2018-10-29: Weeks Get Better

I have the same birthday as
my sister and my grandpa.
Happy Birthday!

This week was super duper awesome!! Well, martes/Tuesday, we did the usual morning routine, and then we talked a little bit and I said I really want to be doing more. I suggested let’s try to find more people to teach this week, and then we set a goal to find 10 new investigadores!! I was super excited and knew it could be done. Well, we had some good citas/appointments scheduled but they all called and canceled so we decided to go to this area called Cantumarca. We'd never gone out there since it’s pretty far away. I was determined to contact everyone. Eventually, we were both super happy and working together, talking to literally everyone. We contacted soooo many people and gave away folletos/brochures and Libros de Mormón until we had no more. We found 7 new investigadores that day!! So that was super duper awesome!! My comp was pretty surprised, and I was super happy.

Miercoles/Wednesday we spent the whole afternoon helping our pensionista at the mercado/market. Then we went to Noche Misional/Mission Night. My comp and I planned to take turns teaching the lesson and doing the game. So I taught the lesson that day. I was going to do the lesson on balance between spiritual and other things (with the rocks and sand and such), but not many people showed up so I just shared Mosiah 24 and explained how there are sooo many lessons we can learn from the stories in el Libro de Mormón. It went pretty good and after my comp said he could understand it all, and so I hope my broken Spanish didn’t ruin the Spirit. After that we played basketball with some miembros and their goofy rules hahaha, but it was still fun.

Jueves/Thursday I got up and made panqueques/pancakes and tried to color them (like my Grandpa Sorensen does), but I didn’t have food coloring so I used protein powder. Hahaha. We went back out to Cantumarca that afternoon and met and taught several of the people we found martes/Tuesday. It was awesome because several had already started reading the Libro de Mormón and had questions so it was super sweet!! We also found a pretty interested family, and the mom only speaks Quechua. She doesn’t know any Spanish, so I determined I have to learn Quechua to help everyone. We told her daughter we could bring a Mormonpa Libronmanta for her, and she was super excited. That evening we visited a miembro family for a bit and then around 8:30 went and played games at some other elders’ house. It didn’t really feel like a birthday, but I didn’t really mind. I’ve never been a big birthday person. Hahaha.

Viernes/Friday we had our zone meeting, and I got the package my family sent and also a book to learn Quechua. So those two were like my birthday presents. After the meeting we did intercambios/exchanges and Elder Baros and I stayed here in Potosí (instead of going to Betanzos). We had good citas/appointments again but they again canceled (it was the same people). So we went back out to Cantumarca and the area past it. And again had awesome experiences. We talked to everybody and found this super, super awesome family that says they are looking for the right way back to God. They had tons of questions about what other churches say, and we answered and taught them and then we had the hermano say the closing prayer and the Spirit was sooooo sooo strong because he was open, and very, very sincere. I know Heavenly Father listens to our prayers, and they can be extremely spiritual moments in our lives if use our prayers to personally talk to our Father in Heaven. After, we went to a miembros and shared a little bit with a 17 yr old girl who isn’t a miembro but wants to be, but her dad won’t let her until she is 18. So we encouraged her to continue reading and praying every day. It was pretty spiritual. (Side note: I also got bit by a dog while we were walking home. Hahaha.) The dogs here are pretty annoying.

Sabado/Saturday we ended intercambios/exchanges, and then in the afternoon we looked for a few contacts we had received and then contacted for a while. We didn’t have much success, but we were both pretty happy. (I think because we were working and trying to find people).

Domingo/Sunday we really didn’t do much at all, but I got a lot of study time in and learned lots of Quechua. I’ve been studying from the book since the day I got it, and my goal is to be fluent before July.

Today we played Walea (Wally) it’s like voleibol in a racketball court, and you play off the side walls. It was pretty fun. That’s about all for this week.

We passed our goal for new investigadores, so we were pretty happy. We set a goal to either have 10 at church or 10 with a baptismal date, plus 10 new investigadores. So I’m super excited for this next week. I love being a missionary and talking to everyone. I love sharing the happiness the gospel has brought me in my life. Love you guys! Thanks for all the birthday wishes!

Elder Sorensen