Beautiful Guatemala!

September 21, 2015 

My companion is such a server! She is always doing something for me! I love Hermana Miguel!  Almost every night I will be writing in my journal or something and she will bring me a cup of hot cocoa or a dinner. I love her so much!

Explain what your new area looks like and what it is like. Well it’s a lot like my first area: a lot more dusty roads, buildings, houses and such. l obviously am in Guatemala so I will always be seeing trees and green. But it’s not as earthy as some of my other areas unless we go to the far areas. The thing is  I’m in more of the central part of Coban, so it’s more cityish.. if you can call it that. But A LOT of hills. My calves are bigger than Hercules.

My favorite person in the ward is Hermano Trigerros. He is our Ward mission leader. Every meeting we have every week he makes us dinner (Have you noticed how I love the people who feed me....awkward) and he is always so happy and drops everything to help us. He reminds me of Santa Claus....

Just to tell you a bit about what we do each day, usually we try to leave early and do studies in the morning with one companionship of Hermanas, and then we do divisions with them for one day. This week I went to Tactic. (YAYYYYY!) with Hna. Christensen from Utah County (YAYYY!) I love that lady.  Also this week we are planning a sister conference.. it will be lovely... Also, I just want to say that I love praying! I think that is one of the things that I have grown to love most here in the mission. Praying. We should do it more I think. I’ve been thinking a lot about the importance of SPECIFIC prayers this week too mom! Example: we haven’t had investigators in church for a while but we always pray for them to progress... well, this week we prayed that they would come. BOOM SHAKALAKALAKA, they came... well, one came, but one is better than nonnnneee!

Right now we are visiting a man named Hna Feliciano. He is so great! He makes homemade chocolate balls out of this nut called kakau here... don’t fret, I WILL be bringing some home. They are SO good. But he is this 75 year old man with A LOT of questions and a big desire to follow the Savior. We are excited to see him progress and make more changes in  his life.  

My favorite thing that I learned this week is the importance of leaving everywhere better than you found it. I have been trying to put that in practice this week. It doesn’t matter if I’m in the grocery store, talking to a person on the street, or just eating in a fast food restaurant. Christ left every place he went better than he found it! I loved that little thought, so I encourage all of you lovely people to do it as well.

Have a good week and don’t forget to read the Book of Mormon every day!

Hermana Sorensen

I Love Carmelitas!

This week was good, but very different.  I love the fresh weather in Coban, and I even wore long sleeve shirts a few days this week! It's so beautiful and green and I love seeing the culture cuz there is a lot more Q'eqchi here.   

However I had forgotten how hardhearted the people are here. In Peten you knock on the door and they welcome you with happy arms (usually) and kindly tell you they don't want anything to do with the church, but would love to give us some juice. Buena gente. In Coban they are a little a lot different. You offer them a folleto and they completely ignore you or hide. They are literally just very rude... grosera. (is there a word for that in English?) One lady we contacted just told us straight up she already had a church and that  we would be wasting our time with her. We explained to her that our message only talked about Christ and we knew would benefit her life. She just turned around in mid sentence and left us standing there. We kinda just started laughing as we walked away and she shouted at us that we needed to beware of false prophets. We visited an old investigator that the other sisters had left here and after singing a song she just kinda looked at us and then said, "You know what? I don't like you guys very much."  I literally was dying of laughter. Funny lady. I bought her bread after that for the next visit and I think we are slowly winning her over. Needless to say, I am basically making BFFs on every corner!

But I LOVE Carmelitas. The ward here is amazing and our ward mission leader is SUPER helpful.  He just returned from a mission in Peru about 2 or 3 years ago and he is always helping us and giving us good advice of how we can be better. Hermana Coello and I are learning the area fast and making a lot of plans to get some baptisms here because they haven't seen a baptism in our area in about 8 months. AKA we will be ECHANDO FUEGOOO PRONTOOO! Boomshakalaka I am very excited and motivated.

All in all I am so grateful to be here! I know that God is giving me a wonderful opportunity to develop a lot more Christlike attributes during my time here.  I know that here I will be running when I finish and that's all I want! 

I love the Hymn 'HOw Firm a Foundation' and I have been thinking a lot about these words this week:

1.      “Fear not, I am with thee, oh, be not dismayed,
For I am thy God, and will still give thee aid;
I’ll strengthen thee, help thee, and cause thee to stand,
Upheld by My gracious, omnipotent hand."

I know that God is always with me and that through him my weaknesses can be made strengths. Life is good and I love Preachin' the good word!

Stay kewllll

Alexis

. . .and the work goes on!

 . .and the work goes on!

Heyyooo motha!

Thank you for your 'happy person ideas.' I just wrote them in my agenda so I can start to put them in practice. I have been writing everyday in my gratitude journal from Grandma Bev. It's fun! I think of her every day when I do it and it kinda is part of my routine now.1. plan 2. area book. 3. pray together. 4. write what happened on my calendar we made. (I remember you telling me one of your friends did that or something?) I’ve been doing it my whole mission cuz sometimes im lazy with my journal. 5. I do the gratitude journal. But I also am a slacker with the service thing. I will do better at it too. But mom, I think you are good at that! I remember a lot of times you taking us when we were little to go and visit old people and widows in the ward. You are a champ.

Those questions are a little hard this week... however I will do my best to answer them.

Questions of the week;  Share your favorite thing you see as you walk down the street in the morning in Guatemala that you will never forget.  (Sight, smell, taste, touch. .  ) My favorite thing I see when I walk down the street in Guatemala is the Q'eqchi people (Or anybody... but it's cooler when they have their corte skirts...) walking down the street with a giant bucket of maiz on their head to go and make tortillas. I don't know if I have mentioned but the corn tortillas are life here. Every meal they eat them. So every corner sells them every day. They just stand around the little oven thingy and tortilla all. day. long. I have learned a few times but I'm not very good at it. But that is definitely the best. Their necks have gotta be so strong cuz' I would die. those things are heavy.

What was the most inspirational topic/item that you got from your personal study this week? Hmmm.... Well, this week I have been focusing my studies on the Priesthood. How we have it, the keys, what we can do with it... etc. I started studying and really I just have about 3 pages of MORE questions about the priesthood. ITS SO AMAZING! We literally have the power of God here on the Earth. It just hit me that we literally have the capacity to perform the same miracles that Christ performed.  

What has Hermana Gomez taught you? Let me tell you something about Hna. Gomez-she is like a walking Bible. Seriously she knows EVERYTHING about the gospel. The 3 pages I had of questions about the priesthood I thought would never be answered, but that lady just whips out her bible and I feel like I am in a personal study session with an apostle. But she really helps motivate me to not only learn and apply the gospel in my life, but really study it and know it.

 What has your mission president taught you?  President Curtiss is probably one of the most patient and loving people I have ever met. But something that I have been learning from him and Hna. Curtiss lately is the importance for us to never act tired. Just always be happy. Trust in the promise that God will give us the energy. It's hard to live the gospel and obviously we will be tired, but we don't need to show it! Christ never did. So these past couple of weeks when my feet don't want to walk more or the sun is attacking me and I just want five seconds to breathe before starting a lesson, I try not to show it.

What did you do this week that stands out and makes it different from the other parts of your mission? This week we did 3 divisions in 1 week. We stayed 2 days in Poptun and we slept on the floor. It was surprisingly comfortable. Also, on one of the divisions I was in we went to go visit a family for the first time. We were finishing up and the hermana I was with started to do the invitation to baptism. 'Seguiran el ejemplo de Jesucristo y.... Bleeeeee....' She puked right on their dirt floor. I did not quite know what to do with myself so I just awkwardly patted her back while everyone watched and our member almost joined her. Sooo... we put a return visit and she went home and slept. However, It was something that has never happened to me before!

 I have a question actually, There is this less active lady here who loves the heck out of me. She has been trying to sell this hammock that is GIGANTIC and SUPER cool and never been used. It is 1200 quetzales. But The other day we went there and she gave me a big hug and said her kids wanted to buy it for me cuz they were grateful we had found her. She said I would just have to pay 400 quetzales and then I called the mail people of the mission and they said they could mail it for probably 400 quetz also. So.... I donno if You guys could put money in my account for that or... how you feel about that like if its a good idea? I hate to go through the trouble but I feel like it would be mean to reject the gift and also ... it's really cool haha. Let me know

The church is true and the BOM is the best.

LOVE YOU!

Talking Loudly. . . a method of teaching?

This week went by super duper fast so I am jsut going to share some highlights with you.

This is Hno. Sebastian and his Family who speak Qeqchi 

Waterfight Activity this morning, P-day.

This week Hna. Gomez and I walked to one of the barrios farthest away in our area called the Granja. Most of our area is pretty cityish but the Granja is all just trees and jungle and tin roofs and dirt floors. It's about a 45 minute walk from our house there but since its been cooling down a bit and we have hardly worked there we made the journey. We were knocking doors and we found this little old couple. I cannot describe how hilarious they were. The husband was this short old Guatemalan with a t-shirt with corn on it, and he was basically deaf, His wife was this tall old lady and had something wrong with her mouth that made it difficult for her to speak. Both of them couldn't really understand my accent but we had a go at it anyways. We said a prayer and started to explain who we were, 'We are representatives of Jesus Christ and he sent us here to share a message with you.' The Hermano just stares at us, 'huh'

'We are representatives of Jesus Christ!'

'Huh'

'WE ARE REPRESENTATIVES OF JESUS CHRIST' 

'oh yes... yes... that's nice.'

I seriously could not contain myself, I was dying laughing. The whole lesson was basically like that us just talking as loud as permit until they understood a little......

Also this week we went to go and share with Hno Sebastian and Candelaria (The Family of Q'eqchi.) They are so stinkin' cute! They are praying to know if they should be baptized on the 18th of this month. When we were in their house they other day Hno. Sebastian taught us some things in Q'eqchi... like how are you? and what's your name (aka I'm basically fluent in the language now...) but is was so fun. I'm so grateful we can share with them.

I love you all a lot! Don't forget to read your book of Mormon this week cuz it's the best!

Lexi

Dont worry about my Dangue. That's why I didn't tell you guys sooner cuz it really wasn't that big of a deal. Just a few days of lost work haha.  (Lex did not tell us, but she did tell her sister that it was boring being int he hospital.)

Laughter on the Bus. . and miracles!

Buenas Tardesssss!

How are you all doing! Sounds like a good week full of the priesthood! Good job Devin and Mckenzie for having a child and giving it a name.

This week was good! And it actually rained a lot! Which means a lot more humidity but less heat.... I'm still deciding if it is better or worse but I think I like it better than the super hot sun.

QOW's  Tell us about your daily schedule lately. This week was a little different because it was the first week of changes so we were helping hermanas who are new to their areas and we had a few reunions. But our daily schedule is always the same for your whole mission... unless you have meetings. This week we just didnt get to leave as much in the mornings because we went to San Benito to help the sisters get to know their area.

Tell us a funnnnny travel story. We went to San Andres this week to do divisions. San Andres is about 20 minutes from Sta Elena so it isnt a very long trip. This day wasnt very  different than any other, they piled about 17000 people in the van and we were off. But this time I was sitting smooshed up against this little Guatemalan man who doesn't have any legs. I had seen him a few times in the Market hobbling around with shoes on his hands and joking around with all the bus drivers. As soon as I got on the bus, he kept on trying to talk in English with me but really the only things that he knew how to say were swear words and 'I wuv you bebe' Being stuck on a bus with nowhere to turn I wasn't quite sure what to do with myself. All of the 1700 people were staring at us, and in an awkward situation like that, what do you do? Laugh your brains out, obviously! Then the bus driver put on music and he started to dance. Probably the most entertaining bus ride I have yet had In Guatemala.

What is the miracle of the week? This week we arrived at church a little sad because the couple we are teaching didn't show up. The meeting had started when we turned around and saw a whoooollle family that we had just visited for the first time last week. It was a big miracle for sure. Especially because only the dad speaks Spanish. The other members couldn't even understand the meeting since they only speak Queqchi!

What is the hardest thing about being a missionary? Hmmm... That's rough. I think It is different for everyone. The thing about the mission is, it's so specific for each person. We are literally here to make our 'Weaknesses become Strengths' so depends on who you are. But I think something that is pretty common as a difficulty is the rejection. Sometimes it's hard to get up the courage to do something when you know there is a chance of rejection.

What is your favorite thing about being a missionary?  Seeing people change! It is such a miracle to see people apply the gospel and literally see how there smile is bigger and they just seem to glow with happiness. Gah! I seriously can't even describe it. Also,  I LOVE  to hear the people pray correctly for the first time.

Best method of getting an inactive person interested in the gospel? Haha .. . .let me know when you find a cure. Everyone leaves for different reasons. But I usually try to help them focus on how they felt when they were baptized, why they did it, the difference in their lives when they were keeping the commandments and now.

Love you all a lot! Have a good week!

Hna. Lexi

Santa Elena!

Alberto!  Our recent convert!

Lunch with Elder and Sister Bake

Keep on Keepin' on!

Happyyyy Junnneeee!!! Holy hanna, May went by SO fast here in Peten! I can't believe that we have already started a new month. The time is really starting to fly,and to be honest, it scares me. But I am loving life here in Santa Elena! We had changes this week, but I will be staying here with Hna Gomez. Wahoo! I love it here! So I was happy to hear the good news.  I will now answer mom's questions of the week:

What was the best thing that happened with investigators this week?  BAPTISMMMM! On Saturday Alberto got baptized! It was probably one of the most spiritual baptisms I have had on my mission. He was so prepared to be baptized. He learned all the lessons in 3 weeks! The day before his baptismal interview we still had 2 lessons to teach him so we had to combine the 2. The Word of Wisdom and the Law of Chastity. When we told him about the Word of Wisdom and asked if he had any problems with any of those things he said, 'I used to always drink coffee but about a week ago I heard from a member that you guys don't drink Coffee or Tea so I haven't had it since I heard that. But it's good to know why!' I was seriously speechless. He will be a great leader in the church.

BAUTISMO de alberto! It was so special!

  Who is the most interesting person that you met this week? Yesterday we were contacting and we found a sister who was probably about 70 lying in her hammock. She said we could come in and share with her. She was SO funny. She assists (attends)  the evangelist Church and each time we would say something she would ask us a question then tell us how it was done in her church. (Which usually ended in a fun little evangelist song.) She LOVES to sing. But the whole lesson she was just singing and singing alabanzas. I left such a happy little soul!

  What did you learn from another missionary this week?  This week I did divisions with Hna Perez from Mexico. She has about 7 months in the mission and is a GREAT missionary. Something I learned from her is showing love to people but in quiet ways. She doesn't talk much and basically spent 90 percent of the day listening to me jabber on a million mile an hours. But the whole time she was so attentive and really listened to what I had to say. It made me feel so loved! I imagine that after a few hours of listening to me talk forever she was probably bored. She doesn't talk much but the whole day she was showing small acts of service to everyone we came in contact with. It helped me realize the importance to slow down and be quiet every once in a while, the spirit comes in a quiet whisper. It's harder to hear it when your running 1 million miles an hour and talking nonstop. I love Hna Perez!

What was the favorite lesson that you taught and how did you teach it?  We taught a cute couple this week about the plan of salvation.. I love to tell people that they can see people after this life.

Any cool Guatemala facts that you could share are always appreciated!  Hmmm..... One of my favorite parts of Guatemala is that no matter where you go, who it is, or what time of day it is, if you pass someone in the street you always say 'Buenos Dias! Buenas Tardes!' It is soooo cute! It makes you feel loved even if you do stop them after that and they don't want anything haha.

Do you have hot water, and what are you eating, and how is your health? We do not have hot water but once a month when we go to Coban I get hot water in the other STL's house. It's the best. Lately I have an obsession with fried platanos. Yum. My health is good! 

Love you all! Keep on keepin' on!

Hna Sorensen

Dinner this week was fried platanos and green mango with salt. Yummmm

Zone Conference

Heyoooooo

HEYOOOO;

Happy June to everyone! I am glad to hear that my dear little sister could make it through her journeys of high school and graduate as a Sky View Bobcat. What an honor. Also that Whitten is chubby and Mallory is basically a witch doctor. We love all those things in Guatemala.

This week was pretttttyyyy boring again but I will answer  your questions the best I can.

Questions of the week:  What was the miracle that you saw this week? Lately Hna. Gomez and I have been really focusing on finding new investigators. Elder Alonso promised us when he came that if we focused on this, we would see a huge change in the mission and we are already seeing that promised fulfilled. We had a few things happen this week where we weren’t able to work as much as we wanted to and on Friday we only had 2 new investigators.  Our goal was 10. So what do you do in a situation such as this? Pray your brains out obviously. We were definitely living with the promise of 'pray like it all depends onH, but work like it all depends on you.  Well, the night time came around on Friday anddddd, nothing. We still only had 2 new investigators for the week. All I can say is I know God hears and answers our prayers when we do our part. The last lesson of the day, we found a family of SIX! They were all so excited to listen! It was definitely a huge miracle from our Heavenly Father.

Tell me about your favorite investigator.My Favorite investigator is named Alberto. He will be getting baptized on Saturday (woot woot) I have never met someone like him before. He basically came to us in a reference with a list of questions and goes to church himself, reads, prays, listens, understands. He doesn’t depend on us at all! He just feels this gospel is true and acts accordingly.He is the greatest!

What experience allowed you to feel the spirit the most this week? This week I was reading a lot about Ammon and the sons of Mosiah. We always learn a lot about Ammon and how wonderful he was, and obviously he was as  missionary genius! But I was thinking a lot about the sons of Mosiah and the experiences they had. I can only imagine it was SO hard for them to go out to p´reach the gospel and get thrown in prison and beaten. They came to work, serve, and preach, I imagine it was so frustrating to be trapped in a jail cell not doing anything. But the scriptures say that they were always 'patient in their afflictions.' It was just another testimony builder of the importance for us to just trust in God and be patient with the plan that he has for us. Sometimes we are never going to understand why things happen but God does.

Favorite missionary moment? Favorite, and at the same time, least favorite missionary moment. When the  men try to greet you with a kiss and you just have to do a back-bend and push them off of you, and say 'I’m sorry, I’m a missionary' But really in your head you are thinking 'please dont touch me, sweaty fat man, I dont even know you.' It sucks in the moment but is always super funny to laugh about afterward!

I have been feeling a lot better! I was just tired cuz I think I was sick. Doing a lot better and drinking lots of gatorade and water like you told me mom.

LOVE YOU ALL!

Have a good week and may the odds be ever in your favor!

Hermana Sorensen

Happy Memorial Day!

Happy Memorial Day Everyone!

Hahaha your emails  never overwhelm me, mother! I love to hear from you!  From the pictures that mom sent, the kitchen looks so good! It will be good to have more space so the whole family can be together1 I am excited to see it when I get home!  Holy Beautiful! Nessa is like a stinkin adult... that is so bizarre to me. But she looks  so pretty! She is  pretty, a genius, professional and she has a good heart. We will party it up in college together.

This week I was sick for a few days so I don't have much to report haha. I think that's why I was feeling tired. Don't fret too much cuz' I am better now! I did get to go to Poptun again to do divisions with a sister and I saw some of the members there which was fun. We also put a baptismal date with one of our investigators named Alberto! WAHOOOOO!!!!! I am so excited. it even rained 2 days this week!

I love this work so much. The time is really starting to fly and I'm not really liking that very much.

I love you so much and thank you for praying and worrying about me!

Love you,

Lex  (Hermana Sorensen)

10 Things I Love About Me!

May 4, 2015

I love Hermana Gomez!

I am very sorry. I was a little bit of an emotional mess last week. Also as a missionary and when I'm writing you guys, I always struggle to find the line. My whole life right now is just listening to people's lives and trying to pull something out of thin air to help them. I have found it is really hard and I'm actually not that good at it cuz' my answer to everything is just... uh... pray. haha But that is ok cuz I am cute. But sorry if I gave you a little cincho. Emails are always a little awkward cuz I just can't really get my message across cuz I'm a spaz. You know me.   

So, Mom, since in our last exchange we talked about how we need to be positive about ourselves. . .aka, you mother need to be positive about yourself. . .  I like this request that I write10 things about me, and since you did it first, just let me tell you:

1. I am hilarious. #sorrynotsorry 2. my curly blonde hair. 3 I am always trying to better myself  4. I want to be like Christ, and even If I'm not always like Him, I have the desires, 5. I am a representative of Jesus Christ (MY FAVORITE) 6. I make people feel good whereever I am. 7. I have a strong testimony of this gospel and I show it through my actions. ( not my words cuz I struggle with that) 8. I'm a leader 9. I love my family 10. I am motivated.

That was fun. I liked it. Thank you mother. I think that is good to do. Everyone do it.  Also I will be using it because this week E. Alonso from the 70 is coming to talk to us as a mission and us alone as leaders. I know we will be getting a little burn from him... awkward. And I will probably feel like a poop missionary afterward. But also, more motivated to be better! After all he is a 70.

This week was good! Sad at first, but much better after Hna Gomez got here

Who did you serve this week and how? This week we went and chopped some grass for a little family. They were just sitting outside and the little boy had this big huge machete and was just going at it. He was probably about 5. It was so cute. He was just all bent over in his jeans which were WAY to big for him and his little booty was hanging out. Haha. So we asked them if we could help. At first they were hesitant, but after we convinced the,  cuz I told them I wanted to learn so I could do it in the U.S. (ps no.. its hard. Thank goodness for lawn mowers) 

Are you still visiting that man whose wife was in bed drinking from a bottle? Well sad news. His wife died and we went to go and visit him again. It was a really special lesson because we explained where his wife was and how happy she was. He was happy to hear it but also told us he couldn't stay here in Peten because everything reminded him of her. So he is now in the capitol. But we passed the reference there and hopefully the missionaries there are on the it.

How was your first week with the new companion? I LOVE HNA GOMEZ! She is teaching me a lot about the love for chiles. I will be a chili eating fool when I get home. WAHOO: And eat a lot of your hot horse radish mother. But we just laughed our brains out all week. She is super fiesty and just says what she wants which I love... kinda like grandpa Ray. But we balance each other out well and she is a very good missionary.

What is the favorite scripture of the week? This week I read about Abinidi. Heck I love that man! He spoke with such POWER. He really was so sure of himself and his mission. He was so focused on Christ and his mission that nothing else matters. I put some goals this week of how I can be more consecrated like him.

What made you laugh this week? We had a lesson this week with a sister named Maricruz. She just had her grandpa die and we were visiting her for the 1st time. Well we were just about to finish the lesson when her little boy (about 2) comes running in completely naked, sits down on the ground and just poops in the middle of the floor. The sister was SO embarrassed but I couldn;t stop laughing. Heck it was hilarious. It stunk so bad I couldn't even breathe... but it was funny. Like you said mom, We "Dearly love to laugh"!  BAHAHAHA.

All I can say Is, I love this work so much! We saw miracles and the clouds came this week! Not too hot! But it's back again today. Either way I was happy.

I am sad to hear about Josh Ringo I will keep his family in my prayers. He was a good kid and always made me laugh.

Thanks for the support! So excited to meet and hopefullhear baby Stephens on Sunday! Love you all! 

Hna Sorensen

We Love Peten!

My favorite part of the week was learning how to make empanadas. Like 3 times a week this Evangelist church is always selling these delicious empanadas from these cute old ladies. We are best friends and they love me. So one day one of them asked if I wanted to learn how to make them and last Saturday we went to her house and learned. Love sees no religion. haha

Also,  Hna Faught's last lesson with our favorite investigator,Jorge Mario. He bought us a whole pizza to say goodbye to her! But is was soooo funny because one of the members we brought said 'oh! That is so nice to buy to say goodbye to Hna Fuaght!' And he just says 'whos's Hna Faught?' He can't ever remember our English names!

Mom asked for my favorite scripture of the week, so I will answer all her questions, because I love her.  I loved 2 nefi 1 :15 this week  "But behold, the Lord hath redeemed my soul from hell; I have beheld his glory, and I am encircled about eternally in the arms of his love." I  realize what I sinner I am sometimes and God really has saved me from hell... how beautiful to think that we are always encircled in his arms.  Also, one day we went and taught one of our investigators about the restoration! She was so mesmerized and excited to hear that we have a prophet on the earth today!   This week we had interviews with Pres. and Hna Curtiss. We were talking about the attributes of Christ. (right now I am working on Charity.. no matter what happens I always find myself coming back to that one....) I just got started to thinking the only way we can ever really know our Savior is when we are not only studying about him and getting to know him, but really striving to be more like him. I can feel myself becoming nearer to him when I make changes in my life.

It is soooo hot, but we are dealing with it by putting on sunscreen and fanning  with folletos.... and walking in the shade.. haha  So you ask what was the best and worst thing that happened this week.  The worst thing that happened is this week, we were basically swimming we were sweating so much, but we did A LOT of contacting. Yesterday Jorge Mario was the only house we entered... even the members were gone. I felt sad that Hna Faught had to end her mission on a sad day like that.  To describe the last week with my dear Hermana Faught:  Really depressing. I was so ready for the week to be over. But sad a la vez because I knew I would miss her a lot!  So, I had a roughish week but also, always good! We did  lots of contacting and I was pretty anxious cuz I knew Tiana was getting home. Well that was fine, but today I had to say goodbye to Hna Faught and I just cried my eyeballs out! It was reeeaaalllyyy embarrasssing but I just am getting so sad of saying goodbye to people I love. And as the STL,  we had all these other sisters in our house for changes.   I just got them busy and started them playing janga while I went to the bathroom and cried cuz my heart hurt from missing Hna Faught, and Tiana and  you  and Liz and my sisters. Ugh. But I did what you said, and turned it around!  I prayed to stop looking at myself and serve all the cute missionaries in our little room and I taught them some games and we laughed and I just was happy to be in the moment! But it was sad for a second. But now I am good!

Hna Gomez from Mexico is my new companion and she was with Hna. Faught for 6 months.  She is SO CUTE! I am way stoked to be with her. Plus I will improve my Spanish!

 What are you looking forward to? Elder. Alonso from the Area Presidency is coming down to talk to our mission! I AM SO EXCITED! I know he will give this mission the motivation we need to see more success.

 How is the area and the apartment that you live in?  Area... hot... Apartment... small but I can't complain because we have a big fridge and I find myself frequently shoving my head in the freezer when we come home to fill up our waterbottles. We are renting a room so we have 2 room things next to us... I will have to take pictures. But one of the rooms is of our Dueno (Landlord) and he always sits out front with his shirt off and pants unzipped... whenever we have a problem and have to talk to him about it, he blames it on me....

One of the biggest problems I see with the sisters we help out is a lack of self confidence. It is pretty depressing. Here we have the cutest girls in the world! Just sharing the gospel but Satan is just so smart and always whispering things in there ear. It is hard because I know that it really prevents them from reaching their full potential

 Best advice for someone preparing for a mission?  BE OBEDIENT! Obedience brings blessings. No matter how stupid the rules may sound they are for your good and if you follow every single little one, you will see miracles.

Love you all!

Dearest family!

 This week, I not only had plenty of sunshine in a happy spiritual and funny way, but also a very literal sense. It's HOT FOLKS! The sun just attacks you. We had to go and sit down in the shade a few times this week for five minutes so that we didn't turn into roasted human beings. However, I am still alive and using sunscreen like nobody's business, so thank goodness for that invention.

This week we saw some pretty lovely miracles! First of all we had divisions on Tuesday, and I was reunited with Hna. Guerrero! We were very happy, but also we weren't having a very lucky day. We had an Hna. Come from the ward with us on some visits, and after contacting for an hour, she told us that there was a sister in the ward who is super, super sick. So we went to go visit her. It was sooo sad! The sister was just laid out on her bed when we got there and her husband was feeding her a bottle. Apparently she has a tumor or something on her brain and her body is just slowly giving out every day. Well,she can't talk so we just sang a hymn and then she fell asleep and we washed some dishes for her husband. After washing we started talking to the husband and it turns out he actually isn't a member of the church. He had attended a few times and felt the peace there, but it never really called his interest. Well, let me just explain to you, in the short hour we were there all he could talk about was how much he loved his sweet wife. We are talking the movie 'The Notebook' people. I HAVE FOUND ALLI AND NOAH! Haha!  But he was so cute! He says he prays for her so much! It was so exciting for us to be able to tell him a little about the Plan of Salvation. That God loves his children enough that we will see all of our loved ones beyond the grave. He was so excited and wants to know more! I just know that it wasn't coincidence that God sent us there exactly at this time in his life.

Today for P-day we went to some caves in Flores.... without a guide.. cuz' apparently we didn't want to pay for one. Well.. it was very dark and wet and muddy and we were climbing on our bellies and swinging on ropès and really just trying to find a way out cuz'. . . . . It was sketchy people. On the other hand, a giant adventure. We liked it alright.

Everyone remember to keep applying their general conference goals!

Happy 1 year mark to me! How weird is that!? 

Hna. Sorensen

Happy Easter Weekend! WOOT WOOT WOOT! I hope everyone was as spiritually fed as I was. I am dying thinking about waiting another 6 months but the last wait wasn't too awful, I guess it's alright when you are busy!  We watched General Conference in a room in the church with all the other English speakers, haha. I LOVED E. Bednar’s talk. I loved when he gave the example of Peter walking on the water. All he had to do was focus on Christ and he wouldn't have fallen. But he looked away for just one second. One TINY second and fell. How often are we looking at the world and not at Christ? Just that tiny second is what will bring us down. So I am putting goals of how I can stay 100 percent focused on my Savior.

You asked about where we serve and travel as sister leaders.  I think the farthest we travel usually is Poptun. It is 2 hours from here. This week we went to San Andres again though and it was 45 minutes. However these are nothing compared to the Coban trips we take for consilio, which are 6 hours! We left last Monday at 3 in the morning and came back on Tuesday. We traveled A LOT this week. But it is fine because Guatemala is BEAUTIFUL AND GREEN!  I get to see a lot of scenery.

So funniest moment of the week was our bus ride back from Coban. We have 8 of us on the bus; Hna Faught and I and the 4 Zone Leaders from Peten and the Bakes. Well, it was starting to get late and we were almost to Peten when one of the Elders starts to play the EFY music on his little Portable DVD Player. It was SO funny because all of us have heard these songs SO MANY TIMES on our missions and none of us even said anything, we all just started singing at the top of our lungs the EFY music. It was just funny cuz’ most of those elders are the serious Zone Leaders who are all business. But that's what happens when you are on a bus for 12 hours in 2 days!

This week we tried to share the gospel with EVERYBODY, and nobody at the same time haha. Semana Santa is a little crazy here and everyone just left to go to the beaches. The streets were dead. So we just found whoever we could and watched the “Gracias a que El Vive” video. Can I just tell you people if you haven’t watched it yet, DO IT NOW! It was such a cool experience. No matter who we found, we just pulled it out of our backpacks on our little portable DVD player. We watched it in doorways, in the street, porches, gardens, you name it! People let us borrow three minutes of their time. But every time we watched it, I would just watch their faces and get all excited because I could see that they felt the spirit! And I knew that that they were recognizing something. And then it is just funny because we ask if we can come back and they say “Nope, I’m Catholic, or Evangilist.”  And I just want to shout at them like 'Helllooooo i know you just felt something SO special!' Gosh dang that albedrio.... SO we did a lot of contacting but not a lot of work with our progressing investigators.

This week I did splits with Hna. Portillo from Hondorus. She is the cutest, shyest little girl! But it was SO funny! We just showed the video and laughed. We only do 24 hours splits so in the morning we took the bus back to San Andres.

Hermana Faught is doing great in her final weeks.  We are working hard. She is scared to go home and not happy that they talked so much about marriage in Conference. She is getting tired of running with slow me and has changed to doing the circuit workouts that Mally sent me the beginning of my mission... awkward. I am just working on my stretching because I can't touch my toes....

Celebrating Easter was interesting and very Catholic here.  Yesirreeee. I was going to send pictures buttt...#Guatprobzzzz. We saw a lot of the cool rug things they draw on the road! They get like... I don’t even know, sand or something and it is SO BEAUTIFUL! ?And then in the night is kinda scary because they carry this giant Jesus statue with a virgin Mary behind and swing incense and play scary Star Wars Music and everyone just follows behind like a parade. We watched for a little second when we were passing by, and it just made me sad to see Jesus up there dead. However, to each his own! It was a fun different cultural experience.

 IT IS GETTING SO HOT! But we are hot and happy. Also, fun little side story/comment. It is so hot here at night so we have our little fan on all night long, and then I freeze icepacks and put them all over my body to feel better.    –Kewl. . .  bye

Love you all! Have a good week!

Hermana Sorensen

I Am Guatemalan.

Me, thinking of my dear sister, Kenzy and her baby boy!

10 meses hoy!

Happy Valentines day!

Actually that was 2 days ago but Happy day anyways because there should always be a reason to be happy.

I had a loveeeelllyyy, very long weekm  here in Sta Elena/Coban because I didn't actually get home until Tuesday night from that blessed place. But all is good and I love it here! We are starting to get to know our area more and getting into the swing of teaching together.

 What is your favorite scripture lesson this week?

 Welllllll this week we were able to place a lot of Books of Mormon which was so great. One thing we realized was how the Book of Mormon literally is the key to everything it can help everyone. Or in the words of Hna  Faught, ´´The Book of Mormon can solve all problems... except world hunger... unless you eat the pages."  So on that note,  we made the decision to apply that lovely book to more of our investigators. But for reals, it was so fun to hear about people's problems and then explain the Book of Mormon to them and see how excited they were to read it. We found one lady for the first time, and she asked us where she could find one. I was the happiest little lady in the world to pull one out of my backpack. I felt like Santa Clause on Christmas. 

During my beautiful studies of studying all the references for each verse of the Book of Mormon this week,  I learned many things. But one thing I am learning from it that is interesting to me is how perfect the timing is for everything. I am learning what was going on at the same time in Jerusalem when Nephi was in the wilderness. I never had thought about it before.

Funniest moment of the week. . or hardest laughter?  Well,  it would be easier for me to tell you when we are not laughing because we laugh quite a lot. But.... I think that the funniest one this week happened on Thursday. We found this way cute lady to go and teach and it was our first lesson with her. She had this giant dog and I was trying to be friends with it and show the Hna we  were normal human beings. Well, we started the lesson and we were explaining all about our message when all of the sudden that giant dog started to get a little bit friendly with my leg. It was so awkward. So I just kinda kicked him away,  and started dying laughing and so did Hna Faught annnnnddd... it was funny. So she put the dog out after that... 

 Everything is lovely! I love it here! The people are so nice and we are all working hard. I love being with Hna Faught because she is way motivated to whip everyone into shape.... also me. Because she makes me go running every morning.and, as I mentioned last week, she runs like a gazelle. And I run like a turtle. So it is funny.

Our house has 3 rooms. The closet room with a little tiny bathroom, our kitchen/bedroom/study room, then we have the clean the dishes room, with a little bathroom and shower. So we both have our own shower and toilet which is nice, but it is very small. But I like it! Is it like the place in Los Campos?  I do not see too many cockroaches but we sure see a lot of mosquitoes!  

Love you all! Have a good week!