2018-12-31: Last Week of Cambio/Transfers

This week was awesome!!

Christmas Eve was fun. We celebrated how Latinos do.. a big dinner the night of the 24th. It was fun, but I was pretty tired. Haha. It’s been a long time since I’ve stayed up super late. My comp made pollo de horno de naranjas (orange chicken). It was really good.

Me and E. Salinas in our Christmas ties.

Navidad was awesome. We got up and opened the presents I got in my package from home. We were going to do some service for a lady in our ward, but she wouldn’t respond to our phone calls so... hahaha. Then we went to Potosi to video call our families. That was super awesome. I miss them lots, and it was really fun talking with them.

Mièrcoles/Wednesday we had our district meeting in Potosi and then went back to Betanzos. We looked for a lot of past investigadores and several less active members and only found an investigator named Renaldo. He is super cool and seems pretty interested. He is also a shoe maker and makes really good abarcas/sandals that we are going to buy from him.

Talking to my family on Christmas.

Jueves/Thursday we went out to Tecoya and had several good lessons. We didn’t find any of our investigadores out there, but we had a few really good Noches de Hogar with two different member families. With one family we shared a message that I really like. So my mom sent me these little plastic rock things that glow and then glow brighter when you shine a flashlight on them. We shared how the rocks that are closer to the light are a lot brighter and can share that light with those who don’t have much light. So, Jesus Christ is that light, our hope, our Savior and when we are closer to him, we can obtain more light (like it says in Doctrina y Convenios 50:24). Once we have that light from Christ, we need to share it with all those around us. We also need to stay close to the light because if we make ourselves far away, we will lose that light until eventually, we have almost no light or brilliance. It’s a pretty cool lesson. I love teaching with examples or analogies because 1) I learn a lot more each time and see it from a different perspective each time we teach it and 2) the people understand easier. Well anyways, we ended up leaving the last cita/appointment a little after 9p so, no more cars were passing, and we had to walk home. Hahaha.

Viernes/Friday we again met with Renaldo, and it went really good. We planned to go out to Lagunillas, but we the familia (Flia Wallpa) said they were still working in their field. So we looked for a few less activos and had a good talk with a less activo familia (whose kids are recent converts) (Flia de Virigilio).

Sabado/Saturday we spent the morning getting stuff ready for the ward Christmas Actividad. I made a ton of cookies, and then we had planned a lot of minute-to-win-it games, and so we got stuff to do those games. The actividad went pretty good. Some games needed some help to get them going, and others games were super funny. It was a really good activity, and I think they enjoyed it. E' Salinas and I had fun planning and doing it. Afterwards, I made more cookies since we gave away all of the ones I made, and we didn’t get any. Hahaha. I love cookie dough soo much, so most of the ones I made after the activity I ended up putting in the freezer instead of the oven. Hahaha.

Domingo/Sunday was really awesome. We had 5 investigadores in church, so we were super duper happy. It was also the last Sunday of 3 hours of church soo... we only have to teach 1 hour of class and not 2, hahaha. It will also be a little easier to get investigadores to stay the full time. In the afternoon, we looked for the same less activos or investigadores and actually found a lot of them. We had a really good lesson with an investigador named Vernaldina. She has health problems and can’t go to church very easily, but she loves it when we come and share messages with her. (She also only speaks/understands Quechua, so it’s always a good practice and sometimes a little interesante talking with her, but I love it). We also met for a little bit with Renaldo and his family (who are all members but him). Later in the night, we made lasagna with our pensionista, and then we waited for our cambios/transfers. And, well, I’m staying here in Betanzos (which I’m super duper happy about), and my comp (E. Salinas) is going to Cochabamba to be a zone leader there, which is pretty awesome. My new comp is another Ecuadorian (E. Vergara). The other elders all say he is super awesome, so I’m pretty excited for this cambio. Plus, tomorrow I will start my missionary year (2019).  I’ve set some goals and am excited to get them done. I would encourage you guys to set some type of goals for this year and then go do them. Hahaha. Buenas Suerte!

Gracias por todo! Espero que tenían una feliz navidad y un próspero ano!! (Thanks for everything! I hope you had a happy Christmas and a prosperous year!!)

Les amo

Elder Sorensen

Sorensen.tanner@myldsmail.net

Me and E. Salinas with ???