Monday, December 19, 2016

December 19, 2016

Hey Everyone! This week was a pretty good one!
On Wednesday It was our P day, so we went over to Salem because Elder Hess is getting transferred! We spent most of the day at a members house! This member was a pretty funny guy! He is 40 years old, and acts 19, so we had a ton of fun! When we got back to Sullivan we went over to a members house for dinner, and after dinner we played Canasta! That was pretty fun, and I will just say this my team SMOKED the other team! It was awesome! 
On Thursday It was a slow day! we stopped by a ton of people, but we had no luck Thursday! About the only good part about Thursday was that it was officially my 17 month mark! That is crazy that I am at 17 months! Time sure does go by so quick! 
On Friday we had a service where a company from St. Louis delivers food to that food pantry and then we have like a drive threw food pantry where people can get food! Well It was pretty cold, so we had all of it inside, and people just took a cart and took the food out to their cars and then brought the cart back! There was one part of it that was outside, and I ended up doing that part! I handed out dairy products as people were walking out! It was actually pretty fun! I got to wish almost everyone a merry Christmas! Well that night it got pretty cold, and there was a mist in the air, so there was ice everywhere! It made it kind of fun to drive lol! We played basketball with the youth for a while! We played inside the church, and in Sullivan there is not a big basketball gym! It is only as big as the free throw line, and then there is the big curtain that leads into the chapel! We always open those curtains to give us a little more room, and then put chalk boards in the way so that the ball wont go into the Chapel! One of the youth brought one of their non-member friends! We have played with him a bunch of times! He is there almost every time we play! His name is Derick! Well we played a pretty good joke on him! So the ball bounced under one of the chalk boards and into the chapel, so Derick ran and got it, but all of us started to "freak out" telling him that he cant be in there! It was so funny because he was so scared! We later told him that we were just kidding and that he could go into the Chapel, but he was so scared it was priceless! We also had the Ward Christmas party!  It was pretty fun! It wasnt anything to crazy! We just had dinner, and Santa came and visited! It was pretty fun! We played with the kids almost the whole time! 
On Saturday it was still way cold, and misty, so most of the roads were icy, but we made the trek out to St. Clair (15 miles away) because we had an appointment! It was with this lady who is about 75 years old! Her name is Joanne! She is super sweet! We taught her the Restoration! It went really good, and she committed to read the Book of Mormon every night! We went to dinner with a member and he took us to Applebees, and there was a couple that walked in that were on a date! They were all dressed up all nice! He was wearing a suit, and she was wearing a dress! Well about half way through he split his drink all over his suit, and it was funny, but I felt so bad for the pour guy! At about 8 president sent out a text telling us to park our cars because it was getting way icy! We actually didnt get the text until 9 so we drove for an hour before, but then it was time to go to the apartment any way! Well just as we walked into the apartment it started to snow! It didnt snow very much! maybe only half an inch, but it was awesome! 
On Sunday we wernt allowed to drive our car, and President Loveland told us that try and get rides from members to appointments, but dont go out walking, biking, or tracting! We got a ride to Church, and it was only a small Sacrament meeting, but the speakers did a way good job! Then after that we had to spend the day in the apartment because we didnt have appointments! It was a LONG day! We made it through and all is well now! we are able to use our car again!
Well that is about it for my week! I love and miss you all so much! Merry Christmas
Love Elder Sorensen 

Wednesday, December 14, 2016

December 14, 2016

Hey everyone! This week was a pretty good week! 
On Monday we went to Rolla, and we went to Wendys for lunch! We went and hung out with the Salem Elders and the Rolla Sisters! It was a pretty good day! We honestly didn't do to much! We just hung out, played basketball, and had a bunch of laughs! We ended up having Wendys for dinner as well, so that was kind of funny! After that the sisters asked us to come over to the YSAs FHE, so we went over there, and I am just going to be honest here! The ysa members there really made me not want to go to a ysa when I get home! They were all MAJOR GOOBERS! It was kind of funny, but defiantly something I wouldn't want to do every week lol! 
Tuesday was a very humbling day! So every month we have a certain number of miles we are allowed to drive in our car! Well last month we went quite a bit over our limit, so Tuesday Morning we got a call from President Loveland! He chastised me a little extensively, and in the end told me to park our car for the week! He also told us to not go over again, or he will take the car! So we walked most of the day Tuesday! We did service at the food pantry, and it was interesting they had us do something that we usually dont do we had to work in the freezer, so not only were we out walking in the cold, but we were working in the Freezer, so I think the Lord was really trying to teach me a lesson! We had to bike about 5 miles out to dinner in the cold as well, so it was really an interesting day!
On Wednesday we went out tracting! Again we were on foot, and again it was a pretty cold day! We were all bundled up though, so it wasn't to bad! We knocked into a super less active members house, so that was cool, but he didn't want to talk! We also tracted into this Weirdo! He let us in, but it was so weird he wouldn't turn on any lights besides this little tiny lamp, and he just keep saying like weird and creepy things! Needless to say we didn't stay very long! On the walk back to the apartment for the night we noticed that there was little flurrys flying around, so I got really excited, but not snow yet :(!
On Thursday we got a media referral which means someone got onto Mormon.org, and requested either a Book or Mormon or a Bible! Well this address said it was about a 30 minute drive for us! Now us not having a car asked a member to take us out there! We got out where we thought it was, and tried calling them because we couldn't find it! Well to make a long crazy story short They live in Texas, and their address is very similar to one here in Missouri, and I guess they didn't put a zip code, so it came to the one here! It was pretty funny to talk to that guy though because he was clearly black, and he was super funny! Also with this walking it made me really appreciate our car because a drive that takes under 10 minutes took us about an hour to walk, and that was hard! We had dinner at a members house, and they had Fried Chicken for us! It was pretty good, but they had it on a really nice serving platter! I asked them if it was a home made receipt and it turns out they got the chicken from a fast food place, and they tried to hide that they did, and it was super funny! 
On Friday we went out with a member to Owensville to go out, and try and contact all the less actives that live out there! On the way out there the member wanted us to try and teach his landlady, and he said we could come over, so we went to her house! She didn't answer her door, so the member was like lets just walk in! We are just sitting on some random persons couch waiting for something, well them some dude walks out of the bathroom, and at the angle of the hallway and stuff he could only see Elder Durrant and Me, so he was reaching in his pocket for something, and walking towards us! He saw the member, and recognized him! He was reaching for a gun that he thought he had, so he let the member know how dumb that was, and then told us that the lady we were looking for wanted us to come visit her at work! It was kind of crazy! Out in Owensville we didn't have a ton of success, but it was still pretty good! We had a ward party for dinner! We celebrated all the December birthdays in the ward, so yes Mine included! We ate at a Chinese buffet, and that is always a good time! After we played basketball with the youth, and it was a lot of fun! 
On Saturday we went out and cut wood! We did that all day! We did 3 trailer loads, and two truck loads full of wood, and then we delivered it to members who needed it! It was kind of crazy when we were cutting it this guy with a chainsaw was cutting this tree, and it fell wrong, and almost hit our Elders Quorum president! He was wearing a beanie, and it got so close that a branch hit his beanie and pulled it off, but he said that not one branch touched him, so that was really crazy! I dont know if any of you remember me talking about an Elder Bettinson when I was in Tahlequah, but he was in my District! One of his areas was Sullivan! He is home now, but he came and visited Sullivan on Saturday, so I was able to have dinner with him and his family, and that was kind of cool! At dinner there was this little kid there, and he didnt want to eat his dinner, but you know parents were making him eat! Well he was saying his tummy hurt, and all of a sudden he just puked everywhere! So hopefully there was a lesson learned there lol! 
On Sunday we went to Church! It was pretty normal week! I dont know if I told you guys this, but Elder Robert C Gay of the Seventy visited our mission on the 12th! So on Sunday we drove down to Springfield to spend the night because the conference started at 7 in the morning in Bentonville! So we got a ride to Rolla, and then got in the car with Salem,and drove down to Springfield! We spent the night with Elders Green, Roberts, Hess, Coley, Durrant and myself! Elders Wilcox and Roy were supposed to be there two, but there was a really bad car wreck, and they got stuck in the traffic after it, and was parcked on the Highway for 4 hours, so they got in at like 2 am! We had a ton of fun! I know why they dont let us do that very much! We stayed up way to late lol
On Monday we woke up at 4, so I got like 3 hours of sleep lol! We got on a bus, and rode to Bentonville! Elder Gay was really cool! He told us a lot of cool things! One thing he said really stood out to me! He said "The Spirit is ALWAYS talking! It is just a matter of if we are listing" The rest of what he said was really good as well! One of the best parts of the conference is that I got to see so many of Missionaries that I have really missed! Including Elder Naef and Elder Wilde who go home in 2 days! It was so much fun! President then made a crazy announcement! They are taking 3 of our zones, in the Tulsa are (including Tahlequah) and moving it into the Oklahoma City Mission! We keep all the missionaries, but loose the areas! Now this kind of jacks up our transfers, but ill explain that in a minute! After the Conference we got back on the bus and drove back to Springfield! When we got there it was 8pm, and because we had a two and a half hour drive home we decided to just spend the night in Springfield! 
Tuesday was a really boring day, but at night we got our transfer calls, and Elder Durrant and I are both staying, but we herd a rumor that it is only going to be a 3 week transfer, and then we will have another one! It is a 3 weeker, so we can line up our transfers with the Oklahoma City mission for the zone swap things! 
Well that is about it for me! This is my last week as a teenager, so that is kind of a crazy thought, but I Love and miss you all so much
Love Elder Sorensen​









Monday, December 5, 2016

December 5, 2016