Tanner Sorensen's LDS Mission in Bolivia and Colombia

E. Puma (from Peru) and E. Sorensen 2019-04-29: Teaching God’s Word Hello!! This week was pretty good and passed super-duper fast. It always seems like just yesterday was pday. Hahaha. The weeks pass quickly. Well, ok so lunes/Monday night we got back to Betanzos from Potosi, and my comp wasn’t feeling too good. He was sick all day martes/Tuesday, so we didn’t do much that day--just lots of studying :) I really liked 2 Nephi 10:24 how it says we need to align ourselves with God instead of with other people, and then after we make that decision and take that action, then God will help us in the rest of our troubles and problems. I also love 2 Nephi 11:6. I am coming to recognize how much I love teaching people about the importance of Jesus Christ and His Atonement for us. I really feel the Spirit the strongest whenever I’m testifying or teaching about our Savior. Mièrcoles/Wednesday we had a super awesome day. We decided to contact (basically looking for new people to ...

Well this week was sweet. It passed super fast. Ok so, martes/Tuesday we spent most of the day at Daniel’s house. He’s a member. He told us to be there at 8am, so that’s when we got there. Well, we kind of just prepared stuff, not really much until like 10a, and then they gave us a plate of food (like rice, papas/potatoes and pollo/chicken). Then about 10:30a we actually started working. We had like 5 guys mixing (dumping water, rock, sand, and cement into the mix). Then 4 guys were passing it up to the roof in buckets, and then 5 guys spreading it and packing it and such on the roof. We worked nonstop until 2:30ish (when we finished). I was the one taking the buckets from the mixer and passing them up to a guy above me on scaffolding. I actually enjoyed doing real physical work, even though it wore me out. Then they brought us a soup, and then a plate of arroz/rice, papas and some meat, and another plate of salad stuff, more papas, and more meat. It was pretty good, but I cou...

Salt Flats: April 8, 2019 Well, it’s getting pretty cold over here. Sounds kind of funny, I know. We had a good week even with all the wind and rain and cold. Ok. Martes/Tuesday we had our district meeting in the morning and then got back to Betanzos and had lunch and went to work. In the evening we met with Virgilio and Remedios. Normally Virgilio (the boy) is happy and joking around the whole time, but this time he seemed kind of mad and like not himself. We tried to cheer him up or joke with him, but he was just quiet. Well, we continued with our plan to read Ether chapter 12, and after 20 or so versiculos/verses, he changed and was himself again. After, I was thinking how awesome the Book of Mormon is; it literally helps in every situation. I have really been learning about the importance of the Book of Mormon. (I’ll share a little more later.) While reading Ether 12 with Virgilio and Remedios, I really liked verse 41 that says, ''I would commend you to seek Jes...

Playing on a keyboard at a family's house. This week was super awesome!! Mostly the whole week we were just waiting for it to be Sabado/Saturday so we could watch General Conference. We stayed busy inviting literally everybody we could to come to the conference. Ok, martes/Tuesday we had a good district meeting about making our studies better. I figured I could probably do so, and this week was super cool because I studied a lot better. One day I was reading the Liahona with the talks from General Conference in October and read one by our prophet, Russell M Nelson. He said we sho uld read the Book of Mormon marking and looking for everything that talks about or refers to Christ. I decided I should do that, so I started reading the Book of Mormon in English every morning and night looking for teachings of Jesus Christ. I have realized again how amazing the Book of Mormon is and how awesome I feel every time I read it. Reading it in Quechua has been awesome, and I lear...

Well this week was pretty darn good. We had cambios/transfers last week, and I’m with Elder Puma (from Cusco, Peru). We worked really hard, and it was an awesome week. He speaks Quechua already so we are visiting a ton more people (that only speak Quechua), and it’s been pretty crazy and fun. Sometimes I understand everything, but other times, I don’t understand a darn thing. Hahaha. I think it’s just because some people talk faster or not as strict (like not following all the rules). But it’s helped a ton to have a comp who speaks it fluently. Left to Right: E. Bird, E. Vergara, E. Sorensen and E. Nieto. Ok so martes/Tuesday, I was with Elder Waldvogel (from Utah) most of the day while he waited for his companion to get here and while I waited for Elder Puma to get packed. We made it to Betanzos in the afternoon and had lunch and then went to the few citas/appointments we had. We were hoping to visit Max, but he wasn´t home and we ended up teaching his two younger siblings...

L to R: 1st Counselor in Betanzos bishopric, E. Sorensen, and Bishop. Well... this week was pretty crazy, like really weird. It was the last week of the cambio/(transfer or 6-week assignment), and we weren’t really sure what was going to happen. My comp (Elder Vergara) and I planned to contact a ton more than normal during the week to find a lot more new investigators. Well martes/Tuesday after our district meeting, our zone leaders called us to a different room and told us that President is thinking about closing Betanzos (as in taking out the missionaries so there are no missionaries). So that really killed us. We explained that it shouldn´t be closed and why. They told us they would talk to President and the assistants and let us know what they say. That really killed us. We made it back to Betanzos and had a good day with all our citas/appointments. Wednesday was goofy. We woke up and were talking about what will happen if they do close our area. We both felt it wa...

Well ... this was a super awesome week. It was a little crazy but amazing to see God´s hand in His work. Ok, so martes/Tuesday was pretty good. We had several good citas/appointments planned with really good investigadores, but they both cancelled. We did contact quite a bit and have tried to find more new people to teach. We found this girl named Eli. She seemed super interested as we explained about the Restoration and asked lots of questions (and knows the Bible pretty well). It was sweet to find and teach her. Later we visited Max (who is like super-duper awesome). We helped him with his Duty to God book for young mens. We also explained he can (and should) share the gospel with his family and invite them to church with him. We also made a cita to have a Noche de Hogar with his whole family. While we were teaching and visiting with him, it started raining pretty hard. Dang. Hahaha. Of course, we just laughed. We had literally nothing (jackets or umbrellas), because there we...