November 11, 2013
Happy Birthday April and Kellie!

(My companion Elder Buttcane says happy birthday too!) It´s great to hear from you all. Thank you for all the pictures.

I´ll just start off with what´s been going on this week.

Last preparation day we went to Xátiva (pronounced CHAT-eeva), a small pueblo built around a castle on a mountain. It's about an hour train ride from Valencia. The castle there is still very intact, and it was very fun to explore.

We´ve been meeting with Alejandro, our recent convert. He is such a spiritual giant. He finished the Book of Mormon this week (he was baptized only a few weeks ago). This week he was called to be a Ward Missionary. He is so excited because he wants to serve a full-time mission next year.

Alejandro´s mother has never wanted anything to do with the church, but after she attended her son´s baptism and has seen the change in his life (he´s always telling her about the things he´s learning), she is now interested as well. She is reading the Book of Mormon and meeting with us.

We´ve been passing by a menos activo that has cancer (that´s why he can´t come to church). We gifted him a big Book of Mormon (with bigger words) so that he can read it more easily. He loves it when we stop by, because most of the time he sits in his house with nothing to do.

This week the other elders in our piso had two baptisms. One of them was an investigator that I was teaching before we changed the area. It´s been so great to see the changes she´s made in her life to get to this point. It´s also encouraging to see how far the effects of our missionary work go, even if we think we´re not accomplishing anything (she was taught by missionaries 7 years ago, rejected the message, but contacted the missionaries again after seeing them in the street a few months ago.)

Yesterday, Sunday, we had a ward activity to go visit the less actives. We all met after church, split into groups, and went out to visit people that didn´t come to church. Elder Buttcane and I drove with some members to La Coma, a ghetto area that you don´t want to be in when the sun goes down. We visited a recent convert that´s been living with a member (both less active). Serendipitously, the recent convert had two friends over. We taught them all (with the 3 ward members that were with us), and we will be visiting with them all again next week. We´re going to start doing this rescuing activity frequently, probably every other week.

One thing that I´ve been focusing on this week is prayer. I´ve found that as I consistently say little prayers throughout the day and keep in contact with the Spirit, that I am much happier and that I´m able to recognize more of the many miracles that we encounter every day.

This week I´ve been reading in the end of Helaman. One scripture that I´ve thought about a lot is Helaman16:13-23. The signs of Christ´s birth start happening all over the land. You´d think that the people would be easily converted with all the signs and miracles, but according to the scriptures only the most faithful were strengthened by them. The rest, instead of coming closer to Christ, hardened their hearts. The same people that always said, "Show us a sign and we will believe", still rejected them. What I´ve learned is that a testimony of the Gospel comes not from signs and miracles, but through personal study and prayer.

I´m out of time now. Thank you for your prayers and support. I know that this is the Lord´s work. I´m am so very grateful for the opportunity I have to dedicate myself to that work.

I´ll be praying for you,

-Élder Sorensen