Elder Dana Sorensen, Madrid CCM

August 29, 2013

Hello family!

So great to hear from you! I guess I´ll just dive in with the highlights of my week:

Last p-day for our night devotional we listened to Elder Bednar´s "Character of Christ" talk. It's the "number one" talk for the MTC that missionaries always talk about. It was an answer to my prayers. I´ve been praying and studying on how I can become more humble. The idea behind Elder Bednar´s talk was that Christ´s very nature was to turn outward, especially in times of trial, whereas the natural man always turns inward. It was very inspiring, and I´ve been trying to turn outward more in my life and have definitely seen and felt a difference.

The days are going by faster and faster. It seems like all we do is sleep and eat, and I feel like p-day is every other day. Friday we had Domino´s Pizza for lunch. I never thought I could miss good pizza so much in my life. The event was President and Sister Sitterud´s 43rd Anniversary. It was the first time that we´d seen Sister Sitterud since her accident.

Last Saturday I had an amazing experience in the Park. This week I really tried to focus on trusting in the Lord, fearing no man, and being happy. I learned that those three things go hand in hand. Normally at the park we get waved off by just about everything we approach. However, this week we were able to have 3 or 4 20+ minute conversations right after another. Most of them weren´t super interested in our message, but were fun to talk to and get to know. We talked to one man, who just moved from Latin America a month ago with his wife and 6-month old son. He had never been approached by missionaries before and didn´t know what our church believed. We talked to him for half an hour, and he ate up everything we said. We gave him a Book of Mormon, taught him about the restoration, and got his number so that the missionaries in Madrid could meet with him. Going to the park each week has stopped being a dreaded thing and now it´s something I look forward to. It´s great to be able to have a taste of what my life will be like for the next 2 years.

At the Park

One thing I´ve thought about a lot is something a man said in the park last week. We started bearing our testimonies that we "knew" these things were true, and he stopped us and asked if I would be willing to put my hand in a fire over it. I´ve thought about it every day, and I've decided that even though I have momentary doubts (like I´m sure everyone does), I could never deny that I know that the gospel is true and that it will improve the lives of all those that receive it.

On Monday we had a morning devotional with President Sitterud. One thing he´s talked about a lot these last few weeks is how I am part of the largest missionary force to ever be working on the earth. He said that we will be the ones that figuratively turn Spain into a South America as far as missionary success. It´s very cool to be part of this big missionary push.

We´ve been teaching our two investigators a lot this week, and it has been going fairly well. One is committed to baptism, and we taught him the Word of Wisdom, Chastity, and Tithing, all of which he received well. We don´t teach him any more, but it was nice to have the experience of helping someone overcome smoking, and to teach about tithing.

The last two days I´ve been reading Jesus the Christ a lot. It´s a big book, and it´s written in language that can take a while to understand, but I can´t put it down. It´s so great to have the context and significance of the times explained so thoroughly for all the events in Jesus´s life that I´ve heard about since primary. I feel much closer to my Savior when I read it. From what I´ve read so far, I´d say that every member should read that book at least once.

Anyway, that´s been my week. We only have four days left! We get up early on Tuesday morning and get on a 8-hour train ride to Barcelona, and depending on how far away I am assigned from Barcelona, I could be in the apartment with my new companion by Tuesday night. At the rate these days are going by, it will seem like tomorrow. I´m very excited to become a "real" missionary.

I haven´t received the package yet, but it ought to be here this afternoon (I hope!). I´m looking forward to reading the girls' letters and eating some American candy =D.

Speaking of mowing lawns, I miss grass. There is almost no grass in Madrid, and the grass they do have looks like it's been dead for years. This morning we took pictures in front of the temple with the President and his wife (you´ll probably receive those soon), and the gardener was mowing a little strip of grass on the temple grounds (the only maintained grass in Madrid). The smell of fresh-mowed grass reminding me a lot of home.

I hope you all continue doing well. I pray for you every night.

-Élder Sorensen

P.S. One of our maestros here is named José Merchan. He´s the coolest guy I´ve ever met. I think he may have added me on Facebook (and possibly tagged some pictures from the classroom), so you might want to check that out.

I forgot to mention something: I want to share my favorite scripture of the week each time I email. This week I´ve really liked Romans 8:16-17. I love it because it´s very easy to understand, it makes a lot of sense, and the promise in the second verse is so great. I think it really applies to missionary work, where it talks about if we suffer with him, we will be glorified with him as well. So we will definitely suffer, but through that suffering comes our salvation.

Also, I´ve been writing A. in Spanish. It´s good practice. I recommended he read the Introduction to get a background, and he said that he read that and another part that you recommended. He said not to worry if I didn´t end up in his area, because he´s willing to travel to another part of Spain to see me. Hopefully the Mission President is all right with that. Did you give him a Book of Mormon in English or in Spanish?

Have you ever heard of BYU Vocal Point? I saw them live in Nauvoo (they´re a 9-part a-cappela choir). Elder Adamson really likes them, and he has their album of hymns on his iPod. We listen to them all the time in class, and they are amazing. I think you would really enjoy it. My favorites are Nearer my God to Thee, and Savior, Redeemer of my Soul. Might be worth checking out.

Also, I don´t think I´ve mentioned it in my emails buy my district is "the singing district". Everyone in our district sings pretty well, and we have full SATB. We sing lots of hymns in class and have done a couple musical numbers on Sundays/devotionals. We even did a musical number a couple Sundays ago on the steps outside the temple.

Haha, it´s funny what´s important in the minds of children. We just walked down to a little store to find that it was closed for siesta. I thought it would be awesome to have a siesta, but really all it does is make life super inconvenient in the MTC because whenever we have free time (including p-day), all the stores are closed from 2-5 in the afternoon.

I we (our district) are going to make brownies today with Hermano Merchan (who apparently hasn´t tagged on Facebook yet, but says he will). Some of the district is at a store buying brownie mix right now, so we´ll start as soon as they get back. It´ll be nice to eat something sweet.

In my last email I mentioned that my companion Elder Adamson´s best friend Elder Dallin Farrell is here. It´s great to have people I can talk to about specific people and places we knew back home. Anyway, Alan probably knows Elder Farrell because he was the LP Student body president, and did school announcements every morning. Elder Adamson was vice president. It´s funny because I have heritage tours pictures on my camera, and Elder Adamson knows more people in them than I do.