February 10, 2014

Family, So wow pretty quick week but a lot happened. The teaching it going pretty great. we have about 10 on bap. date and we were going to have 2 baptisms this coming sunday but our branch pres, whose a complete joke, wants to hold the baptisms until you can interview some kids that are born in to the church so we can just have one big baptism. so by the time we have the baptism its gonna end up being like 15 to 20 people so ya! the mission "vision" is 2 baptisms a month and im just gonna follow my big bro and say that is a stupid idea! you aren't working very hard if you can only get to baps a month! i'll admit I don't work as hard as I should or want to but its coming to be productive! I love these people! its a weird feeling loving someone you barely know! But wow Jacob is home this week! that's gotta be one heck of a feeling knowing you are 100% done and are able to go home! I've seen somethings that he has seen out here in the Africa. these townships can get pretty crazy. Wed. a lady in one of the Branches died. she was a less active so I didn't know her but out here you just seen and hear somethings that you'll never forget. so Friday night we had a D.A. with the whole zone in our area for my comp since he has a week left. so we dropped everyone off at the house but then me and Sakurada had to run to the house that had the person pass to take them chairs and then they ended up having us do a short little service for them since the body arrived that night it was weird. I sat right by the coffin while the people all sang these Zulu African songs. then Saturday we had the service at the church and I had to carry the coffin with the Africans cause most are too strong but the weirdest was at the cemetery when I actually had to bury the lady while everyone sings these songs that sound like the our out of the lion king. but its different and fun something you only get in Africa and not in the states for sure! you defiantly get turned in to a man in a African mission! but that's all for this week! Love you ALL!! and Jacob you are a stud and love you lots! keep the attendance under 1000 at the homecoming or people will try to say they didn't come for you! haha I love you Guys! LOVE, The ONLY AFRICAN Elder Sorenson!

Package from Lauren

Mom's Cookies

February 3, 2014

FAMILY, Wow it was actually a Super fast week. and its crazy Jake's got one more week left! congrats Big bro you did it! but this week was pretty nuts. Tuesday we took our two hour drive down to Zone Conference and it was pretty fun I got to see Moorhouse and Sieverts which was great! they are like my best friends and twins out here! but yeah zone conference was pretty good but long! they just talked about the reason behind stats and all that! The work out here is the same Gospel as back in the states but out here you just gotta do it a little different! sometimes things get tough but everytime they do I just tell myself ' that you are the light in the strom so shine bright'. these people don't understand what we are bring to their doorsteps. Tracting hasn't been too successful but the members have been. I think last week we only had about 5 for sures on bap date and now we are about 8 and all are from members friends. this week we met Sfiso and Nduduzo. they are my criminals, Legitly criminals its funny, but they commited and wanted to be baptized so that's when we began to meet with them. Thursday a less active, named Cindy Chriwa, I gave a blessing of comfort to the week prior told me that I was an angel and that my blessing was the exact thing she needed. she ended up taking care of everything she needed and was stress free. it was such a good feeling to see how happy she was. I told her only staying strong in the gospel can ultimately help her with everything through out life. Saturday we walked to the beach and my comp caught a chameleon and we also walked right passed a twig snake. I saw just the head and kept looking for the body but it honestly looked just like a stick! soccer is always fun tho. Sunday was good we had some less actives bare testimony and cry, even though it was in Zulu and I couldn't really understand much it brought the spirit. then that night we went to a members house for a quick lesson and within 5 min about 6 young boys from about 9 to 13 walked in and all wanted to be baptized and be taught by us! Miracles! so by next Monday we should have about 14 or 15 on bap date that should all go through as long as the can Know, Feel, and Do. That's pretty much the week! it was Awesome and I hope to have more of these! thanks for all the prayers and love it is much felt out here in Zulu land! I LOVE YOU ALL! have fun with the big guy coming home! don't miss me too much! Love, soon to be the only, ELDER SORENSON

My Zone



Sieverts and Alex



Elder Moorhouse, Sakurada, and Sorenson Trumping

Soccer Stadium

 The young boys of Bap

African Hotwheels

African Remote controlled cars

Shout out to Big Bro, Jake

January 27, 2014

The Fam, So another week down but for some reason time flew by but it feels like forever since last Monday. It was a really tough week for me personally but the missionary work is all going good. we got another 5 Baptismal Dates for the 16th of Feb which is great to see progression in so many people. Finding people out here is extremely difficult cause we are just little white boys going through teaching all these black people. we rely heavily on the members to introduce us to people to teach and so far its worked very well. we also have to work hard with reactivation but that's almost everywhere in the church. but lets talk alittle about the past week. last Monday after emailing my comp wasn't feeling to good. when we got back to our house he vomited a little blood which wasn't good so we decided to take him to the hospital so we went and ended up being there for about 7 hours and right as we got called back a guy came in on the ambulance so all the doctors rushed to help him and at the same time I walked out to tell the other elders what was going on and I saw the Doctors doing cpr on the guy. we were informed a little bit later that the guy pasted away. it really opened my eyes on how precious life is, when a guy that went to work one morning and ended up dying that afternoon it was a weird experience. my Comp ended up being dehydrated so no biggie there. Tuesday Moorhouse Got transfer which sucks cause I lost one of my best friends out here, but with loss I gained a package from The Whites with some many goodies its was Amazing! Wed. we had a zone meeting and they were talking about stats and it was so annoying I finally couldn't take it and told them that this is so stupid and that these stats and plans they have a garbage. these aren't Stats these are People and then we went into an hour long discussion and everyone agreed with me that I was right. Thursday was a very hard day for me and I didn't know if I was going to last much longer out here I didn't feel worthy. then I realized its just satan using the past to make me want to go home! As I taught lessons I reassured myself through the spirit that everything will be okay! that's pretty much the week. I hope I don't have to live this week again!! LOVE Elder Sorenson Pictures this week are a package from the Whites, A Hospital trip, a monkey, the duck dynasty brothers, the garden after a few weeks, some member girls that introduced us to friends that now have Baptism Dates.

 

January 20, 2014

Fam Bam For the most part it was a pretty great week! Last Tuesday Elder Frishnect, the piano major, left and we got at new zone leader. Also, a new comp for Elder Moorhouse, whose comp also got transferred. Also, last Tuesday, we had to go get new mattresses for the boarding we just moved back into, so me and Elder Sakurada rode in the back of the truck for about 30 min holding all of them. It was pretty fun. This weeks missionary work consisted of 3 straight days of tracting. In the 8 weeks I have been hear I haven't tracted or knocked on one door until this week but we knocked a ton this week we tracted for about 5 hours each of the 3 days and covered probably about 15 miles total. we met some great people that we hope will build the teaching pool. out here we really focus on reactivation because so many members just stop showing up to things but that is going pretty goo once you have someone out here that knows how to talk to people. when I got here we only had about a constant 45 people coming to church and now we are up to 70 for the past 3 weeks. its awesome seeing the fruit of your labor! Friday night me and sakurada made about 150 no-bake cookies and we decided to sneakout about 9:30 since our comps went to bed at like 9 and we didn't wanna just sit around so we went over to the other boarding to see moorhouse and give him some cookies. he told us that he was getting emergency transfer this up coming Tuesday because our mission is getting 7 guys that don't have visa to another country. it sucks! my twin is leaving me and the kid are exactly alike! im gonna miss him. but saturaday morning was soccer once again im starting to get okay at it since we play it a lot. Also Saturday we had to go clean out the baptismal font since there was like a 8 inch layer of who knows what at the bottom. Saturday night we also stopped by one of the kids house to see who he wanted to baptize him and he said me! I was over joyed and blessed! sunday was the baptism first was sezwe the 9 year old boy who was baptized by our branch pres, then Sphiwe who I baptized! it was such an amazing experience! the toughest part was the full name tho haha it was good fun tho I got it on the first try! but that was pretty much the week! Sounds like the party animal is getting a little excited to be coming home! that's awesome that he is almost done! I love you big bro. but I miss you all so much and cant wait to see you again! I love you LOVE ELDER SORENSON

Me and Frisnecht before he got transfered.



Soccer Saturday

The Crew.

The Mattress Trip

No Bake Cookies!

Tracting

Me and my boy Sphiwe.

I love my package and Si shirt!

My first baptism.

Sezwe is left, Me, Sphiwe right

January 13, 2014

Fam Bam First Transfer down! it went by pretty fast for the most part. this past week elder sakurada got a new comp. he's from South Africa and is pretty cool but its also a awkward transfer cause really only the people that are coming from the mtc and that are going home got transferred last week and then this week is more transfers. its pretty out of wack out here in Africa but things for the most part are going good! my comp and I have 2 baptisms scheduled for next sunday and then we are also teaching about 5 more who will be baptized most likely in the next 3 weeks. among those 5 are three boys. Vuzi (16), Sakile (15) and Stew (11) they are great kids and we found them through soccer. its really fun teaching them and seeing their growth from lesson to lessons. this week we also saw a huge dead cobra in the road so I asked the members how often they see snakes and they said they see black mombas and cobras all the time. so that didn't comfort me too much when I have to walk through the bush to get to some houses. but it atleast makes things exciting! Africa is just so different the people just burn their trash and tires all the time and the air just seems so crappy here but its all good its only for a few years. Also this week we had to clean one of the boardings and paint it so the elders staying there came and stayed in my boarding for the past 3 days and its pretty fun and legit cause Moorhouse is there and we just talk about stuff and we are pretty much the same person. its nice having someone like that around who gets what you are talking about. so that is pretty much the week! I love you all and miss you a ton! Love, Elder Sorenson

Saturday's Soccer Service

Trash Can Fire

The Usual Cows in the Road

Elder Sorenson Driving Stick Shift in South Africa

Four Foot Long Dead Cobra (gross!)

Walking through the Jungle to the Beach to play Soccer

January 6, 2014

Long Week! This past week felt like it was never going to end. Tuesday was new years eve and we weren't gonna go out to the area cause there were so many drunks so we were just sitting at our house and I was like lets just go out to the area and figure out what to do when we get there. the other elders out here are ridiculous NO work ethic... but we got to the area and me sat down next to a guy and ended up teaching a really good 30 min lesson. after it was starting to get crazy so we just headed to a members house and I wanted to go to the beach cause I have been here for 6 weeks and haven't been to the beach and its in my area and like a mile from where I am everyday. so I ask the member boys to show us the way. we had to walk through the jungle it was sweet but the path keep getting smaller and smaller and then it just opened up to the beach it was sweet. then later that night we were with member and watching them light fireworks off. other than that nothing really happened this week we did go back to the beach on Saturday this moorhouse and played some soccer it was fun with him but I got a little sunburned which is lame. Sunday was fast sunday and it was great we had 61 people there instead of the usual 40 and also about 8 investigators. most of the ones getting baptized next week didn't come so we'll probably have to push back their baptismal dates. but the one that did come is Sezwe he's 8 and its just a ball of energy but he came to church with a bad stiff neck so me and elders rogers gave him a bless and when we went to visit with him later that day he was getting better. we taught him the last lesson and since we are a group of 3 missionaries and Elder Sakurada is district leader he was able to interview sezwe for BAP. so we have for sure one baptism next week its legit because Sezwe was one that I started with from the First lesson he's a great kid and super smart. but that was pretty much the week. this week is tranfers but im not going anywhere so it doesn't really matter. I miss you all so much and I hope you all have a Great week! I love you Love Elder Sorenson

Mission Year 2014

Fireworks

Touching the Indian Ocean



The jungle



Heading to the Beach

The Indian Ocean and the Sun

December 30, 2013

Family, The week was pretty crazy. This week skyping and calling home was great. I'm glad I didn't have to sit on my roof for it, like Jake. haha, but anyway, it was a good week. We had a lunch appointment on Christmas day and the family made turkey and ham and potato salad, I felt like I was back home. It was one of the best meals I've had out here. The family also gave us the little poppers like Aunt Susan always brings for the Christmas party. It was great fun for sure! Anyways, nothing too big this week. everyone is out of town and there are a ton of drunks. I told dad on the phone that when we were driving to a members on Christmas eve us missionaries counted something like 86 drunks within 2 miles of this dirt road! It's pretty funny until they start talking to you cause who knows what they'll do! but when we are driving I feel like im playing some video game as we dodge all the drunks its ridiculous and this week will be even worse with new years the senior couple doesn't want us going out cause it gets sketchy but we'll see what happens. I've been with 2 other elders the past week. my comp elder rogers and elder sakurada because sakurada's comp is being sent home. Sakurada is so funny tho so its been nice having him around! but anyway Happy New Year and even better Happy Birthday Jordan, mom or Ash you'll have to tell him cause I don't have his email. but have fun at Hole in the Rock it'll practically seem like I'm there with grandma getting my back and bragging about me throwing the rock! I love you all so much have a great week! Happy New Year!! Love Elder Sorenson


Christmas with Elder Moorhouse




Elders Dickerson, Sakurada, and me with poppers!




Late Christmas party with Noma and Zama.




Lauren's Christmas package finally came.