Kolipoki

Buenoooossss Tardessss.

Happy First P-day of my 4th Cambio. Woot woot woot! Wanna know how fast time goes? When my companionship with Hna. Munoz started, she had the same amount of time that I have now. WEIRD folks. ZOOM. I'll see ya'll in 10 seconds. 

This week we found a lot of new investigators!  This is good cuz’ after these folks get baptized this week, we will be lacking in lessons. We found this boy to teach and one day we were talking about the Plan of Salvation and in comes his 30 year-old drunk brother. I was a little scared at first. But we actually came back to teach him another day. His name is Giovani and really wants to stop drinking and change his life for his little girl and wife. He wants to know God’s plan for him. I did a little dance about that in my head. Drunk people aren't always bad.  My favorite tender mercy of the week was definitely finding Giovani! How cool is it to find an investigator in a drunk man?

But actually we had many drunk experiences this week. I don’t know why, but it happened. We had one guy start talking to us, then just start peeing right there..... alright.. gotta go....and I have another guy who stalks me everyday. Just walks a bit behind us and yells ‘RUBIA’ at me. Excuse me, you are scaring away our investigators. But I am never afraid cuz’ I know I have God with me always.

The companionship with Hermana Munoz is good. I am very grateful to have another change with her cuz’ we have a lot to learn from each other. Don't tell mother, but I definitely cried twice about Hermana Munoz this week in the bathroom. I would explain it to you, but just go watch the dvd, Errand of Angels when she has her rough companion cuz it's almost the exact same situation. Like I want to do a ton of stuff and work hard and be obedient, but she doesn't want to.  So I have been focusing on charity and really and truly looking for her strengths. I'm trying to learn that even though the rules say one thing and I may think it's better... cuz it's a rule--maybe she does have something I can learn from her. After praying a lot,  I decided maybe this change isn't going to be a change with lots of baptisms or success, But for me, I'm going to grow a lot. I'm going to focus on just loving my companion and looking to God for my success in these things.

So this week we had a lesson with an Evangalist who we have been teaching with his family. They are super poor and at first I was SO excited to teach them. Yeah.  He was a pastor and believes God and Christ are the same person. We have had 3 lessons of us trying to explain but all he does is throw bible verses at us. It's way annoying. So our last lesson he just kept talking to me and throwing bible verses at me. I could know all the scriptures in the world and it wouldn't have mattered. I kept asking him if he had prayed about our message. He kept saying that it would be in vain to God cuz’ he already knows what is the truth. Finally after like one hour (Hna Munoz just sat there and watched the kids play.) I told him that we could talk all day, but only God knows the truth and if he wasn't going to ask Him, then he wasn't going to progress. So that was my cincho lesson for the week. Maybe not the best approach, but also after 3 lessons I didn’t feel too bad. Hello sir, this was your opportunity for your family. I will see you in the heavens.

Also,  we had a really special lesson with Brenda about temples. Oh my, how lucky are we to have GODS HOUSE here on the earth! She is preparing to go with the ward in one month. I am so excited to go back and feel the peace of my Heavenly Father in his house. One thing I really liked that I found when I was studying was ' The only thing that can compare to the temple in sacredness, is our homes.' I really believe that. More than ever here, I'm realizing that our homes really are a place of peace, comfort, and love just like our home of our Father in Heaven!

The way we find people to teacher here is, well, we basically just ask everyone for references of people to teach aaaannndd 'yell' at doors. Funny story actually. You know how I'm still kinda lackin in the Spanish language? Well one day, I yelled at a door and this Catholic lady came out. We asked if we could share a message with her and all of this stuff but she said no. So yadadadad we said why not and finally she starts talking to me and says, 'Uou can share something with me if you sleep with my son. He's really ugly I want a cute blonde grandbaby.'  Well, being the gringa I am, I thought she said we could if first I TALKED with him--like shared a message with him and her grandbaby. I was like 'YEAH! Great! Another investigator!' So I said ' Si! Si! Podemos Hacerlo! (Yes! Yes! We can do it!') And Hna. Munoz was like 'Nonononono' And explained to me in English. So yeah... It was awkward... I felt like Kolipoki on the movie, The Other Side of Heaven...... Sorry madam. I cannot sleep with your ugly son.

I am feeling great, and there is a store here that sells Nature’s Sunshine stuff, so I should be able to get the things I need.  This is all I have for this week, actually it's pretty lengthy! I know that Our God Reigns and His work is really hastening! We can do miracles with Him if we will just ask.

TE AMOOOOOO!!!!

Hna. Sorensen

Fun times in Guat!

Hermana Sorensen and Hermano Munoz

Beautiful Ram Tzul 

Boiling one skirt and shirt a day during exercise time to get rid of my little hair friends; LICE.
We don't have a pot. . . so our frying pan works!

Dhanghai

Bahahhahaha! I hope I freaked all of you out a little bit with the subject of my letter. No lovelies. I do not have dhangai..  Tampoco(Neither do I have)  lice. I am living my life bug-free at the moment! (Okay not exactly bug free,  but none are living inside of me.) 

Anywhoooo. I had a lovely week here in pretty Guat Guat. We had changes on Saturday and my beloved Hna. Munoz and I are going to be together for another change. Woot Woot! Yesterday we sat down and had a good chat about how we are going to be champ missionaries and work real hard. Cuz’ this is the Lord’s time. SO I'm stoked! Also, felicidades (congrats) to me!   I finished my training.   WAAAAAHHHHHOOOOOO!

PRAISE the heavens! I got the package! THANK YOU! Especially for the photos. I love those things... Oh and I guess I appreciate the chocolate.......

Oh my Word! Brenda’s baptism was the most spiritual experience ever! She is such a cutie! She just cried the whole time. The spirit was so strong and a lot of our other investigators came! It was so good! Yesterday she was confirmed and also called as the secretary in Relief Society. Also she is getting excited for her mission. 

Who are your new investigators this week? Well... we found this lady named Maria (which is a really rare name here, if you didn't know.) And she seems to be interested. We put a fecha with her for October.. but we shall see cuz’ we have only had one lesson with her. 

Speaking of looking for new investigators,  God really does watch out for his missionaries! So like 2 weeks ago one night I was writing in my journal and randomly decided to look through our area book.This is really weird cuz’. I've been here for like 11 weeks by now so I basically know everything about Los Campos. But I was looking through and this girl (Sister Missionary)  had written about this less active member who was excommunicated for creeping on sister missionaries. The next night we were walking home and this guy starts talking to us all nice and tells us he is less active and so we ask if we can come visit him tomorrow. We ask his name and, sure enough,  it's creeper man! I know that it was the spirit prompting me to randomly look in the area book so that I could be wise about this contact!  I am protected in so many big and small ways. I'm so grateful to be a missionary!

Tell us about your lessons this week:  Well We had a very sad lesson this week. If you remember Aura y Rosemary? Well, we had to drop them this week. It was so SAD! I definitely cried. But also the spirit was really strong and I know we did the right thing. I really believe that maybe in the future other missionaries can find them.

Share a culturally interesting GUAT fact. . What is the strangest thing you've eaten recently?  Hellen Keller, my friends.  We have had freakin’ chicken and rice almost every day here for the past 6 weeks! I want to die!  We eat chicken out the wazoo here.... like I just want some cow.   And... uh.... We kiss everyone on the cheek... and uh... we have pot holes., HUGE ones.  And uh.. oh my,  i don't know. my mind goes blank when you ask me these questions. Really I'm just excited for you guys to come back and experience the buses here cuz’ I almost die every day.

Are you getting more accustomed to your area (i.e. not getting lost to much)? Yeah I basically know everything about our area now.. and the people... it's nice not to feel like a lost puppy. Ha!

That's all folks! 

I love you a bushel and a peck and pray for you allll the time!

Hermana Sorensen

I Can Go the Distanceeeee!

August 11, 2014

What upppp?!! and happy semana a todos! How are you all doing my dear friends!

I had a lovely week LICE-FREE here in beloved Los Campos. I am actually quite upset cuz' I have lots of fotos to send this week. But I live in Guatemala and sometimes things do not work.. so no fotos hoy folks. But I had some real nice pictures of my experience boiling my clothes.. on our little stove... in a frying pan.. cuz' we don't have a pot. So I just did one skirt and shirt at a time during exercise and personal study. Yeah... Livin' the guat life!

Today we went to Ram Tzul ( I think that's what it was called haha) and hiked to this epic waterfall and I took all these real cool fotos. I felt like I was on the Jungle Cruise and had the stupid little song stuck in my head the whole time. Then we finally arrived at the waterfall and Boom! It was like Splash Mountain. So now I am singin' 'zipadeedoodaaaaaa'. Life really is great my, friends. Real great. Also, we played 'Never have I ever' on the bus to Ram Tzul. It was pretty funny because we were with like 25 missionaries who have been serving for a very lonnnnnng time.. and I was one of the first people out. Three months, a parasite, lice, eaten raw fish, gotten lost.. . . .I am just getting the fullll experience in my little time. I'm a lucky lady. :)

So life is pretty wonderful here. Highlights of the week=

1. Yesterday we taught a member and his girlfriend the law of Chastity... Yeah... She's pregnant. Ask how fun it was to give that lesson cuz' actually I wanted to die. But she has a fecha (date for baptism set) for Sept. Just you know.. gotta get married and that stuff.

2.Hna. Munoz and I are addicted to Chokis and lately we buy those things by the dozen in the weird little stores here. They are just really yummy.

3. We did a lot of contacting this week because we need some more investigators. This is always interesting and I don't particularly enjoy it. Especially because with this change (transfer) I'm the contactor and only occassionally they can understand my beautiful raspy voice.. probably distracted by my gringa beauty.(Ha ha)

4. We have the baptism of BRENDA on Saturday! I'm so happy I could cry. Also we will see if we have changes. BOm bom bom booommm (that's that piano song that's supposed to be like... scary.. do you know what I'm talking about?)

Have a jolly good week and sorry this was not uplifting or spiritual in anyway. But I do know that God is always with us and literally wanting to help us at any moment. The most repeated phrase in the scriptures is 'Ask and Recieve.' So ask ya'll! Heavenly Father is just sitting there waiting.

Enjoy your carnival.

Piojitos!

Hello my beautiful people whom I just love very dearly!

¿Cómo estnánnnnn? ¿Cómo le va? ¿Cómo fue su dia? This is what everyone asks the first 5 minutes of everyday and all I think in my head is 'you crazies are asking us the exact same question 70 times. For reals. Muy bien.' But I guess they are just real concerned with our well-being, which is kind.

How it all happened.....the de-licing of Hermana Sorensen.

So this week was the bomb.com     I am getting the full on Guat experience. I considered not sharing this with everyone cuz I thought,  'yuck,  I'm a grossie josssiieee and I am embarrassed.' Pero, then I thought,  'Hi I’m in Guatemala. These folks need to be prepared.   I GOT LICCCEEEEE! Grosie Josie Hermana Sorensen has little Piojos crawling around in her 'colochitas'. This is the down-side of having blonde curly hair that every dirty child in the country wants to touch. No más kidlets.   But yeah that happened. I kept asking Hna. Muñoz to check but she didn't see anything, so one day I just asked the family who we eat lunch with cuz’ my head was just a itching! Sure enough she pulls out a good ol’ buggy! EWWWW! So I felt like a puchika this week, cuz’ everyday I went to their house for like 2 hours while Hna. Anabela and the grandma de-liced me. BOOOO. I just had to keep telling myself Heavenly Father knows my heart and knows that I didn't like sitting there wasting time either. But I washed and suffocated everything, and we are doing one more 'process' today. Woot woot! Hopefully I'll be lice-free for the rest of my life. Plus side, I learned a new word! Piojossss!

Now to answer the questions of the week:  As far as sleep goes,  I'm doing a lot better!   Have you lovelies been praying for me? I can tell. This week,  three days in a row,  I didn't wake up once in the night until our alarm went off! WAHOOO!

Miracle and Special Experience this week:   Oh my hellen keller folks. We have the best investigators! Yesterday was the best day of my life! So remember Brenda? The bomb investigator who we have who just wants to know everything?   Well, we went to a Relief Society activity with her on Wednesday and she is going to start teaching all of the sisters Zumba every day in the church.  She is more involved than the members.  She goes to every activity and absolutely LOVES this gospel! She has only known it for 2 weeks! She is the definition of having 'hunger' to know more. I look up to her so much! She already wants to serve a mission. She asked if she could move her baptism date up.  I was doing a dance in my head as I tried to calmly respond,  “I think we could do that.”  BAZINGA!  Also,  yesterday she bore her testimony in church. I have never felt so happy in my life. On Monday, we had an FHE with her and a member family. We talked a little about Joseph Smith. She said that night she went home and read his testimony and prayed to know the truth. That night she had a dream. She saw Joseph Smith translating The Book of Mormon and felt so happy and peaceful. Then she saw a hand come out of the clouds and hand her The Book of Mormon. For once in my stay here, the whole sacrament meeting was silent. She really opened her heart to know the truth and received an answer. AHHH I'm so excited!   I just adore her!  Also Hna. Priscila came to church yesterday for the first time! I was a little worried she would get bored,  but every time I looked at her face she was so intently focused on the speaker. She said she loved it all and I'm so happy that she has found something to make her happy in her life!

Priscilla with me and Hermana Munoz. . . she looks pretty thrilled here, eh?  She really is happy!

and our other investigator Wilber, Geni and their brother, Walter, who is a member.

 How are things coming with your new companionship and what is your best method of ‘slowing down’ to meet her in the middle cuz’ she is jus ‘mosey-ing’ along?  Yeah... she's a flosser. I just shield my eyeballs. But actually the other day she told me I walk really fast and she doesn't like that and I have been praying about this problem... Well I gave her a little cincho (burn) and told her that we are on the Lord’s time and need to be running to every appointment. I told her I came to serve 'with my whole heart, might,  mind and strength' and I know she wants to do that too.  It has been good as we teach together, and we both need to improve with our abilities; so please pray for us.   Really my Spanish isn't that great but is really improving.   I speak too much in English with her, but I sure do love her.

Anything make you laugh this week?  Oh, heck yes! I just laugh my life away. This week was mainly about my lice with the family we have lunch with. LOVE Those guys. e had lots of jokes.

What are the Miracles/tender mercies/things you are grateful for this week?  Dream of Brenda. Hands down.  Also scripture of the week is Alma 32:27-28. We are trying to get Aura and Rosemary to experiment with the gospel. Come on folks,  this is your salvation.

Love you all people. Thank you for your prayers and everything! Obedience=blessings! 

Hermana Sorensen