Elder Dana Sorensen -- Hello from Valencia!

September 9, 2013

What a crazy week! 

So we left Tuesday morning and rode by train to the Mission Home in Barcelona. The train ride only took 2.5 hours, and it was awesome to see all the countryside of Spain flying by at 300km/h.

There were 43 new missionaries in Barcelona, the biggest group ever, so it took two days to get everyone´s residency paperwork done. We stayed in a hotel on Tuesday and Wednesday nights. During those days we had temporary companions that we went out street contacting with in the afternoons. It´s tiring but satisfying work!

Thursday afternoon we all gathered to find out where and who we were going to be serving with. I was the first one called, and I´m serving in Valencia with Élder Pérez (native Spanish speaker from Chile)! Valencia is a pretty big city on the Mediterranean coast of Spain, further south that Madrid. It´s hot and humid, but I´m getting used to it.

Anyway, I met with Élder Pérez and we left immediately for a 3 hour train ride to Valencia.

Valencia, Spain

 Valencia is amazing! Élder Pérez is the best trainer (and I know that for a fact because I´m his fourth trainee). He´s been in Valencia for 6 months, and knows everybody really well. The members are amazing and help so much with the investigators. This is the only part of the Barcelona mission (that I know of) where we get fed by members every single day. This is the area where everyone gains 20 pounds.

Elder Sorensen and his new companion

The city is great, the people are amazing, the members are awesome, and Élder Pérez is the best! I learn so much every day by following his example. He´s very supportive and helpful, and he loves learning English, so we both learn a lot from each other.

A couple cool things I´ve experienced here in Valencia:

The second day we went on splits with members of the Elder´s Quorum. I was with Wisdom, a recent convert from Nigeria (who fortunately speaks English, though with a very thick accent). We went and visited his friend Peter (who is also from Africa), and Peter is very excited to learn about the Gospel. He came to church with us on Sundayand felt the spirit. We are going to visit with him tonight to start teaching him. It´s great to find people and see them start progressing as they feel the spirit.

We attended a baptism that some of the other Elders had here in Valencia. Apparently they're weekly occurrences. I was able to play the piano for it, and the spirit was so strong.

We visited a family that Élder Pérez has been teaching, and we challenged them to be baptized. They accepted! Unfortunately, I can´t understand hardly anything that they say, because they talk so fast. Even Élder Pérez, from Chile, says he can´t understand them sometimes because they talk so fast. Anyway, we challenged them to baptism, and they have some things to work out before that can happen, but it´s been a miracle to see a family accept the gospel because they want more peace in their home.

I´ve had a couple "Why am I here?" moments here in Valencia, but they´re always followed by "This is why I´m here" moments, such as when I was able to testify to Peter of the restored gospel, or play the piano at the baptism when the spirit was so strong. I´m already having the time of my life.

I feel so blessed to be able to share the gospel in Spain with some of the best people I´ve ever met. I can already tell this is going to be the best two years of my life.

-Élder Sorensen

P.S. Attached are some photos from Barcelona. It´s the view of the city from the top of a thousand-year old castle atop the tallest hill in Barcelona. Also a photo of me with Élder Pérez from this morning as we were leaving for preparation day. I don´t have any good photos of Valencia yet, but you can just google those!

Barcelona from the highest hill

Mom googled Valencia:  Looks like he just missed the annual world's largest food fight (La Tomatina) by a week.  It's an interesting city!