November 26, 2013

Elder Dana Sorensen -- 

This truly is the work of the Lord (or, Bishop Hadley is "mi chico")

This week is transfers. Surprisingly, all four of us in the piso are staying. Looks like I´m spending Christmas here (that's good, because I´m already friends with the members).

This week has seemed longer than usual. Not in a bad way. Lots of things are happening.

We've been teaching Estrella a lot. She´s the mom of Alejandro, our recent convert. This week we taught her the Word of Wisdom. She is giving up both smoking and drinking coffee. She´s already gone from 10 cigarettes every day to about 5, and from 5-6 cups of coffee every day to 3 decaf. It´s been incredible to see how much her life has changed for the better in the last few weeks. She seems happier, and looks brighter.

Alejandro, her son, is continuing strong. He just finished the Book of Mormon, and now he´s reading the New Testament, D&C, and Our Heritage all at the same time. He was just called as a ward missionary, so now he comes with us to a lot of appointments. He´s already bought the briefcase he wants to use when he leaves on his mission in a year.

This week we also met with Peter. We gave him the LDS edition King James Bible, and a DVD of bible videos. He told us that now that he has all the LDS standard works, he feels like a complete man. He´s planning on going to the temple in January with the ward.

We were passing by antiguos (former investigators) this week, and something incredible happened. We knocked on a door and asked if the man on the record was home. He doesn't live there anymore, but there are two chinos (chinese people) living there now. He was standing on the doorway, so we asked if we could share our message with him. He invited us in, and now we´re meeting twice a week. Growing up in china, he has no religious background whatsoever. But, he´s interested in the Bible and the life of Christ. That´s amazing. A chino interested in Christ. You need to understand, there´s probably one Chinese member in all of Valencia (and he´s probably inactive). Now we´re teaching him and his friend (who lives with him). There´s a member that lives in the same building that teaches him with us. It´s been a big miracle, especially since we've been praying to find new investigators.

I also had the chance on Sunday to meet Pilar Plumé. She was baptized in Valencia around 30 years ago by none other than Brother Hadley across the street. We didn't have a lot of time to talk, but she was very excited that I knew "mi chico".

I've been reading in Mormon and Ether in the Book of Mormon. It´s so amazing to me that even though I've read the book several times, I learn so much every time I sit down to read it. I don´t have a specific scripture for this week, but instead I want to point out how often the Book of Mormon talks about the Doctrine of Christ, that is, repentance and baptism. Every prophet in almost every chapter repeats that. It´s the very first thing Christ taught when he came to the Nephites. As a missionary, that means a lot more to me than it did before.

Thank you for your love and prayers. I wish I could share with you everything else I've been doing and learning. I see miracles every day. This truly is the work of the Lord.

Until next week,

Élder Sorensen

Answering questions

First, thanks for sharing your thoughts about that talk. I´ll be thinking about that a lot.

1. When I exercise, I usually do it with Elder Daines. We switch off every other day between Ab Ripper X and running up and down the stairs in the piso. (it´s easier than going outside).

2. We actually were invited to a Thanksgiving dinner with a young couple (who just had their first baby a few weeks ago) that just moved from England. They don´t celebrate Thanksgiving in England you say? Beats me. Food is food. =)

3. I've been meaning to email A. I just need to make enough time to email him (I usually run out of time).

This week the other elders went to eat with this old lady named E______. She's one of the first members in Valencia. She's also crazy. She makes you eat all the food there before you can leave. Then she sends you home with everything else. This is what she sent home with the other elders:

  That´s at least 6 bags of different types of Spanish Christmas cookies, a few loaves of bread, juice, chocolate bars, and about 25 pounds of oranges (that were picked the day before). Needless to say, we eat well in Valencia.

I´ll also send some pictures of the piso.

1. Living room/study room. We do daily studies on the table to the right (Elder Buttcane and I). Elder Buttcane and Elder Daines like to play card games every night before bed (as they´re doing in the picture).

2. Bedroom. My bed is under the window.

3. View from the bedroom window. (I´m in Spain!)