June 23, 2010 Update

Hello,

Well, I just wanna start of with a funny story. We taught an investigator about the Plan of Salvation, and he said, “Well, what about hell? I cannot accept this message if there is no hell.” So, I pulled out my picture of Calvin burning his butt off in hell, and I explained it to him. I said, “Only a few people like Cain and Judas go here because they had a perfect knowledge.” He replied, “Why does Judas go there? He repented. That’s why he hung himself. That’s what they teach in our church.” Well, he doesn’t believe in his church anymore because 2 20 year-old boys came over and taught him something that his pretty pastor knows nothing about. It felt good. Daniel, the investigator, is going to become a member soon. He is excited to see what else he doesn’t know because his former church did not have all of the plain and precious parts of the gospel.

On Sunday night I had an awesome, eye-opening, experience. We had a bunch on members lined up to come with us and meet our investigators. Well, everything blew up in our face and we were unable to meet with anyone. We decided that since our week was pretty successful thus far we would go a visit some less actives and some recent converts. The less active family that we visited was amazing. They told us all about how they were treated poorly and how the district president thought that the daughter was going with a married man. But, they said that they would come back to church if they could speak with the district president and he would say sorry. So we set it up and hopefully everything will go well. The daughter Preetha is 23 and just needed to cry. She loves the Church and the gospel, but her mom won’t let her go to church because of this incident. The mom only speaks Telugu and I think she likes us so much because we can speak Telugu.

The recent convert that we visited was Timothy. I really wanted to watch the Finding Faith in Christ DVD, so we did. Timothy broke down and told us about all these problems he is facing. He got a new job and is sad because he cannot come on exchanges with the Elders. He talked about how it’s difficult being the only member in his family and how he needed the DVD to help him stay positive. It was a touching appointment. That night I realized, not that I hadn’t before, how much Heavenly Father’s plan is more important than mine. He needed those people to be taught, and He sent us. I was grateful that my attitude about the night changed when I prayed at night, “Not my will, but Thine be done.”

I love being a missionary. It’s been the greatest experience ever. I know that this is God’s true church, and that the Book of Mormon is true and that it was translated by the gift and power of God. Hugs and kisses from Bangalore!

Love,
Elder Sorensen

The forty-third week...

Logan got a new companion this week - Elder Cunningham. He's also from Texas and played football too!

The forty-first week...

The fortieth week...

The thirty-ninth week

Sorry folks! It's been a long time since we've posted anything. Life has been a little crazy round here! I figured since I couldn't sleep this morning that I would post some pictures from the past month. When I have some more time this week, I will post the emails and updates that accompany the pics.

The thirty-eighth week...

The thirty-seventh week...

The thirty-sixth week...

The branch had a missionary leave this week. He is going to be serving in the India Bangalore Mission. That is the majority of the pictures from the this week.

All the native elders we have are from the India Bangalore mission. They just can't serve in their home city.

Illness and Special Fast
We all told Logan about the special fast we were planning to participate in. As y'all know he has been sick.

I heard about the fast. It's really cool. I was very excited.

His thoughts on the illness:
If you know what movie this is from I will be very impressed -

"Hang in there, Tommy."
"Oh, I'm hangin'. I'm hanging"

Power Rangers - the end scene when Adam, not Tommy sorry, is biting the big Ivan Ooze on the tail and being flung around like a rag doll. I am always random - but I do love me some Power Rangers.

We have been a bit side tracked because of the sickness, and finding has been rough, but we have some investigators. The biggest thing is that we have 5 people preparing for baptism on August 2nd.

Swathi is having some family problems, but she is rock solid - and she loves church. Her testimony is coming along strong. Another 3 - David, Rahul, and Dilip - need to give up their tea. Vinesh is ready - he is really faithful and wants to change.

The thirty-fourth week....

The thirty-fifth week....

The thirty-third week...

The thirty-second week...

I had a great week. We had lots of success. We have 0 baptisms...but no problem - we are working hard and will be rewarded. Just like Aunt Amee said...I leave my mark. I missed sending out my letters a couple of weeks - but i havent gotten anything in a while. Hopefully some will come today! The best thing this week was our power going out last night at 8 pm! Then it came on when I was saying my night prayers! I was very happy. hen it went off again at 9ish - but no problem. My favorite thing about Gajuwaka is the size and the heat - both are HIGH!!! We found 16 new investigators this week. I was way excited. 3 of them are about 300 lbs - which will be interesting if they are baptized. lol. We met some really good christians the other day. They all have bible names, and they all love our message. Better part-they have a calander of Hilary Duff in their home. It does make it hard to teach, but I will be fine. The funniest thing this week was this exchange we had last night. We got bunked a few times. We took the member to this crazy family and found out that they are strong investigators. The daughter is flirty, but they are calling themselves and their children Sorensen and Sakamaki! lol. Their names are Sunitha, Sujatha, David, Rahul, and Dilip. They will be set with a date next week. The Magi family is getting baptized on the 5th! I am going to see them today. We are also going to buy beef! I am learning how to make curry. I am pretty good.

Other investigators
Vijay - he is a stud, but has college on Sundays. Joshua is having some rough times with his Pastor. David Wesley is reading the Book of Mormon and we plan to set him soon. Another family is Indira, Keyshore, Rutnam, Kiran, and Sonia- they have read, not prayed, and not received an answer. We want to set them but they are still confused about our message and about their church. That's about all that are progressing.

Companion
How are you and your companion getting along? Is he a hard worker?

We are doing well together. We enjoy our time together. We are talking a lot more. We never had pillow talk, but now we do. He is a hard worker. He is pretty tolerant wth me. Usually I don't like to talk too much, but he doesn't like to talk at all - so it's kinda hard. He is open to me now. I think it's all good.

Illness
Logan mentioned a medical procedure last week in an email to dad, but didn't explain or elaborate. Needless to say, Mom and Dad were concerned and bothered! He finally cleared a few things up this week.

They found a few ulcers. They don't know what caused it. I don't think it's the spice - it's been a constant in India. I am taking a few meds right now. The anesthesia doctor was a female and I accidentally made her think I wanted to make out. lol. She even held my hand! lol. I am still kinda losing weight - slowly now! My weight is about 195. I feel bad most all the time - but no worries. I have clean water all around me - in my flat, inside shops, in some homes. I am fine. Don't worry. The area is a desert, very rural, food is the same, and water is a little cleaner - it's less polluted here.

The thirty-first week...

I am a transfer pro. I shifted on Thursday - the new flat is brand new but it's crap. It's my least favorite. My new companion is Elder Sakamaki. He is from America but he is full Japanese. He likes cars, has no girlfriend, he got to the misson at the same time as my last comp, and he likes to teach the whole lesson. I like my new companion. He doesn't like my music, but no problem I will slowly desensitize him. I listened to "Everything" this morning. I got 0 letters this week. (I guess that's his way of saying he'd like to get more mail)

Naturally I am feeling better. I am doing a better job at not drinking unfiltered water. I am taking a TON of pills...only 3...but no problem. My new area reminds me of Htown. It's big and has no boundaries. . It's about 45 minutes travel time and it's not too slumsy. Everyone speaks English. We have a lot of rich people in our area... I mean it's huge! We had an appointment last night at 6 pm. The thermometer inside the house said 102! That's stupid! I am in a desert area now - it's very dusty and very sunny. We don't have the big city pollution to protect us from the sun, so I have been sweating challa! We are about 1 hour out from the Bay of Bengal. It's really funny - we have MOUNTAINS in our area. It's pretty bad. A lot of people live on the mountains - making it a nice sweaty hike to get there. I have hit the pillow hard every night in Gajuwaka! The branch is small. The girls here are way flirty and touchy...enough said.

What do you do about the flirty touchy girls?

I flirty touchy them back. lol.

(notice how Mom just ignores this...)

How many in the branch?

This week was amazing...we had to actually get more chairs and we had people standing - but still only about 50 people! lol. We are building a new sacrament hall upstairs. I don't really touch the girls back. I just giggle and smile. (Thanks for clarifying!)

I just found out that the Magi family, the 4 who were set when I left my last area, are reset for a different date. I was worried about handing them over. I didn't really have faith in the ZL to be able to handle them. Oh well.

Funny Story from this week

We were walking down the road the other day and this kid was chanting some telugu, then all of the sudden he starts singing, "My humps my humps my humps my humps. my lovely lady lumps check it out." I was laughing so hard I almost tinkled my pants!