Tanner Sorensen's LDS Mission in Bolivia and Colombia

HOLA! This week was pretty awesome! Life is still pretty normal here. We are working really well. This week we had several really awesome Family Home Evenings with the members here. They are awesome and in each lesson, a new friend or family member was there. Through that, we were blessed to find several awesome new investigators. No church is always pretty tough in the mission because it’s the easiest way to measure an investigators desire and commitment. And it’s a big step towards baptism. We still have several awesome investigators close to baptism, and we are praying that no church won’t affect them.  We found a pretty cool family this week. The dad is very interested and asks lots of questions. The mom is interested but has a very different way of thinking about things. I learned two lessons from them. Number 1: the dad said he has always wanted to talk with the Mormons and that he has worked with Mormons, but nobody ever approached him. For me as a missionary, thi...

Hola, Hola!! This week was pretty awesome. A few ups and downs, but that’s how life goes right. We found a lot of really good, new investigators this week.  We found this lady Yackilina and her husband Rovilson. It was an awesome contact, and then when we went back for the appointment, we talked a bit about the life and the need for Jesus Christ and the gospel. It was an awesome lesson and at the end she told us that she has lots of dreams and recently she had a dream that she didn’t understand very well, but she said “everything you just said has helped me soo much, I understand so much more now. I’ve been praying God would help me to understand.” WOW!! We had several awesome citas/appointments with our investigators that are progressing towards baptism. We had a good cita with Rainir. He is awesome. He is struggling a little with work and unfair treatment and pay (‘cuz they’re from Venezuela). But he never forgets God and keeps reading the Book of Mormon and prayin...

Hellos!! THIS WEEK WAS AWESOME!!! Hahaha. We worked super hard and are seeing lots of progress. Attitude is everything in the mission. A good attitude and hard work will always bring good results. GOD IS GOOD.  We have several awesome people preparing to be baptized soon.  Nicol (13 years old) is going to get baptized this Saturday. She’s incredibly smart and is really taking this seriously. She is sooo ready to be baptized. We had a really good talk, telling her to be nicer to her mom, because that’s what Christ would do and if she wants to get baptized she needs to be more Christlike. She understood :) and took it really well. She’s very mature. Mucha nicol (an expression that means “way to go” “you’re awesome”). Rainir is a baller. He’s an industrial engineer and very smart. He’s planning to get baptized the 21st. He just wants an answer from God to be sure. He’s reading and praying every day. GOLD! He’s awesome. We found this lady named Alba...

New missionaries with their trainers with President and Sister Whitesides. HELLO!!! This week was pretty crazy and super awesome!! Last week we had transfers. So I spent Monday and Tuesday with Elder Norton. (He was my comp when we were in Bolivia. Now we are in the same zone, and we are both training.) We worked super hard together, and we had some awesome lessons. We were both super happy to finally have a good comp and lessons that flow well. It was awesome. Wednesday we went to Cali to receive our new comps. They are brand new, fresh out of the MTC. And turns out... we are both training two new elders. So now I’m with Elder Ortigoza from Guatemala (from San Felipe) and Elder Ferreira, from Cartagena, Colombia. Elder Ferreira is going to the Ecuador Quito Mission, but he doesn’t have his visa yet so he will be here for a while. We don’t know how long.  They are both awesome missionaries and super excited to work hard. We got back to Cerrito Wednesday night.  ...

Hernando & Karol's baptism by Hernando's son (& Karol's dad, who is also the 2nd counselor in the bishopric) with Elders Sorensen & Flores. Hello everyone! How was your week? Our week out here was AWESOME!! Like always, we worked crazy good and we are starting to see A FEW of the fruits. A few awesome people we found this week and several awesome others that are progressing really well. God is good.  This week we had the baptism of Hernando (the father of our 1st counselor) and Karol (the son of the 1st counselor). They are an awesome family. The rest of the family is progressing pretty well. One lady really likes the Pentecostal church, but the Book of Mormon has lots of power. ;)  We found several awesome Venezuelans this week. Rainier (this guy we found last week) is AWESOME. We had several appointments with him this week, and he came to the baptism on Saturday. He is progressing and reading the Book of Mormon a lot and looking for the truth. We...

Elder Sorensen - Sunday lunch at his pensionista's house HEY! How’s it going?! This week was pretty AWESOME! We worked super good and found a bunch of awesome, awesome people. Things are getting better. God is good. We had interviews with President and a class from the assistants. Something that really stuck out to me is that Jesus is the center of EVERYTHING. I learned that we need to make sure this is clear as missionaries. But I think it applies to everyone. Elder Holland gave an awesome talk in October 2019 General Conference that explains it really well. A few new awesome people that are really starting to progress. We found this super awesome family a few weeks ago, and they are really starting to take this seriously. The dad is named Demetrio, and his wife is Ana Maria and their three young kids. We´ve taught them a few times, but this week, while explaining better the importance of the Book of Mormon, the Spirit was super strong in the lesson, and we were able...

Elder Flores, Elder Sorensen, y Elder Ypushima Hola hola!! This week was pretty good :) Still working good and finally starting to find a lot more and better people to teach.  A few good investigators we found:  We found a lady named Lady (haha) and her boyfriend Daniel. They go to a different church but are super interested. They had tons of questions and really want to learn about what we teach. While teaching them, Daniel read 2 entire pamphlets and the whole introduction to the Book of Mormon!!! WOW!! He began asking tons of really good questions. They are awesome. Another lady we found is named Jennifer Lopez. Hahahaha, en serio (Seriously!). She also goes to a different church but really wanted to learn more, especially what doctrines the church is founded in. We had an awesome lesson with her, and she really wants to find the truth.  Also a lady named Erlinda, who was waiting for us when we went back to her house for the appointment. She is a teache...

My companions: Elder Flores and Elder Ypushima HEY!! This week was pretty darn awesome. This scripture basically explains how I’ve been feeling. Proverbios 23:35 “They have stricken me, shalt thou say, and I was not sick; they have beaten me, and I felt it not: when shall I awake? I will seek it yet again.” Getting kicked out of Bolivia really sucked. Being split up from all the guys I know sucked. Being in a new mission has sucked. Being in a trio sucked. Getting my area split and all the good investigators taken away sucked. Working with two difficult companions has sucked. It seems like all of a sudden hells gates opened right up and things keep going from bad to worse to just ridiculous. I’ve never been much of a complainer, and I’m not complaining right now, just trying to explain how I’ve been feeling. I’ve been split from everything until it’s literally just myself and my testimony. MAN. It’s exactly like wrestling, like lifting weights, like everything I love to do,...

Hola, hola everyone!! This last week was pretty awesome. We worked pretty well, and we are starting to see some progress. We found a TON of new investigators but very few seem really interested or willing to act. However we will keep working with them.  The branch here in Cerrito is awesome. The leaders are very active, visiting less-active members and sharing the gospel. This helps a ton in the missionary work. We were able to meet with several member families and get to know more members and also nonmembers. God is good.  We didn’t have many investigators in church on Sunday, which really hurts. This is God’s work though, and He is leading us. We are working hard, but the big successes are coming slowly. By small and simple things God works miracles. This week was full of small and simple lessons and actions that hopefully are working together to make something bigger. Les amo! Elder Sorensen

Elder Flores, Burt & Elder Sorensen (companions before this transfer) Well, this week was pretty good and a little rough. So, for the cambios/transfers, they split Cerrito into two areas. Last cambio we had worked a lot more in the other area, and so now we really don’t have many progressing investigators in my area. Dang, it’s been tough to not work with and help all those awesome people. We have also been contacting and working hard but not seeing much success yet. We are basically starting from nothing. We did see several miracles though. We spent most of the week looking for old investigators or less active members, and we were blessed to find several people that used to be investigators a long time ago. This is God’s work, and He is preparing people in front of us. This week I learned that God gives us challenges and weaknesses to make us be humble. When we truly humble ourselves and do His will with all our heart, He will make our weaknesses become ...

BBQ'ing plantains Hola, hola!! HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! This week for us was pretty awesome. It was a little goofy with the holiday and all, but we made the best of it.  The beginning of the week was a little rough. Lunes (Monday) we found ANOTHER super awesome Venezuelan family. They had talked with the missionaries before (here in Cerrito) but had gone back to Venezuela and had just gotten back to Cerrito. We had an awesome lesson with them about how God only has one way to get back to Him. Martes (Tuesday) and Miércoles (Wednesday) were the toughest. Martes here they have like a full-on party. The entire day they are having a giant water fight, water balloons, water guns, foam, paint, flour--you name it, they were throwing it. Hahaha. It was awesome. We somehow made it through the day without getting attacked. ha-ha. We greeted New Year’s dead asleep, ha-ha, until all the fireworks went off.  The rest of the week was awesome. We had tons of really good ci...

Elder Sorensen, Flores, & Burt This week was AWESOME!! We worked super hard and effectively and saw TONS of success and progress. We have a TON of investigators progressing, and we are finding lots of new people.  Monday night we had an awesome lesson with a different Venezuelan family. Their names are Pedro and Pricila, and they have 3 kids, and she is pregnant. They are super, super poor and are working selling little candies in the streets. We brought them a cake and sodas because it was Pricila’s birthday :) We had a great lesson with them, and they are super interested to learn more about God and how to follow Him more, because they have gone through soo much and they know how much He has been helping them.  Christmas Lunch with the Venezuelans Tuesday (Christmas Eve) we didn’t do too much. We had lunch with an investigator and family and then dinner with a big member family. Christmas Day (miercoles) we prepared a lunch for all the V...