Tanner Sorensen's LDS Mission in Bolivia and Colombia

Elder Burt, Elder Sorensen, & Elder Flores in Cali Colombia Mission WOOOO!!!! Well it’s been a long time since I´ve written. Sooo after leaving Bolivia, we spent a few days in Brazil in the MTC there, and then we flew to Bogotá Colombia. We were in the MTC there for a bit more than 2 weeks. It was pretty weird being in the MTC again, but our teacher, Hermano Paternina was super, super awesome. He really helped us to learn how to become better teachers and work smarter. If it wasn’t for him, I probably would’ve hated being in the MTC again. Hahaha. The 5th of December, the MTC president called us all into a meeting and told us we had gotten our visas and that we would be heading out to our new missions in like 2 hours. WOOOO!!! So we hurried and got packed and said goodbye to all the other elders who aren’t going to the same missions and then hopped on a plane.  Eight elders from the Bolivia Cochabamba Mission reassigned to the Cali Colombia Mi...

Hola hola!! This week was crazy. So much has changed. Ok, so Tuesday we weren’t allowed to leave our houses. Wednesday we were allowed to work in Pdays (casual) clothes. Elder Norton and I had an awesome day working. We worked hard and had several super good citas/lessons that day. We were super excited. Thursday, we thought we´d be able to work, but we had to stay home again. And then while we were at lunch, we got a call from the assistants telling us that all North Americans were getting taken out of the country. Man. That was awful. We were sooo sad and then angry, and sad. We weren’t allowed to tell anybody either. That was the hardest part. We weren’t allowed to tell anybody we were leaving, and we couldn’t say goodbye to anybody. That was tough. It was totally normal in Cochabamba. At least it seemed like that in my area. But watching the news and talking to people, the military was there in Cochabamba, and there were other people marching and doing blockades and ...

It's Me!--Elder Sorensen. How crazy is this? One of the missionaries here bought this sweatshirt at a second-hand store in Bolivia and brought it to  a meeting. I realized it's a sweatshirt from the high school my dad, mom, sister and lots of my aunts, uncles, and cousins graduated from in Washington. Hola hola!! How’s it going?? Our week out here in Bolivia was AWESOME!! One of the best in my mission for sure. We worked super hard and have been blessed to see lots of success. We´ve been working a lot more with members, especially the presidents of the church organizations. In each member house we focus on four things: 1) less active members, 2) part-member families, 3) people that used to talk with the missionaries but didn’t get baptized, and 4) friends and family who have never talked with missionaries. It’s awesome!! And we´ve been getting tons of references and awesome people to look for and visit. So this past week we looked for a ton of them, and the...

Well, this week was pretty awesome!! Things are still pretty crazy out here in Bolivia, but we were able to work all week pretty much normal. We aren’t really sure what’s going to happen with the government and all, but we were super happy to be able to work and help people. We worked super well this week. I really learned the importance of the Ven Sigueme (Come Follow Me) lessons. Before, I’ve studied them a little bit but not super much. This week, we worked a ton with members, trying to get more references and part member families to visit. The ward here is awesome and has been giving us tons of less active and part-member families to visit as well as old investigators. So each visit with members, we tried to share something from Ven Sigueme. So obviously we had to study it pretty well, and then we had some awesome conversations with members. I know the Bible is true, and we really need to study it more. Ven Sigueme is the perfect way to do so because it helps one stu...

Celebrating Elder Sorensen's 20th Birthday at Zone Meeting Well..... this week was pretty darn interesting. Basically the president of Bolivia got re-elected (or maybe cheated to do so), and so the people here are super, super angry. Sooooo it was a little crazy and some big mobs were rioting and fighting, so we had to stay in the house the entire week. It was a little boring. We studied a ton. We spent my birthday in the house, but my comp made pancakes so that was sweet. Saturday we were allowed to leave in the morning and buy a bunch of food for the coming week. We also had a quick zone meeting that was pretty fun. It was good to be out of the house. Sunday we only had a sacrament meeting. Everyone came in casual street clothes. Then we were allowed to leave the house in the afternoon and work like normal. I guess the angry people were taking a break. It was definitely a weird feeling though. You could totally tell something wasn’t right. We had several good app...

This week was pretty awesome. I love being a missionary, and I am learning tons! God is good. This week we had zone conference Tuesday. It was pretty awesome. President gave a good class about how the mission is a sacrifice, and we can’t receive all the blessings possible if we aren’t sacrificing everything. We are not here to have fun or enjoy our time here. We can do that at home. We are here to do what God wants and help each one of his children live closer to Him. Conference was awesome. This week we worked super hard. We have finally learned working with the members and less actives is way, way, way more effective than contacting. Most part-member families are already familiar with the church, and we are seeing a bunch have been prepared to be baptized. We spent time getting to know the bishop and then the presidents of some of the organizations, and then asking them about the people in their organization, the less actives they know and who we should visit. ...

The other day we walked by this garage and the door was open. As I walked by I realized there sat an old Mustang like I drove back home. My comp and I went to look and talk to them. They were working on a nice 1967 Mustang. We chatted for a bit about cars, religion, and stuff. I felt like my Grandpa Sorensen just walking into someone's garage and talking about cars. Haha. The guy started it up and let me sit in it and rev the engine. Sweet. The sister missionaries in our ward had a wedding and the baptisms of a couple. It was awesome. I baptized the guy (in Quechua). They are both from Potosi. The Wedding Elder Norton & I with the newly married couple With the sister missionaries With family and friends Last Monday we went hiking for pday. This is  the tallest mountain in Cochabamba c alled Tunari. Elder Norton & Elder Sorensen Elder Sorensen & Elder Bird Elder Sorensen near Tunari Our zone in Cochabamba--3 sets of elde...

Well... this week was pretty interesting. Martes/Tuesday was awesome. We had Leadership Council, and it was amazing. As a mission we did really well in the month of September. However, in our zone, we didn’t do too well. We worked really hard, but our numbers didn’t really show it. It was kind of sad. But President Montoya is awesome and really truly inspired from God. He shared John 16:32-33. And then John 17, and it was a super, super spiritual class. I felt the spirit super strong and a ton of the questions and things that are bugging me right now, I received answers and possible solutions for each one. God is good, and President Montoya is awesome. We also had several appointments in the afternoon that actually went super good. Miércoles/Wednesday was also pretty good. We had a few good appointments with recent converts and a few new investigators. We also visited with Veronica (who was planning to get baptized this last Saturday). Jueves/Thursday we worked reall...

Well, this week was pretty darn awesome. We worked super hard and as always, God does His part after we do ours. Well, martes/Tuesday we had meetings, and they went super, super good. We had like a council with the whole zone, and then we shared a few things on how we can become better missionaries, and it went super good. After lunch, we had a super good visit with Julieta (the daughter of Doña Filomena). We taught about the Book of Mormon, and she seemed super excited to read. Later we went out to Tiquipaya (another area in the zone). We went to a lady named Hilaria. She only understands and speaks Quechua. So, I taught her in Quechua. She really wants to get baptized, but she wants to learn a bit more before she gets baptized. It was super fun talking with her. I didn’t think I’d speak much Quechua in Cochabamba, but there is still a bit. That was awesome. Miércoles/Wednesday we had a pretty awesome day. We went with the zone to an old missionary house and cleaned it all o...

Hola hola!! This week was pretty awesome and full of little miracles. God is good, all the time. At Incachaca Ok so, martes/Tuesday we had a pretty interesting day. We had meetings in the morning, which went pretty good. After meetings we had lunch, and then we went to work. We had a pretty good visit with this lady named Doña Filomena; she is a super humble lady who works as a maid, housekeeper lady for some pretty rich people. She is awesome though and really wants to learn more about God. Later we went and looked for a few people, and we talked with Nelson, the husband of Salomé. Salomé is a super awesome investigator who really wants to get baptized. However, Nelson had heard some silly things that like “Mormon” means “door to hell” and told us that we are worshipping the devil. We tried to help him see the silliness in what he was saying, but he told us we need to study more because we have no idea what we are doing. So that was pretty disappointing. We tried visiting a ...