fall. I also ate Crab for the first time in my life this week. It was not that great.... and it was a bunch of work to eat it haha, but I think  would try it again. Oh and today we went to a zoo, so that was cool. We saw some pretty cool animals there. The monkeys were the coolest. Well that is all for this week! I hope everyone has an amazing week!

Love, Elder Sorensen

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