Buenos
Días, familia!
Things
are starting to pick up this week in our area.
This
week was stake conference. My companion served in Gandía (south of
Valencia) a year ago and so he was very excited to see people that he
had worked with at the conference.
Elder
Buttcane and I in piso
|
We
also had interviews this week. Presidente and Hermana Pace came down
and interviewed everyone on Friday, then participated in the
Stake Conference Saturday and Sunday. It was great to
get to know them better, and they both gave amazing talks about
missionary work on both Saturday and Sunday.
We've
been trying to work with the members this week. You'd think that the
first thing you do when you don´t have any investigators is go out
contacting, but that´s not how missionary work is anymore,
especially after the Work of Salvation Broadcast this summer.
Contacting has it´s place, but working with the members is much more
effective. (1/1000 doors knocked = baptism; 1/3 member referrals =
baptism). My companion is great about that. He has a vision for the
ward that will really accelerate missionary work. This is the plan:
Basically
we want the ward to be self-autonomous in its missionary work. The
Ward Mission Leader has a lot of responsibility in this. With
(ideally) 3-5 "companionships" of ward missionaries, the
Ward Mission Leader organizes everything and assigns families to the
ward missionaries. They go out and visit around 5 families a week,
sharing with them the ward mission plan and helping the members find
out how they can help, and who they know that could start taking
missionary lessons. Everyone reports once a week in a Correlation
meeting. The members are the missionaries. The full time missionaries
are there to help and encourage the members, and to help teach the
lessons.
Alejandro and his Dad from the baptism last week. |
My
companion basically blew my mind when he shared this with me. It
makes so much sense. If everything worked smoothly like that, we´d
be having upwards of 6+ baptisms a month in the ward.
So,
this week we've been visiting with members, getting lots of
referrals, talking to the ward mission leader and the bishop, trying
to set this all up. I'm super excited to see it start to take off.
I'm
very grateful for this opportunity to dedicate myself to the gospel
for 2 years. I've been learning a lot. Often when we visit members
and they are reluctant to share referrals, to participate in
missionary work, to do home teaching, etc. I think, "What are
you doing!? This isn´t a one-day a week church! Why isn´t everyone
focused on the church every day?". I'd get frustrated, but then
I realized that we do (or don't do) the same things in back in Utah.
I keep thinking about what you told me a couple weeks ago that
President Packer said, "You people in Alpine are so good, I
can't understand why you aren't better". That confused me at
first, but now I understand it better. We as members need to actively
participate in the work, not sit passively and just do what we´re
told to do. Anyway, that´s what´s been on my mind lately.
This
week I read a scripture I really liked in Alma 37:38-46. Alma is
teaching his son, and compares the Liahona and the physical course of
Lehi and his family through the desert to the spiritual course we
travel through this life. I swear I've never seen those verses before
in the Book of Mormon, but they really impacted this time I read it.
Thank
you for all your support, prayers, etc. I'm really enjoying my
mission and the days are flying by faster and faster. Keep strong in
the faith and have fun!
-Élder
Sorensen
Questions answering time
...
1.
My companion is from Tehachapi California. He´s been here for a
year and a half. He´s served 6 months in every area so far, so he
expects to end his mission here.
2.
I'm glad that Elder Buttcane likes cleaning, because my last
companion didn't =D. Just before Elder Buttcane arrived I cleaned
most of the piso (living room, kitchen, bathroom, bedroom) because
they were filthy. With Elder Buttcane we've been doing the fridge,
laundry room, shelves, etc. as well as sorting all the records from
the last 6 years. I'll send pictures next week.
3.
Spanish is coming. I can speak pretty well, and I'm getting used to
conjugating quickly. I need to learn more vocab though. It´s still
hard for me to understand sometimes. People from Spain mumble and
talk very fast, but I can understand south-americans much better.
If I concentrate hard enough I can generally understand what
anyone´s saying (the general meaning, at least). Sometimes I
understand every word, sometimes not a single one. It's very
different than how I thought learning a new language would be.
4.
Many Nigerians speak only English (And Pidgin, and a little Spanish
they pick up while living here). Last week we started
a separate Sunday school class for English speakers.
5.
We're in piso for up to 8 hours a day (eating,
studying, exercising, making calls, etc.), and sometimes we go
to eating visits together, so we interact a lot with the other
elders.
Now
I'm out of time.
Thanks
for all the pictures!
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