It's raining.

Hey everyone!

We had another great week. We have been teaching more than ever and have found a ton of new people to teach recently! We have been going HARD searching for/contacting/teaching part member families...which is an awesome way to find people to teach who already have friends/family is the church. It is also sweet because a lot of these families have been more or less inactive for a while....so its like killing two birds with one stone! Okay, I'm boring my self now...

Truth is...it was a great week but I was DANG sick on Saturday with a fat fever. So I kinda don't remember much about the week haha. But I promise it was good. Also, while thinking about what I was gonna write today, I realized I really am running out of things to tell yall about and am really bad at remembering stories/exciting things to tell yall....so do me a favor and feel free to ask ANY QUESTIONS that you have/had/will have about Ecuador, my current area, people, mission life, my favorite color...whatever. Just help me out...cause I am tired... haha!

But really, all is well and the work presses on! (Pretty sure I just stole that line from Cam's email last week....shoot.)

The baptism of E was another great one. She was so happy and her and her mom are now sooo active in church/the activities and everything! It is so great to see people change for the better and then see a change in their level of happiness and quality of life... Definitely strengthens my testimony/desire to stay on the straight and narrow! 

Like Alma said... ´´Behold, I say unto you, wickedness never was happiness.´´ 

Amen.

Love yall and hope you have a great week and don't get a FAT FEVER like I got.

Oh yeah...made some ants on a log...pretty sure I´m 6.

Until next time,

Elder Sorensen

USA USA USA

THE SURGERY 

Happy Presidents Day to everyone. I love George Washington!!...jaja

Well, another week came and went. It was a good one. Only have a few minutes so dont expect my normal Oxford/Ms.Okeefe literary devices/skills....

What every ward activity looks like in Ecuador...FUTBOL!

Finally got a side job to make a lil cash... ´´DJ KevvyKev´´

Anyways. First, this Saturday was the baptism of E. His mom got baptized last Saturday and since then he has been SO READY. We had some great visits with him this week, including one with basically the whole Young Mens quorum and the YM President...which was awesome. He went to all the activities at the church this week--including a Stake dance on Saturday (the baptism only started 30 minutes late...but it was worth it because when he showed up about 10 youth did too!) He is a beast and has made some huge changes in his life and I love him like a little brother (not that I would know what that is like....). The baptism was great as ever and I am so grateful to have played a small part in helping somebody find God and trust His son Jesus Christ.

Baptism of E

A 5 meter long Boa snake skin that E’s dad killed....his grandpa is the chief of the Shuars...a tribe in the Amazon. Epic!

Also, before the baptism we had the baptismal interview for a 17 year old whose mother is (was...as of yesterday:)) less active. She will be baptized this Saturday at 7. All are welcome! Lol.

Oh, I gave a sweet talk yesterday on Missionary Work. I found out Saturday night so I didnt have too much time to prepare...but luckily as a missionary its kinda easy to talk about missionary work! Also, I used a sweet 5 step process of how members can better share the gospel! (thanks Jeff;)). It was good, even the crying babies stopped about halfway through....so Id say it was a success.

Elder F and I

Also, that whole 2 companions thing only lasted 3 days... Something happened in some part of the mission and my new comp from last week got sent to another part of Quito...good old emergency changes....

How our house was for 3 days...before emergency changes AGAIN

Okay, thats about all. OH WAIT. Prophets... This week was an awesome week where I focused my studying on Prophets. The majority of that studying was spent watching some sweet videos/devotions. I watched the 95th Bday Celebration of Gordon B Hinckley, the 200th Bday celebration of Joseph Smith, and Thomas S Monson - On the Lords Errand. WOW. Three INCREDIBLE MEN. I am way grateful for the example those men and all the prophets of God have given us...and their AMAZING lives of service.

Investigator & Less-Active reading the BoM in the park...EPIC!

Well, I love you all and hope you have a great week! 

Elder Sorensen

The first of 3 plates of ´´meat´´ from the ward activity. (in Ecuador...its best you dont ask ´what kind of meat is this?´)

My first Ecuadorian Surgery......

Just kidding..okay not really. So if you know my father or me/my sibs, you know in our family we get ingrown toenails pretty frequently. Ive had a nice one of my left foot for a few months now, and after doing a lil weekly cutting/digging every week or two... I decided I might as well take advantage of our convert who is a foot doctor. So I rolled in there a little before a lesson, and she took a look at my toe. Before I knew it she was sticking like 4 needles in my toe to numb it...and then went to TOWN. Turns out a fat piece of nail has been chilling in the sidish of my toe, so she took care of that and it bled for a handful of minutes pretty hard, and at the end said ´´Okay you cant walk for the rest of today and all of tomorrow. Stay in bed.´´ Sooo thats what ended up happening. It hurt a TON once all the shots wore off..but the next day it wasnt too bad. Thanks to Ibuprofen and some disinfectant stuff she gave me after those 1.5 days I was all good (kinda...had to rock flip flops for 2 more days after that). We are supposed to call the nurses and only use the hospital that our mission has a deal with...but luckily both the Sister Nurses are my homies so they weren´t too mad--they were actually cracking up as I tried to be smooth as I told them what happened and how I cant work for 1.5 days....but its all good. And I am back in shoes so dont worry about me!! I also took advantage of my day in bed and read Preach my Gospel from cover to cover. That was fun. 

Okay...the good news. G´s baptism was amazing!! She was so excited all week and was so ready and gave such an awesome testimony afterwards. She talked about how in the beginning she wanted to meet with us to help her sons ´´find God´´...and little did she know she was the one who needed to find Him. Her son E is also super happy and has had such a huge change! He had his interview right before the baptism of his mom, and this Saturday at 7.30 (after a Stake dance he and all the youth are going too) he will be baptized! He is such a sweet dude and I am so happy to have helped him be able to change his attitude and his relationship with his mom. He is a beast. Now we just have to help him help his younger brother quit being like he was (he says its probably his fault his brother doesnt want to listen to us...because thats how he was for years up until a few weeks ago...with time!)

  Baptism of G, and her son who is getting baptized next week!

Oh yeah...changes. Last night we got changes. I am staying in Solanda with my companion Elder T who came to me 2 weeks ago. Buuuuut, we are getting a third comp--Elder M from Colombia. Trios are super rare and there is only 1 right now in the mish...so itll be a fun change and an even bigger/better chance to learn and develop patience! He has about 21 months and has had a rough mission up until now, but Im sure we’ll all get along well and keep working hard/having success! 

Also, something AWESOME happened earlier today. We were walking to the super market to buy food for the week...and ran into one of our less-actives and her daughter (who we are baptizing next Saturday) in the park reading the Book of Mormon and taking notes...talk about STUDYING THE SCRIPTS! That was awesome to see. We are super excited for the chance they have been having and are excited to be able to help the daughter prepare for this awesome stepping stone in her life!

As a mission we are doing this thing called  ´´Fe de Febrero, Milagros de Marzo´´, which means Faith of February, Miracles of March. As a mission we are making a handful of sacrifices for these next 2 months, in order to see miracles in the month of March. We are doing 5 things....1) Reading the Book of Mormon start to finish and marking every reference to Christ. 2) weekly service activities 3) Mission wide fast on the 14^th-15^th of both months (join us if you want!!) 4) Focusing personal studies on chapter 6 of PMG, Attributes of Christ (there is 1 for every week) and 5) Personal Sacrifice(s). My personal sacrifices are 1) Im not gonna talk English this whole change...which isnt too tough except for District meetings and Pdays....but hopefully itll help my Spanish a lot! And 2) always carry a Book of Mormon on me for these 2 months. A ton of missions do that but literally NO ONE here does it...so thanks to a lil inspiration from Big Jeff, im gonna go for it these 2 months and see what happens! 

Speaking of Big Jeff...finished his MASSIVE stack of mission emails. What a mission the first of the Kent R Sorinsins had!!! Def has given me some new motivation to be better and work harder! I am blessed like crazy to be down here in Ecuador. Good work Elder;)

Well, im outta here. Love you all and thanks to each and every one of you for all the love/support/everything!

Elder Sorensen

 ....Rocking the sandals.

 Breakfast.

It was another solid week down here in the EAC (flashback to Nemo...). My new companion and I are getting along great--and I am learning how to truly be patient and think about him before me. We’re heading up North of Quito to go to the Hospital on Wednesday. They aren’t exactly sure whats wrong with his stomach but gave him a few pills that should fix everything. He´ll be aite. 

Today wasnt the most exciting p-day, but it was still solid. We stayed in the house all day to help my comp chill out a lil, which gave me time to get a sweet pre-lunch workout in (well...as sick as a workout can be with some jugs of water, workout bands, and pushups), and do some reading/relaxing.

One super awesome part about my new companion is, because he does everything a little slow (showers, prepping food, getting ready, etc), its giving me a TON of time to myself. What I do in that time you might ask? Well I´ve already read all the little books about the church i have, watched all the districts, watched all the church vids we have and have already read about 7 months of Jeff´s mission emails (haha, printed out like 250 pages last week!!! Good thing everything is super cheap here...). Anyways, I have a ton of extra time to study and read and learn about all sorts of things that I can apply to the mish. Its slow, but its all good :) 

 Bed.

We are working hard and working well together. We have G and her son E´s baptism this Saturday. I am so excited. We found G about a month ago through a referral, and she has been progressing so well ever since. For the first week or two her sons didnt want anything to do with us, but now the older one (17) is way into it and loves hanging out with us and has been at church and the activities and all is well! He loves WWE Smackdown and is training to be a fighter, so after we talked about sports a ton one day he has kinda opened up. He is a beast and making his mom way happy. Now we just have to get her 15 year old son to stop being such a punk (kidding...kinda). We, and they, are super excited for this Saturday! They already have a ton of friends in the church so it should be a great service! 

Also, A, a 22 year old guy who randomly showed up at church last week with a BoM in his hands is progressing GREAT and attended again and has a baptismal date for the14th of Feb.

And yesterday at church the daughter of a member who moved back in town from the coast showed up and after many years wants to learn more about the church and now has a baptismal date for the 21st of Feb. The blessing are coming in hot--I think its the Big Man helping me out with the emergency changes and all....aint complaining :)

Lastly (fetch....reading Jeffs emails is making me write a ton like him...sorry guys.), last night was probably the sweetest night of the mission. Elder Craig C Christensen, of the Presidency of the Seventy came and spoke to us! He happens to be President Christensen´s brother....so thats cool. There were about 120 of us (or something), all of the missionaries from Quito-ish were there. It was soooo epic. Hearing President speak and then his brother was just amazing. Elder Christensen was a mission president in Mexico, so both him and his wife spoke great Spanish. In the beginning of his message he quoted a scripture that I used/bore my testimony about that day...so from that point on it was all just super personal/relative to me. It was so powerful/awesome to hear (and see, from about 15 feet away) a special witness of Jesus Christ bear such a powerful and direct testimony. Overall it was just way awesome. And funny. President and Elder Christensen were cracking jokes to each other during their talks. And when we had a Q&A with Elder Christensen, if it was a super hard or deep question, he would pause, step back, and look back at his brother. It was classic.

Well, I gotta go. I love you all and hope you have a great week! 

Elder.

The cars that I made from bday card from gma/gpa H. Yeah...not too much happened this week pic wise hahaha.