Happy Birthday to Elder Bso

Dear _______,

First. Happy 48th Birthday to the main man (Elder) Brian Sorensen. BALLIN!

Another solid week come and gone...the weeks here in Solanda have been going crazy fast. Feel like I just got here and already have a month here and am in week 5 of the change...crazy!!

Well, got hit with back-to-back crazy weeks. After everything that happened last week and capping it off with my bday, this week ended up being a lil crazy also. On Saturday (3 days ago) we received emergency changes--my companion Elder F left to a ward about an hour north of here, (and is comps with Elder U, one of my best buds in the mish from the MTC...awesome! and the same ward as A, my comp from MTC...dope!), and I am staying here in Solanda and received a companion from Tena (the jungle like 7 hours east of here). He is a really nice/humble dude. He’s from Peru and 27...so it is definitely a change of pace from my last companion but it is all gooood, we are gonna do work!! He has had a lot of health/stress problems so far on his mish, so President sent him here a little closer to civilization and to a comp who’s gonna help him relax and baptize ;) (hehe jkkkk). But we get along great and its gonna be a nice change and great chance to learn some new traits out here!!

Well...really I kinda forget everything else that happened this week because of the e-change....but I promise it was a good week and we worked hard! Haha! We are currently teaching a handful of people and have 3 progressing and attending church with baptismal dates for next Saturday. Yay!

Today was an AWESOME PDAY--full of English. We went to the Offices/middle of Quito to get lunch at this super good burger place. The owners (2 brothers) lived in SoCal for 30 years so it was cool chatting with them and feeling American again (even though they are Ecuadorian). Afterwards, on the bus back I met/chatted with a 22 year old roadie who has been travelling all over South America for 6.5 months now (Brasil for the World Cup, Colombia, and now here). He was playing guitar and sung WAY GOOD. Did a sick version of Hotel California. He basically told me his whole life story in a 5 minute chat so that was cool. ´´I came down here to find myself but am now more lost than when I left´´...but he was a homie..I got faith in him ;) 

Lastly, talked to 2 Jehovahs Witnesses on a different bus, they are from Finland but spoke English (and like 4 other languages). It was a 23 year old dude and his 21 year old wife. They were down here for 3 months and are now heading to South Carolina. I love talking in English hahaha.

Well hope you all have a great week. Love yall!

Elder Sorensen

Birthday dinner with the ´´fam´´ 

I´m feeling 20, too!

Ecuadorians love Taylor Swift...so today when I heard 22 my subject for the week came to me...the end.

Well this was a very bittersweet week full of emotions. As most of you know, my Grandpa Sorensen died at 93 years old Wednesday morning. I found out Thursday night and it was a rough night, but since then I have been doing just fine and have been feeling his love and all of your support/prayers...THANK YOU!

He was an amazing man...for sure one of the best I have ever know. He set a MONSTER of an example for his kids and all of his 50 grandchildren, including the youngest...yours truly. :) Like all of my fam who has written me has said--we dont need to be sad for anything because we KNOW that he is now back together with Grandma and that he is happy as ever. And, like Kent said, Grandpa no longer has back pain ;)

I got to talk to Sister Christensen Thursday night for about 10 minutes, and President for a little bit on Friday morning which was great and helped a lot. They also came to my ward for Sacrament meeting so I got to talk with them a little more there--and show Sister Christensen a few pics/tell her about good ol´ Hughie.

As sad as it was finding out Thursday night, the scriptures, pictures of him/the fam, my patriarchal blessing (which he gave me) and a few letters from some of my best friends/family made that night much easier. We are all so blessed to have had him in our lives and I cant wait to see him again <3

This Saturday we had the Baptism of T and M. It was an awesome service and soo much of their family was there. Their mom is still attending church every Sunday and is currently working out her marriage situation because she really wants to be baptized also. They are a great family. 

THANK YOU ALL for all the birthday wishes! How awesome that my bday fell on a Pday! It was a great one. We had a zone activity this morning, went hard on some bball and soccer and volleyball. Afterwards we heading to Recreo, this huge mall, to go hard on some burgers and ice cream, and tonight the family we baptized on Saturday is throwing me a birthday dinner. Bout to eat an unhealthy amount of breaded shrimp and coconut cake. Lets gooooo!!!

Love you all and thanks so much for the support and prayers and everything. Keep my family in your thoughts as they travel to services for Gramps...love you guys!!

Met another Elder Sorensen the other day!

Mosiah 16:7-9

 7 And if Christ had not risen from the dead, or have broken the bands of death that the grave should have no victory, and that death should have no sting, there could have been no resurrection.

 8 But there is a resurrection, therefore the grave hath no victory, and the sting of death is swallowed up in Christ.

 9 He is the light and the life of the world; yea, a light that is endless, that can never be darkened; yea, and also a life which is endless, that there can be no more death.

Week 2 in Solanda

Hey all! It was another awesome week here in my new area. Still loving it and the work is still going hard! We have 2 baptisms this Saturday and are super excited.

Highlight of the week... This week we had interviews with President Christensen and it was just great. This man is honestly one of my heroes already. He is crazy loving and knows more than anyone I have met about the church (given as he has known/chatted with every apostle and the prophet thanks to his old job/position in the church). Anyways...It was way great chatting with him for a little about everything. He answered a few questions I had/have been receiving from members SUPER clearly and that was super helpful. He always re-motivates me to work harder and makes me grateful to have such a sweet President...also I always leave feeling like I am meant to be out here and he is always way grateful for my (our) work out here.

Aside from that we just had a good ol normal week. Out here gettin it!

Oh yeah...last thing, we helped the family who is getting baptized this Saturday move, so now they live 2 houses down from us and dont have to commute 45 minutes every day to their restaurant, which is like 5 minutes from our house. They are awesome and cook like crazy!!

Well thats all...love you all and sending you my thoughts and prayers for a sweet week!!

Elder Sorensen

Found a scale for the first time since Mexico...232 baby! #XL

2015!!!

Dear all,

Happy New Years!!! Hope you all had a sweet New Years Eve and are ready for a sweet year!! This is gonna be the only complete year that I am in Ecuador so I´ve decided imma make it a good one ;)

Running short on time, like usual (I think I am slowly becoming Brian haha) but heres a speedy rundown!

My new area is AMAZING. I love it...I really do. There are definitely members from Los Chillos who I miss a lot but this ward is awesome! Everyone told me its the best ward in all of Quito and dang they were right. The members are excited to work with us and are active in the work. Our landlord of our house who lives right above us brings us breakfast/snacks/fruit most days, and there are a ton of returned missionaries who love to work with us and know how to work.

My fav park in the new sector

We are teaching 2 main families, 1 who we found through a reference yesterday. A homie who returned from Lima Peru South Mission (yes, Cam knew him!) hunted us down and then took us to go teach a family who is excited about learning about the church and accepted a baptismal date for the 31st of February. We are super excited for this change....hoping to have lots of success and work like machines! 

New Years was dope. We ate a ton of food and spent time with members and had an AWESOME firework show from our roof at midnight. Literally every single direction was shooting off fireworks. For about 15 minutes we watched thousands of fireworks go off from every direction accompanied by super loud music from every other street. NY here is way more crazy than the states....people dress up like halloween and go HARD. It was sweet. Elder F and I realized that this year he goes home and this year I wont ever touch foot in the States...so then we jammed out to some Les Mis to celebrate those to facts hahaha.

NYE 12;00 pic! 

Also hung out with Elder A (comp from MTC), and 3 other buddies from the MTC today. They all had been 3 hours away in one direction or another but are all here in Quito now. It was sweet.

Overall it was a sweet first week. Stoked for the change!

Questions:

How is your new apartment? Are there just two of you, or four? Its awesome. Small, but has what it needs and is super calm. There is just 2 of us which makes everything easier/better.

Do you still have mamaitas to feed you lunch? Yep, we have mamaitas every day except Thursday, but on Thurs we eat with the family we are teaching who owns a restaurant (they’re from the coast so they make BOMB sea food and shrimp of all types!) We also eat dinner there with them whenever we want. Perks of finding a family from the coast with a restaurant :)

How's the adjustment to a new companion? Its great. Still talking Spanish 24/7, knows even less English than my last comp. But he is great. Has a ton of experience and we get along super well. The only down side is we go to bed super late cuz we end up talking forever....but its a sacrifice I am willing to make (shrek...jajaja)

​​

LOVE YOU ALL!

Elder Sorensen