Tuesday, April 29, 2014

We All Laugh In The Same Language



Lexi emailed me today and said that writing letters may be more effective than writing on Dear Elder and having it delivered to her. She said that she gets them a week after we write them, so if we want her to receive something sooner, write her a letter!


Her MTC address is:





Enough from me, here's Lex....



Wowie wowo wowza i wish I could tell you everysingle stinkin thing that happened this week cuz it was so GREAT. But unfortunately they shove about a month into a week then give us an hour to write. Also let me apologize in advance for my grammer again because this week the enter key doesn't not work. It buggsss. Alrighty. So I had the greatest week here! Ugh life is so wonderful! I have the most amazing teachers and hilarious companions! i literally cry from laughter everyday! So I've been really struggling with the language and both my companions are BOMB at it. Like they need no practice and I just sit there in lessons like Uhhhhhhhh.... and try to be led by the spirit with what to say. But I have what I like to call cavewoman spanish aka most of what I say comes out as Reading you....scripture please. Or when I talk to the latinas it's somthing like when..... the sky.... i mean..... house.... walking to the dooor is fun on saturday. So yeah... we are working on it. Much laughter people that's what it provides. really I am tricking everyone and I'm pro at spanish. I just want to bring people laughter. Youre welcome CCM. So My companions are Hilarious. Hermana Hansen is the most straight up honest person I Have ever met which is weird cuz when you first meet her all that comes to mind is a little delicate flower. Yeah no, last week we were teaching our investigator. Her husband has been cheating on her an he came in in the middle of the lesson and they just started arguing. So me and
Hermanan Klindt are trying to bring the spirit and calm everything down and Hermana hansen just goes in english, [I can't feel the spirit and we need to pray right now.- In the most sassy voice ever. Oh my It
took all that was in me not to laugh we are just like um oooookk......Any ways or the other day we were in the bathroom and she gets all serious ans goes hermanaasssss.... I think I ahve a rash on my belly. It's jsut funny. It's just very funny. This week as I ahve been struggling with the language I have also been realizing of my HUGE Love for the latin people. Oh my they are so funny. I'll never be able
to teach a stinkin lesson cuz all they do is make me laugh. On Thursday we did a teaching practice and 2 elders taugh me and Herm. Klindt and then we taught them. They asked what our biggest problem
was and I said espanol. So one of them started talking really slow and loud like you would to a deaf person and said if you have faith in christ then he will help you, but faith without works is dead. And
then they started making jokes and we just laughed our brains out. That's basically how it is whenever I am around them I jsut laugh and laugh. The other night we were sitting by them at dinner and I flipped
my teeth at them. I had tears streaming down my face. Oh it was so hilarious they are like you are crazy. That is so creepy! They are just so funny and nice and helpful. Ugh I just love them! Today they
all left. Ask me if i cried cuz the answer is dang straigh I was bawling and I've only known these people for 2 weeks! holy hanna I can bear such a testimony of how you don't need to know a language to love people. We just hugged and they would say somthing to me and spanish and I just hugged them back and cried cuz i donno what they are saying! but I know I will see them in heaven cuz we are best friends! Also all of the old nortes are leaving which is quite depressing. THis week we also had a general authourity come and speak to us which was SO GREAT! We just listen with our little translators and take notes up front. Oh it was so motivating! i want to be a great missionary! I'm so excited to get out in the field and hopefully touch people with my spirit until I can actually communicate. I love it here SO Much. Everyone should go on a mission. Especially to Guatemala cuz the CCM here is teh best for these reasons. 1. We are teh only MTC that has snack time everysingle day. woot woot. 2. Everysunday we have alittle family home evening devotional with all the nortes in the presidents and his wifes apartement and they make us brownies and they are like our mom and dad. 3. The latinas are hilarious. 4. We get to go to the temple every week. 5. We get to call home on mothers day!! wahoo! Ill tell you more when I know! 10 minutes only though! gotta follow the
rules so i can get those blessings! I love and miss you all a lot! sorry again for the rough email.Oh yeah tell grammy bevvy happy birthday! I was thinking of ther yesterday! And nessa I got you the coolest wallet. It reminded me of you with all the happy colors! I love and miss you! Thank youf or your prayers and all you do! xoxoxoox


Hermana Sorensen

Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Email Numero Dos!!!! - One Week DOWN!!!

It was so good to hear from Lexi. Although I'm not sure she has received any of my emails, I'm glad she is busy and happy!


One of the couple missionaries sent my mom an email and this picture. Lookin' good, Yuck!!

Mom said that Lexi will be sending her emails around 12:30 every Tuesday!!!

Anywho, enough from me, here's Hermana Sorensen's letter...

What up all of my pretty family!
 
Ok so welcome to the longest week of my whole entire life. Holy hanna I feel like I have been here forever! Aye Aye aye.
First off let me tell you something about the Guatemala MTC, I got here at 5.30 in the morning and was expecting to have a little like intro or welcome or this is the mission life and how to be a missonary. No. They just throw you right in. Good luck! I hope you figure it out! By the second day you are already teaching lessons in 100% spanish and it|s only the second week and tomorrow we are already having and english fast. AKA Hermana Sorensen is having a talking fast because No hable espanol. For real though, I came to the realization the other day that since I'm the worst at spanish in my district, and we are the newest district, I am the worst in la CCM. Whoopsy. Waitin for that gift of tongues.
Literally everywhere we go is all spanish. During lunch we sit across from all the latinas, only latinas because we are not allowed to talk to the elders in the lunch room. But It\s SO much fun. They help with our spanish, I have no clue what they are saying and basically we just laugh our brains out. Oh my, I stinkin love it! Everyone here is like a celestial being. It makes me want to cry because everyone is so nice and happy. Ugh, being a missionary is the best! It's so weird because it litterally is the hardest thing Ive ever had to do because I can't speak and I don't know what\s going one or really how to teach. But you always have a special spirit with you. I don't really know how to descirbe it except I wake up everymorning kinda discouraged and sad but I go to bed everynight more happy than I have ever been in my life. It\s so fun!
So I am in a trio. Mi companeras are Hermana Hansen and Hermana Klindt. Being in a trio is REALLY hard. Especially when teaching investigators becuase we have 3 people trying to contribute and it's hard to simplify. But we will get it eventually.I think our biggest problem when we go to teach is we get so nervous and freaked out about our spanish, it\s really hard for the spirit to be there to testify. So I've been praying for us to be calm .
So my awkward\funny story of the week for you is me and our district were all sitting in our room learning about something in spanish and our teacher Hermana Garcia said something really fast and I was like holy shiz. And I freaked out. I slapped my hand over my mouth and everyone all looked at me. Oh my heck I wish I could describe to you how embarrassing it was. Luckily our district is centered around love and everyone forgave me. 
So we have a morning and a night teacher. Our morning teacher is Hermana Garcia and I absolutely adore her! She served a mission in San Diego and she is HILARIOUS. She is super expressive. I know Heavenly Father sent me to this MTC just to I could learn from her! She has helped to answer so many of my prayers and I know I'm gonna be a bomb misionary because of what she teaches me. She has taught me a lot about how the language doesn't teach or convert people, the spirit does. One of the days she had us all go in a room and bear our testimonies in spanish. I literally have NO clue what anyone said but everyone was bawling. It was so powerful. There has been a lot of those experiences where I can't understand, but I can feel the spirit. It's really really cool. I seriously love being a misionary.
I have not gotten sick yet. But right now there are about 20 Nortes in la CCM and more than half of them have been puking and super sick these past three days. I litterally am in a hospital people it's insane. I have been drinking silver shield and putting on Guardian out the wazoo and have felt fine. Herm. Hansen mocks my oils cuz her dad is a paramedice. Guess who got sick and I didn't. They must work.
My thought for you today is about the book of mormon. Our investigators name is EDuardo and we thought it would be a good idea to teach him about the Book Of Mormon. So I was reading in preach my gospel, and I had never realized that the reason the BOM is so correct and purte and wonderful, is because it was buried in the ground. Like it is so significant that the plates where buried because during the apostosy is when all the false doctrine was brought into the bible and all the other churches. So when Joseph Smith got those plates out of the ground they were 100% untarnished. Isn't that cool! 
Anywho I could talk all day about the amazingness of the gospel and how special it is to be here, but just know it's super hard and super great and I can't imagine doing anything better right now in my life.
I Lalalaalovvvve you guys!
hasta Luego!
 
By the way lo siento for my bad grammer. The Keyboards here are super weird and I don't have much time.  I promise i am literate.
Ok bye.
Hermana Sorensen

Haha I looked so awkward in that picture. But I want to cry when I see Hermana Pitcher cuz It reminds me of you guys. 

So we have Pdays on tuesday and we get to go to the temple every tuesday. Wahoo! It\s great.
Everymorning we have sports and play 4 square. It;s hilarious and so much fun
Basically the mornings are dedicated to personal study, grammer lessons, and just learning how to be amisisonary, then we have lunch with the latinas and it's required for them to sit across from us which is actually really fun cuz they are super understanding and willing to help us learn and they are way funny.
The weather is really nice here but I actually wouldn't know cuz we are inside allday except in the morning when it is pretty chilly for sports.
Our nights are all about preparing for our investigator and teaching him the lesson, then we usually have another lesson and planning for the next day.
My night teacher is Hermano SIan and he is this super short man and he is very calm, cool and collected. Which is just perfect because before and after all our lessons us three are INSANE so he helps us to calm down Yesterday we were really stressed out about it before we went in and he showed us that scripture in first nephi about going and doing and god will provide away if you go and do. Oh my it helped me so much mom because I have been so frustrated that my spanish is so bad. I  have such a hard time communicating. I really am the worst one haha. Bu thats ok because I don't have to teach in korean! So lets focus on that.
But after reading that I just realized God sent me here for a reason and he is going to provide for me to make it through and learn, even if it takes the whole 18 months! I'm learning patience.
On sunday we had a devotional and listened to a talk by Elder Hollan and he talked about how Salvation doesn't come cheap or easy and  thats why it's so hard it wasn never easy for christ so why would it be easy for us. Ok my time got cut short cuz of lunchy. boooo love you lots and i think about you lots
thank you so much for the kind notes and candy. LOVE YOU ALL>

Wednesday, April 16, 2014

Lexi's First Day in Guatemala!

What up familia!
I am officially here in guatemala. And I only have 5 minutes but I basically just had the longest day of my life. We got here at 5>30 and i cant freakin figure out this keyboard so sorry mom. \you gotta deal with the grammer errors.
I-m in a threesome companionship. My first companion is Hermana Klindt that we met at the airport and I adore her. My other companion is from Washington and her name is Hermana Hansen. She is kinda ditzy and get frustrated easy which is a bad combination. We just had to run up to our room twice cuz she forgot her password. But she has the sweetest little voice in the world and likes boys a lot so it makes for great entertainment. I think we will have a jolly good time.
Our district name is Isaiah and we have us three and then 2 other elders who flew in with us. One of them is 18 and graduated in January to come here from South Dakota. The other is 23 from Texas named Elder Oroscow and his birthday is today. He is 23 and was just converted 2 years ago,
Everyone here is over the top nice when we got here this morning all of the sisters came in and wlecomed us. There are about 20 hermanas from north america here and 20 elders. And a lot of them are leaving in a 2 weeks. The rest are all latina so we are definitely the minority. Spanish nonstop yo. I love it. Already I am getting better. They call us Northies here. Because American is offensive to them.
 
Oh and also the food is divine. We are talkin elements here people. Like delightful. oh noooooooo.......
Thank you for the nice notes. I have the best family.
I am a zombie and cannot function. We did get a 1 hour nap but I didn't sleep much on the plane and it has been a very filling day. I will pass out and be ahppy then people will maybe find out im not such a grump. or not cuz i don't speak espanol.
also our president and our wife are SOOOOOO nice. They are from Cali.
My teachers name is Hermana Garcia and I LOVE her. She is hilarious.  Everyone is sososoososoo nice and happy that there is no way that i will ever feel sad here. Being a missionary is da best.
Also I got my name tag today. HOLLA.
Okkkkk sorry this is so scattered. But yeah I'm alive aside from me being in a walking coma.
You guys da best of da best,
 

Tuesday, April 15, 2014

Tuesday, April 15

Today Lexi left for her mission.

We met at Mom and Dad's for a home  cooked breakfast of over easy eggs, bacon, orange juice, and chocolate chip pancakes.
Afterwards we all took turns sitting in Lexi's room working on getting everything packed.
Lenny Bug decided she wanted to visit Guatemala with Aunt Lexi, too!

Around 12:30 we left home and headed to Salt Lake. Lexi felt sick and we were worried she was going to have the 24 hour flu that has been going around. Luckily, we stopped in Centerville and had some Chickfila and she felt better. It was definitely just nerves!

When we got to the airport, Ness helped Lexi roll her suitcases in. We followed behind, not wanting to accept that we were about to leave without Lex. As we were going to check her bags, I passed a father and his daughter talking by the escalator. I overheard him telling her "When you get to Guatemala..." and I jumped for joy! Lexi had been worried she was going to have to fly all the way there by herself. I ran over to her and pointed to the girl, "Lex!!! She's going to Guatemala too!!!!" Lexi felt relieved. Then, after checking the bags and taking pictures, we noticed there was anotehr girl, in a skirt, surrounded by family members. Well heck! She must be going to Guatemala too!!! Suddenly, (after we'd been pointing and staring...awkward) her father came over and asked Lexi what her name was and if she was going to Guatemala! She said yes and ironically, the girl had gone to BYU-I and Liz had sent a letter with her to give the Lexi. Her name was Sister Klindt. She was not serving in the same mission as Lexi, but at least they would be able to fly to LA, endure the 6 hour layover and then fly to Guatemala together!
We got acquainted with their family a bit and then headed over by the baggage claim to wait a little while longer.
Lennyn loved looking at all the screens, the lights and the baggage claim. She just smiled to herself the whole time. We talked about how we'd be standing right here 'next year' to pick her up, and how she was only going to miss 1 of everything. One Christmas, one birthday....how lucky!  We were playing a waiting game...wait til Hermana Klindt leaves, leave at 3:30...and then Hermana Klindt and her family started to make her way up the escalator to security. We decided to follow.
We all cried and hugged Lexi one last time. I was so proud of how calm and confident she was.
We watched as she made it through security.
We waited in Bountiful until her flight took off.
We watched the flight on Dad's phone until it landed in LA.
*Tangent* When her flight landed, all of our phones switched to California time (insert Twilight Zone theme song here) It was way weird!!!
She called Mom and Dad from LAX and told them she made it ok and that they were coloring away!
Mom and Dad text us the next morning to let us know that she made it to Guatemala safely.
We can't wait to hear from her!!

Fun Facts: Guatemala is about the size of Kentucky. (Smaller than Utah)
 Guatemala is also in the same time zone as us!